Root Causes of Skin Inflammation and Detox
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Christa Elza: [00:00:00] I know it sounds crazy, but doing breath work and really staying in that rest and relaxation, it will calm down inflammation in your body, including what you're seeing in your skin. The other thing with a lot of stress is that most people don't get great sleep when they're under a lot of stress.
And sleep is paramount to, it's a very active time for our body for immune modulation. You know, our body's actually hard at work with detoxification, et cetera during sleep. So if you're not getting good quality sleep, that's another reason that you could have higher inflammation.
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Christa Elza: Welcome to another episode of The Wild and Well Collective. And today we're gonna be [00:01:00] talking everything about skin. I think this is a huge topic and really there's a lot to it. You know, our skin is basically our largest organ. If you think about it. It's our first line of defense and it protects us from a lot.
But have you ever noticed. Like your skin could flare before a big event or when you're stressed out or when you haven't slept. Some people are really susceptible to this. So whether it's eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, hives, even acne, your skin is a messenger and it's basically your body saying, Hey, something needs attention.
So our skin conditions can actually be telling us part of the story of what's going on inside.
Sheree Beaumont: A hundred percent. And I think a lot of us, or, I mean, I grew up thinking it was just the surface. It was like if I just exfoliated away, it's gonna go. Or if I can just get the right cream, or the right steroids.
Or the right antibiotics. Like I remember my skin journey was horrific. I've had everything from eczema to [00:02:00] acne to little flare ups. Of psoriasis and it was always topical treatments or trying to take some form of medication, and we don't actually ask why this is happening. And so today we really wanna dive into the root causes and uncovering the root causes that are linked directly to your skin, whether that's through gut health or that's through your immune system, or that's through hormones.
And so. And like Krista said, your skin is your largest organ. It's not just this cosmetic surface. And so because it's your first immune barrier, it's one of your body's primary detox pathways. And this is something that we'll dive into a little bit deeper in terms of how all these detox pathways are linked and why things end up being, or I like to, you know, explain, it's like almost being pushed out the skin when we're not detoxifying effectively, but essentially the skin is lined with mast cells.
Which is, you know, the things that release the histamine and the inflammatory signals when triggered by stress, allergens, or microbes. So if we just pause for a second and think [00:03:00] about stress, quite often everything's linked back to stress. But I can literally remember I was what? 12 years old parents going through a divorce and I was breaking out in like massive, massive hives and itches and everything, and I was put on steroids.
I was told that it was all just stress related and it was crazy. I mean, I later found out that there was a deeper overgrowth going on in my gut. It was leak to candida and so on and so forth. But there is a component of stress that really does come through it, and so when the system is overloaded, the skin is gonna show it.
So things like psoriasis can even be linked as an autoimmune condition where the immune system suddenly mistakes and attacks the skin cells. Eczema involves a barrier dysfunction where the immune system is overactive, where acne reflects inflammation around the oil glands, which is influenced by our microbes and our hormones.
And we'll be diving into acne specifically in a separate episode, but the bottom line is. I like to call it skin inflammation. Like if the skin is inflamed, there's some [00:04:00] sort of immune dysregulation going on. It's not just a matter of bad luck or genetics, it's really about diving into what this root cause is.
Christa Elza: Yeah, and I think, you know, it's interesting with skin conditions we wanna ask more like what, instead of what topical thing should I put on my skin? What antibiotic should I be on? It's why is my immune system in overdrive? So that again, goes back to. Finding, the root cause of things, right?
So your skin is actually a mirror of what's happening internally. As we've mentioned before, it's your largest organ. It's your largest detox organ. So when your liver or your gut is overloaded, the skin, you can see it in the skin. So stress, again, can affect the gut microbiome, it can affect hormones.
And so you're gonna see all of that kind of come up. And functional medicine actually views every skin issue as an expression of inflammation. And so if you really want to heal your skin, you've got to address deeper parts, including gut [00:05:00] health. You know, your skin microbiome mirrors your gut microbiome.
And so that gut skin hormone axis deep, you know, the pathways there really connected. And I think a lot of us don't think about gut health when it comes to your skin. But the fact is 70% of our immune system actually lives. In our gut, that connection that, and the bacteria that are in our gut is constantly sending signals of safety or not safety to the brain which affects our hormones.
And so if we have an unhealthy gut lining or gut permeability or leaky gut, you have more of like generalized inflammation in the body. And so when we have more, you know, we've said this before, the gut lining is kinda like a fence, and it should be those, it should be tightly together. Like those fence posts should be tight together.
And when they're not because of stress or alcohol or antibiotics or just toxins, just life in general, processed. Then we start to [00:06:00] have more breakdown in that barrier and toxins get into circulation, and that can really signal the immune system that things aren't safe. And then it kind of brings out all the workers of our immune system, the construction workers, and they're going at it, right?
And that can really start to show up in our skin in inflammation. And so that imbalance of good and bad bacteria has been shown to be linked to acne. To rosacea and to psoriasis. And so there's so many different medications out there which I think sometimes can be really helpful for like bringing down huge flare-ups.
But then you, in conjunction with that, you wanna be doing some work in the gut to really start to cure it from like the root cause that you don't need medications long term. Ways that you can start to heal that would then be to address your digestion. Address stomach acid. We have to have good, strong stomach acid to really absorb nutrients.
And so if you're eating on the go, if you're [00:07:00] drinking a lot water, even aging, all of those things can decrease. Stomach acid. If you were put on a medication for heartburn and never went off of it, that's a problem because you're kind of suppressing. Permanently, that stomach acid, even the birth control pill for women can lower stomach acid.
So all of those things can lead to a deficiency and key nutrients for the skin like zinc, B vitamins, essential fats, so they're not absorbed as readily without good strong stomach acid. So you can use things like, there's a lot of great powders out there that combine some of these. But l-Glutamine is one that you'd wanna look for in the ingredients.
Zinc carnasine is another great one. I love probiotics that are spore based probiotics because they tend to survive the stomach acid and get into the large intestine where we really want those good bacteria to be growing. And then eliminating common things for at least 30 days like gluten. Seed [00:08:00] oils, sugar, dairy, oftentimes those are just kind of heavy hitters, alcohol.
Those are common irritants. So instead of going on a full-blown you know, diet that you're cutting out tons of things. Mm-hmm. I would start with like the heavy hitters there to really help support the gut. That's where I would start initially.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, there's a lot of research that links dairy or highly or ultra processed dairy to acne.
And so as much as I love dairy 'cause of the easy access to protein content, if you ask someone prone to acne or even eczema, the amount of clients that like, can I just put it back in? I'm like, I know I love my yogurt too. And then you just see this flare up and like you're talking about with the probiotics, it's also really important to make sure you haven't got one that's really more based around the dairy, like
the bacteria that you will find in the dairy products as well. 'cause sometimes that can cause an eczema flare up. And so if we think about it from this perspective, right, like the the gut or if any of the detox pathways are blocked up, what's gonna happen, right? You've got this system internally and it's [00:09:00] trying to clear things out.
And so if we think about the liver, if we think about the gut, I'm gonna start like just keep going with the gut. But if you have. Constipation for whatever reason. If you have your bowels aren't moving effectively, then the body can't excrete the toxins, especially the fat soluble toxins through the bowel movement that's supposed to leave your body.
And so the way I always explain to clients is like, it's then gonna find some other way out. And that's when it kind of pushes it out the skin. And that's where we see all of these expressions on our hands, on our face, all over our back or wherever your, you know, eczema, psoriasis, acne, hives, all of that kind of flare up.
And the liver does the same thing. The liver is your filter. And so when it's congested, your hormones and toxins are gonna constantly recirculate. And when we're trying to get rid of these toxins, we don't want them in the bloodstream. So what happens? We put them in a fat cell. And what do we do with that fat cell?
The fat cell is where, you know, that's where that boiling kind of gland is sitting. So then it gets, again, gets pushed out of the body. And so we need [00:10:00] to make sure that we are supporting phase one and phase two detoxification just as much as phase three which is, you know, what we find in the gut. So things like the B vitamins that Chris has already mentioned.
Magnesium is really important here. Things like your NAC to support liver function sulforaphane, so your broccoli sprouts. Even if you're just upping the amount of cruciferous vegetables you're having to support a lot of this estrogen detoxification, which is often one of the main reasons that we're getting all of these issues.
If it's not something linked like the Gus Dysbiosis that you talked about earlier, then this is gonna make like such a big difference.
Christa Elza: Mm-hmm. I mean, ultimately it's an inflammatory process, right? Mm-hmm. So if we can lower systemic inflammation, which first of all starts in the gut and kind of healing up that gut lining.
But you can also do, you know, omega threes are really powerful in lowering inflammation in the blood vessels and all over the body. So I always like to get things from food if you can. So adding oily fish, sardines, salmon. Using avocado oil, [00:11:00] olive oils, but getting some of those good omega threes in. Or supplementing with a good Omega-3 curcumin is a really great one.
Cetin vitamin C. And a lot of times you can find supplements that have all of this in one, so you're not taking, you know, four different pills. But those are some key nutrients that can help to bring down inflammation and kind of create more of an immune balance. Another thing that's huge though, is the nervous system regulation.
I'm currently working with a patient that's having a horrible eczema flare, and she is experiencing big life changes, starting a business, having some family issues. So there's just stress coming from all different angles. And although she's had eczema in the past, she'll go years between flares. And so there's this distinct correlation between her nervous system being super revved up, being in a, you know, fight or flight.
And that cortisol response really coming out in her skin through this dysregulation of her immune system. And so, I know it sounds crazy, but doing breath work and [00:12:00] really staying in that rest and relaxation, it will calm down inflammation in your body, including what you're seeing in your skin. The other thing with a lot of stress is that most people don't get great sleep when they're under a lot of stress.
And sleep is paramount to, it's a very active time for our body to, for immune modulation. You know, our body's actually hard at work with detoxification, et cetera during sleep. So if you're not getting good quality sleep, that's another reason that you could have higher inflammation. And then blood sugar, of course, are, is another really pivotal like.
Like lever that we can pull to help support decreasing inflammation. So just looking at your diet, making sure you're not eating lots of breads and simple carbohydrates and processed foods that contain a lot of sugar if you get better sleep and lower the sugar in your diet. Also with dairy, like you mentioned, that could be some of the two of the biggest levers that you can pull in terms of lowering inflammation.
Hormones, of course, do play a role. You [00:13:00] mentioned estrogen and like if our gut isn't working well and we're not having regular bowel movements that really can recirculate estrogen. And so for women estrogen we don't want it to be too high and we don't want it to be too low, right? So estrogen is a natural anti-inflammatory.
It does support collagen and skin hydration. But if it's too high or too low, we can have things like melasma. So in pregnancy, that's why you'll see a lot more of that hyperpigmentation on the face because of that high estrogen acne can also pop up because of hormone imbalances. So, you know, we definitely wanna look at hormones if we suspect that that's going on.
And then, you know, going back to stress, cortisol can weaken that barrier. You know, in the correct amounts, it can be anti-inflammatory. But when it's too high or we've been under chronic stress and it's too low, we start to have more inflammation in the body. And then insulin resistance from, you know, high sugar diet, sedentary life, all of that can really [00:14:00] increase .
production of testosterone in women, sometimes that's where we see PCOS and breakouts associated with that. Mm-hmm. And so the root cause of that would be more insulin resistance going on. So, you know, it's just really important to look at a skin issue kind of holistically. What's really driving it?
Is it the gut? Is it balancing hormones? And if we look at that, oftentimes these chronic skin issues are far beyond would, the results that you would get from just a topical product.
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm. And I think if you just wanna break it down really simply, you know, to what the science is really showing now to give people, like, if you are experiencing any of these things, here's what's actually going on.
So if we look at things like dermatitis and eczema, this is chronically linked to. Leaky gut, lower the threes food sensitivities, the type that we've kind of talked about before with the gluten, the dairy, and the eggs. It's also been linked to histamine overload. So some of the things you can do and Chris has already mentioned, like the al glutamine is amazing 'cause it helps heal and seal the gut from a leaky gut.
Effective. The collagen also has a [00:15:00] really beautiful way of doing that too. It's one of the reasons I love bone broth so much, and that really rebuilds the gut lining. And so studies are showing that the barrier function the skin barrier function improves when the gut inflammation decreases. So that's.
Phenomenal. You can do just like such a little change that you can pop in to really help support this. Psoriasis is the next one we wanna look at, which is an autoimmune activation, like I mentioned, but this is quite like quite often linked to a sluggish liver and poor methylation. So sometimes we can even be taking enough of the B vitamins that we've mentioned.
But if you are missing the correct gene to actually be able to. How like be able to utilize those. You may need to have a different form, a methylated B vitamin to actually enhance the absorption. So, you know, we are wanting to look at what you're taking to and looking at if you're actually absorbing them.
We don't wanna have that nutrient depletion because otherwise that is gonna drive that inflammation and that autoimmune condition. The hives that's often linked to a histamine intolerance or mast cell activation. So again, the itchiness in that, a lot of people drive think this is a food [00:16:00] sensitivity, but underlying that is that histamine overload.
So it may be, and you know, we've done an episode all about histamine but it may be going and getting the dal enzyme to support the body in metabolizing that and getting that out of the system. Reducing things like alcohol aged foods and stress. Again, 'cause that's what raises our, his man.
Christa Elza: Yeah. And I think to kind of add on to that, rosacea is another one that can be really, really frustrating. Rosacea, melasma, I would say are really frustrating for people because of the redness. The tint. It's like you don't necessarily have lesions, but like the rosacea, you'll have kind of that red, really red skin.
And so people often look to lasers for that, which in some, in some ways lasers can help with rosacea and melasma, but they tend to be really stubborn. Skin conditions, rosacea has actually been shown to be strongly linked to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or sibo and vascular inflammation too.
So you wanna look at some of your labs and you wanna test for like [00:17:00] specifically sibo. You know, do I have bacteria growing in the small intestine that can. Seen now in this inflammation in the skin. And then melasma is typical like, you know, I've mentioned in pregnancy. So any kind of estrogen dominance can kind of lead to that discoloration that.
Darker tint around the mouth a lot of times, or just anywhere on the face. But that can be associated with estrogen dominance, sluggish liver, and thyroid issues. So you want to have some testing done to see how well you're clearing your hormones. This can be common in post pill, post pregnancy but it can also be present when you.
Poor estrogen clearance. You know, if you're not having regular bowel movements, you may need to, number one, heal that up. But you may need some supplemental support to help you to clear estrogen better. So maybe a dim maybe a calcium de glucarate depending on what's going on with you. So, you know, looking at those and utilizing kind of an integrative approach, maybe lasers can help.
But you want to look at the root cause of what's driving your [00:18:00] specific skin condition with that.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, and I think one of the things we've covered a lot of, you know, the common triggers, things like our dietary triggers, the chronic stress, the sleep deprivation. But another couple things that I'd love to integrate here just to bring into your awareness is the environmental toxins.
You know, we've got things like mold that are gonna clog up your detoxification pathways, fragrances, and the detergents and the synthetics that we're putting on our body, the lotions and everything that are endocrine disruptors that then had that impact on our hormones. Massively. If you think about it again, your skin is a sponge.
It is your largest organ. It is a sponge, and about 60% of what you put on your skin gets absorbed directly into your bloodstream. And so if you are constantly overloading your body with makeup, with deodorant with. Body wash with shampoo, conditioner, all of that gets absorbed directly into your bloodstream.
Then you're overloading the liver trying to filter it all out. And so this can also be why, you know, you've been taking all of these [00:19:00] supplements to try and help, or maybe you're putting all this stuff on your skin to try and heal it from the outside in, when really it's an inside out job. Also looking at what you're putting on, maybe you're breathing in like again, fragrances is such a simple switch.
Can you buy something that doesn't have the worm or the fragrance listed in the ingredients? And just start to minimize those daily toxins. I think I read the other day, like something like two, we're exposed to about 200 chemicals each day just by what we're, you know, spraying, wiping on our benches or putting in, putting on our bodies.
Christa Elza: Yeah, it's crazy. It can feel overwhelming sometimes of what to do, but it really, you know, if you really boil it down to it, making some different decisions starting also with just not over cleansing, like not freaking out with your skin. And because that can also destroy that good skin barrier and the good skin microbiome.
So being careful not to like over cleanse the skin with rashes and things like that on top of like avoiding fragrances. But just start with an anti-inflammatory food plan. So [00:20:00] starting with, you know, focusing on proteins, making your plate colorful. Paying attention to healthy fats and omegas can be really changing and just your diet and it can still taste amazing.
You're just gonna avoid processed foods where you can, and then really supporting your digestion. So taking a good probiotic. In you know, having more fiber in your diet day to day, taking a digestive enzyme if you notice that you have a lot of bloating or indigestion. So that's gonna help with those nutrients being absorbed better.
And then prioritizing hydration and sleep. Both of those are really important for detoxification. And if you're not doing those things, your body is kind of stagnant. It's sitting and not able to either you know, use the hydration to cleanse. And with the sleep it's so pivotal to having those processes function normally and boosting our immune system.
And then you wanna look at, you know, topicals on top of like, not over cleansing. You don't want to have harsh topicals. So [00:21:00] again, fragrance free. And you wanna focus on barrier repair. So, ingredients you wanna have ceramides, zinc included in some of those ingredients. And then focusing on stress.
Finally, just breath work, saing journaling. Reducing your cortisol, move your body in a way that's not over training, but you're getting consistent exercise. It's also really important for stress management. Sweating helps with detoxification as well. Mm-hmm. So it's, you know, I think sometimes it's tempting to say my skin is betraying me and what is going on?
But it really is just giving you a signal, like there is a message going on. And so when you start to focus on calming the inflammation through supplementation and lifestyle. I think you'll really start to see that your skin starts to heal and you don't have to have a lot of harsh medications and topical creams.
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm. And that's, you know, what I really wanna drive home is someone who has taken all of the harsh medications and done everything possible to not just have clear skin from an acne [00:22:00] perspective, but heal the, you know, when I had really bad eczema and the psoriasis and all that sort of thing, flare up.
The damage I was doing to the body by taking those that I then had to replenish all the nutrients that I then had to heal the microbiome so much more that I then had to support my liver detoxification pathways that, I mean steroids constantly on and off, on and off, on and off. And so if you can get to the root cause, you can address the gut you.
Add in some supplements. We've talked a lot about omega threes. A lot of people think fats are bad for you in terms of, 'cause they're oily, but fats like oil, combats oil particularly when it comes to the skin. So it's really powerful and an anti-inflammatory response. We've talked about zinc a lot and I will mention this.
When we do go into. The acne side of things a lot more in another episode, but zinc is one of the best things that you can be taking to support your skin health. It's particularly from its immune system perspective. You've got things like your vitamin D, which are, which modulates your immune skin your immune skin defense.
We've talked about collagen and bone broth and repairing the gut [00:23:00] lining and the elasticity of the skin. We've talked about probiotics and prebiotics. So you've got a diverse microbiome and also healthier skin, and then hydration. So one of the things that. Often we forget is that hydration isn't just water, it's the minerals.
And so it may be that you're adding an electrolytes or some lime juice, a little bit of salt in the morning, but that's really gonna help. That's really gonna help. We are 70% water, and so we need to make sure that those cells are nice and hydrated. We don't want little dry crusty cells. We want beautiful, you know, bouncy cells that not only make you look really youthful and healthy and give your skin that beautiful glow, but allow the nutrients to be transported between as well.
So. Really just diving into, you know, what you can do to support from a functional medicine perspective.
Christa Elza: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I think, you know, just. Kind of in closing of this section of our skin talk is, you know, recognizing that every rash, every breakout, it's your body saying something to you. It's a message, right?
And so start [00:24:00] doing food journals like, okay, I am breaking out, or This is happening. Like start recognizing maybe what foods could be flaring it for you in particular and then start to support your gut and your liver. With good probiotics with maybe NAC is a really great supplement to help support the liver and detoxification pathways like you've mentioned, magnesium and a B complex and zinc.
So there's some core supplements that you could start to integrate into your routine to see if that helps. Support your body. I always recommend testing if you can get some blood tests and you'll know kind of where your body needs that support. And then starting to add anti-inflammatory nutrients every day.
Berries leafy greens, you know, just anything natural, anything that's not processed is primarily gonna be anti-inflammatory, although dairy, we want to remove that. And then track your skin patterns around your menstrual cycle or take note of the level of stress. That you're experiencing and be aware and be more in tune with your body.
That's a great place to start. So I hope that you found this [00:25:00] episode helpful. This is episode one of a series of three that we're doing around skin, because skin can be a big topic and I think also very frustrating. We wear our face every single day, . So, we're excited to continue to share more with you.
Thank you for being here, and we'll see you in the next episode.
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