Diet, Hormones and Acne! Oh My!

Acne: if you have it, you want it gone.

Hormones, digestion, and modern skin care are the cause of most acne problems. Fortunately, there five easy steps that you can take to get your skin smooth and glowing again.

5 Steps to Banish Acne:

1. Introduce fermented foods and probiotics into your diet. A healthy gut is lined with billions of beneficial bacteria that boost our immune system. The helpful bacteria found in fermented foods and probiotics keep your digestive system moving quickly and efficiently. Try kimchee! You may like it.

2. Minimize inflammation. Optimize your insulin levels by eliminating gluten grains and processed-sugar from your diet. When insulin levels are normalized, the underlying inflammatory conditions that promote the unfriendly bacterial growth on your skin disappear. Minimize the dietary causes of inflammation and your skin will heal and glow.

3. Keep a clean colon. Constipation is no fun, for many reasons. If your digestive system is backed up, hormones are not effectively processed by the liver, and this can cause hormonal acne around the jawline and chin. Also, proteins, pathogens and toxins that are not processed through the digestive system are often sent to the skin to be excreted, resulting in acne and blemishes. If you will remove from your diet glutens and foods with low nutritional value, and have a series of colonics, you can clear up constipation. This will free up your digestive system to do its job of eliminating waste so that you skin can do its job: protecting you and looking radiant.

4. Balance your hormones. Women, have your 28 day cycle. Birth control pills wreak havoc with hormone levels! There are also few simple dietary changes that will help clear up excess estrogen that can lead to acne: eliminate soy from your diet and eat your broccoli! Soy stimulates estrogen production, which leads to hormone surplus. Cruciferous veggies, such as broccoli and cabbage, are high in Indol 3 carbonyl which helps the body excrete estrogen, so it is very important to fill your meals with these powerful veggies. Also, supplement your diet with herbs like partridge berry, vitex and passion flower, which are powerful, and safe, methods of harmonizing hormones.

5. Rethink clean. Your skin does not need to be stripped squeaky clean with soaps, alcohols and chemicals to be clean! That beneficial top layer of skin that is so harshly stripped away is comprised of the hydro-lipid-barrier and acid mantle. The lipid barrier is your skin's water-proof seal, enabling the skin to retain water and shielding you from foreign substances trying to enter your body. The acid mantle is the natural layer of acidic-oils on the skin that fights acne causing bacteria.

Our skin is home to friendly flora that thrive only on the skin when the top layer of lipids is in place. All modern skin care regimes, including foaming cleansers and most toners, break the skin's water proof seal and obliterate the acid mantle, leaving the skin vulnerable to acne-causing bacteria and redness in response to harsh cleansers. Stripped of its natural lipids, the skin reacts by producing more oil to regulate its own moisture. When the bacterial balance is compromised, blemishes will occur until the hydro-lipid barrier is established.

Try cleaning your skin gently and thoroughly with oils, like jojoba, that keep the integrity of the skin intact. For careful cleansing of existing blemishes, topical applications of essential oils like rosemary, immortelle, niaouli, and carrot seed are helpful. They can and can be applied to acne and acne-prone skin with glowing results.

___

Nadine Artemis, the founder of Living Libations, is the author of Holistic Dental Care: The Complete Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums, and Renegade Beauty: Reveal and Revive Your Natural Radiance, which was named one of “The Top 10 Books on Skin Care” by The Strategist of New York Magazine. She is a respected media guest and contributor, and her products have received rave reviews in the New York Times, LA Times, Elle, People, Vogue, and Hollywood Reporter. Described by Alanis Morissette as “a true-sense visionary,” Nadine crafts elegant formulations and healing creations from rare botanicals that have skin glowing around the world. Her concept of Renegade Beauty encourages effortlessness and inspires people to rethink conventional notions of beauty and wellness.