Your skin is a reflection of your overall health. How you take care of your internal organs, will reflect on your skin. We all have our odd acne every now and again. However, if you're constantly battling with skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, acne and rosacea, there is probably some inflammatory processes happening inside your body. Ask anyone with chronic skin conditions, and they would probably tell you that they have other ongoing conditions as well for example, eczema and asthma or rosacea and digestive problems, and the list goes on.
What may cause bad skin?
If our body is not functioning optimally, it can result to poor skin. Just to name a few, these may include:
Nutrients that help
There are specific nutrients involved in keeping skin healthy, and addressing nutritional deficiencies is a good place to start in any skin condition.
Fish oil, really? Yes, really!
Fish oil contains Essential Omega 3 Fatty Acid. Ever thought of why it is called "Essential Fatty Acids" or "EFAs"? There are two reasons:
1) We cannot make them, we have to ingest them.
2) EFAs are essential for life and we cannot function without them.
There are two main groups of EFAs - Omega 3 and Omega 6. They are both equally important for our health. However, our diet is terribly skewed towards an Omega 6 diet. Instead of the ideal ratio of 1:1; we now have a ratio of 1:15 Omega 3 to Omega 6!!!
At the base of our hair follicles are tiny glands that produce a mixture of wax and oil called sebum that protects our skin. If these glands are blocked, then acne and other inflammatory skin conditions will follow. EFAs are required to keep the sebum in a fluid state. A high ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 favours inflammation.
EFAs help to regulate healthy cellular function, and maintain elasticity and suppleness of the skin. Taking a potent, high quality fish oil can improve your skin health by improving hydration, elasticity and reducing inflammation.
Zinc, your 24/7 skin mechanic
Zinc is in fact involved in over 230 enzymatic pathways in our body! Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Zinc repairs damaged tissues and helps to heal wounds. As a result, if you don’t have enough zinc, then your ability to repair damaged skin becomes impaired. Zinc deficiency can also result in your immune system having poor control over the maintenance of your skin.
Want to check your Zinc status? Depending on whether you have other health conditions or not, we have different tests to look at your Zinc status. Most of you would probably use our simple, easy screening taste test to do so. If it is low, we can provide you with a high quality zinc supplement to take. Why can't I eat food that is high in Zinc rather than take a supplement? Most people who are low in Zinc, have probably consumed diets for years and years that do not meet the daily recommended intake. Therefore, supplementing with this mineral is going to be useful to help calm the inflammation and help with healing.
1. Time to add more unprocessed food to your diet. Packaged or processed food contains various amounts of chemicals which "stress" your body out. Your body needs to spend precious resources to get rid of those toxins, and besides they’re devoid of nutrients. These nutrients are needed by your skin to maintain its luster and healthy glow.
2. Be active: Exercise helps increase blood flow to the skin, and encourages the removal of toxins through sweat; so make daily exercise a part of your skin health program today!
3. Better manage your stress: Don’t get me wrong, stress is good for you, to a certain degree, but when it gets overwhelming, your skin is one of the organs which could suffer. Stress can increase inflammation and affect digestive and immune function, all of which are contributing factors to poor skin health.
4. Wash your skin with pH-controlled gels: Humans are covered in a diverse wardrobe of skin microbes, many of which promote skin health. Washing too frequently or using alkalising soaps can remove some of these beneficial microbes from the surface of your skin, allowing pathogenic organisms to cause infection.
5. Support yourself with supplements: We can recommend a personalised supplement regimen to boost your health status and address the causes of your skin ailment.
6. Treat yourself topically: Whilst a healthy body is essential for achieving the healthiest skin possible, topical treatments may help to provide rapid, symptomatic relief.
- Bad eating habits
- Poor clearance of toxins or wastes through the digestive and/or the liver
- Poor nutritional status
- Poor personal hygiene
- Hormonal fluctuations
- Weak immune system
- Poor stress management
Nutrients that help
There are specific nutrients involved in keeping skin healthy, and addressing nutritional deficiencies is a good place to start in any skin condition.
Fish oil, really? Yes, really!
Fish oil contains Essential Omega 3 Fatty Acid. Ever thought of why it is called "Essential Fatty Acids" or "EFAs"? There are two reasons:
1) We cannot make them, we have to ingest them.
2) EFAs are essential for life and we cannot function without them.
There are two main groups of EFAs - Omega 3 and Omega 6. They are both equally important for our health. However, our diet is terribly skewed towards an Omega 6 diet. Instead of the ideal ratio of 1:1; we now have a ratio of 1:15 Omega 3 to Omega 6!!!
At the base of our hair follicles are tiny glands that produce a mixture of wax and oil called sebum that protects our skin. If these glands are blocked, then acne and other inflammatory skin conditions will follow. EFAs are required to keep the sebum in a fluid state. A high ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 favours inflammation.
EFAs help to regulate healthy cellular function, and maintain elasticity and suppleness of the skin. Taking a potent, high quality fish oil can improve your skin health by improving hydration, elasticity and reducing inflammation.
Zinc, your 24/7 skin mechanic
Zinc is in fact involved in over 230 enzymatic pathways in our body! Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Zinc repairs damaged tissues and helps to heal wounds. As a result, if you don’t have enough zinc, then your ability to repair damaged skin becomes impaired. Zinc deficiency can also result in your immune system having poor control over the maintenance of your skin.
Want to check your Zinc status? Depending on whether you have other health conditions or not, we have different tests to look at your Zinc status. Most of you would probably use our simple, easy screening taste test to do so. If it is low, we can provide you with a high quality zinc supplement to take. Why can't I eat food that is high in Zinc rather than take a supplement? Most people who are low in Zinc, have probably consumed diets for years and years that do not meet the daily recommended intake. Therefore, supplementing with this mineral is going to be useful to help calm the inflammation and help with healing.
Time to change?
There are changes you can make in your daily diet and lifestyle
to help you on your way to better skin:
1. Time to add more unprocessed food to your diet. Packaged or processed food contains various amounts of chemicals which "stress" your body out. Your body needs to spend precious resources to get rid of those toxins, and besides they’re devoid of nutrients. These nutrients are needed by your skin to maintain its luster and healthy glow. 2. Be active: Exercise helps increase blood flow to the skin, and encourages the removal of toxins through sweat; so make daily exercise a part of your skin health program today!
3. Better manage your stress: Don’t get me wrong, stress is good for you, to a certain degree, but when it gets overwhelming, your skin is one of the organs which could suffer. Stress can increase inflammation and affect digestive and immune function, all of which are contributing factors to poor skin health.
4. Wash your skin with pH-controlled gels: Humans are covered in a diverse wardrobe of skin microbes, many of which promote skin health. Washing too frequently or using alkalising soaps can remove some of these beneficial microbes from the surface of your skin, allowing pathogenic organisms to cause infection.
5. Support yourself with supplements: We can recommend a personalised supplement regimen to boost your health status and address the causes of your skin ailment.
6. Treat yourself topically: Whilst a healthy body is essential for achieving the healthiest skin possible, topical treatments may help to provide rapid, symptomatic relief.
Great article. Thanks.
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