Our skin tells a lot about what’s happening in our gut thanks to the gut health – skin connection.  There are so many ways our body uses our skin to tell us there’s a problem we need to address in the gut. 

The problem is that we are taught to look at skin issues as the issue itself and not as the symptom of something bigger than they really are. 

You don’t just have bad skin.  You have something out of balance in your gut and your body is trying to communicate that with you.  I lived with bad skin for 4 decades!!  Now I absolutely love my skin and it has never been healthier or happier than it is now.   I’m going to give you 5 things you can start implementing today to work on your gut glow.  I also have a special offer to share with you.  You do not want to miss out on this!

You don’t just have bad skin.  You have something out of balance in your gut and your body is trying to communicate that with you.  I lived with bad skin for 4 decades!!  Now I absolutely love my skin and it has never been healthier or happier than it is now.   I’m going to give you 5 things you can start implementing today to work on your gut glow. 

Do you love your skin?  The way it looks?  The way it feels?  The way it glows?  Do you feel like you need a ton of beauty products to get the skin you desire? Have you or are you currently spending a TON on skincare and beauty products?

You are not alone!  The beauty industry in our country alone brings in over $62 billion dollars a year!!  A recent survey found that the average woman uses 16 different products a day.  On average, skincare products contain 15-50 different ingredients.  That’s a lot of things that you probably can’t even pronounce that you are putting on your skin daily.  What if you could get the skin you desire from the inside out? Well, guess what?  You CAN get the skin you desire from the inside out by improving your gut health!

Did you know that your skin is an organ?  In fact, your skin is your largest organ and it acts as a barrier to protect your internal organs from outside harm.  Here’s a fun fact for you too – anything you put on your skin hits your liver in about 30 seconds!  Think about that.  Think about all the things you put on your skin and all the ingredients in each of those products.  Not only are we chasing symptoms by trying to fix our skin from the outside but we are burdening our poor livers.  Our liver health as a nation is a massive problem in our country but that’s another topic for another day. 

Your skin has a lot of really important jobs, one of which is that the barrier your skin creates allows nutrients to stay inside your body so they can eventually be absorbed by your other organs.  Skin also has its own flora and around 1000 species of bacteria have been identified just on our skin. Your skin actually has a lot of similarities with your gut in this respect. Your gut is a part of your GI Tract. Your GI Tract is actually made up of everything from your mouth to your anus.  That’s a lot of real estate in your body.  It’s also a lot of different bacterial ecosystems that directly tie into your health and well-being.  In fact, there are over 400 bacterial species in your GI Tract, most of which are living in your lower bowel.  Your gut is responsible for digesting and absorbing nutrients.  We all know the saying you are what you eat, but in reality, you are what you can absorb.  If you are not digesting properly you are not absorbing properly, which means your body can not function optimally.  You need proper absorption for your body to function optimally.

Some of the most common gut imbalances I see in practice are gut dysbiosis, hypochlorhydria, parasites, yeast overgrowth, mold, and SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth). All of these negatively impact your gut-skin axis, and all of these conditions lead to a leaky gut.  Leaky Gut is a huge problem and can easily derail your health.  What I want you to know today about Leaky Gut is that it is a consequence of various bacterial imbalances where the bacteria attacks the gut lining and substances like bacteria, viruses, fungi, undigested food, and toxins leak into the body.  This is a big deal and causes systemic problems including negatively impacting your skin.  I work with people to heal their leaky gut daily in my practice.  Eliminating certain foods is not enough.

Now we know that what happens in the gut can negatively impact our skin but what does that look like?  Some skin conditions that are directly caused by poor gut health are acne – which affects 85% of people at some point in their life, facial redness, eczema, psoriasis, dry skin, rosacea, and dermatitis just to name a few. Dull skin and uneven skin tone are also tied to poor gut health.

So what can we do to improve our gut health and in turn get the healthy, glowing, radiant skin we want? Here are:

5 Things You Can Fix Your Gut Glow & Have Radiant Skin

1. Take the right digestive enzymes.  Digestive enzymes are necessary to break down our foods.  If our foods are not broken down completely our absorption is compromised.  There are 22 different digestive enzymes that help with digesting fats, carbs, fiber, dairy, complex sugars, and proteins.    Our digestive enzymes decline as we age and we have compromised our food sources too much to rely on them solely for digestive enzymes.  We need to properly supplement.
2. Add in gut and skin nourishing foods.  By helping your gut you help your skin. Some gut healing options to add in are bone broth, raw organic fermented veggies like kraut and kimchi, ACV or digestive bitters are also beneficial because they help balance stomach acid production. Magnesium rich foods are also great to add in. Some options are pumpkin seeds, avocado, dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
3. Avoid foods that are high-sugar and high-fat.  These foods negatively impact your gut bacteria and gut microbiome.  Limit or completely eliminate foods like wheat, white rice, and enriched bread.  You also want to avoid inflammatory foods for the same reasons.  Inflammatory foods are foods that contain gluten, dairy, corn, soy, caffeine, and alcohol.
4. Eat a diet rich in polyphenols.  Polyphenals are compounds that lower oxidative cellular stress, are digested by your good gut bateria, and increase your beneficial bacteria.  Some good sources of polyphenols are cocoa, grape skins, green tea, almonds, onions, blueberries, and broccoli. The lower your oxidative stress the better you look as you age!
5. Don’t guess when you can know – TEST! You have to properly identify your Delayed Food Sensitivities and eliminate them while you intentionally heal your gut!  Delayed Food Sensitivities are a direct contributor to poor skin health.  I see it every day in my practice.  Also, you need to see exactly what is happening in your gut microbiome in terms of yeast, fungus, mold, good/bad bacteria.  This is one of the many reasons to get an Organic Acids Test.  This test is also going to look at your cellular and metabolic health, as well as neurotransmitters, nutrient deficiencies, mitochondria health, toxic load and more.

Which of these fixes was most surprising to you and which are you implementing first? I’d love to hear from you!

Interested in learning more? Click here to get access to my free training, “Why Organic?”

In Health,

Kelly Calkins, BCHN®

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Learn More:  A Hope for Healing