There's No Magic Pill but Here's What You CAN Do...
Most of us were sold the magic pill at the tender age of fourteen or fifteen. Whether it was THE pill (you know the one) or antibiotic pills or roaccutane, we have all been offered the cure-all.
🚫 If you’re reading this, chances are that it really wasn’t a cure-all in the end.
Perhaps your skin cleared up momentarily only to come back with a vengeance once you thought you were in the all-clear and stopped taking your medication 😐
💩 Or maybe you are one of the (un)lucky ones - your skin actually got WORSE on medications! Which just seems like the ultimate cruel cosmic prank.
Regardless, none of this happens for no reason - your experience with pharmaceutical drugs actually tells me a lot about the root cause of your acne!
The one thing that these drugs have in common? They all suppress, suppress, suppress.
💊 The Pill - suppresses ovulation and the natural production of adult sex hormones.
💊 Roaccutane - suppressess the production of oil in your skin.
💊 Antibiotics - suppresses your microbiome (read more on how antibiotics do and don’t work in acne here)
Of course, this means that once the drug is taken away, the root cause is no longer suppressed. It’s still there, lying in wait, ready to wreak havoc on your skin until you listen to it and change it.
To do this, you need to actually identify what your root cause IS! Yeah, yeah, I know - easier said than done (it’s literally my full time job, after all) however figuring it out on your own can be another story entirely.
You are literally/figuratively/metaphorically going crazy trying to work out why you’re breaking out 😡
Let alone what to actually do about it.
So I thought today I’d give you a little taster into how I approach acne as a skin Naturopath!👇
I’ll let you in on a little secret - when I’m treating acne, I’m very rarely treating the skin at all! 🙊
It is never just one thing.
It’s never just your hormones or your diet or your skin care routine.
Acne is multi-factorial - there is a lot going on! If you want to treat your acne holistically, it is time to start thinking big picture ☄️
This is what I focus on when treating acne naturally, once we have identified the root cause:
🦋 Remove any obstacles to clear skin
You have your root cause and then you have a unique combination of other factors in your diet, lifestyle and environment that are keepingyour skin in a cycle of perpetual break outs. Your skin is always trying to heal and so if it isn’t healing then there is something getting in the way. Identifying and eliminating these factors is just as important as taking supplements or executing an elaborate skin care routine.
🦋 Optimise your digestion & gut health
If we Naturopath’s had a catch cry, it would be this: everything starts in the gut. Your gut health and digestive function is going to affect the impact of hormones, inflammation and nutrition on your skin.
🦋 Support your hormone clearance
So you have worked out that your acne is hormone related. The next step is working out which hormones are driving your acne - then you can focus on supporting their balance as well as their detoxification & clearance from your body (poor clearance is a BIG COMMON PROBLEM in acne)
🦋 Reduce inflammation
Acne is an inflammatory condition - there’s redness, pain, heat, swelling etc. So it makes sense to reduce that inflammation as best we can. Again, we need to look at your health and your life to identify where that inflammation is coming from, but often it starts with the gut and your diet as well.
🦋 Address your nutrient status
You are what you eat and absorb. Every cell in your body requires certain nutrients to function & repair - this includes your skin! Forget the adage that diet and acne are unrelated. They ARE and you need to be meeting your skin’s nutrient requirements for glowing clear skin. Nutritional deficiency and depletion will negatively affect your skin, increase inflammation, mess with your hormones and more.
🦋 Get your blood sugar levels sorted
This is a commonly missed aspect of treating acne and requires a bit of depth when managing it, so I might save the ins and outs for another day. Key take-aways: high blood sugar & high insulin significantly increases your risk of acne and there is not much wiggle room when it comes to optimal levels for skin health! Part of this is managing your sugar cravings and sugar intake - something I am freakishly passionate about.
🦋 Stress less (practice acceptance)
There’s a vicious cycle between your stress levels and your skin. If the recommendation to “stress less” triggers you, then this is probably a part of your acne story! Stress hormones make every condition worse and acne is no exception. Not particularly helpful given that having acne is likely your highest source of stress! Learning the art of acceptance whilstyou heal your skin physically is everything.
🦋 Support the healing of skin tissue
We all hate scarring. Being left with big red purple marks on your face is almost as bad as having active acne breakouts (and often last longer) so to speed up your skin-clearing process, we need to factor in your skin cell cycle and what it needs to repair. This looks like getting plenty of nutrients, healthy blood flow to the skin, reducing infection in the skin and getting sweaty 💦
🦋 Don’t forget your lymphatic detox
“Forget!? How could I forget something I never knew existed!?” If the word “lymph” is foreign to you, check out some of my other blog posts where I go into more detail and watch this InstaTV video
🦋 Make sure your skin care is helping (not hindering)
Yes skin care can sometimes make things worse rather than better. No I do not recommend scrubs, fad products, onion juice, changing your routine every couple of weeks, make up wipes (the list goes on). Simple is safest and skin care (like your internal health) is an individual thing. Just make sure you have some sort of routineand that you are using products suited to your skin type (not your skin condition)
Phew! Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? This kind of approach covers all your bases and equips your body with the best chance to kick acne butt.
Best news of all? You can totally do this without me. 🔥 I created a step-by-step framework based on my in-clinic approach (all of the above) and turned it into an online course!
💫 My Confident & Clear course helps women to clear their acne & go make-up free even if they are feeling embarrassed, disheartened & like they have tried every lotion & potion out there, so that they can radiate confidence & finally find a life-long solution that's more than skin deep.
😍 Interested? Keep your eyes peeled because I have something extra juicy coming up to celebrate the next Confident & Clear intake in May. You can join the waitlist here so that you are kept up to date with the course info and enrolment dates!
In the meantime, try to be kind to your skin - it’s on your side 💖
Lexie xx