Let’s talk Melatonin!

Often when we think of melatonin, we may only think of its benefits for our sleep.

Whilst it is definitely essential for our sleep, melatonin is also an antioxidant that provides multiple benefits for our overall functioning and cellular health.

There is no doubt you may notice an improvement in your skin after a good nights sleep, and no doubt your skin will also show signs when you’ve had a poor nights sleep.
However, melatonin provides a wide array of health benefits that go beyond skin deep!

Melatonin is a hormone which is produced naturally within our body. It is produced and released by our pineal gland within the brain which is responsible for our circadian rhythm, our ‘sleep wake cycle’. This helps control when we fall asleep, and wake up.

Whilst you may be aware of the beauty benefits of sleep, from supporting optimal healing, cellular repair, promoting and replenishing new skin cells. Melatonin also plays a vital role for many of our organs health, and our mental and emotional health, and cognitive support.


In fact, the more we begin to delve into hormones and the foundations for optimal hormone health, one key thing that always stands out is the importance of sleep! 
Specifically how sleep is fundamental when it comes to restoring our health, particularly our hormones!

As melatonin is a hormone, it is responsible for the control, flow and other functions of our body as well as impacting our skin health, from the inside out.


Melatonin also helps regulate many biological functions including:

• Our sleep cycle, and circadian rhythm

• Our immunity and reproductive function


• It provides anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects


• Mood support, reducing anxiety and calming the nervous system

• It helps to neutralise free radical damage


• Now in skincare, it is used topically to protect against the effects of UV damage, hyperpigmentation, and slow down skin ageing


  

Here are 5 ways melatonin can help your skin and overall health, and how you can increase your production of melatonin!


Antioxidant properties

Did you know melatonin is actually an antioxidant, which helps to neutralise and protect against free radical damage?
 This Is essential for cellular health and healing, which helps in reducing inflammation and oxidative stress.
 This goes beyond our skin to our overall cellular health.


It improves mood health and calms the nervous system
.
When our melatonin ‘sets in’, it helps increase relaxation. This helps to reduce cortisol, ‘our stress hormone’, which can help to decrease inflammation when under a chronic state. This decrease in cortisol helps to reduce inflammation in the body. Often sleep deprivation, or ongoing poor sleep can impact our skin, as this ongoing inflammation can impact our collagen production and turnover. This can increase sebum production which can deplete our skin of essential nutrients that are required to help maintain optimum skin health.

Mimics Antioxidants function
Melatonin also mimics the function of Vitamin C and E, which both provide key antioxidant properties, and helps to repair against oxidative stress. Vitamin C is essential for collagen production, and cellular repair. Vitamin E provides many protective properties, including neutralising against free radical damage, and protecting against skin conditions contributing to oxidative stress.
 Melatonin also helps stimulate the production of the enzymes which neutralises free radical damage and stimulates the production of antioxidants. 


Hormone Support

Melatonin is key for healthy reproductive functioning and hormone production. If we are in a state of chronic or high stress, whether physical or emotional, overtime this can begin to impact our production of sex hormones, including progesterone and estrogen. High levels of cortisol can impede the production of these hormone as the body perceives it is under extremely high levels of stress, it suppresses ovulation.

Provides additional Support Topically
Melatonin has also gained an increase in popularity for its benefits topically, particularly for its role in skin health and antioxidant properties! 
It has been added to skincare products, and has also shown to be particularly beneficial for treatment against the production of UV damage, hyperpigmentation and reducing premature ageing.

So, how can we promote and regulate melatonin production?



Tips to promote melatonin production:



Lifestyle:
 Aim to avoid screen time at least 30-60 minutes before bed. 
Switch your screens to yellow light (‘night shift mode’) before bed, this switches from the blue light, which is what blocks the conversion of serotonin to melatonin, as the body cannot recognise it is night time, and able to sleep. 


Avoid eating at least 2-3 hours before bed. Aim to have your dinner or last meal of the day 2-3 hours prior going to bed. 
This enables the body to properly break down and distribute its nutrients, so it is not focused on breaking down its food and can transition into the ‘rest and digest’ state.


Have a chamomile tea 30-60mins prior to bedtime to help increase relaxation.



Dietary tips:


Include foods high in tryptophan and glycine.
These essential amino acids, found in lean proteins help the body to convert to molecules which help the production of both melatonin and seratonin, which are important for regulating and supporting mood control.
 Glycine helps to inhibit excretory, or stimulating neurotransmitters in the brain, helping reduce stimulation and overactivity of the brain.


Ensure to eat balanced meals to help stabilise and avoid spikes in blood sugar levels.

Having a balanced meal including healthy complex carbohydrates, fats and protein his essential to help keep your blood sugar balanced, and helping your satiety (fuller for longer). You will be less likely want to snack on sweet or sugary foods after dinner, and preventing hunger late at night.


Include foods containing melatonin,
Tart Cherries and Goji berries both naturally contain melatonin and are natural sleep aid enhancers. 

Eggs, oily fish and omega 3 Fatty acids, fish (like salmon and mackerel) also naturally contain melatonin
. Nuts including pistachios and almonds are among the highest source of omega 3 fatty acids


Avoid inflammatory foods: This includes 
foods high in refined sugar and processed carbohydrates, overly sweetened or processed foods. These are often high in sugars and additives, which can cause a quick spike in insulin levels, and increase blood glucose production. This increase in blood sugar can make it harder for you to fall asleep, as this increase in sugar causes an increase in energy production, and the body is now focused on trying to brake down and utilised its excess energy it has just received.

If lack of sleep is affecting your skin, hormones and overall health, or are struggling to get to the root cause of your skin issues, please have hope and know you can still support and reverse this cycle. I am here help you support you on your health joinery, so you can break free from the cycle of stress affecting your sleep and hormones, and truly heal from the inside out.

Simply send an email, or send an enquiry and I will be in contact with you on your next best steps for your health journey!

Thank you,

Until next time!

Dominique

Skin Nutrition Co. X
contact@skinnutritionco.com.au
www.skinnutritionco.com.au

Rosacea?

Inevitable or Preventable? Let’s take a deeper look!

Have you been told you may have rosacea? Do you have red, pink or often flushed skin?

Do you feel your ‘rosey’ cheeks appearance have now started to develop into ongoing redness? Or have perhaps darkened and increased more heat in the skin?

Or perhaps you have family members that have rosacea, and therefore you feel your skin is prone having rosacea too?

Whilst rosacea is often a result driven from inflammation and the internal environment, there is actually much we can do to prevent the onset, and reduce and even support the severity of the condition.

Like most inflammatory skin conditions, these are largely triggered and responsible from the internal and external environment.

However, the positive news is, wether this is ‘genetic’ or you are more susceptible to this condition or not, there are ways your can help to prevent the occurrence of rosacea, to help not only improve the integrity of your skin, but also restore your health from the inside out!

As the body is so interconnected, when we focus on improving the health of one area of the body, this too impacts the health of our other body and external organs. See below for how you can support the key organs involved in your skins’s health, and heal your rosacea.

Common triggers for rosacea:

Your Immune System
Rosacea is considered to be an inflammatory skin condition,  largely triggered by activation of the immune system. Therefore treatment should focus on reducing this inflammation and supporting the immune system.
By improving and supporting the immune system, and avoiding key triggers have been shown to help reduce the severity and occurrence of rosacea like symptoms.
Including key nutrients such as vitamin C, Zinc and B vitamins, as these all play a role in improving the quality of the skin integrity, however they are also essential for our immune system and function.
Vitamin C works by fighting off against free radical damage and protecting the cells against foreign pathogens, and the bacteria that can reduce the quality and strength of our skin.
Zinc supports our adrenals and protects us from being run down. It also helps to reduce against bacterial build up in the skin and body.
B vitamins play a large role for our immune system, including vitamins B6 and B12. These help with the strengthening and integrity of our immune system.
Vitamin B3 and B5 are also key for strengthening our cell membrane, providing a natural coating and lubricating the skin.


Gut health
Gut health is another key foundation for restoring optimal skin health, as the gut microbiome is the key foundation for a healthy skin microbiome!
Quite often when there is inflammation on the skin, this is a result of inflammation internally which usually stems from the gut. This includes conditions like dysbiosis, nutritional deficiencies, or potential gut issues like SIBO or ‘leaky gut’, (properly known as intestinal permeability), which affects how well our nutrients are absorbed and broken down in the system.
If we are in a state of dysbiosis (too high pathogenic bacteria), or experiencing IBS like symptoms including; intestinal permiabilty (known as leaky gut), or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), again, this could be some hidden drivers of inflammation internally. 

Infact, Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) was found to be much higher and prevalent in patients experiencing rosacea, compared to the general population. One study found  that SIBO was 13x more prevalent amongst those experiencing Rosacea  compared to the general population.  Low stomach acid HCL has also been shown to also be another key driver behind inflammatory skin conditions, including rosacea, and acne rosacea. This can contribute to other gut symptoms like bloating, irritable bowel, indigestion and IBS symptoms. HCL is important for the breaking down, and digestion of food and nutrients within the digestive system.

Liver support

This is essential for the health of our skin! Our liver helps reduce inflammation and potentially elevated toxins within the body, showing up topically. As the liver is essential for the clearance of toxins and waste from the body, our liver plays an important role in our immune system, as it helps with the filtering and detoxification of products, toxins and hormones in the body. 

However, if our body is being overloaded with excess toxins, or is not receiving enough key nutrients to help support this process, this can lead to accumulation of toxins within the body, and often triggers inflammation internally which shows up as inflammation on the skin. Often alcohol is a large trigger for rosacea as alcohol  increases blood vessel dilation on the skin, and increases heat in the skin. It also reduces wound healing and collagen repair and integrity.
Increasing vitamin C rich foods and cruciferous vegtables is essential for supporting phase 1 of liver detoxification. It also helps support the integrity of the skin and collagen renewal.
Crucifiers vegetables are also essential for supporting the liver function and detoxification, as these are high in fibre which helps to rebuild the microbiome integrity within the gut.

Environmental triggers and Inflammation
As rosacea is largely a heat sensitive conditions, often triggers include heat, alcohol, caffeine, and smoking can trigger rosacea flare ups, as many of these further add head into the body and increase oxidative stress.
Reducing these inflammatory foods, and environmental factors (whilst in recovery), are essential to helping heal and support your skin!


Some key ways to support rosacea:

Increasing fibre rich foods, particularly in the form of vegetables (kale, spinach, broccoli, watercress), will help improve the health, quality and function of our gut microbiome. Fibre also helps prevent the ‘recirculating toxins’ that were not able to be broken down by the gut to the liver, reducing the load on the liver and helping reduce toxins within the body.
Fibre also helps strengthen and support your immune system!

Include pre and probiotics foods - these are key for supporting the health of the gut and growth of the beneficial bacteria. These include foods such as sauerkraut, chia seeds, bananas, leeks, artichokes, miso and fermented vegetables.

Increase bitter foods as these help increase HCL (hydrochloric acid) which helps increase the digestive enzymes that help to break down the foods which enables better absorption. (Dandelion tea, rocket, chicory root, bitter melon, kale, green tea are some natural sources.)

Reduce inflammatory foods including sugar, alcohol and coffee. Refined sugar increases the growth of poor bacteria (dysbiosis) often leading to inflammation on the skin, and increases the breakdown of collagen formation. Alcohol also has a direct impact on the health of the skin that can lead to the wakening and break down collagen formation.

Eat through the rainbow!
Increasing your amount of fresh fruits and vegetables will help provide you with a wide range of nutrients and vitamins, especially antioxidants like Vitamins C, Zinc, A and B vitamins, which are all helpful for regenerating skin cells, collagen production and protecting against free radical damage, both internally and externally.

So, I  hope that provide some help and insight into some natural ways to support and reduce rosacea, and in turn improve your health and reduce the risk of a flare up again!

If you would like to know more about healing your chronic skin issues, from the inside out, or want to know more about supporting your gut further (including functional testing), then please get in contact and I will be happy to discuss with you the next best step to take!

Also, if you know a friend or family member who needs to hear this, please share this with! My only hope is to help as many people as I can with the knowledge, guidance and support to help equip them on their health journey.

Thank you again,

Until next time, please take care!

Dominique

SKIN NUTRITION CO.

www.skinnutritionco.com.au
contact@skinnutrtionco.com.au

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Find out how sugar is impacting your skin, plus how you can reverse this!

Whilst you’re probably well aware that sugar may not be the best for our skin,  often we are not often told the why or how it negatively impacts our skin.
The sweetness of sugar may provide an instant gratification, however, the negative effects reap beyond skin deep. 

Sugar, when coming from a processed or refined form, can actually lead to multiple issues for our health, as it is highly inflammatory, and its effects impact the health and function of our skin and organs in numerous ways. 

In fact, sugar is often one of the largest contributors of inflammation on our skin our and our overall health, impacting multiple organs including our gut, hormones, and even our immune system. 

Think of sugar as a sticky coke can when it comes to discussing the effect it has on your skin.
If you have ever seen a coke can which has been left out in the sun, or had some spilt over the edge, it forms a ‘sticky coating’. This is what it does to our skin on a cellular level. This process is known as AGES (advanced glycation end products). 

Sugar acts as a ‘sticky coating’ over our blood vessels, which hardens and blocks the constriction of blood vessels. This AGEs formation process literally accelerates the ageing process, as sugar weakens and slows the process of new collagen production, and actually hardens and increases the breakdown of collagen and blood vessels. This formation often contributes to further inflammation in the skin.

Here are 5 ways sugar can negatively affect our skin, plus 5 tips to reverse this process:

1. Increases inflammation, leading to breakouts and acne in the skin

Sugar is one of the biggest drivers of acne and breakouts. In fact, sugar is so closely related to breakouts, that it has actually been labelled the ‘diabetes of the skin’. 

This is because excess sugar leads to increased insulin (sugar) in the blood, which then drives inflammation, impacting our hormones, often leading to an increase in androgens (male hormones) contributing to the production of acne.

 
2. Increases internal inflammation, leading to external inflammation
Sugar also impairs the quality of the bacteria within our gut, reducing the amount of good bacteria, and increasing the ‘bad’ or pathogenic bacteria causing a state of dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is when we have an overgrowth of bad bacteria within the gut due to consuming a high amount of inflammatory foods. This internal inflammation leads to formation of acne and breakouts over our skin. This drives inflammation internally, which shows up externally. 

3. Can lead to hormonal imbalances, often increasing inflammatory hormones

Refined sugar can reap havoc on our hormones and hormonal health, particularly for young girls.
Excess sugar can also lead to conditions like candida, as this type of bacteria thrives in a high sugar environment. 
Also, having high levels of insulin in the blood can be particularly problematic for women and girls with PCOS, as this increases the production of androgens (male hormones). 

4. Impairs our wound healing and immunity Excess insulin (sugar) in the blood also impairs our immune system and wound healing.  As the sugar in the blood affects the collagen production, it reduces the integrity of the skin and healing process which makes it more prone to scarring and increased healing time if faced with injury or trauma to the skin. 

5. Can lead to discolouration and pigmentation on the skin
Lastly, it can also lead to discolouration and pigmentation on the skin. This is due to an excess amount of sugar or insulin within the blood, therefore the body tries to excrete it elsewhere, hence showing up on our largest excretory organ, our skin! 

So, how can we reduce excess sugar?

Here are 5 tips to reverse the effects of sugar on your skin, and health!

* Focus on eating real, whole foods, and foods as close to its natural state as possible. 
Limit your intake of foods coming from processed, refined or packaged foods as these often have excess sugars and additives added to them. 

* Aim to increase your intake of wholefoods, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables.

* When looking for a sweet treat, look for natural sweet alternatives, such as cinnamon, cacao and fruit!  

 * Ensure to have a source of protein and fat with each meal, as this will help to stabilise blood sugar levels, reducing drops in energy levels, and helping to reduce your sugar cravings. 
Also, ensuring that you are having balanced meals helps with satiety and reduces drops in energy levels and the urge to snack later on.

For supplements to help lower blood sugar levels; consider Magnesium, Zinc and Chromium. These can help reduce sugar cravings and have been shown to be beneficial for reducing and supporting elevated insulin levels, particularly in women.

I always recommend taking any nutrition advise back to basics. Rather than focusing on what to cut out, focus on what you can include and implement into your diet. This way you will feel like you have more options of what to eat, and prevent you from feeling deprived!
Once you slowly start to reduce processed and sweetened foods from your diet, your taste buds will start to adjust and you will slowly start to lose your cravings and desire for the overly sweet foods!

For more inspiration on healthy sweet alternative and recipes, check out the 28 day clear skin program at www.skinnuntritionco.com.au

For more information on skin health, and achieving optimal skin from the inside out, subscribe to www.skinnutritionco.com.au to receive updates weekly. 

If you are struggling with your skin and hormones and are ready to get to the root, then simply contact Skin Nutrition Co., we would love to assist you and are here to help!

Until Next time, Take Care.

Dominique

Skin Nutrition Co.

contact@skinnutritionco.com.au
www.skinnutritionco.com.au

5 ways to heal PCOS, naturally!

If you have PCOS and are struggling with acne, please know you are not alone, and your symptoms can still improve despite your condition!

Whilst women with PCOS often feel they may have to experience this forever, please know this is not the case, and you can be supported naturally.

Here are 5 crucial steps (plus key nutrients) you can take, to help support your hormones and clear your skin, from the inside out!

1. Support your gut health
Having a healthy microbiome is not only essential for the health of our skin, it also provides a key foundation for the health and metabolism of our hormones.
High levels of bad bacteria is commonly a trigger for acne as dysbiosis leads to internal inflammation and can show up as breakouts on the skin. Also, if there is a high amount of refined sugar within the diet, it can increase candida, a type of bacteria that thrives on sugar and when there is too much acidity within the environment.

2. Support Liver Health and Detoxification
As the liver plays an important role in detoxification and waste elimination, it’s health and functioning is essential for the health of our skin and hormones, particularly for PCOS acne.
Tip: To assist the efficient elimination of toxins by supporting the growth of good bacteria within the gut, include plenty of fibre rich vegetables and prebiotic foods.

3. Increase Cruciferous Vegetables
These vegetables contain Indole-3-Carbinol which helps to support the clearance of elevated hormones, particularly oestrogen, and supports the livers metabolism of hormones. It has been shown to be beneficial for women experiencing either elevated or low levels of oestrogen, helping the body either excrete or clear the excess hormones and balance the levels.

4. Zinc
This is such an important nutrient for womens health, particularly for women experiencing any hormonal imbalances. Zinc provides multiple benefits, including; reducing androgens (male hormones), which is a common driver for women with PCOS. It helps support metabolism and thyroid hormones, which can increase the metabolism for women experiencing a sluggish or slower thyroid, often another common symptom for PCOS. It also helps reduce bacteria within the sebum and strengthens the skin cell integrity, protecting against wound healing and normalising sebaceous activity.

5. Support Blood Sugar Levels/Insulin Sensitivity
Although not all women with PCOS are sensitive to insulin, insulin sensitivity is a common symptom for women with PCOS, meaning they are not able to tolerate glucose or sugar properly, making them more sensitive to sugar. Sugar is also a large driver behind inflammation and acne for PCOS sufferers. Reducing sugar is key to help reduce inflammation and androgens within the body. This will not only help with reducing acne, but also assist in maintaining a healthy weight and metabolism, improving blood sugar control.
Tip: Avoid refined sugar and processed foods (lollies, soft drinks packages and processed foods) as these increase blood sugar levels and increase overall insulin (sugar) in the blood.
For a natural sweet alternative try cinnamon, cacao or fruit! Cinnamon is a natural blood sugar stabiliser and helps to provide a natural sweet flavour!
Cacao is also rich in magnesium and antioxidants, and provides a healthy chocolate alternative!

If you are wanting further supplements to support:
Inositol has been found to provide particular benefits for women with PCOS as it helps with improving insulin sensitivity and lowering blood sugar levels.
Chromium has also been shown to help stabilise and lower blood sugar levels.
Magnesium is also helpful for blood sugar control and improving insulin resistance, whilst reducing inflammation.

I hope you found this helpful, and please know there is always a way to help support your symptoms so you can still thrive and have healthy skin, with or without PCOS!
If you would like further support with your skin, hormones or help, I am here to help!
Simply send an email below, or call and we can discuss your next best steps to take to help you move forward with your health.
Till next time,

Take Care!

Dominique,
Skin Nutrition Co.

Whilst antioxidants may be largely known for their array of health benefits across the body, did you know they are pumped with skin boosting benefits as well?

In fact, increasing your antioxidant status can provide an array of skin health benefits including; preventing ageing, reducing acne, improving skin tone, brightening, improving skin wound healing and cellular integrity and even your skin complexion!

So what are antioxidants and how do they work?

Antioxidants help protect against free radical damage, helping to provide an extra line of defence within our cellular structure and integrity.
Everyday exposure to things like UV rays, pollution, cigarette smoke, and environmental toxins expose our cells to these ‘free radicals’, which essentially impair and alter our cell membrane and generates free radical damage.
When we have a high amount of these, or accumulate too many free radicals this can create what’s known as ‘oxidative stress’. Antioxidants help to stabilise the cell membrane and prevent damage caused by oxidative stress.

Here are the key antioxidants I recommend for optimal skin health!

Vitamin A
Provides key support for anti-ageing and increasing skin rejuvenation as it helps to increase cellular turnover and collagen production.
Also, particularly beneficial for clearing skin and preventing acne, and reducing overactivity of the sebaceous glands. 

Vitamin C
This is essential for collagen production and repair. 
Its benefits include supporting collagen production, elasticity and blood vessel repair. 
It helps  with brightening the skin and boosting tone and texture of the skin, which helps to prevent sun damage and pigmentation. It helps stabilise cell membranes, increases cell turnover and protects against sun damage and pigmentation. Particularly beneficial for boosting skin luminosity and complexion.

Vitamin E
This helps to neutralise free radical damage, this nutrient has various functions both topically and internally when it comes to protecting the skin.
It helps to absorb UVB light helping to decrease the effect of sun damage. Within the skin cell membrane it helps to nourish the cell, providing a barrier around the skin to keep the skin hydrated and moisturised.

Selenium 
Similarly to vitamin E, this also helps to neutralise free radical damage, helps to decrease inflammation, free radical damage and other skin damaging compounds, preventing wrinkle formation. Essentially selenium provides a safe ‘coating’ around our cellular membrane.

CoQ10
CoQ10 topically applied has been shown to help reduce oxidative damage caused by UV rays.
It is involved in energy production, helping to prevent skin degradation by improving collagen production formation and integrity and helps supports mitochondrial function, neutralising free radical damage.

Niacinamide (Vitamin B3)
This provides multiple benefits; however is particularly beneficial if you experience dryness, or sensitised flaking skin including eczema or psoriasis.
Its involvement includes rebuilding the barrier function of the skin, keratin formation and helps provide a lipid barrier, and retaining moisture, particularly important if you are experiencing dry or flaking skin. It also helps with regulating oil production, which is key for oily/ acne skin types.

Having an adequate supply of antioxidants is crucial for our skin health and integrity, as well as protecting our overall cellular membrane. They help with strengthening the structure of our skin and increasing cellular turnover (encouraging a new cell cycle, increasing skin rejuvenation).

If you would like to know more about how nutrients can help your skin, please subscribe to the email below to receive weekly updates on all things skin health and nutrition!

Of coarse, if you feel you need more support, or are struggling with identifying  the right treatment for you skin, we would love to assist you. Simply send an email below or get in touch and we can have a chat about how to best support your optimum health, from the inside out!

Till next time, take care

Dominique @ Skin Nutrition Co. X

Did you know that our skin health is largely affected by our hormones? Have you noticed particular breakouts along the lower jawline, chin or upper neck area?

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According to Chinese facial mapping these are the key areas that indicate hormonal imbalances of the skin.

You might notice an obvious difference in the health of your skin when you have eaten too much chocolate or after a weekend of overindulging, but did you know this can actually disrupt our cells and hormonal receptors as well?

Perhaps you may even feel that your skin is not improving, or won’t be able to properly improve due to a ‘hormonal condition’. Well, please know that you can naturally restore your skin and hormones to achieve optimal skin from the inside, out!

Our hormones are basically chemical messengers, which send messages to other organs, controlling the functions they perform. Think of these like a symphony in an orchestra. Each plays a careful and intricate role, and if one ‘key’ is out, this can affect the flow of the orchestra. Similarly, this is how our hormones function in our body, if one receptor is off, this can alter the functions of the organs in our body.

Our hormones are largely influenced by factors such as lifestyle, environmental toxins, sleep and diet. Please know there is hope and you can restore your hormones naturally, and in turn clear and improve your skin too!

Here are 5 ways to eat to support hormonal balance and help assist skin healing:

1. Increase your intake of dietary fibre rich vegetables.

   Particularly in the form of dark green leafy vegetables. This helps to naturally flush out excess toxins and elevated hormones, helping to increase the clearance of elevated hormones. Fibre is also important for skin health, as it helps to support detoxification, and provides a high amount of antibacterial properties.

2. Increase essential fatty acids- particularly omega 3s.

   These play an important role in our cellular membrane within the skin and are vital for maintaining and restoring the skin integrity, as well as keeping the skin structure hydrated and ‘plump’. Omega 3 fatty acids are particularly helpful for decreasing inflammation, and play an important role for providing a building block for supporting our hormones.

3. Reduce inflammatory foods including fried foods, sugar, and processed or takeaway foods.

   These cause inflammation within our body in a number of ways including, a breakdown of antioxidants, as these contain ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species), which oxidise our cells, causing a breakdown in the cellular structure. Also, having a high amount of inflammatory food disrupts our insulin levels, which can alter our hormonal response and increase androgens, leading to acne and breakouts in the skin. Sugars also creates a ’sticky’ like effect within our cells and blood vessels, creating a coating over our blood vessels, causing a restriction in the vessel formation, and break down of collagen.

4. Eat your greens!

   Include cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts and kale. These are not only high in fibre but also contain DIM (diindolylmethane) which helps to promote detoxification and supports oestrogen clearance, which is particularly beneficial for hormonal breakouts

5. Include Broccoli sprouts in your diet.

   Broccoli sprouts contain the active ingredient sulforaphane, which provides a higher concentration of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties than regular broccoli. It helps to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, helping to protect against DNA and cellular damage, as well as supplying oxygen to your skin cells, which is crucial for combating any oxidative stress and achieving healthy skin! So there are 5 easy, simple tips which, if implemented regularly over a period of 2-4 weeks, you will really start to see a difference and improve not only your skin, but support your hormones as well.

Tip: Please be patient with yourself, as our skin health can take at least 4 weeks to see a change as we have a new cell turnover every 28 days.

Also, particularly with hormones, they tend to change very slowly over time. However, taking small, gentle steps too help support and rebalance them. Implementing these changes regularly and consistently will help you achieve the best results, from the inside out, and for the long term! I hope you found this helpful!

Please let me know in the comments below how you found trying any of these steps helped! I’d love to hear from you and encourage you on your journey! Also, if you know someone you feel needs to hear this or would benefit, please share this will them.

And if you found this helpful and would like to receive more information weekly about all things skin, health and wellness, please subscribe!

Skin Nutrition Co. X

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