Dr. Maura

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The Gut-Skin Axis: What Is It & What Helps

I constantly talk to my patients about how keeping your gut healthy is essential to clear skin, whatever your actual skin issue is.

To understand this, we need to talk about something called the gut-skin axis.

That relationship is complicated, but the basic understanding you need to have it that there are four aspects to this:

The gut may communicate with the skin in several ways:
• Absorption of nutrients with a direct effect on the skin: for example vitamin E and beta-carotene
• Absorption of nutrients that can stimulate hormonal changes that affect the skin; we think about dairy as well as high-carbohydrates foods that act as a potent stimulator of insulin which can cause acne flares
• Influence of gut microbiota on the immune system. The gut flora interact with the immune system to balance what’s called the T-cell response. The more imbalanced your microbiome, the more T-cell response and the more inflammation you have. T-cells play an important role in inflammatory skin conditions.
• Modulation of the local microbiome that releases metabolites that may have distant effects on the skin. Simply put, the gut lining houses very important metabolites that are important to maintaining the body’s inflammatory response, particularly as it relates to acne and the skin.

There are lots of things you can do to maintain gut health and therefore skin health. Maintaining a healthy gut microbiome is at the top of that list, and taking probiotics and eating probiotic foods is the foundation to that.

Studies have shown that you can change your microbiome within hours of positively shifting your diet.

Probiotic foods: kefir, both dairy if you tolerate it and non-dairy like coconut and almond kefir.

Fermented foods: sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, pickles, cultured vegetables, kombucha
Two probiotics in particular have been found in studies to have 1) managed the insulin response that drives acne and 2) counter inflammatory infection in the gut. So look for a probiotic that contains those two strains of bacteria.

Diet alone, I find in practice, is not always adequate to maintaining gut flora nd most of us benefit from taking probiotics, particaruly if you’re someone who’s taken a lot of antibiotics or other meds for skin issues. For daily use and maintenance 30 billion cfu (colony forming units) is a good target. 100 billion if you’re dealing with a specific gut or inflammatory issue; as always, make an appointment with us to find out what works for you.

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If you read my previous post, I mentioned a couple If you read my previous post, I mentioned a couple of brand new studies relating to your gut health and C-19. (See my previous post 👈 and to read the articles, check the links in my bio.☝️)⁠ ⁠ We have known throughout this pandemic that those with auto-immune diseases, like diabetes, have more difficulties and potentially grave outcomes when contracting the virus. The typical American diet is a huge cause of why so many have an unhealthy gut. But research has shown that within two to four days of eating right, your gut microbiome can change. If you want to get #guthealthy here is a great list of foods to eat and foods to avoid (in no particular order). 👇 ⁠ ⁠ Best Foods⁠ 1. Yogurt or Kefir⁠ 2. Miso⁠ 3. Sauerkraut⁠ 4. Kimchi⁠ 5. Sourdough⁠ 6. Almonds⁠ 7. Olive Oil⁠ 8. Asparagus⁠ 9. Kombucha⁠ 10. Peas⁠ 11. Brussels sprouts⁠ 12. Bananas⁠ 13. Roquefort cheese⁠ 14.Garlic⁠ 15. Ginger⁠ 16. Whole grains (for some)⁠ 17. Onions⁠ 18. Oats⁠ ⁠ Worst Foods⁠ 1. Commercially raised meat⁠ 2. Gluten⁠ 3. Processed foods⁠ 4. Alcohol⁠ 5. Caffeine⁠ 6. Artificial sweeteners ⁠ 7. Soy⁠ 8. Dairy⁠ 9. GMO’s⁠ 10. Corn⁠ 11. Tap Water⁠ 12. Farmed fish ⁠ 13. Sugar
Brand new gut research you need to know about: two Brand new gut research you need to know about: two studies just released found that people with more robust microbiomes had less severe Covid-19 symptoms and more easily got rid of the virus. ⁠ Important points:⁠ ⁠ 🍃 People with a reduction in particular gut bacteria are more likely to develop severe Covid-19. ⁠ 🍃 Patients with Covid-19 had depleted levels of specific bacteria which have immune-modulating effects, specifically Bifidobacteria bifidum and Faecalibacterium prasnitzii⁠ 🍃 Patients with these depleted bacteria had persistent post-Covid symptoms such as fatigue, joint pain, and breathlessness⁠ 🍃 These same patients also had elevated levels of two Ruminococcus species as well as Bacteroides dorei⁠ ⁠ Based on this, what can you do to balance your gut?⁠ ⁠ 1. Increase Faecalibacterum: eat chicory, onion, banana, garlic, and leek which all contain inulin, a prebiotic that helps increase this bacteria. ⁠ 2. Increase Bifidobacterum: Take a probiotic with Bifido in it and increase its growth with a high-fiber diet as well as fermented foods. Polyphenol foods (grapes, almonds, moderate amounts of red wine) also help support Bifido. ⁠ 3. Decrease Ruminococcus: Eating apples and pears seem to show a positive effect at reducing this bacteria. ⁠ ⁠ Gut health is everything. ⁠ ✨For more information, see the 2 articles referenced in the link in my bio.☝️
Ina May Gaskin is the matriarch of midwives and ha Ina May Gaskin is the matriarch of midwives and has written a bunch of seminal books on childbirth and homebirth. This quote from Ina May's Guide to Childbirth has always stuck in my head. I love it so much. How many of us have been conditioned to think that once we're given a diagnosis that our bodies are somehow "broken" and will always be broken? Almost every patient I have comes in with some degree of this belief. ⁠ ⁠ And it's just not true. ⁠ ⁠ Ina May writes about this in the context of childbirth: that women are taught to think of pregnancy as something to be medically "treated" when, really, it's the most natural thing that a woman's body is designed to do—without intervention most of the time.⁠ ⁠ But this idea can apply to literally anything about our bodies. ⁠ ⁠ The human body is designed to be well. Not sick. When we don't feel well, something is blocking proper function. In naturopathic medicine, we call this the "obstacle to cure." As a doctor, my goal is to find out what this obstacle is and seek to rebalance the body at that level. We remove the obstacle. And then the body goes on its merry way, functioning well. As it knows how to do. ⁠ ⁠ Your body is not a lemon. It's actually imperfectly perfect.
These are before and after water filters I use in These are before and after water filters I use in my office water filter. The one on the left is the new filter and the one on the right has been filtering New York City tap water for a couple of months. Gross, right? ⁠ ⁠ What’s in NYC tap water? A quick look at the @environmentalworkinggroup Tap Water Database shows that the water in my neighborhood has 16 contaminants, 9 of which exceed their health guidelines. What are they? Things like bromoform, chloroform, and trichloroacetic acid. Translation: many of these compounds form when chlorine is added to water as a disinfectant. Does your water taste like chlorine? Then it probably has this stuff in it. What they cause: cancer. Tap water also typically contains pesticides, bacteria, pharmaceutical drugs, and heavy metals. Yikes. ⁠ ⁠ A few points to make here (credit to Environmental Working Group):⁠ 💧 Legal does not necessarily equal safe. Getting a passing grade from the federal government does not mean the water meets the latest health guidelines.⁠ 💧 Legal limits for contaminants in tap water have not been updated in almost 20 years.⁠ ⁠ Staying adequately hydrated is one of the very best things you can do for your health but not if you’re drinking dirty water! Environmental toxins pose an enormous risk to almost every aspect of our bodies. First step is to get the best filters you can afford. And don’t forget a shower filter—we might actually absorb more of these chemicals through the skin than by drinking them.
Moonrise —-> sunset 🌕✨ Moonrise —-> sunset 🌕✨
Bye, 2020. Here’s to renewed energy and intentio Bye, 2020. Here’s to renewed energy and intention moving into the next cycle around the Sun. Me: I’m taking a break from social media for the rest of the year to give myself more quality time with these two sweeties and space for stillness and recharging. Hope you find some peace in these days too. ✨

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