The Inside Story of Your Skin

Having started my career, believe it or not, as a beauty therapist, I have always had an interest in healthy skin and natural beauty. What became obvious to me back then, and led to me pursuing studies in Naturopathy, was that healthy skin begins within.

The appearance and condition of your skin is a good indicator of your general health. The way your skin looks and feels is often directly related to one or more of the following contributing factors.

Skin Health and Your Hormones

At various stages of life, the hormonal changes that occur can cause changes in the condition of our skin. This can range from the typical teenage breakouts, to redness, dryness, irritation or thinning skin at later stages.

Skin Health and the Gut Connection?

You might not realise just how much your gut health impacts your skin but skin issues can often be connected to the quality and health of our gut microbiome and our ability to absorb nutrients needed for healthy skin.

Collagen and Skin Changes with Age

Collagen is the body's main structural protein and gives skin its strength and elasticity. Collagen levels naturally decline with age. By the age of 40, collagen production decreases even more rapidly. For women, after menopause the decline in collagen contributes to skin thinning and elasticity reducing.

Nutrition and the Skin

Your nutrition levels have a major effect on skin health. Getting enough foods with antioxidant qualities and anti-inflammatory effects can improve skin quality. Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, vitamins A, C, E, D ,B2, B6, B12 and folate are essential nutrients for skin health.

How to Have Healthy Skin from Within

A balanced diet in combination with appropriate antioxidants and vitamin supplementation where required can make a huge difference in maintaining healthy skin and reducing the appearance of the signs of aging skin.

When you are nourishing your body with the right nutrients, your skin will thank you!

Aside from ensuring you are getting the nutrients your body needs for healthy skin some other practical tips to promote healthy skin from within are:

• Drink more water each day, around 2 to 3 litres is ideal
• Eat foods that include essential fatty acids. The body doesn't make these building blocks of the body so you need to get them from your diet. If you’re not getting these in your diet, look at supplementing with therapeutic grade fish oils
• Pack nutrient rich foods into your diet. Smoothies are great for combining fresh, healthy ingredients like antioxidant rich berries, with yoghurt for probiotics, or a variety of other health foods and supplement powders all in one tasty drink.
• Cut right back on any highly processed, fast foods and foods high in sugar
• If you’re drinking a lot of coffee, soft drinks or alcohol, reducing or eliminating these from your diet will make a huge difference
• Take a probiotic to improve gut health and if you are over 40, consider our collagen supplements

What each person specifically needs varies and depends on age, lifestyle factors, genetics and other health issues. Getting the right nutritional support can help minimise acne, boost elasticity and skin immunity, stimulate collagen production and enhance the radiance of your skin.

What Can You do to Improve Skin as You Get Older?

Skin health is affected by sun exposure, beauty or skincare products, the water we bathe in and many other environmental factors. While these outside factors have a strong influence on skin health, the positive impact that many foods and supplements can have is often underestimated.

There are a range of natural herbal medicines and supplements that, when used under expert guidance, can effectively support people to:

• Resolve issues with acne
• Heal quickly after cosmetic surgery
• Reduce dryness or brittle skin
• Balance hormonal skin problems
• Improve fullness and elasticity of the skin

For women particularly, collagen supplementation can also be very supportive as we age. Other nutrient supplements can be of huge benefit when they are addressing a deficiency. While some symptoms can indicate the likelihood of a certain nutritional deficiency, testing allows for a much more informed and targeted approach.

Hormone testing, microbiome testing and food sensitivity testing are available, and useful at any age to identify imbalances that might be uniquely affecting your skin health.

Want to find out how you can improve your skin, from within? Come and see me for a consultation here at Perth Natural Medical Clinic.



Lesley Oakes

ND, ABAAHP

Lesley Oakes is an experienced Naturopath known for her caring, professional manner and a long history of successfully treating patients here at PNMC. Lesley believes in embracing new technology to accurately assist in analysing body systems and using advanced laboratory testing to develop highly effective treatment protocols to assist with hormonal imbalances and declining hormone levels associated with aging.

Call our team on 9328 9233 to find out when Lesley is next available or book an appointment online.