Clear Skin from the Inside Out
Have you ever considered how gut health or internal health can affect your skin health? If you’re feeling frustrated by unresolved skin issues or you’re dealing with ongoing skin concerns, there are ways you can support your skin from the inside out. When it comes to skin health, it really goes much deeper than that first external layer. What we really have to do, like with everything, is look at the whole picture, the whole person and dig deeper into what’s going on internally. Your skin is telling you things, your skin is talking to you, and it can give you clues about what is going on internally. In this post, I’ll share ways to troubleshoot skin issues and tips about how you can get clear skin from the inside out.
Clear Skin from the Inside Out
Have you ever considered how gut health or internal health can affect your skin health? If you’re feeling frustrated by unresolved skin issues or you’re dealing with ongoing skin concerns, there are ways you can support your skin from the inside out.
When we go to the dermatologist for a skin issue - whether it be acne or eczema or rashes - it typically gets treated as something that’s very surface level. We end up getting prescribed things like topical creams, steroids or even antibiotics and look at skin health as an isolated issue.
When it comes to skin health, though, it goes much deeper than that first external layer. What we really have to do, like with everything is, look at the whole picture, the whole person and dig deeper into what’s going on internally. Your skin is telling you things, your skin is talking to you, and it can give you clues about what is going on internally.
For me personally, I had acne breakouts, eczema, and ongoing skin issues in my teens, and I was put on low-dose antibiotics for almost a year. This definitely ended up causing a lot of other downstream issues for me, but I didn't realize it at the time. Hormonal birth control is also commonly prescribed to help with any kind of hormonal acne or skin issues as well. These medications can actually have long-term effects on our body, nutrient stores, and our gut. I see so many others who, like myself, went through this process and tried so many different things to deal with skin concerns without ever really addressing what was going on internally in the gut until additional symptoms started to show up.
The gut connection and troubleshooting your skin
Gut health isn’t often considered as a factor for skin health, but the two are actually very closely related. Within our gut, we have trillions of bacteria, and we want everything in our gut to be in harmony, like a little ecosystem. Usually, it is, but sometimes certain things can cause this ecosystem to get out of balance.
Antibiotics are one example of something that can disrupt the gut ecosystem by killing off bad bacteria but also killing off beneficial bacteria as well. Gut imbalances can also be caused by things like an inflammatory diet or lack of beneficial foods feeding the good bacteria in our microbiome. Stress also has a huge impact on our body and especially our microbiome. Once that gut ecosystem is out of balance from stressors, medications, diet, etc. overtime things can really start to snowball and we may begin to experience more downstream issues resulting from this disrupted ecosystem.
Inflammation and skin reactions
When we wind up with this inflamed environment in our gut, something called “leaky gut” or intestinal permeability can occur. In the presence of intestinal permeability, things that are within our gut ecosystem “leak” out into areas that they're not supposed to be.
When bacteria, toxins, and large food particles get through the gut lining, our immune system that lies around the lining of the gut goes on high alert and it begins to activate an immune response or inflammation. The immune system becomes overloaded with all that it has to contend with, and it can set up a whole host of not only immune issues but detoxification issues as well. It's our livers’ job to help detoxify the body, but if our liver is really overwhelmed dealing with inflammation or the consequences of leaky gut it can get backed up and congested. When the liver is backed up our body must look for other ways to detox.
This is one of the ways our skin can be impacted.
Our skin is the largest detoxification organ in our body. If the liver and detox pathways are backed up, then our body might start detoxing through our skin causing breakouts or other skin issues.
Additionally, if you are not properly breaking down and absorbing the food you're eating because your gut is compromised or inflamed, you don't have sufficient stomach acid or you don't have the ability to digest fats for example, then you're likely not getting all the nutrients you need from your foods. Often with skin issues, nutrient deficiencies can play a major role.
As with so many facets of health, it often comes back to the gut, so if you are dealing with any kind of skin issues like acne, eczema, or rashes, you can see how it's 100% worth considering this relationship between gut health and skin health.
So what do we do about this?
It really comes down to supporting the terrain in the digestive system to bring things back into balance. We sometimes just think about food, but it’s really about how our body is breaking down and digesting that food and understanding what’s going on in the intestinal terrain.
When it comes to healing skin issues, I've been there and I know how frustrating it can be. Check out the podcast below to hear more tips about how you can get clear skin from the inside out. And if you’re dealing with skin issues feel free to leave me a comment below!
PREFER TO LISTEN? TUNE INTO THE LIVE WELL PODCAST BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
Are you Constipated?
This might come as a surprise to you, but a normal bowel movement is supposed to happen one to three times per day. If you are not having a normal bowel movement every day or it's every other day or sometimes even three to four days, that's the sign that you are constipated. Also, if you are having a hard time eliminating straining to eliminate having hard stools or incomplete elimination, or you have fatigue or brain fog or even aches and pains elsewhere in the body, it can be a sign that you're not eliminating fully and that you are indeed constipated.
Are you Constipated?
I’m excited to dive into this (very sexy) topic of…constipation! When it comes to digestive issues, constipation is actually a really, really common one I see frequently with my clients. (I have to laugh also at the photo my amazing assistant chose for this post!)
Firstly let’s define what a normal bowel movement even looks like to know where you fall on the spectrum!
This might come as a surprise to you, but a normal bowel movement is supposed to happen 1-3 times per day. If you are not having a normal bowel movement every day or it's every other day or sometimes even three to four days, that's the sign that you are constipated. Also, if you are having a hard time eliminating, straining to eliminate having hard stools or incomplete elimination it’s a sign that you're not eliminating fully and that you are indeed constipated.
Eliminating fully is really important in order to get out toxins from our body. We eat food, it's broken down and absorbed, we get all the nutrients we need from it and we want to get rid of everything else that we don't need. If you are not eliminating 1-3 times per day or fully eliminating, waste is getting backed up in your system. This not only causes digestive issues like gas and bloating with waste backing up and allowing things to remain stagnant in the gut, but it also doesn’t allow us to get toxins out of our body.
Bowel movements are one of the main ways that we get toxins, and also certain hormones like estrogen, out of our body. Once the liver processes estrogen for elimination, it is up to your gut to move it out! If you are experiencing constipation, there is a good chance your estrogen isn't making its way out, but instead, going back into circulation in the body. High level of estrogen in the body, or an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone, can lead to things like PMS symptoms, fibroids, heavy periods, and many other symptoms that come with this estrogen dominance.
So check in and see just where you are at! Sometimes we don't know until we use a tool to track our digestion and see, oh, actually, yeah, I haven't gone in two days or I didn't go today or I went once but it really doesn't feel like I'm actually getting everything out. You can download my free Food and Symptom Journal to get started!
Common causes of constipation
Common causes of constipation are:
Food allergies or sensitivities
Lack of good bacteria in the gut
Intestinal permeability or damage to the mucosal lining of the gut
Dehydration
Thyroid or other hormone imbalances
You can see that it really depends, like so many things, on what the underlying cause for the individual is. This means that you're going to address constipation differently depending on what’s going on for you. That being said, there's the three easy things that I always look at first when it comes to troubleshooting constipation.
3 easy ways to troubleshoot constipation
Hydration. Our digestive system needs water to function properly. When dehydrated, our digestion slows down and our stools become harder to pass. A good rule of thumb is to divide your weight in half and drink that many ounces of water per day. This will of course vary depending on your individual needs, climate and how much you sweat!
Get enough good fats in your diet to help lubricate the digestive system. (Think olive oil, avocados, fatty fish, coconut oil, coconut meat, olives, etc.)
Increase fiber. Fiber is really important for supporting our digestive process and add bulk to the stool. Fiber is the main food for the 70-100 trillion microorganisms that live in your digestive tract. And when you eat plenty of fiber, it’s harder for pathogenic bacteria to grow in your digestive tract. A simple way to get in more fiber is to load up on good veggies like these roasted root veggies or sautéed kale throughout the day! To see what works for you I recommend slowly increasing your fiber intake. Don't feel like you have to like dump a ton of fiber and just start eating a ton of raw veggies. In these colder months I liked to include warm, cooked veggies for fiber which are a bit easier on the digestive system. Sometimes I like to have the “one, two, three” rule where you have one veggie at breakfast, two at lunch, three at dinner. See if you can experiment with that!
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
Live Well Podcast | Ep #60 Managing chronic fatigue with Fran Dargaville
Fran is a Functional Nutritionist and Yoga teacher with a passion for real food and holistic health! Her health journey started when she developed chronic fatigue and digestive issues as a teenager, which sparked her determination to heal herself through food, movement and mindset.
Fran is a Functional Nutritionist and Yoga teacher with a passion for real food and holistic health! Her health journey started when she developed chronic fatigue and digestive issues, which sparked her determination to heal herself through food, movement and mindset. Fran supports her clients through 1:1 programs and her online detox program to get to the root cause of their symptoms, so they can lose weight, get more energy and take control of their health.
I love Fran’s real food approach to health and am so excited to speak with her today about overcoming chronic fatigue.
LISTEN BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
Show Notes:
0:00 Intro
2:50 Fran describes her personal experience with chronic fatigue
Developed CFS as a teenager in high school
Difficulty getting anyone to take her symptoms seriously
4:20 Fran describes her second flare-up of chronic fatigue in her 20s
How a toxic job contributed to symptoms
8:20 Fran’s experience having to quit her job and move back in with her parents as she recovered
The role of her mom as an advocate and support during this time
13:00 The importance of “day to day” support when managing chronic health conditions
13:22 Fran describes the interventions that made the biggest difference for her to help her finally heal
Nutrition and gut health
Exercise and fresh air
Yoga and mindfulness
Mindset work
16:39 The limiting beliefs that kept Fran stuck from moving forward
“I’m so exhausted”
“I can’t go anywhere, what if I feel worse?”
“I can’t get the perfect food today, this will derail all my progress”
18:50 How Fran managed without a diagnosis of disease
21:55 The danger of attaching too strongly to your diagnosis
25:30 Fran details the specific foods to include and avoid to support your body
The importance of nutrient density for chronic conditions
37:50 Outro
If you loved this episode, I'd be honored for you to give me a rating on iTunes. This helps me to get content out to others who are interested in getting control of their health through diet, lifestyle shifts and personal empowerment.
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, breathwork, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
What probiotic should I take?
Having a good balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut is crucial for the functioning of the digestive system and overall health. We’ve heard a lot about gut bacteria or the microbiome recently as research in this area is exploding. Although there is still a lot we don’t know, we do know that the bacteria in our gut have been linked to autoimmunity, cancer, mental health, heart disease, obesity and metabolic disorders. Read on to learn how and why to incorporate probiotics into your diet today!
Confused about what probiotic to take? Or even why you should be taking one in the first place?
We’ve heard a lot about gut bacteria or the microbiome recently as research in this area is exploding. Although there is still a lot we don’t know, we do know that the bacteria in our gut have been linked to autoimmunity, cancer, mental health, heart disease, obesity and metabolic disorders to name a few. [1, 2, 3, 4]
We can think of our gut as a little ecosystem with many different types of bacteria. There are trillions of bacteria living in our gut that can weigh anywhere from 1-6lbs! Researchers at the Human Microbiome Project now calculate that more than 10,000 microbial species occupy the human ecosystem. Isn’t that crazy?
We want this ecosystem to be in good balance for everything to functional properly. Most of the time these bacteria live in harmony and provide us with essential functions for survival. The roles these little guys play is actually critical for human survival. For example, genes carried by bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract allow humans to digest foods and absorb nutrients that otherwise would be unavailable. Wow!
Just like in nature, though, when you disrupt the ecosystem you can see a ripple effect and it can begin to cause big problems downstream. A good example is when you take antibiotics, a big gut bomb that kill lots of pathogenic as well as good bacteria in your gut, you risk getting a yeast infection. In this case, the good bacteria have been killed off and it’s allowed space for yeast to overgrow to a pathogenic level and cause symptoms we know as a yeast infection. The ecosystem has been disrupted.
Things like antibiotics, medications, diet, and stress can affect our microbiome and cause imbalances that can lead to overgrowth of bacteria or yeast and lack of microbial diversity. As you can see, having a good balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut is crucial for the functioning of the digestive system and in turn, your overall health!
Depending on your individual needs, bringing in a probiotic supplement or eating probiotic-rich foods are fantastic ways to support the ecosystem in your gut.
Probiotic Supplements
There are many good probiotic supplements out there and many different theories with about which ones to incorporate. For a good, broad spectrum, daily probiotic I like to incorporate products that have diversity of strains that provide both lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. One I’m currently loving is Ther-Biotic Complete from Klaire Labs.
You also want to look at the other added ingredients in the probiotics supplements. Some probiotics contain dairy or other common allergens like gluten, corn, soy, etc. Depending on your dietary needs you’ll want to check into that as well and avoid products that contain additives that don’t agree with you.
Everyday maintenance for someone who is in otherwise in good health would likely be lower than someone requiring therapeutic doses (such as 50 billion CFUs or more). A therapeutic dose might be warranted for post-operative situations, during or post-infection, and other acute or chronic situations resulting from impaired immune and gut health. Regardless of your probiotic goals, remember to start low and go slow with dosing to see what works for you!
A lot of the probiotic products I like are refrigerated. You’ll hear people say that refrigeration matters, or conversely that choosing a freeze dried product is the best, but it’s really more about the make up of that particular probiotic than just being refrigerated or not. Non-refrigerated types can be ideal for travel!
The success of one probiotic product over another is really going to depend on the terrain of the individual and some trial and error may be involved to find the right product or dose. These guidelines are general and serve as a starting point for you to get going!
If you're interested in taking this exploration further, you can deep dive into the world of probiotics at www.probioticadvisor.com.
Probiotic Foods
I absolutely love to incorporate probiotic foods into my daily diet as well. I love fermented veggies, kimchi, sauerkraut and drinks like beet kvass or low sugar kombucha. You can find my homemade coconut yogurt recipe here for a great, affordable way to get in some probiotics! I recommend focusing on veggies, yogurts, kefirs or drinks rather than packaged products touting probiotic benefits, as real, whole, live foods are sure to provide you with a more potent probiotic punch.
Again, I recommend starting low and going slow to see how probiotic foods affect you. I usually include just 1-2 tablespoons of fermented veggies with a meal. I know we can sometimes think if something is good, than more must be better! That is not necessarily true in this case. If you’ve never tried probiotic foods before I recommend buying a jar of fermented veggies at your local health food store and starting to experiment to see how you like them. Tending to your gut ecosystem helps not only your gut and digestive system, but also has far reaching effects too many body systems. You’re doing yourself a HUGE favor by incorporating good probiotic bacteria and tending to this important ecosystem!
Prefer to listen? Tune into The Live Well Podcast below (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
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Or if you’d like to play the episode right now in your browser, use the player below:
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, breathwork, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.