Gut health, toxic load, chemical load, gut flora, skin flora, prebiotics, probiotics, leaky gut, autoimmune, food intolerance, UPFs….
There are loads of current buzz words, as people try to put names to things they are struggling with, where traditional methods don’t seem to be able to help them resolve.
Modern life, while in some ways is an amazing place to be, has brought with it some issues that are now showing to be impacting on our health in unexpected ways.
50-100 years ago, life was a bit more natural (stand aside smog and water pollution in cities and high death rates from untreatable infections..). Furniture was made from wood, steel, wool, leather and cotton. Personal care consisted of soap and water, and laundry was done manually with, again, soap and water (and sometimes, scarily, urine). Over the years, more efficient ways of cleaning were invented, detergents were developed, cheap, mass produced furniture was developed using plastics, plastic food packaging meant less waste and longer storage times, preservatives, insecticides, highly sanitised environments etc etc..…
As with everything, each step forward came with its’ own set of downsides and risks.
Today, we are surrounded by convenience, fast fashion, disposable furniture, plastic, chemically laden personal care products, pharmaceuticals. All of this has increased our chemical load to the point where we now understand we are damaging not just the planet but we are also damaging ourselves. This ‘chemical load’ manifests by accumulating toxins in our cells, leading to gut damage, leaky gut, skin flora damage, inflammation, auto immune conditions…. And one of the most obvious places this shows up is…. Our skin.
Oxidative stress and glycation are good examples.
Oxidate stress is caused directly from free radical pollution, UV exposure, stress, exposure to toxic chemicals, and it shows up as a variety of damaging symptoms in the body, and on the skin as ageing, dryness, roughness and sagging. Glycation is caused directly by high levels of sugar combining with proteins in the skin causing the classic ‘cross-hatching’ effect you often see on older skins. While these can be improved with treatments and products, until that nutritional imbalance is addressed, it is impossible to truly treat it. Chemicals in our food leach into our bodies and cause inflammation, ultra-processed foods affect our bodies in truly awful ways. This is causing damage to our systems like we have never seen.
Whenever I have a client come in complaining of ageing, acne, rosacea, menopausal skin, one of the first things I discuss is gut health, and environmental issues. I can do amazing things with the best homecare products and in-clinic treatments. I love a good chemical peel, the medical grade products I use can hugely reduce the symptoms of rosacea but it doesn’t look at why it is happening – it is almost always linked to autoimmune status, gut health, environmental issues or stress – and usually a combination of all of those things.
So while I always recommend the right products, treatments and supplements to help get the best results, we always look at a deeper level – the ‘why’ is just as important as the symptoms!
