Science reveals a symbiotic relationship between a healthy gut and our brain, our immune system, and our skin. Understanding what is happening beneath the skin, at the gut level, impacts how the skin and body function, age and respond to treatments.
Lifestyle choices, inflammation, environmental toxins, stress levels, antibiotics, alcohol consumption and diet, all cause changes to the gut balance.
Imbalance in the gut, aka dysbiosis, manifests in so many ways – from inflammatory skin conditions like acne, eczema, psoriasis, to chronic depression, anxiety, weight gain and loss, diabetes, fatigue, and insomnia. In more extreme cases, dysbiosis results in cardiovascular disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, cancer and obesity.
Compromised skin is likely accompanied by a ‘dirty’ gut because the skin mirrors what is going on inside. Beautiful skin, and only healthy people have it, is pink, silky smooth, dense, tightly elastic. And it clings to the contours of the body. A wide range of toxins, the worse being intestinal toxins, can alter the structure of the skin and its original tight structure becomes at first puffy, then flaccid to various degrees of thinning. Detoxification and a healthier digestive system can improve the look and feel of the skin, unless irreparable damage has been done.
Therefore, any healing protocol needs to start on the inside – first, by cleansing the gut and liver.
You can read more about how the health of the gut impacts the way we age in this review, which concludes that “a healthy lifestyle, with a balanced diet rich in unrefined foods of natural origin, together with adequate physical exercise, aerobic or combined, sustained for sufficiently long periods, allows for restoration and maintenance of a healthy microbiota even in old age, promoting healthy ageing”.
As many of you will have read in some of my previous posts, I undertook my very own customised gut-healing ‘cure’ at the wonderful Viva-Mayr Clinic in Austria in early spring. In this video, I talk about some of the treatments I had there, and how once you begin healing the gut, and the intestines begin to shrink and find their rightful place in the abdominal cavity, this has a direct effect on your face – the puffiness and fat in the face begins to diminish, leaving you with cleaner lines – cheekbones become visible, eyes are not covered in a layer of fat, the double chin begins to recede – you look 10 years younger. This is what happened to me in just two weeks!
When dysbiosis is present in the gut, then this will affect the absorption of nutrients, so too if someone is taking proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) long-term.
This article from the Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility looks in more detail at the risks associated with long-term use of PPI medications, but to sum up: “Some nutrients require gastric acid for effective absorption, including iron, calcium, and vitamin B12. Long-term PPI administration may decrease gastric acid secretion, especially during the daytime postprandial period, thus decreasing levels of iron, calcium, and vitamin B12 absorption, and possibly causing a pathological condition associated with lack of those nutrients.”
If we lack certain nutrients, this will affect the appearance of our skin, causing it to become thin and lined. Wrinkles are normal, lines are not. Lines are an indication of poor nutrient absorption and dehydration.
The various treatments at the Viva-Mayr Clinic are all aimed at improving the health and physical structure of the digestive organs, including the intestines. The treatments include the ‘Mayr diet’ (80% alkaline and 20% acid, and modest portions) as well as the IV vitamin injections, colon hydrotherapy treatments, orthomolecular medicine – high doses of vitamins; I mean mega doses, which are administered based on the individual blood tests and the myodiagnostic tests (applied kinesiology) that all guests undertake at the beginning of the ‘cure’ to determine deficiencies – saunas, steam baths, and plenty of fresh air. But the most important treatment of all is the manual medical abdominal therapy that is carried out by the doctors at the clinic. It’s a specific type of belly massage that stimulates the passage of the contents of the intestines and aids the absorption of important nutrients. This therapy also stimulates circulation of blood and lymph and reduces inflammation, at the same time bringing fresh blood into the intestines that helps with the cleansing and regeneration processes as well as stimulation of the liver and pancreas to aid better flow of digestive juices. The intestines are reduced, lifted and repositioned in the abdominal cavity, but gently.
Studies have proven that our gut has a stronghold on our health, and that a thriving gut equals a healthy immune system and strong mind. When we address our overall health from the inside out, we not only boost our digestive and gut health but give our complexion that much longed-for lit-from-within glow.
If you have any questions about a digestive and gut health issue, or would like to know more about a tailored supplement protocol, please get in touch.
