Struggling with a hot mess gut? Have you ever thought possibly your skin care or cleaning products could be (at least partly) to blame? If not, you definitely need to consider it! I go into all the science in today's episode.
Want to read the review article I mentioned in today's show? Check it out here!
Want to shop my favorite clean beauty products? Here you go!
Follow me on Instagram, and send me a DM to let me know what you resonated with in this episode. Ready to begin your gut rehab journey? Watch my program video and let's map out what that looks like for you.
Talk soon!
K
Find Katie:
Schedule a Free Clarity Call with Katie!
Website - www.nourishthrivewellness.com
Instagram - @the_healthygut_dietitian
Facebook
Struggling with a hot mess gut? Have you ever thought possibly your skin care or cleaning products could be (at least partly) to blame? If not, you definitely need to consider it! I go into all the science in today's episode.
Want to read the review article I mentioned in today's show? Check it out here!
Want to shop my favorite clean beauty products? Here you go!
Follow me on Instagram, and send me a DM to let me know what you resonated with in this episode. Ready to begin your gut rehab journey? Watch my program video and let's map out what that looks like for you.
Talk soon!
K
Find Katie:
Schedule a Free Clarity Call with Katie!
Website - www.nourishthrivewellness.com
Instagram - @the_healthygut_dietitian
Facebook
Hey guys, welcome back to the nourished and thriving show. Today, as I was like scripting out and planning out what I wanted to be talking with you guys, I very quickly realized we're probably going to need a part two because there's a lot of information to share that you guys may or may not know about. And I think it's really powerful. I know it's really powerful and important information, so we're going to dive in, we're going to see how it goes, but most likely we're going to have at least one. follow up to this episode. So if this is something you really enjoy hearing about, send me a message over on Instagram. If it's something that you want to learn more about, definitely let me know. If there's specific questions that you have, or things that you've heard about this topic that you need answers to, let me know because I always like to take that into consideration. As I'm planning all of my copy out for you guys. So with that being said, let's dig in. So, environmental toxins may or may not be something that you have taken a look at in your gut healing journey. But it is one of the absolute pillars in my gut rehab program. This is so important and it's not Something that is always talked about, and so, you know, it's, it's really something that is necessary to consider, and so we're going to go into all of those reasons as to why it matters, why environmental toxins have an impact on your gut, and what you can do about it. Okay, so we know that. So let me just frame it up for you guys. Whenever we're talking about environmental toxins, what am I talking about? So these are going to be things specifically today that we're going to be talking about are going to be ingredients and cleaning supplies, ingredients and personal care products, and even air and water quality. We're going to touch on a little bit. I think that's going to be more in a follow up episode because there's just. Too much information to share with all of this, but we're going to go in today as to like how these things actually affect your gut. Because if you think about your digestive tract and the way that I often teach it, I think it's the most like mainstream way of teaching it. And I think it's accurate. You know, I think it's, I think it's for all intensive purposes. Whenever someone is dealing with digestive issues, it typically goes gut. out, right? So we typically think, you know, we eat food, that food gets absorbed into our body and our bloodstream and circulates around. If we have leaky gut, that inflammation is being driven from gut out. So if we have a skin condition, it's actually coming Possibly from an infection in our gut or an imbalance of those organisms, stuff like that. But we're going to flip it a little bit today and actually not a little bit. We're going to completely flip that today and we're going to talk about, but what about everything else in? How does everything else affect your gut? So we're going to dial in specifically today about the skin. We're probably going to talk about air and like lungs and all of that stuff in a later episode. We're going to just touch briefly on it today but we're going to dig into something called the gut skin access. So in case you haven't been around for long, you probably know that there's actually like a gut, almost anything else access because everything affects the gut. Everything else the gut affects everything. So there's a gut brain axis, a gut skin axis, there's like lots of axes, accesses, axes going on with the gut because it's all connected. Everything is connected. Nothing can be looked at in isolation. This is huge. If you walk away with nothing else today, you need to walk away with this information. Nothing in your body, in your mind, or in your heart slash spirit can be looked at in isolation whenever you were working to create health in your life. Okay. This is really, really groundbreaking, and this will change your life. And I am very passionate that, and believe that this is the future of medicine. I know that's really bold. I don't feel like I typically say super bold things. I'm kind of middle of the road and... We're like reasonable and logical. Most of the time. I don't say a lot of inflammatory things. This is so clear to me though, that this is a better way than how we are doing things. This is going to be the future of medicine. So everything affects everything else. You're walking away with that nugget today, write it down, say it out loud. So you can remember it committed to your memory. Right. Everything is connected. So the gut microbiome, like I was talking about in your gut, inflammation in your gut, all of that has a huge impact on your skin, right? We've already talked about that some, we're going to probably talk more about that in an upcoming episode. So talking more about the gut skin access from gut out. But today we're talking about the gut skin access from skin. So how, let me frame that up and define that a little bit for you. So we're going to specifically talk about how your skin microbiome, because you actually have microbes living on your skin, around your skin, that Function to support your skin barrier function. If you've been around here and you've heard me talk about the gut barrier, your skin is a barrier too, right? And so like inside of your gut, your gut lining is actually epithelial cells, which are the same kinds of cells on your skin. So there's a lot of commonalities here. They both serve to keep the outside world out and the inside world in, and let things pass through that need to pass through. Okay, so we're talking about skin microbiome, skin inflammation and exposures to different chemicals and agents and how they can actually affect the microbiome, the gut microbiome. So let's kind of dig in. We're going to get into the science a little bit. So we're going to zoom into some science and then we're going to zoom out and talk about What does this mean? What can you do with this information? Okay, so whenever I was researching this episode, I know this information, right? I know I've learned a lot of this information in courses I've done and advanced credentials I've done and, you know, ongoing trainings and certifications, but I always like to go in and look at the research and see What's new, what's coming out, you know, just making sure that I'm really clear and being science based in my conversations with you guys. This is really important, you know, and if you're studying somebody that's saying or following somebody, probably not studying them, but following somebody that's saying, Oh, the science says this. And, you know, research shows that. But they don't actually tell you where they're getting their information from, call them on it. Ask them to send you the citations for those research papers. Call me on it. If I don't cite something or say where it's coming from, or you just want to better understand how something, how I came to a certain conclusion, let me know. You know, I'd be happy to send you research, but. So I was looking at a specific one specific review in particular from 2022. It was published in the International Journal of Molecular Science. I'm linking it to my show notes here. I'm putting the citation in there so you guys can see it is a free article on PubMed. So it's open access. Anyone can get it. You don't have to subscribe to this journal to get the study. So that's great. You know, and if you have a little bit of a science brain, you might actually really enjoy reading it. It does a really nice job of defining terms and then going through different conditions and connections. And I think you might really like it. So just kind of another point on researching and reading articles. Whenever I dig into research, individual studies can be really great at new breakthroughs, new discoveries, all of that. But they also can be some of those inflammatory headlines that lead to so much confusion and conflict. You know, if you think about like the news, right, or media or influencers, where they're all saying eggs are great for you, eggs are bad for you, eggs are great for you, eggs are bad for you, eat whole grains, eat no grains, like all these like inflammatory extremes that make you feel like you are like having whiplash over here, listening to all of this. A lot of those headlines, yeah, maybe they're coming from science, but they're zooming in and looking at one specific study that showed one specific thing, but they're kind of losing the forest through the trees with it. You know, they're zooming in so close to one thing that you forget about all of these other factors. You forget what the big picture looks like. And for that reason, I really enjoy looking at review studies because it helps to keep things in perspective. And then if there's something that you want to dig into and get more detailed on, you absolutely can. You can go you know, if there's a topic that you're reading about in a review study, and you're like, I want to hear more about this. You can, you know, definitely go. But I think the review studies are nice to be like, okay. Let's pull out all of the studies that were well done on this topic and go through what they say, and they do great. So there's a tip for you as you research. I think it's important for everyone to advocate for themselves, become educated, and read scientific literature as you're able to. If nothing else, read the abstract and the conclusion. Okay, what were we studying? What was the net net? What's my walk away? What are the results here? But anyway, I hope that's helpful. So go look for this review in the show notes and take a look if you are interested. But let's get into what this review actually said. After I totally geeked out on you guys for a couple minutes. So Just going through a few different things. They specifically were talking about the gut skin axis. And remember, we're going skin out this time. So they were looking at vitamin D concentrations in your serum which is exposed associated with exposure to sunlight, right? So how much sunshine are you getting? And they were looking at the microbiome and seeing that sunlight exposure actually affected relative abundance. So how many of these certain types of organisms? And so they were finding like more sunlight was more positive increase in more beneficial organisms. Those organisms were lower levels whenever you didn't have enough sunlight. So we think about Oh, you know, our good, good bugs do good things for us and they help make vitamins and short chain fatty acids and all of this, but also they are really affected by our environment. And so, you know, vitamin D sunlight exposure has been shown to affect that. So that is an instance where we are seeing something coming into the body via the skin, right? Our skin cells absorb that vitamin D. Into the bloodstream and then into the gut and actually changing our microbiome. So yeah, like the vitamin D tip is cool and important and everyone needs to get sunshine every day. But really, we're also looking at this mechanism here where we're seeing, okay, we absorb something in through our skin into our bloodstream and infected our microbiome. That is a principle there that's important to remember. Okay another thing that this review is talking about in the SCUT, the SCUT. Wow. The skin, gut access, gut, skin access was showing that food allergies can actually be caused by exposure to a protein on your skin from household dust. So if there's a really dusty environment you know, or like mold it didn't specifically call that out, but it would probably have a similar function or effect, right? You are, it, it's leading to immunoglobulin E, which is i g e, which is food allergy immunoglobulin mast cell expansion into the intestine. So it's showing there, okay, we have lots of dust around us. We're absorbing those that dust into our skin. It is getting absorbed into our gut and it is causing this IgE activation inside of our gut that is a food allergy. Reaction that can be triggered partly from environmental dust. Okay, so same mechanism is that vitamin D. So that vitamin D was kind of beneficial. And then we see this dust coming in and being actually harmful. And then there was a mouse model study as well where it was showing that the mouse that was like scratching its skin caused these cells to release inflammation in the local area. And then it led to a lymphoid cell secretion. So your lymphatic system to activate mass. cells of the small intestine that increases intestinal permeability and food anaphylaxis. So food anaphylaxis is like the scary, like your, your airway is closing up, right? Like think of like the typical one is like the peanut allergy, right? Where you have the EpiPen, your throat, your airway is closing up. So, you know, skin issues from like an eczema or psoriasis, where you're like scratching that inflammation can go all the way. through your lymphatic system into your gut and increase leaky gut and cause those issues as well. So those are just a few. Those are three different ways showing this principle. That's what I really wanted to demonstrate is if you put something on your skin, I think a lot of the time we think like grabbing my arm, but my arm is too low for you to see it. I think a lot of the time we think, okay, I put something on my skin and it just stays right here. It just active right where I'm putting it. So You put sunscreen on your face. It just stays right there. You know, we're face cream like, right, we all, we all put our face creams and serums on. It just stays just under subcutaneously right under the skin, right where we're putting it on. But the science actually shows that it is absorbed into your bloodstream, absorbed into your lymphatic system and all of that, and actually goes all throughout your body and into your gut, and then affects your inflammation levels, your gut microbiome, all of that. So, This is all to say, if you are going through dealing with a hot mess gut, and you're making a lot of changes to your food, to your water intake, you're really prioritizing your sleep, you are working so hard to manage your stress and reduce stress. But you're in ignoring environmental toxins. Specifically today, we're talking through the skin. This could make a really huge difference for you. And honestly, these changes are sometimes easier to make, which we're going to talk about here in a minute. Then like all of the nutrition stuff that honestly, whenever you feel like you're reacting to everything. Those food changes can feel really, really hard, right? Because you're like, I can eat five foods, or I never know what's going to flare, and so I like to eat the same foods over and over again. Or, you're just tired of thinking about food, you know, because it doesn't seem to be healthy. This could be another thing that you could do to work on lowering the levels of inflammation in your body and working to create health. This is actually a huge topic for me and it's really close to my heart because ingredients in cleaning supplies were actually the first thing I cleaned up in our home after I was wondering what it was. What are we using it to clean our floors when our oldest child she's now eight was a baby and she was crawling and I would look at her crawl and then put things in her mouth right and you're like. What are we using to clean our floors? And then she's like, basically licking the floor. You know, it's something that's really important. And so this is something that's really near and dear to my heart. Cause it kind of opened up this whole gateway to what I do now for my living. And so it can be that for you as well. It can be a gateway for creating health in your life. Like I said before, our bodies are systems of systems. Everything is connected. What you eat, drink, breathe, and put on your skin circulates through your bloodstream and connects into your gut and affects your microbiome and inflammation levels. So it's really, really important. I hope that that just summary of everything I said was really helpful there. I'm going to get into the action now because I know that that's what a lot of you guys come here for. And you're like, what's the net now? What can I walk away with? So first of all, start with something, take action with something because we know that that motivation comes through action. So as you work to change one thing, motivation continues to multiply and expand and you feel like you have more bandwidth to make more changes in other avenues of your life. So if one of these changes I'm about to recommend here feels attainable and doable for you more so than nutrition right now, do it. Open that doorway and just get started with something so I'm going to list three out when I'm done, or as I'm talking, I want you to think about is changing something in my environmental environmental talks and something I want to prioritize right now. Or am I really prioritizing something else, and I'm going to table this and come back to it in a few months. And then to. If you are going to prioritize this right now, which of these three things are you going to start with and dive into? Okay, if you pick one of these three things, and you're like, okay, now, where do I go from here? These would be other really good follow up episodes, actually. But if you want some personal guidance and personal tips on how to get started, I'm going to give you like a couple of things here. Reach out to me on Instagram, send me a message. Hey Katie. The second thing you really talked about resonated. I want to do it. Where do you recommend I start? I will be so happy to point you in the right direction. Okay. So let's get into this. So step one, we did not talk about air and lungs very much today, but it's something I'm really. Passionate about and believe in. So I'm going to go ahead and share it. And then we're probably going to do a deeper dive on lungs and gut in the coming weeks. So this is pretty easy though. So I'm going to just, I'm just going to talk about it real fast, real fast. So step one. Become a plant mom. Get some plants. It's so trendy right now and fun. I'm not a great gardener. I mean, I have some plants and they're doing okay right now, but I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and I just hope for the best. But if I can do it, you can do it is what I'm saying. But they help purify your air. Another option is getting an air purifier. You can also open up some windows if the air quality in your area is good to get some fresh air on pretty days. Get outside. And you know, one that you can do like if plants feel overwhelming right now for you. not a plant mom, you live in like an urban area without the cleanest air quality, just stop shooting yourself in the foot. Like avoid fragrances such as candles and air fresheners, because that's just making it worse, right? Like if you aren't going to do any of those like positive things to improve your air quality right now, at least just like, Stop the bleed. Okay. So stop using your candles unless they're like scented with essential oils, which even those can be linked to like hormone dysregulation and stuff. So just research it a little bit. Stop using those cheap air fresheners that just are adding insult to injury there. Okay. Step two, clean up your cleaning supplies. I shared with you guys just a minute ago that this is actually where my family and I started. And you actually don't need all of those fancy cleaning supplies that are at, you know, the grocery store, the home, home care store. They're also kind of expensive, right? To use simple rubbing alcohol and vinegar is all you really need to clean your home. One person who I really love to follow and get some recipes for is Becky at Clean Mama. And I'm also a huge fan of Norwex pots. They really last forever and do a great job. And then don't forget about cleaning up your laundry detergent too. So check out what you're using in there. A lot of them are heavily scented, have gross ingredients, all of that. And there's a lot of really great. alternatives out there. Again, if you need some tips, reach out and I'll give you some, some options. And then the last option is cleaning up your personal care products. You know, the skin used to be called the largest organ. A lot of people still call it your largest organ. Your microbiome is now actually considered to be your largest organ. But you know, whether it's the largest or second largest, your skin is still a huge surface area. So if you've seen me, if you're watching this on video, you know, I'm a hair and makeup girl. I like having my hair done. I like wearing makeup. I like how I feel with that. But what is in those products really matters. And we walked through some of those mechanisms today. Personal care products. are highly highly unregulated. It's gotten a little bit better in the past years, thanks in large part to beauty counter. But there's still a long way to go. And there are ingredients in our skin care products that have actually been linked to hormone dysregulation, cancer and just, you know, inflammation. And they're not necessary to have in there, but they're in there. Beauty counter is actually my favorite brand. I love what they do for advocacy for updating regulations so that, you know, the hope is one day when my girls are old enough to wear makeup, they walk into a store and they're not having to choose a product based on what is not going to make them sick. They can just trust that everything in the store that's being sold is. Safe and okay to use. But I love them. I love their products because they are yes safe They have a very extensive list of ingredients they avoid and don't have in their products They're actually leading the way with this. They're leading the charge They actually are informing the ewg on a lot of research that they're doing So I really, really like them. I feel very confident in the quality of their products. They test every single batch. They've been around for I think a decade now. And to boot their products are actually super effective. It's all I use. I love it. My skin honestly has never looked healthier after using their products. So if you need, you know, recommendations for products where to start anything like that, again, reach out happy to share some resources. So I hope that this whole like from the outside in from the skin into the gut perspective was interesting to you today. And, you know, again, think about what actions you want to take to create health in your life. And like I said, some of these changes can honestly be easier to make than food and maybe a really great place for you to start. So let me know what you're doing. Keep me know what I said, Part two is going to be coming and it's going to be great, but let me know what you would like to hear more about first, because I think we can actually build off of this and do a little series on a few different topics because it's really important. So hope you guys have a great day and we'll talk soon.