Clear Skin Ahead: Embarking on an Eight-Week Journey to Acne-Free Skin with Dr. Stacey Shillington ND

Embark on an eight-week voyage to vanquish acne with me, Dr. Stacey Shillington ND, your seasoned guide through the tumultuous seas of skincare. My battle scars from personal acne woes have led me to unlock the power of naturopathy, transforming skin with a touch that's more than skin-deep. We'll start by confronting a common adversary - dairy. Surprising as it may be, your beloved cheese and creamy lattes could be the masterminds behind those stubborn blemishes. Together, we'll explore the necessity of removing dairy from your diet and the science that backs this bold move, all while fostering a community of support and encouragement on Instagram.

Fear not the world of plant-based milks, for I shall steer you away from the snares of soy and rice milk and towards the shores of cleaner, skin-friendly alternatives. Learn about the hidden pitfalls in dairy substitutes that could be exacerbating your skin woes and how to navigate these treacherous waters. I'll also introduce you to the Almond Cow, a game-changer for homemade plant milks that might just revolutionize your pantry. Taking this plunge could be the turning point in your quest for the clear, luminous skin you deserve.

With hearts full of gratitude and minds buzzing with new insights, we wrap up this inaugural episode. As I reach out across the airwaves, I'm eager for your thoughts, stories, and feedback to enrich this journey we're on together. Remember, the path to clear skin is as individual as you are, and through this podcast, we'll embrace every step of that personal adventure. Thank you for joining me on this quest for beauty that radiates from the inside out.

Interested in my new Clear Skin Group Program? Click here to learn more!

Click here to watch my FREE Clear Skin Masterclass and learn more about the 4 pillars of clear skin and my top tips to heal acne for good.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Welcome to the very first Naturopathic Beauty Clear Skin Session. I am so excited to have you here. I'm Dr Stacy Shillington. I'm a Naturopathic doctor and I've been helping women clear their acne for 18 years. That's right. It's been 18 years already. I can't believe it, mostly because I can still talk about acne passionately every single day without getting completely bored. I think that says a lot. Today I'm really excited because we are going to start something special.

Speaker 1: 0:44

I wanted to start this podcast out with a bang, something to really move your clear skin journey and get you some fast results. We are going to start with a challenge. I know you've probably done a million challenges already, but I am going to give you the very best research, the very best science. I'm also going to share my methodology with you and get you started on an eight week journey that's going to help you decide if you can clear your acne just by doing my phase one program or if you need to move on and do something a little bit deeper and with a little bit more healing. If that sounds overwhelming, take a deep breath, because it's actually not. I want you to be excited about this process, because my goal is to help you clear your skin. There's no reason why you have to live with acne anymore. I've been doing this for 18 years. I truly know how to help you. Let's use this show to really get you some great results. As I said, I've been healing acne for over 18 years and in this podcast episode I am going to present the first challenge that we are going to do for a week to get you on the road to clear skin. Remember, everything in this show is for your information only. I don't know your health history, so please consult with your healthcare practitioner before implementing anything that I'm suggesting. If you are suffering with chronic acne, I totally get it because I've been there, like many of you.

Speaker 1: 2:22

I had acne when I was a teen and I went on the birth control pill. I started using some topical retin A and, honestly, I had no acne for 10 years Nothing. I didn't even think about it. Then, probably near my late 20s around when I was 30, I really wanted to get off the pill. I wanted to start a family eventually and I just didn't feel like taking fake hormones anymore. I wanted to really sink my body with its natural cycle, and I was really into yoga, I was starting to get into natural health and I was like it just doesn't feel good to me anymore. So I wasn't really thinking about my acne at the time. I had no idea what to expect. I just went off the pill and literally within a few weeks my skin blew up in very unmanageable acne. I had no idea what hit me. All my doctors just wanted to put me back on the pill or they wanted to put me on Accutane. Neither one really felt right to me and I thought to myself there has to be a better way. There has to be a way that I can balance my body and clear my acne without resorting to medications.

Speaker 1: 3:33

That's when I started on my quest. That's when I decided to go back to school to become a naturopathic doctor. Not only could I learn how to heal my own acne from the inside out, but that I could help others heal their acne, because I realized how traumatic it was for me, how it actually changed not only my life but my personality as well, because I was very outgoing, I was very successful. I had a really fun social life, I had a really cool husband. Things were going great, and when my acne hit, things just started to fall apart really quickly. I didn't want to see my friends anymore. I actually quit my job. My marriage started to crumble Really. Acne changed who I was. I didn't want to see people, I became more introverted.

Speaker 1: 4:20

So I realized that acne is a big deal and it affects women in a really deep way, and this is not always a bad thing. It's not always a bad thing because for me, it really ignited a journey for me, a journey that took me to a really great place of healing and a place to really understanding myself and cultivating more self-love. So it was beneficial in the end. But it's not something that has to persist, and that's part of the clear skin journey that I help women go on is how to really understand what's going on with acne and how to love and accept themselves, regardless of how their skin looks. Because that's a huge part of the clear skin journey and that's a huge part of our journey as human beings as well is just learning how to love love ourselves and love others and live in that energy, and so that's something that acne really started to teach me. So, probably, like you, I spent thousands of dollars.

Speaker 1: 5:21

I wasted so much time and so much energy on solutions that didn't work and eventually, especially going to school to become a naturopathic doctor, I realized that acne is actually a very complex medical condition. Of course it involves the skin and it's on the skin. But it's not only about the skin and that's why resorting to topical treatments and skincare is not going to solve acne, because it's deeper than that. It's not just about the skin, and when I told my colleagues that I was going to specialize in naturopathic medicine for the skin, specifically acne, they thought I was really kind of copping out, that I wasn't going to utilize my full education in treating acne. But that's not the case, because when you treat acne you have to understand how to treat the different organ systems with a lot of skill, have to understand the gut intimately. You have to understand drainage and detox intimately. You have to understand the HPA axis intimately. So skin is the organ that reflects the health of the entire body. So to heal the skin, truly heal the skin we have to take a deep dive, often into the body, how the different organ systems are working together, and approach it from there. So there are no magic pills to cure chronic acne. There's no magic anything to clear chronic acne. It's a process. It's definitely a process.

Speaker 1: 6:53

I want to share with you the two phases of healing acne that I utilize. So there's two phases. The first phase is to reduce inflammation in the body. Acne is inflammation. Acne is a sign that your body is inflamed and we have to reduce inflammation first before we can go in deep and heal deeper imbalances in the body. And that's phase two. Phase two is deeply healing imbalances and often overgrowth that's in the body, and I see this a lot with my acne patients that have suffered with acne for a long time, that have deep cystic acne. There's often overgrowth, whether it's bacterial, whether it's viral, whether it's fungal, whether it's parasitic. So we have to address that. We have to balance the hormones. We have to also maybe address detoxification and this is the phase where testing and targeted protocols are often required to fully heal and resolve acne for good.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Now here's the thing Some people are going to clear their acne by simply reducing inflammation in their body. So if you're one of these lucky people, this challenge is going to work completely for you. So often these people they tend to have more superficial acne. It's not as deep, it has not necessarily been around as long and it tends to be more manageable. But If you tend to have more cystic acne that's been around for years and you also have accompanying symptoms such as hormonal imbalances, gut issues and stress, often you need to go through phase two of healing to completely resolve your acne. It's going to take some time, there's going to be some commitment, but it's probably one of the most rewarding things that you can do for your help. The thing that I see with a lot of acne protocols out there that they're only addressing inflammation and by addressing inflammation you can improve your acne, but it's going to come back because you haven't addressed the deeper imbalances that are going on.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Let's talk about the acne challenge that I have designed for you. It's going to happen over the next eight weeks and every week for the next eight weeks, I'm going to drop a new episode for you and in that episode I'm going to present a new challenge, and that challenge is going to be accompanied by the research and the steps that you need to take to get to the end and to figure out do you need to do deeper work or are you able to simply resolve your acne by reducing the inflammation. I think this is going to be a really exciting process for you because often so many patients they are not sure what they need to do to clear their acne. Do they need to simply make a few diet changes, get on some great skincare and, you know, maybe do a bit of drainage? Maybe that's all they need to do? Or do you actually need to go in and do you need to do the testing and do you need to figure out what's going on? Maybe you have mold, maybe you have parasites, maybe you have H pylori.

Speaker 1: 10:02

This challenge is going to help you figure out how deep you need to dive to really finally clear your acne. So how does the challenge work? Each week, I am going to present one foundational step that you need to take to help you clear your skin for good. I'm going to explain why we are taking each step and exactly what you need to do. Then you are going to spend a week putting into action and you're going to get ready to take the next step the next week. Now, if you're still breaking out at the end of the challenge, at the end of the eight weeks, you know you need to do deeper work. You need to work with an acne expert to understand what's going on. But many people that are listening to this they are actually going to be able to clear their acne during this challenge. So I am so excited, and the one thing that I would really love is if you could connect with me on Instagram throughout this challenge. Keep me updated on your progress. So I'm going to be posting daily in my stories to keep you motivated, to get your feedback and answer your questions as well. So my handle is at Naturopathic Beauty. Follow me if you can Show me your pictures, share your progress and you can ask me any questions you have there. All right, so let's get started.

Speaker 1: 11:26

The first phase in treating chronic acne, as I've mentioned already, is to reduce inflammation triggers in the body. So when chronic acne is present, there is inflammation in the body, and it's usually inflammation in the gut, and when the gut is inflamed, certain foods are going to make inflammation work, and by cutting out these foods, we are going to immediately reduce inflammation and this will allow healing to occur. And this is really important, because some people are like well you know, do I really need to cut foods out of my diet in order to heal acne? And the answer is if you have a lot of inflammation in your gut, then absolutely yes, you do, because eating those inflammatory foods is like constantly putting fuel on a fire, and when you put fuel on a fire, you cannot put the fire out. However, if you stop feeding that fire, that fire is going to go out and then we're going to be able to heal, because we cannot heal when there is a fire raging in your gut, obviously. So the first thing that we are going to do to reduce inflammation in your body is to cut out dairy.

Speaker 1: 12:38

So many of you have probably been doing this for a while. I personally have not, you know, had much dairy at all for about 20 years. When I stopped dairy, there was a big change in not only my skin but in a lot of other symptoms that I was experiencing, my body. And I've thought because I'm so close to this subject matter and I talk about acne every day and I think about it every day, sometimes I lose a little bit of perspective and I thought well, most people that have acne have already stopped dairy. I mean, that information is out there, I don't really have to talk about it anymore, because I think we all know about it, but I think I was really, you know, not seeing things clearly, because on my Instagram stories the other day I asked my audience I said are you guys eating dairy? And a full 50% of them said yes, we are eating dairy. So that was a little bit of a shock to me and a little bit of a wake-up call, because I really need to communicate this to you quite strongly.

Speaker 1: 13:40

So dairy, which includes cow milk, cream cheese, ice cream, yogurt and butter these foods are going to make your acne worse. So first of all, let's just talk about dairy generally. So milk is for baby animals and you know, some people might think that that's really being very judgmental about a food that everybody knows and loves, but it's true. Milk is designed to help baby mammals grow quickly and in order to do that, it's very high in growth hormone. But here's the thing high growth hormone can lead to elevated levels of a hormone called IGF1. And this increases androgens, and androgens are the hormones that directly cause acne. So for many people that are susceptible to acne, drinking milk and milk products and specifically I'm talking about cow right now is really going to trigger acne. So research backs this up.

Speaker 1: 14:43

So for 30 years, doctors really denied that diet affects acne, and I'm sure many of you have had the experience of going to your doctor and your doctor says, look, eat what you want, there's no connection between diet and acne but that you know that information was actually based on really poorly constructed studies and we have some amazing research now that pretty much eradicates that old belief. So there was another analysis published in August of 2018. And it included 14 studies and get this. It looked at 78,529 people aged seven to 30. And this is specifically looking at the connection between acne and dairy. So that is a lot of people. That's a lot of studies, and the conclusion was overwhelmingly apparent Dairy consumption and acne formation. It's related. We cannot deny this now and I hope that your doctors now are telling you yes, if you have acne, stop dairy. I really hope that everybody's spreading the message now. But you know, the study also rated different dairy products in terms of how much effect they have on acne, and the dairy product that has the most effect on acne is yogurt and, yes, this includes Greek yogurt as well.

Speaker 1: 16:09

When I posted on my Instagram stories, this is what a lot of people asked me. They said well, I'm still eating yogurt, is that okay, and yogurt apparently will help my microbiome, so that's why I eat it. You know it's probably fine for my acne. But this is the thing of all the different forms of cow, dairy, yogurt is the number one contributor to acne. So we want to cut yogurt out. We also want to cut out skim milk and whole milk and cheese. Those are the top four that can really contribute to acne. Now they didn't really talk much about ice cream, but ice cream is really up there because it's made from cream, but it also has the addition of sugar in it, and sugar is a contributor to acne as well, and we'll talk about that in another episode.

Speaker 1: 16:55

The other dairy dairy product that a lot of people tend to consume and they don't know it's bad for acne is whey protein. So if you have a protein shake and you're eating you're including a powder, a protein powder, that includes whey protein, stop that right away, because that is going to worsen your acne as well. Now the two forms of cow dairy that are probably well tolerated and have the least effect on acne is butter and ghee. So at the beginning of my protocols with my patients, I do suggest that they cut out butter and ghee as well. I just want us to cut out all cow dairy for a period of time, get things calmed down in the body and then they can slowly reintroduce it a little bit to see if it aggravates their acne or if they're okay with it.

Speaker 1: 17:45

And then there's also the question about raw milk. Can people drink and consume raw milk products and avoid acne? And the bottom line is that, when it comes to acne, raw milk still contains high amounts of natural growth hormone. So, regardless of whether milk is raw or not, I really encourage my patients to avoid milk because they're going to avoid that spike in IGF one and they're going to avoid androgen formation. So how does dairy actually lead to acne? So here's the thing we know that milk contains high levels of bovine growth hormone and this bovine growth hormone it looks remarkably similar to human growth hormone and because of this bovine growth hormone will bind to our human growth hormone receptors when we ingest milk and, as I mentioned before, it stimulates the production of IGF one and this stimulates the production of androgens, and androgens directly lead to acne. So organic milk can lead to acne. Even if it's free from added growth hormone, it still contains natural bovine growth hormone and lactose free milk can lead to acne, and raw milk can lead to acne. So I really suggest to my patients that they avoid all forms of cow milk.

Speaker 1: 19:11

And then the question comes up what about goat and sheep dairy, especially cheese? Usually that is fine for people. Some people are not able to tolerate goat and sheep dairy. Remember all milk contains growth hormones, but it is much better tolerated than cow dairy. So try a little bit of goat and sheep dairy after you've cut out all dairy cow, goat and sheep for a few weeks, and see how you react. But there's other good substitutions as well, and these are plant milk, so almond and nut milk, coconut milk, hemp milk and oat milk.

Speaker 1: 19:50

The only plant-based milks I do not recommend include soy milk. Soy milk is too estrogenic. I've had many patients do very poorly on soy milk, so now I just say don't do it. And rice milk. So rice milk has a very high glycemic index. It also contains arsenic, so obviously we don't want that. So rice milk is out too. But we have to be cautious when it comes to plant milk as well, because there can be a lot of ingredients in plant milk that are not going to help you out at all, For instance, a lot of them contain genetically modified oils, such as corn, sunflower, soybean, safflower, canola or rapeseed oil, and these oils tend to be high in omega-6 fatty acids, so they're inflammatory and of course we're trying to cut out inflammation when we remove dairy.

Speaker 1: 20:43

And they also tend to be crops that are very high in pesticides. So of course we want to avoid that, and that's a whole other discussion. Plant milks can also contain emulsifiers such as carrageena, guar gum and xanthan gum. They can contain evaporated cane juice, cane sugar, cane syrup and these this is sugar and this can aggravate acne as well. And the emulsifiers what they can do is they can cause a lot of GI upset in people, so a lot of gastrointestinal issues such as diarrhea. And then there's natural flavors or colors which usually aren't natural at all, so avoid those as much as possible. So some of my favorite brands of plant-based mouth that are really clean Elmhurst, good Milk, milk Plenish and Three Trees. So these are all really good brands to try. And then there's also something called the almond cow and this is something that I adore and as much as possible, I use the almond cow to make my own plant-based milk. It literally takes 30 seconds. It's super easy to clean up and it's actually pretty economical once you get past the initial cost of the investment, which is a couple hundred dollars. But this is how you get the cleanest milk out there is by doing the almond cow.

Speaker 1: 22:02

So what should you expect when you stop consuming dairy? Number one reduced cystic blemishes. If you tend to have cystic blemishes, cow dairy can really contribute to them. So that's something to look forward to. Also less bloating, more energy, reduced congestion. And you want to give it one month? So reduce all cow dairy for a period of one month. Then you can maybe add in some butter, add in some ghee, see how that feels, add in some cheep cheese, add in some goat cheese, see how that feels, and make your decision after that period of time. But for the next week, for sure, this is going to be our project removing dairy from your diet completely, maybe checking out some of the plant milks as a substitution.

Speaker 1: 22:52

I've mentioned some really great brands that you can try, and this is really exciting to do, and there are so many substitutes out there. There's so many great dairy-free products. When I gave up dairy about 20 years ago, we didn't have nearly as many amazing substitutes to choose from, so have fun exploring them. This is a really fun thing to do, and, but always be sure to purchase unsweetened dairy-free products. There are a lot of hidden sugars in some of them. Always read labels. You want to avoid all those ingredients that I mentioned earlier, and you can make your own. Try the almond cow. It's fast, it's affordable, it's easy. I love it, and I'm just mentioning it because I love it. I don't make a commission if you purchase it. It's just a really cool product. So can you reintroduce dairy after you've healed your body and after you've healed your acne? So if you've done a really great job healing, you will be able to tolerate some dairy here and there. But it's individual and it also depends on your level of sensitivity.

Speaker 1: 23:58

Some people cannot eat dairy successfully, and I am one of those. Every time I eat dairy I automatically feel bloated. I go from feeling fantastic to feeling bloated in a few hours and it just feels so awful that I don't bother with dairy anymore. I'm at that point in my life where I eat to feel good. I don't have time. I really don't feel like I have time to feel unwell anymore, especially after you've felt good for so long and you have so much energy and you feel so fantastic, you just don't want to go back to feeling like crap. So for me, I don't do dairy at all, because it just does not agree with me.

Speaker 1: 24:38

Some people may be able to do it sporadically, so have a treat here, have a treat there every few weeks, have a nice cream cone or something fun like that. But I will say from my experience, most people are not able to eat dairy on a daily basis. I don't think that's an expectation that you should hold to go back to eating dairy on a daily basis after you heal, because most people that are prone to acne, they tend to be sensitive to dairy. So, but you know, don't panic. There still will potentially be treats in your future, but dairy is not a great food for those of us that tend to be sensitive and be prone to acne. So that's it for the first clear skin session.

Speaker 1: 25:23

I hope that you've learned something in this podcast and I'm really excited for you to remove cow dairy and see how you feel and see if there's a reduction in your acne. Remember, follow me on Instagram, because I want to hear how you're doing, I want to see your progress and I want you to ask me any questions. If there's any other questions that come up, and if I get the same question a lot, obviously I will answer it on our next podcast, which is going to drop next week. So stay tuned for week two of the Clear Skin Challenge. If you want to know more about my acne program, my method for healing acne, I invite you to check out my free Clear Skin Masterclass. I'm going to share the four pillars of clear skin with you in that masterclass. The link is in the show notes, and if you want to book a call with my team to learn more about working with me right away, click the link in the show notes and I really look forward to helping you on your clear skin journey.

Speaker 1: 26:19

So, sending you guys so much love. If you have any feedback on this show as well, I would love to hear it. I'm just starting with podcasting. This is my first episode, so hopefully I'm not talking too fast or my thoughts aren't running into each other too much, but if you have feedback, let me know. I'm always open to it. I'm sending you love. Have a wonderful day.