Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clear skin and aging beautifully conversations, trainings and challenges by Dr. Stacey Shillington ND.
Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clearing Acne Without Lab Testing
What if you could achieve clear, radiant skin without ever stepping foot in a lab? Dr. Stacey Shillington, a seasoned naturopathic doctor with 18 years of expertise, shares her groundbreaking methods for naturally healing chronic acne. This episode of Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions focuses on understanding and treating five distinct types of acne: hormonal, lymphatic, gut, stress, and parasitic or mold acne. Dr. Shillington outlines the features and common triggers of each type, offering practical strategies for those who can't afford lab testing or one-on-one consultations. By targeting poor drainage, detoxification, insulin dysregulation, inflammation, and stress, listeners can embark on a journey toward healthier skin from the inside out.
For those dealing with severe and persistent acne, particularly parasitic and mold acne, Dr. Shillington emphasizes the importance of lab testing due to the complex nature of these conditions. She introduces an acne quiz to help listeners identify their acne type and discusses her Clear Skin Group program, which boasts a 90% success rate. This program, based on Dr. Shillington's extensive experience and analysis of lab tests, has helped thousands of women find relief from various forms of acne. Tune in to discover actionable steps for achieving clear skin and explore the comprehensive support available through Dr. Shillington's programs. Check the show notes for links to the acne quiz and the Clear Skin Group program, and don't forget to leave a review if you find the episode valuable!
Check out my new FREE Training: Clear Skin Mastery, where I share the different types of acne and how to treat each one. Click here to watch it now.
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Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to the Naturopathic Beauty Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington, a naturopathic doctor. For the last 18 years, I've been helping women clear their chronic acne, and this podcast is all about sharing my wisdom, sharing my experience healing acne so that you do not have to suffer with acne as long as I did, because I suffered from acne. I suffered from deep red, painful blemishes. I also suffered from miscarriages, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, constipation you name it. And I have learned how to heal chronic acne, how to resolve all these other symptoms, and I want to share my experiences and my knowledge with you as much as possible so that you do not have to suffer. Believe me, there is a way to heal your acne, and it all starts from healing your body from within. So that's what we're going to talk about, and today the topic is healing acne without lab testing. So I run a very robust, one-on-one advanced clear skin program. I'm very busy. I deal with a lot of women that have very complicated chronic acne cases. We do a lot of lab testing. We do a lot of functional medicine testing because we really want to drill down and understand the root cause of acne, and once we do that then we're able to put together a protocol to solve acne as quickly as possible. Sometimes it's a few months, sometimes it's longer than that six to eight months, even sometimes a year when there's really really deep infections. But let's be honest, not everybody can afford to do one-on-one private coaching with me. But yet there are so many women out there that are experiencing chronic acne and they need help and they don't have that kind of money. So I want to talk about how we can heal acne without doing the lab testing, without doing the one-on-one consults, and it can be done. It absolutely can be done. Now there are some cases where we do need to do some lab testing. We need to identify if there's chronic infections, if there's parasites, if there's been mold exposure, and then we have to put together specialized protocols based on those complicated issues. But for the most part, for the average woman that's experiencing chronic acne, we can actually solve it without lab testing. So let's talk about that.
Speaker 1:I have identified five different types of acne and this is over many years of practice, and these types of acne do overlap. So it's not like if you have hormonal acne. That's all you have. You don't have any of the other imbalances. That's not how it works, but usually there's one main type of acne, one main root imbalance that you know is prevalent in each person. So the five different types of acne are hormonal acne, lymphatic acne, gut acne, stress acne and parasitic or mold acne. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what the features are of each of these types of acne and then how you can approach it and if you can solve this type of acne without doing lab testing.
Speaker 1:For most of the time, yes, you absolutely can, but let's go into it in a little bit more detail and I just want to emphasize that when you have very serious, very deep, very chronic acne, testing is probably going to be very important, and especially if you're very sensitive as well, often this can be parasites, this can be mold. We need to do testing and you need to work with a practitioner who has experience with these conditions, because they're not easy to treat. So let's talk about hormonal acne first. So hormonal acne tends to flare up with your cycle. You can get these blemishes before or during the onset of bleeding, and usually these blemishes show up on the jawline, their cystic, their surface, and it's pretty obvious because you get breakouts at the same time every month.
Speaker 1:What causes hormonal acne? Usually poor drainage and detoxification, insulin dysregulation, inflammation and stress. Now, inflammation this can often come from the gut. When inflammation comes from the gut, we often do need to do testing to understand what's going on in the gut. But poor drainage and detoxification, insulin dysregulation and stress we can address these imbalances without doing testing and in my group program I put together a strategy to help you address these imbalances without testing, and the strategies are based on years and years of my experience dealing with patients what actually works. So the first step is to implement a protocol that addresses drainage and detox, like I explained, insulin dysregulation, basic inflammation and stress. And my rule of thumb is if your acne does not improve within three months, testing may be indicated to see if there is an estrogen dominance or deficiency or if there are deeper gut issues that need to be resolved. So if you can't afford testing, if you can't afford one-on-one, then you can put in place a strategy such as this See if you can solve your acne within three months. If not, then you may have to move on to do more in-depth testing.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about lymphatic acne. So lymphatic acne tends to flare up on the neck, the jawline, around the ears. It's often cystic. Acne can often be worse on just one side. Often acne can take ages to heal and it can just come back up at the same spot over and over again. I know so many women experience that and there can also be a history of strep infections or ear infections. So what causes lymphatic acne? Very often poor drainage and detoxification, dehydration, lymphatic congestion in the lymph nodes and unresolved strep infections. And I do want to point out that if you have been prone to strep infections in the past, strep can really colonize the lymph nodes. It's really hard to get rid of that bacteria once it's there and we have to address this. Often we really have to move the lymph, decongest the lymph and also use some antimicrobials. So can you solve lymphatic acne without testing? So again, you want to implement a protocol that supports drainage and detoxification, something that rehydrates and mineralizes the body and reduces lymphatic congestion. And if after a few months acne has not resolved, then you want to consider testing for bacteria, fungal and mold overgrowth. But again, many people that have mild to moderate chronic acne are going to be able to solve their acne by just implementing a basic protocol, a protocol that I've fine-tuned over many years working with patients.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk about gut acne. So when you're experiencing acne that originates in the gut, you're going to experience acne on the cheeks. The acne can be cystic, it can be surface. If it's cystic, it tends to mean there's a deeper infection. If it's more surface, often we can solve this without doing testing and with implementing a basic gut protocol. Usually, if acne is due to gut imbalances, it's chronic, it's long standing and you could have had this acne even since you were a teenager, since you were very young, and there can often be a history of gut issues and eczema, psoriasis or other skin issues. But I also want to say this often I have patients that have acne but their digestion is perfect. We do gut testing and a whole bunch of stuff comes up on the gut testing, even though their gut symptoms are fairly minimal, sometimes even not present at all.
Speaker 1:So what causes gut acne? So stress. Stress is the number one cause of gut acne. There is such a connection between neurotransmitter production and gut health that when we are exposed to chronic stress, it has the ability to really disrupt our gut, poor detox and drainage. So when there's a lot of toxins that are residing in the body, this can really trigger different microbial overgrowth. And when there's sinus issues as well, microbes from the sinuses tend to drip down into the gut and can cause overgrowth and dysbiosis. Medication use so this is a really big one for people that have acne, because often people that have acne they've been on the birth control pill for a long period of time. They've also been on antibiotics and these are medications that can really disrupt the gut microbiome, cause a lot of overgrowth and eventually deep chronic infections. And, of course, poor diet when we're eating processed foods, when we're eating a lot of sugar, when we're eating a lot of seed oils, that is going to cause imbalances and dysbiosis in the gut.
Speaker 1:So can you solve gut acne without testing? So here's the thing If you have acne and it's fairly surface, it's fairly mild, we can implement a basic gut healing protocol and we should be able to clear the acne, and I would implement this protocol for a couple of months. If you're not seeing improvement, then we have to do testing to identify what needs to be healed, because often different microorganisms show up on testing and certain herbs need to be used to address those microorganisms. So it can be very specific how we heal the gut. Or sometimes we see that there's an imbalance in the microbiome and certain strains of beneficial bacteria have to be replenished, and we don't know that unless we do the testing. And when it comes to gut healing there are many different variables. So I do have a basic gut healing protocol that I give in my program and this is very beneficial for people that have mild to moderate acne and they don't want to do testing. But again, if there's the deeper acne, if there's the more chronic acne, then we may need to do testing to truly identify what needs to be solved and balanced in the body.
Speaker 1:Then we talk about stress acne. So what does stress acne look like? Well, number one acne is going to flare up with a stressful event or if you're going through a stressful period in your life, you are going to experience a flare up of acne, and this is something that people often miss when I'm doing my intakes with them. They describe a period of time where their acne just flared up and you know, we'll talk a little bit and we'll talk about what was going on during that period of time, and often there's a stressful event that has triggered it. So stress is really overlooked sometimes as a main contributor to acne. But it plays a massive role. And here's the thing stress can worsen all the different types of acne, so it can manifest in many different ways. So it's not like stress acne has a particular hallmark. It's not like it's on the forehead or it's more surface than cystic or it's on the neck. Those factors are not really present when it's stress acne. Instead, acne can just worsen in any different way depending on other root causes that may be present. So if you have a tendency to lymphatic acne, then stress is going to worsen that lymphatic acne. If you have a predisposition to hormonal acne, then stress is going to worsen that hormonal acne. So that's really what stress acne looks like. And I want to just really emphasize this because this is really the bottom line when it comes to healing acne.
Speaker 1:When we're trapped in our fight or flight nervous system, our survival nervous system, we can't heal, and that's how important stress is when it comes to healing acne. So what causes stress? When we're stuck in the survival mode, when we're stuck in our sympathetic nervous system, when we have an in the survival mode, when we're stuck in our sympathetic nervous system, when we have an overactive limbic system in our brain, and this often is the result of having neural pathways that are really focused on past traumatic events and we revisit those again and again, and again, and this can be events that happened in our childhood. This can be traumatic events at any point in our life. But if we are exposed to this trauma and we don't heal it properly, we're not able to see it objectively and rewire other pathways that are more helpful for us, then we're going to be stuck in these neural pathways that become very well trafficked and the more we utilize these pathways, the more hardwired they become.
Speaker 1:So, really, in order to remove stress, we have to change the way that we look at the world, change the way that we think about our own lives, and that is how we truly conquer stress, and I talk a lot about that in my program. And stress acne can absolutely be solved without testing. You do not need to do any testing to really heal your brain, heal your thoughts and increase your resilience to the events of your life, and in my program I talk about this a lot because stress acne is behind a lot of cases of acne, and learning how to successfully manage stress is key to solving any health issue and it should always be your first priority. So, absolutely, if you cannot afford a one-on-one acne program, you can't afford testing. You're not sure where to start. You don't want to join my group program. The number one thing you should look into is how to reduce your stress and how to calm the limbic system of your brain so that you can start to use your prefrontal cortex more, so you can be more objective, and this is a game changer, believe me.
Speaker 1:Okay, then let's talk about the fifth category of acne, which is parasite and mold acne. Now, typically, this is longstanding, chronic acne. These patients are very sensitive to foods. They're very sensitive to supplements. They've tried everything. Nothing has worked. They have multiple health issues.
Speaker 1:Often, acne is constantly present. It doesn't fluctuate with the cycles. There's no patterning to it. There can be acne on the chest, on the back, even on the arms, all over the face. When acne is this intense.
Speaker 1:Often, testing needs to be done. And what causes this type of acne? Exposure to mold, parasites, other infectious organisms, overgrowth of different bacteria, different fungus, other infectious organisms. Overgrowth of different bacteria, different fungus. Also weakened immune system, poor detox pathways, lymphatic congestion, inflammation. Often there are many different organ systems that are involved. When we're seeing very serious cases of acne and digestion is usually compromised, we need to do testing to understand what's going on, because if we start guessing with these patients, patients are just too sensitive to guess. We need to know exactly what to do so that we don't make them worse. So if you really have very serious acne and it's similar to what I've just described, you may want to consider working with an acne expert, joining my one-on-one program, getting the testing that's required so that we can start your healing journey.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now I've tried to describe what acne looks like, based on the five different types. There's another way that you can learn what your acne type is, and that's to take my acne quiz. It will reveal your main root cause of acne. It's in my show notes, so there's a link there. You can go. You can take the quiz, it's absolutely free. It will give you an idea of what your root causes whether it's lymphatic, whether it's gut, whether it's stress, whether it's detox and it gives you a starting point in any case.
Speaker 1:And the other thing that I want to mention to you is that my Clear Skin Group program is the program that I've put together to help women, to give them a strategy to heal their acne if they don't want to do testing. And the strategy that I've put together is based on my 18 years of experience healing acne. It's based on my experience with thousands of patients, what works, what doesn't, and it's also based on my knowledge after looking at thousands and thousands of lab tests. So I've looked at blood work from thousands of patients that have had. So I've looked at blood work from thousands of patients that have had acne. I've looked at GI mapping tests. I've looked at organic acid tests. I've looked at Dutch tests. I've looked at mycotox profiles. So I really understand what's going on when acne is present.
Speaker 1:And this is a strategy that I've put together based on what's commonly going on with acne patients. And again, implement this strategy for a few months, see if it helps your acne. If it doesn't help your acne, that's a sign that you may need to do some more testing. At that point you can upgrade to my one-on-one program if you choose to, and I also include in my Clear Skin Group program a manual for lab testing so you can work with your practitioner to get testing done, that may be beneficial for you. So if you do not want to join my one-on-one program, instead you want to work with your practitioner to do testing, that's also an option for you.
Speaker 1:So just putting it out there, the link to the program is in my show notes. You can check it out, see if it looks like something that you would like to be a part of. It has a 90% success rate. Thousands of women have gone through it and it's based on the latest scientific research, my experience, the feedback of my patients, and this usually helps people to heal uncomplicated hormonal lymphatic stress and gut acne, and I would be so grateful if you could leave a review.
Speaker 1:If this podcast has given you any aha moments, if it's given you any insight in how to approach your clear skin journey, please leave a review. This is how I'm able to reach other people that have acne that may need some assistance in navigating their clear skin journey, and if you look at my show notes, there's the link to my acne quiz. There's also a link to my clear skin group program. All right, so I will see you in the next episode of the clear skin sessions. Thank you so much for joining me and it is my absolute pleasure to be able to guide you on this journey. Please reach out to me if you need any support at all, and I hope that you have a beautiful day.