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
The 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge: Week 1
This episode launches the Clear Skin Challenge, emphasizing the importance of diet in healing acne from the inside out. Listeners are encouraged to eliminate inflammatory foods, particularly dairy, to reduce acne and enhance overall skin health.
• Introduction to the Clear Skin Challenge
• The impact of acne on confidence and self-image
• Importance of reducing inflammation for clear skin
• Dietary changes as a cornerstone of acne treatment
• Detailing dairy's detrimental effects on skin health
• Key dairy products to avoid and safe substitutes
• Benefits of adopting a dairy-free lifestyle
• Invitation for listener engagement and feedback
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Hello, beauties, and welcome to the Clear Skin Sessions. I'm your host, dr Stacey Shillington. I'm a naturopathic doctor. I'm an acne expert. In fact, I've been helping women heal their acne for almost 20 years now. I can't believe it's been that long, but it really has. And probably the most important thing is that I'm a former acne sufferer, so I really understand acne. I understand how it feels. I understand how it can take over your life and how it can actually define how you see yourself in the world. So acne is actually a really big deal. It really affects our self-confidence and it's something that we can solve. That's the really exciting thing. I've helped thousands of women and you don't have to suffer with acne. What you have to do is understand what acne is trying to tell you. It is telling you about your inner body. It's telling you what's going on within, and I'm going to teach you what it's saying and how to solve it.
Speaker 1:So this podcast is for you. This is to help you on your clear skin journey. I want to help you understand why acne is happening to you and what you can do to solve acne. And nobody should be suffering from acne anymore. We know so much about it and I don't want you to feel hopeless about your acne. I know when I had acne, I felt completely hopeless. I tried everything. I tried different diets, different supplements, I tried different medications. Nothing helped me solve my acne for good. I felt hopeless. I felt like it was something I was going to have to live with forever and that devastated me because the state of my skin was defining how I felt about myself. And when you're living that way, it's very difficult. So when you can overcome acne, when you can heal your acne, you start to repair your self-confidence, your self-worth and cultivate self-love, which is really so critical to live a peaceful, happy life.
Speaker 1:So this podcast episode is very special because this is the first episode of my Clear Skin Challenge. So I'm starting an eight-week Clear Skin Challenge for you, and this is week one. So why am I doing this Clear Skin Challenge? So I want to take you through a set of protocols for eight weeks that are designed to help you clear your acne, and I love doing it over this period of time because I'm going to drop an episode once a week and that's going to give you one week to implement the suggestions that I make in each episode. So by the end of eight weeks, you should have made some diet and lifestyle changes that are really going to impact your skin. But you should be feeling comfortable with those changes and that's really my goal to help you integrate some healthy diet and lifestyle changes that are going to shift your skin. And we shift your skin by healing your body from the inside out. So my goal is to help you heal your body, heal your acne and really change your life.
Speaker 1:So now some people on this eight-week challenge. They're going to probably experience completely clear skin at the end, and this is usually the case for people that have mild to moderate acne. Now, for those of you that have more moderate to severe acne, including chronic cystic acne, this challenge is going to help to start to clear your skin. But it may not clear your skin entirely, and this is completely normal, and it's a sign that we have to dig deeper, that there's a deeper root cause that needs to be addressed than what I'm gonna address in this eight week series. So stick with it. It's going to bring some improvement to your skin and from there, once you notice that your skin's actually starting to improve and starting to heal, you are going to be so fired up to just continue with the journey. So I'm really excited to guide you on this journey for the next eight weeks and, if you would love to keep me in the loop as to how your progress is going, please reach out to me on Instagram, please reach out to me on Facebook. I really want to know how you're doing with the challenge. I love all feedback, even constructive criticism, because this is for you. I'm not doing this for me, I am doing this for you, so I want to know how it's working for you.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about what we're going to do this week, week number one of the clear skin challenge. We are going to start to reduce inflammation in your body and getting rid of inflammation. That's a really lofty goal, because when you have acne, your body is inflamed and often there's some really deep root causes that are leading to the systemic inflammation. But what we can do is we can start to reduce inflammation by making some really simple changes, and the changes that I want to talk about today are diet changes, and I know people can be very, very resistant to making changes in their diet, but when it comes to healing chronic cystic acne, it has to be done, and I'm going to tell you why. So when you're eating inflammatory foods, what's happening is you are adding fuel to the fire of inflammation in the body. And remember, if you have acne, you have inflammation in your body and these inflammatory foods are only making the inflammation worse.
Speaker 1:Now, when the body's really inflamed, it's really difficult to heal. When we can remove some of that inflammation, we can start to heal the body faster and more efficiently. And that's why, at the beginning of the work I do with any of my patients, we always start with diet. Now I do want to emphasize that acne is not caused by food, but it can be triggered by food. And once we heal the body and heal the gut, food is not caused by food, but it can be triggered by food. And once we heal the body and heal the gut, food is not going to be as much of a trigger as it currently is.
Speaker 1:So when I ask you to make diet changes, I want you to know it's not necessarily for the rest of your life, but it is until you have clear skin for at least a month. Then you can start to reintroduce certain foods. And the other thing I want to talk about when it comes to acne and food is that many people think that embarking upon a clear skin diet is a diet of deprivation and no fun, and it's very, very difficult. I want to tell you that a clear skin diet is is not meant to be something that's deprives you of anything at all. In fact, it's meant to introduce amazing foods that you may not know about, that are very nourishing to your body, that are very healing to your body and that are going to sustain your body optimally for decades to come. That's my challenge. I want to introduce you to a diet that is going to feel wonderful, you're going to look and feel amazing, and I've been doing the Clear Skin Diet personally myself for about 15 years and nobody could pay me to eat any differently than the way I currently eat, because I feel so good, I have so much energy, my skin is so clear.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know if you're watching this on video, but I'm 51 years old. I barely have any wrinkles. I'm really pleased with how I'm aging. I don't do any Botox, I don't do any fillers, so there's really so many benefits to learning how to eat an anti-inflammatory diet. So there's three main foods that I always recommend my patients remove from their diet.
Speaker 1:So there's three main foods that I always recommend my patients remove from their diet, and these foods are gluten, dairy and sugar. These are the main contributors to acne. Now there's other foods out there for sure. I'm not going to go into those foods in this episode. I really want to focus on these three and in fact there's one that I want to single out especially, and that food is dairy, and I know you're probably not surprised to hear this, but I want to go into the specifics of why dairy is so inflammatory.
Speaker 1:And once, when my patients have healed their bodies, often they can introduce a little bit of sugar back into their diet. Maybe they can have a little bit of gluten, you know as well, but dairy often dairy is the food that will inflame the body and trigger acne the most. Now I'm at a place where my skin's been clear for many, many years. I can have a little bit of dairy without breaking out. But you know I don't like the way that. It makes me feel. I'm very in tune with my body and when a food doesn't work for me, I can feel it right away, and you may be that way now, but if you're not, once you heal your body and clean it up, then you will be able to determine which foods heal you and which foods inflame you very, very easily. The symptoms are pretty overt.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about dairy and acne. So milk is for baby animals. That is its intention. It's very high in growth hormone, because this is what helps baby mammals grow very quickly. So the thing that we do not like about the growth hormone in cow dairy and this is cow dairy specifically it looks very similar to human growth hormone. It tends to bind to human growth hormone receptors and this leads to an elevation of a hormone called IGF-1, and this increases androgens. Now androgens are the hormones that cause acne. So we do not want an elevation in androgens at all, which means we don't want high growth hormone either. So I find that milk is the most inflammatory food for acne because it increases IGF-1 levels and it increases androgens overtly. And once you're healed, once there's less inflammation in your body, maybe you can eat dairy and maybe you won't get this elevation of androgens. That's as overt, but for many people they still get it.
Speaker 1:So research now backs this up. There is no question in our minds about the relationship between dairy and acne. So for 30 years, doctors denied that diet affected acne and this was because there were some very poorly constructed studies out there. But there was a meta-analysis. It was published in August of 2018. August of 2018, and it looked at studies that included 14 studies and 78,529 people aged 7 to 30. And the conclusion of this meta-analysis was overwhelmingly apparent Dairy consumption and acne formation are related. There is no doubt about it. This is a very tight correlation. So if you have acne, please stop the dairy now, and I know there are some people out there.
Speaker 1:There's some nutritionists that claim that they can heal your acne while you're eating dairy at the same time and I've been doing this for 20 years and I have not found that to be the case at all Unless they're using benzoyl peroxide, skincare or medications or something that's really suppressing the acne. You can't have dairy and heal your acne at the same time. So the dairy that affects acne the most includes number one yogurt. So I know some people they think, okay, I'm going to get rid of dairy, but I'm going to keep my yogurt because it's so good for my microbiome. That is not what you need to do. You still need to get rid of yogurt because it contains that growth hormone. It's going to stimulate IGF-1 production.
Speaker 1:The second dairy product that affects acne the most is skim milk. So skim milk has been shown in research to affect acne more than whole milk. Whole milk is number three and number four is cheese. So I know cheese is a really, really big one for people to give up, and when that's the case, usually, usually they can tolerate sheep cheese or goat cheese. Usually that seems to be fine. So ice cream is, you know, kind of like it does double whammy when it comes to acne, because not only do we have the dairy, but we also have the sugar.
Speaker 1:The other thing that's really not going to help acne at all is whey protein, and I want women to be very, very, you know, vigilant about this, because there's a lot of protein powders out there that contain whey protein. So whey protein has a lot of great things about it. It's great for building muscle, it's a great source of glutathione, so it does have some really great uses for some people. But for people that are predisposed to acne, stay far away from whey protein. This is one thing that can really trigger your acne. So butter and ghee are likely to have the least effect on acne and if there's any dairy that you're going to be able to eat without being inflamed, it's going to be better in ghee. So they're very high in butyric acid and butyric acid is very important for the health of the gut. It's also very low in whey protein and a lot of people also they think well, maybe I'll use raw milk instead of the regular pasteurized milk you get at the grocery store, but raw milk still contains high regular pasteurized milk you get at the grocery store, but raw milk still contains high amounts of natural growth hormone. So I do not recommend raw milk to my patients. I do not recommend any cow products at all, maybe a bit of butter or ghee, because it just leads to these increased androgens.
Speaker 1:And if you're trying to get rid of acne, if you're trying to clear it up, and you're eating dairy at the same time, you're just kind of sabotaging your efforts. So you can do everything perfectly, but if you're still eating dairy, it's likely that you're not going to be able to clear your skin. So, as I explained before, it's the high levels of bovine growth hormone in cow dairy. It looks similar to human growth hormone. It binds to our human growth hormone receptors. It stimulates the production of IGF-1, which stimulates the production of androgens, the hormones that lead to acne. So organic milk it falls into the same category. It can still lead to acne because it still has that natural bovine growth hormone in it. Even if it's organic, it doesn't change that situation. And the same with lactose-free milk. Lactose-free milk as well can lead to acne because it has that bovine growth hormone in it.
Speaker 1:So what are some good substitutes? If you can no longer consume cow dairy, what are you going to do? So? Most of my patients can tolerate goat and sheep dairy, especially the cheese, and a lot of my patients also do sheep or goat yogurt, which they actually find quite palatable and it can be really quite delicious. All milk still contains high amounts of growth hormones. So if you can avoid milk, even from goat and sheep dairy, I would do that. I would focus instead on the sheep and dairy cheese and yogurt. Other good substitutions almond and nut milks, coconut milk, hemp milk, almond and nut milks. Coconut milk, hemp milk, oat milk only in very small quantities, because it's extremely high in carbohydrates and it can trigger insulin levels and insulin as well can lead to increased androgens and we don't want that.
Speaker 1:I do not recommend soy milk. It's too estrogenic. I don't recommend rice milk either. It has a high glycemic index. It also tends to be high in arsenic levels, which is not helpful for anything.
Speaker 1:When you're looking for a plant milk, a nut milk, avoid these ingredients. Avoid genetically modified oils such as corn, sunflower, soybean, safflower, canola or rapeseed oil. These are high in omega-6 fatty acids and pesticides. You also want to avoid emulsifiers such as carrageenan, guar gum and xanthan gum. You want to avoid evaporated cane juice, cane sugar or cane syrup, natural flavors or colors and vitamin D2.
Speaker 1:Some of the really good brands that I like I like Elmhurst Good Milk, Malk spelled M-A-L-K, plenish Three Trees. Those are all really good, clean brands to try, and you can probably just get them at Whole Foods. Another thing that I personally really love is I love the Almond Cow and and the almond cow is a nut milk maker. You just add nuts, you add water, you press a button and, honestly, within 60 seconds you have delicious nut milk made for you. I'm not sponsored by the almond cow at all. I don't make any money from them, I just I really love it. It's a fun machine to have in my kitchen.
Speaker 1:So what's going to happen when you stop cow dairy. For many people, stopping cow dairy is a big deal. It's in so many different foods. People really enjoy it. So, number one you're going to get reduced cystic blemishes. The other thing is you're going to get less bloating. So many people after they stop dairy they're just like, oh my gosh, I've just like gone down and bloating not just in their stomach but all over their face. You notice that your face loses a lot of bloat so you can really see it. But when I walk down the street I actually can look at people and I can guess who has a dairy sensitivity because it shows up in the face and when they get rid of dairy things just kind of almost slim down immediately More energy, reduced congestion this is another one. So often patients come to me. They have congestion in their sinuses, they have mucus in their throat, they have maybe a chronic cough or nasal drip. Once they get rid of dairy this can diminish dramatically.
Speaker 1:Give yourself one month to experience a dairy-free lifestyle, a cow dairy-free lifestyle before judging it. You want to give yourself time, but definitely implement it over the next week before the next episode of the Clear Skin Challenge drops, and you will probably notice a difference even within a week. So there are so many great dairy-free products. So when I was starting my clear skin journey and this was 20 years ago and I gave up dairy there were not a lot of substitutions. But now if you go into Whole foods or any health food store, there are so many great dairy-free products. Just be sure to always purchase unsweetened. You want to read labels. There's a lot of hidden sugar in some dairy-free products. You also want to avoid all of the different ingredients I mentioned before. And of course, you can also make your own with the almond cow.
Speaker 1:And after you heal, you know, after your skin has been clear for one month, that's when we get our patients to reintroduce foods that they've been sensitive to. You know and I would say most of my patients they reintroduce dairy. Most of them cannot eat a lot of dairy. They'll be able to have a little bit here and there, but if they start to have dairy daily, they'll start to re-experience that congestion again. Their skin will probably start to flare a little bit. So hopefully, week one has given you an aha moment, you know, and it's guided you on how you can remove dairy from your diet and some of the things that you can include instead. So stay tuned for week two of the things that you can include instead. So stay tuned for week two of the Clear Skin Challenge. It will be dropping next week.
Speaker 1:If you want to know more about how I heal acne with my patients, check out my free Clear Skin Mastery Training. The link is in the show notes. If you want to book a call with my team, there's a link to book a free call below. And if you would leave a review for this podcast, I would be so grateful and I will be gifting you the first module of my Clear Skin Group program. So go down to the show notes and I will tell you exactly how you can leave a review and get access to that free module. So thank you so much for joining me. I'm so grateful that you're here and please leave a comment, leave a review. I want to know how you are doing in this challenge. I'm so excited to connect with you and help you clear your skin. Have a great day.