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
Week 8 of the 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge
Acne sufferers rarely connect their digestive health with their skin problems, but this missing link might explain why even perfect skincare routines fail to deliver results. Your skin functions as your body's "third kidney," stepping up its detoxification efforts when your primary elimination pathways aren't working effectively.
Constipation—defined as not having at least one complete, satisfying bowel movement daily—creates the perfect internal environment for acne to flourish. When waste remains in your colon, toxins and hormones that should be eliminated instead get reabsorbed into circulation through an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase. This recirculation process directly contributes to stubborn breakouts, particularly hormonal acne caused by estrogen imbalance.
The root cause of constipation in most acne patients stems from an imbalanced gut microbiome. Certain bacterial overgrowths produce excessive methane and hydrogen gases that essentially paralyze your colon's natural movement. Add in factors like chronic stress, magnesium deficiency, dehydration, and poor fiber intake, and you've created an internal environment where acne thrives despite your best external efforts. Healing requires a multi-faceted approach: supporting the gut microbiome, enhancing liver function, optimizing hydration with electrolytes, supplementing with magnesium citrate, and critically, calming the nervous system from its stressed "fight-or-flight" state into a digestive-friendly "rest-and-digest" mode.
After 20 years of helping thousands of women heal their acne naturally, I'm launching my most comprehensive program yet—The Clear Skin Revolution. Starting March 26th, this 8-week live interactive program will take you beyond the basics covered in this podcast series and provide personalized guidance tailored to your specific acne type. If you're ready to liberate yourself from acne by healing your body from within, click the link in the show notes to join us!
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.
To get immediate access to the first module of my Clear Skin Group Program, leave a podcast review! Take a screen shot of your review and email it to customersupport@naturopathicbeauty.com and you will be sent your login information!
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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 back to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington, naturopathic doctor. I've been helping women heal their acne from the inside out for over 20 years and this podcast is for you. The purpose of this podcast is to teach you the root causes of acne what's actually happening in your body and give you some strategies to help you overcome acne so that you can achieve clear skin. I know that that is what you want so very desperately and that is what I want to help you to do. And this podcast is also week eight of the Clear Skin Challenge, so I hope that you've been following along with me. I hope that you've put so many different actions into place based on what I've taught you over the past eight weeks, and I hope that you're starting to see some improvement in your skin. So some people are going to notice a lot of improvement in their acne just by implementing the simple steps that I've shared throughout this challenge. Other people may notice an improvement, but not enough of a clearing to really make them happy. If that's your case, that's okay. There's obviously still some work to do, and I work closely with people we do a deep dive, we do testing, understand what's going on on a deeper level. We use supplementation, and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about how I can help you further at the end of this podcast, but right now, let's focus on our topic of the week and do a quick review of what we've already done. So if you haven't listened to the previous episodes of the 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge, I really encourage you to go back and take a listen, because done so. If you haven't listened to the previous episodes of the eight week clear skin challenge, I really encourage you to go back and take a listen, because the challenge is organized very sequentially. I want you to do one step at a time, because these steps build upon one another to get you to a place where your body is more balanced and less inflamed and your skin is clear.
Speaker 1:So we've removed inflammatory foods, we've talked about how to nourish the body, how to balance insulin levels, how to implement some really great drainage techniques. We talked about hormones, we talked about stress, we talked about skincare and now, on week six, we're going to talk a little bit about the gut and gut health, and this is a huge topic. It's actually very complicated because there's so many different experiences you can have with your gut, but the one that I find that's overwhelming with my patient population is constipation not being able to have a daily bowel movement. And this is so critical to clear skin, because this is how we remove toxins from the body, and when toxins are not being removed, you know there's going to be an overload of toxins. And the skin is actually, in naturopathic medicine it's sometimes called the third kidney. The skin is an organ of detoxification and when the other organs of detoxification are not doing their job properly, the skin is going to take up the slack, and very often that's when we see skin conditions appearing, such as acne, eczema, psoriasis. The skin is going to try and remove toxins through these inflammatory processes. So if you have constipation, this is an incredibly important situation to resolve on your clear skin journey.
Speaker 1:So what is constipation? Constipation is not having at least one bowel movement per day, and when I talk about one bowel movement, I'm talking about a bowel movement where you feel as though you're fully evacuating everything and you know what I'm talking about. There's other bowel movements where it's not satisfactory, to say it very simply. But we're looking for a bowel movement where everything that needs to leave is going to leave. Of course this is more common in people with acne, because we're very poor detoxifiers and acne is a condition of excessive toxicity in the body. And bowel movements are essential because they get rid of waste products from the body. They prevent toxins from recirculating in the body, specifically estrogens, especially when hormonal acne is an issue, and bowel movements also prevent the buildup of hardened stool in the colon. So if you're constipated, it's really not surprising that acne is an issue.
Speaker 1:So what causes constipation? So the number one thing that causes constipation is an imbalanced microbiome, specifically methane and hydrogen production within the large and the small intestine. So often when there's an overgrowth of bacteria, these bacteria are going to produce excessive methane and hydrogen gas and these gases are going to prevent the large intestine from having optimal motility. So the large intestine moves waste through it through an action called peristalsis. And peristalsis is when the colon kind of contracts to move things through and when we have an excess of methane and hydrogen gas, all of a sudden that peristalsis action is not happening optimally, so things don't move through the colon, they tend to just stay there. And this is the number one cause of constipation that I see in my patient population so often. We have to do deeper work to really resolve what's causing the constipation. We have to reduce the overgrowth within the gut and that is going to be what's really going to resolve it.
Speaker 1:So poor drainage and detoxification, a low fiber diet Once you've been on my program, we put you on a clear skin diet and you're eating enough fiber. So that's not usually the issue Processed food and refined carbohydrates that can be a cause. Dehydration you need to drink two liters of water daily, but two liters of water that's actually hydrating you, and usually that includes putting lemon, putting electrolytes in your water so that the cells have an adequate amount of minerals to actually ensure that water is entering and exiting the cells properly. Stress Stress is one of the biggest causes of constipation. When you're stressed, it is not the time for your digestive system to work properly. You are in a state of survival. You are looking for threats. Your body isn't thinking about digesting foods, it's thinking about surviving. So stress is a huge contributor to constipation.
Speaker 1:Inactivity, not moving your body, enough Magnesium deficiency I see this a lot Medications, hormone imbalances and poor sleep. So, as you can see, there are a lot of different factors that can contribute to constipation. So let's talk about how constipation specifically affects acne. So the number one thing is that when we're constipated, there's an elevated level of toxins in the body and the skin is going to pick up that slack and start detoxifying those toxins. The other thing is that when the bowels are not moving properly, estrogen is also going to start to increase in the body, because if estrogen is not eliminated through the bowels, it's going to be recirculated through the body, and this is where we start to see hormonal imbalances. This is where we start to see estrogen dominance, and this is one of the causes of acne. However, we can also see low estrogen levels in acne as well. So it gets very complicated for sure when it comes to hormones and acne. But when you have constipation, there's a higher chance that you will have estrogen dominant. So constipation allows toxins and estrogens to be reabsorbed from the bowel back into circulation via an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase, and this is a major cause of acne.
Speaker 1:So how do we treat constipation? So the number one thing and I've already mentioned this we need to heal the gut microbiome, so the gases released from bacteria can lead to chronic constipation. Parasites is also an issue and I do a lot of parasite treatment in my acne patients. Another fix is to support the liver, so bile production stimulates bowel movements and when there's liver issues, often enough bile is not produced and the colon is not going to get that stimulus to have a bowel movement.
Speaker 1:Increasing fiber this is another way to fix constipation. Ensure that you're eating enough fruits and vegetables, and one really great source of fiber is chia seeds. Two tablespoons of chia seeds can often really get things moving. However, you want to ensure that you're increasing your water intake. If you're increasing your fiber intake, if you're increasing fiber and you're not also having enough water, this can actually cause constipation. So increasing fiber and increasing water they go hand in hand. You need to do both at the same time. I always do a mason jar full of warm water and squeezed lemon upon rising. Sometimes I add electrolytes into that and this is a way to really hydrate your body, to get a good amount of electrolytes in and to offset the fiber consumption to make sure you're really setting yourself up for a good bowel movement. And most of us are deficient in magnesium and this is a really big issue and taking magnesium citrate before bed, about 300 milligrams, can really be helpful to relieve constipation, and if any of our patients come to us with constipation, that's always part of the first line treatment is magnesium.
Speaker 1:Probiotics can be helpful for some people, but this depends on test results. Sometimes we see an overabundance of beneficial bacteria. In that case probiotics are not going to move the natal on constipation. Other times we see a deficiency, dysbiosis, where there's not enough beneficial bacteria in the gut. In that case probiotics are probably going to be helpful.
Speaker 1:Removing food sensitivities I know for myself gluten is a big deal. When I eat too much gluten it's like my digestive system seizes and I'm definitely not going to experience a really successful bowel movement and reducing stress. Toning the vagus nerve, as I mentioned before, stress is going to paralyze the digestive system because your body is not in a place to digest, it's in a place to survive. So really working on the nervous system is important, and working on the nervous system is one of the things that I emphasize the most in my program, because when the nervous system is stuck in a state of survival, the body cannot heal. So we can do everything perfectly. We can be on a perfect diet, we can take the perfect supplements, but if the nervous system will not shift out of sympathetic mode into parasympathetic mode, it's going to be incredibly difficult to heal the body.
Speaker 1:If nothing is working, all of these suggestions do not work. You want to take an herbal laxative while we treat the root causes. This is a short-term fix, herbal laxatives you should not become dependent upon them, but they should be a band-aid solution to get things moving while you do the deeper healing. So that's how I approach herbal laxatives. So what are your next steps? If you are experiencing constipation, increase fiber, water and exercise, take 300 milligrams of magnesium citrate before bed and, most importantly, if those two things don't solve your constipation, you need to work with an acne expert to do some gut testing, to understand what's going on in your gut and put you on a protocol that's going to help heal. So this is so important to get professional guidance on your clear skin journey, because what I've shared with you throughout the eight week clear skin challenge, these are the root causes of acne and I've given you some very easy steps to overcome these imbalances and start to heal your body. But there is so much more that we can do when it comes to reducing inflammation, when it comes to nourishing the body, when it comes to healing the gut and supporting detoxification and balancing the nervous system and balancing hormones and balancing insulin levels. I just presented the tip of the iceberg to you and I want to take you deeper, especially if you're still experiencing acne after implementing the simple steps. So I am really excited because I am launching the best acne program that I have ever put together.
Speaker 1:Now, I've been doing this for 20 years. I've been healing acne and I've had an online program since 2017. I've helped thousands of women around the world heal their acne and I've thought a lot about my programs, about my group programs, and I thought how can I make this even better for the people out there that I work with? How can I make them even more successful? And the one thing that I really am able to offer my patient population is 20 years of experience, is the ability of having looked at thousands and thousands of lab tests, of blood tests, GI mapping test, organic acid test, dutch hormone test, speaking with thousands of patients, helping them be successful, understanding what I've done incorrectly, what I do correctly and constantly improving how I help and heal my patients, and so I am putting all of that into a program. It's called the skin revolution because I want to help you liberate yourself from acne, and I know how to do it. So it is going to be an eight week program. It includes 10 live sessions, so I am going to do this live.
Speaker 1:I thought about recording the different modules and delivering them to you, but then I decided you know what. I want to do this with you. I want to do this on a zoom call. I want to see your faces. I want you to ask me your questions. I want it to be very interactive and I want it to be exciting. I want you to be excited about healing and, if anything is unclear, I want you to be able to ask your questions, get clarity so that you can move forward with confidence and that you can understand the process of healing your acne by healing your body from the inside out. So this is going to be a transformative program.
Speaker 1:I am incredibly excited and I want to note that it's not just your acne that's going to heal, but it's the other symptoms as well. It's PMS, it's headaches, it's aches and pains and fatigue. We're going to be really be affecting all the different systems of the body and my goal is to not only deliver clear skin, but to deliver optimal health. So that's what this is all about. I'm so excited to present it to you. If this is something you're interested in and if you have acne you're interested in it, believe me. There's a link to join the program in the show notes. I want you to go there. I want you to click and sign up and get ready. We start on March 26th.
Speaker 1:I'm just beyond excited to guide you through your journey live. I've never done this before. It's always been recorded. It hasn't been live and I'm just, I'm ready and I have the energy. I can't wait to just see transformations happening right in front of me. It's it's one of my greatest pleasures in life, so it's going to be as fun for me as it is for you. So check the links in the show notes for you. So check the links in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Sign up for the Clear Skin Revolution. It's going to be absolutely incredible. And if this eight-week Clear Skin Challenge has been an aha moment for you, if you've learned some things that you didn't know before, if you've taken some steps that have made a difference on your clear skin journey, I would be so grateful if you would leave a review. There's a link below that will guide you through the steps to leave a review. I would just be so very grateful if you could do that, and I am so excited to say I will see you in the clear skin revolution to shift your health from within, get you the clear skin that you've been hoping for and working towards and waiting for. For some of you it's been decades, some of you it's been years, some of you it's been months, but it doesn't matter, it's time. So thank you so much. Have a beautiful day. I will see you in the Clear Skin Revolution.