Clearer Skin In Just 28-Days? The Roadmap To Making This Pipedream… POSSIBLE!

January 27, 2021

Whether you’re dealing with adult acne, hormonal breakouts, discoloration, premature aging, or a condition like eczema or rosacea, having a skin condition can affect your life in substantial ways. It can hurt your confidence, your self-esteem, and it can send you on an endless journey of trying different creams, pills, lotions, and potions.

If you’re struggling with a skin condition, I see you. And I know how frustrating and overwhelming it can be. This week, I’m diving into a new, groundbreaking perspective on skin health and what you can do to optimize it.

The Gut-Skin Connection Everyone Should Know About

If you’re dealing with skin issues, there’s a good chance you’ve seen your primary care doctor and a dermatologist (maybe even more than one!). You may also feel like you’ve exhausted all your options. I see patients all the time that feel like their skin condition is a life’s sentence and that there’s nothing they can do about it, except a daily antibiotic, topical remedies, and/or birth control pills.

But here’s something that a conventional doctor won’t tell you:

“The way your body looks on the outside is a direct reflection of what’s going on on the inside.”

And in the case of skin conditions, what’s going on on the inside is almost always an undiagnosed gut health issue that is showing up as inflammation, congestion, or an allergic reaction on the skin.

Why? Well, we have to look back at how the body forms in the embryo stage. The same tissue that becomes the skin turns inward and creates the entire digestive tract. For centuries in Traditional Chinese Medicine, they knew the connection between the gut and the skin. But out West that knowledge was limited to the less popular naturopathic medicine.

If you’re like most of my patients, this is news to you. But let me assure you that this connection is well-established. In fact, what we have learned in the last two decades of scientific research is that alterations in the gut microbiome have been connected to a myriad of skin conditions, including:

The authors of one study even explain that the gut microbiota communicate directly with the skin. This is especially true for acne. Studies have shown that intestinal flora is thought to influence acne directly and one possible explanation has to do with a specific pathway in the body called the mTOR pathway. The mTOR pathway controls many aspects of our metabolism and is involved in various diseases — anything from diabetes to obesity to depression. It’s basically a central regulator of metabolism, cell growth, division and survival. Research shows that disruptions in the gut microbiome and leaky gut influence mTOR , which then creates inflammation that aggravates acne.

What I’ve found in my years as a gut doctor is that acne and skin health issues are the outward manifestations of leaky gut and dysbiosis (an imbalance of bad bugs vs. good bugs in the gut); in other words, when you have acne or blemishes it’s a sign that your gut needs some love and attention.

A Contrarian Approach to Skin Health Issues

Beauty is NOT just skin deep. You might be surprised by how often, as a gut health doctor, I find myself treating skin health issues. This is because skin health and gut health issues go hand in hand, occuring at the same time in the same person. They are interlinked. (In fact, I’d go as far as to say that at least 75 percent of my patients with gut health issues also have a skin health issue).

This might seem like bad news but it actually means that by taking steps to improve gut health, you can improve skin health without prescription drugs or expensive treatments that may or may not work and require constant application. When I see a patient with acne or blemishes in my office, there are three steps I always have them take for skin.

3 Steps to Healthier, Acne-Free Skin

The road to clearer skin isn’t as difficult as you think. In fact, when my patients follow these three steps, they almost always enjoy clearer skin in as little as a few weeks.

1. Rebalance the Gut Microbiome

Rebalancing the microbiome is all about getting rid of the bad stuff — pathogenic bacteria, parasites, worms and yeast overgrowth — AND encouraging the good stuff, like beneficial bacteria, to grow.

A few years ago I had a patient, let’s call her Emily, who suffered from cystic acne all around her lower cheeks and jawline. A dermatologist would have put her on topicals, oral antibiotics or Spironolactone, a hormone disruptor, and an OB/GYN might have put her on hormonal birth control. Instead, we discovered a yeast overgrowth called candida, which had developed because she was eating way too much sugar, not just as desserts, but also in hidden forms, like chips and pasta.

A yeast overgrowth might sound intimidating but by drastically cutting back on sugar and taking natural antifungals — like caprylic acid and oregano oil — Emily was able to get her acne resolved without turning to prescription drugs. Emily’s case is a great example of how conventional medicine often focuses on treating the symptoms of acne — the blemishes themselves with creams and pills — instead of the underlying cause, which often has everything to do with the gut.

For years we’ve treated acne with antibiotics and birth control and expensive creams and lasers, when really we should have been looking to the gut for the root cause.

2. Avoid Food Sensitivities & Triggers

We already know that the gut and skin are intricately connected, so it only makes sense that there’s also a connection between food and skin health. Unfortunately, this important connection is often missed; I mostly see dermatologists ignoring food completely in their treatment protocols.

Drop the dairy!

So, what are the biggest food triggers for acne? The biggest one I see for women is dairy. Research has also backed up this connection, with one study showing that intake of any dairy — including any milk, full-fat dairy, whole milk, low-fat/skim milk, or yogurt — was associated with higher odds of acne, regardless of frequency or amount. The reasons for this connection likely have to do with the hormones and antibiotics sometimes found in dairy, which can especially affect women, as well as the fact that dairy can cause constipation, which as we learned a few months ago when we tackled estrogen dominance , can result in the recirculation of toxins and estrogen in the body, leading to estrogen dominance and acne.

Other common food triggers for acne include sugar, chocolate, greasy foods, fried foods, and spicy foods.

If you’re struggling with acne, I recommend avoiding all these foods for at least 28-days to see how your skin improves. This worked for my patient (we’ll call her Amnika). Amnika was in part-time business school, working in finance, and couldn’t get control of her random cystic acne eruptions on her face, neck, and upper back. They were painful, swollen, and she was becoming self-conscious at work and in her dating life. We did a thorough evaluation of her diet and found that dairy was sneaking into her diet in her morning cappuccino, milk chocolate treats, and the “health” bars she was consuming when she didn’t have time for a proper meal. I had her cut out the dairy completely, substituting nut or coconut milk in her coffee, cutting back on sugar, and having the occasional vegan dark chocolate. Within 3 to 4 weeks her face cleared up and the old acne scars started healing. You, too, can accomplish this using a program like the HAPPY GUT® REBOOT: 28-Day Cleanse , which rebalances the gut microbiome and removes the most common food sensitivities and triggers, allowing you to zero in on what’s causing your symptoms.

But, there’s one more key step you cannot miss…

3. Heal Leaky Gut

We learned earlier that we can draw a lot of parallels between leaky gut and acne. This is because of inflammation — caused by stress, too much sugar, too little fiber and not enough greens, and common medications like birth control pills, antibiotics, and even Ibuprofen. The good news is that when we tackle the causes of leaky gut, we can also restore skin health. The repair of your leaky gut can begin in just a few short weeks with the right game plan. I designed my HAPPY GUT® Reboot: 28-Day Cleanse to eliminate the most common food sensitivities, supercharge your body with nutrients that put an end to inflammation and speed up your body’s detox systems, all while repairing leaky gut and restoring your gut microbiome to balance.

When my patients try the HAPPY GUT® Reboot: 28-Day Cleanse , they notice an improvement in their skin health, whether that was the initial goal of the cleanse or not.

With this cleanse, you literally go to the root of the matter — your gut — and improve your skin from the inside out, so you can achieve a complexion that inspires confidence and has people stopping to ask, “What’s your secret?”

Sounds like it’s worth a try, doesn’t it?

If you’re a person struggling with skin health issues and you haven’t considered the role of your gut in causing these problems, it’s time to take a fresh look at your skin health.

I’ve seen patient after patient retire their expensive face creams, treatments, and prescription medications by simply focusing on the gut and healing acne from the inside out. If you’re struggling with acne or skin health issues, follow the three steps above and see the power of the gut-skin connection for yourself!

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Dr. Vincent Pedre is a leading authority in gut health, a bestselling author, and a medical doctor with a holistic approach to wellness. With over two decades of experience, he is dedicated to helping people achieve optimal health through personalized nutrition, lifestyle adjustments, and integrative medicine.

Dr. Pedre offers personalized health consultations, as well as the comprehensive Gut-Brain Mastery Program — 6-Week Stress-Less Challenge — which is designed to help individuals biohack their brain health through their gut to reduce stress, boost mood, improve gut health, and achieve rockstar resilience.