Breakthroughs happen with micro-shifts,
not with big grand gestures. The goal is to make daily, conscious choices that move you a little more in the right direction of a balanced gut-brain-skin axis.
GUT-BRAIN-SKIN AXIS
The Gut-Brain-Skin Axis: The Beauty Of Science
Never before has there been a better time to integrate methods for looking and feeling your best into your everyday life. Whether that means aiming for more radiant skin, looking youthful, feeling healthier, being more focused, or feeling at peace, the micro-shifts matter.
The reason: a combination of demanding careers, family responsibilities, easy access to processed foods, hours in front of a screen, current events, and overstimulation.
Modern-day life has left more women feeling unfocused, malnourished, and over-extended. Instead of staying in this cycle, it's time to learn how to slowly back away from too many days of dark undereye circles, skin dullness, anxiousness, brain fog, sluggishness, and exhaustion.
Modern research has proven that outer beauty is a byproduct of your inner world: your physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual health. Beauty and wellness are interconnected as they operate as one whole-body system.
where beauty and wellness collide.
That system is a bidirectional phenomenon called the gut-brain-skin axis:
Simply put, the gut-brain-skin axis is why the food you eat influences the thoughts you think and your skin health. It's also why the thoughts you think can cause unfavorable skin reactions, chronic illnesses, or belly issues. And you guessed it, this is also why your skin reactions stress you out and have you craving poor food choices.
THE BREAKDOWN
The Gut-Brain Axis:
The biochemical signaling between your GI tract and your central nervous system (CNS).
The foods you eat affect the diversity of bacteria in your microbiome. The chemicals released from the microbiome influence brain development and the regulation of brain chemistry. It's no surprise you feel happy + energized when eating nutrient-dense foods, and you may experience more stress and anxiety after eating highly processed foods. Did you know?: the gut contains 400x more serotonin and 500x more melatonin than the brain.
75% of brain output travels through the vagus nerve, which innervates the digestive tract. When your nervous system goes into flight, fight, or freeze (sympathetic nervous system) it can create an imbalance in your gut and microbiome, and stimulate cravings for highly palatable + processed foods. If chronic, it can result in extensive dis-ease in the body.
Now you know why you get butterflies in your belly when you're nervous.
The Gut-Skin Axis
The relationship where the gut can influence skin health owing to its immunological and metabolic properties.
An altered gut microbiome or gut flora promotes the release of chemicals that increase histamine levels and trigger inflammation in the skin. This speaks to why food sensitivities can lead to a variety of skin reactions, or why you break out after a night of cocktails and eating fast food with the girls.
So it's not that you have a skin issue. It's that you have a gut issue.
The Brain-Skin Axis
An emerging field of research called psychodermatology studying this interaction between the mind/nervous system and skin health.
The brain/nervous system and skin share the same embryogenic origin. The skin can send a high volume of signals to the sensory cortex of the brain (alerting you of pain or discomfort).
The brain can send signals to the skin via the same connection. When your brain/nervous system experiences "stress" it activates hormones (through the HPA axis, CRH, and ACTH) like cortisol, epinephrine, and adrenaline stimulating the skin to react with inflammatory skin reactions. Inflammation also causes something now known as inflammaging: premature skin aging caused by inflammation.
Skin conditions associated with chronic stress are psoriasis, atopic dermatitis or eczema, alopecia, rosacea, and acne to name a few.
BEAUTY FLOW BALANCE LOOKS LIKE:
- Supporting healthy bacteria in the microbiome with nutrient-dense + whole foods, supplements, and soil health.
- Strengthening emotional fitness with mindfulness + meditation, journaling, breathwork, spirituality, movement, and community.
- Maintaining skin health with intentional topical treatments, product selections, and rituals.
