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It’s no surprise your gut health impacts pretty much every system. It’s well known your diet and nutrition have a direct impact on the state of your skin health causing issues such as acne, eczema, dryness, dermatitis etc. If you are suffering from rosacea, the first place we will investigate is your gut health.
What is Rosacea?
Rosacea is an inflammatory skin condition that causes redness, flushing, and sometimes pimples and pustules on the face which can be unsettling for individuals experiencing the condition. Research now indicates that rosacea, although a multifacet condition influenced by various lifestyle and dietary factors is strongly linked to the state of your gut health. Both gut dysbiosis and a gut condition known as leaky gut may be implicated in rosacea.
What is Gut Dysbisois?
Your gut is made up of over 200 species of good and bad gut bacteria living in your intestines that form your gut microbiome. These species are responsible for undertaking many activities in your body from immune system support, hormone production, detoxification, digestion and regulating the inflammatory response.
When the balance between these bacteria becomes imbalanced and favours the bad guys over the good guys, this is what we call gut dysbiosis and this imbalance can impact the body in many ways, one of these being rosacea.
What is Leaky Gut?
Leaky gut or ‘intestinal permeability’ is a condition whereby bacteria and toxins are able to pass through the intestinal walls and into the bloodstream. The walls in your intestines act as a barrier and stop large particles from entering the bloodstream. When these walls are damaged due to a number of factors such as medications, stress, food allergies etc, this can result in acute inflammation in the body and in some instances trigger an autoimmune reaction. This increase in acute inflammation can present on the skin, and in this instance, as rosacea.
Symptoms of poor gut health:
Constipation
Diarrhoea
Burping
Reflux
Brain fog
Sugar cravings
Food intolerances
Cramps
Flatulence
If you are suffering from rosacea and have checked off some of the listed poor gut health symptoms, it may be time to look into healing your gut.
Tips for improving your gut health to reduce rosacea
Undertake a strict dairy-free diet for a minimum of 4 weeks. If you notice significantly less redness at the end of this trial I highly recommend continuing with this dietary elimination
Increase glutamine & collagen-rich foods to support the healing of your gut lining. Organic bone broth is a great source of glutamine and collagen and can help in addressing leaky gut
Include probiotic rich foods in your diet such as kefir, sauerkraut, tempeh, miso and kimchi
Increase your fibre from whole grains, legumes, beans, fruits and vegetables to support the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut. We use and recommend this collagen powder.
Increase essential fatty acid intake from sources such as wild-caught fish, flaxseeds, walnuts, chia seeds etc.
Support liver detoxification processes by increasing water intake and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts
Reduce inflammatory foods such as alcohol, processed sugars and vegetable oils
Reduce stress and eat mindfully - don’t overlook the impact stress can have on the digestion system. For every meal, put the distractions away and focus on chewing your food for 20-30 bites to allow for easier digestion.
If you are suffering from rosacea and would like help in treating your gut health, book an appointment with me here.