I’m Dr. Tom Rofrano from The Natural Medicine Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and today I’m going to talk to you about how to have clear skin by clearing up your gut. I’ve been practicing for over 30 years and have seen over 100,000 patient visits now with chiropractic, nutrition, and functional medicine. Most patients that come in with symptoms of fatigue, pain, anxiety, and brain fog; all have gut issues.
Skin and Gut Connection
I have found a lot of patients that have gut issues also have skin problems. If you have acne, eczema, psoriasis, random rashes, hives, or other skin issues, most of these skin issues stem from your gut. They say your eyes are a mirror to your soul, and I think your skin is the mirror to your gut. If you have gut issues it often manifests in your skin. Yesterday, I received a picture from a 25-year-old patient because she said her face was so clear after 15 days of being on my program.
Root Causes of Acne and Other Skin Issues
I put her on The FreeDiet® and our Natural Medicine Formulas® supplements. She went from severe acne to clear skin in 15 days. That’s how quickly you can turn skin issues around if you clean up your gut issues. What causes skin and gut issues? Antibiotics are a common cause and in her case she had two courses of antibiotics for a kidney infection. Antibiotics can cause intestinal permeability or leaky gut as it’s commonly called, where you can become reactive to foods that you weren’t before.
Gluten, yeast, and dairy are among the most common food intolerances. As you become reactive to these foods, they cause an inflammatory reaction. These food sensitivities manifest as skin issues like acne, eczema, psoriasis, and rashes. Besides food sensitivities, you want to check for gut infections since they can manifest as skin problems. That would include yeast overgrowth, dysbiosis or bacterial overgrowth in your intestines. Parasites are another cause of skin reactions. Pathogens and food sensitivities can really have a negative effect on the skin and cause many issues.
In another case, a young woman was outside of the country and got food poisoning and was very sick. You can pick up bacteria or parasites that way, and that can cause this abnormal bacterial environment and leaky gut / intestinal permeability.
How do we treat these issues? The standard medical treatment for acne is antibiotics, and they give antibiotics for a month up to a year. Growing up, my brother was on them for at least two to three years in high school. That can wreak havoc on your gut and immune system long term.
Natural Treatment for Acne and Other Skin Issues
Other treatments are Retin-A which can be effective, but it is very toxic. I had a patient who was 15 years old, taking Retin-A who had to get a monthly pregnancy test because it causes birth defects. She also had to get blood work to check her liver enzymes to make sure there was no liver damage. You can choose to treat the symptoms or uncover the underlying root causes and then come up with permanent long-term solutions by fixing the problem.
I ran some tests on the first patient, the 25-year-old woman, and found she was highly sensitive to gluten and yeast. Those are the two most common food sensitivities I see with acne and skin lesions. Instead of just putting her on a gluten free diet, I have formulated another diet that works much more effectively. I call it The FreeDiet® because it’s not only gluten free, but it’s free of all the most common food allergens. So gluten, grains, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes, nightshades, and processed foods. These foods I found are the most common food reactions after doing thousands of food allergy and sensitivity tests over the years. These are the common foods that cause inflammatory reactions including skin issues.
The diet is the first step, and then next is supplements. The general supplements I base on initial lab results but general recommendations I find that are most effective for acne and other skin issues are probiotics. We use a few different kinds, but our strongest one is ProbioSupreme™ 350 which has over a 350 billion count of probiotics and 14 different strains. I use that and then a product called Yeast Defeat because it supports a healthy microbial balance in your gut.
Patients with skin issues generally have gut symptoms like abdominal pain, cramps, diarrhea, bloating, gas, and constipation. The previously mentioned patient had gone to her primary OBGYN for severe menstrual cramps and PMS. She saw two GI doctors who told her she had IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome.
It’s kind of interesting because you go to the doctor and you say I have diarrhea, constipation, bloating, and my bowels are really irritable. They do an evaluation, various tests, and when you go back they often say you have irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, which is exactly what you told them!
I’ve found that gut issues generally clear up with diet and supplements, and in turn the skin clears up so that’s why you want to focus on getting your gut cleared up.
Get Your Free Copy of The FreeDiet® Phase One Food Chart
If you want access, go here and we will send the food chart and other information to get you started. If you want help personally, contact us at info@nmcwellness.com.