Plant Oils for Your Skin

Photo credit: Janine Joles

Plant oils have been used throughout history for a wide range of reasons.

Certain plant oils have therapeutic effects and can help improve the health of your skin. In fact, if you or your child has skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis, plant oils may help balance, soothe, and repair damaged skin when used topically.

With skin rashes like eczema, use oils rich in linoleic fatty acids (omega 6-rich fatty acids) like sunflower seed oil, jojoba oil, hemp oil, and rose hip oil. Oils rich in oleic acid, like olive oil, can be drying.

*Patch test for reactions before broadly using any topical product.

Olive oil: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, wound healing, anti-aging, protective against skin cancer

Sunflower seed oil: skin barrier repair, anti-inflammatory, protective against skin cancer

Grape seed oil: antibacterial, antioxidant, wound healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, protective against skin cancer

Coconut oil: skin barrier repair, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, wound healing, anti-aging

Safflower oil: anti-inflammatory

Argan oil: skin barrier repair, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, protective against skin cancer

Soybean oil: skin barrier repair, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant

Peanut oil: skin barrier repair, anti-aging, protective against skin cancer

Sesame oil: skin barrier repair, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-aging, protective against skin cancer

Avocado oil: anti-inflammatory, wound healing

Borage oil: skin barrier repair, anti-inflammatory

Jojoba oil: skin barrier repair, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, wound healing, anti-aging

Oat oil: skin barrier repair, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant

Pomegranate seed oil: antioxidant, anti-aging, protective against skin cancer

Almond oil: skin barrier repair, anti-aging

Bitter apricot oil: protective against skin cancer

Rosehip oil: skin barrier repair, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-aging

German chamomile oil: skin barrier repair, anti-inflammatory

Shea butter: skin barrier repair, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant

What should you use on your skin? Everyone is different, and everyone is on their own health journey!

*Patch test for reactions before broadly using any topical product.

Reference:

Lin TK, Zhong L, Santiago JL. Anti-Inflammatory and Skin Barrier Repair Effects of Topical Application of Some Plant Oils. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;19(1):70. Published 2017 Dec 27. doi:10.3390/ijms19010070

MTHFR And Methylation, How Your Skin Is Affected, And What You Can Do About It

Photo credit: Tatiana

MTHFR what?

MTHFR is an acronym for an enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. This enzyme is involved in methylation reactions, which act like a switch turning genes on and off. Methylation is essential for biochemical processes, including those important for healthy skin, like:

• Processing amino acids to make proteins

• Using antioxidants

• Detoxification

• Breaking down histamine

The problem with MTHFR

If you have an MTHFR genetic mutation, methylation pathways may be adversely affected, which can cause problems like:

• Inability to convert folic acid (synthetic B9) to folate, the active form needed for these reactions.

• Glutathione (your body's master antioxidant) production can be impaired. Lower antioxidants increase inflammation (a driver for rashes like eczema). Glutathione plays an important role in liver detoxification too.

• Methylation breaks down Histamine!

  • Your body makes histamine. It’s necessary for brain health and digestive health, and it’s released by immune cells when they are triggered.

  • Histamine is found naturally in many healthy foods.

  • Histamine is made by bacteria, like those in the gut, and histamine-producing bacteria are found in probiotic supplements.

  • That’s a lot of histamine! If methylation is impaired, it can interfere with how your child’s body processes it. If their body can’t, the excess can increase itching, rash flares, allergy-like, and many other symptoms.

What you can do about mTHFR

• Avoid folic acid in food (it’s added to processed foods) and in supplements, so read labels. Ingesting folic acid with MTHFR can increase homocysteine, which increases inflammation (again a driver of rashes like eczema).

• You can test for MTHFR through functional labs and your conventional doctor (request it). There are a lot of different genetic mutations that can exist with MTHFR, but the two that are considered most problematic are C677T and A1298C (AKA 677 and 1298). Remember, just because there’s a gene for something doesn’t mean it’s expressed. Only when it’s expressed does it result in symptoms.

• Supplement with the active form of vitamins B9 (methlyfolate), B12 (methylcobalamin, adenosylcobalamin, hydroxycobalamin), and B6 (pyridoxine-5-phosphate/P5P).

• Eat foods naturally rich in these nutrients like salmon, oysters, mussels, leafy greens, beef, organ meats, legumes, and eggs.

Rosacea

Photo credit: Dhyamis Kleber

Rosacea is a common chronic inflammatory disease that affects the skin on the face and causes it to look blushed, “ruddy”, or even sunburned.

 Symptoms include:

• Redness

• Flushing

• Flaking and dryness

• Bumps and pimples

• Enlarged blood vessels

Rosacea can affect the eyes too and cause:

• Tearing

• Light sensitivity

• Redness

• Blurred vision

While the cause of rosacea is unknown, it may be due to:

• Diet

• A reaction to ongoing inflammation in the body

• Changes in the immune system

• Changes in the gut microbiome

• Low stomach acid and H pylori infection

• Stress

Changes in diet may play a role in addressing rosacea, where some foods and beverages can make it worse, including:

• Hot beverages

  • Coffee

  • Hot tea

• Alcohol

  • Wine

  • Beer

  • Champagne

  • Hard liquor

• Capsaicin (spices and peppers) and other spicy foods

  • Hot sauce

  • Cayenne pepper

  • Red pepper

  • Jalapeno

  • Chili pepper

  • Paprika

  • Mustard

  • Horseradish

  • Ginger

  • Cumin

• Cinnamaldehyde

  • Tomatoes

  • Chocolate

  • Citrus

  • Cinnamon

• Histamine

  • Avocado

  • Aged cheese

  • Cured meats

  • Dried fruit

  • Eggplant

  • Fermented foods

  • Nuts (cashews, peanuts, walnuts)

  • Smoked fish

  • Mackerel

  • Sour cream

  • Vinegar

  • Spinach

• Inflammatory foods

  • Refined sugars and sugary foods

  • White flour

  • Processed vegetable oils

  • Fried foods

  • Processed meats

  • Food additives and preservatives

  • Artificial sweeteners

  • Carbonated drinks and sugary juices

Heath begins in the gut. It’s where 80% of your immune system is located, and people with rosacea tend to have a higher prevalence of gastrointestinal conditions including:

• Celiac disease

• Crohn’s disease

• Ulcerative colitis

• H. pylori infection

• Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)

• Candida overgrowth

• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Impaired gut health and gastrointestinal conditions can cause systemic inflammation, and impair your immune system (remember, 80% of your immune system is located in your gut).

Supporting a healthy gut microbiome and resolving GI issues can result in improvements in rosacea. General strategies to promote a healthy gut microbiome include:

• Explore your gut health (get tested)

  • Address microbiome imbalances and infections

  • Resolve impaired digestion

• Diet

  • Consume a fiber-rich diet

    • Prebiotics and resistant starch

  • Include probiotics

    • Fermented foods (if not histamine sensitive)

      • Yogurt

      • Sauerkraut

      • Pickled vegetables

      • Kefir

      • Kimchi

    • Supplements

  • Eat an anti-inflammatory diet

Other nutrients that may be beneficial for rosacea include:

• Omega 3 fatty acids (anti-inflammatory)

  • Salmon and fish, and fish oils

  • Seaweed and sea vegetables (marine sources)

  • Eggs

  • Walnuts (if not histamine sensitive)

  • Flaxseed

  • Supplements

• Zinc (important for the immune system, acts as an antioxidant, and is anti-inflammatory):

  • Beef

  • Lamb

  • Turkey

  • Pumpkin seeds

  • Lentils

  • Garbanzo beans

  • Quinoa

Stress can make rosacea worse, therefore stress management is an important piece of the puzzle for symptom improvement as well.

Clinical Pearls:

Your skin is your largest organ. It protects your body, makes vitamin D, is important for detoxification, and much more.

Your gut microbiome is your second largest organ, and gut dysfunction can cause skin problems.

Addressing Psoriasis

Photo credit: Breakingpic

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is an autoimmune condition that targets the skin, and plaques that result commonly show up on the elbows, knees, or scalp, but the plaques can show up anywhere on the body.

Normally your body produces new skin cells and sheds old ones every 28-30 days.

With psoriasis, your immune system is in overdrive, causing skin inflammation and skin cell turnover to occur faster than normal.

Instead of taking 28-30 days for skin cells to turnover, new cells are pushed to the surface in 3-4 days.

Because your body can’t shed the old dead cells as fast as new ones are being produced, they pile up and form thick, red, itchy, flaky, scaly patches called plaques, which may burn and sting.

The exact cause of psoriasis is unknown. There are various factors involved, however, and when they occur together, they result in autoimmunity and, for some people, the symptoms of psoriasis. 

There is scientific evidence that psoriasis is associated with differences in the gut microbiome when compared to the microbiomes of healthy individuals without psoriasis.

These differences can negatively impact the immune system by triggering specific, inflammatory immune responses.

These identified gut microbiome / immune system interactions suggest that by addressing gut microbiome imbalances, you can effectively address and manage psoriasis.

There is also long-standing scientific evidence that leaky gut plays a role.

What can you do?

There are a variety of nutrient needs common with skin conditions like psoriasis, including omega 3 fish oils, zinc, vitamin B2, niacin, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin D. Eating foods rich in these nutrients, and others that are important for skin health, is paramount for healthy skin.

Think food first! If you want to supplement, test don’t guess! All nutrients work together in the body. Supplementing with individual nutrients can push others out of balance and cause additional problems.

Because psoriasis is associated with leaky gut, avoiding foods that contribute to gut hyperpermeability can help, including:

• Gluten

• Alcohol

• Nightshades (tomatoes, white potatoes, peppers [spicy, bell, etc.]), eggplant)

• Food additives

  • Sugar

  • Salt

  • Emulsifiers (found in processed baked goods, dairy, mayonnaise, sauces, ice cream, margarine, and convenience foods)

  • Organic solvents (used to produce edible oils like soy oil and are found as additives like stabilizers, preservatives, and flavorings)

  • Microbial transglutaminase (used in baked goods and conventionally raised/produced meat, fish and dairy for texture, appearance, hardness, preservability, and elasticity)

  • Nanoparticles (used to improve taste, color, uniformity and texture of foods, used in food packaging, or to kill bacteria)

Your skin is a detox organ, and adequate detoxification is important for healthy skin.

Toxin buildup that can’t be excreted via regular routes (liver to the bowels) can make its way out through the skin, causing flares. 

This can happen when phase 1 liver detox is pushed too hard, when phase 2 isn’t working as well as it should, and when there are gut problems.

In particular, it’s essential to have a bowel movement 1-3 times every day. If you’re not, addressing constipation is critical!

Diet plays a role in detox too, and there are a variety of nutrients necessary for supporting your body's detox pathways. Including foods in your diet rich in these nutrients is a good first step to improving detox function.

The skin has its own microbiome that needs to be addressed, and the skin microbiome also plays a role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. There are various topical options to help support your skin microbiome and some that you should avoid.

Exercise, getting enough sleep, and stress management are examples of lifestyle factors that play a major role in your skin and overall health.