“All disease begins in the gut.”
Gut health plays a crucial role in the health and appearance of your skin. The connection between the gut and the skin is often referred to as the gut-skin axis. A balanced and healthy gut microbiome can lead to clear, radiant skin, while an imbalance in gut bacteria can manifest as skin issues such as acne, eczema, or psoriasis.
To promote healthy skin, it’s essential to maintain a diverse and thriving gut microbiome through a balanced diet, probiotics, and prebiotics. Taking care of your gut can lead to a beautiful complexion!
You have several organs of detoxification including the liver, kidneys, and lungs. When one of these organs becomes overwhelmed they look to help from another organ such as the skin. Rashes, bumps, acne, redness on the skin can all be signs your body is overwhelmed with toxins and your skin is helping with the burdon of detoxification.
Although these symptoms may not be pretty, know that your body is doing what it’s supposed to do in an attempt to heal. Symptoms are a way of the body communicating to us something is off balance and needs our attention.
You’ve heard of the saying “you are what you eat,” Ayurveda has a saying “you are what you can digest.” When food is not digested properly or hangs around in the gut too long it can ferment, cause bacterial overgrowth, and increase the body’s toxic load. This is even true for healthy food if it’s too difficult for your body to digest.
We live in a world of convenience where food is usually highly processed, and loaded with refined sugar, and unhealthy fats. Although fast and easy meals are convenient for our busy lifestyle it’s often detrimental to our health. Besides poor diet and lifestyle choices other factors such as antibiotics, excessive stress, irregular meal times, eating on the go, eating foods that are difficult to digest, poor food combining, and raw diets, are some of the things that can lead to a stressed digestive system.
Ayurveda also big on digestive teas, such as CCF (cumin, coriander, and fennel,) and using digestive spices in meals.
Sometimes making the smallest changes to your diet and lifestyle can have a big impact on your gut health. And remember you don’t have to be perfect! Practice the 80/20 rule where you eat well at least 80% of the time, but you allow yourself a little indulgence here and there without guilt!
Ayurveda recommends a cleanse twice a year, in the spring and fall. During this time a mono diet is usually eaten such as kitchari (organic white rice and spices) and plenty of digestive teas and sometimes herbal supplements. Ayurvedic cleanses are meant to be gentle on the body using easy to digest foods that allow for the gut to rest and heal itself.
When digestive health is restored all other organ systems in the body are likely to follow, including your skin. Try implementing some of these techniques into your daily life and see how your health and wellness improve.
Please note the information here is from an Ayurvedic perspective and is for informative purposes only. Always consult a medical professional before starting a new diet or exercise plan.

