All right do you often get bloated or have an upset stomach or get constipation or things like that and also have leaky gut syndrome along with acne, then believe me you are at the right place. In this article, I will explain to you exactly what it is and why it causes acne and I will also explain step by step guide what you can do and what I did to heal it and get rid of the acne that comes with leaky gut syndrome.

 Step-by-Step Guide to Fix Acne and Leaky Gut Syndrome: Personal Experience

So if you have acne the likelihood is that you have some form of leaky gut syndrome as well. In one study of 114 people, they found that 61 patients have either the first or second impaired bacterial microflora. 54% of the patients in that study who had acne also had an imbalance of bacteria in the gut AKA leaky gut syndrome this means that over 50% of people who have acne might also have leaky gut syndrome that might be you. Most likely, you've looked in the mirror for many hours, wondering why those annoying pimples won't go away. You've attempted every diet, supplement, and weight-loss craze known to man, only to be disappointed. It's probably time to go past your skincare routine and into your digestive system.

My Picture with Acne due to Poor Diet

What is Acne: 

When we talk about common skin problems, Acne takes the top spot, acne has affected thousands of people worldwide. This usually comes when hair follicles are blocked due to oil excreting from the skin and dead skin cells, and comes out in the form of black or whiteheads, cysts, and pimples. Acne can cause discomfort and self-consciousness in certain people. There are so many causes this acne could occur like…..during pregnancy, hormonal changes, puberty, lifestyles and diet

What is leaky gut syndrome and why does it cause acne:

Your intestines have a barrier or a lining of adjoining cells locked into place with something called tight junctions that only allow good things to pass through them into your bloodstream. While keeping the bad things inside of your intestines which eventually will run down and you're going to poop out. So leaky gut syndrome is when those tight junctions loosen and allow unwanted things to pass through like antigens bad bacteria and toxins all into your blood and this causes massive inflammation in the body, which causes other health problems and ultimately it causes acne leaky gut syndrome. The largest organ in your body is your skin which is closely related to your intestines. Your face may display signs of distress when your intestines are battered and swollen. Those bothersome pimples may be your body's method of alerting you to an inside issue. This means that these are the chemicals that want to come out, and they come out in the form of breakouts and Acne. Therefore acne occurs due to hormonal imbalance, leaky gut, constipation, and the body's inability to continue with detoxification.

Why Leaky Gut Syndrome Occurs:

The main two culprits of the leaky gut syndrome are simple the first is an imbalance of gut bacteria, where there are more bad bacteria in comparison to good bacteria. this could leads to bloating, gas pain. Because overgrown bad bacteria can inflame the gut lining which then leads to leaky gut syndrome and acne.

The second thing is inflammation of the gut and that comes from the things that we eat and the things that we ingest. I know you've experienced this before you know you eat something that doesn't agree with you, your belly gets super bloated super hard painful feels like you have to fart but you can't. Here I would like to tell a personal story, during school days my pimples were at their worst. I had some medications related to this but nothing seems to work for me. I felt hopeless and annoyed. Then, a close friend advised me to see a nutritionist who specialised in gut fitness. There I learned about leaky gut syndrome and the cause of pimples on my skin mainly due to bad bacteria that were coming through my unhealthy diet and causing inflammation in my gut and resulted in leaky gut syndrome. I had to change my lifestyle and diet.

The journey wasn't easy. I had to surrender some of my preferred meals, like pizza and ice cream, and start eating more complete foods, along with results, greens, and lean proteins. But as I stuck to the plan, I started noticing modifications, my pores were healing and skin was getting cleaner and I felt more energetic, I felt awesome.

So based on this information, we need to do that, one reduce inflammation and two increase the amount of good bacteria.  So to increase good bacteria, we have to take probiotics and prebiotics. They contain living microorganisms that are beneficial to the host's health. Upon ingestion they provide a protective shield across the intestinal mucosa, we can introduce good bacteria by either taking a probiotic supplement which usually comes in a pill form or we can eat any fermented food.

How Acne and Gut are interconnected:

In this current world, you cannot get away without exposing to chemicals or toxins in your diet, and due to this our microbiome gets compromised due to lack of enough supply of healthy nutrition so those toxins get in our blood easily and cause infection which could be systemic or unexplained one such as lethargy, anxiety, sensitivities about certain foods and fever etc. 

 

How did I cure my acne and leaky gut syndrome:

Improved Skin Conditions after following healthy Diet

So when I first started trying to heal my leaky gut syndrome. I made a rule where I had one fermented food each day and I aimed for something like two to four servings so that I could maintain a balanced diet daily. So some really good fermented foods are kimchi sauerkraut pickles, vegetables, and yogurts, which could give you good probiotics bacteria.

Now prebiotics are plant fibers that feed your good bacteria and your probiotics are the actual good bacteria. Prebiotics just feed that good bacteria so that it can grow and you can have more of it. Prebiotic food is any food that has fiber in it so things, like whole grains you know as brown rice quinoa, oats vegetables, and fruits.  Anything that has fiber is going to feed that good bacteria, now as per Statistics on American adults and children found that most of them do not eat the recommended amount of fiber in their daily diets, if probiotics are the good bacteria and Prebiotic fiber is the food that helps them grow you can see why so many people struggle with leaky gut syndrome.  Because people don't even have enough fiber, there's no food for the good bacteria.

The recommended daily allowance of fiber is 25 G although that is just a minimum, it's also really important that we reduce the bad bacteria, as dermatologists usually prescribe antibiotics to patients with acne and I know this because I was on an Antibiotics for way too long and it didn't do anything for me. Antibiotics destroy all kinds of bacteria not just the bad kind. According to a study, patients treated with a probiotic had improved clinical outcomes and reported fewer side effects than from the standard antibiotics.

 I wish my doctor had informed me more about all this stuff because I had a whole bunch of other problems that came from using antibiotics and I wish I would have just used probiotics and just improved the balance of good and bad bacteria right?

 How do we reduce bad bacteria and Inflammation in the gut:

It is super simple we just need to be mindful of how we eat, how high sugar and high-fat foods with chemicals and preservatives processed foods alcohol all of that stuff causes inflammation of the gut and allow the bad bacteria to grow and Thrive.  Now I know when I was looking at this at first I was kind of scared because I didn't really want to make any changes to my diet but luckily when you are eating more, probiotics (using polyphenols-rich foods and drinks those are bright in color help to grow probiotic population to fix leaky gut), Prebiotic plant fibers and fermented foods you will notice the difference within a matter of few weeks, we just need to be a bit more careful about the other things that we eat.

Adding minerals and electrolytes helps eliminate harmful toxins from the system and helps to keep your skin healthy and infection-free. Drinking water on its own is sometimes not enough so adding some things that have good minerals and electrolytes would be beneficial, all available in our kitchen in the form of sea salt, lemon honey, etc.

If you drink more alcohol drink then try to drink less often a little,  if you eat lots of fast food reduce it and try to cook for yourself more often at home. Changes happen slowly, you do not need to change everything straight away, see the results, and then plan for further changes.  When I had my acne at its very worst I was covered with 2-3 pimples every single day, blackheads everywhere my face was always red and my diet was not right. I was a big fan of milk, excessive protein mainly bars full of sugar, coffee with artificial sugar (I like sweet in everything) and that's just the start, snacking on candies, and cheese and eating all the weird products, but no whole foods.

Mindfulness and Holistic activities:

In Asia, there is a common saying about foods- feels what you eat by their texture, taste, and smell because your mind will tell you just by looking into certain foods that those are not good for your health.

Avoid Eating when you are emotional because your emotional state affects your gut microbiome. So reducing stress and increasing overall satisfaction and joy in your life will help improving your leaky gut as well.

 Stress and Anxiety significantly reduce gut microbiome diversity in addition favorable social environments such as higher socioeconomic status and social integration have been linked to increased gut microbiota.

Getting enough sleep is also very important as 7-8 hours of sleep is recommended to allow your body to heal.

Regular exercise is very crucial as well along with good sleep and diet. Research suggests that any form of exercise usually helps with healthy circulation, and provides psychological boots that could support to healthy gut.

Psychological traits such as openness are also associated with increased gut microbiome diversity. We need to focus on achieving long-term goals that cause us a release of Serotonin and ultimately satisfaction which means that prioritizing self-care practices and things that relieve stress in our weekly routine is as important as eating

Go with those skin products that would not damage your pores remain gentle on your skin and have more natural ingredients.

You can not dismiss the use of herbs and specific plants, and how these can improve your gut microbiome and ultimately your leaky gut. So there are quite a few different plants and herbs and fungi to cover but I'm going to talk about the two most researched right, so firstly let's talk about mushrooms. One study says mushrooms were found to modulate gut microbiota and beneficial to the gut by stimulating the production of catechol amines. The second I wanted to talk about is trifala and polyphenols shown improvement in gut health by increasing the production of good bacteria and lactobacillus.

Disclaimer: This outcome is just based on my ways of dealing with leaky gut syndrome and acne and I have found the results but this might be not for you. So if you are not sure what to do then please seek help/guidance from a doctor, dermatologist, or nutritionist to have a more tailored plan that could suit your gut and skin.

 

So How did I change my diet:

I started consuming more whole foods, avoiding dairy and dairy products, drinking more water, yogurts, no juice, and coffee without sugar and milk but in tea, I was taking one teaspoon.  I focused on taking my protein through foods rather than protein bars, with once-a-day protein powder. Here are some of the things that I have drawn from various research papers eat protein first in your meals because this stimulates stomach acid production.

Wait until 30 minutes after you finish your meal, before drinking fluid because if you drink a lot of water or liquid while you're eating you're diluting your stomach acid. Further, chew more thoroughly and also enjoy your last meal a few hours before bed so that you have time to digest.

Above all, avoid taking artificial sugar as per one study on the enrichment of bacterial pro-inflammatory genes and disruption in fecal metabolites suggests that six months of daily intake of sucralose consumption may increase the risk of developing tissue inflammation by disrupting the gut microbiota which is supported by elevated pro-inflammatory gene expression in the liver. So basically that quote says even when you're eating an acceptable amount of calorie-free artificial sweeteners like Splenda it's causing tons of inflammation in the gut it's helping the bad bacteria overgrow and ultimately it's causing leaky gut

Eventually, when I started to change my diet my acne very quickly started improving and that's what I'm hoping will happen for you as well,  that being said improving leaky gut syndrome is not an overnight fix it takes time it takes patience, so do your best with the info I've given you and pay attention to how your body and your skin reacts to it.  

 

Conclusion:

You don't have to be perfect, improving overall gut health, and fixing leaky gut and acne could take time and patience. Everyone is different so as their body, what works for one, probably would not work for others. This was my approach to fix the problem, you need to find your approach to fix this and if you notice improvements in your acne then keep it going you're slowly uncovering your makeup of why you have acne and or leaky gut

FAQ:

Can poor gut health cause acne?

When your body stores too many toxins and your intestinal walls and microbiome are struggling to deal with excessive toxins, causing leaky gut, and when your gut struggles to take action against toxins,  then it comes from the skin surface as breakouts called acne?

What does leaky gut do to your face?

Produce breakouts and rashes on skin and face

What is the gut test for acne?

Stool test to analyse the microbiome, quantities of good and bad bacteria, parasites and yeast.

Can you smell a leaky gut?

There is no way to detect leaky gut through smell

Is coffee bad for leaky gut?

Coffee could triggers the symptoms and result as stomach pain and diarrhoea.