We ALL have Skin in THIS Game!

What's our biggest organ? I remember the jokes that went along with this question in high school science class but also the real answer: skin. Here's another old joke from even further back in elementary school, "YOUR EPIDERMIS IS SHOWING!" Remember that one?

For those who know my work, you realize that my mission is to help people care for their brains every day in order to optimize wellness and performance. So what does skin have to do with it?

The main function of the epidermis is to act as a physical, chemical, and antimicrobial defense system. This large organ of ours can be considered both a barrier and a pathway for stress-causing agents found in our environment. Studies have shown that stress impairs the integrity and protective function of that barrier, which leads to a decrease in antimicrobial peptides that are produced in the skin and an increase in infection and inflammation in the skin.

Skin is also a great communicator as its condition and sensations often let us know about how our "internal environment" (referring to the health of our body's systems) is doing. Irritations, dry skin, breakouts, calluses, rashes, and more are signals to us that something is off inside. It lets us know if our internal environment is stressed. Some scientists who understand the brain:skin connection talk about the "nervous breakdown of the skin" as it expresses the chronically high cortisol in the brain and body. In response to the rise in people coming to me with anxiety- and depression-like symptoms during this time when our air quality is deemed incredibly unhealthy, I wanted to share how the research also shows that absorbing environmental stress through the skin can reach the brain and manifest in the kind of inflammation that creates anxiousness and a sense of despair.

Our skin serves us as an alert system when things have gone too far into unhealthy space. Dehydration, high cortisol, malnutrition, etc. all show up as a skin condition if left unchecked for too long. Until recently, we simply diagnosed a skin condition as a skin condition and left it at that. Consider these truths, though:

Greater than 70M Americans struggle with digestive disorders, 1 in 4 struggle with skin conditions, and 1/4 of a BILLION people around the Globe are struggling with depression. The common denominator: inflammation in the microbiome of the gut and skin.

What creates inflammation and the consequent unhealthy microbiome? According to Dr. Doris Day (for real...great name, eh?), a leading dermatologist and professor at NYU, our internal environment is impacted by external environmental toxins (aka SMOKE-FILLED, polluted AIR), antibiotics, inadequate sleep all modulate microbiotic environments.

Dr. Day identifies depression as an "antioxidant defense system disorder". She points out that,

Approximately 30% of patients with skin disorders suffer from a comorbid psychological condition such as depression or anxiety. Skin biopsies from patients with depression show higher levels of oxidative stress. There is no immediate fix between inflammatory diseases related to the gut and brain axis, but managing skin health holistically with more nutritious foods and decreasing stress provides a better path towards gut, skin, and brain health.

We are very concerned about our environmental issues yet we tend to neglect the environment we actually have control over. We can take charge of our internal environment through the Gut:Brain:Skin Axis. We can lower our internal stress which then lessens our experience with depression, anxiety, and all kinds of illnesses.

According to the International Journal of Molecular Sciences:

The relationship between psychological stress and inflammatory skin diseases seems to be bi-directional with stress exacerbating skin inflammation and skin inflammation leading to neuropsychiatric comorbidities. Potentially, this can result in a vicious cycle, in which acute stress negatively affects skin inflammation, which in turn raises anxiety [20]. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms

I never like to give information like this without providing some easy-to-implement strategies to help, of course.

*From the gut to the skin: start with nourishing your skin with increased hydration and unprocessed, nutrient-rich foods. I know you know: fruits, veggies, eggs, quality fish. Eliminate sugar and alcohol for a while. Consult with a specialized nutritionist on which probiotic or prebiotic is best for you.

*From the skin to the brain: sunscreen, neuro-cosmetics that have open labels, peptide-enriched creams, simple and all-natural body lotions and cleansers. Reduce time in direct sun even with sunscreen but spend time immersed in nature as the skin and entire system calms down when surrounded by trees.

*From the brain to the skin: READ MY PREVIOUS POSTS & NEWSLETTERS to discover cortisol-lowering techniques that you can do within a couple of minutes!

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