What is the Skin/Brain/Gut health connection?
Dr Jasmine Talei says everything that happens in the gut is connected to all sorts of different systems. She starts by looking to see if your body can digest food and if your body is able to absorb the nutrients, because these provide the fuel for your brain, for your skin and basically everything in the body. It’s important to know if you are able to excrete toxins from your body.
Jasmine says our neurotransmitters are mostly made in our gut. Our serotonin, dopamine and more are made in the gut. So, if we do not have good bacteria to fuel our system, we may be unable to produce what our bodies need to be healthy.
Often, we have a certain bad bacterium in our gut. We might have pathogens, parasites, fungal overgrowth, and those can become a burden to the gut, and we are not able to produce those neurotransmitters to feel good, to function well, to be productive.
Does what we eat affect our gut health?
What we eat plays such an important role in our gut/brain/skin health. And its specific to the individual.
Here are a couple of ways you can figure out what does not work for you specifically.
· Specific elimination diets
· Food sensitivity test, which tell you which specific foods you have a sensitivity to. Which foods are creating an inflammatory response?
There are certain foods to avoid when it comes to overall health, like don’t eat processed foods, don’t eat foods where you don’t understand the ingredients.
In general there are 3 big food sensitivities.
1. Dairy – most people can’t digest dairy which can cause inflammation for many people.
2. Gluten – especially with all the glyphosates that they spray it with
3. Eggs – not that eggs are bad, it s that many people have a sensitivity to them.
So food sensitivity test are great for identify what foods your specific body is reacting to.
What is leaky gut and intestinal permeability?
Jasmine says that we basically have this intact intestinal mucosa that acts as a barrier, that allows the body to identify the self, verses non-self, when it becomes “leaky” as they say, these toxins and bacteria from the gut go into your blood stream and they create all sorts of different symptoms. They create, bloating, gas, frequent headaches, fatigue, and you see it in the skin. Our skin is a mirror for what’s going on inside of the body.
The longer this intestinal damage occurs the greater the destruction of these intestinal tight junctions. So, its important to identify and address these food sensitivities.
Jasmine enjoys playing detective when it comes to skin issues. And stresses the importance of getting to the importance of getting to the root cause of the issue and symptoms. She notes that its important for us to pay attention to and listen to our bodies. When we do, they will tell us somethings wrong. Our bodies are smart, and they will give us clues.
Chronic acne is something Jasmine sees quite often in her practice. The first thing she looks at is how is your gut functioning? There’s so much more to acne than a clean face, which is also important. But knowing what’s going on in your gut is so important. Do you have toxin overload? Are you having regular bowel movements every day? We do not talk about taking a poop everyday and its so important that we are getting rid of these toxins every day.
Things that might be causing constipation
· Stress – Are you living with stress and anxiety every day?
· Is it the way you are eating?
· Is it from a past trauma?
There are so many different things that could be going on in our gut.
Another important note is gut health is so important for female hormone balance. So if your not able to digest properly and detox properly you are basically holding onto this estrogen. And we have an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone then you can see issues occur in your skin. And our hormones are thrown off.
So, literally everything is dependent on our gut health. Its important to ensure that our detoxification pathways are working.
· Urination- drinking enough water so we can urinate properly, and you’re not dehydrated.
· Bowel movements – should happen daily.
· Sweating is huge – we need to sweat to get rid of the toxins.
Also supporting the organs of detoxification, like the liver. Eating well is the best way to support the liver. Because if your liver isn’t working well, then your detoxification pathways are hindered.
Dr. Talei is against big detox processes for the liver or body. Mostly because if the gut isn’t healed, we can be sending the toxins to the brain or even into the blood system. Its important to get your gut health and your body on the right track before doing any big detoxing.
What are signs in our bodies or on our skin that might be telling us something is going on?
· Red skin
· Random pimples
· Itchy skin/hives
· Fingernails – tell you something is shifting in your hormonal health.
· Dry skin – tells us about our gut and thyroid.
Mold in the home can create these fungal colonies in your body, which can come out as a rash. Like heat rash can be a big indicator there is a fungal issue in the gut. Its not always the case, but it can be.
Ladies did you know it’s possible to not have period cramps? What we eat makes a difference. It can help heal us and support our systems.
What are some foods, in general, we should be bringing into our diet?
Anything bitter before or after eating signals to your brain and to your digestive system, we are about to eat, secrete digestive enzymes, so I can chew my food, digest it and absorb what I’m eating. We need those bitters to digest our food.
Try these bitters: arugula, dandelion, watercress, radicchio, endive and kale.
Cilantro: great for detoxification
Good Fats: Avocados are great for your liver.
Cooking Oils: knowing the melting point of oils allows you to kind of “bio hack” these oils.
· High Heat: Coconut and Avocado oil
· Low Heat: Olive Oil
Butter Replacement: Ghee
Now let’s talk about Sugar.
Sugar is addictive but there is also this thing called food science where they create foods your body will like and enjoy. Which can create an addiction response to those foods. So the more you eat the more you want.
So coming off sugar, you want to do more high protein meals and cut out sugar. Dr. Talei recommends if you have candida, a high rate of fungus in the body – eliminate sugar, and foods that turn into sugar, and food that feed sugar. Jasmine says its hard, but it works and you see real results and then your body adjusts. Its hard because fungus wants sugar – its craving sugar because its, its fuel. Once you kill the fungus its not as difficult to go without sugar.
Dr. Talei says if you really want to eat cake, eat cake, but have a hand full of nuts with it, or some kind of protein to stabilize the blood sugar.
Just remember everything that happens in the gut is connected to many different systems, so you may want to follow that cake with a few veggies and grains.
Connect with Dr. Jasmine Talei on Instagram or Beverly Hills Natural Medicine
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