Top 10 Secrets to Fabulous Looking Skin!

 Top 10 Secrets to Fabulous Looking Skin

Photo courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

1. Keep your gut bugs happy! Take a high-quality probiotic supplement can promote a healthy balance of gut flora and support your immune system.
2. Optimize your vitamin D levels – Vitamin D is crucial for establishing a healthy immune system and to help promote healthy-looking skin.
3. Eliminate sugar in your diet – Like grains, sugar causes an insulin spike which can lead to  skin break-outs and imperfections.
4. Avoid eating grains, especially wheat – Bread, cereal, pasta, rice, potatoes, and corn can cause surges in insulin production. Instead, eat vegetable sources of carbs, which your body digests easier.  Consider a gluten-free diet if you suffer from gluten intolerance, which may help you avoid toxins being pushed through your skin due to the intolerance.
5. Drink plenty of fresh pure water – Hydrating your body facilitates cell growth and regeneration, elimination of wastes, and helps remove dead skin cells.
6. Might you have hidden food allergies?  wheat, milk, egg, and soy are common foods that people are unknowingly sensitive to.  If you don't know, try eliminating all of these foods and sugar for 14 days to see if your skin clears.  If you aren't up to an elimination diet, ask for the IgG/IgE blood test.
7. Eliminate all sodas, juice, and energy drinks – These drinks mostly sugar, artificial flavoring, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and artificial colors. As far as juices, eat the whole fruit in moderation instead.
8. Reduce your stress & Get your sleep – Research suggests that changes in skin often correlate with increased stress. And your body's time for rejuvenating (including your skin!) is at night while you sleep.
9. Exercise regularly – Getting plenty of high-intensity exercise helps your body flush out toxins, including those in the pores of your skin. The more you sweat, the better your body can get rid of toxins and impurities
10. Naturally cleanse and moisturize your skin – Avoid toxic skin care products with risky chemical ingredients. They can cause more skin problems than they solve.   For non-toxic products, visit the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database.

Celiac Disease & Gluten Intolerance... What's up with wheat?

Have you been told you have "gluten-intolerance" or worse... that you have celiac disease?  Many people go for years without knowing the connection between gluten and their gastrointestinal symptoms, autoimmune disease (thyroiditis, arthritis, lupus etc), skin disorder (eczema, acne, psoriasis), and even neurological disorders (epilepsy, ADHD, autism, etc) 

What is gluten?

It's a protein found in wheat grain and part of "gluey" proline and glutamine rich proteins known as prolamines. Prolamines are found in all cereal grains, even rice, corn and oats. Gluten ingestion in susceptible individuals is assosiated with the serious neurological and autoimmune reactions often linked to autism spectrum disorder.  

Historically, we can see a large increase in chronic degenerative diseases, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and bone loss/tooth decay when societies start to increase intake of grains and especially wheat.  I have seen remarkable improvement in many patient's illnesses, especially skin disorders and autoimmune disease on a grain-free diet.

 Here is a must watch video from Peter Osborne, D.C. that does a very nice job of explaining the differences between gluten intolerance and celiac disease and explaining how this could be contributing to your symptoms...

If you want to know more about YOUR PERSONAL RISK, just ask Dr. Jill about how you can be tested for HLA typing DQ2/DQ8 genes to determine if you are at risk!