Healing My Acne Through My Gut

I can’t believe I’m writing this, because I can finally say it! I’ve struggled with acne for a long time now, but I’ve finally healed it through healing my gut.

NOTE: I am not a healthcare professional. This is all based on my own personal experience working 1-1 with a registered dietitian and receiving specific testing. I will be saying the supplements I used, but not the dosing as it is very individualized and must be given by a provider.

Onset of Acne

I won’t go too in depth into my acne experience, because I have a whole post dedicated to it. To sum it up, I started developing acne over the summer, where it escalated into full-blown cystic acne in the fall and continued into the winter.

Starting out, I believed that my acne was due to hormonal imbalances. After all of my hormone levels came back perfectly balanced, I knew there was something else going on. That’s when I took a look at my gut and had a realization…

If you’ve been following the gut health journey, you’ll know that I had SIBO over the summer and went through multiple rounds of antibiotics. How convenient that my acne developed right after that?

I spent countless hours watching videos about different gut issues that can cause acne. I even took another SIBO breath test to see if it was lingering SIBO causing my acne, but it all came back normal. That’s when we had to step it up…

GI Map Test

Before I explain all of the gut testing I went through, I want to explain the connection between the gut and skin conditions. The exact link isn’t totally known yet, but it has to do with inflammation in your gut causing a systemic reaction in the body, manifesting through the skin. This can look like acne, eczema, rosacea, or more. Not everyone with poor gut health will experience skin conditions, it just depends on the person.

Now that I understood that connection, it was time to get to the root cause. That’s when I turned to the GI Map Test. This is a comprehensive test that uses a stool sample to look at bacteria, parasites, fungi, yeast, etc. in the gut. Of course no test is perfect, but it’s a great starting point to see what issues are arising.

This test can be pricey, which is why I put it off for so long. After countless supplements with no benefit seen, I finally bit the bullet. I figured that I was wasting more money on supplements that could be used for this test. I worked with a dietitian to get mine, which I would 100% recommend.

The GI Map is an intense test in the sense that the results can be overwhelming. There is no way you can interpret the results without the help of a trained healthcare professional, so that’s definitely a must in the process. The results of mine were quite interesting…

Results and Plan

The results of my GI Map test revealed that I had H. Pylori, lack of beneficial bacteria, an overgrowth of opportunistic bacteria, and a gluten sensitivity. Quite a lot to process… My dietitian came up with a 60-day gut healing protocol for me, which is how I helped my gut and acne.

Again, this is why it’s important to work with a provider, because how would I even know where to start? Let’s start with the H. Pylori, which is an infection where this particular bacteria overgrows in your stomach. It can cause diarrhea, gas, abdominal pain, skin issues in my case, and left untreated can cause stomach ulcers. I suspect that it developed from my prolonged use of antibiotics.

This was definitely the top concern for me. H. Pylori is typically treated with a variety of antibiotics, but I wanted to avoid those since they’re what got me here in the first place. My dietitian and I went with using mastic gum to take care of the H. Pylori, which is a substance that comes from mastic trees and is incredibly effective in treating H. Pylori.

Some of the bacteria that were overgrown for me were Bacillus spp. and Streptococcus spp., which are typically linked with skin conditions and constipation. I took a supplement called GI Microb-X to eradicate the bacteria causing my symptoms. For the lack of beneficial bacteria, I started a probiotic to try and encourage growth.

As for the gluten, the only thing to do for that is to eliminate it from the diet. For reference, the normal range of the gluten protein, gliadin, is 0-157, and mine was 282. I removed gluten from my diet because I was truly at the point to try anything. I’m also at the point in my journey with food where I know that I can do something like this if it can have a real benefit for my skin and gut. If you’re struggling with disordered eating, I would not recommend going on any kind of restrictive diet or cutting out food groups.

Some other supplements I used were a biofilm disruptor called Interfase, which basically just gets any bacteria that may be hiding in your system and aggravates them so that the supplements can work more effectively. I also took GI Detox, which is a binder to remove the bacteria so they’re not just wandering through the GI tract.

The Results

So…what happened? I can happily say that my acne has improved tremendously from this protocol! It’s nowhere near perfect and I still have lots of scarring and hyperpigmentation, but I feel better about it. I have blog posts coming up focusing solely on what did and didn’t help my acne, so stay tuned.

As for my gut, it’s still a work in process. My digestion definitely has improved, but it’s not where I want it to be. I think there may still be some underlying issues to work through, but at least my skin has cleared up. I’ll most likely get another GI Map done in the future to see what’s going on.

Again, this is what worked for me, but it may not work for you. Please, work with a professional to get the results you need and a customized treatment plan. I know how frustrating this can be, so I’m here for you every step of the way.

xoxo