From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
What’s the largest body organ? Your Skin!! Who Knew?
You skin is working 24/7 to protect your internal organs from a harsh outer environment. But what happens when skin is injured or weak or compromised?
Healthy skin has miraculous restorative abilities that I’m sure you’ve witnessed many times throughout your life. On the other hand, unhealthy skin can be both the cause and outward manifestation of illness. And, for better or worse, let’s not forget the value that society places on the aesthetic value of smooth, healthy skin.
There is no practical way to avoid all the toxins in the environment. You would have to live the rest of your life in a hermetically sealed suit (and it would be a short life since you couldn’t eat or drink.) Fortunately, it’s not so bad because there are ways to avoid and counteract many toxins and pollutants.
Your Sources of Protection
Organ systems that protect your body are the skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, lymph, and colon. Under normal circumstances, the skin and lungs along with the rest of the body are performing detox functions every minute of every day in an orchestration worthy of Carnegie Hall. But by far, the skin is the largest detox organ.
But just like every other organ and system in the body, nutrient building blocks are required. Protecting the skin, lungs, colon, liver, kidneys, and lymph system can be done effectively and naturally, with vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids.
Creating A Detox Strategy
Doctors deny the necessity of external forms of detoxification – maybe because they think these 6 organs have it all under control? Or more likely they don’t even consider detox beyond what is offered to drug addicts and alcoholics. I certainly learned nothing about how to support the body’s detox systems when I was in med school.
Added to the lack of medical awareness of detoxification is the incredible escalation of chemical toxins – apparently, we’re exposed to hundreds of thousands of chemicals that are not our friends. These chemicals can hide in ultraprocessed foods, medications and drinking water.
What’s In A Skin
The average adult has about eight pounds (3.6 kilograms), or about 22 square feet (2 square meters) of skin. It’s exposed directly to the sun, wind, rain and snow but for the most part keeps its shape and integrity. To do so, it needs water and nutrients.
Hydration
Adequate hydration is the cornerstone of well-nourished skin. Clinical studies show that higher water intake as part of your regular diet will positively impact normal skin structure and function. But it’s not just water – it’s water and the minerals that are supposed to be in water – which have been removed by water treatment plants or even your own water filters.
NOTE: Did you know that most bottled water is just distilled water or reverse osmosis water that has had all the life and minerals sucked out of it.
Because water can only enter cells if there are minerals in the cell, I recommend the following formula:
Measure your body weight in pounds. Divide that number in half and drink that many ounces of water a day. to each liter of drinking water, add ¼ tsp of a good quality sea salt. That means a sea salt that’s not pure white but that has some color to it.
Proper Mineral and Vitamin Levels
Dietary supplements also play a major role in skin health. Making sure you get enough minerals and vitamins in your diet will help you skin, hair, and nails remain health and youthful. Vitamins and minerals also help reduce dark spots, red blotches, bruising, wrinkles, excessive dryness, and improve firmness and elasticity.
Magnesium
Magnesium is the most effective nutrient for tissue and cellular hydration. It actually attracts water.
Magnesium is the master mineral; it directs water into the cells – otherwise we end up with fluid retention and edema.
Zinc
Zinc and copper are essential minerals for skin, hair and nails. It’s an anti-inflammatory and a wound healer, which heals and prevents acne scarring. When you use zinc oxide sun screen, you’re giving your skin a beauty treatment.
Vitamin D
The most important practical use of Vitamin D in skin health is as an anti-inflammatory. Vitamin D can also normalize call turnover and prevent the buildup of dead cells on the skin’s surface that promotes psoriasis. Vitamin D also functions as a steroid, working within the cell’s nucleus to promote the proper structure and function of genes. The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends Vitamin D supplementation as a way to prevent skin cancer.
Vitamin C
The role of vitamin C in skin care is well known and exploited by the cosmetic industry. Its benefits include tissue repair, accelerated wound healing, eliminating bruising, increasing type I collagen synthesis, and improving the elasticity of the skin. It also helps to reduce the toxic burden of lead, mercury, and other heavy metals.
Omega-3
Omega-3 essential fatty acids provide essential building blocks for constructing cell membranes. They amp up collagen production and reduce stress and inflammation. Our formula also provides Vitamins A and E, which are antioxidants that promote healthy skin cell turnover. When EFAs are deficient, the skin becomes extremely dry, develops eczema, causes water loss and body wide symptoms.
Vitamin B Complex
Who knew that the B Vitamins have a role in skin health. A 2018 study found that the Bs could help the body produce healthy new skin cells. In a separate study, Vitamin B-3, or niacinamide, showed signs of reducing skin aging. It may also help reduce the appearance of age spots and other forms of skin discoloration. Vitamin B-5 (pantothenic acid), has been studied in the treatment of acne and to reduce skin aging. A randomized controlled trial from 2014 found that people who took a B-5 dietary supplement for 12 weeks saw significant reduction in acne and skin inflammation.
Sugar, Yeast, and Your Skin
We see what can promote skin health but let’s not forget one of the biggest skin detractors. Sugar. Sugar can feed yeast and cause a myriad of health conditions; it’s not your skin’s best friend. Candidasis is one of the biggest culprits in compromised skin health targeting the skin and gut lining with 78 toxins that can create skin eruptions such as psoriasis, eczema, acne, and all manner of skin rashes and inflammatory skin conditions. Eliminating processed sugars is essential to having healthy skin.
Is There Help for Hair?
Hair Loss for Men
Male pattern baldness occurs in many men. Nearly half of men experience some hair loss by age 35, and by age 45, more than 70% of men in one study showed evidence of hair loss. This fits with the experience of many men. Men start to notice their hair thinning and a receding hairline in their 30s, and by their 50s many are significantly bald. There are prescription medications and surgical hair restoration for the allopathically-minded.
However, ensuring that you have enough picometer-sized, stabilized ions of liquid magnesium, zinc, copper and multi minerals in your nutritional plan can encourage the development of the healthy structure, function, and reproduction of scalp and hair cells.
Hair Loss for Women
Hair loss in women is very much related to hormone imbalances -especially thyroid and iron deficiency (in younger women). Well-Picometer magnesium and multi minerals can stimulate thyroid hormone production. Also, if magnesium deficiency is the cause of your hair loss, then putting magnesium in its liquid form directly on your scalp will encourage the healthy structure, function, and reproduction of hair follicles. Omega-3 fatty acids are also an important hair-growth stimulant. And multiple vitamins like A and E are responsible for the hair growth process and the prevention of loss of the hair you have now.
Additionally, it’s little known that increased levels of insulin stimulate testosterone production. Elevated insulin occurs when you are on a high carb or sugar diet. When you eat sugar and carbs, insulin is released from the pancreas to drop your sugar down into a normal range. Any excess insulin that is not busy ushering sugar into the cells and is just hanging around will increase the production of testosterone. The newly formed testosterone will build up in the ovaries and adrenals and can cause abnormal hair growth on the face and hair loss from the scalp. It may also cause acne and backne (acne on the back).
So, reducing the amount of carbohydrates, sugar, and processed food in your diet along with insuring that you are getting adequate minerals can help you improve the structure and function of your scalp and hair cells.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
