What do our earth’s soil, skin, and gut have in common? More than you might think. It turns out that the skin of our earth is its very soil. Our skin, soil, and gut microbiome are synonymous with one another and have many parallels. Regenerative farming heals our guts and creates healthy soil at the same time. Regenerative skin care practices create healthy skin and harmonize with holistic living.
What Is The Soil, Gut-Skin Connection?
Health and well-being become impossible to achieve without a healthy microbiome. These invisible little things are nonnegotiable to life. There are countless reasons to get right with our gut microbiome. Ultimately, we have the microbiome we deserve through what is in our soil, our food, and our skin care products.
The Soil, Gut-Skin Connection
There is a community of tiny invisible microorganisms that live everywhere including our soil, skin, and internal gut by the trillions. These bacteria must be of the beneficial kind or they will wreak havoc on our health in countless ways.
Gut
Poor microbiome health in our guts includes an impaired immune system, metabolism, mood, mental clarity, libido, endocrine/hormone regulation, and relentless sugar cravings.
Soil
Soil with a bad microbiome will not be capable of producing much and will be constantly infested by predatory insects and will erode easily.
Skin
Skin that does not have an intact acid mantle and no beneficial microbiome suffers from rashes, acne, premature aging, rosacea, eczema, increased sun sensitivity, and hyperpigmentation.
What Can Regenerative Farming Teach Us About Skin?
Industrial farming began around 1920. Conventional skin care began when chemical peels became popular around 1960. Let’s reflect on what we have learned since then:
It turns out that regenerative farming principles are applicable to regenerative skin care. We would be wise to extend this wisdom into our spas and dermatology offices.
A garden that is deprived of water and nutrients will never be vibrant just like our skin. A gut microbiome that is deprived of proper nutrition will never be healthy. Yet conventional skin care practices perpetuate exactly these things.
Soil, skin, and our gut require nutrients and water to sustain life. They also require protection. Both skin and soil need protection from harsh winds and sun and our guts require protection from bad nutrition.
Our soil, skin, and guts can get toxified when natural function is disabled. Weeds and rocks are like the gunk that builds up in our skin.
I have spent about 20 years removing blackheads and skin gunk from troubled skin which gave me a lot of time to crack the secret code of why and how they form and most importantly how to prevent them.
There are no substitutions for food, water, protection, and the beneficial microbiome that is earned from clean unpoisoned soil, food, and skin care products. I have discovered that our skin, much like soil and our gut, is very thirsty, hungry, and filled with gunk.
How Does Our Skin Build Up With Toxins?
Conventional skin care is the equivalent of pesticides and industrial farming. Healthy soil cannot be achieved in this manner and the same is true for skin that is being exfoliated daily, scraped, disinfected, dried out, zapped, and injected. These practices actually shut down our skin’s natural ability to purify itself and thus it will self-congest with acne, blackheads, and clogged pores. Many people think that these things are caused by too much oil, bacteria, and skin cells but this is not true.
Our skin is filling up with gunk because we are unknowingly sabotaging our skin with dehydration, astringents, exfoliation, trauma, anxiety, disinfection, and withholding oil and Dermal Nutrients.
How Much Plastic Waste Does The Beauty Industry Produce?
In 2023 it was reported that beauty packaging amounts to 120 billion units of trash each year, including plastic, paper, glass, and metals that are improperly recycled and ultimately end up in landfills.
The contents of these containers are clogging our pores and the containers themselves are clogging our landfills, rivers, and oceans. I urge you to look for companies that are bringing plastic single-use containers to an end by not selling them.
It is critical that we eliminate toxic house and personal care products however the conversation is much deeper than this. The strategy of how we’re trying to heal our skin must shift away from the outdated “Dry to Fix” and “Harm to Heal” attempts and towards the “Nourish to Heal” strategy that gives way to meeting the root cause of acne and premature aging.
Final Thoughts On The Soil, Gut-Skin Connection
The good news and the bad news is that everything is connected and we are one. Our skin is a garden. We are what we eat. What are we growing and what is beautiful? Skin, soil, gut. Same, same, same.