Holistic Ways To Improve Your Sensitive Skin

Do you suffer from sensitive and reactive skin? Sensitive skin issues range from minor redness, dryness and irritation to chronic eczema, psoriasis and rosacea. What most people find is that these issues are tricky to deal with and are rarely resolved with skincare alone. This is because sensitive skin, like many skin conditions, so often points to underlying systemic issues within your body. 

SIGNS OF SENSITIVE SKIN

The most common signs of sensitive skin include irritation on application of skincare, make up and haircare products, redness, bumps, itching, splotching, flaring, cracking, bleeding and and flaking skin. Eczema, rosacea and psoriasis are all common, chronic skin sensitivity issues. These issues can be minor and fluctuating to severe and hard to manage. 

Often those with sensitive skin go through years of trial and error with skincare, make up and topical pharmaceuticals in an effort to calm and restore their skin. For very reactive skin even some clean skincare, make up and haircare formulations can cause a reaction.  

Underlying causes for sensitive skin vary but always come back to stress on our internal systems - our gut, lymph, hormones etc - that begin outwardly showing on our skin. 

POSSIBLE TRIGGERS FOR SENSITIVE SKIN

Below we have outlined some of the most common triggers for sensitive and reactive skin, and these go much deeper than just what you're putting on your skin:

- leaky gut & gut infections (fungal, bacterial or parasitic)
- food sensitivities
- stagnant liver
- stagnant lymphatic system
- hormone imbalances
- anxiety & stress
- environmental toxicity (including skincare, make up & haircare products that can aggravate it)

These are some areas to explore when you are trying to find out the root cause of the issue. Blood and stool tests are helpful to assess where you are at with your gut health, inflammation & hormone levels.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR SENSITIVE SKIN

1. A detox to help reset your body, calm inflammation and deeply cleanse (we love Dr. Alejandro Junger's 'Clean Program' or Dr. Will Cole's 'The Inflammation Spectrum' books for awesome detox guidance). Your detox should include an elimination diet to find out if food sensitivities are affecting you (dairy & gluten are obvious ones but also nuts, seeds, eggs, night shades...). It will help you pinpoint what foods could potentially be causing issues for you, while giving you body additional cleansing support, helping you to balance your metabolic health, blood sugar and hormones.

2. Probiotics, enzymes, fermented foods, pearl powder & bone broth are all super additions to your daily routine for gut healing & skin health. We love making our own bone broth and keeping portions in the fridge to add to soups, stews, pasta and rice dishes etc. Bone broth will boost collagen and help with healing the gut. We also adore Sun Potion's Pearl Powder to add to smoothies, elixirs and warm water.

3. Eat clean! Choose organic, seasonal wholefoods. No amount of probiotics will undo a poor quality diet! Check out Alejandro Junger's 'Clean Gut' book and Dr. Will Cole's 'Gut Feelings' books for amazing tips on healing your gut through nutrition while helping you examine triggers that might have you indulging in poor quality food choices unnecessarily. 

4. Look at Liver cleansing. Our liver is our primary detox organ, and if your liver is stagnant & overburdened you are going to see signs on your skin. Poor quality water, food, alcohol, medications, chemicals and beauty products can all cause a stress on our liver. We like Milk Thistle for liver support, along with charcoal for daily detox support for liver & kidneys. Take a look at Dr. Group's liver and kidney cleanses, to help support these overburdened detox organs.

5. Get your lymph moving - body brushing, massage & exercise to help open detox pathways & stimulate lymph. We like to do body brushing every morning prior to showering to get the lymph moving and enhance daily detoxification. Regular movement is also essential. Without it your lymphatic system will slow down and become stagnant. Pick whatever movement you enjoy most - yoga, pilates, walking, swimming - and commit to doing it regularly. 

6. De-Stress. Stress is so often at the core of so many mental and physical complaints. It makes just about every ailment worse and causes high cortisol and inflammation in the body. Even a few minutes intentional relaxation time each day can make a lot of difference to your physical, spiritual and emotional health. Cups of tea in the garden, walks in the woods, meditation, a hot bath - pick something that allows you to decompress every day (not Netflix or Instagram strolling!). Relaxation is a daily necessity in this busy, sometimes overwhelming World.

7. When it comes to beauty products seek out organic formulas to soothe & calm sensitive skin. When skin is reacting to everything begin to implement the steps above while also treating your delicate skin to natural, minimalist and pure formulas with clean ingredients. For sensitive skin we really Calendula, Chamomile, Rose, Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin C, Aloe, Coconut Oil and Shea Butter. There is so much choice for beautiful clean skincare, make up and haircare now, that will help to rejuvenate sensitive skin and scalps, while feeling luxurious and giving wonderful results (see our link below to our sensitive skin collection!). 

We also love the Higher Dose Red Light Face Mask to calm inflammation & eliminate bacterial infections in the skin. The gentle and non-invasive Face Mask is an infrared light therapy device - made from highest quality medical grade silicone - that mimics low level, restorative wavelengths found in natural sunlight, dosing your skin for optimal health and radiance, while promoting cellular detoxification, reducing inflammation and wrinkling. Also improves circulation and helps to stimulate collagen production. 

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SHOP ALL SENSITIVE SKIN | SHOP ALL SUPPLEMENTS | SHOP HIGHERDOSE

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Please note that our blog posts are just for information & entertainment purposes. If you have any health concerns please consult a qualified practioner for advice.