Goodbye Xeno-Hormones and Welcome Healthy Glowing Skin: A Plan of Action for Beautiful, Acne-Free Skin

Skin is the mirror reflection of your overall health.

Acne, we’ve all had it at one point in time, whether a small pimple around a stressful event, a few clusters around our menstrual cycle or a massive cystic flare up, which is usually blamed on genetics. No matter what the case, those dreaded spots always create a sense of urgency to get rid of them, cost money to cover up and often times leave scarring and depleted self-esteem. However small or big the outbreak, acne proves to come and go at no prevail for so many women. Typically your dermatologist prescribes birth control or a topical antibiotic. This works for some individuals and the acne may even disappear while taking the prescription, however once stopping BC or the topical medication, the acne comes back with a vengeance, worse than before. There are logical underlying reasons for this and it all leads back to hormones, or rather fake hormones and an imbalance in the body (i.e. gut imbalance, improper diet, pathogens, stress hormones, dehydration, etc.)

Just like so many others I’ve wasted money and time on face washes, facials and acne spot treatments, but nothing really worked until I got smart and empowered myself to study nutrition and herbs. After changing my diet (eliminating gluten, soy, caffeine and dairy) eating plant based, juicing and adding in some key supplements, my skin cleared up and the scars are now a distant memory. So, how did I do this?

Detoxing Xeno-Hormones

Recently I started to connect all the dots about how my acne completely disappeared and my hair even stopped falling out. Yes, a plant based diet and juicing (detoxing) helped tremendously by providing essential vitamins and minerals for skin and hair, but even more, by adding in key supplements like DIM and I3C (sulfur containing compounds from cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) my body was actually pushing out fake estrogen that had accumulated over the years from taking birth control, drinking out of plastic water bottles, exposure to or inherited DDT, using chemical laden beauty products, eating conventional animal and dairy products and ingesting pesticides from non-organic fruits and vegetables.

Xenohormones come from “petrochemical, non-biodegradable, fat-soluble antagonistic contaminants,” which are showing up in our bodies, causing chaos and certainly do not belong. Xeno means foreign, so xeno-hormones are foreign or fake compounds that act as invaders to the body, bind to estrogen receptor sites and behave like estrogens (think estrogen dominance) in the body, and actually end up causing hormone related diseases like endometriosis, PCOS, breast, testicular and prostate cancers. These synthetic hormones can even cause harmful reproductive effects, making it harder for a couple to conceive a child. So basically, we can actually call these xeno-hormones…xenoestrogens because they are acting like estrogen in the body and causing the body to be out of balance. (Bauman, 2015)

The primary dietary concern is the elimination of foods most likely to be contaminated with synthetic chemicals: industrial meat and dairy products. – Sue Clarry, N.C.

Xeno-estrogens tend to accumulate in fatty tissue. Foods from animals at the top of the food chain are likely to deliver larger doses than are foods from organisms at lower levels [like plant foods].” – Dr. Devra Lee Davis, Epidemiologist

But, how do these estrogen-like chemicals influence the health of our skin and what can we do to get them out of our bodies?

Xenohormones Influence Skin

Basically, when your body has an overload of toxic waste in the body, like xenohormones, it has to find some way out. Our skin is one of the largest detox pathways in the body, so it’s quite logical that our body would try to push these chemicals out of the skin to eliminate toxicity and improve overall health. Yes, our bodies are smart like this;) Yet, I’ve seen so many women begin a healthy diet, eliminate conventional dairy/meats and see their skin improve, but only minimally. More specifically, because these women are in such a hurry to fix the acne problem and they aren’t seeing quick results, they do not stick with the program and allow their bodies to fully detox. Instead, they are back at the dermatologist’s office desperate for another band-aide solution and end up adding more to the chemical load. The scary part: if these chemicals are not addressed at some point by adopting a healthier lifestyle, more severe health problems can develop over time.

How Long Does it Take to Detox to Achieve Beautiful Glowing Skin?

Detoxing from harmful chemicals takes time and there is no perfect answer to this question, but usually with a good nutrition and supplement plan an individual can see their acne improve in as little as 2 weeks or somewhere between 3-9 months for more severe cases. The body is really quite miraculous though and is completely programmed to fix itself if given the proper food, nutrients and supplementation. First, ask yourself some questions: How long have I been eating conventional meat and dairy? How long have I been using chemical laden beauty products? How long have I been on birth control? If your answer to these questions is quite a few years, then give yourself a break and allow yourself time for healing and detox. I promise you it will be worth it, especially because you won’t have to rely on prescriptions with side effects or expensive topical medications for glowing beautiful skin.

Chinese Facial Mapping Chart

In the midst of my healing journey, I discovered the below Chinese Facial Mapping chart, which really helped to steer me in the right direction and pin point the areas of my body that needed the most support and attention. Because my acne was more concentrated in the gynecological and small intestine areas, I knew I needed to balance my hormones and fix my gut. Therefore, I focused on adding a good probiotic into my routine, adding anti-pathogen herbs like oil of oregano, neem and olive leaf and hormone balancing foods and supplements like broccoli sprouts, cabbage, ashwangandha, astragalus, DMI, IC3, maca and evening primrose oil. It was equally important for me to cut out alcohol, reduce stress with yoga, massage and acupuncture and eliminate hormone influencing foods like dairy, conventional meats and farmed fish.

Plan for Healthy Skin

1. Eat more Fiber, Especially Leafy Greens!

   • Fill your diet with organic fruits and veggies
   • Remove gluten, dairy, soy, white sugar, alcohol
   • Invest in a juicer (drink fresh organic juice 1x per day if possible)
   • Increase fibrous foods
     • Cruciferous Vegetables (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli sprouts, bok choy)
     • Beans and legumes
     • Nuts and seeds

2. Stay Hydrated!

   • Invest in a quality water filter
   • Drink water with lemon upon rising to cleanse body & liver
   • Eliminate conventional coffee and alcohol

3. Eliminate Toxins & Pathogens

   • Eliminate plastic water bottles
   • Steer clear of dairy, farmed fish and conventional meats
   • Get off the pill (which is synthetic hormones)
   • Switch to clean, non-toxic beauty products
   • Parasite Cleanse: GIMAP
   • Kick Sugar, Bad Oils & Fried Foods

4. Support the Liver/Bowels

   • Lemon & lime water
   • Beets & Leafy greens *dandelion greens
   • Drink Dandelion, Milk Thistle & Nettle teas
   • Prunes, Magnesium

5. Improve Digestion

   • Lemon Water & Ginger Tea
   • Chew food properly
   • Fiber rich foods: beans, legumes, fruits, veg, nuts, seeds
   • Test, Not Guess via the GIMAP for digestive imbalances

6. Add in Key Supplements

   • Adaptogens for Stress: Ashwagandha, Rhodiola, Astragalus
   • NAC
   • DIM & I3C (sulfur containing, very important for detox of xeno-hormones, balances hormones & anti-cancer)
   • Evening Primrose Oil (promotes progesterone, improves skin & thickens hair)
   • Maca (promotes healthy estrogen)
   • Resveratrol & Turmeric (reduces inflammation & aides detox)

7. Sweat Out Those Toxins

   • Moderate exercise: walking, yoga and strength training
   • Suana, Infrared Sauna & Sweating

Don’t Give Up

As you start to incorporate the above lifestyle suggestions and improvements, you will definitely see your skin, nails and hair change. You may even acquire more acne and break outs in the beginning or see more hair shed, but DO NOT GIVE UP. This is simply because your body is detoxing and getting rid of the unwanted chemicals and toxins–xenohormones–that have been circulating in the body causing hormone imbalance and disruption. So, keep going, embrace the detox process, love yourself and see yourself healed…better yet, see yourself with beautiful, glowing, radiant skin!

In divine health,

Kristin

*All information, content, and material of this blog is for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

References:
Bauman, E. & Friedlander, J. (2015). Foundations of Nutrition. Penngrove, CA: Bauman College
US National Library of Medicine. Jane V. Higdon, Barbara Delage, David E. Williams, and Roderick H. Dashwood. (2007) “Cruciferous Vegetables and Human Cancer Risk: Epidemiologic Evidence and Mechanistic Basis.” retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2737735/