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The Microbiota and its Effect on Skin
by Joanna Kusmierski, P2
Imagine this: it’s the morning of your drug monograph presentation and you look in the mirror to see a few massive, inflamed, and painful red mountains on your face. You think to yourself, “Rats! I made sure to take care of my skin this week!” You used a lot of moisturizing creams, many acne products like benzoyl peroxide, and even the most expensive of facial washes. Even after all that time and money spent on facial products, nothing prevented the new breakout on your face. However, some- thing you may not have considered was your very stressful week with multiple pharmacy exams and your unhealthy eating habits, often ordering takeout to save some time. This is an instance in which our gut-skin axis plays a role.
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Your gut-skin axis is highly dependent on the microbiome inside of your gastrointestinal (GI) tract. When your GI tract is disturbed, it can have a profound impact on your health, including your skin. Some factors that affect the microbiome include the method in
Continued from previous page that maintaining a healthy diet and managing stress is extremely important to keeping our gut-skin axis happy. However, as pharmacy students, that may be slightly challenging. Luckily, we are not limited to stress management and eating healthy. We can also implement probiotics and fermented foods to keep our gut-skin axis happy! Some fermented foods include kefir,
Photo credit: https://draxe.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2021/09/DrAxeFermentedFoodsHeader.jpg kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, and pickles.3 Now that your gut is happier, your skin will start to glow!
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References
1. Wen, Li, and Andrew Duffy. “Factors Influencing the Gut Microbiota, Inflammation, and Type 2 Diabetes.” The Journal of Nutrition, U.S. National Library of Medicine, July 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483960/.1
2. Kaitlyn Bader, Editor. “Analyzing the Gut-Skin-Brain Axis.” Dermatology Times, Dermatology Times, 12 Feb. 2023, www.dermatologytimes.com/view/analyzing-the-gut-skin-brain-axis.2
3. De Pessemier, Britta, et al. “Gut-Skin Axis: Current Knowledge of the Interrelationship between Microbial Dysbiosis and Skin Conditions.” Microorganisms, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 11 Feb. 2021, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916842/.
