You
must have noticed that your acne tends to flares up around stressful
times—before a big test, a big meeting or during travel. Often, the skin problems are accompanied with
bowel movement problems. I have
experienced the phenomenon all my life and have heard many similar experiences
from others. For a longest time, I have
been wondering if there is a connection between our skin, gut and stress. Well, it turns out that the brain-gut-skin
connection has been proposed by two brilliant scientists Stokes and Pillsbury
over 70 years ago.
Drawing
on the experimental evidence and clinical anecdotes similar to ones you and I
have experienced, Stokes and Pillsbury hypothesized “a gastrointestinal
mechanism' in which the skin is influenced by emotional and nervous states.
They proposed that emotional states such as depression, worry and anxiety could
alter gastrointestinal tract function that leads to the alterations to the
microbial flora, which in turn promotes local and systemic inflammation. Citing research showing that as many as 40% of
those with acne have hypochlorhydria, a condition that the production of hydrochloric
acid in gastric secretions of the stomach and other digestive organs is absent
or low,
Stokes and Pillsbury hypothesized that less than adequate stomach acid would
set the stage for migration of bacteria from the colon towards the distal
portions of the small intestine, as well as an alteration of normal intestinal
microflora. Further, Stokes and
Pillsbury suggested that stress-induced alterations to microbial flora could
increase the likelihood of intestinal permeability, which in turn sets the
stage for systemic and local skin inflammation.
Based
on the above hypothesis, Stokes and Pillsbury discussed the remedies for
treating the skin conditions could include the “direct introduction of
acidophil organisms in cultures such as those of Bacillus acidophilus”—basically
taking pills of lactic acid bacilli tablets. They also proposed using “an
acidophilus milk preparation” (basically yogurt) and “cod liver oil” (basically
omega-3 supplements) to treat the skin conditions.
This
is amazing considering that the gut microbiota was only recognized as a big
part of human health in the past 10 years and only in the recent years that prebiotics
(such as yogurt) and omega-3 supplements are recognized as healthy gut
promoting means. We will discuss more
about evidences of brain-gut-skin connection in my next blog.
Thanks
for reading.
Connie
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