Know your Sh*t

So you may be thinking, “what does my faeces have to do with my skin?”. Well our faecal matter can actually tell us alot about our over all health, including explanations for certain skin flair ups. It can tell us a lot about the balance of bacteria in our gut, how well we’re absorbing nutrients, and whether our body is detoxifying properly.

Our daily intake of food is typically three to four meals a day for most. Our body will absorb what it needs from those meals and then excrete the rest. (2)Our bodies way of doing this is via having daily bowel motions. Yes, daily! I cringe if I ask my patients/ clients how often they move their bowels and they respond with anything less than once a day. When the gut is functioning normally, you should expect to have a bowel movement at least once a day, and up to three times in a day can be normal for most.

So, you might be thinking, well aren't you a skin and gut specialist so why are you talking about poo? Well remember, your skin is our largest organ and a major form of elimination for the body. If you aren't moving your bowels regularly then the toxins are likely to excrete elsewhere. The face is covered in pores just waiting to excrete toxins.

The appearance and smell of your faeces is a direct reflection of your overall health. It can indicate inflammation in your gut, as your digestive system connects intricately with your nervous system and detox pathways. It is also important to remember that you must have have regular bowel motions to ensure your body does not store toxic hormones. Our bodies produce hormones, and the liver is responsible for processing and inactivating them. Our hormones go through a process of deactivation to be moved out of the body via the gut. If our bowel motions are not regular, the hormones can hang around a little too long in the gut causing an overload. Our gut then produces an enzyme called "beta-glucuronidase" which causes our body to recycle the toxic hormone. For women, this means disruptions to our bodies rhythm, causing issues such as irregular menstrual cycles, purges of acne, certain mood disorders etc. Not to mention increase risk of hormonally derived cancers like breast and ovarian cancers.(1)

Knowing your own body and how it works, is so empowering. If you notice your bowels are infrequent, unformed or changes in odour it is best to speak to a specialist to discuss lifestyle changes to improve your digestive health.

Our Medical team and Naturopath are always open to the discussion and can recommend lifestyle adjustments, herbs and nutraceuticals to assist you with your health journey.