You can treat acne with probiotics. I know because I did it successfully.
Being a beauty writer with acne is the definition of frustrating. Part of my job entails taking photos of my face that are oftentimes so close up you can practically see inside my pores. Add a little bit of acne into the mix and photo days can be downright demoralizing. After listening to not one but two beauty experts (Liz Earle of Liz Earle Beauty, and Georgie Cleeve of Oskia Skincare) say they use probiotics to get their glowing perfect skin, I knew I needed to try to treat acne with probiotics.
Liz Earle is so passionate that your insides become your outsides that she wrote the book on it. The Good Gut Guide is part cook book, part guide to eating your way to better overall health.
First things first? Eating more probiotics. Well, really drinking more probiotics. Both Liz Earle and Georgie Cleeve interviewed in the podcast At Home With… suggested getting probiotics through kombucha and/or kefir. Due to my dairy intolerance (fun!) kefir is out, and I don’t have a zillion dollars to spend on daily $5 bottles of kombucha, so I turned straight to supplements.
The goods are Hyperbiotics Pro-15 The Perfect Probiotic. They have 15 strains of probiotics that can help digestive health, acne, boost your immune system, battle fatigue, seriously just about any health problem. I’ll admit that before introducing probiotics into my system I doubted the ability to treat acne with probiotics. I’m a skeptic first and foremost, especially when it comes to supplements and beauty.
Love probiotics for gut health? Check out this Ritual Synbiotic review.
Although you can’t overdose on probiotics, you can overdo it. Opt for 15 billion CFU or less per day. That would be three of these Hyberbotics probiotics, but brands differ significantly. If you notice bloating, diarrhea, or gassiness, dial it back a bit.
Look how little it is! It’s downright cute. Hyperbotics calls them pearls instead of pills which is a much nicer way of thinking about things when you’re swallowing living organisms to nom around in your guts. I take just one pearl per day and I’ve had an incredible improvement.
Did I know my digestive health was out of whack? Yes and no. While I knew certain tummy trouble related issues run in the family, I didn’t think my random bouts of bloat, somewhat regular indigestion, and food intolerances was that big of an issue. You know how you deny things that are right in front of you? That.
What I truly didn’t expect was the correlation between digestive health and acne. Like sure, people can argue till the cows come home that chocolate does or doesn’t cause acne. But I know for a fact that if I eat one of my favorite all time candy, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, that I’ll break out like a teenager the next day. Torture, I tell ya.
I’m starting to come to the conclusion that like so many other things it’s very personal. Sure, you may be able to eat whatever and it won’t show up on your skin, but it will for mine. Ces’t la vie!
The other way I’m getting my probiotics in? Fermented foods, baby! Burry me in Sauerkraut, I love it that much.
I don’t know why it never really dawned on me that sauerkraut has probiotics, but it does. I guess I thought it was flavored pickled cabbage (I mean, it is) but it’s chock full of skin clearing, gut healing, lactic acid fermented probiotics.
Other fermented probiotic filled foods you can nom your way to clearer skin are:
- Kimchi
- Tempeh
- Miso
- Pickles
Sprinkle a bit of your favorite over salads, as a mini side, or eat it alone. Just keep in mind many fermented foods (I’m looking at you, sauerkraut and pickles) can be very salty so don’t eat a whole jar in one sitting.
This month (knocking on wood for all future months) my period came and went without a single hormonal breakout which is a revelation. Seriously, not a one period pimple.
I still have some lingering skin texture issues that don’t especially bother me, and old acne scars that need to fade away like a bad tinder date. I’m still working on my skincare game to deal with these issues but I think I can actually say that I was able to treat acne with probiotics.
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