118: Clearing Your Adult Acne And Improving Your Gut Health With Dr. Jillian Cole

Today we are talking all things, adult acne with Dr. Jillian Cole! Dr. Jillian is a wealth of knowledge on gut health and getting to the root cause of your skin inflammation. Let’s get into it! Dr. Jillian Cole graduated from the Naturopathic College in Toronto in 2013 and has been practicing as a Naturopath since 2014. Her main focus is on helping women to clear their chronic adult acne and she now works solely online with clients all over the world.Some of the foundational steps you can take in your skin journey are:Making sure to chew your food fully and be relaxed around meals. Digestion begins in your mouth! Fibre intake: many people underestimate the power of fibre. To start, try adding in chia seeds and flax seeds, and eating your vegetables. Avoid consuming large amounts of omega-6 fatty acids, and instead, choose non-omega 6 items such as coconut oil or avocado oil. Omega-6's up-regulate inflammatory cascades in our body and as a result, you will see more acne. Upping omega-3's can also help to balance out an omega-6 abundance. Paleo-style eating, for example, is higher in omega-3 than omega-6. Use skincare recommended for sensitive skin instead of those recommended for acne-prone skin. Acne skincare tends to strip the oils from the skin which can cause too much disruption of the natural skin microbiome. Make sure you are exfoliating your skin properly; use acid based exfoliators as they are a lot more gentle for your skin.Note: Not everything that works for one person will work for another, so be mindful of this when implementing any of the above techniques!Hormones and acne: It is a common misconception that you need to target hormones to clear adult acne. Dr. Jillian shares that “Yes, hormones play a part in acne, but what's more important is that we pay attention to the root cause of why someone has acne.” She always goes back to the gut-brain-skin axis, “So when it comes to the hormone aspect (the brain), the relationship there is with the gut health and also includes your liver detoxification process; how healthy are these processes, and do you have a healthy colon?” Simple things tend to get overlooked but there is a holistic perspective that needs to be taken to ensure the underlying issues are taken care of first before the acne can clear. Emotional Stress and Acne: Chronic stress has been shown to decrease microbial diversity in the gut. So yes, stress is related to acne. There are more serotonin receptors in your gut than there are in your brain - which means there is a huge connection here which can be underestimated. A really big piece of this is how motivated you are to make the changes to improve your skin health. Mindset work is monumental to accompany this. Dr. Jillian practices mindset work everyday (her favourite resources are listed below) and feels that exploring your limiting beliefs and shifting these is key to your success in everything you do. How to get in touch with Jillian:Instagram: @iamjilliancoleThe Clear Skin Acne Workshop: https://acneworkshop.jilliancole.com/webinar-registration-1Book your Clear Skin Application call: https://www.jilliancole.com/applyWebsite: www.jilliancole.com Resources that Jillian recommends: Book: A Course in Miracles, Written by: Dr. Helen Schucman. Mindset work with Lacy Ann Phillips (on Instagram as @tobemagnetic)Spiritual Leader: Wayne Dyer, https://www.drwaynedyer.com