Herbal Secrets: Neem – The “Terrain Shifter” for Gut, Skin & Microbiome Health

Neem and the Microbiome 0:00

The reason that Neem works great topically is because it works at the skin microbiome level. The reasons it work great internally is it because of the gut microbiom level, so it's all about microbiomes and what goes on there. Your skin is not sterile, I'm sure you know that, it is an ecosystem. And when the ecosystem gets out of balance, acne shows up, fungal issues appear or reappear, odor shows and inflammation shows, any kind of skin inflammation that you can imagine tends to be worsened when microbiome is disrupted in a negative way.

Neem helps to reduce the overgrowth of these negative organisms. It helps the calm inflammation and it helps actually support the barrier and help to repair the skin barrier that protects your skin. Welcome to Vitality Radio, the podcast that helps you make sense of natural supplements and thrive without pharma drugs. I'm Jared St. Clair. I grew up in a health food store and spent over 40 years now figuring out what works and what doesn't, so that you can make confident, informed decisions about nutrition, supplements and your health.

Some of the most powerful herbs in natural health aren't the popular ones like ashwagandha, echinacea, elderberry, dandelion root. They're the ones nobody's talking about and a lot of people have never even heard of. Today, we're going to change that, at least for one of them. Today we're talking about the herb neem, also often known as neam oil because that's probably the most common way to use it, but it can be used internally. It can used externally and it comes in a variety of different things, different ways to us it.

What Neem Is and How It Works 1:35

Creams, ointments, oil, gel, soap, and capsules that you take internally, so there's a lot of options with this and its not just another anti-microbial herb. Its actually pretty unique. And I really feel like you need to know more about it. In fact, as I was researching this to make sure I had all the details straight, I learned a lot myself, actually. A very, very cool herb is neem. I'm going to call it a terrain shifter. And if you understand what that means, it changes how you approach skin issues, gut issues candida, and even detoxification.

What nemoil actually does is. Not quite like I said, most other antibacterials, it doesn't really kill bacteria, kill yeast, killed parasites. That's the model for so many other herbs like oregano oil and things like that. And there's nothing wrong with that sometimes we need killers. However, shifting the terrain is a different story and it's much more gentle. and although neem is very powerful, It's powerful in different ways because what it does is it actually changes the environment that these organisms live in.

the pathogenic organisms. And when you change the environment, you don't have to kill everything. You just make it hard for the wrong things to survive. Uh, You're just making the neighborhood a little less hospitable, very much like spore probiotics do, but in a very different way and neem and spores are a match made in heaven. I'll get into that in. There are some compounds in neme that you. Don't need to memorize the names. In fact, they're a bit tough to say some of them. Nimbiden azadirachtin and one most of us have heard of quercetin.

Now, again, you don't need to memorize those. What you need know is what they do. They disrupt microbes without nuking everything. Research has shown that Neem has activity against Candida species. There are multiple studies starting about 2016 that prove that. Certain pathogenic bacteria and even biofilm forming organisms. But here's the difference. It's not a carpet bomb like for your microbiome like antibiotics would be. it applies pressure and that pressure slows reproduction, weakens structure, reduces dominance of these pathogenic things, and it breaks biofilms.

And that's huge because microbes don't just float around in your body. They build protective shields to keep you from killing them off. Biofilmes are A beast, as you may know, if you've read much about this, seen much, about, or you dealt with it yourself. And I've talked about biofilms, especially recently on the bioseidon episode that I did. But the interesting thing about it is that biocidin is a great tool for this. If you listen to those shows and I'll link to them in the show description, because they kind of goes hand in hand with this I love biocide.

But biocide is also very expensive. One thing that's kind of cool about neem oil is it sneaks in at a much lower price and in many cases can be every bit as effective at disrupting biofilm formation and breaking down existing biofilms. And there's multiple clinical studies on that going all the way back to 2011. So you're not just attacking microbes.

Topical Neem Uses for Skin and Scalp 4:39

You're actually exposing them. Think of it like tearing down the bunker so that you can see the enemy so their immune system and actually see what's in there and then go after it. So your really creating a situation where your immune. System is more capable of knocking out the bad stuff because the biofilms are gone and now they're exposed and we can get after them Another thing that's really cool about Neem that makes it pretty unique is that it's actually a pretty powerful anti-inflammatory, not the way that most anti inflammatories work though.

It works within the immune system to help balance inflammation by reducing something known as NFKB. kill and then inflammation spike and symptoms get worse, you get rebalanced and inflammation calms and the symptoms improve. It modulates the immune system, which makes it great for people who have hypersensitive immunity, autoimmune issues, things like that. A NEME helps your immune system recognize threats better, respond more efficiently to those threats and avoid overreacting to these threats.

This is why it's useful in chronic skin issues, particularly chronic autoimmune skin issue, gut imbalances and recurring problems that just seem to recycle on you on a regular basis. So what is the big idea here? It really is this terrain shifting. The simplest way to understand neem is that most herbs attack the invader and neam changes the environment. If weeds are growing in your yard, you can keep pulling weeds forever, or you fix the soil. Neam is more about fixing the soils. So topical use is the most common way that neame is used.

And as I mentioned at the top of the show, lots of stuff, soap and ointments and creams and lotions, all kinds of things are available. The reason that Neem works great topically is because it works at the skin microbiome level. The reasons it work great internally is that it's all about microbiomes and what goes on there. Your skin is not sterile, I'm sure you know that. It's an ecosystem. And when the ecosystem gets out of balance, Acne shows up, fungal issues appear or reappear, odor shows, up and inflammation shows.

Any kind of skin inflammation that you can imagine tends to be worsened when the microbiome is disrupted in a negative way. Neem helps to reduce the overgrowth of these negative organisms. It helps the calm inflammation and it helps actually support the barrier and help to repair the skin barrier that protects your skin. So what are the best forms? There's a brand that I really, really like. And one of the reasons I like this brand. Well, there's two reasons. One is they're just a neem company. That's what they do, which I think is really really cool.

The company's called TheraNeme, has another kind of parent brand name that doesn't matter, but it's actually owned by my friends over at Solaray, the better being company. And Theraneme is a cool brand because it is dialed in focused. This is what we do line of products. One of the products that I think is the most universal and makes a lot of sense for a lotta people is The Maximum Strength Neme Soap. Think of it as kind a daily reset. If you've got acne-prone skin, you know, breakouts, in fact, planning on I've never used neem soap before actually planning I'm bringing a bar home myself because when I shaved my head, I often get little bumps and stuff like that.

I want to see what it does for that so I'll be testing it out myself. Awesome for any kind of excessive body odor. This soap is and any kinda general microbial balance is kind Of a baseline tool you can use every day if you want. If you need it for certain things like That. There's also a cream and this is more restorative but also hydrating so great for any of the dry irritated inflamed conditions eczema type symptoms daily use for barrier support and really helping with that skin microbiome there's also a meme combined with aloe gel this is great itching type stuff, excess sun exposure, any kind of irritated skin.

And frankly, I think the gel or the cream, depending on if you're looking for more moisturizing or more soothing, you may have to experiment with both, but very fast relief with this stuff. Then neem ointment is going to be the most heavy duty besides just the pure neam oil. People use it for fungal patches, stubborn issues on the skin, cracked skin things like that, very targeted. people might also use the oinment for nail fungus and things that. But you can also the oil for that The oil is the most potent way to do it though.

Just pure oil in a dropper form. It's by far the strongest topical tool, but you can kind of, it can be a little harsh and be little strong. So I always recommend that you dilute it properly, probably about a one to 10 dilution, about 10% neem oil to some kind carrier oil. Coconut oil makes sense, olive oil make sense. You can use grape seed oil, jojoba oil anything along those lines. Jojob oil would mirror the skins natural oils the most closely. Olive oil you probably already have in your pantry and also has some nice mild anti-microbial benefits, so you can do that.

And a liquid coconut oil makes sense as well. So 1 to 10 dilution for most people, 1-20 dilutions makes a lot of sense for someone who has very sensitive skin. Test it out slowly and I do recommend, especially if you have sensitive to spot treat, right? Just do a little bit on your hand somewhere or maybe a bit more of a sensitive, thinner skin area. You can put it on and just see what that does before you go bigger with it. Where to use it? Nail fungus is one of the primary uses. And I love neem oil combined with tea tree oil in something like coconut oil or jojoba oil, or something.

Or tea, which is much more gentle than neme can actually be used along with neeme oil on like a one to 10 ratio. If you want to just use pure oils, you can test that out. Excellent for athlete's foot. Awesome for anything along those lines. any kind of small kind your shampoo or conditioner, and you just kind of experiment with how much is effective for flaky scalp,

Internal Neem for Gut Health 10:48

itchy scalp dandruff, those types of things. And neem does have a pretty strong smell to it, but you can add a little bit of a better scent, a lemon oil, lavender oil if you like lavender tea tree or something like that. Although some people don't love, I like the smell of tea trees, not everybody does. So you cant scent it with another essential oil. If you'd like as well. I don't think it's like super harsh, but it does have a strong smell to it. It doesn't linger though, in my experience anyway, not for very long.

So really, really great for the scalp microbiome, the skin microbiomes on the feet, any of those areas. Absolutely love it now and underrated use. But one of the best uses is in dental use, some people use a little bit of neem oil and add it to their mouthwash. Some people put a drop on their. toothbrush and then put toothpaste on top of it. There's a lot of ways that you can do that. You can gargle with it again, cut it with something, but you gargled with in a mouthwash or something like that, this is going to help to reduce oral bacteria, support gum health and disrupt plaque biofilms in the mouth without nuking the mouse.

I really, really like Neem as a dental use thing. And I don't think I've ever talked about it on vitality radio before. After only doing it for 19 years, you'd think I'd have talked about everything, but it is a never ending well of information out there. Now, so that's where the external use stuff is. I'm sure there's a hundred other applications I didn't mention, But that gives you a pretty good idea of some of the ways that you can use it. What does it do internally? Well, you can take Neem in a capsule form.

The one that we care here at Vitality is by Solare. We may even bring in couple of additional ones before this show airs, but they'll all be linked in the show description. But we love the Solaret brand. Great quality, 460 milligrams per capsule of pure Neam leaf. And it does the same thing. It reduces fungal overgrowth. Specifically, there's excellent research on it for Candida. That helps to apply pressure to pathogenic bacteria, breaking down gut biofilms, and lowering gut-driven inflammation.

And this often actually when used internally shows up externally in skin improvement. Why? Because the skin is often a mirror to what's going on in the gut and or the liver and so neem internally. In fact, if you've got a chronic thing externally that you want to use the neam for, let's take fungal infections of the toes, for instance, toenail fungus. That's not a toenails problem. That is almost always a gut problem that is presenting as a toenail problem, at least that's been my experience. So taking Neem internally as well as using the oil externally makes a lot of sense.

Now, let's talk about Candida. Candid is something I think most people are familiar with, listen to shows like this, but it's a yeast where we are eating too much sugar in many cases, the microbiome is imbalanced, you've got an overgrowth of Candidas, biofilms are present protecting it, and the immune system is often dysregulated. Neem addresses all four of those things because it has direct antifungal pressure, has a direct biofilm disruption, reduces fungal adhesion, and calms inflammation. It doesn't just kill yeast, it actually makes the environment unfriendly to it, as I said at the beginning.

So the strategy is really when you're taking it internally, clear the pathogens, rebuild the gut so that we have a really, really great, not just solution to the problem in the short term, but then rebuilding the system to where we're not going to have recurrence of the problems in long term. So let's just say that you're going after candida. Now, this could also be used for various other things, SIBO and things like that as well. But let say candita and I'll give you a specific protocol that can make a lot of sense.

The neem oil or the neme capsules from Solare and then adding in a systemic enzyme like I love Candex, C-A-N-D-E-X from Pure Essence Labs for this. What happens is basically Candida has a tough outer cell wall. It's tough to kill, tough, to break down. Candex includes two enzymes that go in and break the cell walls itself. That weakens the structure of the yeast, making it much easier for Neem to then do its job. So they're a really good tag team there. Think of it as Candax softening the target and Neam finishing the job, Take the Candex on an empty stomach every time, at least an hour before your meal or two hours after your meals.

Just on its own is best. And then take Neem with meals just because it's a little easier on the stomach if you take it with meal. Although some functional medicine doctors will recommend taking it on empty-stomach and you can experiment with empty stomach. Most people aren't going to have a problem with an emptied stomach with Neam and it can be a lot more effective that way. So you can determine based on your gut and your sensitivity level, whether you want to take it on a full stomach or an empty stomach, but it works well both ways.

You can add other things that are anti-candida like berberine, caprylic acid, oregano, things like that. But neem on its own with systemic enzymes. can be extremely effective. Now, what about die-off? We hear about Die-Off when we're fighting off something like Candida, SIBO, parasites, things like that, and binders can a really great solution. You can decide how you want to do this. Do you wanna add a binder right out of the gate? Do you want to test neem and candex or just neme on its own initially and see how sensitive you are to it?

And if it's bothering you at all, what is die off? It's basically when microbes break down, they release toxins. This creates symptoms. Sometimes it can be headaches. fatigue, sluggishness, and things like that. If you're experiencing those things, when you start with Neem, throw in biotoxin binder from Cellcore. That's fantastic. You can do more simple binders if you want, like charcoal in capsule form can be very effective there and it's certainly less expensive than the biotoxin. Binder, humic acid, fulvic acid.

There's a few different ways you can go and we'll have those links as options in the show. A lot of people aren't going to experience die-off, especially if they start small, with like 460 milligrams once a day for a few days, then twice a days for few, days then three times a for days. Working your way up, if you really are going after something in a targeted and powerful way to about four to six capsules per day, depending on what is comfortable for you, but is also giving you results. And then in that process, you're also simultaneously building the gut by adding spore probiotics vital spores, my favorite, of course, it's my formula, I developed it, and I love it.

Candida, Die-Off, and Dosing Strategy 17:28

But it neem isn't going to kill this stuff. So you can take it at the same time, you'd be rebuilding and strengthening the biome with the probiotic at same as you're knocking out the pathogens with neme, or the neeme and the candex depending on if you know what you are going after. And neame can be used for SIBO, can use for candida, It can be used for a whole bunch of different gut disrupting organisms. And it does have mild anti-parasitic benefits as well. So don't think of it as a parasite cleanse, but you can think about it is parasite maintenance, which I really, really like.

You can do it for month here and a month there throughout the year, just as kind of a let's tamp this stuff down, better safe than sorry type of thing. All right, so that's how you would use it internally. Who should think about Neem internally? Anybody with chronic skin issues should look at topical as well as internal and really experiment with both. As I mentioned, Candida, SIBO, bloating and gut imbalances that you're not sure why they're happening, recurring fungal problems outside of Candita, anything in those categories makes a ton of sense.

If it has to do with a biofilm, then it makes ton sense, What to expect when you're using Neem. If it's working, your skin starts to improve, digestion can improve. Less bloating, less sugar cravings, so less inflammation in the gut and less information on the skin. And if you go too fast, you can expect possibly a little bit of die off, fatigue, brain fog, temporary flare ups, that kind of thing. That's where you either add in a binder or you reduce your dose or both. So in closing, neem is one of those herbs that changes how you think about anti-microbial things.

Because again, it's not a carpet bomb for the gut. It's, not, a, carpet, bomb, for, the, skin, is not what your dermatologist is going to recommend. Is not with your doc is gonna recommend some powerful antibiotic. Okay. it, fixing the environment. So the right things thrive and the wrong things do not. If you, think, about, I mentioned at the very beginning of the show, if you. Think about your lawn. If you've got a lawn out there and you got weeds or your garden or whatever it is, think of the weeds as the pathogens and neem as.

The product that fixes the soil so that those pathogenic things, those weeds are not growing. like they used to. This is about getting the body restored and balanced so they can do what it was designed to do in the first place. really just let's learn about how to use a herb and how do you use it right and why I might wanna use that. I hope you enjoyed this first episode on Neem. If you have questions, call us 801-292-6662.

Who Should Use Neem and Final Takeaways 20:18

Visit one of our stores, Bountiful or South Ogden, if you're local. And if not, jump on our website, vitalitynutrition.com. There will be links to all the things that I talked about in the show description. Thank you so much for listening to me. My name is Jared St. Clair and this has been Vitality Radio. Thanks for listen to the Vitaly Radio podcast. If this episode helped you, follow the show, share it with someone, and explore trusted education and resources at vitalitynutrition.com. See you next time.

Hello, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Vitality Radio. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast has not been evaluated by the FDA. Thank you.