Keys To Beautiful Skin

Stacey Shillington

Yes, I’m in my favorite place out in nature. Thank you so much for having me on, I’m so excited to share whatever I can with your audience.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Beautiful. I love it. So, tell me a little bit, you know, why do you think that acne and skin conditions it’s so prevalent? You know, it’s such a, such a bigger deal. You see a lot of young people that are really struggling and they go after it with such harsh chemicals that just impact them for the rest of their life because they destroy their body in so many ways just to get rid of the acne.

Stacey Shillington

Well, you know, Acne is caused because we have an imbalance in our body and you know, it’s very difficult to live in this world that we’ve created without, you know, developing imbalances in our body, especially in the gut, especially in our ability to detoxify. And these are the two things that really underlie acne and you know, we really need to support the body in very specific ways in order to, you know, help these organs work optimally and know a lot of us don’t know how to do this on our own and we need support in order to do this properly. And that’s how we get rid of acne. And you know, we’ve been trained as a society to use skincare to heal acne to use medications to heal acne and that’s not actually how we’re going to hell. Those are just band aid solutions and many times they just make acne worse. So we’re really, you know, we’re not equipped. We’re not taught exactly how to heal acne and that’s why it’s just been so devastating in such a vicious cycle for so many people.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So tell me a little bit about the danger of these different things that they use. I mean if you have things that is literally kind of burning the skin and also they put kids on antibiotics to you know, thinking that that will get rid of the acne. So, yes the acne seems to be less. But what’s the impact on the body? And what does that do for the future of somebody?

Stacey Shillington

Well let’s take antibiotics as an example. So when we take antibiotics we are killing microbes in the gods. And if we put the antibiotics topically on the skin, but we’re killing the beneficial microbes as well as the pathogenic microbes. And the result is an imbalanced microbiome. And this predisposes us to even more acne. Once we’re finished the antibiotics and gut problems, you know, they, you know, antibiotics for acne just makes the problem worse. And so many times I have patients that go on antibiotics for acne and acne does clear up for a short period of time. But then the antibiotics and it gets even worse than before. You know. So we’re actually making the problem worse by using antibiotics when it comes to putting harsh, you know, retinoids on our skin or benzoyl peroxide were actually damaging the moisture barrier of our skin. 

We’re drying it out, we’re making our skin more vulnerable not only to more acne, but to hyperpigmentation to scarring. That’s not a solution either. You know, our skin may clear up initially using benzoyl peroxide, but long term we’re gonna experience it more irritation, more damage and more acne. So, and you know, a lot of the things that, you know, women are using, like the birth control pill for instance, you know, the birth control pill, it’s an androgen blocker, like the ones that are, you know, used prospera known and are good for acne, which will temporarily reduce acne. But once you go off the birth control pill, get an androgen surge and you get even, you know, worse acne as a result. So it’s funny, almost every single solution, you know right now that mainstream medicine is providing, it’s not actually solving acne at all. It’s actually making it worse.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

It is fascinating how that is because obviously it’s not a sustainable solution, you know, doing the antibiotics for the rest of your life or doing androgen blockers for the rest of your life. And like you mentioned, I mean, you, once you stop the energy and blockers, then it because the body is trying to find homeostasis and trying to find balance. And if you create an interference in the production of the androgen, then the body is trying to push more to produce androgen and then when you remove that medication, you have that additional force to produce androgens and like you mentioned, just kind of making it all worse.

Stacey Shillington

Yeah, absolutely. That’s exactly how it happens. And that’s why people are just having such an issue with acne, why they’re not able to solve it. Because none of these solutions actually target what’s really going on, right?

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah. Acne, anything in the skin is a symptom of something deeper, right?

Stacey Shillington

The skin is an incredible mirror of what’s going on in the body and you know, it’s the body’s way of communicating with us and it’s so brilliant and you know, I think we, many of us have lost sight of that. We don’t think of acne as a body communicating with us. Instead we think of something, it is something that just needs to go right away. But, you know, it gives us clues like what the acne looks like, where it’s located on the face or the body. Like these all send clues as to what imbalances are actually, you know, going on within the body. It’s really beautiful and exciting.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

That’s fascinating. Yeah. And I’d love to talk a little bit more about that later on because you actually, like you’re saying and the face is like a map of what’s going on in the body and depending on where things are at, it will then correlate to different systems and organs and so forth. So, tell me a little bit, you know, what is the first thing of a woman should do or or someone should do too to heal acne. You know, since it is, you know, we now recognize it’s not a localized issue. It’s more systemic issue. So what are some, some steps that an individual can do to be able to clear out acne or any kind of skin condition?

Stacey Shillington

Yeah. So the first thing that I advise my patients to do is Acne is inflammation within the body. And so we need to reduce inflammation in the body. So the first thing I have my patients do is look at foods that are perhaps contributing to the inflammation and cutting those out. So, you know, three foods that, you know, are, are just really, really inflammatory, tend to be gluten dairy and sugar. Right? So cutting those foods out is just kind of, it’s going to let the body breathe a sigh of relief. You know, it’s just we’re not adding fuel to the fire consistently. And when we just relieve some of that inflammation, then we’re able to see the symptoms a little more clearly for what they are and we’re also able to go into the body and truly start to heal it. So that would be the first step that I would always advise my patients to do. And a lot of people, you know, they stopped the gluten, sugar and the dairy and then they’re frustrated because my acne still isn’t clear, even though I, you know, gotten rid of these foods. But the truth is sometimes the imbalances are deeper. So getting rid of these inflammatory foods is just the first step. We still have work to do, we still have to heal the gut, we still have to support detoxification and balance insulin.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And just a question there because a lot of people don’t say, well, I was tested to see if I’m gluten sensitive or you know, I don’t have celiac, you know, so I’m fine with the gluten. What, what do you say to those people?

Stacey Shillington

Yeah, so, you know, I say that I’m sorry my dog’s barking, you know, food sensitivities are diff than food intolerances, you know, and acne patients tend to have a lot of food intolerances and we can’t test for that with the blood test. You know, we really need to eliminate that from our diet and we need to observe the effect, you know, on our body when we eliminate those foods and you know, I really, really encourage people to eliminate those foods from their diet because they don’t even know how amazing they are going to feel until they actually, you know, try to eliminate them

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And like you mentioned also is that you need to kind of clear out those initial stressors to be able to see what’s behind it. And if you never clear out these initial stressors, you won’t be able to address what’s behind it, even though you may not, you know, seemingly get any symptom relief when you take the initial step, it just means that now we removed at least one obstacle so we can then have less to deal with and less to address.

Stacey Shillington

Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. Like I, you know, if a patient really wants to keep gluten in, then I’m, you know, I’m always a little sad because it really, you know, takes away an opportunity to really see what’s going in the body and to deeply hell, you know, any imbalances. Yeah, I really agree with you on that.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And you mentioned some other things too. So after kind of working on the gut, you eliminate certain foods and then working on healing the gut, there’s some additional steps as well. So can you take us through those?

Stacey Shillington

So, you know, after we initially remove those foods, then, you know, I’ll just take a look at the digestion and really try to optimize the digestion using bitters or something like that, just to get the digestive juices moving, get the digestion moving. Then I really go into insulin levels, you know, I want to make sure that insulin levels are balanced because when we have elevated insulin levels that leads directly to androgen production and androgens are the hormones that lead directly to acne. So balancing insulin levels is the next step and then before I go into gut healing, I always support detoxification. So that’s a really really big part of healing acne. And you know we have to there’s a couple of different steps, you know when it comes to supporting detoxification, we need to make sure that there’s regular bowel movements. 

We need to make sure that there’s adequate bile production. We need to support phase one and phase two of the liver, we need to move the limp. We need to ensure that estrogen is being detoxified properly. So you know, supporting detoxification is a really big part of my protocol. And then once you know, everything’s just flowing through the body really beautifully, that’s when we can go in and we can really do deep gut healing. So you know, often I can all do testing to determine what the microbiome is looking like and you know if there’s overgrowth of certain pathogens, we can address that then and you know, the addition of probiotics and probiotics to really nourish the gut properly. That those are that’s the sequence of steps that I take. Although I do have to say that the number one thing I always address before I even get into these phases of healing, I’m sorry, I didn’t mention it earlier is cortisol regulation, you know, addressing stress levels, addressing stress management because you know, cortisol is just like a bully in the body if it’s dis regulated that it can, you know really affect, you know, every other single hormone in the body. So yeah that’s kind of like what my protocol looks like.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So kind of looking at that little bit more. So and it makes sense with the insulin and the androgen. I mean we know for instance you know women with P. C. O. S. You know we know that we need to then lower the blood sugar, regulate the blood sugar and that makes their pcos better. Pcos is frequently related to too much androgen, too much excess and excess of that. So what are some of the things that you would do in order to be able to regulate then the insulin? I mean what are some practical things that people can look at in order to be able to do that? Obviously diet becomes huge. But can you give a little direction you know how you guide your patients and people in your program?

Stacey Shillington

Yeah. Yeah absolutely. So you know the first thing is regular meals and balanced meals as well. You know it’s enough fat eating enough protein at every single meal cutting sugar out. That’s a very basic guideline. Some of the tips that I have, you know a little bit of apple cider vinegar before meals can really help to regulate the blood sugar in the insulin exercising after meals. Also some herbs which are really helpful to regulate insulin berberry in is a really excellent herb that I love to do that. Using a Nossa it’ll is wonderful. Especially if there is you know a P. C. O. S. Picture as well. Yeah and you know another really big part of regulating insulin is stress management. You know that’s one of cortisol. Big jobs is to regulate blood juergen insulin. So we need to take a look at that as well.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So it’s almost like you have to address those two at the same time. Both cortisol and insulin. Okay and the cortisol so what kind of impact you mentioned that it’s kind of part of the whole hormonal picture. But what are some of the negative why cortisol and why not thyroid or why not? You know what impact does cortisol have that really relates and to you know skin and so forth.

Stacey Shillington

Yeah a couple of different things. So cortisol as I mentioned already it’s going to really you know increase insulin levels. You know if there’s high cortisol we’re gonna have high insulin. If there’s high cortisol cortisol also blocks progesterone receptors and that’s a really big deal because when progesterone is not able to have enough activity in the body. One of progesterone is really big jobs is to regulate the five alpha reductase. And senator how much D. H. T. Which is a very active androgen is produced. So if we you know if we have too much cortisol we don’t have enough progesterone progesterone action in the body and then we automatically get high androgens. There’s a really strong week between that. cortisol also will prevent estrogen detoxification from the body. So we can also have a situation of estrogen dominance that can do so I find that the effective dysregulated cortisol and acne is pretty direct you know and when there’s stress as well there’s you know an increase in neurotransmitter called Substance P. And that as well leads directly to increase androgen. So there’s a lot of different pathways I find that cortisol really effects when it comes to you know androgens in acne and

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And I know also cortisol in itself when the excessive cortisol you know you’re talked about not being able to clear out unwanted estrogen but it also that impacts our ability to detoxify overall and also puts us more in an inflammatory state and and like you mentioned, you know acne and skin conditions are inflammatory states in themselves.

Stacey Shillington

Absolutely. They are yeah acne inflammation.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So and when we look upon the body, I mean we have certain ways of eliminating toxins and you know the skin obviously I mean skin is one of those detox pathways. So can you go through a little bit how we should look, you know how we should facilitate detoxification. I mean one like you mentioned is to lower stress levels. So we were not into that you know sympathetic stress state. You know but we can then be in that parasympathetic where detoxification takes place. But what are some other strategies that a person should look at to support detoxification.

Stacey Shillington

One of the most important things is to ensure you’re having a daily bowel movement. That’s a really important way to eliminate the excess estrogen and peru toxins stimulating bile production and flow in the body. That’s another really important way because that’s the way toxins are actually moved from the liver to the bowel so that they can be excreted. So you know one thing that I really love that I encourage my patients to do is have take a cup of warm water and squeeze half a lemon into it every morning just before they wake or just before they eat anything. So on an empty stomach and that lemon, what it will do is it will stimulate bile production and will actually still a bowel movement as well. 

So that’s a really nice way to address bile and you know facilitate daily bowel movements and just like one really simple step. That’s something I love and you know castor oil packs or something that I use a lot with my patients as well and that’s great. It just really facilitates the lymphatic, it helps reduce a lot of lymphatic stagnation. So that’s a really simple strategy. You know some really nice herbal teas are really nice to help the liver support phase One and Phase Two detoxification. Something like dandelion milk. Thistle burdock root is one of my very favorites. What else are, So there’s so many wonderful tips to help detoxify. One thing that I find a lot of my patients are unable to do well is sweat, you know, so if you have a chance to go into a sauna, you know, every once in a while and just work up a good sweat, I find that’s one of the best detox things for my patient population especially.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it’s fantastic because we have, you know, the four pathways of elimination, which skin is one of them, you know, cold and you mentioned, you know, then we got the lines and we got the kidneys and so by supporting all these, eliminate ori pathways your then decreasing the stress of these things having to come out through the skin and you truly can then benefit the health of the skin.

Stacey Shillington

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Makes a big difference.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah. So just doing exactly what you’re doing being out in nature, breathing good air, you know, so you kind of fill your lungs with good good oxygen to detoxify that way. And also, you know, running sweating sauna just to kind of push out toxins that way. And then, you know, how important is water?

Stacey Shillington

Well, I mean, water really helps the kidneys right? Like we just, we just mentioned the kidneys as being another detoxification pathway. And when we’re dehydrated, you know, the kidneys are not able to work adequately and eliminate toxins. So water is really important. And in fact, I love my pace just to add a little bit of trace minerals into their water to every day, just to really kind of um, nourish their bodies and facilitate all those wonderful and thematic reactions that happen in the body as well. Yeah.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Are there other ways that people can support the kidneys if, if they need to?

Stacey Shillington

Castor oil packs on the kidneys are really lovely as well? you know, Yeah, the drinking water, you know, the lemon in the water is really great. yeah, and I like the Castor oil packs and movement and sweating and everything, you know, that we’ve talked about?

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah, it was great with castrol packs. I mean, it’s very inflammatory. It’s nourishing for whatever organ, whether you put it over the kidneys or the liver gallbladder or, you know, wherever you put it. How would for people that are interested in doing that? What is kind of a simple description on how to do a castor oil pack, how long to keep it there? How frequently, what are some directions that you would suggest?

Stacey Shillington

So, I would suggest using an organic Castor oil number one in a dark bodily, the quality of castor oil is really important. And then you utilizing a flannel. Now, I’m using a castor oil pack that I really love. It’s by one of our colleagues. I’m not sure if, you know, queen of Thrones. Castor oil packs, They’re amazing. And so I’m using those castor oil packs. And it’s so simple because it really eliminates the need for doing the flannel and then the plastic and then the heating pad and really layering everything instead. You’re just doing one pack. So my patients are loving that and so am I. And you know, some of my patients that really need support detoxifying. You know, I get them to do the castor oil packs for only a short period of time, maybe 20 minutes three times a week. And the more their bodies are able to detoxify, the longer we’re able to keep the castor oil packs on. So, you know, sometimes if they’re doing, you know, more intense detox is they’ll even do the Castor oil packs daily, you know, overnight. They wear them overnight. So the duration and frequency really depends on the patient and where they’re at in their healing journey.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And we talked about foods, you know, that is that we should stay away from to kind of clear out the inflammation and work on the gut. Are there certain foods that can be beneficial for the skin that you would like patients to focus on. I mean, you mentioned lemon water first thing that is really beneficial to me. Can I alkalize the body and to break things up in the kidneys and very strong antioxidants and all these kind of things. But are there other foods that you feel people should focus on in addition to that?

Stacey Shillington

So one category of vegetables I really like the cruciferous vegetables and this is because they contain like assimilates which really help detoxify the body and Diane, Dooley, methane dim, which helps to detoxify estrogen. So cruciferous vegetables are really wonderful and they include like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussel sprouts, a regular watercress. It’s a really big family of vegetables. So there’s something for everybody in that family. My favorite clear skin food is blueberries, who love blueberries you know of course they’re very high in pro anthocyanins, which is really helpful, but they’re also fantastic for regulating blood sugar. So they’re really a beautiful medicine and they’re delicious. So that’s one of my favorite. And then anything that’s really orange, you know, something that contains a lot of beta carotene that’s gonna convert into vitamin A. 

That’s very helpful as well. So sweet potatoes are one of my favorite carrots. Red peppers are actually really great. They contain silicone as well, which can really help repair the skin and increased collagen hemp seeds hemp seeds are another superfood that I absolutely love because three tablespoons gives you 11 g of really clean absorbable protein and the fatty acid profile is amazing. You know, it has one of the highest content of omega omega three fatty acids of any food out there. So that’s another really great food that I love, avocados. Of course they’re great. Lots of vitamin E. Fantastic for the skin. What else do I really almonds high in vitamin E. That’s fantastic. So yeah those are handful of my very very favorite.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And yeah I love with the I mean we know with vitamin A. And beta courtin you know turns into can turn into vitamin A is really good for any kind of mucosal lining or skin barrier. Any kind of barrier. You know, it’s fantastic to protect that barrier from any kind of damage. And yeah, that’s fantastic. And in regards to cruciferous, I mean can you do too much? I mean some people talk about that if you do too much you can have an impact on the thyroid and you need to be cautious with that. So is there a balance there And is there a certain way that you should eat them?

Stacey Shillington

Yes. So if you fired issues dead cruciferous vegetables that’s kind of the rule of thumb. Also some people you know can experience a lot of gas when they eat cruciferous vegetables. This can be for two things, number one it could be an overgrowth of certain bacteria in the gut which will have to address it can also be if you’re just starting a new diet and you’re starting to eat a lot more fiber, it could also be your body, you know adjusting to an increased amount of fiber. So yeah, cruciferous vegetables you have to kind of like you know you know what you’re doing with them. Yeah.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So you talked about the birth control in regards to acne. I mean that that’s one of the ways that a lot of women try to control their acne. So how would you suggest someone then to get off of birth control? Because like you mentioned we do you know like Andrew blockers and you do birth control. You’re you’re in essence creating a dis regulation in the hormonal system. I mean that that is what the medication is supposed to do. But then we remove that medication then your hormonal system is even more confused. So how do you guide that kind of a person back to normal you know so we minimize the frustration that takes place as they want to have a healthier and and and clear skin.

Stacey Shillington

Well we have to do a lot of work before that woman even goes off birth control. We to make sure that her insulin, her insulin levels are regulated to make sure that her diet is anti-inflammatory. We have to support her organs of detoxification. We also have to take a look at the gut and heal it as best we can before even going off the pill. And when all those pillars are in place, you know, we’re going to have as much success as possible going off the pill. Once we go off the pill, we continue with that work. Sometimes I get my patients to add some dim Diane Dooley methane, which acts as an androgen blocker is a temporary measure just as we’re getting off the pill just to kind of ease that transition. But really the most work is before we get off the pill, when it comes to coming off the birth control pill, just trying to balance everything as much as possible.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So it’s pretty much going through those 44 steps that you outline where we work on the cortisol, insulin got support and detoxification. I mean those, so it’s really focusing on those prior to even taking that step of getting off birth control.

Stacey Shillington

Exactly, exactly. And then continuing that work once the birth control is finished as well.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And I was really curious as you were mentioning earlier that, you know, looking at blemishes, you know, acne, you know, different areas of the body, you know, translates into an understanding of what’s going in in inside the body, like the skin is kind of like a window of imbalances inside and obviously that’s why it’s so important to not just cover it up because then we’re not fixing what’s really going on, what the body is trying to communicate by showing it through the skin. So how are there some general principles in regards to you know, bird blemishes are and the and the face and that will then kind of indicate what’s going on.

Stacey Shillington

Yeah, absolutely. So often if I see blemishes on the cheeks like right around the cheeks here and here, I know that there’s something going on in the gut. If I see blemishes along the jawline usually, you know, it’s called hormonal acne and you know, there’s the detoxification issue that needs to be addressed around the mouth and the chin that’s going to be more gut around the ears and along around the neck, around the lymph nodes. That’s going to be lymphatic stagnation. You know, around the nose is going to be more gut and on the forehead as well that’s gonna be guts.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And tell me a little bit about lymphatic stagnation. I mean because we that’s part of detoxification but we are so used to when we think of detoxification, we think of liver and then some people don’t think of the eliminate ori pathways that we discussed, you know like colon, kidneys, lungs and skin. But lymphatic, what role does it play in? How important is it to address that? And what can one do?

Stacey Shillington

So the lymphatic system actually collects toxins from each and every cell in our body and delivers it to the bloodstream and then to deliver to be detoxified. So if there’s stagnation in the 

lymphatic system there’s basically stagnation in the body’s entire detoxification system. So it is so important. So you know and I find with a lot of people that have acne there’s also a a strong history of structure and as we know, strap lives a lot in the lymph nodes, you know around the face and there’s a lot of congestion there. So a lot of times we need to do lymphatic drainage to really resolve the strep and to resolve the acne. So I tend to really address the lymphatic system using complex homeopathy. That’s my very very favorite one. It’s fantastic. 

You know there’s also some great herbs also just moving the body is important for limp. I mean the limp is really special because the circulatory system has a heart that pumps, you know, the blood through the body. The lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump. So it’s really easy for it to become stagnated, especially when you’re sedentary, you’re not moving enough, you’re dehydrated, you know, so it’s a very fragile system in that way. So we really need to take, you know we really need to take care of it and be very mindful of moving our body enough hydrating. Yeah it’s a really big part of detoxification.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah and some of the herbs said that you are there some herbs that can benefit you, you mentioned that there might be some. 

Stacey Shillington

So the one I usually, you know I’m usually using complex homeopathy. I mean cleavers is a really nice one that I use on occasion. But really I find complex homeopathy is what I typically use for the lymphatic system.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah. Yeah. There’s some great remedies, detoxification, remedies, you know, working on the lymph with homeopathy. So yeah, absolutely. And in regards to how important movement are. I mean in addition to them sweating, like we talked about it will then also then move the lymphatic so that we continually can clean or remove the toxins that are around the cell and then kind of bring in fresh new lymphatic and so that you don’t have that stagnated lymphatic because obviously if you have stagnation under the skin, if it can’t go out it’s gotta go somewhere and lo and behold then you have skin issues.

Stacey Shillington

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It’s really important

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

How important is your emotional well being and skin? I mean how does that relate to healthy skin? Because I don’t think that’s something that is talked about a lot and I’m curious what your thoughts are about that.

Stacey Shillington

Yeah, I think it’s a really big deal and you’re right, it’s something that’s not typically addressed when it comes to healing active but you know when we’re emotionally distraught when we’re experiencing emotions that you know, we don’t necessarily feel comfortable with. That is often going to put us in a, you know, our sympathetic nervous system it’s going to dis regulate our cortisol levels and you know, we’ve already talked about how the cortisol levels can affect the skin and how we’re in when we’re in, you know, our sympathetic nervous system, our body cannot heal. You know, it just cannot heal. So we need to transition to our parasympathetic nervous system. We need to learn how to manage emotions which is so much easier said than done. But you know there, you know, I think, you know, Acne has really been linked a lot to anger, you know, just like, you know, the anger that we’re repressing and we’re not managing properly coming out on our skin. That’s kind of the emotion that, you know, in the liver, the liver and anger in the skin, you know, there’s a strong connection there.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah, it’s like stagnated fire that you don’t disperse, you know, where it’s kind of like boiling inside and it has got to show itself as inflammation in the skin.

Stacey Shillington

Exactly, exactly.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah. Any other kind of last tips that you have for people dealing with skin conditions and acne, I mean, like I mentioned, it’s such a frustrating experience and people really need help.

Stacey Shillington

I know, yeah, my heart goes out to everybody out there because not only, you know, our solutions, not obvious when you’re not working in our world of help. But when you go on the internet and you go to look for acne solutions, it is overwhelming and you know, it’s really upsetting because there are so many different acne products out there. There are so many different skincare products out there. I don’t know how people just don’t, you know, get frustrated and I don’t know, but when it comes to skincare, this is the final tip. You know, you want to be gentle with your skin. There’s a lot of, you know, harsh cleansers out there. There’s a lot of hardships, Julia haters out there. There are a lot of products to dry up your a key. You want to treat your skin gently and with love. We want to nourish the skin. We don’t want to dry it out. We don’t want to be aggressive with it. The gentler we are with the skin, the easier it is to heal and the less scarring and the less hyperpigmentation you are going to experience. So really being loving and gentle to your skin is going to serve you far more than just trying to dry it out.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Well, Stacy. Thank you so much for all these wonderful directions and I know that you, you teach a course in this. If people really want to go and do a deep dive, where should they go to find you?

Stacey Shillington

You can go to my website naturopathicbeauty.com and I’m also very active on instagram. So I give a lot of tips daily. So you can connect with me on instagram. My name is Natural Path of beauty and yeah, I’m focused on acne. So if you have any questions or want any tips, you can just head on over there.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah, but acne working on acne, the same principles apply to any kind of skin condition I would assume right?

Stacey Shillington

Yeah, absolutely. They do. I find that with something like eczema, it’s a lot more gut, you know, like we just have to go straight to the gut with eczema. Whereas with acne there’s definitely more of a detoxification component and more of a strep component as well. So there’s some subtle differences between them, but you know, when it comes down to skin it’s all the same. You know, there’s something that’s imbalanced from within and that’s where it needs to be treated. We cannot treat skin conditions on the surface. We just can’t, it’s not gonna work.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

No, no, exactly, I agree. Well, thank you so much and continue to enjoy your beautiful walk.

Stacey Shillington

Thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure to be on.