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Article: Skin Healing Series: Journal 1

Skin Healing Series: Journal 1

THE NATURE OF SKIN

Welcome to the skin healing series with your qualified Naturopathic practitioners, Hunna Armstrong and Katherine Bibby from TØTUM Naturopathy. Over the coming weeks we will be exploring the main causes of skin imbalance with you, and how we can best support our skin health, both internally and externally. Healing begins with awareness. It’s important to understand what our skin does for us, so that we can start to work with its natural functioning.

LET US BEGIN BY EXPLORING HOW OUR SKIN PROTECTS US:

The skin forms a layer over our entire internal system to shield us from the outside world and protect us from harm. 
Multiple skin layers shelter our internal systems, including the top layer (epidermis), where we have a protective skin barrier made up of an ecosystem of helpful bacteria, microbes, sebum, natural moisturising agents and fatty acids that: 

  1. Protects us from harmful foreign invaders
  2. Manage a healthy pH so our natural skin ecosystem can thrive
  3. Help to retain moisture and naturally hydrates (yes, the oil on our skin has a purpose)
  4. Protects us from toxicity
  5. Self-cleanses and exfoliates via our dead skin cells (meaning we shouldn’t be constantly removing these with physical or chemical products)

Our skin naturally self-cleanses, protects, heals, exfoliates, and moisturises. 
So, the next question is - why are we still experiencing skin issues if it’s supposed to do all these things for us? 
As we have already touched on, our skin quite literally acts as a defence to protect us from the outside world, and it does this via our SKIN BARRIER. Many things within our external environment can damage the health and function of our skin barrier. These include: 

  1. environmental pollutants and toxins
  2. chemical makeups
  3. chemical/topical/physical treatments and products 
  4. environmental elements such as UV rays, cold air and wind 

Once the skin barrier has been physically compromised, skin imbalances and conditions are given the opportunity to rear their ugly heads.  
Aside from all the things that can throw our skin barrier out of whack, skin issues often present because there is something not quite right going on within our INTERNAL SYSTEM. We are complex beings, and there are so many factors that influence our skin from within. These include: 

I. Stress and our emotions
II. Poor digestive health and detoxification
III. Inflammation and immune issues
IV. Hormonal imbalance

We will explore each of these topics further as we move through the weeks, being mindful that the body is one entity, and everything is connected. Our bodies are intelligent, and they want us to be well.  What we see on our skin is simply a physical clue to let us know that something isn’t right, or that something deeper within us may need some extra support. 

So, we invite you to join us as we go deeper.

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