The Downside to Modern Skin Care with Dr. Sandy Skotnicki

10/04/19 • 29 min

The Functional Medicine Radio Show With Dr. Carri

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Sandy Skotnicki talks about the downside to modern skin care.

Dr. Sandy Skotnicki is the founding director of the Bay Dermatology Centre and is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Medicine in the Divisions of Dermatology and Occupational and Environmental Health. Dr. Skotnicki is a consultant Dermatologist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and is an expert in Allergic Skin Disease.

She is also the author of Beyond Soap: The Real Truth About What You Are Doing To Your Skin And How To Fix It For A Beautiful, Healthy Glow, which details her “product-elimination diet”.

Main Questions Asked about Skin Care:

Why is there such an epidemic of skin issues these days?
How does the alkaline nature of soap affect the bacteria on our skin?
Can you explain your product elimination diet?
What do you see as the future of skin care?

Key Points made by Dr. Skotnicki about Skin Care:

My interest is allergic reactions and just reactions to skin care and other things that touch the skin. It’s part of the reason I wrote the book.
It’s been shown both in the US and in Europe that reactions to skin care products and skin care ingredients, both natural and synthetic, have increased.
A lot of it has to do with how we take care of our skin, which is we do too much to our skin.
One of the most fun chapters to write was chapter two, where I kind of look at the history of cleanliness. How did we get to the point where we have a shower every day or sometimes twice a day? We use shampoo every day, even when our hair’s not dirty; and that’s to make a distinction between what it means to be clean and what it means to be hygienic.
Your hands are the thing that you really want to keep clean, because they’re the tools for transmission of disease; and most people don’t do it properly. You have to do it for two Happy Birthdays.
The other thing is that it’s more about pH. The pH of the skin is acidic, so that’s key to everything the skin needs to function, and if it isn’t acidic, it doesn’t work properly. The first soaps that came along in the 40’s and 50’s were alkaline.
We feel that the high pH cleaning of the skin has damaged our barrier and maybe led to the increase in eczema and allergies.
Then, there’s a further issue of just the sheer number of ingredients in skin care products, and the lack of regulation in North America in particular.
We don’t really know what the use of alkaline soaps for the last 50 to 60 years has done, we don’t have the science, but a lot of people are asking if we haven’t done something to our skin microbiomes over these decades.
If you think about your skin as a brick wall, where the cells are the bricks and your lipids are the mortar, and even just water and soap diminish that mortar so that you end up with a leaky wall; so, what have we done?
Shortly after my book was published, I found a link between food allergies and the skin barriers. There was a study that looked at mice who were sensitized to peanut allergy through the skin, once their skin barrier was disrupted with soap and water.
One of the really important parts of the book is where I write that the reason we’re so clean has nothing to do with health, and everything to do with advertising. We’ve been told that we need to wash every day to be healthy and beautiful, and I’m trying to show the opposite.
If you look at the evolution of humans, and homo sapiens has been around bout 200,000 years, and it’s only in the last 150 that we’ve been cleaning up.
So, we clean up, we’re damaging our microbiome; so, the marketing machine of beauty will latch on to this and say now we need products to repair the microbiome. There’s already a company that has a spray of bacteria that you can put on your skin.
There was study published in about 2012 showing that kids growing up on farms had less asthma. There’re also studies showing that kids that have animals have less allergies. You’d think it would be the other way.
Furthermore, the studies indicate that by adulthood your microbiome is stable and doesn’t change, which makes how we wash the kids in infancy and childhood critical.
Another reason I wrote the book is that I was frustrated with patients coming in with persistent reactions and saying,...

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Sandy Skotnicki talks about the downside to modern skin care.

She is also the author of Beyond Soap: The Real Truth About What You Are Doing To Your Skin And How To Fix It For A Beautiful, Healthy Glow, which details her “product-elimination diet”.

Main Questions Asked about Skin Care:

Why is there such an epidemic of skin issues these days?
How does the alkaline nature of soap affect the bacteria on our skin?
Can you explain your product elimination diet?
What do you see as the future of skin care?

Key Points made by Dr. Skotnicki about Skin Care:

My interest is allergic reactions and just reactions to skin care and other things that touch the skin. It’s part of the reason I wrote the book.
It’s been shown both in the US and in Europe that reactions to skin care products and skin care ingredients, both natural and synthetic, have increased.
A lot of it has to do with how we take care of our skin, which is we do too much to our skin.
One of the most fun chapters to write was chapter two, where I kind of look at the history of cleanliness. How did we get to the point where we have a shower every day or sometimes twice a day? We use shampoo every day, even when our hair’s not dirty; and that’s to make a distinction between what it means to be clean and what it means to be hygienic.
Your hands are the thing that you really want to keep clean, because they’re the tools for transmission of disease; and most people don’t do it properly. You have to do it for two Happy Birthdays.
The other thing is that it’s more about pH. The pH of the skin is acidic, so that’s key to everything the skin needs to function, and if it isn’t acidic, it doesn’t work properly. The first soaps that came along in the 40’s and 50’s were alkaline.
We feel that the high pH cleaning of the skin has damaged our barrier and maybe led to the increase in eczema and allergies.
Then, there’s a further issue of just the sheer number of ingredients in skin care products, and the lack of regulation in North America in particular.
We don’t really know what the use of alkaline soaps for the last 50 to 60 years has done, we don’t have the science, but a lot of people are asking if we haven’t done something to our skin microbiomes over these decades.
If you think about your skin as a brick wall, where the cells are the bricks and your lipids are the mortar, and even just water and soap diminish that mortar so that you end up with a leaky wall; so, what have we done?
Shortly after my book was published, I found a link between food allergies and the skin barriers. There was a study that looked at mice who were sensitized to peanut allergy through the skin, once their skin barrier was disrupted with soap and water.
One of the really important parts of the book is where I write that the reason we’re so clean has nothing to do with health, and everything to do with advertising. We’ve been told that we need to wash every day to be healthy and beautiful, and I’m trying to show the opposite.
If you look at the evolution of humans, and homo sapiens has been around bout 200,000 years, and it’s only in the last 150 that we’ve been cleaning up.
So, we clean up, we’re damaging our microbiome; so, the marketing machine of beauty will latch on to this and say now we need products to repair the microbiome. There’s already a company that has a spray of bacteria that you can put on your skin.
There was study published in about 2012 showing that kids growing up on farms had less asthma. There’re also studies showing that kids that have animals have less allergies. You’d think it would be the other way.
Furthermore, the studies indicate that by adulthood your microbiome is stable and doesn’t change, which makes how we wash the kids in infancy and childhood critical.
Another reason I wrote the book is that I was frustrated with patients coming in with persistent reactions and saying,...

Previous Episode

Alzheimer’s Treatment with Julie Gregory

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Julie Gregory talks about Alzheimer’s treatment, the ApoE4 gene, known as the Alzheimer’s gene, and her personal story.

Julie Gregory is a founder and president of ApoE4.Info, a non-profit focused on learning about the ApoE4 gene. This vibrant online community is disrupting mainstream medicine by connecting carriers of the gene with Alzheimer’s researchers from all over the world to identify strategies to prevent, and even mitigate, symptoms of cognitive decline. Julie has also partnered with Dr. Dale Bredesen to help write a follow-up to The End of Alzheimer’s which will feature survivor’s stories as well as a detailed handbook for how to apply Dr. Bredesen’s protocol, available March 2020.

Main Questions Asked about Alzheimer’s treatment:

Would you mind sharing your personal story and how ApoE4.Info got started?
How did you eventually connect with Dr. Dale Bredesen?
How long have you been on this journey?
What can you tell us about the follow-up book you’re working on with Dr. Bredesen?

Key Points made by Julie Gregory about Alzheimer’s treatment:

About seven years ago, I decided to take part in genetic testing with 23andMe. I was having some health issues and thought genetic testing would help me better understand what was going on. When I got my results, they were pretty benign with one exception – I learned I carry two copies of the ApoE4 gene.
I am referring to the apolipoprotein gene. Everyone has two copies but there are three common epsilon versions.
The E2 version, which is rare, is considered to be protective against Alzheimer’s.
The E3 version, which is very common, is considered neutral with regards to Alzheimer’s.
Then there’s the E4 version, which is closely associated with the most common form of Alzheimer’s.
ApoE4 heterozygotes, who carry only one copy, comprise between 20-25% of the world’s population, have a mildly increased risk of Alzheimer’s.
ApoE4 homozygotes, like me, have a greatly increased risk.
The risk, in both cases, is higher for women than for men.
Although less than 2% of the population carries two copies of the gene, it’s still a lot of people (75 million in the US alone).
Learning that I was at a very high risk for Alzheimer’s was frightening. At that time, I was already exhibiting symptoms of cognitive decline. I was having frequent senior moments, and I wasn’t a senior.
When I finally revealed to my husband that I thought I might be exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer’s, he blew me away by saying “that explains a lot.”
I did online cognitive testing and found I was in the mid-30^th percentile for my age group. I’d always learned and remembered easily; I was getting a lot of evidence that something was going on. I dove into Alzheimer’s.
23andMe provided online forums where people learning of their ApoE4 status could gather. Once we developed a sense of community and support, we dove into the science, we solicited help from everyone we could, and we read and analyze medical research studies and paper.
Our primary focus was to find strategies that could protect our brains. As I began to learn about the strategies for treating Alzheimer’s, I began to apply them – tracking and tweaking biomarkers, changing my diet, exercising differently, reducing my stress load, optimizing my sleep, taking targeted supplements and doing online brain training.
My world opened up again.
I repeated the online cognitive testing and, a year later, I was in the high 90^th percentile for my age group.
In October 2013, two other ApoE4 carriers and I decided to move away from 23andMe and create our own independent online community – ApoE4.Info. Several months later we attained non-profit status
Our primary focus is to learn all we can about the Apoe4 gene and how it impacts health. Our ultimate goal is to try to find strategies that we can use to mitigate all high risk not only for dementia but also for heart disease.
I was already several years into my healing journey when I stumbled upon his paper: Reversal of cognitive decline: A novel therapeutic program. He applied a protocol with 10 people exhibiting cognitive decline, and nine of the ten reversed their cognition.

Next Episode

Fermented Foods and Gut Health with Dr. Carolyn Griffin

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Carolyn Griffin explains the link between fermented foods and gut health.

Dr. Carolyn Griffin is a chiropractor and Certified Fermentationist. She created My Cultured Life which is a learning source to teach people how to make fermented foods and beverages on their own. This is where she shares what’s brewing in her kitchen and easy ways for you to do the same. Fermented foods and beverages are the best way to get your daily dose of a variety of healthy probiotics.

Main Questions Asked about Fermented Foods:

What is fermentation?
Why is it making a comeback?
Why should we be eating fermented foods?
What’s the difference between probiotic supplements and fermented foods?
What are some examples of fermented food?
What’s the difference between making your own and buying it at the store?
How do you make your own kefir or kombucha?

Key Points made by Dr. Griffin about Fermented Foods:

Fermentation has been around for thousands of years and is only recently making a comeback. It’s a natural process of preserving food.
When food is exposed to bacteria and yeast, the microorganisms convert the sugars to lactic acid creating an acidic environment in which fools will not rot or spoil.
I think people are reaching for more information and realizing that they need to be their own health advocate. And, fermentation is a healthy way of getting probiotics into your system, which is going to help your gut heal.
We already know that 70% of your immune system is in your gut, so if you’re eating foods that are going to healthier for you, and you start to heal that, a lot of other conditions that people may be suffering with are going to resolve.
I’m not 100% against probiotic supplements. I just think there is a difference between them and fermented foods. Probiotics are live bacteria. A lot of time in the process of isolating the bacteria to put them in a capsule, a lot die.
Because they’re live organisms, the best source is going to be from fermented foods that you create.
Sauerkraut for example is loaded with probiotics, bacteria, enzymes, vitamins, all kinds of things.
When you’re talking about a supplement, a lot can go wrong. You really need to learn to read labels. So, there’s more of a question mark about a probiotic supplement versus a fermented food.
Research is now showing that the more diverse the bacteria that live in us, the better. We’re finding that people in third world countries don’t have the same health issues that we do; for example, there’s not a lot of auto-immune disease.
One of the reasons is the diversity. We, in Western civilization, tend to live in a very sterilized environment. Dirt, dust and dander are our friends, but we tend to eliminate all of this, and it’s causing a lot of issues for us.
We take 50% of the medications on the market, yet we’re the 37th healthiest country, at least in the U.S. so we’re not very healthy; a lot of it has to do with our lifestyle and what we’re doing to our gut.
Kefir is one example of a fermented food. It’s a fermented milk product that has the consistency of drinkable yogurt. It’s loaded with probiotics, 36-50 different strains compared to the 7-10 strains you might find in yogurt.
The main difference between yogurt and kefir, is where we know yogurt will feed the good bacteria that’s already in your gut, kefir will actually colonize the gut.
It’s 99% lactose-free, so people who are lactose intolerant can actually benefit from it.
Kombucha is another, it’s a fermented tea. What’s really cool about kombucha is that it contains a yeast that is antibiotic-resistant. If you were in the hospital and given antibiotics you would be given a probiotic that contains this yeast found in kombucha.
And, of course, fermented foods like sauerkraut and other cultured foods that you make by creating a brine and/or immersing it in water.
Buying fermented food versus making it at home has the same issues as store bought probiotics – it’s manufactured in a plant, it travels to the store, it sits on the shelf, who knows how long it will sit, it’s going to lose some of its effectiveness.
Also, a lot of time store-bought kefir is flavoured because the plain is quite tart but you’re not in control of the sugar content – you could be getting more than you bargained for.
Kefir is easy to make at home; it’s the best way to start. You need kefir grains and cow’s milk or sheep’s milk or goat milk – it must have lactose, so it has to come from an animal. You leave it on the countertop for 24 hours, and it will ferment; strain out the gra...