How You Can Starting Rewilding Your Skin Now May 14, 2020 – Posted in: Beauty – Tags: , , ,

Skin diseases like eczema and acne are almost non-existent in hunter-gatherer communities but they have now become very common across the world. Maybe it’s time to end the war on germs and REWILD our skin?

According to Merriam Webster Dictionery, the definition of REWILDing is the planned reintroduction of a plant or animal species into a habitat from which it has disappeared (as from hunting or habitat destruction) in an effort to increase biodiversity and restore the health of an ecosystem.

When we talk about REWILDing the skin, it means to introduce essential microbes into the skin ecosystem in an effort to increase the biodiversity of the skin ecosystem and to restore the skin health.

 

WHAT DO MY MICROBES DO FOR MY SKIN?

In your skin, your microbes produce Hyaluronic Acid and other moisturising factors, modulate barrier function and immune response, maintain the skin’s pH, and help to shape the skin ecology by producing anti-microbial peptides.

You wear your microbes like living armour that protects you from invading pathogens.

Calm, healthy skin not only looks better but also ages slower than skin that is constantly in a state of low-level inflammation.

Probiotics are live microbes that are good for you.

Probiotics can help to shift the microbiome to a healthy, balanced state.

Probiotics can shift the skin’s ecology to favour a diverse and harmonious ecosystem that is healthy enough to resist attacks from pathogens and to reduce the impacts of ageing on the skin.

 

DO YOU MEAN SOME MICROBES HAVE DISAPPEARED FROM MY SKIN?

Yes, you may have lost some of your essential microbes. The following are some factors that may have contributed to the loss of your key microbial allies.

  • Overuse of Antibiotics
  • Birth by Caesarean-Section
  • Daily Bathing in Treated Water
  • Chemicals in Cosmetic Products
  • Lack of Contact with Nature
  • Inappropriate Use of Disinfectant

 

HOW CAN I START REWILDING MY SKIN?

  1. Enjoy an omega rich diet. Omega fatty acids support the production of healthy serum, which is needed for feeding the skin’s microbiome.
  2. Use a probiotic cleanser with pH between 4 and 5.
  3. Help to restore barrier function in skin by applying a protective, natural oil that is as similar as possible to sebum.
  4. Apply live probiotic bacteria to help prevent dysbiosis in the skin microbiome.
  5. Look for products with prebiotics that selectively feed beneficial microbes in your skin’s ecology.
  6. Not forgetting our body and hands, which has been constantly savaged by the use of disinfectant. Choose a body moisturiser and hand cream to REWILD your skin by restoring your skin health.
  7. Get outside more. Vitamin D from the sun is central to skin health.
  8. Get into nature or into the garden as much as possible. Get dirty. Good, clean dirty.

Let’s all look after the microbes on our skin, and start REWILDing now.

We understand that they are our symbiotic allies and that they protect our skin from pathogens and toxins. We’ll stop using anti-bacterial products that kill both good and bad microbes. We will choose products without synthetic ingredients and harsh preservatives that pollute and destabilise our skin microbiome. We’ll feed our microbes and use treatments that seed our skin with beneficial probiotic species to help ease sensitivity and slow the rate of ageing.

The future is pro-biotic not anti-biotic… and that future starts now.