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Are You (and Your Skin) Ready for Spring
Warmer days and brilliant bouquets are around the corner. But for allergy sufferers, springtime is no picnic. Those joyful transitions can also translate into an annual ritual of sneezing, sniffling and itchy skin. The first step toward relief is to identify your position on the rash spectrum and to remember that pollen in the air is only one factor in the skin irritation equation.
Balance Your Skin’s Microbiome to Clear Acne
Nothing’s more exasperating than conspicuous breakouts. We all get them, and we all spend a lot of effort trying to avoid them. A daily diet of topical antibiotics and antimicrobials prescribed to combat acne may work for a time, but ultimately, they can disrupt the skin’s microbiome balance. It’s now common knowledge that prolonged use of antibiotics kills off beneficial bacteria found in the gut microbiome, tipping the balance in favor of over-colonization by disease-causing pathogens. Similar to the gut’s microbial disruption-disease cycle, skin microbial dysbiosis can lead to skin problems ranging from redness, irritation, rosacea, rashes, eczema, resurgence of acne and adult acne to photosensitization.
A Fresh Take on Spring Cleaning: Our Personal Ecosystem
Like our wonderful planet, each human being is composed of a number of ecosystems or microbiomes. The gut microbiome has received a lot of attention of late, but the skin microbiome is also a fascinating ecosystem composed of living biological and physical components occupying diverse habitats in which, as in all microbiomes, one rule remains constant: disruptions in microfloral balance can result in disorders or infections.
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