Want Glowing Skin? It Starts From Within – How Your Hormones Impact Your Skin Health

Beautiful, glowing skin is something we all desire. While having a good skincare routine helps, the key to gorgeous skin comes from within, and what you put in your body is just as important as the lotions and potions you put on it.

Most of us expect a few spots and blemishes throughout our teenage years but for many of us we can still experience breakouts around the time of our period. Hormones play a huge role in your skin health – we spoke to Food Scientist and Nutritional Therapist Susie Debice, who explained the link between the two.

“The main hormone to have an effect on the skin is testosterone, and even though it’s a male hormone, all women have a certain amount of it,” she says. Testosterone influences the amount of sebum (AKA oil) produced by the skin cells – and at your time of the month when the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone start to decline, testosterone rushes in and this is what can give you oily skin and spots.

Oestrogen plays a huge part in the health of skin cells, and is what Susie describes as “one piece in the jigsaw puzzle” of collagen production. Collagen, as we know, keeps skin looking plump and youthful, so as we get older and our oestrogen levels start to drop, it impacts the tone and quality of our skin. This also comes into play in the days leading up to the period, when our oestrogen declines and our skin looks dull and washed-out.

So how can you keep things balanced?

• Resist the temptation to strip the skin of oils with abrasive washes and exfoliation. This will only stimulate more oil production and we can get trapped in a cycle
• Wash skin twice daily with gentle, natural products. Less is more
• If you have oily skin, lay off the night cream. Countless blogs advise using coconut oil but this too can block the hair follicles and cause more problems for those of us prone to congestion
• Vitamin B6 contributes to the regulation of hormonal activity in the body. Find it in meat and poultry (especially turkey), seafood, legumes, avocados and nuts and seeds
• Nourish your skin from within by cutting back on alcohol, sugar, caffeine and saturated fats to help calm down any skin irritation
• If you’re feeling stressed, under the weather or simply not eating healthy foods consistently, consider taking a good-quality supplement specially designed for women. Cleanmarine For Women contains a number of key ingredients including omega 3, vitamin B6 to help regulate hormonal activity and vitamin B2 to support normal skin.

“B-vitamins, particularly vitamin B2, are so important for skin health,” says Susie.

Having that balance will help to get you on a more even keel, calm your skin, and give you a much-needed glow. Which at the end of the day is what we’re all after, isn’t it?

Cleanmarine For Women is available from health stores and pharmacies nationwide, priced €22.99 for 60 capsules

• hormones
• skin
• skincare