Introducing our Gut Health Canvas
In this series, we dive into the links between the gut and various aspects of our mental and physical health.
Physical Health: Skin Health

How does the gut affect our skin health?
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Skin health is strongly affected by diet. Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity have been linked to several skin conditions, such as dermatitis herpetiformis.
- Consumption of probiotics or beneficial live bacteria also has the potential to prevent and manage various skin diseases, such as acne vulgaris, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis.
How does the skin affect our gut?
- 👨 Skin health affects gut health: Those with skin conditions have distinct gut microbiome compositions. For example, acne vulgaris patients have decreased microbiota diversity and depleted levels of bacteria like Ruminococcaceae.
- Skin exposure to ultraviolet B, and therefore indirectly to serum vitamin D levels, increases gut microbiome diversity. Bacteria like Ruminococcus, crucial in breaking down complex carbohydrates into a variety of nutrients for energy, were found to be enriched.
Maintaining a healthy gut can help your skin
- 👨 In a placebo-controlled human study by Gueniche et al. (2014), healthy volunteers obtained lower transepidermal water loss (meaning less dehydrated and dry skin!) and lower skin sensitivity when consuming the probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei compared to the placebo group.
👨 Research done in humans
🐭 Research done in mice
Sources:
De Pessemier et al. 2021
Reau & Suen, 2018