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YHM 083 - Clear Skin Chronicles: Debunking Acne Myths and Exploring Gut Health, Hormones, and Nutrition
109 Plays1 year ago
Join us in this episode of YHM as we dive into the truth behind acne with special guest Hannah Burke. We'll debunk common acne myths and explore the powerful connection between gut health and skin clarity. Learn how hormonal imbalances, like elevated cortisol and insulin spikes, can exacerbate breakouts and discover actionable tips for managing stress and improving your diet. Tune in to uncover Hannah's top five tips for a clear-skin lifestyle and start your journey towards healthier, glowing skin today!
Follow Hanna:
linktr.ee/wellnesswhannah
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Clear Skin Chronicles'
00:00:10
aquaomega
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Your Health Minute, brought to you by Aqua Omega. I am your host today, Calvin Morrow, and moderating with me is Cameron and Alana. Hey! And today we have a really fun podcast episode.
00:00:21
Cameron Cogswell
Very happy to be back.
00:00:25
aquaomega
Today's title is Clear Skin Chronicles, Debunking Acne Myths and Exploring Gut Health, Hormones and Nutrition. And our special guest to talk to us about all of this is, of course, Hannah Berg. Welcome to the show, Hannah.
00:00:37
Hannah Burke
Hi, thank you for having me. I'm Hannah
Hannah's Journey to Holistic Nutrition
00:00:40
Hannah Burke
Burke. I'm a certified holistic nutritionist, certified nutritional practitioner, and I work virtually with women in PCOS care, acne reduction, and gut-related issues. My journey into the holistic health space started quite early on at around 16 or 17.
00:00:52
aquaomega
Thank you
00:00:58
Hannah Burke
And at that point I had been struggling for years with under eating, over exercising, cyclically going on and off the hormonal birth control, chronic acne, and unmanaged stress.
00:01:06
aquaomega
very much.
00:01:10
Hannah Burke
And all of these issues led me to have chronic bloating, chronic acne, and stress induced TMJ issues. So all of this led me to the Institute of Holistic Nutrition, where I studied for a little over a year. and became certified as a nutritional practitioner. And now I help women become their optimal selves and reach their optimal health rather than what we kind of classify as normal, like the acting and the bloating.
00:01:36
aquaomega
Nice.
From Personal Struggles to Holistic Studies
00:01:37
aquaomega
Okay. So it was like a personal issue that you had to like kind of take by the reins and then figure out a solution too. And then, and then afterwards you're like, Hey, I want to learn more about this and then help others.
00:01:48
Hannah Burke
Yeah, pretty much. I just, I was in such a bad place. Like being in pictures was no fun. Being on camera was no fun. And I just didn't want anyone else to kind of struggle the way that I did without any really resources. Cause you can dive down the Google rabbit hole in like Google. What is this? Why is this happening for like months and not get anywhere? So I didn't want anyone to have to do that.
00:02:10
aquaomega
Yeah, of course.
00:02:10
Cameron Cogswell
so had you ah
00:02:12
aquaomega
Yeah, there's like a billion results that come up and you Google anything.
00:02:15
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:02:16
aquaomega
up
00:02:17
Cameron Cogswell
ah yes so i was going to say had Had you corrected your own issues before you went to IHN, or did you kind of jump into school and say, I'm going to figure this out along the way?
00:02:26
Hannah Burke
I actually jumped into school. They use Nutribody at IHN, the Nutribody Assessment, where you answer a million questions and it tells you what's going on, like organ and nutrient wise. And that's kind of where I figured out why my acne was actually happening. Because I just thought it was because I was getting off birth control and like my hormones were all out of whack, but it was actually something going on in my stomach. And then seeing that connection really drove me back me and just seeing that it wasn't just what Google was telling me, it was something far deeper than that.
00:02:57
aquaomega
Mm
00:02:57
Cameron Cogswell
That's
Understanding Root Causes of Acne
00:02:58
Cameron Cogswell
amazing. You know, I'm familiar with the neutral body. David Roland was a mentor of mine. I worked with him for several years and he was the creator of the neutral body.
00:03:04
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:03:04
Cameron Cogswell
As you know, I used it with with many, many people. So had you tried anything, like had you gone um like pharma way and then decided to go to IHN? I'm just always curious because, you know, anyone who ends up in the natural health space, it's usually that it's it's desperation most of the time. So had you tried other routes and then decided, okay, I'm going to jump into this.
00:03:23
aquaomega
hmm.
00:03:25
Cameron Cogswell
And then you were open minded to the neutral body and and all those things.
00:03:29
Hannah Burke
um The only thing that I really tried before going to IHN was birth control and it didn't really do anything for my acne but IHN was more just trying to understand food better because I'd always like been interested in food I had struggled with needing disorder a bit in high school which kind of resulted in my acne and just out of that interest I ended up at IHN and then into acne because that's what I was struggling with at the time.
00:03:55
aquaomega
Interesting.
00:03:55
Cameron Cogswell
Very cool.
00:03:55
aquaomega
What,
Acne Types and Misconceptions
00:03:57
aquaomega
what is like, cause I feel like for, for some people acne is different. Maybe we can talk about like the different types of acne or, or, you know, maybe the different stages of life and how acne changes throughout that. Like just to give anyone who, even though I'm sure most people have an idea of what acne is, we can just kind of like get a definition down on on paper for, for our listeners to, to understand what, um,
00:04:15
Hannah Burke
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So acne is by definition an inflammatory condition of the skin. And it's when, so we have hair follicles all over our face.
00:04:22
aquaomega
Mm-hmm.
00:04:25
Hannah Burke
And in those hair follicles, we have our sebaceous glands, and these are the glands that are producing oil. And with acne, our hair follicles become clogged with that oil and also dead skin cells. So it's really just congestion in the skin. And then when they come congestion, we get like the whiteheads, the blackheads, or cystic acne. And blackheads are the little black dots on your skin. Whiteheads are the like pimples that are red and have the white pus on the top.
00:04:51
aquaomega
Yeah.
00:04:51
Hannah Burke
And then cystic acne are the like raised, red, painful, big pimples along you like your chin, your jawline, your cheek, wherever.
00:04:54
aquaomega
Okay, I feel like I get one in the back of my head over and over and over again. Is that could that be like a cystic acne or is that just like assist?
00:05:00
aquaomega
okay i
Impact of Treatments and Products
00:05:01
aquaomega
feel like i get one in the back of my head over and over and over again is that could that be like ah a cystic acne or is that just like a assist
00:05:10
Hannah Burke
It could be Cystic Acne. I haven't heard of it there before.
00:05:13
Cameron Cogswell
how ah How long does Calvin have to live here?
00:05:14
aquaomega
No, okay. It's like something I'm like kind of concerned about that I should maybe get looked at, but it's just this bump and then hair stops growing right there.
00:05:16
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah. yeah
00:05:21
aquaomega
It could be like a clogged, uh, like an ingrown hair, maybe? Ingrown hair. Ingrown hair.
00:05:26
Cameron Cogswell
yeah
00:05:26
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:05:26
aquaomega
I feel like that kind of sounds like, maybe? Maybe. Maybe. That's what it should be.
00:05:29
Cameron Cogswell
Oh, man.
00:05:29
aquaomega
And then, is it okay to like pop pimples? Because that's something I literally do or like my girlfriend's all growing up with like, oh, like lay on your stomach. I just want to like pop your pimples. Yeah, Calvin does it at work.
00:05:39
Cameron Cogswell
but
00:05:39
Hannah Burke
No.
00:05:39
aquaomega
I do it at work.
00:05:40
aquaomega
um chat Okay, so that's like a no to popping blackhead, even though it's so satisfying.
00:05:45
Hannah Burke
That's like a big no, yeah.
00:05:47
aquaomega
It's a big no. All right.
00:05:48
Hannah Burke
Big no, just because you're getting bacteria and you're spreading bacteria and it's gonna make it worse, so just don't touch it.
00:05:50
Cameron Cogswell
Oh
00:05:54
aquaomega
Just don't touch it.
00:05:54
Cameron Cogswell
my god.
00:05:54
aquaomega
All right.
00:05:54
Hannah Burke
Just don't touch it.
00:05:55
aquaomega
That's going to be like a whole lifestyle shift for me, but I feel like I should invest in that.
00:06:01
aquaomega
Oh man.
00:06:03
Cameron Cogswell
That's funny.
00:06:03
aquaomega
What about, um, I remember growing up and and maybe this is before your time, but everyone was taking proactive. um As like a way to like help get rid of their pimples right because obviously popping my pimples wasn't helping so I saw like those late night infomercials and I got like Almost like scam because it's a subscription and do you know proactive are are you familiar with it at all Hannah?
00:06:11
Cameron Cogswell
Oh, yeah.
00:06:24
Hannah Burke
I remember seeing commercials for it when I was like pretty young. I don't even know if it was like a cleanser or if it was something that you took internally.
00:06:30
aquaomega
It was like
Hormones, Gut Health, and Acne Connection
00:06:31
aquaomega
a three step process. Yeah, it was.
00:06:32
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah.
00:06:33
aquaomega
a Yeah, it was. It was like the first one was almost like a a white sandpaper that you'd rub on. Kendall Jenner was like the spokesperson for it for a while. Oh, yeah. Interesting. Did not know that. And then there'd be like ah a lighter clear one that would always burn when you put it on. And then there'd just be like, you dab, you dab like little white things afterwards. But I always heard that like, oh, you do that. And then you stop and it gets worse. Is was there anything to that? Do you have any idea? Like if you start a treatment and then stopped, does your acne come back worse than before?
00:07:01
Hannah Burke
Well it depends like a lot of things like that are quite harsh and when you have acne like the skin's already inflamed it's already you know sometimes has lesions on it like it's already really irritated and then adding like a super harsh exfoliant or a super harsh chemical on top of it is gonna probably make it worse just because you're not dealing with the actual root cause. So if you're treating it with skincare which is often like the first line of defense that we think of like, oh, my, my, I'm having like a good breakout. I'm going to use a really great cleanser, but you're not dealing with what's causing that breakout.
00:07:32
Hannah Burke
So if you just continue for months using this like great cleanser, you're just making the root cause worse because you're not dealing with it and it's just progressing. So that's probably why.
00:07:42
aquaomega
right so So what would be the root cause? like What should people be looking at to actually like fix it instead of just put a band-aid on it?
00:07:49
Hannah Burke
Well, there's a few different things that you would look at. So we look at hormones, gut health and digestion, detoxification, and then like your skincare. So with hormones, we look at cortisol, insulin, and your androgens, and you know, gut health is like HDL in your overall microbiome. Detox are all of your detox organs, and then skincare is choosing ones that are non-comedogenic, and usually no-tox or low-tox, just to help
Identifying Individual Acne Causes
00:08:15
Hannah Burke
on the hormone front. Lots of things that can be the root cause.
00:08:17
aquaomega
so So is that why people are sometimes prescribed like the pill?
00:08:20
Cameron Cogswell
That's it.
00:08:22
aquaomega
It feels like such a weird thing to to take for acne is like a pregnancy pill.
00:08:26
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:08:28
aquaomega
what What is the connection there? And is there one?
00:08:31
Hannah Burke
Sorry, you cut out hope for that one. what
00:08:34
aquaomega
Yeah, what is the connection between taking like the pregnancy pill and acne? Because I know so many girls growing up were just like, oh, yeah, I'm on the pill now. My acne has gone away. like why Why does that occur?
00:08:45
Hannah Burke
Yeah, so the birth control pill is kind of prescribed for everything for women, unfortunately, but the birth control on an acne friend.
00:08:51
aquaomega
for
00:08:52
Hannah Burke
So what it does is it lowers the sebum production in the skin, which less oil is usually going to mean less breakouts. But when women come off of it, they get what's called the androgen rebound often, or post pill PCOS, where all of a sudden they're having this like spike in androgens because they don't have all these synthetic hormones. And the sebums, there's more sebum being produced now and the acne is worse than ever. So, yeah.
00:09:17
aquaomega
No, it's terrible.
00:09:17
Cameron Cogswell
So how do how do you figure out what it what it is for you? I mean you've mentioned a couple things like it could be hormones, it could be this, it could be gut health. How do you narrow it down for yourself or how would someone else?
00:09:30
Hannah Burke
So with me, I did the, um, neutral body assessment, which I never made the connection between HCL and acne, but looking back now, it makes sense. So I had low HCL, low liver clearance and intestinal parasites or candida, I think is what mine actually was. And then figuring out from that, that I wasn't, so your stomach acid is really important in like neutralizing pathogens coming in from your digestive tract or the foods you're eating. So I wasn't getting rid of those pathogens and I wasn't assimilating any nutrients really, but I also wasn't clearing anything from my liver. So I just had constant toxins circulating in my body and that's like, your skin is one of your biggest detox organs, right? So the toxins were trying to come out through my skin and I just had all of this acne from that. And then the low stomach acid, the poor liver clearance, uh, ended up in a hormonal imbalance. So just a bunch of different things kind of accumulating and being in like a vicious cycle that led to my acne.
00:10:27
Cameron Cogswell
but How would, um like someone listening,
Gut Health and Diagnostic Steps
00:10:30
Cameron Cogswell
how would they go about figuring out other than, okay, perhaps they could, you know, complete the neutral body on their own. But because I think this is the, I don't want to say trap, but a lot of people fall into this, they they find revenue or they listen to this podcast, okay, this worked for Hannah, let me try it. Oh my gosh, it didn't work for me. And now I'm lost. ah How do you go about figuring out what exactly it is?
00:10:47
aquaomega
Mm
00:10:50
Cameron Cogswell
Like, what is the root cause for for yourself?
00:10:52
Hannah Burke
I would say more often than not we think it's a hormone imb balance but it's really a gut imbalance so it could be candida or SIBO but I would look for the like bowel irregularities like diarrhea or constipation, bloating, excessive flatulence, gas, things like that to understand that okay this really is a digestive issue or if you're like you have like the dark circles into your eyes you're probably not absorbing certain nutrients and things like that or if your skin's really dry you're not absorbing fats and then that's probably a liver issue so just really listening to your body's cues and just if you eat like I don't know like corn or something and you like bloat like crazy well you've probably got a gut issue if you eat like a cupcake and you bloat like crazy you probably have some extra candida
00:11:12
aquaomega
-hmm
00:11:36
Hannah Burke
So just really listening to what your body is trying to tell you. And acne isn't a bad thing. It's your body trying to tell you that something is going wrong internally. Like something's not there that needs to be happening. So it's just,
Improving Gut Health for Clearer Skin
00:11:47
Hannah Burke
yeah, really listening to what your body has to tell you.
00:11:51
Cameron Cogswell
I like that.
00:11:51
aquaomega
So what are the the next steps? Let's just say someone's eating corn or cupcake and they realize like, oh yeah, this is really bloating meat. Should they just cut it out completely from their diet or
00:12:01
Hannah Burke
Yeah, so ah the first step that I do is getting rid of like the common triggers. So with, we'll take my current client for example, she knows that gluten is a trigger, but she continues to eat it because that's just what's in her diet, right?
00:12:10
aquaomega
Mm-hmm.
00:12:14
Hannah Burke
And that's not her fault.
00:12:14
aquaomega
Moon is good, yeah. I get it.
00:12:16
Hannah Burke
So the first thing we do is just get rid of all the trigger foods, get rid of them. And we usually start on a good HCL supplement or a bio supplement, depending on what's going on in the liver.
00:12:26
aquaomega
Mm-hmm.
00:12:27
Hannah Burke
And then from there, add in a probiotic like the pure encapsulations 50 B it has, um, I think it's lactobacillus. GG is the one that's really good for acne, but it has an acne specific strain.
00:12:35
aquaomega
Mm-hmm.
00:12:37
Hannah Burke
That's going to help with your skin. And then just going from there to rebuild the gut. And that in turn is going to help your hormone levels. Um, by like rebuilding, like your extra bowl of your gut or whatever.
00:12:49
aquaomega
Okay, so it's just kind of getting like a good balance in your in your gut in the microbiome of your gut.
00:12:55
Hannah Burke
Yeah, well because like the less that your gut has to really work on, the more that the rest of your body can do. So like if your stomach acid, if you're producing enough stomach acid, the less that like your liver has to do in producing bile. So if we're supporting like, I don't know, like the liver and the kidneys, it's less the rest of your detox organs have to do. So you're not putting so much pressure on like your skin or your liver or your kidneys or whatever.
00:13:19
aquaomega
Okay, that makes sense. So is that part of kind of like the the detox that you that you've mentioned a little bit?
00:13:25
Hannah Burke
Ah, like the gut health?
00:13:27
aquaomega
Yeah, or or is like you do the detox after kind of introducing, you know, the probiotics and improving your gut microbiome, or is the detox
00:13:36
Hannah Burke
It's really dependent on like what's going on in the digestive tract. If like they're not having any bowel movements, that's the first focus because you can't, you know, get rid of any of the pathogens in the digestive tract. Nothing's moving out of it, right? So just making sure that there's enough fiber, there's enough white water, things are moving through the digestive tract and then going on to deliver to ensure there's liver clearance and then the kidneys and then the lymphatic system.
00:14:01
aquaomega
Okay, so just, sorry, go ahead, Cameron.
00:14:03
Cameron Cogswell
ah Me and Calvin do this every podcast.
00:14:05
aquaomega
We do, yeah, we're we're just eager to like absorb all your information.
00:14:06
Cameron Cogswell
We both want to talk.
00:14:09
Cameron Cogswell
I love asking questions.
00:14:09
aquaomega
since
00:14:11
Cameron Cogswell
um so Obviously, I mean, you're you're going root cause. This is exactly what people should be doing. They're so happy to pop a pill or look for like a product on the shelf of even like a, you know, a supplement store, at natural health product store, and it says, you know, for acne and they're they're easy, they're happy to take it.
00:14:22
Hannah Burke
you
00:14:26
Cameron Cogswell
But this approach is going to take longer. How long are people, you know, supposed to wait before they see results? If they're trying to fix their gut or or whatever, it might be a hormonal imbalance. um How long should they stay patient for before they're going to see some sort of result in in their skin?
00:14:38
Hannah Burke
Thank you.
00:14:41
aquaomega
Mmhmm.
00:14:43
Hannah Burke
Um, it's really dependent on the severity of the acne, of course, but usually within two weeks, there's less active breakouts. And I'd say about three months is when you're really starting to see a big difference. Like you're not getting any active breakouts and all that. You might still have like, um, not raised acne, but all of the raised cystic acne is going to be gone within the three to six month range. And then it's just, it's really about changing your lifestyle because I can give you all these tools. to have clear skin, support your detox pathways, support your gut.
00:15:17
Hannah Burke
But if you don't implement them long-term, your acne is going to come back.
00:15:22
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah.
00:15:22
Hannah Burke
So it's really about focusing on that lifestyle shift. You're going to see differences within one month, two month, three months, depending on how strict you are with what you're doing. Because it's really crucial
Natural vs. Medical Acne Treatments
00:15:33
Hannah Burke
that you're not eating that gluten within the first you know two months to really secure or not secure to seal that gut lining.
00:15:41
aquaomega
Mm hmm.
00:15:42
Cameron Cogswell
Right, so.
00:15:42
Hannah Burke
So it's really about how serious you are about doing it. Yeah.
00:15:47
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah. and And I think that's the point that people are impatient with these things. And that's why it's so easy to pop a pill.
00:15:51
Hannah Burke
name
00:15:53
Cameron Cogswell
So ah the lessening of acne is a sign that their gut health is improving.
00:15:58
Hannah Burke
yeah well your gut health only takes i think it's like 24 hours um to like reset kind of so it it shouldn't take a long time but you have to be very consistent and people want a quick fix because that's what we're used to right in our society you can take a pill and everything's gonna be fine in two weeks but dealing with the root cause is gonna lead to so many less issues down the road like acne is a sign it's a starting point that something's gone wrong and it's only gonna progress so really dealing with it now and but implementing that great lifestyle is going to be huge in a person's healing.
00:16:30
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah. And I mean, sort of on the same topic, but does that ever scare people away, like clients that you've seen when you're like, okay, well, you got, Oh my gosh, I have a liver issue.
00:16:33
aquaomega
Mm-hm.
00:16:38
Cameron Cogswell
You're telling me I have this, you know, first they just thought they had something with their skin. And like you said, potentially a cleanser will help this. And now you're telling them, Hey, your liver's not functioning well. And guess what? And your gut's, you know, not doing so well. ah Does that ever kind of scare people away that it's, it's almost worse than they think it is?
00:16:55
Hannah Burke
Um, I would say no, just because if you're coming to a holistic nutritionist, you've tried a million things. You've tried everything under the sun. Like you just want results. So you're ready to take, you know, not necessarily the bad news, but the things that you weren't maybe ready to hear, you're ready to just take that and run with it. Typically, if you're coming to a nutritionist, you know, like people don't go to a a holistic nutritionist first a lot of the time.
00:17:20
aquaomega
Which is too bad.
00:17:21
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah.
00:17:21
aquaomega
It almost feels like that should be the first thing they do because like, sure, you're there for your your skin.
00:17:24
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:17:27
aquaomega
But you know, but by looking at what we're doing, if we have like a nice little detox and we start improving your gut health, you're going to get way more benefits than just
00:17:30
Cameron Cogswell
Oh
00:17:33
Hannah Burke
Mm hmm.
00:17:34
aquaomega
healthier and you're going to get more energy.
00:17:34
Cameron Cogswell
yeah.
00:17:36
aquaomega
You're going to be feeling better. Like you're going to get rid of any kind of memory fog. And then, so if people just started going to, you know, holistic nutritionists a little bit sooner, even just like always, you know, just kind of like, Oh, I'm going to visit at least once a year, once or twice a year to kind of like, you know, do whatever kind of tests you you were talking about, run through things and see how your gut's feeling, see how your skin's doing and people's, you know, their lives are going to be way higher quality.
00:17:43
Cameron Cogswell
Mm
00:17:46
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:17:47
Cameron Cogswell
hmm.
00:17:55
Hannah Burke
Mm
00:17:56
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah.
00:18:00
Cameron Cogswell
it's It's a really good point too, Calvin, because, you know, in my experience too, I went to the same school as Hannah, you know.
00:18:00
Hannah Burke
hmm.
00:18:05
aquaomega
oh that's why you were talking
00:18:05
Cameron Cogswell
um
00:18:06
Cameron Cogswell
yeah Yeah, we're the best. ah But it it sometimes makes, and you're very early in your career, Hannah, so it will sometimes make your job more difficult because there are certainly times where clients have come to me and it's the same as like you were mentioning, hey, you know what, you've got to work on your liver or hey, you know, you have these deficiencies and they're like, no, no, no, my doctor would have told me if I did and they didn't tell me.
00:18:08
aquaomega
yeah
00:18:28
Cameron Cogswell
You know, so it sometimes makes the job more difficult.
00:18:29
aquaomega
Oh, that's why you were talking to them.
00:18:31
Cameron Cogswell
Have you run into that with people with acne or are they generally receptive because they've tried that route and it doesn't work and tell me anything you need. I'll do it.
00:18:41
Hannah Burke
generally pretty receptive because the one thing that they don't want to do is go on Accutane because there is so many horror stories with it that they're just like, hey, this is what my doctor wants me to do. They want me to go on Accutane. I've done the birth control pill. I've done the topical pains. I've done all these things, but I don't want to do Accutane. So usually they're, they're pretty receptive and they're just like, I don't care. I understand that my doctor hasn't told me that. And usually I'll tell them like, your doctor doesn't have a ton of nutrition training which is not their fault that's not a part of the medical system but that's why I'm approaching it from this way and your doctor didn't tell you that that's why it's not because your doctor you know is trying to lead you astray or trying to get you to take this medication it's just because they don't have that knowledge.
00:19:19
aquaomega
what
Skincare Product Recommendations
00:19:20
aquaomega
um What is Accutane for myself and any listeners who have no idea what it is?
00:19:24
Hannah Burke
It's a vitamin A derivative that you take it's like an oral thing and it basically just dries out your skin.
00:19:28
aquaomega
Okay.
00:19:31
aquaomega
Oh, interesting. It's terrible for your liver. Absolutely terrible for your liver.
00:19:34
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:19:34
aquaomega
On your blood pressure as well, like if you're on Accutane, you have to go I think it's either like three months, every three months you have to go and get your blood pressure checked and you cannot get pregnant. So if you're on Accutane, you also have to be on the birth control pill.
00:19:46
Cameron Cogswell
Oh, wow.
00:19:46
aquaomega
Oh, wow. Okay. So that's like a huge lifestyle. It's terrible. It's like, I personally have not been on it, but I've had lots of friends who've been on it.
00:19:50
Cameron Cogswell
So imagine, yeah.
00:19:55
aquaomega
And it's, it's just hard on your system and your skin will just like purge and purge and purge. My one friend, she had acne. So acne on her back and no acne on her face at all. Right. And she went on Accutane and like she had the worst acne ever. Like it was all, and like her skin was just like peeling constantly. Yeah. Yeah. And did it help? Uh, it helped short term and then it came back. Yeah. Yeah. and Terrible. Okay. So I can see why people would want an alternative to, to Accutane.
00:20:27
Hannah Burke
Mm hmm.
00:20:27
Cameron Cogswell
Yeah. I was going to say, like, imagine that you're taking active and perhaps let's say for some people, their skin is getting better, but then they go back to the doctor like, Hey, your liver is failing now.
00:20:33
aquaomega
Mm-hmm.
00:20:36
Cameron Cogswell
So now you got to stop the medication that, you know, in some ways was helping them. So, I mean, that's why it I think it always is good to to go to a nutritionist or or seek another opinion. That's not like reliant on something that in some ways is is harming your body in the long run too.
00:20:49
Hannah Burke
the
00:20:52
aquaomega
If someone is looking for a product, what you know let's just say they they are, they're eating well, um you know they're getting enough sleep, they're trying to do all those things. They're not popping their pimples with their oily fingers. What's what's a good way for our listeners to like find the right product for them?
00:21:08
Cameron Cogswell
but
00:21:09
aquaomega
like Is there anything they should avoid on the shelf or or other things they should look out for?
00:21:13
Hannah Burke
Do you mean skin care wise or like supplement wise?
00:21:15
aquaomega
Yeah. Skin care wise, like like just to, you know, like they're, they're doing the whole thing. They're, they're eating well. They did the detox. They're taking care of themselves in as many ways as possible, but then they're still kind of seeing some breakouts or some acne. Like are there products that you should put on your skin that are topical that, that are approved by you or.
00:21:33
Hannah Burke
Yeah. So, um, I always say use an s SPF, especially like obviously in the mornings, use your s SPF. And that's just because it helps to reduce scarring. And a lot of people who are like dealing with acne are like, I'm not putting on an SPF. I'm not adding anything else to my skincare routine, but I promise it helps with scarring.
00:21:46
aquaomega
Okay.
00:21:47
Hannah Burke
So please use an SPF. Um, but in terms of like skincare and things that you're putting on your skin, I like the clear stem, they have a non-comedogenic ingredients list checker and I use it for absolutely everything that I put on my skin. It takes like three seconds. If you just look up clear stem, non-comedogenic list generator or something, it will come up and i just everything that you're going to put on your skin, just copy and paste it from the website and put it over there. And that's how I check all of my skincare products.
00:22:15
aquaomega
Okay. And what, sorry, what was the website you mentioned?
00:22:18
Hannah Burke
Clear stem, their skincare brand, non-comedogenic ingredient checker.
00:22:22
aquaomega
um Okay.
00:22:22
Cameron Cogswell
So what does a comedogenic mean?
00:22:22
aquaomega
Awesome. I will.
00:22:25
Hannah Burke
If it's a poor clogging ingredient, like coconut oil.
00:22:28
Cameron Cogswell
I see. So it's looking for pork logging ingredients.
00:22:30
Hannah Burke
Yes. Yeah.
Lifestyle Changes and Patience
00:22:31
Hannah Burke
yeah
00:22:31
Cameron Cogswell
Okay, okay.
00:22:33
aquaomega
Okay. And then s SPF is maybe I'm ignorant. Is that just like sunscreen or, or is it a separate?
00:22:37
Hannah Burke
Yes. ands free I use a probably a 50 on my face most of the time, even in the winters, even if you're staying inside during the day, put your s SPF on.
00:22:38
aquaomega
Okay. So you can just, and what number is, what's the right number to do?
00:22:45
aquaomega
Okay.
00:22:46
Cameron Cogswell
Oh wow.
00:22:49
aquaomega
Okay. Interesting. would Would you be able to like maybe break down like a skincare routine for someone who has like acne prone skin?
00:22:56
Hannah Burke
Yeah, for sure. um So in the mornings, I don't wash my face. If you're washing your pillowcases at least once a week, you don't need to wash your face in the morning.
00:23:03
aquaomega
It's a week.
00:23:04
Hannah Burke
Just don't bother it.
00:23:06
aquaomega
oh Sorry. again kevin Once a week. Sorry. Once a week. Yeah. Wash your pillowcases. Let me write down. Okay. I don't know. I'm learning a lot today.
00:23:13
Cameron Cogswell
Once a year.
00:23:15
aquaomega
This is good.
00:23:15
Hannah Burke
but Yeah, once a week, wash your pillowcases. And then in the morning, just some cold water on your face, cool, cold, whatever you want. Gua sha every morning, and then add your s SPF to a dry face. And then in the evenings, I say do it as soon as you get home from work, because the longer these ingredients can sit on your face, the better. um You wash your face with a gentle cleanser. I use an oil cleanser and a gel cleanser, but I understand for people struggling with active breakouts, an oil cleanser is not something they want to put on their face, so you can just use a gel cleanser if you want.
00:23:48
aquaomega
Mm-hmm.
00:23:48
Hannah Burke
And then a serum is optional. I like the vitamin C serum from Mad Hippie. It's gorgeous. And then a really nice moisturizer in the evening. And then twice a week, a chemical exfoliant mask is really helpful for getting rid of those dead skin cells.
00:24:03
aquaomega
Is that like those white masks that i I'll see? I feel like I see them on social media, just like people taking pictures of their ghost face looking white mask.
00:24:08
Cameron Cogswell
Mm
00:24:12
aquaomega
Is is that is that what that is, the chemical mask?
00:24:13
Hannah Burke
Mine's clear, but there's probably white ones out there.
00:24:15
aquaomega
Yeah. OK. All right. Interesting. Usually they're like AHA masks, right? Yeah. usually okay There's clear jelly.
00:24:21
Hannah Burke
yeah
00:24:25
aquaomega
yeah It kind of stings a little bit. It kind of stings a little bit. looks Oh, interesting. I i was ah ah had something that stung a little bit that went under my eye. It was like this little gold thing.
00:24:33
Cameron Cogswell
-hmm
00:24:34
aquaomega
I was i was in a wedding party and he was like, oh, I got to put these on your eyes i'll i'll you know all morning. I was like, okay. They did sting a little bit.
00:24:40
Cameron Cogswell
But.
00:24:42
aquaomega
We had them some questions come in from, we let people know that you're going to be on the show and I have a few questions that I have. Are you open to to answer some of these questions?
00:24:50
Hannah Burke
Yeah for sure.
00:24:52
aquaomega
Sure. Okay. So um this question came in a few times. it It was, how does puberty affect acne and will I grow out of it?
00:24:59
Hannah Burke
So puberty is just the hormonal shifts going on like for women you're starting your menstrual cycle you're getting into that hormonal cycle. ah For men again it's that increase in androgens so you will grow out of it but you can you know work with a nutritionist to support your puberty hormones and acne. I don't typically work with younger people like just starting out with puberty just because that is a lot of hormones at play. But you will grow out of it eventually.
00:25:28
aquaomega
Okay.
00:25:29
Hannah Burke
If you're a boy, you can try taking some zinc, it really helps. But you will grow out of it.
00:25:34
aquaomega
Okay. Consuming zinc as a, okay, that's cool.
00:25:37
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:25:37
Cameron Cogswell
yeah
00:25:38
aquaomega
We had, sorry, go ahead and camera.
00:25:39
Cameron Cogswell
Sorry, I was going to say, and not to jump in again, I know you have other questions, but you brought up an interesting point that I didn't think of before, like men and women or girls and boys. Is is there different approaches for each then?
00:25:50
Hannah Burke
I would say there's different approaches in like, especially in the puberty stage, because there's a lot of different hormones at play. But like with adult acne, I wouldn't do it very different. I would still focus on the gut health for both men and women. Of course, men, it would be a bit different because they naturally have a higher androgen levels. But no, the treatment, the whole treatment approach wouldn't be overly different.
00:26:15
aquaomega
Okay. That's good to know.
Managing Stress to Combat Acne
00:26:16
aquaomega
Um, so we have another question here. It was, are my stress levels making my acne worse?
00:26:22
Hannah Burke
Yes.
00:26:25
aquaomega
Yes, they are.
00:26:25
Hannah Burke
So yes, when you have high cortisol and cortisol is our stress hormone.
00:26:25
aquaomega
Okay.
00:26:30
Hannah Burke
When you have chronically elevated levels of it and we think of stress as like psychological stress, but this includes stress that you're putting on your body through like injury or um harmful foods like gluten or something that you're putting in and you're causing inflammation and that's increasing stress. um But this actually increases the sebum production in your skin and more sebum leads to more acne.
00:26:51
aquaomega
Okay. So taking some time to like manage your stress will, will help with your acne breakouts.
00:26:54
Hannah Burke
Yeah, trying like EFT, getting some morning sunlight is really great for regulating cortisol levels. Doing some meditation, some yoga, taking some magnesium, whatever works for you. I find with people trying to manage your stress while trying to manage acne can be a bit like challenging because they're already really stressed out with the acne and everything else that I have them doing.
00:27:14
aquaomega
Yeah.
00:27:15
Hannah Burke
So starting with EFT is usually the first thing I do and then have them go stand in the sun for 10 minutes every morning within a half hour of waking is the best ones.
00:27:24
aquaomega
I like that. yeah It's not like a huge time sink. Yeah. Even the way you were describing the, uh, the routine, you know, just like splashing some water in your face.
00:27:27
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:27:32
aquaomega
Nice cold water. I feel like that felt very kind of like therapeutic and it' in its own way.
00:27:35
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:27:36
aquaomega
Right. And at least you know, you're like, Hey, this is good for me.
00:27:37
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:27:38
aquaomega
You know, take that moment, breathe it in.
00:27:39
Cameron Cogswell
Mm hmm.
00:27:40
aquaomega
I like the ice
Final Advice and Contact Information
00:27:41
aquaomega
rollers. Have you heard of this? No, I've not. Put it in the, put it in the freezer and then like roll on your face in the morning.
00:27:46
Cameron Cogswell
Hmm.
00:27:46
aquaomega
It kind of like deep puffs your face. It's like acne is inflammatory. right man Take that moment to de-stress. Yeah, exactly. um Okay, and then I think we we can do one more question right here. Someone said I had really bad acne when I was a teenager and I still have acne scars today. Is there anything I can do to help treat these?
00:28:04
Hannah Burke
Yeah so you can try red light therapy. That's been really helpful for a lot of people. Of course using your sunscreen is going to be really helpful in stopping like the hyperpigmentation of those scars and like a nice vitamin c serum. Like I said the mad hippie one is probably one of my favorites. um Using something like that will also help with scarring.
00:28:24
aquaomega
Okay. That's great. Hannah, thank you so much. Like you have been such a well of knowledge for, for everyone listening. I'm sure anyone who has had any kind of acne issues, which let's be honest, who hasn't, um, if they want to continue this conversation or follow along with you, what is the best way for them to do that?
00:28:40
Hannah Burke
Um, I'm over on Instagram, mostly at wellness W Hannah. Uh, but they can also email me at hello at wellness W hannah.com.
00:28:48
aquaomega
Okay. Awesome. Are you taking clients currently?
00:28:51
Hannah Burke
Yeah, I do have, uh, I think six spots available for June. So yeah, I work completely remote.
00:28:59
aquaomega
Okay. Nice. Are you available online or or do they have to be in your area?
00:29:04
Hannah Burke
So only online.
00:29:05
aquaomega
Completely remote. All right. So it doesn't even matter where you guys are from across Canada.
00:29:07
Hannah Burke
Yeah.
00:29:10
aquaomega
That is so great.
00:29:11
Hannah Burke
yeah
00:29:12
aquaomega
Hannah, I want to thank you again for being on the show. It's been so amazing. Cameron Atlanta as always. um And if you made it this far and you enjoy the episode, be sure to actually like the episode, share it with your friends or share your acne stories in the comments below. Thank you again, Hannah. I was very happy.
00:29:33
Cameron Cogswell
Thank you.