Maintaining health, home, financial stability, and relationships has been the subject of many a meme and venting session lately. Social media captions like “positive mental attitude,” “everything is fine” and “adulting”  below a rocking panda or sweating, eye-twitching person, ring true alongside our amusement. It’s an all too familiar act. 

With hefty pressures like these affecting our well-being, it’s no surprise that we often find that our skincare routines just don’t cut it. Makeup falls short of covering some of what comes to the surface while our lifestyles and choices take control of what happens with our bodies, inside and out. Isolating one potential factor doesn’t seem to result in much lasting improvement leading to frustration and negative self-talk or simply, apathy. 

Hormones play a crucial role in maintaining skin health, influencing various processes such as sebum production (oil produced by skin glands), skin elasticity, hydration, recovery, and the overall appearance of the skin.  Diet and lifestyle factors play a critical role in maintaining hormonal balance. 

What Are Common Hormone Disruptors?

• • Poor Diet
    
    • • Insulin and estrogen disruption
    • • Inflammation
    • • Hormone synthesis impairment

• • Physical Activity – Highs & Lows
    
    • • A lack of physical activity can lead to weight gain and insulin resistance
    • • Overtraining without adequate rest can lead to elevated cortisol levels and negatively affect sex hormone levels

• • Chronic Stress
    
    • • Prolonged increased cortisol levels
    • • Impaired thyroid function
    • • Decrease sex hormones
    • • Insulin resistance

• • Poor Sleep
    
    • • Disruption of cortisol, insulin, growth hormone, and the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin

• • Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors
    
    • • Chemicals in foods, water, clothing and cosmetics can interfere with hormone function

• • Excessive Alcohol Consumption
    
    • • Impacts the liver’s ability to metabolize hormones
    • • Increases cortisol levels

• • Smoking
    
    • • May impact cortisol, insulin, and sex hormone balances

• • Obesity
    • Excess body fat can lead to insulin resistance and elevated levels of estrogen

How Does Hormone Disruption Affect Skin Health?

Insulin

• • Diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates can lead to insulin resistance, causing elevated insulin levels.

• • Skin Health Effects: Increased sebum production that leads to oily skin and acne. Insulin resistance has also been linked to conditions that cause dark, thickened patches of skin

Cortisol

• • Chronic stress leads to prolonged, elevated cortisol

• • Skin Health Effects: High cortisol levels can cause increased inflammation and exacerbate conditions like acne, psoriasis, and eczema. This can also impair skin barrier function leading to dryness and increased sensitivity 

Estrogen

• • Consuming processed foods and exposure to endocrine disruptors like BPA and other chemicals, can mimic or block estrogen leading to imbalances

• • SkinHealth Effects: Estrogen imbalances can reduce collagen production, leading to wrinkles, dryness, sagging and thinning ski. 

Thyroid

• • Poor sleep and chronic stress can disrupt the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis, leading to imbalances in thyroid hormones

• • Skin Health Effects: Dry, coarse skin or thin and fragile skin. Imbalances can affect hair and nail growth

Growth Hormone

• • Inadequate sleep can reduce secretion of growth hormone

• • Skin Health Effects: Growth hormone is essential for skin repair and regeneration. Reduced levels can slow wound healing, decrease collagen production and contribute to the aging of the skin

Sex Hormones

• • Smoking can disrupt the balance of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone

• • Skin Health Effects: Imbalances in sex hormones can affect skin hydration, elasticity, and sebum production

Leptin and Ghrelin

• • Poor sleep and obesity can disrupt the balance of hormones that regulate appetite

• Skin Health Effects: These disruptions can lead to overeating, weight gain, skin conditions, inflammation, and worsening of acne.

Running through the list of responsibilities everyday doesn’t often support being at our best. Keeping aware of how our bodies react to what we do might help us opt for better choices, and be more gentle with ourselves. The striving toward a balanced diet, consistent movement, stress reduction, adequate sleep, and non-toxic living will lead to better health on all levels. 

At Ellovi we’ve learned through generational wisdom that healthy skin mirrors what’s happening inside, an interconnectedness that is worth studying and sharing. Let’s take some power back with knowledge. Onward in good health, beauties. 

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At Ellovi we believe skin health is deeply connected to overall health and well-being. Our mission is to offer wellness using pure ingredients with safe and transparent methods. Self care is not just a luxury and it cannot wait. We’re here to remind you to invest in your health from head to toe, inside and out. 

Team Ellovi