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Katie: Hello and welcome to “The Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and wellnesse.com, that’s wellness with an E on the end. And I’m here with my friend, Dr. Trevor Cates, and she’s the author of the best line book, “Clean Skin from Within” and founder of the Spa Dr. natural skin care line. She was the first woman licensed as a naturopathic doctor in the state of California, and was a doctor in several world-renowned spas in Utah. She helps women from around the world with the focus on skin and hormones and she is been featured extensively on TV. She’s also releasing a new book this year, as well as a series online, a docuseries that really goes into how to fix hormone and skin problems from the inside out.
And in this episode, we go deep on the funny story of why her mom gave her a man’s name, the hormone, and skin, and gut connection, and why it goes much beyond just acne. How hormones change throughout life, throughout the month, and even with the seasons, how insulin affects skin and hormones, and why it increases saponin androgens and can lead to acne. There are reasons there are some places in the world where acne does not even exist. The skin signs that are the first warning signs of hypothyroidism. The link between stress hormones and eczema, and her biggest tips for eczema, acne, and aging, as well as what to look out for in skin care products, and the ones you really want to avoid. We talk about sunshine and the real deal on should you were sunscreen or not, should you get sunlight or not, and so much more. She also goes deep on why she doesn’t think birth control should be used for skin and hormone health, and the other options she would recommend instead. So, we get through a lot in just one episode. And without further ado, let’s join Dr. Cates. Trevor, welcome. Thanks so much for being here.
Trevor: Thank you. So great to be here with you, Katie.
Katie: Well, I’m excited to get to chat about hormones and skin health. And this is certainly an area you are without a doubt a world-class expert. But before we jump into that, I have a fun note that there’s a reason for your name, that I think is really funny, and I would love to hear the story.
Trevor: Yeah. It’s kind of strange. People oftentimes think they’re expecting a guy because my first name is Trevor. And so I, you know, it wasn’t really a big issue growing up with it but later on, I did start to ask my parents, why did you give me this name. And my mom said to me something really interesting, which was, “Well, I thought when I was pregnant with you that if you ever were going to write a book someday, it would be easier to get published if you had a man’s name and you submitted a manuscript.”
Katie: It’s so funny, and you have now published books?
Trevor: Yes. I have one book out and one on the way coming out later this year. And it actually helps that I’m a woman.
Katie: It’s funny, the tide has shifted. In fact, you were the first woman… This is also my notes licensed as a naturopathic doctor in California, from what I understand.
Trevor: Yes. I was, yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor at the time. And he appointed me to the naturopathic advisory council to help set up when licensure passed for California. And so because I was on the advisory board, I was one of the three people appointed, I was the only woman appointed. So I was the first woman licensed.
Katie: Very cool story. And I know that you have, you’ve worked with thousands of people for lots of different reasons. But one area you are especially an expert in is skin health, and also, especially the hormone connection to that. And I feel like this is a very top-of-mind issue, especially for a lot of women, and especially after, it seems like the last couple of years have caused some anxiety and hormone imbalance for a lot of people. And so I would love for us to delve deep on this today. But just start off broad, can you just kind of walk us through the hormone and skin connection, because I often see people trying to treat skin problems topically and not necessarily address them internally. And I have teenagers right now. And so that’s, you know, as they go through this, I’m like, “Yeah, you could put cream on your face, but what’s going on in your gut, or what’s going on with your hormones?” So let’s talk in a broad sense about that right now.
Trevor: Yeah, absolutely. So as I often I’m talking about skin being our magic mirror, that’s an outer reflection of our overall health. And I think a lot of times people forget that our skin is our largest organ, it is connected to everything and that includes our hormones. And so with my first book, I kind of touched on hormones a little bit in my first book, but it was the question that people asked me most about because I think a lot of times people don’t really think of this connection with hormones. The only thing…sometimes they think about it with hormonal acne. But there’s so many other ways that our hormones can impact our skin. But I think also a lot of times people forget that there are more than just sex hormones that play a role in our health. And so there are adrenal hormones or thyroid hormones, there’s melatonin, there’s insulin, there are all kinds of different hormones beyond sex hormones. And so these constantly are changing. And so we really want to take a look at our skin because it is oftentimes one of the early warning signs that something is out of balance, including with our hormones.
Katie: Yeah. So let’s talk about that. Because like you said, especially for women, there’s so many different hormones that are up and down at different times. What are some of maybe the main ones to think about and how they can express in the skin?
Trevor: Yeah, and we, especially for women, like you said, because our hormones change throughout our lives throughout the month, throughout our cycles. And so it definitely can change. Also, a lot of times people don’t realize this, but our hormones change through the different seasons. So with each of the four seasons with the distance that the sun is from us, that makes a difference in our hormones. And so these hormones really vary. And like I said they can be sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, they can also be adrenal hormones like cortisol, or thyroid hormones, but even sleep melatonin impacts our skin and with our blood sugar, insulin impacts our skin. And so, you know, for example, I think a lot of times people don’t realize it. A lot of people think of sex hormones when it comes to hormonal acne, but insulin plays a really important role. So when we actually eat a lot of sugar or foods that turn to sugar and that increases our blood sugar that increases insulin because insulin its job is to kind of help us with using glucose in the body. So insulin will rise but with an increase in insulin that increases sebum production and the skin and also increases androgens, which are also hormones that impact the skin. So that triggers acne breakouts.
And so I think a lot of times people don’t realize this incredible connection. And then you know, mention acne and I talk a lot about acne because it is the most common skin condition in the United States. And, you know, I think people should know though with acne, that there are some places in the world where acne does not exist, but they don’t have the processed foods, they eat a very much a whole foods diet, they don’t have the crazy stress that a lot of us have. So it’s different. But it’s important to realize that acne is very much something that we experience in the U.S. where other countries don’t experience it. But there’s also things like dry skin or premature aging or eczema, or a lot of different skin issues can also be tied to our hormones.
One of the first early warning signs of hypothyroidism, low thyroid function is dry skin. So a lot of times people will notice their hair and their skin that there are changes in dryness and brittleness of their hair as well. And on the flip side of that, if they have hyperthyroidism, their thyroid is too active, they can have oily skin or maybe even acne-prone skin. So that’s another example. And then I know I could keep giving these examples, just give one more and that is eczema, atopic dermatitis. Now this is what was my big issue when I was a kid was atopic dermatitis, and really any kind of allergic kinds of issues that I had with my skin, and one of the big hormones that impact eczema atopic dermatitis is cortisol, our stress hormones, really, that will increase inflammation in the body. And that can trigger more of the inflammatory skin problems, especially immune-related like eczema.
Katie: So I’d love to go through each of these a little bit deeper, because certainly, as you’re saying them, I hear from a lot of listeners who have maybe a child with eczema, or who, despite being in their 40s still have acne, or certainly who have dry skin. So I’d love to kind of go deeper on, you explain sort of where these can come from the hormonal triggers, and then also what we do about them. And I’m guessing there might also be a gut connection here, with especially with things like eczema, but I would love to hear when you have a patient that comes in, what are some of the things you take them through to start identifying where the problem is coming from?
Trevor: Yeah. I’m really glad you brought up that gut connection because there is the gut-brain skin access. And that’s a really important connection. Our gut impacts our gut microbiome, which I’m sure you talk about with your audience. I know you’ve talked about with your audience, that microorganisms that live in our gut and helping our health in so many ways, it’s not just confined to the gut, it actually impacts our skin microbiome and our skin has its own balance of microorganisms that live on and protect it, keep it healthy-looking. And so and there’s a connection with the brain in there, too, which is part of what brings the hormones into it. Because when the gut is impacting the brain that impacts our neurochemistry and the signals that our body gets to produce for endocrine glands to produce our hormones. And so when our gut is off and impacts our hormones, and also impacts our skin. And so it’s really important to realize that so that when we are looking at skin issues, we want to address gut health. That’s a big part of it. And so again, you know, of course, we want to balance hormones, too.
So we should talk about eczema, and there is a huge connection with the gut with eczema and the imbalance of the skin microbiome that happens really want to get that back in a balanced state. And inflammation is a big part of that. The immune system is not responding really, in a healthy way with atopic dermatitis, and other skin issues like psoriasis would be another example of this where the immune systems it’s more of an autoimmune condition where your immune systems not in the right balance, so really want to work on supporting the immune system, decreasing inflammation, and also managing things like cortisol that can create more of that inflammation.
So with my patients, I want all of my patients to take a full long history, get to know what is going on with their health, their family history, their current medical history, it’s really important to understand the full picture. It’s like solving a mystery, where you’re just trying to find all the little pieces that can help connect you to the root causes. Because with a more of naturopathic medicine or functional medicine approach to skin or really health in general and disease is we want to address the root causes, we don’t want to just use a band-aid approach.
So very rare that somebody would come in, and I would just give them a topical, I mean, that’s just not going to happen. Because I’m looking at what can we do both internally and externally, I do both. And I think if you just address atopic dermatitis (eczema) from the inside, you’re also missing an opportunity. So you really want to come about it from both the inside and the outside. So I oftentimes will start off, you know, with a patient with giving them recommendations to help with their gut health to help with decreasing inflammation, and, you know, with foods to take, supplements that can help, we may want to do some testing, if I’m not quite sure where we need to focus first, I might do some gut testing, I might do some food intolerance testing, to see where they are. I might actually test their adrenal function too and see what’s going on with that.
And then it really helps me hone in on the specific supplements that I will recommend for them. And also, I always give my patients a topical as well, but I’m not giving them steroid treatments, I’m not giving them topical steroids, I’m not giving them topical antibiotics or anything like that, what I’m doing is I use a local compounding pharmacy, which has natural anti-inflammatory and soothing ingredients that will help calm the skin down topically.
Katie: That makes sense. And I know another common one is teenage acne. And you mentioned hormonal acne can be at any phase of life, but it seems especially common in teenagers and I see this in you know, my kids and have a lot of friends. And this very much seems to be a common thing among teenagers. And I know obviously, that’s a time of life when there’s a lot of hormone changes going on. And probably the body is pumping lots of certain hormones. Are there any obviously with individuality and personalization in mind, are there any things that are kind of universally helpful in the teenage acne equation?
Trevor: Well, with teenage acne, of course, we’re talking about big changes in hormones during puberty, and around that time, and it can go on for many years. But with so much of what we want to do with hormone balance has to do with lifestyle choices that we’re making. And I know it can be tricky with kids getting them to eat healthily but it is a really key component is gut health, and what’s going on with their gut microbiome because that’s going to help keep their hormones in more of a balanced place. Now, some people have more of a genetic predisposition to acne. And that might be why you might see acne in your child versus other kids that are eating a similar type of diet or having a certain similar type of lifestyle because we can have certain genetic triggers. But that doesn’t mean that we have to suffer through acne, that just means that we need to be a little bit more proactive on changing our genetic expression with the lifestyle choices we make.
So that includes what we’re eating. And fiber is one of the big ones. A lot of times kids aren’t getting enough fiber in their diets, which helps with the gut microbiome, it helps us build up those healthy microbes and that nice balance in the gut. And also, sugar is one of those big triggers, like I mentioned, when we eat sugar and an increase that has that trigger effect of triggering acne. So if you can kind of curb that, and really, it’s the increase in blood sugar, so any it’s not just sugar, it’s things that cause blood sugar to spike and to stay up or to do that roller coaster. So the more we can do and, again, fiber can be really helpful at balancing blood sugar. So that’s one of the things you’d certainly want to look at gut health.
We also want to look at certain nutrients because a lot of times our nutritional deficiencies going on, especially when there’s a gut component. So there are certain things like zinc that’s important for, you know, the skin and overall and certainly can be a deficiency in some people, and we see it, of course, zinc is important for the immune system and so many other things, too, but we oftentimes see zinc deficiencies in people with acne so that there are certain nutrients that people with acne really need and also certain B vitamins can be helpful.
Katie: Yeah. I’ve definitely noticed that with my teens is hydration being important, clean diet with like lots of vegetable sources of fiber and clean protein, which I think makes sense is there in that kind of massive muscle and hormonal growth phase. And then also B vitamins especially, it seems like Vitamin B5, or pantothenic acid, can be helpful. And I’ve read, you can probably confirm or deny this. But that one, especially in teenage boys, when they have a lot of that conversion happening to testosterone, if they don’t have enough B5, and can kind of slow down that process, and then they can actually end up with a lot more hormonal acne. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but it seems anecdotally helpful.
Trevor: Yeah. And zinc also is really important for that hormonal balance as well. Zinc is another one. And so yeah, absolutely. And with those good proteins, we want to make sure we’re getting the right good fats too, right? So not the hydrogenated oils, and a lot of the processed foods and oils that we find, but more of the healthier fats like avocado, and olive and coconut things like that instead.
Now, that being said, we also want to think what oils are putting on the skin, right? Because I think a lot of times people with acne are terrified of using anything with oils on their skin. But our skin actually needs the right balance topically to have oils. And a lot of times people are making the mistake with acne of stripping their skin of the oils because they think, “Oh, oils are bad oils, trigger acne.” But it’s not really about that we want the right balance of oils in our skin, because it helps with the pH of our skin and it helps with the skin microbiome.
If our skin is stripped of the oils, our skin has to work harder to create those on our own. So then it ends up you know, kind of sometimes will backfire on people and they’ll get more oily, oily, or skin from it. So instead of stripping this scam with a foamy, or cleanser, or a bar of soap, we want to use a mild acidity as a cleanser with mild acidity. And I like having some plant-based oils in there to help with that. Now the trick is you want to make sure you’re using one has the right pH, because high pH can worsen the skin microbiome issues because our skin needs a mild acidity to it.
Katie: That’s really good to know. And also another area that I know is top of mind and it certainly is for me as I get older is the anti-aging side. And this is an area where I see a lot of women who take the topical route and have a skincare routine, which is great and obviously very important. But I would guess there’s a whole lot we can do internally here as well. And I’ve certainly seen that some of the people that I see that seem to not age or age backwards, they have really nutrient-dense diets, they’re getting natural light in the right way. There’s a lot of other factors that come into play. So for anyone for whom anti-aging is top of mind, what are some of those steps that you look at and maybe some tips they can use?
Trevor: Yeah, absolutely. And there are again, there are hormonal changes that happen as we age, big shifts, and changes at different phases of our lives that can impact the aging of our skin. So whatever we can do to kind of keep our hormones more balanced and help us ease through certain transitions is going to help our skin also. But when we look at one of the big things with aging, in our skin are having to do with oxidative damage. So that is having to do with excess sun exposure or toxin exposures, those can speed up the aging process. Aging alone creates oxidative damage in the body which is really kind of a cruel joke. But what we can do is we can consume more antioxidant fruits and vegetables, antioxidant plants in our diets. And then also using skincare products topically with antioxidants.
And another thing big thing that changes is the collagen in our skin starts to break down with age. Now oxidative damage does speed that up so when we enjoy the antioxidants that can help with that. But also consuming certain nutrients like vitamin C helps naturally boost our collagen. People might want to consider people that eat animal, are okay with eating animal products that might want to consider you know, taking collagen peptides or drinking bone broth or eating things with collagen in them. Because that could potentially help with, you know, since we’re losing collagen just kind of help support the body and we need college and not just for our skin. We need it for our gut, we need it for our joints and so many other things that our hair and nails need them too. But those are some of the big things and being mindful of your exposure to toxins is a big part of this. And I think one of the things that happens as we age is where a lot of women are using more topical skincare products, right?
As you mentioned, they’re putting all this stuff on the outside. But it’s important to look at what’s in your skincare products, as a lot of them are loaded with endocrine disrupting chemicals, hormone-disrupting chemicals. And as you’re using more and more of these, at a time, when your hormones might be more likely to be out of balance, it’s just going to add more fuel to the fire.
Katie: I’m so glad you brought up the toxins in skincare because I know from the statistics I’ve seen, women are exposed to so many more of these than guys, because we use so many more products on average. And this was a big reason for me in starting, I have a company that has toothpaste and haircare for the same reason is what goes on our body goes in our body. And people often don’t necessarily think that through we know what we eat gets in our body but we don’t think about the trace amounts of things in our skincare, and how big of an impact those can have. And this seems especially true in a lot of skincare products. And there seems to be a lot that people turn to because they work. And I know women don’t want to make the trade to natural and sacrifice their skin looking good. But thankfully now there are so many amazing options that are both natural and that work. Are there any like really big offenders people should watch out for in skincare, or just kind of good guidelines of things to avoid or to look for?
Trevor: Yeah, absolutely. And it is really unfortunate that the FDA doesn’t regulate personal care products, the way that they do in Europe. In Europe, they banned over 1000 ingredients and personal care products, where in the U.S. there have only been about 11 Ingredients banned at this point. And so it’s really up to us as consumers to take a look at what’s in our personal care products. And I’m so glad that you are now making products. I know you also have a lot of great DIY skincare and personal care product recipes on your website. So it’s fantastic. I love that you’re doing that. I’m big on that, too. And it’s why I created this Spa Dr skincare line because I was working in the Waldorf Astoria Spa seeing patients that are there. And they were used to a certain level of experience of skincare products and a certain scent and a certain, you know, overall experience. And they’re, “I’m not going to use natural, I just don’t want to use it.” And I had to convince them to avoid these endocrine-disrupting chemicals and educate them on the importance of it. But then they were like, “But Dr. Cates, they don’t work, these natural skincare products don’t work.”
So that’s why I created my line because I started looking at the research and what was missing on a lot of these products and the importance of the pH of products, and what we can do to help support the skin microbiome. So avoiding toxins in skincare products is really important. But the good news is that they can still be effective. So just because they’re natural does… I mean I want to bust that myth right from the get-go, that natural, you know, it is true, actually that natural skincare products can work. They just need to have the right pH, they need to have natural actives, and things that support the skin microbiome.
But I know you asked about specific toxic ingredients, and there are a lot of them to avoid. And there are resources you know, you have some on your website at the spadoctor.com, we have resources in my book, “Clean Skin from Within.” Environmental working group ewg.org is another great place where you can go and look for natural skincare products. Our products are EWG verified, but I’m just going to give you three to start with, to start thinking about how you can start cleaning this out. Because if I give you the full list, you’re gonna be overwhelmed. But I’m gonna give you three to start.
And now the first one is fragrance. And fragrance is listed on products as a single ingredient. But it’s certainly not a single ingredient. Most fragrances that are loaded full of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Now, just to be clear on what these are endocrine-disrupting chemicals are known as hormones. They’re a hormone-disrupting chemicals. So they will bind to receptors, hormone receptors in the body. And then they can mimic or alter the way that hormones function in the body. So our bodies will actually think that they’re getting more estrogen. And so our bodies will respond in a certain way, for example, but you know, it really not just estrogens, but thyroid and adrenals and even, you know changing insulin, all kinds of different things in our bodies.
So it’s really important that we do everything we can to avoid our exposure because it’s inevitable, we’re going to get some exposure, but we focus on the areas where we have the most control, which is like our personal care products because we get to choose what we put on our bodies. Nobody’s forcing us to use skin care products or hair products or deodorants or whatever. We get to choose that, and so we can choose ones that are free of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
So with fragrance one, an example is Diethyl Phthalate, DEP, and it is a plasticizing agent that’s used in fragrance you won’t see it on the label because it’s hidden under the fragrance. But this is a well-known endocrine-disrupting chemical. It’s been shown in studies that it shows up in human samples and urine samples and it is known to create these hormone-disrupting effects. So it, you know, really is in so many products, we find fragrance and personal care products, as well as cleaning products and so many things in our home.
So trying to go fragrance-free or using ones with natural alternatives like organic essential oils like we use in this product or products, I’m sure that’s what you use in your products as well. Much better alternative because with organic essential oils, you’re avoiding a lot of these concerns and you’re also adding in health benefits. So when you could think more of your personal care routine as part of your self-care when you have things like organic essential oils, and you’re breathing them in, and they’re actually helping you with your mood. So it’s a nice side benefit instead of a side effect, right? So fragrance is the biggest one, I think mainly because there are so many possible ingredients in there. And also because we use so much of it. So that’s the first one.
And then another one is some of the sunscreen ingredients like oxy benzos. Oxy benzos is probably the number one that we have that has the most research on it that we’re most concerned about. But there are other chemical sunscreen ingredients as well. It’s another one of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals, it’s been, of course, taken out or being banned in certain places because of concerns with the environment as well and the impact that it can have on our environment. Well, it also has an impact on our health.
Again, there are better alternatives, right? So there’s zinc oxide is a nice alternative to something like oxy benzos. So zinc oxide is a sunscreen ingredient, natural sunscreens, that you can find pretty easily. And then the third one that I want to focus on is parabens. And surprisingly, I know a lot of people talk about parabens, and they’ve been removed from a lot of skincare products. But surprisingly, they’re still in some products, even some that are so-called natural. And it really drives me crazy when I hear skincare manufacturers say, “Oh, but it’s just such a small amount, and it’s really not going to impact you.” And I just think there’s no way that anyone can say that, truly, because we are getting exposed to so many of these endocrine disrupting chemicals, and it adds up. And you see these show up in human samples, it’s showing up in breast tumor tissue, parabens have, and I’ve done tests on my own patients, and correlated the exact type of paraben with what they were using that showed up in their urine sample. So I know that these get absorbed.
Katie: Yeah, I think that’s an important point. And I’ve mentioned on here before is, you know, babies are now born with hundreds of these chemicals in their cord blood. And the placenta does a great job of filtering out most things. So those are just the ones that get through which means these are really prevalent in mom’s body, and diet and skincare and all of this.
This episode is brought to you by Dr. Stephen Cabral and his 21-Day health challenge. Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off? Or tired of trying fad diets and juice cleanse only to be disappointed by the outcome? Dr. Cabral has worked with thousands of people on this and knows that the only way to finally lose weight and get well is by removing the underlying root cause holding you back. Your liver filters all of the blood in your body every 6 minutes, but with the influx of toxins in our environment, our livers cannot keep up and our bodies have no choice but to store these toxins away in our fat cells, organs, and even our brain so they are not floating around in our blood stream. Over time this toxic buildup begins to cause symptoms of poor health and eventually can lead to all types of diseases in the body. The Dr. Cabral detox is a comprehensive, full body Functional Medicine detoxification system that gently eliminates harmful toxins while rebalancing the body at an underlying root cause level. Benefits of the 21 day detox include: Decrease bloating & puffiness, lose weight & speed up metabolism, rebalance your hormones, reset healthy inflammation levels, get clearer skin, enjoy healthy blood sugar levels, increase energy, improve sleep, and strengthen digestion. This is your chance to hit the whole body reset button and get guaranteed results. Purchase a 21 Day Detox at $100 off or a 7 Day Detox at $20 off at stephencabral.com/wellnessmama
This podcast is sponsored by Wellnesse, my personal care company focused on creating safe and natural products that nourish your body from the outside in so you can feel great about your family using them. I’m so excited about our best-selling mineralizing toothpaste that now comes in three different options: original mint, charcoal and strawberry (a kid favorite). Unlike most toothpaste, ours doesn’t have a poison control warning because it only contains ingredients that are safe and beneficial to your oral microbiome and to your tooth enamel. It’s centered on hydroxyapatite, which is a naturally occurring mineral used in tooth enamel, with things like aloe, neem and green tea to support optimal oral microbiome balance in the mouth. Our thousands of happy customers tell us how much fresher their mouths feel and how their teeth keep getting whiter and stronger naturally. Check out our toothpaste and all of our products at Wellnesse.com
And I also love that you brought up that idea of you know, people think, “Oh, it’s just a small amount,” but yet we take, you know, one capsule of ibuprofen and expect it to take away our pain, like a very small amount of the chemical can have a very big impact on the body.
And there isn’t the same awareness and regulation of this in skincare products, like, we think we are starting to see in food. And so I think this is a really important issue. And I love that you bring so much light to this because I’ve seen in my own life and I’ve seen it in listeners and readers how big of a difference it can make over time and it isn’t as drastic as if you are like completely intolerant to a food and you remove that food and your stomach stops hurting that day. But I feel like people see within the course of a week or two when they start removing these things, they just start to notice things, maybe energy more or more clarity or certain problems starting to go away. And so I love that you bring so much awareness to this and you also have an upcoming book called “Natural Beauty Reset” that I want to make sure we get to talk about as well. And from my understanding, there are four key factors that you bring up for people to focus on and I would love for you to just kind of get an overview of these.
Trevor: Yeah. So “Natural Beauty Reset” my second book, my first book “Clean Skin from Within” I really focused on my two-week program to help people clear out things and get to the root cause behind skin issues. And like I said the hormonal imbalances was one of the big questions I got asked about a lot so that’s there’s a big focus on harmonizing hormones balancing hormones in this book and understanding our hormones for women, understanding the various hormones in our body and how they play a role and the way that we look and feel and how they show up in our health issues. I think it’s so important for women to realize that symptoms like PMS, period pain, insomnia, and hormonal acne are common but they’re not normal and they are not things that we should just struggle through.
They’re so common that I think so many women think that this is just a normal part of being a woman. But it’s really important for women to realize these are just signs that show that your body is out of balance and that we need to restore harmony. So that’s what this book is about is helping women harmonize hormones, restore radiance, and I do it with a four seasons. And with food, movement, mindset, and skincare. Those are the four different aspects for each season. Because our needs change, our skin changes, our hormones change with each season. If you think about it, in the summertime, your skin is very different than it is in the wintertime.
So the skincare practices that you have should be different, they should change with each season, our foods change with the seasons, the nutrient density of food in certain times of the year is totally different. And so we can shift our diet according to more what foods are more in season because of the nutritional density of that. And so even if you live in a place where it doesn’t feel like they’re seasons, maybe you somebody living in California, that does change the distance of the sun changes and our daylight exposure changes. So we change, our hormones change, our food changes and so we need to adjust with that. And also, the way we move our bodies, our motivation level might be different at different times a year. And so we can adjust with that with mindset and movement. So food movement, mindset, and skincare.
Katie: And I’ll put a link to both of your books in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. I’d love to also touch a little bit on sunlight. And I am curious your take on this because I’m very much a pro-vitamin D person and like getting healthy amounts of sun exposure. But I know often sunscreen is recommended as part of an anti-aging and skincare routine. You already mentioned you for sure want to watch out for the chemicals and the offenders and certain sunscreens, that there are more natural options. But my personal preference is to just wear a hat or cover up if I’m going to be in the sun for a long time. But I’m curious, you’re taking any maybe tips to help protect skin if we are going to get sun exposure.
Trevor: Yeah, I’m a big fan of hats and cover-ups as well. That’s my preference over sunscreen but I also I love being outdoors and I recommend everyone get outdoors and enjoy the great outdoors because that is such an actual important part for our skin and for our hormones, is to be in the outdoors and to be in nature and get sunlight exposure, and to be around plants and trees and have our feet in the grass and the dirt and, you know, the microbiome, there’s so many benefits from being outdoors. So I think that there are some things that we can think about when we don’t, of course, don’t want to get too much sun exposure because we do know that can create more premature aging, it can set us up for skin cancer. We do know that, but we couldn’t be mindful of it wearing hats cover-ups, trying not to go out in the middle of the day, trying to focus our time on the outdoors maybe earlier or later in the day and just spending our indoor time when the sun’s peak hours. But we definitely do need sunlight exposure. And like you mentioned, Vitamin D is so important for our health, for our hormones, it’s actually a prohormone. And a lot of times people just think of it as a vitamin, but it is essential for our hormonal harmony, and also for our skin and our immune system, and preventing so many different chronic diseases.
And so what I suggest people do is, depending upon where you live, your skin, how much pigment you have in your skin, it does change a little bit, and also with your age and things. But for most people, you can get some nice vitamin D from being out in the sun on unexposed skin for 10 or 15 minutes a few times a week. And it doesn’t have to be your face. Because I still think it’s good to cover your face because that’s where we get the most exposure year-round, or even when you’re sitting in your car. And you feel like that glass is protecting your skin. You’re getting those UVA rays right through the window. And those are the most damaging and aging of the rays.
So still being able to and you don’t wanna wear a hat while you’re driving. That’s not going to work. So having some sunscreen, I think, on your face is not such a bad thing. But still giving yourself some exposed skin time where you’re not constantly covered up with sunscreen so that you can get your Vitamin D, and I think it’s crucial for people to get their Vitamin D levels tested, 25 hydroxyvitamin D, such an easy blood test to get to find out where your levels are so then you know if you need to supplement with that, or if you’re in a good place, and that’s going to change. Another one of those big things that changes throughout the year, our Vitamin D stores build up during typically during the spring and summer months, and then helps us last through the fall and winter. But if we’re spending a lot of time indoors, we’re not going to get that. So it might be good to take some Vitamin D.
Katie: Yeah, I’m so glad we got to talk about that because I think the Vitamin D has been lost in the conversation about skin exposure. And we know just how important that you said it’s beyond just a vitamin, it’s actually very important for hormones and is a big part of that process. And we know it also reduces the risk of other types of cancers. And also we found out in the last couple of years, respiratory infection severity and lots of other things. And as we get close to the end of our time, I want to make sure I respect yours. I know you also have an online event that brings a lot of this together and it gives a lot of resources. So can you touch on that briefly?
Trevor: Yeah, absolutely. Is the “Hormones, Health and Harmony Docuseries.” It’s a nine-part documentary series. I interviewed 53 experts on hormones, and we cover every aspect of women’s hormones, and everything from our skin and our hair and how hormones impact that to infertility, PMS, period pain to pre-menopause, menopause, thyroid, metabolism, weight, slowly, we cover it all in this docuseries. And I wanted to do this to really bust the myths that are out there. And that so many women are being given things like birth control pills for hormonal acne, even when they’re not sexually active, or they’re given antidepressants for their mood when they’re hormones aren’t looked at. Or they’re given sleep medications, again, when their hormones aren’t looked at.
And so we need to look at these things and understand how toxins play a role, and our hormones and our exposure, those what we can do about it, how our gut plays a role, and what are the other factors and in our lives, that we can help us balance our hormones because our hormones are working, can work for us. A lot of times people think our hormones are working against us but we just need to get them in a really balanced place.
Katie: I’m so glad you mentioned the birth control thing because the last stat that I read was actually that more women are prescribed hormonal birth control for things outside of actually birth control for hormonal reasons, or acne. And I think this is really important because that’s what women are told. And often we don’t realize there are other options. But I know you have lots of experience with this. Are there, I guess I’ll ask in a broad sense, are there are times when that actually is the most effective thing, if you’re just talking about skin health or hormone health are there always better options if people are willing to address the hormone side?
Trevor: I think birth control pills and birth hormonal birth control pills, or hormonal birth control overall, should only be used for birth control. I think that’s the only time that should be used. There are so many other options for hormonal acne and PMS, period pain, pre-menopausal symptoms. And I think it’s so unfortunate that birth control pills are given to so many women. And that’s, again, partly why I wanted to do this docuseries and have the book to help women understand what their other options are, and how to talk to their doctors about this, and really dig in and understand because it’s important to realize that birth control pills come with a number of downsides to them.
They’re given to create hormonal balance, but they actually create more hormonal imbalances. For example, it suppresses testosterone, and it can throw off your estrogen, and also create microbiome and gut microbiome issues, nutritional deficiencies, and come with a number of side effects. Some of them are quite serious. So only using them talking to your doctor about all the different options for birth control, if that’s the best option, consider it for that. But for anything else, there are way better options.
Katie: And I will put the link like you mentioned in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. So people can find the Docuseries as well as your books and also your skincare line that I’ve used. And it’s awesome. And lastly, before we finish up a couple of last questions I’d love to ask the first being if there’s a book or number of books that have profoundly influenced your life, and if so, what they are and why.
Trevor: Yeah. So the book that has most profoundly impacted me is the “Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine.” Now this book is, you know, it came out in 1990. So I’m just gonna say that that was the first edition, and it’s by Dr. Joseph Rosarno and Dr. Michael Murray. They are both naturopathic physicians, so it greatly impacted my path to become a naturopathic physician when I found that book. Before I went to naturopathic medical school, I was so excited to see something like that. And these two doctors are now good friends of mine. So I love their work and continue to admire them.
Katie: That’s a new recommendation. I’ll link that in the show notes as well. And then lastly, any parting advice for our listeners today that could relate to something we’ve talked about or be entirely unrelated?
Trevor: Yeah. I think it’s really important to think about, start really thinking about the daily choices that you make, and how it might be impacting your skin and your hormones. Start thinking about the personal care products that you use the cleaning products in your home, how could these be impacting your hormones and your health, and your skin? And what are some simple changes that you can make to start improving these areas? And sometimes it’s skincare, sometimes it’s food, and sometimes it’s what are you bringing the toxin possible toxins you’re bringing your home, but try and start making steps today. And the more you make of the ones on a daily basis, those are the most important, like what are you exposed to on a day to day basis, and start with those.
Katie: I love it. Trevor, thanks so much for your time. It’s always so much fun to talk to you. I feel like we’ve got a lot into one episode, and I’ll make sure there are links so people can find you and keep learning from you online. Thank you for being here.
Trevor: Thank you, Katie.
Katie: And thanks as always to all of you for listening and sharing your most valuable resources, your time, your energy, and your attention with us today. We’re both so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama” podcast.
If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.
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