Can Probiotics Help Patients with Acne?

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Skin and gut

Both skin and gut share two common features:

• Vast surface area with exposure to environmental foreign substances
• A skin barrier and gut barrier to protect the body from onslaught through the skin or gut as may be. There are many structural and functional similarities between the skin barrier and the intestinal barrier.

Is It Leaky Gut or Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Role of leaky gut and intestinal bacteria

Increased leakiness of the gut or leaky gut syndrome along with abnormal intestinal bacteria have been gaining increasing attention because of potential involvement in several diseases of the gut and beyond. 

• Probiotics have been used to strengthen the barrier. 
• For example, oral probiotics have been shown to protect against skin eczema.
• On the same lines, probiotics are being increasingly used on the skin for treating skin ailments like acne.

Probiotics have potential to be useful for patients with acne, both when taken by mouth as well as when applied to skin. 

 

Potential mechanism of action of probiotics applied to the skin include:

• Assuming that the probiotic bacteria can persist and adhere to the skin, they could protect against harmful bacteria by fighting and/or competing against them.
• Probiotics secrete anti-bacterial substances that can help fight infections. Such an approach may be more desirable than the pharmacologic antibiotics used for the treatment now.
• Probiotics secrete anti-inflammatory substances that can help tame inflammation.

Potential mechanism of probiotics taken by mouth

Abnormalities of the gut-skin-brain axis have been incriminated in causing skin diseases characterized by inflammation and infection.

 

The gut immune system constitutes over 70% of the body’s immune system and the gut bacteria are involved in educating immune cells.

• Oral probiotics affect the release of inflammatory cytokines in the skin thus affecting the skin inflammation.
• It should be noted that oral probiotics have also been shown to reduce the risk of skin allergies and respiratory infections.
• High glycemic diet is associated with acne. Oral probiotics improve reduce insulin resistance and may be a mechanism of protection against acne.
• Intestinal bacterial patterns are abnormal in patients with constipation. Patients with acne are more likely to suffer constipation. Probiotics can modulate the intestinal flora and restore a healthy bacterial pattern in the gut.
• Psychological stress is associated with acne as well as with leaky gut further substantiating the concept of gut-immune-skin-brain axis. 

Wall Street Journal Best Seller Dr. M's Seven-X Plan for Digestive Health

Clinical data of probiotic use in acne

It is not the number of bacteria in the skin, but the type of bacteria that may be important. Patients without acne are more likely to have one particular strain of bacterium Propionbacterium acnes, whereas those with acne are more likely to a different strain of the same bacteria.

 

A double-blind randomized controlled trial of anti-inflammatory lactoferrin added to probiotic fermented milk showed that the fermented milk alone as well as in combination with lactoferrin improved acne although the combination was superior to the probiotic drink alone.

 

Bottomline

There is biological plausibility to the beneficial effects of probiotics as part of treatment for acne. Its combination with antibiotics may also reduce the GI side-effects associated with the antibiotics.

Is It Leaky Gut or Leaky Gut Syndrome?

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 Is It Leaky Gut or Leaky Gut Syndrome?

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