Do you want to know the secret to achieve your healthiest, most radiant skin?

I’m a dermatologist with a decade and a half’s worth of analysing and optimizing skin health with the most cutting-edge dermo-cosmetics and technologies at my fingertips and just knew intuitively that my management protocols were somehow incomplete.

But with the wave of the wellness movement and the mounting research around gut health came my ‘aha’ moment…

You need to feed your skin what it needs to glow.

The heart of beautiful, healthy skin is more than a shelf full of serums, anti-wrinkle injections, and laser and collagen-stimulating treatments. Yes – these are all powerful tools, but we need to start with the foundations first. That means thinking about our whole body –what we eat, how often we move and how long we sleep.

THE GUT: BRAIN: SKIN AXIS

Did you know that 70-80% of your immune system lives in your gut? So it makes sense that when your gut (and specifically the gut microbiome) is not happy, it is going to reflect on your skin as inflammation. Now let’s take it one step further: stress or anxiety can actually make your digestive system sluggish triggering what is commonly known as ‘leaky gut’. This is like a breakdown of our frontline of defence against unfriendly bacterial by-products and molecules which drive inflammation. The result? An unhappy skin with eczema, psoriasis, acne, rosacea or accelerated ageing.

It turns out that the continual, bidirectional ‘talk’ happening all the time between our brain, our gut bugs and skin cells is the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to achieving the skin of our dreams.

But it’s not all doom and gloom – we can use this to our advantage!

Enter the DR. L protocol – a practical way to harness the power of nutrition as a therapeutic tool when it comes to our ultimate skin health.

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OK – I’m listening and fully on board with this…so what should I be eating?

Let’s start with what you shouldn’t be eating…before you put your foot on the accelerator en route to your most gorgeous skin – let’s navigate around some food hurdles in your way.

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Now that we’ve got unobstructed roads ahead – let’s get your body filled up with the fuel it needs to amp up your glow on your journey to your healthiest skin.

Here are my top 10 tips to achieve that head-turning radiance from the inside out:

Polyphenols to make you pretty – Plant foods are bursting with polyphenols which protect and repair the skin from the warzone of skin-damaging free radicals we are exposed to daily. Fill up on green leafy veggies, sip on green tea, snack on berries and indulge in a piece of dark chocolate. Switch on your body’s own antioxidant powerhouses with minerals such as selenium iron, zinc, manganese and copper to unleash the power to neutralise millions of free radicals every single second!
Reinforce your sunscreen from the inside – lycopene from tomatoes or watermelon has been shown in studies to lessen the damaging effects of sunlight on the skin by up to 33%.
Stop inflamm-ageing – counteract the inflammation that pollution and our frenetic lifestyles are causing with foods that calm and regulate the immune system. Add sulforaphane-superweight broccoli and omega-rich salmon and avocado together with nuts, seeds and spices such as turmeric to your healthy ageing arsenal.
Add some ‘spark-plugs’ to support detoxification such as glutathione-rich onions and garlic. Remember that we need to support our liver, sweat and encourage healthy stool patterns to eliminate toxins.
Rejuvenate the skin and encourage the production of more youthful skin cells by speeding up our skin cell turnover cycle with Vitamin A-rich foods from liver, herring or sweet potatoes.
Nourish your gut ‘beauty bugs’ with the fibre, prebiotics and fermented foods they love.
Bolster your skin’s building blocks: while the 3 skin saboteurs (smoking, sugar and sunlight) break down the collagen and elastin keeping your skin looking youthful, you can help build it back up again with foods to fight those wrinkles such as bone broth, eggs, hydrolysed collagen powders and Vitamin-C-rich foods.
Switch on your skin’s mitochondrial energy powerhouses with fatty acids, pistachios and grass-fed protein sources or introduce intermittent fasting.
Regulate your hormones with zit-zapping zinc to support methylation pathways, hormone-balancing and Vitamin B3-rich sweet potatoes, liver-supportive foods such as grapes and green tea, phytoestrogens from edamame beans and flaxseeds together with green leafy veggies to jump-start oestrogen elimination.
Water for the win – Hydrated skin appears plumper, smoother and less dull. Start your day
with a warm glass of water with lemon juice, fresh ginger, and turmeric to hydrate after a good night’s sleep and to stimulate digestion. A pro-tip is to eat your water with water-rich foods such as cucumbers, spinach and apples which release water slowly from their cells.

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ROOT4 SKIN PODS

Entirely pure, beautifully potent
Inside out healthy skin
Your healthiest, most radiant skin starts inside
Everything you need and nothing that you don’t
Dermatologist developed health supplements to defend, renew and liberate your skin.

BIO-CLARITY SKIN PODS

Clear Complexion Solution

For overall clarity and breakout defence

In your skin pod: A powerful combination of acne-fighting beauty ingestibles: zinc, Vit E, copper, chromium, Vit D3, Omega and Nicotinamide which work at a cellular level to reveal your most radiant, blemish-free skin.

MELANO-CORRECT SKIN PODS

Even Complexion Solution

For overall brightening and discolouration defence

In your skin pod: A powerful combination of nature’s most potent antioxidants: Polypodium Leucotomas and Resveratrol, Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), Glutathione and French bark extract.

NEO-GENES SKIN PODS

Healthy Ageing Solution

For the ultimate in skin DNA protection and cellular renewal

In your skin pod: Amplify cellular youthfulness with the ultimate in skin DNA protection and revitalization with the transformative combination of Polypodium Leucotomas, tomato-powered carotenoids, Astaxanthin, CoQ10, NAD+, Vitamin A, Curcumin, Piperine and Sulphoraphane.

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root4: an award-winning, dynamic, dermatologist-powered breakthrough in healthy ageing skin science straight from the clinic to your home.

Discover how the synergy of meticulously considered skincare formulations backed by an inside-out nutraceutical approach translates into unprecedented results.

Your skin deserves root4.

Website: www.root4.skin

Instagram: www.instagram.com/root4.skin

Email: hello@root4.skin

Phone: +27 76 782-6292

Dr Vanessa Lapiner

Tash360 | +27 21 434 8503 | team@tash360.com | Website

MBChB, MSc Med (Cell Biology), FC Derm (SA).

Dr Vanessa Lapineris a dermatologist based in Cape Town with key interests in integrative dermatology, mole mapping and dermo-cosmetology.Her research interests include pigmentation disorders, the gut: brain: skin axis, nutrition as a therapeutic tool in dermatologic disease management,healthy skin metabolomicsand cosmeceutical formulation technologies. She is the founder of TASH360, South Africa’s first integrative dermatology centre offering cutting-edge technologies and advanced diagnostic testing, as well as root4:high-performance, results-driven skincare and nutraceuticals marrying advanced science and safety. She is an active member of the DSSA, the SASDS,the VSSA and the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Society.

Click here to get an online consultation with Dr Vanessa Lapiner via the Dr. Derma Platform, Africa's LargestOnline Dermatology Provider.