Speaker 1: Hey there, welcome to Healthy Ish. You are tuned into
Speaker 1: the daily podcast from Body and Soul. I am Felicity Harley.
Speaker 1: Now have you always wondered how much your lifestyle habits
Speaker 1: affect your skin health? Well, to help clear it up today,
Speaker 1: I am joined by dermatologist doctor Stephanie Ria. She's going
Speaker 1: to explain the impact of your daily habits, your diet
Speaker 1: and stress, and a few other things on the health
Speaker 1: of your skin. Plus she shares some valuable tips. If
Speaker 1: you do like what you hear from let's call It
Speaker 1: Doctor Reha, tune in to Extra Healthy Ish, where she
Speaker 1: talks about how to maintain healthy, glowing skin despite being
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the winter vortex. If you
Speaker 1: want to listen to that one, search for Extra Healthy
Speaker 1: Ish wherever you eat podcasts. Stephanie, thank you for joining
Speaker 1: us on healthy Is today.
Speaker 2: How are you good? Thanks for having me. I'm very
Speaker 2: excited to be here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited to well, I'm always excited to talk
Speaker 1: about And by the way, listeners, Stephanie's skin is glowing
Speaker 1: through the screen at me. It is just a beautiful
Speaker 1: So we'll get to what you do to maintain good
Speaker 1: skin health. But let's talk about the impact of lifestyle.
Speaker 1: How does it affect our skin health? Does it?
Speaker 2: Is there a big impact here, There's a huge impact.
Speaker 2: So obviously genetics play a role in our skin, but
Speaker 2: the environment and what we're exposed to throughout our life
Speaker 2: plays a really big role. UV is probably the biggest
Speaker 2: impact that we see on our skin. So UV obviously
Speaker 2: contributes to photo aging, It contributes to pigmentation and also
Speaker 2: pre cancerous and cancerous lesions. Sun exposure from other things
Speaker 2: like solarium use can contribute to aging, and then things
Speaker 2: like smoking. Poor diet, specifically a high GI diet we
Speaker 2: see as a factor that contributes to aging in our skin.
Speaker 2: So lifestyle is extremely important when you're trying to maintain
Speaker 2: good skin health.
Speaker 1: It's interesting, is it, because often we just turn to
Speaker 1: products and we think, oh, that's going to help, But
Speaker 1: really by examining your lifestyle that perhaps should be our
Speaker 1: first stop when it comes to looking after our skin.
Speaker 1: Can you talk more about the impact of stress. I
Speaker 1: mean this is a big one. I mean many of
Speaker 1: us live such crazy, busy lives, you know, I feel
Speaker 1: like our stress levels are heightened well, particularly since COVID.
Speaker 1: I just feel like they've never gone down. What impact
Speaker 1: does stress have on our skin?
Speaker 2: I think the way stress impacts our skin is multifactorial.
Speaker 2: So we know that if we're stressed, we sleep poorly.
Speaker 2: Poor sleep can contribute to poor skin health. We also
Speaker 2: know that if we're not sleeping well, we make poor
Speaker 2: dietary choices. If we're stressed, we're grabbing whatever's around, so
Speaker 2: we might be grabbing highly processed foods rather those that
Speaker 2: are unprocessed and high and antioxidants, which are beneficial for
Speaker 2: our skin. And stress also increases our cortisol, and we
Speaker 2: know cortisole can contribute to both aging but also things
Speaker 2: like acne.
Speaker 1: Speaking about my personal experience, you know, I get psoriasis
Speaker 1: here and there, and it's interesting now, you know, I
Speaker 1: know if I've had a stressful week and then it'll
Speaker 1: I might get a little flare up on my on my.
Speaker 2: Elbows one hundred percent. So we know that lots of
Speaker 2: inflammatory skin conditions, So, like you pointed out, zariasis, exma,
Speaker 2: even autoimmune conditions like loopus, which we treat a lot
Speaker 2: as dermatologists, all have a relationship to stress. So stress
Speaker 2: impacts the inflammation in our body and our skin is
Speaker 2: really a representation of what's going on inside. So I
Speaker 2: see quite regularly patients come in and they might have
Speaker 2: had a major lifestyle upset, relationship breakup, a loss of
Speaker 2: a job, and their skin flares quite significantly with that.
Speaker 2: So we do know and we can't underestimate the impact
Speaker 2: that stress has on our skin.
Speaker 1: Do we realize this at the time or are we
Speaker 1: just questioning, oh, I'm having breakouts or this is happening
Speaker 1: with my skin, or many of us aware of this
Speaker 1: link between stress some skin health.
Speaker 2: Look, certainly some people are very clued up, certainly my
Speaker 2: patients that I see with chronic inflammatory skin conditions like psoriasis.
Speaker 2: So you're a prime example. You know your skin really well,
Speaker 2: you know that stress will flare it. But I think
Speaker 2: for other people, when they're in the midst of that stress,
Speaker 2: whatever that may be, they don't necessarily see the correlation.
Speaker 2: And it's only after dealing with that stressful event that
Speaker 2: they then start to pay attention to themselves, including their
Speaker 2: skin health.
Speaker 1: When you're in it, you don't really think about the
Speaker 1: impact you know that's having on your skin. You're thinking
Speaker 1: about just getting through whatever you trying to get through.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about some important lifestyle habits for healthy skin.
Speaker 2: So I think first and foremost is photo protection. So
Speaker 2: we know, as I mentioned earlier, that UV exposure significantly
Speaker 2: contributes to aging and also increases our skin cancer risk.
Speaker 2: So there's a couple of things you can do. The
Speaker 2: first is staying out of the sun when the UV
Speaker 2: indexes three or more. There's lots of really good apps
Speaker 2: around now, so checking your phone the app looking at
Speaker 2: what the UV index is. Ideally it's staying indoors between
Speaker 2: ten am and four pm is the general rule, but
Speaker 2: we do know that the UV will change depending on
Speaker 2: the season, and it will also change depending on your location.
Speaker 2: UV can also penetrate through windows, and specifically it's a
Speaker 2: longer wavelength which is called UVA, and that can contribute
Speaker 2: to aging and photo damage as well. So yeah, sunscreen
Speaker 2: all year round, and that's partly the reason why even
Speaker 2: on cloudy days. So the clouds can stop visible light,
Speaker 2: but they don't stop UV radiation penetrating. And we know
Speaker 2: that sun damage is cumulative, so it adds up over time.
Speaker 2: So when you're looking to protect your skin, to protect
Speaker 2: you from photo aging, we recommend broad spectrum SPS, so
Speaker 2: ideally with a factor of at least fifty one that
Speaker 2: covers uva UVB and then things like physical blockers so
Speaker 2: zinc oxide and titaning dioxide, other things you can do
Speaker 2: for your skin. So avoid smoking. We know smoking is
Speaker 2: a major contribution of aging, and it also contributes to
Speaker 2: other conditions like cardiovascular disease and lung disease. Avoiding solariums.
Speaker 2: Fortunately in Australia they're now banned. And then as I
Speaker 2: mentioned earlier, having a healthy diet where you can, so
Speaker 2: specifically focusing on a low GI diet. We don't necessarily
Speaker 2: recommend restricting certain items of food, there's really not significant
Speaker 2: evidence for that, but low GI and fresh produce where
Speaker 2: you can.
Speaker 1: What are some of your go tos? What do you do?
Speaker 1: I mean obviously all of the above, but what is
Speaker 1: there anything extra you do or anything you've tried in
Speaker 1: the name of good skin health.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think you'll be surprised to find that
Speaker 2: a lot of dermatologists actually use really simple skin care.
Speaker 2: So I think the first thing is working out where
Speaker 2: your skin fits in, what type of skin do you have,
Speaker 2: and what are your your skin complaints? Do you have
Speaker 2: dry skin? Does that skin change with the season, in
Speaker 2: which case you need to change your products according to
Speaker 2: the season. Do you have other medical comorbidities that might
Speaker 2: be affecting your skin, like low thyroid or medications that
Speaker 2: can be drying at your skin as well, So I
Speaker 2: think understanding at base where your skin's at, then recognizing
Speaker 2: what your concerns are. So what you want to address,
Speaker 2: is it acne, is it pigmentation? For all of us,
Speaker 2: that should always be sun protection, and then finding products
Speaker 2: which you know are reliable. So for sunscreens as an example,
Speaker 2: there's no one sunscreen that I recommend. The best one
Speaker 2: is one that you're going to apply every day, and
Speaker 2: having a routine that is sustainable is really important. So
Speaker 2: just like you brush your teeth every day, you want
Speaker 2: to apply your sunscreen every day. For cleanses and moisturizers, again,
Speaker 2: it's really just according to your skin complaints. So for
Speaker 2: a lot of us, you know, our barrier can become
Speaker 2: quite dysfunctional if you're applying multiple different harsh products all
Speaker 2: the time. Start with active. An example would be you
Speaker 2: know a product that contains a retinol, rettinou or prescription retinoid,
Speaker 2: and then slowly build that into your team. When we
Speaker 2: see people adding in lots of different products all at once,
Speaker 2: that's when we actually see a lot of other problems
Speaker 2: with our skin. It starts to cause barrier dysfunction. So
Speaker 2: going slowly and just adding in one active at a time,
Speaker 2: should you choose so interesting?
Speaker 1: Simple is always best when it comes to health, wellness
Speaker 1: and absolutely yeah, Stephanie, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much. Well.
Speaker 1: Friends, I hope you got some useful wisdom and advice
Speaker 1: out of that one. If you did jump on, tell
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