"Our cutting edge Skin Microbiome Biodiversity Research is done in association with top universities in Europe."
"The aim of our research is to try and find out the cause of the Skin Allergy Epidemic in the Western World."
TITLE: A Catastrophic Biodiversity Loss Is Being Replicated on the Skin Microbiome: Is This a Major Contributor to the Chronic Disease Epidemic?
In collaboration with:
– Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy –
– Alessandrescu-Rusescu National Institute for Mother and Child Health –
– Ecology Center of Southern California –
Everyone knows about the “catastrophic biodiversity loss” happening in the world’s ecosystems, due to human intervention. We’ve all watched David Attenborough’s documentaries.
It is also becoming more widely known in the gut, where a significant loss of microbial diversity in the gut microbiome is associated with “most of the human diseases affecting westernized countries”.
But NO-ONE realises that the very same Ecological Crisis is happening on the skin.
Here we propose that this is a MAJOR cause of the Chronic Disease Epidemic. Research now shows an unhealthy skin microbiome is involved in the development of a huge amount of “whole body” diseases, not just those affecting the skin.
Your gut, heart, brain, and lungs could all be at risk if you have unhealthy skin.
We created the WORLD’S FIRST reliable mechanism for measuring healthy skin using biodiversity. We found benchmark values of skin microbiome biodiversity against which we can measure skin to determine how healthy it is.
The healthiest skin microbiomes ever recorded were found on the uncontacted Yanomami tribespeople. They had ZERO diseases like Eczema, which the authors said were “western, modern diseases”.
For the first time, this gives us the unheralded ability to to test whether synthetic ingredients in every-day cosmetics are actually a MAJOR cause of the skin allergy epidemic.
It could also transform the care of the 1.9 billion people around the world with skin problems. For example, Doctors could use it to predict which people are more likely to be prone to skin ailments.
Meta Analysis of the Skin Microbiome: New Link between Skin Microbiota Diversity and Skin Health with Proposal to Use This as a Future Mechanism to Determine Whether Cosmetic Products Damage the Skin.
There is a skin allergy epidemic sweeping across the western world. Many things in our modern environment are thought to contribute. But how do we find out which ones?
We realised that, despite many attempts to link certain types of bacteria on the skin to health or disease, there was no clear way of measuring skin health.
Our groundbreaking discovery was that the diversity of the microbes on the skin was the only reliable indicator of how healthy it is. This is the same throughout nature, where high biodiversity is seen in healthy ecosystems.
‘Caveman’ skin, untouched by modern civilisation, was very different to “western” skin and had the highest levels of bacterial diversity ever seen. The less exposed communities were to western practices, the higher the skin diversity – clear evidence of an environmental factor in the developed world damaging skin.
The Role of Every-Day Cosmetics in Altering the Skin Microbiome: A Study Using Biodiversity.
The more synthetic ingredients a cosmetics product contains, the more they maintain the damaged western skin microbiome.
This was the main finding from our groundbreaking 2018 paper. It could indicate that every-day cosmetics containing large amounts of toxic chemicals could be a major cause of the skin allergy epidemic.
Future larger studies will be commissioned to fully test this once and for all. It could lead to the restriction in cosmetics of products proven to harm the skin’s natural environment.
Is There a Relationship between Transepidermal Water Loss and Microbial Biodiversity on the Skin?
There is no relationship between TEWL (transepidermal water loss) and skin microbiome biodiversity.
TEWL (transepidermal water loss) is used as an indicator of skin barrier function and health by scientists at top research institutions. However, it is known to be unreliable because many other factors determine its value.
The lack of any linear correlation with skin microbiome biodiversity gives yet another indication that TEWL should NOT be used for any reliable conclusions about skin health.
A New Benchmark to Determine What Healthy Western Skin Looks Like in Terms of Biodiversity Using Standardised Methodology
Our 2020 paper finds a benchmark for measuring healthy western skin using biodiversity of the skin microbiome. Our preliminary results also showed adults aged 28–37 have the highest average diversity, and adults aged 48–57 have the lowest average diversity.
The primary objective of this study was to obtain a benchmark value for the microbial diversity found on healthy western skin, using the Chao1 index. This benchmark was used to update our 2017 skin health measuring mechanism.
Because of this study, we can transfer other benchmarks of skin microbiome diversity to the methodology used in this work from our 2017 study, such as “unhealthy western skin” and “caveman/perfect skin”. This could help with assessing whether patients need help strengthening their skin.
Could Strengthening the Gut and Skin Microbiome Help after Stopping Long Term Topical Steroid Use?
Allergies, (Volume 2 Issue 1), Published: 24 December 2021, 10.3390/allergies2010001
Co-authored with:
– Dr. Anja Gijsberts-Veens (Practice for Functional Medicine) –
– The Microbiome Center (The Netherlands) –
Our 2021 paper showed that skin and gut microbiome interventions could help skin condition of patients suffering with adverse effects after stopping long-term topical steroid use.
The average improvement in skin symptoms for all participants was 40%, and average symptom improvement ranged from 14% to 92%. On average, the participants saw an improvement in 85% of their symptoms and stagnation or regression in 11% and 4%, respectively.
After commonly being prescribed for eczema, cessation of topical steroid use, especially after long periods of inappropriate use, can leave lasting adverse effects on the body and skin, known by some as topical steroid withdrawal (TSW).
The small sample size and lack of a control group means that more definitive conclusions should be reserved for our follow-up work.
Topical Probiotics Do Not Satisfy New Criteria for Effective Use Due to Insufficient Skin Microbiome Knowledge.
Here we proposed a set of criteria for topical probiotics to adhere to for safe and effective use for the skin microbiome.
We discussed successful and unsuccessful high-profile examples of the artificial addition of organisms to ecosystems in nature to understand what worked and what did not.
Probiotics are often immediately assumed to have health benefits. However, as ecologists are aware, interfering with ecosystems is potentially catastrophic. The addition or removal of just one organism can significantly upset the delicate ecosystem balance. If our criteria are not met, we argue that topical probiotics could also cause damage and will not be beneficial.
Due to the large intra- and inter-personal variation of the skin microbiome, our current knowledge of a healthy skin microbiome composition is not complete enough to fully satisfy the criteria.
Commercial Topical Probiotics for the Skin Microbiome: The Majority Do Not Contain Live Microbes and May Not Satisfy Criteria for Safe and Effective Use
Currently under submission, Pre-Print available here.
Short Communication: Could The Skin Microbiome Affect Sports Recovery And Performance?
Currently under submission, Pre-Print available here.
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