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Become part of our family and find out how to strengthen your Skin Microbiome for Whole Body Health!
It's crucial not to just 'dip your toe in'. To reverse the effects of years of damage to the skin microbiome and immune system, it is important to commit to a long term strengthening plan and lifestyle change.
Unfortunately, magic pill quick-fixes do not exist, and research has shown that anything which promises this can often make the underlying problem worse. Topical Steroids are one example of this because they were made to repress the immune system and long term use above the recommended dosage can therefore damage the immune system and microbiome.
Your skin microbiome may be very damaged. In extreme cases, the skin can react to things even as harmless as water, that it wouldn't normally react to. Start off by mixing water with a very small amount of JooMo and apply 1x every few days, depending on how your body feels. Then build up. Some people experience slight awkwardness/dryness/soreness within the first few days of using JooMo.
With fitness and health regimes, you cannot become incredibly fit after one day in the gym. The same is true for the health of the microbiome. It is therefore important to consistently strengthen your microbiome over a long period of time.
Don't go back to your old lifestyle. After doing a fitness regime for 4 months, if you went back to your old unhealthy lifestyle (think many burgers a day, no exercise and huge amounts of alcohol), you would expect your fitness to regress and your old problems to come back. Equally, after you finish this plan, if you go back to your old lifestyle (using damaging synthetic ingredients in cosmetics on your skin, exposing yourself to them in the environment, over- and longterm-use of strong drugs such as antibiotics or topical steroids), you expect it to cause a regression in your skin health.
Many every-day cosmetic products have been shown to contain significant amounts of artificial ingredients. Research has suggested this is a contributing factor to the skin allergy epidemic in the western world, because these ingredients can strip the skin of the oils and bacteria it needs to be healthy. Studies have also shown how cosmetics containing more synthetic ingredients maintain the damaged western skin microbiome compared to truly natural products.
Further research has shown that 'moisturising' may do the opposite and make the skin drier because it starts to rely on the external source of oil. This means it could lose its own ability to regulate oil. Moisturisers also often contain large amounts of synthetic ingredients that have been shown to disrupt the skin.
In a new fitness plan, totally stopping eating any fast or comfort food on day one is often too strict and unsustainable. The same applies here. We recommend cutting down moisturiser use so your skin regains its natural oil regulation. In cold conditions, or for people with very, very badly damaged skin, moisturiser can offer them some light relief from the pain. Therefore, try gradually reduce the amount you use over a few weeks. For example instead of using it 4x per day in the first week, try lowering it to 1x every two days.
It is important to understand that the use of moisturisers, especially those with many artificial ingredients, can slow down progress. The same goes for other cosmetics. The best natural alternative to shop bought moisturisers is pure JoJoba Oil. Other than that, it is your choice with how much you use.
Our bodies are incredibly complex and each human's skin microbiome is said to be 'virtually unique'. It can take varying amounts of time for the microbiome to adjust and feel comfortable when a new environment is being created. This will depend on the person and many factors including your history of steroid/drug/cosmetic use, genetics, and lifestyle (including diet and job). Therefore, remember to focus on a long term lifestyle change.
Research has shown that a healthy skin microbiome, high in biodiversity, means the body can defend itself better from infections, disease and allergies. It can also better regulate its own moisture on the skin.
If you used artificial moisturisers on your skin, it may have become used to this and as a result can stop regulating its own moisture. Some research has said this is a kind of dependency which means that the skin is actually drier. When stopping moisturiser use, this dryness becomes more apparent as the skin has to regain its ability to regulate this moisture. The dryness can precede microbiome enhancing effects.
The ingredients were specially selected for their microbiome enhancing properties, and JooMo does not contain larger amounts or concentrations of them than our bodies have adapted and evolved to cope with during our hundreds of thousands of years on planet earth.
This is a decision you MUST make with your Doctor. But once all decisions have been made and you are not using any treatments, we recommend waiting for at least 2 months until starting this skin microbiome strengthening plan. These 'treatments' include topical steroids, antibiotics, anti-fungal creams, and any other medical drugs or prescriptions treatments including immune suppressants.
Remember, decisions about use of antibiotics MUST be made with your doctor. Antibiotics are a wonder of the modern world, but studies show they take an indiscriminate approach to getting rid of microbes, and therefore damage the microbiome even more, lowering its biodiversity. This means even though ‘infections’ may temporarily seem to have been solved (staphylococcus is a very common one), it leaves the skin much more vulnerable to future infections. Re-building and re-balancing the skin microbiome and enhancing the skin’s biodiversity provides the best protection against infection, as research has shown a healthy microbiome, high in biodiversity, can defend itself from problems.
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