Understanding the Gut Skin Connection and Healing From the Inside Out ft. Maggie Berghoff

0:02Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Skin Anarchy. This is your host Ekta and I'm really excited about our guest today because she is a national best-selling author and she's really well known for her work and has been featured in all of the major media outlets for her work and I can't wait to chat with her today. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of her book. It's called Eat to Treat, Your Three-Step Plan to Reduce Inflammation, Detoxify Your Life and Heal Your Body. So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to Maggie Berghoff. Welcome to the show, Maggie. Thank you so much for having me.

0:36Yeah, no, it's exciting to host you. And I'm excited to learn from you today because I think this is such an interesting topic, you know, especially when it comes to just overall health, but also skin health, you know, and I can't wait to dive in. But I'd love to learn about you a little bit. You know, if you could tell us, walk us down memory lane. What led you to, you know, writing your book and going into this field? Yeah, so I always wanted to be in the health and wellness field, even as a young girl. And so I went to Vanderbilt University and became a nurse practitioner. And from there, after a couple of years of practicing traditional medicine, I found functional medicine really through my own health problems, like my skin breaking out and other things like constantly bloated, no matter what I ate, feeling dizzy, feeling headachy, being tired during the day, even though I slept all night.

1:25So I had all these symptoms going on. And the traditional medicine model, whenever I went to doctor's offices, they had no idea why this was happening and also no answers for how to fix it. And I'm a little stubborn, so I did not accept that. And I dove into the world of healing the body with functional medicine, integrative nutrition, mindset, lifestyle, and did just that. I healed everything that was going on with me in six months or less, just fully got myself back even better than before. And that's when I really made this career pivot. Instead of practicing traditional medicine as a nurse practitioner, I made a pivot and opened my own online functional medicine consulting business.

2:10And that's really how that all started and helping people in that way. And the book really came from after seeing lots and lots of clients from all around the world and getting such transformational results with them, wanting to impact more people and put everything that I would do for a private client into this manual, essentially the book Eat to Treat so that everybody could get helped in the way that I'm helping private clients from the comfort of their home without spending much of an investment at all, but reading and implementing the book. That's so exciting to hear you say this because I've really believed in the power of you know holistic medicine and I guess kind of thinking outside of the box like I have an allopathic background as I'm sure you do with you know being a nurse practitioner we get trained you know I think in the medical field to prescribe pills you know that's really what it comes down to like hey there's a pill for everything you know take this for this take this and the problem that I face every day even in my own practice is like I mean half the time I'm like I don't know And I think that there's another way, you know, to go about this.

3:16Like, I really think that there's other options people can, you know, kind of go to. And that's never talked about enough. So I'd love to, like, kind of pick your brain a little bit about what what were some of the, I guess, revelations, you know, that you came to before you put it all down on paper in terms of the things you were finding as, I guess, other ways to treat a, you know, a problem. If you could kind of walk us through that. Yeah, it absolutely is unreal to me that this is not necessarily mainstream. But when I was in traditional model as a nurse practitioner provider and also as a patient myself, you're right.

3:52It was just kind of like what prescription medication matches this girl's symptoms. And then a lot of times that prescription medication did not even work for that person. They still had those symptoms and they would come back time and time. I'm talking year after year frustrated and still feeling the same, if not worse. And then not to mention the side effects of the medications. So in that model, you're simply trying to cover up the symptoms, but never are you asking why are these symptoms existing and how can we rewire the body so it can do what it's supposed to do. And that's the big difference in what I started to do in my private business is asking those questions like, why does this person have hypothyroidism?

4:35Why is this person's body inflaming no matter what they eat? Why is this person waking up totally exhausted, even though they're sleeping 10 hours a night and like sleep routine is on point. And so asking those deeper questions and really getting to know the person on a deeper level and working backward to figure out the causes of these things, whether that be something like, you know, their nutrition, mindset, lifestyle, et cetera, or perhaps something deeper, like heavy metal toxicity or mild digestion or malabsorption, or their body's not able to, where their body's not able to break down the food that they're eating and get the nutrients that it needs.

5:11So, I mean, there's just so many things that could be going on. And we have to ask those questions and do the deep work to rewire the body in order to heal. You mentioned hypothyroidism. I feel like a lot of these autoimmune disorders, there's so much like conflicting data around them too because before we were taught you know hypothyroidism for example like if you had something like Hashimoto's right it was like oh you your mom must have had it or your great aunt must have had it or somebody and then you get it but really now we're you know now we're saying no it's an environmental thing you know it's like it's not just genetic it's about how you grow like how you live basically you know your environment what you eat and it's like it's constantly shifting so even the model itself is not really staying true to what they preach, right?

5:58It's like, it's constantly like, you know, they're realizing like, no, there's a lot more to this. It's very multifactorial. So it really makes sense to me what your approach is because I think that you're kind of ahead of the game here, you know, in the sense that like, I don't think that allopathic medicine or, you know, I guess big pharma, you could say, has caught up with this idea that it's not a one size fits all when it comes to treating a lot of these things. You know, it's really about that holistic approach. Just because you have, you know, maybe your lab test does show that you have Hashimoto's or hypothyroidism or PCOS, but that does not mean that that is your identity and sentence for the rest of your life.

6:37But in traditional medicine, that's what we say to, not me, but like to, you know, to your, your patient, you would say like, oh, you know, it's genetic. You're going to be on this medication forever. But instead of asking like, whoa, why does this young, otherwise healthy 22 year old have Hashimoto's let's figure this out and let's fix this body um it's just such a difference and and there are so many things I've seen happen of people healing things that doctors had told them that they'd have lifelong and that's simply not the truth we're able to rewire and fix those things and get them living a life they never thought was possible when it comes to these diseases especially you know again PCOS like there are so many women that suffer from like infertility issues because of it and they can't seem to figure out like why did I all of a sudden develop PCOS you know I see patients like this every day that are like yeah I have PCOS I have blah blah I'm like really like you're so young you know it doesn't make any sense like why you would have this at this age you know in your 20s you're you know mid-20s and so I think it's very intriguing and I'm really actually curious you know when you apply it to skin health that's where I get very interested in in how this works I mean can we talk about that a little bit in terms of like acne or some of the common disorders that we see with skin?

7:53Absolutely. So what I do is everything runs through eat to treat the book is like a three step protocol. So step one is identifying that root cause. So for skin, like why do you have acne? Why do you keep breaking out? Even why is your skin super dry, whatever it is that you're struggling with, asking those questions of why and identifying the core reason? Is it what you're putting on your body and you're using a lot of, you know, chemical driven products that are clogging your pores and causing inflammation? Is it what you're eating and your gut imbalance, your gut is out of balance, which definitely contributes to the health of your skin?

8:29You know, is it your neurotransmitters and your stress, anxiety, different types of mood levels that's impacting your skin health? So we ask step one, those questions, why do we think this could be happening from an internal level or perhaps your environmental level of what you're putting on your body, what you're exposed to day to day? And then we transition into step two. Phase two of the protocol is called creating an environment to thrive. And that's really like just slashing any and all inflammation in half or more so that you have less inflammation your body's dealing with day to day. So it's not constantly trying to fight.

9:05And instead, it can focus on healing. And so with that, we're doing so many like just detoxing the home environment, you know, cleaning up the products that you're using in your home or putting on your skin. some biohacking strategies. And then that all leads us into part three, which is eat to treat, essentially nourishing the body with real food, anti-inflammatory food, healing food, so that your body can do what it's supposed to do. And that is all encompassing with how you would address acne. It's not a pill. It's not a new fancy cream. It's doing the deep work to go through those three steps of protocols.

9:40That makes sense. And I'm really curious about this, you know, this underlying idea of inflammation, because I think right now we're living in a world where I genuinely believe everything is causing inflammation in our bodies, unless we're really paying attention to what we're doing, you know, and I know that there's a lot of mindful consumers out there that are, you know, on that, the minority in this, you know, where they're really paying attention to whatever they're consuming, whatever they're putting on their face or inside of their body through supplements, they're really looking at the ingredients.

10:10And that's great. But for the rest of us, you know, I really would love to understand where do you think a lot of people go wrong when it comes to just propagating this underlying inflammation that we have? I mean, what are some things you've seen that common consumers and common people are doing that are is, you know, kind of leading us down this road of having this problem? Well, I think the biggest thing that's happening is just people don't take it seriously. People think, oh, it's fine. You know, our parents grew up on this food or I've always used this cleaning product. It's fine. Like it's not fine.

10:44So the first thing is just identifying that you do if you want to make a change in your skin or in your health or, you know, in your genetics, even you have to make a change in your lifestyle and in your environment. And so the first step is just acknowledging, you know, I do want to start down this path and knowing that it's not some crazy, like really hard or really expensive path to take. It's simply a decision to take one next step in the direction of a healthier, less inflammatory lifestyle. So really that's like the step one that I see most people is just not taking it seriously, thinking that it's some kind of fad or trend to have these clean items or these more non-toxic versions of things.

11:26It's not a trend. It's actually nourishing your body with real food, real items, a healthy environment, clean air to breathe. And this day by day lowers our inflammation. And again, once you lower inflammation, your body has more energy to do what it's supposed to do. So I talk a ton in the book about like giving your hand, your body that helping hand in the right direction, like we need to help our poor body out. And so if we reduce the inflammation we're on purpose exposing ourselves to, then the inflammation we have no control over, like, you know, breathing air outside from car exhaust, whatever like that.

12:03We're not going to have control over that, but those hits are, are often handled better by our body when we can control the things that we do, like the air we're breathing in our home, the food that we're eating, the lotions we're putting on our body. And so that's like the first place to start is the things that we have full control over. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And I know that in your, you know, you're talking a lot in your endeavors about upper toxicity and heavy metal buildup in the body. Can you explain how these factors affect your skin health specifically? Yeah. Well, you know, the argument is, well, that's why we have livers to detox those things.

12:39And I understand that, but not everybody's livers are working properly. It's true. Our organs are just overloaded, bombarded with environmental toxins, with toxic food. And so they're not working properly. You're probably like shaking your head. Yeah, I guess my gut's not working, right? I am always bloated or I'm constipated or whatever it is. So same with your liver. So what we need to do is two things, reduce the exposure to heavy metals, doing that through, you know, the environment, the products you're using, the food you're eating, and also help your liver do a better job at detoxing and heal it because it's probably damaged.

13:18So like antioxidants and just healing things for your liver and your gut to help it do its jaw better. But when we don't do that and the liver is sluggish and the heavy metals are high in our body, again, it triggers inflammation. And when our body has excess inflammation that it can't handle, like it's past the tipping point and we can't compensate any longer, you are going to have unhealthy skin. You're going to see it in your skin. It's not going to be glowing. It's not going to be clear. and you may think that you're just having some breakout and need some new product, but that's not true.

13:54You need to focus internally and reduce the inflammation. We're going to our doctor for like a checkup or, you know, our annual, for example, should we be requesting that they do panels, you know, like a liver panel or something? I mean, I know we can request things as patients. So do you think that's a good practice? I mean, for us to be more proactive and ask for additional lab work, or do you think that's not necessary. So twofold. I definitely still value and think that there is a place for traditional medicine. But I think that we need in addition to that. So definitely go to your doctor once a year and get all those baseline labs done.

14:34I definitely think that we should be doing that. And it's covered by insurance. So you might as well for most people. And that's those labs, the traditional labs are going to check into things like your liver function, your white blood cell counts, and just lots of different, you know, core factors that they look at. But the problem with those numbers is that your lab values may show all as normal, but inside your body, there's a fire going on and you don't feel well. So you might be, you know, going to your doctor, telling them you have all these symptoms and your labs come back as normal. And so they tell you everything is fine.

15:09And you're like, what do you mean? Everything is fine. I have acne in my skin. I'm bloated. I'm tired, you know? And so because those labs just don't show enough information. And then also, if they do show abnormals, the answer that the doctor has for that is a prescription medication, not digging deep into why that is abnormal. So you need both. You need the traditional medicine labs. But I would also go to more of like a functional practitioner or a certified health coach or, you know, an integrative practitioner, somebody more holistic and who dives deeper into the nitty gritty science of the body to do things like heavy metal toxicity panels, um, digest a full digestive health analysis, um, perhaps like a full micronutrient panel, because if your micronutrients like magnesium and you know, all the B levels, all that kind of stuff, if that's off, your skin health will not be on.

16:04Um, it won't be right. And so digging deeper into that with somebody different, it's a different professional. You could request different labs with your primary care provider. But here's the thing is that even if they say sure and run it, they don't know what to do with that information. And they don't have the time to spend with you to figure out how to, you know, deal with that and how to fix the body. It's just a totally different model. So it's not either or it's both. You really do need to have both care providers on your team. That makes sense. No, that makes a lot of sense. Because I think that, you know, at the end of the day a lot of times the reason i asked you is because a lot of times people say well if i have it it should show up in my blood work right or my you know whatever like urine toxicology screen or something like it should show up somewhere and i think that you really nailed it when you said you know it's not gonna sometimes it's not gonna show up you know you're just gonna look normal and and for anyone listening out there i mean just to back up what you know what was said here i mean i think the liver i mean you have to damage about 90 of your liver before you're seeing like drastic changes in your enzyme levels and stuff.

17:08You know, it's crazy the amount of resiliency that your organs have. And before they start actually showing elevated, you know, certain like liver enzymes and whatever you're looking at. So I think that that's definitely a point to take away is that sometimes you just can't rely on these tests. They're not made for the specific concerns that we're talking about here. So I'm glad you said that because that is like spot on these traditional tests really only show when something is like crazy wrong and almost too late. It's not too late to fix things ever, but like crazy wrong quick personal story around this is that's exactly what happened to me.

17:47So when I had all these symptoms and I mean, they were severe, my body was swelling up like an elephant. Like, I mean, like it was crazy. I had pitting edema. My skin was at highs. My hair was thinning and falling out. I was so tired. I had all these crazy symptoms. And my doctors, because my labs were normal, just looked at me and I appeared, you know, normal. So they just were like, Oh, everything's fine here. You can take this pill for your bloating, this pill for your inflammation, this pill for your fatigue, this pill for whatever. And that's it. See you back in six months. And so because that's what happened, you know, the, but obviously the inflammation was going on, the damage was being done.

18:26Eventually those traditional labs did show abnormal, but it was about a year later after struggling and struggling trying to find answers. And eventually actually what happened to me is I actually had a mini stroke, a TIA. I was 24 years old and then that threw everything off. And then finally all my labs showed abnormal. But here's the thing. Once they showed abnormal, the doctor still didn't have a clue what to do. Just put me on medications. And then it was more medications. And they said that I'd have to come in even for IV therapy for the rest of my life because my kidneys were starting to fail.

19:00So it's so dangerous not to dig deeper into your labs in different way. So I got functional medicine lab testing, hired a coach, helped me through like lifestyle, mindset, nutrition, et cetera, and completely healed everything in about six months. Wow. That's, I mean, I'm so glad that you survived that, you know, really hats off to you for taking your health into your own hands and doing what's best for you. Because I think a lot of times, you know, people are too scared. I really do believe this. I think, you know, the way that conventional medicine is set up, we have this kind of like a fear mongering thing going on, where it's like, if you don't listen to, you know, just that idea of like, yes, here, you know, you have a TIA, okay, get on some blood thinning medication, you know, get on anticoagulant.

19:45I mean, people don't understand that there's also side effects to that, you know, so the therapy you're taking sometimes can cause even worse side effects and I and it's scary you know it's a scary world so I I definitely you know I think that it's very interesting when you start educating yourself about your own body because you start to realize that it's not just one size fits all your body is not going to be the same as person you know BCD you know that's not going to be the same so there is no blueprint you know for one way to fix everything there's no such thing so right yeah I I want to actually, you know, I want to go back to skin a little bit because I think, you know, this is an interesting topic.

20:23I've brought it up before on the show where I've asked dermatologists, like, do you think that the future of dermatology, especially from the, you know, allopathic side, do you think it's going to be shifting? Because, you know, you know, there's so many products out here. You know, there's so many different ways that people are dealing with their skin health, whether that's topical solutions, whether that's supplements. I mean, what's your opinion around traditional dermatology and conventional dermatology and how does that kind of relate to how you think about things, you know, and your approach?

20:52So my approach, because I've seen clients with everything from acne to eczema, rosacea, psoriasis, just all different stuff. And we heal it from within. We address gut health, we address nutrient levels, we address their lifestyle, the chemicals that they're exposing themselves to on a daily basis, even things like their countertop cleaner. You know, that's all we do and the skin clears up. And so I think as far as the future of derm, you know, we've been doing things the way we've been doing it for a very long time. And clearly it is not helping a lot of people, you know, some maybe yes, but a lot no.

21:34And so I think that, you know, for dermatologists to have a component in their business that does look deeper into the internal health, inflammation, toxic exposures. I mean, they're going to clear up skin way, way better, way easier. Clients are going to be happier and they're going to be healed. So as far as the future, I think, I mean, I can't do it alone, right? I can't do this alone. There are some people who need help. I feel that dermatologists should really start, even if they don't learn about it themselves, perhaps bring on somebody in their practice that does do more coaching, consulting, and like functional medicine or, you know, decreasing inflammation and lifestyle because their clients are going to get way better results.

22:18It's not because we're missing some secret prescription medication or because, you know, this one development hasn't been made of the super cream that you need. It's not that it's the internal health that people are ignoring. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense because I think the, they're talking a lot more now about like the gut brain skin access, you know they're they're kind of shifting focus um you know industry-wide i think in terms of you know bringing up the microbiome and and now we're really making that a big front-running term you know where we're discussing what is the microbiome why does it matter you know and then all these the gut health piece i think is very important like you said you know gut health is something that i think no one understands to be fair i i've never seen somebody properly explain gut health and you know it it really baffles me because that's where everything is like you said everything really stems from your gut the inflammation you're seeing i mean talk about things like leaky gut you know that's a problem that we've been dealing for with for i don't know how long for you know as long as humans have been around because your gut will start to leak components and leak particles and you know like proteins and different things will start leaking out over time with age that's just part of aging, but somehow we're just now catching up with this idea, you know, and now trying to understand that, yeah, it's causing systemic inflammation.

23:41You know, it's not just about one organ anymore. It's about how different organs work together. So can we start with trying to, I guess, not even rectify it, but just preventative care, right? For our overall body and overall health. A hundred percent. I feel the easiest thing to do that doesn't really require discipline is to first swap out products. So this is just like one by one, either in your home environment. So thinking about the products that you use, like your lotions, shampoos, household cleaners, laundry detergent, think about, you know, maybe make a huge, a big list and brain up all the products that you use on a day to day basis, and then find a swap for that.

24:22So maybe your countertop cleaner just ran out and you're going to decide I'm going to swap this with the more natural version. And so little by little, your home environment every single day is less inflammatory. And then the same thing with the foods you're eating, it does not have to be actually, I never even have clients do a diet ever. It's just healthier swaps, eating real food instead of chemical food. So you know, look at your pantry, your freezer, your fridge and think, okay what can I swap this with that's a healthier version that could look like your white pasta to a lentil pasta that could look like your you know typical candy like traditional candy to or an organic dairy-free candy without food coloring and dyes so having those swaps is a really really good first step because again you're in immediately reducing inflammation yet you're still using all the products and eating all the same types of foods that you're used to just a healthier version of those things that makes sense i mean i think that it's interesting to see how we've evolved so much from you know our ancestors living off agricultural land you know where they grew everything and you know kind of like with grains for example they would collect the grains grind them down make their bread you know to now where everything has come you know we go to a grocery store, we buy it in a package, we don't know how it's made, where it's made, you know, what's going on with the process of actually making it.

25:52And we just trust it, like blindly. I mean, I personally speaking, even have a problem with a lot of these like organic supermarkets that claim foods are organic, you know, because I don't know where it comes from. You know, I really don't. At the end of the day, we don't know. So it's interesting what you're saying, because I feel like, you know, a huge part of this problem is accessibility to options. I mean, really, it's like, where do I go and get like, you know, just a better, better option rather than white pasta? Where do I even go to get it? So I mean, that also factors in, and I think it's important for us to find those places wherever we're living, you know, do the extra homework to go find that resource for yourself that yeah, I can go here and pick up what I need, you know, if I want to shift my diet.

26:38it. Honestly, luckily today there, you could find, you can find healthier options anywhere you go. Even a gas station has healthier options. So it's like to start to think, um, and learn and, you know, learn this new skillset. That's not going to take, you know, forever, but it'll be a little learning curve for you to try to find your new go-to foods, but you can go into any grocery store and find healthier options. First, of course, just thinking about the perimeter of the grocery store. So instead of the aisles that have all the packaged foods, the perimeter always has like the fresh foods, whether that's, you know, fruits and vegetables, or little salsas that they made at the grocery or whatever it is, those are always, you know, the more fresh food, even things like, you know, nuts and seeds and proteins, just get back to the basics, fruit, veggies, healthy fats, like nuts and seeds, and, you know, salmon, things like that.

27:34And proteins, those are the real food essential basics and don't get so caught up with with the rest of the stuff you know focus on the basics and then when you are doing packaged foods like inside the aisles even grocery stores that are not health food grocery stores they almost always now have a section that is like titled healthy or or something like that and so go to those sections and start to learn how to shop within those sections, which is actually so interesting. Like why does we need a section at the grocery store that says healthy, all of our food should be good body. They have sections now that are just labeled as the healthy or the nutritious types of food.

28:16Yeah, no, that makes sense. I like that you brought that up, you know, go around the perimeter, because, you know, I want to ask you, what are your thoughts around like being a vegetarian these days, as compared to like, you know, having a heavy diet and meats? Yeah, I don't do any that I have not been on a diet in probably like a decade, because it totally ruined my health. Whenever I followed any sort of diet, any sort of rules, restrictions, etc. I just focus on nourishing my body. In fact, when I made this change, it wasn't easy. I actually even worked with a nutrition coach on mindset around this change, because I was so used to diets.

28:51And I saw my mom constantly on diets, and everybody was always doing a diet. it. So I had to rewire a lot of my belief systems. And when I first did that, I always had this mantra and I would say to myself, I eat to nourish my body all the time, no matter what I was eating, it could have been a chocolate brownie, but I would still say I eat to nourish my body. And slowly but surely, it helps me to naturally gravitate to the things that nourished my body. So as far as, you know, is vegetarian good or is protein better or keto or paleo, So I don't do any of it. I focus on simplifying things, no diets, no strict rules, but instead just focus on I eat to nourish my body and aiming for real foods.