When we think of skin, lots of us forget that good skin comes from the inside out. It’s not just about the quality and frequency of products we are using on our face. The truth is there are a  ton of factors that degrade our skin health and accelerate our skin aging like free radical exposure, UV radiation, hydration levels,environmental and cosmetic toxins, etc. All of these things impact optimal skin function, structural integrity, barrier formation and the stability of our skin too.  

Mineral imbalances are also something that go majorly overlooked and misunderstood in terms of how damaging they can be to our skin health if they are not in balance. Without the correct balance of minerals, nothing can be converted, metabolized or created within our body - so a focus on vitamins, amino acids, collagens and proteins for skin health is missing out one super important thing - MINERALS! More and more scientific research is showing that they are the building blocks required to get everything else done - and that the part they play in skin health is a big one.

Think of it like a two step process For the body to use Vitamin C, for example, it needs the mineral: calcium. For the body to assimilate Vitamin A, the body needs the mineral zinc. The mineral magnesium is required for B complex vitamins, and for effective Vitamin E absorption, the body needs selenium.

The crazy thing about minerals is that the body cannot create a single mineral, it has to take them in from outside of the body. So if you are not feeding your body high quality minerals from your food and water sources, there’s a chance you’re going to be deficient.

We are facing an epidemic of mineral depletion. The reason for this is that some of the most important minerals come from the soil that grow our food, but thanks to today’s agricultural practices and the intense use of pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial farming, these practices strip the soil of the beautiful minerals that once were there.

Less mineral-rich soil means less mineral-rich food and we are what we eat, so less mineral-rich food means a less mineral-rich body. Cue a mineral deficiency and/or imbalance.

On top of this, a low plant-based but high animal focused diet has been shown to impact mineral levels too and, another thing to note is that, stress also depletes our mineral levels - a pervasive problem across today’s society too. So if you are stressed, functioning out of fight or flight or suppressing some emotional trauma, chances are things might be imbalanced for you too.

The impact of essential minerals on skin health

Interested in what minerals actually do within the body? We have pulled together the 101 guide on the power and impact of essential minerals on your skin health.

1/ Natural Moisturizing Factors (NMF): Minerals act as vital natural moisturizing factors which are one of the main ways of keeping the skin (epidermis and stratum corneum) healthy. Magnesium and calcium are critical for the body to create these NMFs and for the body to repair your skin barriers.

2/ Cell & Electrical Communication: cell communicators tell the skin cell how to show up (how to look, act and behave). Without the right minerals, other substances can tell our skin cells to behave badly or differently from how they are meant to (think aging or accelerated aging). Magnesium and calcium are key in this communication process, assimilating the actions of other vital nutrients like vitamins, enzymes and amino acids to ensure the cells communicate correctly. Minerals are also critical for electrical communication within the body. Minerals are a key part of the body's communication network because minerals are thought to conduct the electrical currents that drive processes within our body, (done through the process of ‘ionization’ through a positive and negative balance of electrical molecules). A mineral deficiency will impact this communication charge. Interested in optimal cell and electrical communication among cells within the body? Calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium are optimal minerals for this part of the puzzle.

3/ Skin stimulation: we all know collagen is important for skin building and good skin health, but we need minerals to stimulate the metabolic processes of the skin that synthesize these proteins. For effective skin cell stimulation you’re going to need sulfur, zinc, copper, potassium and magnesium.

4/ Hydration: an obvious one, but did you know that you need sodium, potassium and magnesium to restore and maintain hydration levels in your skin? It’s not just about drinking water and getting enough of it. Minerals are water-binding agents that not only absorb humidity from the air but also absorb water so they help the cells absorb the water - which is part of the challenge with hydration. Your body needs potassium, magnesium, copper, zinc & sulfur to help with the process of optimal skin hydration.

5/ Detoxification: Anyone interested in root cause healing and suffering from acne understands that if your detoxification and drainage pathways are not functioning properly, your body will often end up removing toxins through your skin. Minerals help with toxin removal and also help to build things like collagen and elastin at the same time.

6/ Anti-inflammatory agents: minerals act as anti-inflammatory agents and help to calm cell damage caused by inflammation (which can show up as redness, swelling, irritated skin, etc). Zinc, magnesium, copper and selenium are critical anti-inflammatory power within the body. 

7/ Similarly, minerals also act as a first line of defense for the body against DNA damage, cell degradation, microbial infections and more - helping you to fight against skin disorders, acne, infections and more. Zinc, boron, sulfur, selenium, copper, manganese and magnesium are critical here for this immunity power.

7/ Pumping nutrition through the skin layers: Minerals provide nutrition to the skin via the process of osmosis (a process when a high concentration acts as a pump to move things across skin cells and barriers). This is the process in which oxygen, blood, and other fluids are moved around the skin layers. This osmotic pump is critical to the healthy movement of nutrient-dense components within the body and potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium & iron are needed to get this pump pumping.

Understanding how critical these minerals are to skin health is a starting point to understand how much deeper your skin health goes than just the layers we see on the outside.

If you are struggling with acne, inconsistently poor skin or just a general lack of glow, maybe mineral deficiency is the problem.

Want to take control of your skin health?

First up, look to get tested. Trace mineral tests measure the concentration of specific minerals in a sample of blood, urine, or other body fluid or tissue - and understanding what is going on with your mineral levels and balance / imbalances is a great place to start because we always advise avoiding supplementation with guesswork.

If you are looking to start supplementing, though, we love Quinton Isotonic mineral support.

These are the cool supplements you’ve seen in the glass-tipped little syringe sachets. They are the perfect Isotonic solution of ocean minerals diluted with natural alpine spring water to achieve the same consistency as your blood plasma (absorption guaranteed!) This support supplement can help replenish mineral and trace element levels as well as helping the body to detoxify, sleep, relax and digest. They are packed with up to 78 bioavailable ionic minerals and they are a raw marine solution that is sourced exclusively from the depths of protected, plankton-rich ocean blooms off the coast of France and cold-sterilized to retain its healing properties.

We also love to focus on what we are putting into our body through the diet. One of the easiest switch ups is adding in quality himalayan or celtic sea salt into your diet. More generally, it’s also important to focus on organic, non-pesticide heavy food as this sets the foundations of what we are absorbing. There are food sources that are high in minerals - think brazil nuts, seeds, shellfish, seaweed, sea moss, organ meats, eggs, beans, avocados and mineral rich herbs like nettles, horse tail, oat straw and raspberry leaf.

You can also supplement with high quality electrolytes to assist with the hydration game!

Healthy skin starts with minerals. Get on it today.

Love Jena x

***THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN APPROVED OR REGULATED BY THE FDA. WE ARE NOT DOCTORS, THEREFORE ALWAYS CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR FIRST****