How Does Skin Heal? The Inside-Out Approach

True skin healing goes beyond just what you eat—it’s about nurturing your skin from the outside in. By combining functional medicine principles, regenerative skin care products, and holistic treatments, you can address both internal inflammation and external barriers. In this guide, we’ll explore the most effective strategies to nourish, repair, and transform your skin, helping you achieve lasting radiance from the outside in.

Healing Skin From The Inside-Out

Healing our skin from the inside out is a cliche, and what does it mean anyway? The more accurate truth is that any “inside-out healing” that occurs is because of healing from the “outside in”. The only thing that makes lasting skin healing possible is the changing of external elements, like changing food choices, stopping bad habits, and introducing meaningful skin care products and services. All inside-out skin healing is directly made possible by externally providing the right absorbable topical products with nutritional elements and providing the beneficial external services that elicit healing.

How Does Skin Heal?

Our skin is a double paradox because it is two things simultaneously, and there are two components to how skin heals. 

The first paradox is that our skin is both an effective barrier and a permeable barrier at the same time.  

Secondly, our skin is a distinct, separate organ, yet it encases and makes contact with our entire body.

In order not to be baffled by this, we must have a complete understanding of our skin. We must consider what meaningful ingredients are and how to get them to the right places within skin anatomy. We must identify harmful and useless ingredients.

Furthermore, we must have an acknowledgement of how our internal gut microbiome affects our skin.

We’ll talk about beneficial ingredient selection, delivery systems, skin pH, product pH, and nutritional health.

Let’s break this into two major categories: internal vs external. Each realm has some nuances to learn. 

The most effective healing occurs when both paths are simultaneously utilized. 

Internal Healing

Our gut health directly affects the health of our skin. A study in 2003 and one in 2020 speak to the role of internal inflammation as being the most significant and initiating factor of acne.  In addition, it is well known that inflammation is the driving force of rosacea.

If you’re struggling with inflammatory skin issues like acne and rosacea, it’s essential to take a hard look at your diet, hormone health, and digestion. Rather than searching for yet another conventional miracle acne product, consider consulting a holistic nutritionist or functional medicine practitioner  who can run blood tests to pinpoint the issues, which will save a lot of time from guessing and self-diagnosing.

They can help uncover the microbiome deficiencies that are driving the inflammation expressed in your skin. Reducing inflammation is key to both long-term skin health and full-body health.

External Healing

There is much support in the realm of Functional Medicine to reset the gut microbiome through food choices, exercise, supplements, and belief shifts. But did you know that this is available for your skin as well? 

How does our skin heal from the inside out when working with external products and skin practices? Our skin has the potential to receive a deep nutritional healing based on the absorption and metabolization of these externally applied products. Conventional skin care actually prevents this deepest healing, along with the false hopes, prayers, and superstitions that will keep you going in circles indefinitely. 

The Best Skin Ingredients

Look For Ingredients That

• Optimize hydration
• Restore the skin barrier and set the surface microbiome.
• Increase healthy cell turnover holistically.
• Avoid preservatives, synthetic scents, and all unnecessary additives.

pH and Skin Penetration

• Low pH products are more penetrating, but not in a helpful way.  They are acidic and cause the erosion of skin. This is the obsolete way to earn an increase in new skin cells. Avoid all glycolic, salicylic, and lactic acid products.
• Your skin’s surface will perfectly regulate to its ideal pH with a clean barrier repair butter. There is no need for special pH hydrating mists or products.  A gentle facial cleanser that is properly formulated will have the perfect pH.

Exfoliation Caution

• Over-exfoliation (more than once a month) is problematic for many reasons. This thins the dermis, causes dehydration, destroys the skin barrier, increases inflammation, and creates subsurface micro-clusters long-term.

Better Delivery Method

• Liposomal delivery is a powerful route for ingredients to penetrate skin.
• Choose ingredients wisely. With great power comes responsibility: Dermal Nutrients and selected bio peptides are key
• These increase cell turnover naturally, making harsh exfoliation and acid peels unnecessary.

What to Avoid

• Benzoyl peroxide
• Acids
• Astringents
• Essential oils 
• Harsh chemical peels
• Advertised microbiome skin products are not needed.
• Low pH products

What to Embrace

• Liposomal delivery of Dermal Nutrients + bio peptides
• Clean barrier repair butters for natural pH balance, barrier support, and surface microbiome success 

The Best Skin Healing Services

Abandon trauma-based practices like chemical peels, microdermabrasion, dermaplaning, lasers, and replace them with truly holistic practices that support your skin’s chi rather than drain it. Here are some of the best: 

• Lancet deep pore cleansing sessions to unburden your skin of the subsurface microcluster blockages that are being stored. These can be stored indefinitely in your skin.
• Professional large dose Dermal Nutrients
• Facial massage/sculpting
• Microcurrent
• Facial acupuncture
• Face yoga
• Gua sha 
• Jade scraping
• Silicone patches
• Jade rolling
• Infrared light
• Face cupping

Skin Belief Changes

When clearing your skin’s blockages, think “up and out” rather than “down and in.”

When receiving skin renewal, think “nourish to heal” rather than “harm to heal.”

When caring for your skin, think “hydrate to heal”, not “dry to fix.”

When caring for your skin, think “thank you” rather than “you are not good enough.”

How Long Will My Skin Take To Heal?

The answers vary greatly depending on how far your skin is from perfect health. The obstacles are in your skin.  There are subsurface micro cluster blockages stored within your skin — they cause texture problems, precursor lesions, and prevent aging delay. The Regenerative Skin Process transforms this. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to three years.

Healing Your Skin Starts From Your Mind

Skin healing begins with critical thinking that rewrites inefficient skin healing scripts and leads you to new and complete skin healing maps.  Having an open mind, the willingness to change outdated beliefs, and accessing the right information are the beginning of skin healing. Learn how to free your pores, and the rest will follow.

Skin healing is about implementing all the paths to health: what you are eating and not eating, using absorbable and beneficial skin care products, and selecting the few meaningful skin services from the large holistic buffet of what is being offered.  All inside-out healing is actually an outside-in healing. By combining Functional Medicine principles with regenerative skin care, you can create lasting, permanent changes.