Skin problems don’t begin in the skin. They begin inside your body. If you’ve got spots and blemishes on your skin, it is a sign that your stomach, liver, and bowels are not in good condition.

You Can Change Your Skin

The good news is, if you have poor skin, you can rebuild it. It takes 30 to 45 days for new basal skin cells to move to the surface and become the cornified layer, which is the skin we see. Make changes to your lifestyle now, and you’ll notice the results in your skin after about a month.

When construction workers build a new house, they start at the basement, not the roof. If you want to have beautiful skin, you must start at the basal layer and provide your body with the right materials for building perfect new skin cells. Skin cells created under poor conditions have abrasions, discoloration, and age spots. You might think that age spots and blemishes occur because of damage that happens on the surface of the skin, but usually the trouble begins when the skin cells are being formed in the basal layer.

Changing your skin begins with changing your diet and lifestyle. If your skin needs improving, begin by improving what goes into your body and give it the best ingredients for making healthy skin cells.

What Causes Poor Skin?

What is happening in the body that causes the skin cells to appear wrinkled, blemished or spotted?

1. Breaks in the Cell Walls
Skin cells that cannot hold water cause your skin to look damaged. When you provide your body with the right materials for making new cells, you will begin to produce skin cells with no breaks in the cell wall. Your skin cells will function optimally while appearing healthy and youthful looking.

To learn more about the importance of hydration, see the DVD Ancient Elixir Rediscovered.

2. Lack of Essential Nutrients
People usually accept poor skin as a part of aging, but your skin can look healthy at any age.

Leviticus 17:14 says, “For the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.” Science has shown that the body is able to convert skin cells into blood, when necessary. A study done at McMaster University found that it is possible to turn skin into blood without the skin cells first returning to the stem-cell state.

So, if you’re not giving your body the right materials to build with, the body will use skin cells to make the cells it needs. When your body uses skin cells as basic building materials for its other organs, your skin may look tight, discolored, or old as a result.

Read more about choosing good nutrition, or check out our healthy recipes

3. Poor Waste Management
Your largest organ—your skin—plays an important role in your body’s excretory system. When your colon and other excretory organs are not doing a thorough job of removing waste from your body, your skin begins to do more of the waste removal work.

Acne, pimples, and blemishes result from waste passing through the skin’s pores. Unhealthy eating and poor elimination of the body’s waste cause the skin to look unhealthy and old.

Learn natural remedies for improving excretory function

There’s Always Hope

A healthy diet and lifestyle, along with a healthy elimination system, are the beginnings of healthy looking skin. Learn more about the importance of caring for your skin’s pores in Part 2 of this series, Dry Skin Brushing and Washing.

This article is adapted by Tammie Burak from Our External Thermometer, a lecture from Dr. Rudy Davis' series Healthy from the Inside Out. Tammie Burak is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about topics of faith, health, nature, and education. She writes for both children and adults.

i. E. Szabo, et al, "Direct conversion of human fibroblasts to multilineage blood progenitors," Nature 468 (November 25, 2010):521-6.