#106 Heal Your Skin from Within with Dr. Trevor Cates

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Educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself. And in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists and Experts along with Dr. Donnie, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how humans heal.

Hi and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donni Wilson, and I'm excited to introduce you today to my good friend and colleague, Dr. Trevor Cates. And she's also known as the Spa doctor. She specializes in skin health as well as everything that influences our skin health from the inside out. Right, Trevor? So thank you so much for joining me here today so we can talk more about all of the amazing things you do to help us with our skin and our hormones.

Yes. Thank you for having me. It's great to see you. Hear you.

So good to see you. And hear you, too. I know. I miss you.

Trevor and I have known each other for quite a long time, both as naturopathic doctors in different places and settings, and we have so much fun together and so excited to share that with all of you. But, Trevor, tell us, tell the audience, what led you to even be a naturopathic doctor and specializing in skin health and all that you share with people in your docu series and your books? What inspired you to do what you do?

Absolutely. Well, when I was a kid, I struggled with my health. I had a lot of allergies and recurring infections, upper respiratory tract infections and skin problems, a lot of eczema, itchy rashes, and, oh, my gosh, those are miserable times. And I. My parents took me to see a lot of different specialists, a lot of different doctors, and I was put on different medications, antibiotics, allergy medications, all kinds of things that I had either allergic reactions or adverse reactions to. So I just kept feeling worse. And eventually my family found a holistic practitioner that they took me to when I was around 11 years old. And it was the one thing that really turned things around for me. And I remember physically feeling better, and also I started to feel like a normal kid because I was starting to feel like, I mean, I missed so much school, I couldn't do so much social stuff. And I. And I also kind of picked on at school and stuff like that. So I finally felt like a normal kid. And I remember thinking at that time, why wasn't holistic medicine presented to Us right from the beginning. Why did I have to go through all of this stuff to find it? Couldn't the doctors have just mentioned it?

I know, it makes sense to me too.

Right. And so that is, I kind of planted a seed early on in my life because it really changed things for myself. And then later on, when I was in college, I heard about naturopathic medicine. I heard a program on television actually about it. And I thought, that sounds like exactly what I want to do. I don't want to be a lawyer, which is what I was planning to do. I want to be a naturopathic doctor. So then I had to go back and do all my pre med classes and went to naturopathic medical school and graduated in 2000. So it's been. It's been a minute since I graduated, and it's been an amazing journey. And about 10 years ago is when I started to shift more on skin, focus more on skin. Because I was working in the Waldorf Astoria Spa in Park City, and I was doing a weight loss program. And the people doing my program would say, Dr. Cates, I've lost weight. But what surprises me is my skin. I didn't know my skin could look this good. And of course, with my path, I was like, well, of course it makes sense. Your skin is an outer reflection of your overall health. And so the fact that you're eating healthier and your lifestyle changes have changed, of course your skin's going to be better. But I realized so many people didn't look at skin that way, that so many people with a conventional dermatology approach look at skin problems as something that needs to be covered up with more makeup. You know, if you're a woman or just, you know, use like a topical steroid or something just to suppress the symptom. And so that's what led me to write my book, my first book, Clean Skin from Within and create the spa doctor skin care line. And so to help people with both the inside and the outside support for their skin in a very natural balancing way. And then one of the biggest things that I heard after I wrote my first book was, Dr. Cates, you talk about hormones and your hormonal imbalances is one of the, you know, underlying things that can happen with skin problems. You know, my hormones are. Hormones are a mess. And I started realizing what a big topic that is. I needed to write another book about hormones. And one of the things that I find really helps people is. Is getting, like, more in harmony with their bodies. And one of the Things that does that is more of a seasonal approach. So I, my next book, Natural Beauty Reset, which is.

Her preorders now, is, is a seasonal approach to balancing our hormones, restoring our radiance. And I'm really excited about that as well.

It's so, it's so exciting and it's, I love how it's like, it just seems to just make sense, like the way that you're like, wow, this is information that, that people are needing but not realizing that they can help their skin, not just by what they put on it, by what's happening inside of us, including our hormones. And how cool the way that came about. Thank you so much for sharing that. And that's what you referred to as skin, as this magic mirror. Right? Because like you said, it's a reflection from within.

Yeah, yeah. So I call skin our magic mirror because it's our largest organ. It's right on the surface of our bodies and it's a great outer reflection of our overall health. And we can look at our skin for clues about what's going on with our lifestyle, with root causes, with our hormones, with a lot of different things. So when we're breaking out and acne in certain areas at certain times of the month or certain times of our life, or we've got eczema flare ups or things like that, or dry skin or aging prematurely, all of those are signs that something's out of balance. And so that's why I think it's like you don't have to have, for this organ, you don't need to have CT scans or special imaging equipment. You just need to look in the mirror.

That's a good point. That's a really good point. When you say hormones, are you mainly talking about certain hormones like estrogen and progesterone or which hormones should people be thinking of and how they relate to their skin?

Yeah, well, there's so many different hormones that impact our health. And I think a lot of times people don't realize that hormones impact all of us and all different times of our lives in many different ways. And for women it's a bit different than men. And so I focus more on my book on women and then also in my docu series, Hormones, Health and Harmony on women's hormones because they do get, you know, they change more throughout the month and at certain times and we go through these transitions like during, you know, for going to have a baby and like pregnancy, fertility and then perimenopause. But so a lot of times people think about the Traditional estrogen, progesterone for women, or, you know, testosterone for men. Course, both men and women, those impact our skin, but also thyroid adrenals. But even things like insulin, our blood sugar imbalances, those imbalances can impact our skin. Melatonin plays a role in the health of our skin. There are a lot of things that actually impact our skin. So it's not just the typical hormones that people think of as sex hormones. A lot of, you know, our hormones are. They're so intricately connected and they. They really do rule our health in a lot of ways.

I was thinking yesterday how it's so interesting to me, you know, the puzzle of endocrinology, of all the different hormones in the body. And, you know, oftentimes people think of, you know, if there's an issue with their hormones, they think, well, I'm going to go to the gynecologist if it's a, you know, female hormone, or I'm going to go to the endocrinolog if it's maybe thyroid or insulin issue. But to know that as naturopathic doctors, this is an area that we also help with and that we look at how all these hormones, like you're saying, communicate with each other, that it's not just the thyroid doing its own thing or the insulin doing its own thing. It's how these hormones are all interrelated.

Right.

That understanding that and using that to our advantage, you know, like that first, it can feel like a complexity. But I end up finding that it means that if we solve this hormone imbalance, it's going to benefit the others. Tell me more about how your perspective on that.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think.

We want to think about how these all interconnect with each other. I think a simple example is cortisol and stress. Because you talk a lot about stress and managing stress. The importance of that, that is a huge one for empath. Impacting so many other hormones packs thyroid. It affects, impacts sex hormones and impacts our ability to sleep. So it affects melatonin, impacts our blood sugar impacts. So, you know, all. So it's like that's an example of, of all the different ways that it can connect. So even something as simple as stress management can have a huge impact in our lives and our. And our hormone balance and our skin.

Yeah, abs, right. It's like, then no wonder the skin starts to do better when we're working on all of these things.

Let's talk about how does. If we're throwing out these different kinds of imbalances but how is a person going to know they have a hormone imbalance? Or do you cover that, too in your new book and your docuseries? How do you even. Where do you begin? Besides. Because sometimes the regular blood tests don't show this.

Yeah, A lot of it is our symptoms. We get so much information from symptoms. And I think for women especially, we get symptoms and we think, oh, it's just part of being a woman, like PMS or menstrual pain or difficulty getting pregnant. And, you know, hormonal acne, these are common, but they're signs that the body's out of balance. And there are specific hormones that play a role in this. So taking note of our symptoms can be a huge way to help us figure out which hormones are affecting us. And that's why with my book, I kind of go through that. And then the last chapter I have. Do you have these symptoms? We have a quiz, too, where people can go and they can find out which hormones might be out of balance for them. And then in the docu series, we talk in depth about all the different hormones.

Yeah, that's not so helpful. I'll definitely be sharing links so people can go to those. Go find those resources. And to start, like you were saying, even just starting with some things we consider, like, stress management, like, how do we. What can we do? And maybe if you don't mind, share a little bit right now, like, what can people think about already as steps they could take to balance hormones but also benefit their skin at the same time?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, and in my book, I talk about, you know, the seasons and how it's a great time to kind of shift, but within each season, I talk about food movement, mindset and skin care. And I really believe that we should shift these with the seasons because our needs change with our hormones and with our skin, with our bodies overall. And so if we look at some of those things, there are certainly things that we can do. With food, for example, there are foods that we can eat and also foods that we can avoid. But one of the things to keep in mind at one of the big disruptors with our hormones that create issues of imbalances are the endocrine disrupting chemicals that are in our environment. So, you know, in our food and our water and our, like, our air, our personal care products, all of these places, we have these things called endocrine disrupting chemicals. And these are chemicals that interfere with our hormones, and the function of them bind to hormone receptors, and they can either mimic a hormone, they can change the way they function. And so we're exposed to more of these now than we ever have been. And so it's really important to think of ways that you can help support your body, first of all in reducing your exposure to these. So when we think about food, for example, trying to choose organic as much as possible, trying to avoid pesticides, and trying to eat food that is minimally processed and so not a lot of additives, so less for your body to be exposed to and not only less hormone disrupting chemicals, but also less of other chemicals that could interfere with your liver function because the liver is so important in breaking down compounds and helping us metabolize our hormones. So that's another thing that leads into balancing our hormones. And so with food like choosing organic and trying to get plenty of fiber and nutrients that support our hormonal balance and nutrients, foods that are nutrient dense because we need a lot of nutrients in our food to help with our, our hormonal balance. And then when it comes to mindset, you know, we talked about stress being such a huge contributor and how cortisol can throw other things out of balance and so sleep and stress management, those sorts of things, when we do things to, to optimize that, then it's also going to make a big difference. So mindset practices. I know that you talk a lot about this. Your book is your book right in the background about stress. Like what is your favorite stress tip? Managing stress.

I know and I agree with you. You know, because stress can come from so many different ways. Like you're mentioning toxins that are stress or like we usually think of like psycho emotional stresses, you know, whether it's from our job or our relationship or our, you know, or our being a parent. Right. Like there's these different stresses that are hitting us all the time from different directions. And I encourage people to really, like you're saying, create a routine, a self care routine so that you're figuring out, even for you as an individual, what can you be doing on a daily basis that you know, matches up best for you. Because I don't think it's one size fits all, you know, like. Right. As naturopathic doctors, we're always trying to individualize and see what is the best. I mean, yes, there's some general stress recovery. People know about deep breathing or meditation or yoga or. Right. Like journaling, listening to music. There's so much, many different options, but it has to be how to find the stress tools or activities that are going to match up best for you. And your body and what it needs and what time of day. You know, someone, one person might be best to meditate or journal when they first wake up. Another person is like no, I'm going to do that before I go to bed. So just being willing to kind of play with it a little and find when do you want to access these activities and which activities and what time of day so it becomes routine for you.

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Yeah.

And, and I think that like I said with, with seasons it gives an opportunity to kind of mix it up like beautiful first spring, you know, what can you do that kind of get outdoors and enjoy like all of the, the season, this, that, you know, that particular season, it's like things are blooming and you could like the season, smells and the sights. Like that could be a really great thing to get in nature and enjoy nature. Although you know, you know, when it's, you know, at the end of fall or going into winter, it's like maybe there's not quite as much because things are, you know, kind of brown and not as interesting to look at. Or you go to like places like Park City where it's just white where I live. And so you know, you could still go for walks, but it would be kind of a different kind of activity. Like you might want to build, you know, in the winter you might want to like build a fire and snuggle up with a warm tea with your cat or something or your loved one. And so that is more about stress management. So matching with the seasons. Because when we think about part of what happens with the seasons is the placement of the sun. How close is the sun to us. Even if we do live in different areas of the world, the sun still changes its distance to us. That's going to impact our hormones and it's going to impact our cortisol. It's going to impact things like estrogen. Estrogen tends to be higher in spring and summer, so we might, you know, like, feel a little bit more, you know, feminine and want to do more feminine things in the spring and summer. Whereas in fall and winter, we might want to, like, kind of, you know, get back and like, read a book and not. Not be quite as, you know, outgoing and stuff. And also our cortisol levels tend to be. We tend to be more stressed in the wintertime, so we want to do things to kind of manage our cortisol and bring that down, especially in the, in the colder months when it's more of a stress on our bodies. So all of these things can, can make a difference and so we kind of can kind of shift and play with it, with. With the seasons.

I love, I love how you're emphasizing. I mean, because definitely we know from research, right, that the more we.

Are aware and acknowledge that as humans, our bodies, our, our hormones, our everything in us is so responsive to nature, to light and darkness, to temperature, to being in nature. We're so responsive to it. So we might as well pay attention to the seasons and decide, hey, how do I want to interact with nature based on the season and based on what my body needs? I love that. That's beautiful. I also was going to mention your skincare line because that, of course, is what I use for my skin. I love. And you make sure that there's no toxins in your skincare or any ext ingredients. It's like how to just be able to clean and take care of our skin with the simplest ingredients from nature.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm a big nature girl. I grew up on an organic farm in Virginia, so I've always been big on nature.

But, yeah, so that, you know, I created the Spotoctor skin care line sort of out of necessity because when I was at the Waldorf Astoria and I was working on my book, my patients. Well, Dr. Cates, I know you want me to choose natural skin care products, but none of these seem to work and I don't like the way they smell or I don't, you know, like, I want something more luxurious and I want to see like, more of an effect on my skin. So I started looking into the research, like, why aren't some of these natural products actually working or why aren't, you know, why are people struggling with this? So I started to learn more about the skin microbiome and the ph of the skin and the importance of what we're putting on our skin and how so much of what we do in our personal care routine is actually stripping the natural oils on our skin. Most cleansing routines really destroy the microbiome and the natural barrier of function of the skin. And so what we want to do is we want to support the ph of the skin that helps the skin microbiome. We want to use certain key nutrients. Just like you want the top quality foods to nourish your body, you want the top quality and amounts of nutrients to nourish your skin. And then as you mentioned, you know, the toxins and skincare products, that was a huge thing. And these endocrine disrupting chemicals that I mentioned, a big part of how we're exposed to them is on our personal care products. Because.

Scary, right?

Yeah. On average we use nine personal care products a day. I mean, think about it, you start adding them up, not just skincare products, but you know, deodorants and shampoos and all these things that touch your skin that, that exposes you to around 126 different ingredients. And the FDA does not, you know, regulate this very well. Unfortunately, there are only about 11 ingredients banned in the United States in skin care and personal care products. In Europe they've banned over a thousand ingredients. So it's like it's really up to us as consumers to ask questions and look at labels and to really look for more pure, clean products. And so when I created my line, I was like, I'm going to go for the cleanest, but I want it to work, I want it to smell good, I want it to feel luxurious. I wanted all of that. And because I couldn't find anything else on the market like that, that's why I created the Spa Doctor skin care line about five years ago. And so it's been really great to see. Not only are people happy to not have that exposure to those hormone disrupting chemicals, but actually to see the difference in their skin.

Absolutely, absolutely. No, I love it and I recommend it all the time because it is just like you're saying, it's hard to find a product like that and to be aware like, okay, what you're putting on your skin is going to absorb into your body and have an influence on your hormones potentially. So if we're trying to balance hormones, we don't want to put something on our skin that's going to mess them up again. We're just working against ourselves.

Right. And the irony of it too is that as we get older our hormones start to get a little bit more complicated and maybe a little bit more imbalanced and we're using more personal care products. Oftentimes we're using more like well then that eye cream, that extra night, that eye cream and the extra night cream and that, you know, all kinds of that extra exfoliate mask and all these things. But look at the ingredients. Like one of the biggest ones that you want to avoid is synthetic fragrance and fragrances in so many of our personal care products as well as cleaning products. And that is one that like if you can only find one thing to like just get rid of and start working on is start looking for fragrance on labels. Because there are endocrine disrupting chemicals in fragrance, synthetic fragrance and they're not, it's not put on the label but they're used in things like diethyl phthalate. There is used as an ingredient and fragrance to help the fragrance last longer, the scent lasts longer and but it is. Phthalates are plasticites agents. They're known endocrine disrupting chemicals and they're. So you just want to be really careful with fragrance and you can use something that's either fragrance free or what I prefer or are some organic essential oils. So we have a nice good.

And they don't have the negative effect.

Right. And the thing about essential oils too is they can boost your mood. Like they add to your self care routine. So when you, when you're doing your self care routine, you're washing your face and you're putting each step on, you're like taking some deep breaths and actually enjoy those organic essential oils that can actually help with your, your whole self care routine.

Oh my gosh. I love, I love when it's multitasking in this kind of way.

Right. I mean we're busy.

We can get our face cleaned and our self care all at the same time and avoiding toxins and balancing hormones. There's a lot that can happen.

Absolutely.

Good, good. That's a good kind of multitasking. And I, yeah, it's wonderful. It's true. Like might as well use essential oils which are from usually a plant source, a flower or a you know, plant that's making these essential oils versus And I love that you're pointing out like just if you look for the word fragrance on a product that, that it seems like it's not a bad thing but if you see the word fragrance, fragrance know that it's like probably a chemical in there that's going to be causing trouble.

Yeah. And most likely if somebody is using fragrance, they've got a lot of other chemicals in there that you don't want.

By the time they put that in there, that was like the one more chemical on top of all the others. Right.

And it is shocking though that some so called natural products still have synthetic fragrance in there. So.

I know.

Yeah.

So you have to be careful. If you're like even at the natural food store and I'm looking at my like what, how, how come it's got that in there? It's the same thing with sugar. Right. They always at like it could be a completely natural looking food product and you look on the ingredients and it's like got some sugar added. I'm like why, why is there sugar in there? Same thing.

Right, right. I know. And I think we're marketed to so heavily right now that of the word natural, natural foods, natural skincare products. Because marketers and big companies know that they're. That's where a lot of the public is looking now. So unfortunately, fortunately there's no real regulation around the world. Natural. And it's just a marketing ploy. Unfortunately. And so now the word so like words to look out for on skincare products in particular natural and hypoallergenic. Hypoallergenic has no regulations which is it seems like such a medical like specific thing but it has no regulations around it. Anybody could call their product hypoallergenic. But now the word organic, there has to be some certification around organic. So if a product does say organic that usually means at least to have to have a percentage of their ingredients have to be organic.

Okay. So if look for organic is okay, that then it's going to be closer to where you want it to be.

Closer not. But it could be organic and still have fragrance.

Oh my gosh. So you really have to like get your reading glasses out and read the ingredients.

Yes. Or just use this product. You're just going to be your products and then you don't have to worry about it.

And yes, I'm going to put a link to that too. But I think it's just the spa doctor dot com.

Yeah, the spa doctor and doctor is abbreviated doctor. So it's t h e s p a doctor dot com.

And that's where you are on YouTube and also on. Is that where you are on Instagram too?

The Instagram and Facebook. Yep.

And then T H E S P A D R. Yes. Love it. Love it. And then on Facebook, you're a doctor, Trevor, Kate. And so everybody can find. I'll put these links so everybody can find you and connect with you. Because as anyone who's listening, you can tell Trevor has all kinds of answers to questions and tips and tricks for navigating not only your skin care, but also hormone balancing and staying healthy overall as you're. Because that's the thing. I mean, I think a lot of people start. You mentioned paying attention to your skin. Like, if you have eczema or acne or skin care issues, sometimes that's when people start to pay attention to their skin. But sometimes we also pay attention as we're aging and we're like, what am I going to do now? And we're searching for the latest, greatest way to keep our skin from aging. And I think you've talked about this already, but I just thought I'd bring it back to this. Of like, okay, if someone's like, how do I keep my skin looking young? What do you think? Obviously, get your book, listen to your docu series, get your skincare products. But you know what, what else do you think? What should people be thinking about when they're thinking about preventing aging?

Yeah, I think the earlier you start thinking about it, the better. And it don't, you know, don't freak yourself out about it. It's, you know, aging is a natural process. And I say, you know, like, I don't do Botox or fillers. I like, I like my wrinkles. People can see my expressions. Like, if I'm surprised, my forehead actually has wrinkles in it when I'm smiling. You can see the little wrinkles of my eyes, around my eyes, you know, like, I don't have a problem with wrinkles or a sign that we've been living, laughing, enjoying life. But of course, we don't want more than, like, other people our age. Right? We don't want, like, older than we are. So that's where I tell people, you know, be a little proactive. The earlier you start, the better. But it's never too late to start, too. I mean, my mom is in her 80s. She started using my skincare products. She's like, I notice a difference in my skin. You're like, you know, it's never too late. But if you can start earlier and doing things like, you know, protecting your skin from the sun, you know, when we were. When we were young, you know, I'm. I'm 49, and I don't, Donnie, I think you're around the same age as I am.

I'm the same age as you.

Yeah, yeah. And so when we were younger, right. Is like, go sit in the sun and put baby oil on and fry your skin. And, and so I wasn't, I was always really sensitive to the sun. So I didn't, like, I tried to not do that, but I know a lot of people that would do that and I think that's really important. We have to think about protection. And please stay away from tanning beds. I can't believe it. People still go into those. They're so much more dangerous than just even going out into the sun. Because especially, you know, we go in, you know, people go in them and don't. They don't wear sunscreen. So of course it's, it's, it's a terrible thing for your skin. So wearing hats, thinking about when you're going outdoors and enjoying the sun, don't stay indoors and not enjoy the outdoors because you got to connect with nature and you got to get some vitamin D, but be smart about it. Wearing cover ups and things like that and a good sunscreen. And I always tell people you'll be careful with sunscreen because a lot of them have these hormone disrupting chemicals in there. So I prefer people to go with like a zinc oxide base, a more mineral based sunscreen that's going to be much better for, you know, reducing those toxin exposures. So sun protection would be a big one. And then with what happens with sun exposure as we have this increase in oxidative damage that happens in the skin and the other big thing that increases oxidative damage is toxins. So again, going back to reducing your exposure to toxins and that includes what you're exposed to and what you know on your skin and what you, what you bring in internally. So trying to do your best to also, well, first of all avoid and then do what you can to reverse that damage by getting an antioxidant. So antioxidants and skin care products, antioxidants in your foods, colorful fruits and vegetables, antioxidants and supplements, things like astaxanthin or resveratrol. These are potent antioxidants you can get in supplement form that can be really helpful in that, you know, preventing and reversing oxidative damage.

I love it. Oh, that's so helpful. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. And thank you so much for joining me today and sharing all of this. I, I'm so happy that everyone gets a chance to get to know you and all the information that you're sharing and providing. And I know it's based on your experience and based on your experience as a practitioner too. So many times people are finding information, but not from a practitioner's or a naturopathic doctor's perspective. And I think that makes your knowledge really unique. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Us. Thanks for having me on. And thanks for doing all the great work you do with your podcast and the work you do with your patients.

Thank you. Thanks, Trevor. I talk to you soon.

Okay, sounds good.

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