Heal Your Skin From Within With Dr. Trevor Cates

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They're not just trackers. I'm gonna wear this and it's gonna help me do the right thing. Wellness force radio episode 83 with naturopathic physician Dr. Trevor Cates.

We can suppress these things. We can cover it up. You know, women cover it up with makeup and creams or, you know, if you have an eczema, you could cover it up with a topical steroid and suppress the symptom. But the problem is it's not really addressing the root cause of what's going on. So the other option is to really look at. Why is the body telling you this? Our bodies are so wise and they're giving us signals all the time. I think it's so important to look at these signs and pay attention instead of ignoring, which is what most people end up doing and most doctors do, unfortunately.

Welcome back to another episode, my friend. I am your host and wellness coach, Josh Trent. Thank you for spending your time with me here on the podcast. This is where every week I bring you access to global experts in wellness, behavior change and technology. On this podcast, you'll learn from exceptional people who are dedicating their lives to driving real transformations in our physical and emotional wellness. My intention with the show is that together we'll discover the connections between your emotions and healthy habits to live your best life and enjoy the process. This episode is brought to you by Perfect Supplements, a company I'm excited to stand with. Who walks the talk of non GMO pesticide free real food supplements that support us on the wellness journey. Head on over to PerfectSupplements.com WellnessForce. Enter your special audience code, discount WellnessForce and save 10% off all your real food supplements at checkout. I am so excited for you to hear this brand new show because today we are diving into something deep we have not explored yet on Wellness Force Radio and that is the health of our skin. You know, over the past 10 plus years, I know personally I've dealt with the relationship of my emotions to food, to how my skin shows up to the world. Well, today on the show, naturopathic physician, also known as the spa doctor, Dr. Trevor Cates shows us how to use natural foods in real life strategies to have healthy, glowing skin no matter what our age or race. Before we get into the show, Wellness Force Picked up another five star review on itunes. This is from Yoga Master Mars. Wellness Force Radio is one of the most effective empowerment tools I've come across. The interviews are done seamlessly and professionally and all the guests are remarkably interesting. Down to earth and innovative. Wellness Force Radio is one of the few podcasts I've found that isn't limited by its niche. It explores every facet of health and doesn't shy away from unconventional or unique ideas. Well worth a listen and a sure to be favorite yoga master. Thank you so much for your powerful voice. Support this growing Wellness Force community by speaking your voice and your truth@wellnessforce.com review. And I guess what I'm most proud of this year that we've created together as we step into the end of 2016. Can you believe this? I mean, I feel like literally I was still putting like 2015 on my papers. Now I'm gonna put 2017 in a couple months. But I am so excited because we have always been in the top 50 and 20 of iTunes, fitness and nutrition, self help, and in health categories. So thank you so much for being a part of this community. All right, let's get into this show with Dr. Trevor Cates. Just a little bit more about Dr. Cates. She actually received her medical degree from the National College of Natural Medicine and was the first ever to be licensed as a naturopathic doctor in the state of California. I think that's probably one of the most incredible things I've ever heard. I mean, who gets to say that? Well, Dr. Cates does. She was also appointed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine Advisory Council, and she served on the American association of naturopathic Physicians Board. Dr. Cates also has a degree in spiritual psychology. This is where we really make those connections. On today's show, you're gonna see how she unpacks some of the emotion pieces and how that allows our skin to show up healthy. Dr. Cates consults patients over the phone and in her office in Park City and is a featured contributor on FOX 13 News. Let's get into this educational and inspirational talk with Dr. Trevor Cates to learn about how to get healthy skin from within. Dr. Cates, welcome to the show.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

I am so excited. You know, we have done 80 plus episodes on wellness Force. We were chatting a little bit before we recorded and we have not done a show on the largest detoxification organ in the body. And this is the epidermis, otherwise known as the skin. I am curious. There's 200 plus videos online. You've done multiple, multiple interviews on radio and television. But what's something fun, Dr. Cates, that most people don't know about you?

Well, you know, I think a lot of people know I live in Park City and that I have three kids. I feel like I share so much about what I. What I do. I don't know if a lot of times people look at me, though, and they see. They see my podcast, they see me speak, and I talk a lot about skin. And they sometimes will think, what does she know about having bad skin? Or what troubles you know what it's like to have bad skin. But actually, I had a long history when I was a child of having a lot of skin issues. So some people don't know that about me, especially when they're first getting to know me, that I really struggled with my skin as a kid. And it's one of the reasons why I went down this path of becoming a naturopathic physician and then focusing on a lot on skin health.

Definitely. Thank you for sharing that. We're going to get into your story. You know, kids can be tough. And as a mom of three, I'm sure that you probably have talks with your kids about how they get to be in school and how kind of mean other kids can be, but how this relates to skin health and confidence. This is interesting. I got an email a couple months back, and it was from a mom who was actually dealing with skin health herself, and she noticed that her kids were having the same thing, and it was these kind of pock marks on the face, and she went from doctor to doctor. So I think this is something that's on everyone's radar now, especially when we look at the toxicity that are in products and how that relates to people's skin. You know, your story, you had said as a young girl, actually, I saw on your site you were kind of made fun of in school. You were bullied a little bit, maybe a lot of it, and you broke out with hives and your parents, a holistic doctor. And this eventually took you on a path of healing. Can you tell us just a little bit about that story?

Yeah, of course. Around 11 years old, I was a sick kid. I was. I had a lot of allergies and a lot of recurring infections, and a lot of the problems I had showed up on my skin. And so I went. My parents took me to see a lot of different specialists for my various health issues. And I was put on A lot of different medications and I would have more allergic reactions or I'd have adverse reactions to the medications and I just kept feeling worse and worse. And when you're that sick and I was missing school a lot because I felt so bad, and then I also had these little bumps on my face and had itchy hives and all kinds of issues. It really, at a point when you're getting to a point where you just don't see any improvement and you feel like you're getting worse, it certainly impacts your mood, your self esteem. And that really impacted the way I showed up in the world. So when I go to school, I think that's why I got picked on so much and I was bull pretty heavily. And then of course it further impacted my health and luckily my parents didn't give up and they kept searching and that's when they found this holistic practitioner to take me to. And it is finally what turned my health around. So then when I physically felt better and my skin also cleared up, then I had more confidence. It took a little while to get all that back. But then making friends was easier. Going to school was easier, learning was easier. Life just got easier and I felt like a normal kid again.

This path is very similar to a lot of kids. You know, I was overweight as a youth, so I dealt with a lot of food and food addiction and pieces like that. But it's interesting though, because kids can really affect what we do later on in life. We know from psychological studies that ages one through seven and especially those first three years, was there something that you can look back on as a naturopathic physician now and realize, wow, I was eating the wrong things or I was putting the wrong creams on my skin. That was just essentially. Maybe your parents didn't know any better or you didn't know any better.

Yeah. And my, I was very fortunate. I grew up on an organic farm. My parents were very much more health conscious than most people. But one thing that I know that I was doing a lot of is I was drinking a lot of milk. And I think my parents were, you know, they were giving me organic whole milk from a local farmer. But it was a big trigger food for me. And I think that was one of the things that kept making, you know, kind of contributing to the inflammation that I had internally going on. Also. I don't think that we knew it early on, but there was a mold issue in our home and I think that definitely contributed to a lot of my health issues as well.

Now the mold Issue. This is something. There's different types of mold, right? And this can affect the skin and our health. But what was the actual issue with the mold? And how can people recognize that in their home?

You know, mold is a tough one. And we. I know where my bedroom was in the house is it was basement. And I remember we had. There were little black spots on the walls. And I remember seeing that. And as a kid, I didn't know what that was. And then even I would. Sometimes I would put toys on the floor and they would start. Stuff would start to grow on. Was a pretty bad thing. And we moved, I think when I was right around 11 years old. And so it's interesting that even after getting out of that environment, I think the mold exposure had already started to create some issues with my health. And then it really showed up that it started to show up. And again, I don't think it was one. I think it was a combination of things. It was genetics, it was drinking a lot of milk, it was mold exposure. And then I think it was just the perfect storm of things that made me so sick. So it's not like I'm just blaming it on the mold, but I do think that that's something that was contributing.

The fascinating part about everything when it comes to skin health is that everyone has their own story. Do you feel like when it comes to skin health that people are kind of predisposed to have poor skin? Or are we kind of manifest destiny based on what we feed our and what creams we use?

Well, there are definitely genetic components that individualize us. We're all different because of our genes. But that doesn't mean that we're stuck with our genes. We can change our genetic expression based upon how we live. So it's really a two part approach. It's our genes and also how we live. The foods we eat, the products that we use, the toxins in our environment, including things like mold. And for me, mold was one of the issues. But for other people, it could be other kinds of environmental issues, but these all play a role. And everybody's different. I mean, to a certain point, we're similar and the same. And there are a lot of things that are gonna help us, but then there are also certain things that make us each unique.

When you're looking at someone's skin in your office, you also work virtually with a lot of clients across the globe. But when you're looking at skin, what can you tell about what's going on inside of their body by what's Showing up on their skin.

Yeah. I call skin our magic mirror because I think it really gives us great clues about our overall health. You know, it's our largest organ. It's right on the surface of the body. You don't need any imaging equipment to look into this organ. It's just right there. It's one of the reasons why I love working on skin, because a lot of times it's what shows up first when people's health is out of balance. And so I see people for so many different things. It's not just skin issues, but most of the people I see have a chronic skin issue of some sort. And really, skin can give us signals in a lot of different ways. If our skin is dry, it can tell us certain things. If our skin is just dull looking or we break out in acne more often, eczema, psoriasis, or we might have things like people have rosacea vitiligo. There are so many different skin conditions and there's a spectrum of it. So it can be mild, like just an occasional breakout of acne or dry skin or dull looking skin. It's just not that glowy looking and vibrant. Or it can go the further extreme of what I was experiencing of having eczema and hives and those sorts of issues on a regular basis. And really what this is showing us is that something is out of balance. We have two different options. We can suppress these things. We can cover it up, women cover it up with makeup and creams, or if you have an eczema, you could cover it up with a topical steroid and suppress a symptom. But the problem is it's not really addressing the root cause of what's going on. So the other option is to really look at why is the body telling you this? Our bodies are so wise and they're giving us signals all the time. And so the skin is giving us a signal of something's out of balance. So if we instead then look to find out what is the root cause, and then we support the body with changes in diet, lifestyle, some supplements, those kinds of things. First, our body's going to be able to improve our health in a number of different ways. So our skin will clear up, our skin will be clear and glowing. So our health is going to be better in a lot of other ways. We'll have more energy, we'll sleep better, our hormones will be better balanced, we'll be able to have more energy for exercise and all the great things that we want to do in life if we get to those root causes. And so I think it's so important to look at these signs and pay attention instead of ignoring it, which is what most people end up doing and most doctors do, unfortunately.

Yeah. In this current paradigm, too, you bring up some valuable points about actually what's going on inside the body and just learning about the body. I think body intelligence. You know, we had Dr. John Gray, and we also had Gay and Katie Hendrick on the show, and they talked about how we feel in our body is just a manifestation of what's going on with our emotions. I'm curious, you know, you have a spiritual psychology master's degree from the University of Santa Monica. When we look at emotions and skin, our emotional health, can emotions play a same role in either degrading our skin or increasing its health as the food that we eat and the supplements that we take?

Yeah. You know, it's really interesting with emotions and skin is that it's. It's both. You know, when we have skin issues, especially as chronic skin issues that are hard to hide, it affects us on an emotional level. And when we are in an emotionally imbalanced place, it can trigger skin issues. And one of the reasons is that when we're overly stressed, it causes imbalances, their adrenal function and cortisol release. And excess cortisol can then trigger more of the. What I call skinflammation, which is internal inflammation that shows up on the skin. So more itchy rashes, more. Makes those kinds of skin conditions worse. And autoimmune skin conditions like psoriasis or vitiligo, it actually can worsen all of these skin conditions. I went back to school and got my master's degree in spiritual psychology because I realized it was a missing piece of my education. And I love the naturopathic medicine program, the training that I did. But I felt like I was missing the opportunity to help my patients on another level, which was on that emotional level, and providing them the support and tools to help them work through their stress, work through their emotional issues. So I'm able to do that as well.

And people come to a naturopath for many different reasons. So I'm thinking about, can my husband or my wife or my girlfriend or my boyfriend make me have acne? I mean, is that possible where we're getting in arguments on a regular basis and that is actually what the skin shows?

Yeah. When we get really stressed, it definitely plays a role. And especially if you have a combination effect of genetics and food, and maybe you already have some other Health issues going on, then adding the emotional aspect on top of that could just be the icing on the cake.

I know personally, like, if I have dairy or if I have too much caffeine, I notice that, you know, three or four days afterwards I get zits in my cheeks and I get a little bit and I'm 36 years old. Does acne have an age gap? I mean, can you get acne at any age? Or does it really just happen from hormone imbalances?

You know, it's so funny. People get acne at all different ages. I've had women in their 90s emailing me, explain and saying to me, why am I still getting acne? So it really. You can get acne at various ages. And it's not like there's one cause of acne. It's not that. It's just hormones that cause acne. A lot of times people think of that because when kids go through puberty, a lot of times there are acne issues. And of course there are hormone surges, androgen excess that's going on at that time. And also sometimes during perimenopause and women's hormones are out of whack, they'll tend to get more acne breakouts. But there are a lot of different other reasons why people can develop acne, and a lot of that has to do with food. Like you mentioned, drinking milk is one of, or eating dairy products is one of the biggest trigger foods for acne. Because what happens is I think it plays into the this glycemic index issue. So the two biggest trigger foods for acne are sugar and dairy. And a lot of that has to do with the lactose is a milk sugar that's in dairy. And it acts similar to eating sugar in that when our blood sugar goes up, it increases our insulin, which triggers excess sebum production and androgen activity, which are two of the big things that trigger acne. And also with dairy products, there are naturally occurring hormones in dairy, even organic or raw or whatever. Just the nature of dairy is that milk comes from a lactating animal. So there are hormones. In order to produce milk, there need to be hormones. So those go into the milk and then we get those. So that can create more imbalances with our hormones. And also dairy tends to be more of a pro inflammatory food and an acidic food. So another reason why it's not the best food for skin.

You mentioned sebum as well. I'm curious. We, we don't talk about this too much, which is why I'm so excited to have you on today. What exactly is sebum and what's this relationship for oil in the skin with sebum?

Yeah, sebum is basically the oil in our skin and it's one of the factors that's been contributed to acne breakouts when people have excess sebum production. And you know what's interesting about that is it's not. I mean, we all have sebum. It's not like it's. No, some people. It's not just people with acne that have sebum.

We like sebum. We like it, right?

Yeah, yeah, it's good, actually. It keeps our skin looking more youthful looking too, as we get older. Is, you know, having that sebum and the oils on our skin, it's a good thing. It's really when it's out of balance, when we have, we actually have this beautiful delicate balance of microorganisms that live on our skin. It's called the skin microbiome. You may on your show have talked about the gut microbiome, but the skin has its own little microorganisms that live on the skin and different bacteria and different things. And when it gets out of balance is part of the issue. So when there's excess sebum and there's that imbalance in the skin microbiome, that's when people tend to break out.

So what I'm hearing you say is the dairy can actually increase abnormal levels of sebum and kind of increase acne as well, besides just the inflammatory aspect.

Yes, that's correct.

Now, these trigger foods too. There's other foods, and this is kind of the conundrum, you know, how do we test what foods make our skin healthy and what foods make our skin break out? I know personally, like I talked about, dairy gives me zits occasionally too. I've had different nightshades and peppers. Is there a way that you take someone through a process of identifying what foods give their skin health or what foods make their skin break out?

Yeah, very much as an individualized thing. And everybody's different. There are specific trigger foods. And I'm happy to share with your audience my five best and worst foods for skin cheat sheet to give people an idea of examples of the worst foods we talked about too, but there are a few others as well as better foods for skin. So I'm happy to share it with your audience. What I usually do is I have people go through a two week program and I talk about this in my upcoming Book Clean Skin from Within. And it outlines my two week program that I've been doing with patients for many years. And within that I have people eliminate the top trigger foods and then at the end of the two weeks, then gradually reintroducing those back in and see if that makes a difference. And oftentimes people can. Usually people can identify what their main trigger foods are, because I mentioned dairy. But that's not always people's trigger food. Maybe it is for you and I, but it isn't necessarily for other people. It could be corn, it could be nightshades like you mentioned, it could be soy. I mean, there are a number of different foods that can actually trigger skin issues and that can be that. That particular food that's not going to be good for someone. Yeah.

And these trigger foods, there's a bevy of them. And I've done a little bit of work in not necessarily the functional medicine world, but Reed Davis and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. There's a lot of information online about kind of what he's doing to support these synergistic systems in the body. And the biggest thing that we have control over is the food we put in our mouth. And you've actually said on your side, if you can't put it in your mouth, you probably shouldn't put it on your skin, which I think is powerful. It's a simple sentence, but it's very powerful. So the products that we see out there in the regular world, what are some of the key ingredients that are in these products that we should be throwing caution flags on?

Thank you for bringing this up because it is another one of those things like food. We do have control over what we put on our bodies. And a lot of people don't think about what they put on their skin as something that's actually going to get into their bodies. But we do know that we absorb the whatever we put on our skin has a very good likelihood of being absorbed into our bloodstream. And the concern with a lot of the ingredients in skin care products is that some of them are endocrine disrupting chemicals. These endocrine disrupting chemicals are hormone disruptors. So they're also in pesticides and so they're in our food and our water and our air. They're in other places, but they're also in our personal care products. And so what happens is if we're exposed to these hormone disrupting chemicals, these endocrine disrupting chemicals, they can bind to our hormone receptors, they can mimic hormones, they create hormone havoc in the body. And as I mentioned as we talked about, hormones play a big role in our skin health and of course, other aspects of our health. So while we're trying to do things, especially, it seems like as women get older, they're trying to do more and more things with their skincare products to cover up the signs of aging and hormone changes. But yet they're creating more problems with imbalances, potentially from the exposure to these hormone disrupting chemicals in the products that they're using. And the more products you're using, the more exposure you get. So I like to educate people on these ingredients and ones to look at to start avoiding because they're in so many of our products. And on average, people use nine personal care products a day, which exposes us to 126 unique ingredients.

Wow.

Yeah, 126 unique. And that's just on average, that's men and women. And women tend to use more than nine products.

Sure. I was going to say, I think most women that I've dated have used probably more than nine. But would you say that men use that much as well?

Yeah, because if you think about it, deodorant, aftershave, shaving lotions, shampoo, toothpaste, all these things are personal care products and we get exposed to them in all these different ways. Hair gels, all these different things. So in Europe, they've banned over a thousand ingredients in personal care products. No longer. They can't use them. Manufacturers can't put them in their products. But in the US the FDA has only banned 11 ingredients. Wow. It's just shocking that we don't have that kind of regulation. That's left to us to see what's in our products. And so I've been educating my patients for a while while they're looking at the labels on their foods and their supplements. Also, it's time to start looking at your personal care products and the ingredients in those. So I'm happy to share a few of those ingredients to look for. There's so many, like I said, 126 that you might be exposed to, but I can call out a few of them if you'd like.

Yeah, maybe some that are the most kind of bang for buck where people, absolutely no holes barred, should avoid these top three or top five because like you said, there's so many. So we'll link some different show notes for your website@wellnessforce.com skin we'll put the guide that you talked about for the five best and worst foods as well. But Dr. Cates, share with us, you know, kind of the, the big hitters, the ones that we should really be looking out for.

Yeah. And the first one I say is, is fragrance. And that the reason I want to share this one is because fragrance is in so many personal care products, products, and even the so called natural skin care products or personal care products often contain synthetic fragrance. And so what on the label you'll just see the word fragrance. But that gives manufacturers an opportunity to hide. A lot of things are hidden under the word fragrance that don't have to be put on the label. So in general, I think it's better to avoid synthetic fragrance. One of the ingredients that's in fragrance is diethyl phthalate. And diethyl phthalate is a type of phthalate which is a plasticizing agent. You know, also assigned phthalates and plastic water bottles and those sorts of things. And they're used diethyl phthalates used in fragrance to help hold the scent, to keep it lasting longer. So it has a long shelf life. And people like to smell good. But the problem is that phthalates are known hormone disrupting chemicals. We know that there have been high levels found in Americans when their levels were tested and urine samples. Most Americans that were tested, 75% were actually found to have phthalates in their urine, which means we are getting exposed to these things in different ways. And one of the ways to get exposed to it is in personal care products now.

So you're saying that I should not wear my Gucci cologne anymore, period, Unfortunately. What if I spray it on my shirt though, and it doesn't touch my skin? Is that okay?

The problem is you're also breathing it in. So that leads me to another ingredient, that group of ingredients that's in a lot of personal care products which are formaldehyde releasers. Now you won't see formaldehyde releasers on the ingredient label. You'll see things like dmdm, Hydantoin, and there are a bunch of others. So I would. Some of them are really hard to pronounce, but what I would do is suggest that people can just do a search or go to my website and I have a list of the main ones. But formaldehyde releasers, when they're in products and people rub a lotion containing these ingredients, for example, onto their skin, it actually releases formaldehyde into the air around us. And we know that formaldehyde is a carcinogen and we know it's most toxic when inhaled. So if you're also using aerosol like sprays and things that have formaldehyde releasers in them. They're going into the air around you and you're breathing that in. We don't need to be exposed to these things. And I know that a lot of manufacturers say that these are such small amounts, they're not going to hurt you. But the concern is that we are exposed to these things in our air and our water and our food as well, and toxins, hormone disrupting chemicals, carcinogens. So why do we want to add burdens to our bodies? Why do we want to add any additional chemicals? And the concern is also the combination of these things in our bodies. What is it going to do once they're all combined and we have this toxic soup that is circulating in our bodies? So I think it's just good to be smart about it. Reduce your overall exposure, knowing that we have alternatives. It's not like you have to stop using all personal care products. There are natural alternatives. And certainly why I created my own skincare line, the Spa Doctors Daily Essentials, because I realized there was a need for more, especially more luxurious feeling and smelling products that contain essential oils instead of synthetic fragrance and contain natural actives that actually help improve the quality of the skin rather than just sit on the skin and actually be toxic like so many of the products that are out there.

One of the big trends we see now in wellness is these essential oils. I'm curious if you can have a few brands that you work with, maybe you could list them or possibly if you offer them yourself. Because I see so many people that I know personally and online that are just really all about these essential oils. Break down essential oils for us and maybe that can be something I can use instead of my Gucci.

Well, there are a lot of different brands of essential oils. I'm not affiliated with any. I don't have any association with any of the essential oil companies. And I know that there are many options out there. What I would say is just choose carefully. You'll want to. There are a lot of essential oils that unfortunately are not very pure. The extraction processes that they use are not clean, so you end up with chemicals in them as well. So you just. You want to find a company that you really like, that you trust and maybe do a little research on those. Organic, of course, is great. It's not always a sign that they're going to be pure though, because it also depends upon the extraction process. It might come from organic plants, but then when they're extracting them, they're using chemicals that end up still in the essential oils. It's kind of a complicated process but there are plenty of options out there. Just, you know, oftentimes with essential oils you get what you pay for. Unfortunately sometimes I have to spend a little bit more money on essential oils and the spa doctors daily essentials. We carefully select our essential oils and actually my products are made in the UK to Europe standards and we get most of our products from organic farms in the UK just because their standards are so much higher. So that might be something people look for. I'm not saying you have to buy every time everything you know in the uk, but their standards are higher than ours unfortunately. So we have to source a lot of things from outside our country.

Taking personal responsibility and stepping into the healthiest life and body we've ever had starts with the foods and supplements that we eat. Everything that shows up on our skin is a direct reflection of the nutrition that our body takes in. And with our jam packed schedules, it's more important than ever to practice self care and self love for the body and mind and to be at our very best. I've chosen my my top three superfoods from Perfect Supplements in a special bundle for the Wellness Force Radio audience. Inside the bundle you'll have Rhodiola Rosea to elevate mood and calm stress prescript assist prebiotic and probiotic to keep your gut squeaky clean and healthy. And lastly, 100% grass fed hydrolyzed collagen for satiety skin and joint health. If you've already been following a Paleo or a Weston A Price type diet, you're super familiar with bone broth. It's the nutrient dense gelatin that's produced when you cook the broth and collagen is vitally important for healthy and youthful looking skin. Pick up the specially discounted Wellness Force Bundle over@perfectsupplements.com WellnessForce Click on the Wellness Bundle and do not forget to put your special audience discount Wellness Force in the cart at checkout to save 10% off your entire organic superfoods order. Let's get back to this awesome conversation with Dr. Trevor Cates. That is really unfortunate and it upsets me because I'm curious about the FDA's relationship with skincare companies or why there's only 11 that are banned and why you're forced to get high quality products from a different country. Why can't we do that here, Dr. Cates? I mean, what's blocking?

Well, it is really unfortunate and I don't have A simple answer for that. I'm hoping that that'll change. And I think part of it is consumer awareness and people being aware of this and demanding it from our country that we, you know, that we need, we need to be able to have safer standards. And there are groups like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and Environmental Working Group that are doing some good work to try and make changes. And I think that they have done some things to help bring, bring awareness as well as make the FDA a little bit more on their toes about things. And a lot of it's political. There's a lot of money in the skincare industry, the anti aging, the beauty industry. There's a lot of money there. And so those manufacturers are trying to block things that would impact their sales and their business. It's crazy. I just walked into Sephora a few days ago, which is if you're, since you're a man, you may not know what Sephora is.

I know it. It's in the malls.

Right?

That's where they sell the Gucci.

Yeah, yeah. All the cosmetics. Sure. And I was amazed at all the different products in there and everything, that the place was packed and the people were walking around with baskets full of products. And it just, it struck me as being kind of amazing that the marketing on these products have gotten to the point where people feel like they have to have that many products. And it really doesn't have to be that complicated. You don't need all these different masks and creams and night cream and a day cream and one for winter and one for summer and one for your eyes and one for your, you know, your lips. And like there are so many different products and I think we just have made it so complicated and the marketing on this has kind of gotten out of hand. So it's interesting to see.

Yeah. One of the posts that's on your site is Natural Solutions for Healthy Skin. I think a couple years back you were camping with your family and there's some really beautiful ways that we can take care of our skin by just using things that come from a tree or grow out of the ground. Actually, the one I wasn't even aware of was arnica. I thought arnica was for kind of fighting sore joints. Why did you include arnica in Natural Solutions for Skincare?

Arnica is so great topically to help with. I mean, it's really designed. A lot of people are aware of Arnica as being great for helping heal trauma, but if you think about our skin has trauma every day. It's just the Exposure to sun and pollutants and just touching it even. So arnica is very calming and soothing to the skin. It's also really helpful for those dark under eye circles because it helps reduce that darkness.

Okay, every entrepreneur needs this then for dark circles.

Right. Well, and have some more sleep, so. Okay.

Okay. Well, I'm thinking about a mom and you're a mom of three. My mom used to put sunscreen. She would slather it on our faces. I almost look like I was Casper at the beach sometimes. And I'm curious, you know, when it comes to the FDA's regulations on sunscreen, do you have something that you recommend to clients and to your community for sunscreen, especially for kids?

Yeah, it's a great question because most of the sunscreens out there contain hormone disrupting chemicals, the class chemicals I was talking about earlier. For example, one of the most common ingredients in sunscreens is oxybenzone. And oxybenzone is a known endocrine disrupting chemical. And the good news is that there are alternatives. I do tell people to get rid of the oxybenzone containing sunscreens and instead use a mineral based one. So a zinc oxide or zinc oxide and titanium dioxin combination sunblock instead of the chemical sunscreens.

Yeah, because I'm feeling like there's so many brands out there and there's a lot of brands that are up and coming. You know, Beauty counter has some. So what I'm hearing from you is just get something that has the fewest ingredients possible. Or is there a specific brand that you like to kind of hang your.

Hat on, sell on. On my website, I sell a Davita sunscreen because I like, I like theirs. It's a zinc oxide based sunblock. So that's one that I would would say that I. That I like. You know, the problem with some of the zinc oxide based sunblocks is they 10 tend to be pasty. So I know sometimes people have this experience of them being really pasty. One of the options for women is to use a tinted sunblock. So those can not be so pasty looking. And you can get them like davita. I have that on my website too. So they have light, medium and dark. So based upon your skin color, it makes it not be quite so pasty. And actually that's what I use. Instead of using a foundation or really powder makeup, anything, I just use a tint sunblock, one of these, because I find that it adds just, you know, a little bit of color and it covers up that Pastiness.

A lot of women come to you for skin health, but then you find that there's emotions that are probably getting to be improved as well. And how that relates to the family is maybe there's moms that you've worked with or families that you've worked with where the family in general or as a whole has skin conditions. What have you done to really move the needle in your family's health for healthy skin?

I think just because my kids eat a very healthy diet and their father's a naturopathic physician too, so they get in both of their homes.

No, these are lucky kids. That's phenomenal. Both naturopath parents. Awesome.

They don't always think that they're lucky, but thank you for saying that.

Okay.

But yeah, my children are 9, 15 and 17 and so I've got the spectrum of ages now. Well, you know, I really just talk to them a lot about healthy eating and they know, they're very aware that. And they're all in the ages now that they might get a pimple. Like even my 9 year old, she's almost 10, she got a pimple on her nose. I'm like, okay, well what, you know, what did you eat? What have you been eating lately? Let's talk about that. Because it's not like she's using skincare products. But you know, she was like, oh, I was, I had some birthday cake and she's gluten free. When she was a baby, she had eczema and we identified gluten as her trigger food. So she does not to eat gluten. And she's always been very good about that since a very young age because she doesn't have a want to have eczema. She knows how miserable it is. And she sees that direct correlation. When she would eat, she'd go to a birthday party and eat cake, she would get eczema. But even now and she gets her gluten free cake, she's like, huh, maybe all that icing may have made me have that pimple.

So she's kind of doing a self analysis at a young age, which is phenomenal. I wish I would have had that analysis when I was nine. So how would you say that as a mom, you're kind of leading the charge? Do you kind of lead by example and then hope that they'll follow you, or do you enforce boundaries where, hey, this is what we're eating and this is, this is what it is.

So it's kind of a combination. I think the most valuable thing absolutely Far, far, far away, better than anything else is leading by example. I think our kids look up to us, even when they're our teenagers. They look to us, they're judging us. They're making their own decisions at that point, but they still look to us as the foundation of their life. And so when we set good examples, when we choose not to have junk food and in the house and we choose to eat regular meals and we sit down at the table and we have. We value food and we. And we eat whole foods, they see that. They see the importance of our relationship with food by watching us. And I think that it's so key to do this and enforcing boundaries. I think there is, to a certain extent, we can do that, but sometimes that can backfire, especially with teenagers, because they like to figure things out on their own. They like to be in charge of. Of themselves. And so when you're telling them what they have to do, a lot of times they'll rebel against that. So I've kind of learned that the hard way. And we've had to work through some things, but we've come out on the other side. I've learned a lot from that, of just leading by example, telling them there are different options and letting you know sometimes they have to figure things out on their own.

Sure, it's kind of this old metaphor of, hey, don't touch that pot of boiling water. And they touch it anyways. And then do you feel like that they've had certain experiences and maybe a lot of moms can relate to this where diet kind of takes. The only danger in that, though, is without the right intervention and maybe the wrong modeling from a parent, how can that change the habits of the child for later on in life? I mean, you went through a lot when you were a young girl with your skin. But what are the dangers if parents don't set up some healthy boundaries with their own behaviors and also rules for young kids?

Yeah, it's tough. I see. I see a lot of, you know, we have other kids come over to our house, and they say, oh, no, I only eat Mac and cheese. That's all I eat. Or I only eat grilled cheese sandwiches. They're so limited in what they'll eat, and that's partly by what their parents have been eating around them. But it's also, a lot of times parents will just say, okay, you know, I'm eating a salad, but you can have macaroni and cheese. And I still don't think that that's setting them up for success. Either. And I think the sooner, the earlier we introduce them to a variety of foods. So we used to take my son to Thai when he was a baby. All our kids, we used to take them to Thai restaurants and restaurants so they could develop kind of a palate for trying different foods and eating a variety of different vegetables from a really early age, rather than just starting them on rice, cereal and okay, you know, order from the kids menu, because the kids menu is always hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, Mac and cheese. That's it. And that's certainly not how we want our kids to grow up on those foods. Every now and then it's okay, maybe, but certainly not all the time. So if people don't do this, if they don't lead by example and they don't provide some guidance and encouragement, then. But I think it just becomes so much harder later on in life. And making those changes as an adult or as a teen is much more challenging than starting at an early age. And I find that for me, diet's never really been a struggle for me. And I think a part of that is because I was raised on an organic farm and my parents always had whole foods straight from the garden or from local farmers. And it was always delicious and healthy and fresh. That's just what we ate too. It's not like we had a lot of options. It's like, okay, this is breakfast, this is lunch, this is dinner. This is what you get. We're all eating the same thing, and it came from our garden.

The hard part, I think, is for people to live in these food deserts. Dr. Cates. Right. So someone who is in the middle of a rural area, they can't necessarily get the foods, and they're still dealing with these skin issues. Especially with your master's degree in spiritual psychology. I mean, what have you seen really make a difference for a mindset person perspective for somebody who might live in a food desert but just wants that healthy skin?

Yeah, I know it's tough. I live in Park City, Utah. It's High's desert. We don't really have much of a growing season here. We have a great farmer's market for a few months of the year. But most of what, what we get, what we have available for us to eat, is shipped in. And so I, I understand that, and I know it's not always easy to get the freshest foods, but it is becoming easier and easier. There are online grocery stores and places where you can have things shipped to you. Whole foods and grocery stores like that Health Food stores are becoming more widespread, and so most people can find something like that near them. And, yeah, from an emotional perspective, we have these ideas of comfort foods. And I think that starts at a really early age when we're children. And what maybe our parents feed us when we're sick or we're not happy, and they'll, here, have some ice cream, have a piece of cake, or have your. Have some macaroni and cheese or something like that, that we kind of feed into this reinforcement that this means it's a comfort food, and this is what's going to help us. So it's important, instead of using food to help us feel better, to deal with what's really underlying there, what are the emotional issues that are going on and address those. And sooner you can do that, the earlier you can do that with kids. And helping them be able to verbally express what's going on emotionally is so much better than, here, have a piece of candy. Everything's gonna be okay.

Oh, my gosh. I'm thinking of this ad. I think it was from the cdc, and it was a mom kind of feeding her kid french fries. And then it went through his entire adult life. I don't know if you've seen this. And at the very end of it, he was on the operating table. And it traced all the decisions back to when the parents were feeding their foods to those kids. And so I think what you're telling me and what I'm hearing is that we get to take personal responsibility. You know, I'm not a parent. I have so much, much respect for parents, specifically moms. The task is not easy, Dr. Cates. Right. I mean, there's many variables. But thank you so much for saying that. About the emotional piece, we had a Facebook question from a mom. This is from Janelle. She asked Dr. Cates, what is the deal with the avocado mask? Will this be something that I can use for the long term? And if so, how often should I be using it?

So avocado is such a great food, and it's one of those foods that we. It's one of my favorite foods for eating, for skin. But you can also use it in mass, topically on the skin. And so it's got great benefits both externally and internally. And that's what I really do a lot with skin. I talk about what to do internally as well as externally, because I feel like both are important. You always have to start with the inside, but so the avocado mask can be great. You could just use avocado by itself and mash it up. You can add a few ingredients like honey is fantastic for the skin. Mango or papaya, those kinds of things can also be added. But really even just using avocado and a little bit of honey, honey can be great for using on the skin. And some people like to do it occasionally, maybe once a month. Some people like to do it more often. In my book and my clean Skin from within book and the two week program, I give people specific do it yourself skin care recipes for cleansers, toners, masks, exfoliants, those types of things to be doing during those two weeks. And there's something different to do every day that you can do. And I think those are great. I know they're not always easy to do, but they're kind of fun. And if you got a lot of moms listening, it's such a fun thing to do with your kids. And it's something that I do with my daughters quite often as well. On a weekend we'll do a little spa at home day and whip up some of these do it yourself skincare recipes and have a little spa day at home.

I can see that as being a really fun day. Probably not for the teenager though, right?

No. Sometimes we'll try and get him to sit down and smear it on him, but he doesn't like it.

Well, we've gone over a bevy of beautiful topics for really just healthy and glowing skin. We talked about on the inside, what shows up on the outside and this really relationship between the skin and our nutrition. But I'm curious for supplementation, kind of wrapping up the show here before we get into our last section for supplementation, you have a line of products, they're at your website. Dr. Trevor Cates, also the spa doctor. But why did you create this line of products? I mean, what's this line of products all about?

So I have skincare products and supplements and really like I said, it's about addressing those root causes, those underlying causes from the inside out and also on the outside. So my skincare system, I developed that to help balance the PH of the skin and help support the skin microbiome as well as being free of those toxic ingredients and having natural actives that promote the quality of your skin, improve your skin and help clear it up. So it's great for all different skin types, all different ages, and it's a great four step system, super simple. And for the supplements that I have, I have the supplements that are specifically geared to help people achieve clear skin from the inside out. So things like probiotics, my microbiome builder is one of the examples of something that I find that's really important for a lot of people for skin also. Another example is the astaxanthin omega krill oil. Because the astaxanthin is a potent antioxidant that helps protect the skin from the inside out. And the Omega 3s in there also are anti inflammatory. And then I also have my skin hair and nail support supplement that contains important nutrients like zinc that help with skin health and help with a number of different skin issues. And then also a collagen supplement because collagen is so great for helping support our skin. I have all these supplements to help support that two part process of that internal and external health and helping support the skin.

And the cool part about this that I love is that you also focus on real food and looking at the emotional piece too. So it's not just about the supplements and the creams. It's also about the other moving pieces. Dr. Cates, this is the last section of the show. This is seven fast questions for seven answers. Are you ready?

Yes.

What makes you laugh? What makes you laugh the most in life?

Oh my gosh. My three kids. They're so fun. Teenagers can be challenging, but they're so funny and so I love it. My three kids.

When you're done with a workout, what's your favorite thing to eat? What's your favorite post workout meal?

Well, it depends on the time, but since I work out in the mornings, it's usually a smoothie with my all in in one shake mix.

So it's just a proprietary mix that you have or is there any special ingredients you put in there?

Yeah, so it's a shake mix that I have. Sometimes I just add water to it if I'm in a hurry, but sometimes I'll put in coconut, coconut milk and a handful of greens and some frozen berries as well.

Love coconut milk so much. What is one of the biggest roadblocks that you see in the wellness industry when it comes to coaches, trainers, practitioners of all types embracing the emotional intelligence in their practice?

This is really interesting question. Part of it is that a lot of us don't have a lot of time to discuss everything with our patients. And so a lot of times what we end up doing is focusing on the physical body first and their physical ailments and not having time to talk about the emotional aspect. And this is why I went back to school and got my master's degree in spiritual psychology, because I felt like this was a missing piece in my training and so now I have the tools to help people work through those issues as well.

Do you feel like right now you use technology in your life, your own personal wellness? Do you use any fitness trackers or apps or devices for your wellness?

I don't really use any trackers or devices. Sometimes I'll use a meditation or a yoga app, but really I think it's. I live in the mountains of Park City, Utah and for me getting out and, you know, and doing a lot with fitness is the right kind of gear. I'm skiing, mountain biking, wake surfing, running. And so I need to have all the gear for that, for different types of weather and hats and sunglasses, of course, the sunblock.

Are you a gear junkie? Are you one of these people that hunts on the Internet for all the best deals and gets new gear all the time?

I don't think I'm as bad as some of the people in Park City, but I certainly, I mean just living in Park City and being active and with the changes in weather, the rain, the hail, the snow, whatever it is in the sun, you gotta be prepared for everything. So I think all of us have these garages full of gear.

If you could sit across a table, kind of take a time machine, warp back and sit in front of your 18 year old self, what might you tell her? And at that time, I mean, would your 18 year old self even listen to what you, you have to say?

You know, I would just say have fun, life's a journey. And also take care of your body. You're going to have it for the rest of your life. And then lastly, wear sunblock.

Of course you're going to say that. Do you have a mantra or a message that you might tell yourself when life presents you struggle or stress?

Well, part of it isn't so I'm naturally introverted, but a lot of what I do is very extroverted. So I kind of have to give myself a pep talk sometimes. I say, we can do this, let's just keep going. And part of it I can kind of self motivate. And then part of it is I really, I ask for guidance. I ask to connect with a higher purpose that can really guide me because I know I'm not alone.

What do you feel like right now, that higher purpose looks like for you personally?

Well, I do a visualization exercise to pull in light through the top of my head and it fills my body and surrounds me. So I ask for to be filled and surrounded and protected and guided by the clear white light and guidance and support.

What is wellness to you? If you had to define wellness, this is something I ask every guest. What's your personal definition of wellness?

Well, I really believe it's looking and feeling your best and it's not just being free of disease. We really want to crush it in all areas of our life. We want to be fully alive and well physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

I loved your answer and I loved our talk today. Thank you so much for coming on Wellness Force Radio. This has been a fun talk with a ton of links. They'll be in the show notes@wellnessforce.com Skin We Talk so much about the inside and outside of skin. Dr. Cates, do you think there's anything that we didn't cover or a message that you'd like to put out there to the audience?

Well, I know that things can be really overwhelming for people and people might not know where to start. So I do have a skin quiz. I want to tell people about it. All they have to do is go to theskinquiz.com and it's free and just answer a few questions and I'll give them information about what might be their root causes, what may be holding them, having holding them back from having that clear, glowing skin.

Okay. I will personally take the skin quiz and post on social some of my results. So make sure you guys check that out. I want to pause for just a second here and thank you for getting people back in their bodies and out of their head, not being a victim to their circumstances and allowing them to have wellness from the inside. So thank you for what you do, Dr. Cates.

Thank you so much for having me.

That wraps episode 83 with Dr. Trevor Cates. So I'm totally serious. I took that skin quiz and you can see my results at the show notes page as well as take your own skin quiz, get a lot of free downloads from Dr. Cates and watch some pretty incredible videos. I also link that article about avocado and the mask, the natural foods. Everything is@wellnessforce.com Skin Couple key powerful takeaways from Dr. Cates on today's show. Just because the label says natural does not mean it's good for your skin. You know, last week with Dr. Accurso, he talked about his client who actually took away that blocking factor and she finally lost all her weight by getting rid of those nasty chemicals. We will link that safe list, the ones that the FDA is not even borrowing from our country, even though in the UK and In Europe, they have. This is the information that really helps us the most because at the end of the day, it's up to us to read the label. Dr. Cates also talked about how to identify trigger foods. And if you can't put it in your mouth, you probably shouldn't put it on your skin. A lot of us deal with acne flares. They're either caused by sugar or dairy androgens to increasing the sebum amount, increasing the oil on the skin. The way you can actually identify a trigger food is to just simply remove all the foods that you think might be triggering you. Go into an anti inflammatory type diet or a squeaky clean paleo type diet. Then after about 30 days, reintroduce one food at a time, monitor your skin, see how you're feeling in your body. This is really the most powerful thing. You can listen to all the episodes on Wellness Force, But I think Dr. Cates hit it on the head. If you think something's bothering you, take it out for 30 days. When you reintroduce, it'll be very clear not only on your skin, but also how you feel in your body. Last piece is identify the emotions that might be causing your skin to flare. When you're looking in the mirror some mornings, have you thought about during the week, maybe certain people, certain events or certain stressors in your life cause your skin to break out, cause your skin to get more dry. There is a psychosomatic response to our stress. We've talked about it so many times with so many guests on the show, so I know this is no strange information for you. All right now all that's left is for you to go out there and create an amazing day with all the inspiration and education both from Dr. Cates and every guest who's been on the show. So until I see you again next week, real soon, I'm wishing you love and wellness.

Sam.