Probiotics & Prebiotics for Healthy Skin

Looking after your skin is important. After all, it’s the largest organ in your body and works incredibly hard to help keep you happy and healthy, protecting you from the sun’s dangerous rays and ensuring any bad bacteria is kept out.

Of course, not all the bacteria your skin is exposed to is harmful. It’s home to hundreds of varieties of bacteria, along with other microorganisms, many of which can be classified as helpful or “good”¹. The presence of this good, or healthy, bacteria is vital, assisting with a number of your bodily functions, including your digestive system. And it’s no different in terms of your skin. These bacteria contribute to a healthy complexion, working together in perfect balance to ensure a functioning ecosystem on and in your skin – known as a microbiome.

To ensure your skin is in peak condition, it’s important to nurture these bacteria and give them all the nutrients they need to succeed. There are several ways to do this, most of which centre around the skincare products you use and the foods you eat. The ingredients within these products and foods matter, so it’s important to be aware of what goes into your body, as well as what goes on it. This applies to baby skin as well. Babies’ gentle and sensitive skin calls for special care.

One of the most important of these for healthy skin and complexion is probiotics – the naturally-occurring living microbes that live on the skin and in your body. Creams and solutions that contain probiotics help to introduce beneficial bacteria to the skin, moisturising, reducing redness and repairing damage².

Probiotic foods can be beneficial to skin, as well as digestive health. Probiotics are most commonly found in supplements you can buy in a health food store or supermarket, as well as naturally occurring in foods that contain live bacteria, such as cheese and yoghurts.

Prebiotics are equally essential for your skincare regime. These are non-living ingredients that are used to support the balance of both good and bad bacteria on your skin throughout your skin and within your body.

Learn more about the benefits of probiotics and prebiotics, as well as how to bring these into your everyday skincare routine, including:

• What are probiotics and prebiotics?

• Using probiotics and prebiotics to treat skin conditions

• Side effects of probiotics and prebiotics

• Oral ingestion v skin application

What are probiotics and prebiotics?

Although they sound pretty similar, probiotics and prebiotics are two vastly different things with specific functions. Probiotics are defined as living microorganisms that are found both naturally in your body and in food and supplements. When consumed or applied to the skin, they provide a wealth of positive benefits for the body³, including:

• Easing chronic skin conditions

• Promoting good intestinal and gut health

• Strengthening skin overall

Prebiotics on the other hand aren’t actually alive. They are non-digestible ingredients that help balance the good and bad bacteria on your skin⁴.

When probiotics and prebiotics are combined, whether that be in skin cream or in foods, they join forces to become what’s known as a synbiotic⁵. Common synbiotics include supplements, additives and certain foods like yoghurt and cheese⁶.

Here’s a closer look at the differences between the two:

Probiotics

Probiotics consist of different groups of live bacteria and microorganisms that live both in the body and on the skin’s surface⁷.

There are two main categories of probiotics:

• Lactobacillus – considered “friendly bacteria”, commonly found in the human digestive system and in probiotic foods. Several different species exist and can contribute towards treating IBS, digestion problems and skin disorders like acne and eczema when consumed⁸.

• Bifidobacterium – groups of bacteria that reside within the intestines and can also be cultured outside of the body for use in probiotic yoghurts. They are frequently used to treat diarrhoea, intestinal disorders and IBS when consumed in food or supplement form⁹.

Individual strains have different effects on the body, which means that by eating the right foods rich in probiotics, or applying a likewise solution, bacteria can contribute positively to both your gut and skin health¹⁰.

Prebiotics

Prebiotics are made up of plant-based¹¹ carbohydrates that are used as fuel for beneficial probiotic bacteria growth¹². They can’t be digested by humans, however their role is to positively change or preserve the healthy microbiome found in the gut, or on the skin, when eaten or applied¹³.

Ingredients found in skincare products that are high in prebiotics include:

• Oat – helpful in soothing itchy and irritated skin. They help to improve the balance of microbes living within the skin’s microbiome.

• Ginseng –  a popular bioactive ingredient, it has anti-inflammatory qualities that can positively impact the microflora in the gut when administered orally¹⁴. It can also help reduce inflammation on the skin’s surface when applied in cream form.

• Blackcurrant – increasingly found in food supplements, the extract powder from blackcurrants can increase the amount of bifidobacterial and lactobacilli found in the gut¹⁵. This can contribute to good overall digestive health.

• Pine – in its bark extract form, studies have shown that pine can reduce skin inflammation when taken as a supplement¹⁶. It can also help protect against UV-exposure by improving the skin’s barrier.