If you’re unsure what the microbiome is then we’ve prepared a very brief but informative section to help you get up to scratch.

The microbiome is essentially a collection of different kinds of microorganisms that work in harmony to repair our bodies and ensure that we’re healthy. There are many different microorganisms that form this collective including fungi, bacteria, parasites, and even viruses.

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Our microbiome is like a massive city with many different microorganisms that have learned to coexist. There are occasionally a few outliers that cause issues, but they’re generally outed and broken down once they’ve been identified. In many ways, it’s not so different from a regular city; there are peaceful microorganisms that take care of our body, but also occasionally some that cause troubles.

Thankfully, we don’t need to just leave our microbiome to its own devices. In fact, we can influence these trillions of bacteria in our body by using biotics. There are three different kinds of biotics that you should learn about.

Probiotics

Of the three biotics, there’s a good chance that you may already know about probiotics. This is because it’s included in a lot of different foods and drinks. The World Health Organisation officially defines probiotics as live microorganisms that can help keep our microbiomes balanced.

One of the most popular sources of probiotics is fermented foods such as yoghurt, kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut. These sour-tasting foods contain a lot of healthy bacteria because of the way they’re made. This means that a lot of that good bacteria ends up in your gut when you eat it. There are also certain drinks that are made specifically for the purpose of introducing good bacteria into your system.

Prebiotics

Prebiotics are like nutrients for your microbiome. Despite how small microorganisms are, they still need food in order to function. It’s an ecosystem much like anything else on the planet. The organisms in your body need food to survive and they’ll even fight over it to ensure their own survival.

As such, providing more prebiotics to your body means that your microorganisms can grow up strong and healthy, and it also ensures that there’s a lot of them! Most of us get our prebiotics from food as well, but there are also skin care products that can help keep our skin microbiome healthy too.

While there hasn’t been as much research into prebiotics, it’s been suggested that many existing skincare products contain prebiotic benefits. For example, certain ingredients in moisturisers have shown promise in supporting the skin’s purpose as a barrier that allows our skin microbiome to nurture healthy bacteria.

Postbiotics

Lastly, there are postbiotics. This is essentially the byproduct of your microorganisms eating the prebiotics you offer them. In other words, it’s a waste product from your microbiome.

This can sound a little strange at first, but our body loves the waste that the microorganisms produce after eating the prebiotics. In fact, the postbiotics produced by your body play many different roles in protecting your body and fighting back invaders.

Postbiotics are naturally produced when there are enough postbiotics and prebiotics, so it’s usually not something you have to worry about. Your main focus can be to introduce a variety of probiotics into your system and keeping them well-fed with prebiotics.

Many people already know about the three biotics because they’re present in many of our favourite foods and drinks. So how do they relate to our skin?

There’s growing evidence of the health benefits of probiotics on the skin. Research suggests that using probiotics in both pill and topical form can help treat a variety of different skin conditions such as eczema, dry skin and acne. These conditions are usually caused by an imbalance in your microbiome. This is often the result of harsh exfoliating or other disruptions to the balance of microorganisms. This could mean overusing certain kinds of products, or it could be that your skin is rejecting some brand of cream, moisturiser or shower gel.

It’s difficult to determine the exact cause of the imbalance, but it’s clear that introducing probiotics to your skin can help to maintain a healthy diversity of microorganisms. When these microorganisms are supplied with plenty of prebiotics, it ensures that they continue producing postbiotics which are then absorbed back into the skin for healthy benefits.

In the future, we may very well see skincare products that contain all three of the biotics. We’ve been using the three biotics for a long time when it comes to improving gut health, so it makes sense that we’re seeing more research focusing on the potential benefits it has on our skin microbiome as well.

It’s amazing how our body works, especially when it comes to balancing the trillions of bacteria in our body to help keep us healthy and protected. Giving our bodies a helping hand now and then with the three biotics is a great way to ensure that our skin is healthy, supple and free from problems. With the Skin Trust Club, you’ll know exactly what products suit your unique skin microbiome, where to use them and when.