Practical Tips for Healing PCOS Acne [Podcast]

Instead of being angry at their body and upset, find a level of gratitude for where they’re at because their body’s giving them signals that something’s not right, and it’ll give us a signal that we can see.

– Dr. Michelle Jeffries

PCOS and acne go hand-in-hand. As a board-certified dermatologist, Dr. Michelle Jeffries is often the first doctor to pick up on the signs and symptoms of PCOS and start making the connection. Her integrative approach is a refreshing and effective method for treating acne and healing a patient’s mind, body, and spirit. In this podcast, she shares her practical advice for getting to the root of your acne (usually hormones, inflammation, stress, products, or sleep) and working with your body to calm it. Listen in (or read the transcript) as we discuss:

• the 3 foods to eliminate first
• products & supplements specifically for acne
• practices & supplements to reduce stress
• treatment for deep cystic acne (hidradenitis suppurativa)
• what to do about acne scarring

All PCOS Diva podcasts are available on     

Mentioned in This Podcast:

• Healing PCOS book
• Dr. Michelle Jeffries Contact :
  • Website: drmichellejeffries.com
  • Instagram :  DoctorJeffries
  • Facebook: Dr. Michelle Jeffries
• Dutch test
• PCOS Inflammation
• Diva DeStress

NOTE: Many of the supplements recommended in this podcast are available in the PCOS Diva store

Complete Transcript:

Amy:                                    Today’s guest is Dr. Michelle Jeffries. I met Dr. Jeffries about a year ago, and I’ve been waiting for her to come on the PCOS Diva Podcast. She is really a wonderful integrative dermatologist, and she is going to talk to us about managing acne. She really has a unique approach to skin health that blends mind, body, spirit with skin care. So, I’m so excited for you to join us Dr. Jeffries. Thank you for coming on the PCOS Diva Podcast and welcome.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Thank you so much Amy. I just felt like we were so connected when we met, and I’m so excited we’re able to do this together and I can’t wait to share this information and help your community with acne, since that’s such a huge issue with PCOS.

Amy:                                    It certainly is. And I just want to give listeners a little bit more about your background. You are triple board certified osteopathic physician in dermatology, pediatric dermatology and integrative medicine. That’s such a unique combination, and I think that’s why I was so excited to have you on to give us this really integrative approach to skin care for women with PCOS.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Thank you so much. Yeah, I’ve had quite a journey through traditional medicine, integrative medicine and then I also love working with kids, so I also do a lot of pediatric dermatology as well.

Amy:                                    So, probably there isn’t one woman listening to this podcast that has not struggled with acne at some point in her life. I know I certainly was one of those women, especially in my late teens and 20s, and even now if I kind of get off my diet plan and have a lot of stress and information in my life, I can still have acne breakouts. So, I would love for you to give us your approach to managing PCOS acne, and I know it’s probably not just handing a prescription for a pharmaceutical.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 No, it certainly isn’t. I mean, acne is one of the most common skin conditions that we see in dermatology, and I do work in a traditional medicine dermatology office, but most of the doctors and physician assistants in the office are very interested in integrative medicine and supplements and mind-body. So, it’s actually a really great place to work and be aligned with everybody who’s into integrative medicine. So, in our approach to acne, we see it as something that is related to not only just hormones but also inflammation, stress, sleep issues, sometimes it’s related to the products they are using.

So, it touches on our emotional self, our physical health of how we look, our relationships of how we feel like we present ourselves to other people, our sexuality, if we feel like we’re attractive to other people, and then also just kind of our self-esteem and kind of our inner connection with ourselves and appreciating and loving ourselves. It hits on so many areas of our lives that you can’t just hand a prescription to someone who is dealing with acne. There’s so many other layers to go through and discuss. So, we kind of take a very comprehensive approach to acne.

Amy:                                    So, I think the idea about acne … And this is something I talk about for women with PCOS. PCOS can really rob them of their femininity, and that’s something that I really felt, especially when I was struggling with acne and hair loss. We’re going to talk about hair loss on another podcast, because I just got you to commit to coming back on to talk about that.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Absolutely.

Amy:                                    … male and female pattern hair loss, but we’re going to focus on skin today. But that emotional issues that it brings up about sort of not feeling attractive and feminine, it’s so discouraging. I think that if women can take away some tips from you today, sort of help clear their skin, it goes such a long way to making us feel healthy and whole.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yeah, I can’t even tell you how many times, it’s probably several times a week, I’ll have a woman come in the office who has acne, has spent a lot of time covering it with their makeup, and they’re really not willing to show me their acne too, because they don’t want to take it off, because they got to go out in the world again after my appointment with them. And so, it tends to be a very emotional appointment, and a lot of women are crying and just feeling like they’re not themselves. They can’t interact with people like they really want, they feel like everybody’s looking at their acne. And it’s just at a point of desperation and tears, and they’re willing to take any prescription or do anything, and that’s usually at the point where they do come into the dermatologist.

As a board-certified dermatologist, a lot of times we are the first person to pick up on the signs and symptoms of PCOS and ask those questions about, “Are you growing hair in places that you normally don’t? Are you having to wax and do all these things?” So, we ask about periods and are they irregular, and things like that. So, we’re usually one of the first people to see it and diagnose when we see the acne patient coming in our door. And then one of the first things that when I see someone come in and it’s hit them at their core of their being and their self-esteem is encouraging them instead of being angry at their body and upset. To find a level of gratitude for where they’re at, because their body’s giving them signals that something’s not right, and it’ll give us a signal that we can see.

So, as we’re working together and finding what the best comprehensive treatment is for them, they’re going to see themselves get better. And so having gratitude that it’s something you can see, and having gratitude that it’s there and it’ll guide them on their journey, and looking at it in a positive light, and just shifting the mind just a little bit can just be such a huge, huge component in their healing.

Amy:                                    I love that insight. You kind of think of it as sort of signs and signals that your body’s sending you that it’s out of balance, and it’s amazing what your body can do when you give it the right things to bring it back into balance.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Right, and just to have such gratitude that our body tells us, gives us these messages and says, “Hey.” Like you said when you’re off track on your nutrition or your supplements, you break out, and that happens to me too, and it’s like, “Okay, I got to get back on track.” Or if I’m not really managing my stress well, that’s another thing that sometimes can lead to breakouts and things like that. Because when we’re stressed, we’re not sleeping well, we’re not eating like we normally do, and we’re probably not taking as good a care of ourselves as we should. We all have those moments and things, and it’s about forgiving and being grateful for the journey and knowing that we can get back in alignment.

Amy:                                    So, what type of recommendations would you typically give your woman with classic PCOS symptoms and she has acne? Where do you begin? And I do think mindset … In my book I wrote that you really can’t move forward until you’ve read the chapter about thinking like a PCOS Diva. I mean, that mindset piece is so important. But after you’ve addressed mindset, where do you go from there?

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes, and by the way, I absolutely love your book. I have recommended it to so many of the PCOS patients that I see, and I’ve gotten such amazing feedback about-

Amy:                                    Oh, thank you.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 … how they feel so honored and how they feel like someone finally understands them. So thank you so much for writing that and putting that resource out. It’s been amazing for my patients, so thank you.

Amy:                                    Oh, I really appreciate that feedback.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 So, definitely we’re totally on the same page with mindset being the foundation, but I only have a few minutes with patients to go over things, and so setting that tone, saying that one time isn’t going to change the mindset completely. There’s going to be ups and downs, and so providing resources like your book and things like that will help once they’ve left the office to help with mindset. But then they’re really there to like, “What can I do? What actions can I do? What supplements can I take? What prescriptions? What can I put on my skin?” All of those things. So, we walk through all of those. I typically start out with just discussing what’s causing acne. I feel like there’s a couple of root things that are causing it.

Everybody’s different, every woman who comes into my clinic with acne has different levels of each of these issues going on, but the first one is definitely your hormones. And so we know for sure with PCOS there’s an imbalance in hormones, not only the sex hormones of your estrogen, testosterone and those hormones, but also your adrenal glands, and how you’re responding to stress and maybe even your thyroid, so hormones are one of the triggers. The second one is more inflammation, and that I find sometimes with nutrition and how we’re nourishing our body. Maybe there’s some foods that are triggering more inflammation and our body is responding with acne breakouts. Definitely stress will also contribute to that inflammation as well.

The next one is products. Sometimes people are trying a ton of different products and putting them on their skin and doing this and doing that and drying it out and then making it congested and back and forth, so that’s another category that we walk through. And then the last piece is really addressing the stress and sleep and how your lifestyle is, and working through that. So, we can maybe walk through each one of those, and I can give you some guidance on how we approach that.

Amy:                                    Sure. Part of the inflammation piece, are you looking at gut health as well?

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Absolutely. So I’m in a clinic where we take insurance, it’s very standard, and so when I really suspect someone’s having a lot of gut issues and we need to do more than just elimination diet and look a little bit deeper, I do have several functional medicine docs in town that I work with. And so we do dive a little deeper into the gut studies and same with the hormones. I don’t prescribe any hormone treatments, but when I’m noticing things are kind of really out of balance, I’ll refer to the functional medicine docs in town, so we can coordinate care, so they can have maybe the Dutch test to look at their hormones. And so we kind of work together as a team, so it’s a wonderful thing.

There’s also massage therapists, acupuncturist and all of that, that we work with too.

Amy:                                    I know my son is struggling with some acne, and we just had the GI map test done, and it’s done by diagnostic solutions. It showed that he had some bacterial flora that was overgrowth and some candida, and we’re on a protocol to help with that. I can’t tell you how dramatically it’s helped with the acne. So, I think a lot of his was driven from gut inflammation. So, I was just going to let people know about that.

Dr. Michelle J. :                Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s typically what … When we get to the point where someone’s open to functional medicine, not everybody’s heard about it or knows what it’s about, not everybody has a budget to see some of the functional medicine docs but when we get to the point where, “Hey, we need to dive a little bit deeper, and get some more data,” the GI-MAP has been wonderful. And then typically we do find yeast and then some bacteria that are growing more than they should. A lot of times when we can get to a certain … Maybe we should just talk about inflammation first.

Amy:                                    Yeah, okay. Let’s start there.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yeah. Probiotics can be a big component of helping acne, and so that is something that can help. If we get to a point where it’s not really doing much and we’re not sure if we’re on the right one, and is there an overgrowth of yeast that we have to address, that’s definitely a good natural step. Doing elimination diets for acne can be incredibly insightful and can actually be the one thing that unlocks acne, especially in my teenage patients, that can be true since a lot of teenagers don’t eat as well as they should, even though parents try to encourage them. But even us as adult females, we go through our moments where we’re craving sugar or we want to eat things. And so, the two main foods that we know create inflammation that are related to acne are dairy and sugar.

Dairy being one that … I think a lot of people just think of milk and cheese, and think that if they eliminate that they’re okay, but whey protein is a strong trigger of acne. There’s a ton of data showing that that can trigger acne breakouts. Whey protein is something that a lot of my adult females take because they’re trying to build muscle and look good and look fit and they’re working out, and so that can be a trigger. And then all our coffee drinks that we get at Starbucks, sometimes we get almond milk, but sometimes they add whipped cream or other things, so paying attention to that. A lot of our dressings, and when we get salads or we eat out, there can be dairy in those, and so paying attention to that. And then also sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, the list seems to go on and on, yogurt.

And so, what I found is eliminating dairy 100% for at least three weeks, if you can commit to at least three weeks and see how your skin’s responding. Not only does that help the gut kind of reset itself, it gets your inflammation down to maybe about 50% of what it was. About three to four weeks actually is aligned with the cycle of your skin. So, we get a new skin layer in about every three to four weeks, and then also our beautiful female body, we’re supposed to menstruate every 28 days, so it’s interesting how all of those things tend to be very aligned. So, allowing yourself that elimination for the three weeks and really committing to it, you might find, “Oh my gosh, my acne is so much better, it was just that simple. I didn’t need the doctor’s appointment. I didn’t need to do any prescriptions. I didn’t need to change anything. It was just that.”

Amy:                                    So, what about gluten? I know that that would be another one of those food sensitivities that people have, and just anecdotally, I do see a lot of women say that when they remove that, it helps with their skin. Are you seeing the same thing?

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Absolutely. Not as strong as dairy and sugar. Sugar is the second one. A lot of us have a sweet tooth and eating sugar can definitely feed your microbiome a little bit where it gears towards maybe some unhealthy bacteria, and I think that’s what’s driving it, maybe more yeast too, but also all the processed foods that tend to have gluten in it. And so sometimes it’s just the fact that we’re eating a lot of processed foods and not actually foods that were made by nature. And so sometimes it’s the additives that get into the foods that contain gluten that can be a problem too. What I encourage my acne patients to do is just shifting to a really simple, clean whole food diet where you’re eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day, so you’re getting something red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

It’s hard to do, and ideally, we want to eat several cups of that a day. If you can get yourself to around nine cups of vegetables with a rainbow every day, that would be ideal, but most of us don’t have the time to do the prep for all of that, so sometimes doing smoothies and things like that, that will help. Eating lean proteins and really eliminating our processed foods. If you’re going to eat some carbohydrates, some of my patients really like to go paleo, but if you’re going to eat some carbohydrates maybe it’s healthier ones, maybe it’s like a sweet potato or if you’re going to do rice it’s an organic brown rice and it’s a small amount or you’re focusing on cauliflower rice or something like that.

So, eliminating gluten as a trigger is definitely one of the puzzle pieces in there, but it’s also all the processed food that we eat. You can also go gluten free but still eat gluten free pancakes and breads and crackers and things like that and still be eating a lot of processed foods.

Amy:                                    And sugar for sure.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes.

Amy:                                    So, speaking of inflammation, stress is definitely inflammatory, and that’s a big trigger for my acne. So, I would love to know, what do you suggest to your patients for dealing with stress?

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes, so stress is probably one of the biggest things that I see in my clinic, not only in acne but it’ll trigger eczema flare ups, psoriasis flare ups, sometimes just itchiness in the skin. So, it’s actually something I talk about regularly with probably most of the people that walk in the door. I haven’t met anybody yet that says that they’re not undergoing some level of stress, so I think it all comes down to how we handle it and how we respond to it. Stress seems to be there’s usually something going on that’s creating some sort of friction in our lives, so starting with mindfulness and just being aware of how we’re responding to things, and engaging in activities that calm and soothe us, and that’s different for everybody. Some people meditate, some people do yoga, some people exercise.

I really find that encouraging people to do things that kind of center them, either breathing or meditation and just kind of give them that peaceful moment of just letting go and being and not having to stress or worry about something, even if it’s just for a minute. Just taking that time to re-center can be helpful, and then also having gratitude, just realizing, “Okay, this is happening for a reason. There’s some sort of friction point. There’s something going on in my life that I’m learning something and I’m going to turn out better from it, but I’m going through this right now, and the acceptance and the gratitude.” And then there’s some supplements that also can help because sometimes just doing that is not enough, we need a little help. There’s a great supplement called ashwagandha that helps balance out cortisol levels, and so I recommend that to a lot of my patients.

And then taking magnesium, a lot of times can help ease stress. It can relax some of the muscles. It’s great before bedtime. And then some people do need some adrenal support too, and so there’s some supplement combinations that have the ashwagandha but also have like a reishi mushroom or other natural medicine or mushrooms. I think you might have some of that in your supplement store as well.

Amy:                                    Yeah, I have a stress supplement called Diva Distress and it has those herbal supplements to manage stress. I also wanted to ask you about supplements specifically for acne. I know there’s been some positive research around PCOS, acne and berberine, and berberine has been shown to reduce androgens, but it’s also an anti-microbial, so it helps with some of those bad gut bacteria that might be contributing to acne. But just wondering what your thoughts were.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes, actually, if we go back to the inflammation category, adding digestive enzymes and berberine have been incredibly helpful for a lot of my patients that are dealing with gut issues and inflammation. Berberine also is used in a lot of the protocols to help with overgrowth of yeast and things like that, so it’s a great additive to it. It’s good to hear there’s research in the PCOS category as well and not just for acne and gut inflammation.

Amy:                                    I’ve also seen some research around zinc, and women with PCOS tend to be low in zinc as well as a lot of other nutrients.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes.

Amy:                                    We just do not absorb them well, but tell us about zinc.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes. So we don’t really eat a lot of zinc rich foods in our diet, so zinc is not only related to acne, and there’s a lot of strong data with that, but also seborrheic dermatitis, which is kind of like a dandruff that you get on the scalp, which also can happen around the same time that you have acne breakouts. So, interestingly enough, taking zinc as a supplement, around 25 milligrams once a day, sometimes people can tolerate a little bit more but you can get a little nauseous when you take it, can help not only acne, but if you’re dealing with some dandruff issues, that can also help. The other supplement that I found that can help with those issues is selenium and also vitamin D. And then taking an omega-3 to help balance out some of the inflammation can also be helpful.

And then the other supplement that I sometimes talk about with some my patients with acne is called NAC and that can help with detoxing the liver a little bit more, any liver congestion. It can also help calm some inflammation. So, there’s a lot of different supplements. I definitely want to focus on patients doing nutrition, but some times you have to add some supplements or some pills, and it all just depends on where you’re at in your journey, and where you’re at in the phases of your PCOS, and what you need. It doesn’t mean that you need them forever, maybe you just need a little help for a little while until your nutrition kind of kicks in and everything takes time.

Amy:                                    So, there are a lot of women with PCOS that have kind of those deep cystic acne, and it might not just be on their face but like armpits, groin, and I think that they’re definitely hormonally connected, but can you give us some advice for women that struggle with that HS or that cystic acne?

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yeah, so hidradenitis suppurativa is more of an acne that’s more prone to kind of armpit, groin area, sometimes they’ll see it under the breasts, sometimes in the crease between the abdomen and the pubic area, and it’s deep, inflamed cyst, and a lot of times they’re connected. It’s one of our most challenging things that we see in dermatology, because I think from a traditional medicine standpoint, we haven’t nailed it. We haven’t gotten exactly what we need to use to address it. So zinc, actually, that we just talked about is actually one of the supplements that’s been researched to help with that. And then also there’s some newer data coming out that it’s related to inflammation and hormones.

And so sometimes working with a functional medicine practitioner and doing anti-inflammatory nutrition programs can be very helpful, then also working with someone that looks at your hormones, and maybe doing some more advanced testing to see what exactly is off with the hormones can be helpful. When we see patients with HS and they’re having a huge cyst, I mean, these can be very embarrassing. They can be in the groin area, and if you walk, they’re painful, they can burst, they can bleed, and so you can end up with this wet spot on your pants or your skirt that has blood and puss, and it’s very mortifying for both men and women to have these. So, one of our rescues is to do an injection with the steroids to help calm it down immediately, but it’s not our long-term plan.

A lot of times it’s using a lot of different topical, oral medications, supplement nutrition and kind of addressing it at all the possible angles that we can, but it’s definitely very, very challenging. So, if you’re listening to this and you have HS, you are so not alone, and your frustration with what’s available and what our options are. And so, if you’ve had HS and you’ve been able to find a path to manage it, I would just encourage you to share that with not only your doctor but maybe share it more publicly so that it’ll help us guide what we can do to help other patients with it as well.

Amy:                                    I know I’ve heard anecdotally from PCOS Divas that those oral, anti-inflammatories, natural ones like turmeric can really help, as well as using tea tree oil topically. I don’t know how you feel about tea tree oil.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes, actually, so this will kind of bring us to the product category of topical treatment of what can help. And so tea tree oil diluted can be very, very helpful for acne, and a lot of my patients come in already using that. So the patients that are using it, it’s working for. I don’t usually see, but I definitely feel it has a big role in treating acne and plus even hidradenitis suppurativa as well. Sometimes it’s just not potent enough to help, and so another topical treatment that has research with acne is CBD. And so CBD can also be very helpful topically, and maybe even taking it internally. There’s not any data that I’m aware of on its use in HS, but that might be something in the future that we look into.

I do have a lot of success with more sulfur based topical treatments for larger, cystic hormonal acne. There’s a prescription generic called dapsone, this anti-inflammatory. The brand is called aczone. A lot of times they’ll get some help with that. Some topicals that I find can worsen acne are actually coconut oil on the face. I find a lot of my patients are coming in with a lot of breakouts, sometimes even on the back they get pimples from coconut oil, so I like a jojoba oil or safflower oil instead. And then I do have some patients that use their body lotion on their face, and I find unless I ask that specific question, I don’t realize that that might be a trigger. Body lotions tend to be a little bit thicker and will clog the pores on the face.

And then a lot of people are using primers under their makeup to make it look smooth, and I find the dimethicone in it can occlude the pores a little bit more. And then the last one is scrubs. Some people, I mean you just get to the point you’re just angry with your skin, you just want to scrub it out and get it better and clean it out, and it actually ends up stimulating the oil glands to make more oil and that kind of relates to another breakout very soon after you use the scrub. So, those are kind of my pros and cons of different topical treatments.

Amy:                                    What do you think about blue light therapy? I know that’s something that I’ve bought my teenage boys, it seems to help when they are consistent, but I can’t really count on them to be.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes, and that’s exactly too. It’s just like any of the other topical things that when you’re consistent with it, it’ll help calm down inflammation and it works great, but it’s something you have to stick with. A lot of times if you reach out to your dermatologist, a lot of us don’t use it for acne in our offices, because you have to come in really consistently. It’s a cash pay, a lot of insurance doesn’t cover it, and it tends to be a little bit pricier. So, some of my patients have shifted to some of the home treatments like you’re saying, which one are you using?

Amy:                                    The LightStim, I think is the brand, and I think it cost me maybe $150.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yeah, so definitely something else to add in, in addition, and it can be very helpful. And it also feels like you’re actually doing something too, yourself, at home. And so blue light therapy is something we use in our office for other modalities too. And so, it was really exciting when we started hearing about some companies making home lights that you can use at home. They won’t be quite as potent as in the office, but they certainly can be helpful. And just like your experience it is being consistent with it and finding the time.

Amy:                                    I’m trying to think if we … Did we cover everything? I do have a question that I got from one of my followers about what to do about acne scarring, is there anything that we can do about that?

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes. And so on my website, I actually wrote a whole article and blog post about acne scarring, so you can definitely go on there and kind of read a little bit more. So acne scarring ranges from kind of just those reddish brown stains that are left on the skin after you’ve had a breakout, then those can be incredibly frustrating because you may have a pimple for a week or two, but then that stain can last a month, maybe two. So, if you’re noticing the reddish brown staining and it’s flat, there’s no divot or thickening of the skin, those actually do fade over time. You want to be really good about your sun protection, and then probably consult your dermatologist and get on some acne treatments to stop the new pimples from coming out. And so you’re not healing one and then having a stain and then another breakout comes.

The next type of acne scar can be those divots where they’re kind of punched in a little bit where you’ve had those cysts and it’s left little divoted scars on the face and sometimes even the back and chest. What we found is there is some great data using either micro needling or a non-ablative fraxel laser. What those do is they both do little micro injuries in the skin, and then as they heal, it brings up the collagen and the second layer of the dermis a little bit higher to the surface. There’s usually a need for doing multiple treatments, usually not one treatment. In my experience, I’ve found the micro needling treatments to require a little bit more than the non-ablative fraxel lasers.

The next category is lasers that help with kind of the really divoted scars that are very deep in the skin and multiples of them, and that’s where sometimes we’re working with a plastic surgeon to do an ablative laser. The difference between the non-ablative and the ablative lasers is the non-ablative do micro injuries to the second layer of the skin, but they leave the top layer, the epidermis, intact. And so your downtime is usually some redness, some swelling, but the surface of your skin is not impacted. The ablative lasers actually work through the epidermis and the dermis, so there’s two layers. So there is quite a bit of downtime and some swelling. And so usually we’re working with a plastic surgeon or a cosmetic dermatologist that just specializes in laser and things like that to do those treatments. So, there’s a whole range of them.

If you’re going to invest in any of these options, they’re usually not covered by insurance, so it’s an investment and our recommendation is usually get your acne really well controlled and really stable so that you don’t do all of those cosmetic treatments and then you get another big cystic acne spot that leaves another scar and you have to go back and do more of them. So, usually want to do those later on.

Amy:                                    So, do you feel like there’s a lot of hope, and it’s really possible for a woman that’s listening, struggling with acne right now that she could really have beautiful, clear skin?

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Oh my gosh, absolutely. I think those are the times where I almost I’m brought to tears when that patient that I saw a couple months ago or maybe six months ago, depending on how long her journey is, and they come in no makeup and they’re so happy and they feel so confident. It brings tears to my eyes because I’ve been there myself and I know what it feels like to not want people to be able to see you, and then how opening and amazing it is like, “Oh my gosh, they can see me in my skin and I look amazing and I can just be me.” And so I see that all the time. You just need to keep working on your journey, and your journey is your journey, but you’re not alone. And so there’s a lot of resources out there to help you.

Everybody’s different as far as where they’re at on things, including your physicians, and so if you do meet with a dermatologist and they recommend some things and you feel like that might resonate at the time, try them out, see how you feel. If you feel like, “Okay, that isn’t for me,” then you go down another path, and just know that it’s your path and there’s a lot of opportunities to work with a lot of different practitioners. Definitely the work that Amy’s done here has been huge in giving you a sense of direction and different places to go.

Amy:                                    If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, then you are really in luck, because you can go visit Dr. Jeffries in her private practice, but she also has a website and resources like you just mentioned the article about acne … What was the article about? I’m trying to remember.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yeah. There’s one on acne scarring. We didn’t touch on DIM, but there’s an article about that too, and stress in your skin and yeah, tons of information there.

Amy:                                    Yeah, and I will post the link in the show notes to the article about acne scarring, but tell us more about where we can find out more about your work and how to follow you on social.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Yes. So my website is my name, and so it’s Dr. as in D-R, and then michellejeffries.com. It’s M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E, and then my last name is spelled J-E-F-F-R-I-E-S, and so you can definitely go there. I have a beautiful inside and out welcome kit that goes through my mind, body, spirit approach in skincare, so you can download that for free. There’s a lot of resources there, a lot more coming as well. I’ll be offering some courses about acne, and then some guidance on these supplements and nutrition as well. I’m on Instagram, and it’s doctor spelled out on Instagram, D-O-C-T-O-R Jeffries. I’m also on Facebook, and that one’s Dr. Michelle Jeffries. So if you google me, I’m sure you’ll find me, and then happy to help you on your journey.

If you’re in Phoenix, I would love to see you and you can schedule a 15-minute consult and we can see if it’s a good fit, and if there’s other functional medicine or other practitioners that we need to add to your healing team, we can certainly do that as well.

Amy:                                    Well this has been super-informative and before we go, I’m going to definitely get you down on the calendar so that we can record a podcast about hair issues and PCOS, so every listener can look forward to that in the near future as well.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 I’m looking forward to it.

Amy:                                    Yay. So, thank you Dr. Jeffries, and thank you to everyone listening. I look forward to being with you again very soon. Bye-bye.

Dr. Michelle J.:                 Thank you.