Tune In: How An Internal Medicine Physician Approaches Skin Care

"The only way to truly achieve wellness is to approach health holistically," says board-certified internal medicine physician Zion Ko Lamm, M.D. "By focusing on the whole person, in all their dimensions whether that be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, we can better address their needs. And I truly believe that beauty can be a useful tool for medicine because it can address many of these dimensions of holistic wellness!"

On this episode of Clean Beauty School, I spoke with Lamm about her fresh approach to skin care. She's recently become quite popular on her social channels for her skin care tips and product recommendations.

Given her background as an internal medicine physician, she approaches skin health from an all-encompassing and preventive lens—so she looks to address things such as diet, sleep hygiene, stress, and more when she gives skin care advice.

For example? "I utilize my skin care routine as a time for meditation. It has a profound effect on my mental and emotional wellness," she says.

There are many ways to make your skin care routine more effective while being less work. "This isn't a daily staple, but it's a hack I've started doing recently, and I've found it to be a game changer for my dry skin: Hydrate your skin while you're still in the shower," she says, noting that she often brings a hydrating serum or oil into the shower with her. "Then after I wash my face, I put on that hydrating layer, especially if I'm going to be in the shower for a while to shave my legs, for example. Or you can use something like a sheet mask—the steam will make it feel amazing." 

The superfood to topical pipeline is very real. We've already seen it with several ingredients, like green tea, quinoa, and pomegranates. The buzzy one that she thinks will be on everyone's radar soon? Red ginseng.

"I'm really excited to see the concept of your skin microbiome come alive. Your skin is this ecosystem of billions of organisms, and we want them to live in this happy homeostasis because it will give you healthy skin," she says.

While she notes that we're still learning about the best ways to care for the microbiome, two easy ways to encourage balance are by paying attention to your product's pH and through biotic ingredients.