Dr. Nicole Sundene
Hormonal Acne and Eczema were frustrating problems I personally battled twenty five years ago. No matter what I tried, the acne and eczema would never fully go away. My skin continued to worsen, until I learned about the importance of balanced Female Hormones, Nutrition, and Naturopathic Medicine for acne and eczema in Naturopathic school. I finally was empowered to discover the diet and lifestyle that works best for my hormonal, sensitive, skin type and treat the hormone imbalance. I then began to learn how to test for and treat and treat the different types of hormone imbalance that cause acne with natural medicine as I walk women through the nutrition process in my "Hormonal Acne Diet Program."
I still remember the day my Naturopathic Dermatology professor explained the link between acne and hormones, nutrition, the microbiome and the skin and everything I was battling made perfect sense! The light bulb went off and I followed the instructions the Naturopathic Doctor mapped out and received amazing RESULTS!
My hormonally triggered allergic itchy inflamed skin was suddenly less sensitive to allergens and chemicals. While I am still chemically sensitive and food sensitive to this day, balancing my hormones and nutrition has greatly improved my skin. I am now less reactive to foods and chemicals in general thanks to Naturopathy!
As my skin improved I was finally able to quit using all the different prescription creams and antibiotics the Dermatologist was prescribing for my acne, hives, eczema, and allergies. I was truly shocked and amazed I could finally manage my annoying itchy painful skin symptoms. I no longer needed to take antibiotics or use steroid creams. My skin was no longer itchy or painful. I worked for three Dermatologists for eight years and nothing they prescribed ever gave me a lasting result. My skin was hooked on prescription drugs! At one point I had four different prescriptions I regularly had to apply. It was horrible!
HOLISTIC ACNE AND DERMATOLOGY TREATMENTS REQUIRE WE TREAT THE ROOT CAUSE!
Nothing brings me greater JOY today as a Naturopathic Doctor but to see my patients heal their skin by treating the ROOT CAUSE. I would like to take a few minutes to explain what this process entails so that patients know whether or not they will be able to follow the recommendations of their Holistic Dermatologist.
If you are tired of relying on expensive Dermatology creams and prescription medicines... and open to making some diet and lifestyle changes, you are the #1 perfect type of patient for me to help! If you are not open to making diet changes, I will not be able to help you. I have struggled to make the changes to, I understand it takes time for some of us, but if you are not open on working towards the new diet with me then I will likely not get a good outcome by enrolling you in to my Holistic Dermatology practice in Scottsdale. I never want to waste anyone's time or money when there are plenty of patients that seek the valuable women's health and hormone care I provide, and desperately need my Alternative Dermatology services to solve their mysterious dermatology condition. Sometimes women are stuck on a certain style of diet that is completely wrong for their skin or are so busy googling skin remedies they cannot focus on doing what I need them to do. While my process is simple and time tested to provide amazing results it does not work when the patient does not follow what I say to do. It's really that simple!
CAN YOU HELP ME WITH HORMONAL ACNE OR HOLISTIC DERMATOLOGY VIA TELEMEDICINE?
I am often asked this question several times per day. YES! Whether you need a Holistic Dermatologist in Arizona or whether you need to work via Telemedicine I am able to help patients with most skin conditions that are wiling to change their diet and take supplements. Simply snap photos of your skin condition and send them to me if you are unable to come in or do not live in Arizona. I can still help you over the phone via Telemedicine, I just cannot prescribe any hormones. In the event I discover you would need a hormone prescribed for your skin condition, I would make a recommendation you can take for your local Family Doctor. Itchy or painful Hormonal Skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis are my favorite conditions to help women with.
I would be happy to help you with any acne, cystic acne, psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, scalp psoriasis or seborrheic dermatitis, hives or itchy skin! Please consider giving Naturopathic Medicine a try! It is works very well for patients that are SERIOUS about addressing the ROOT CAUSE of their acne, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, hives and itchy skin.
HOW DOES HOLISTIC DERMATOLOGY WORK WITH NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE?
Please keep in mind my Holistic Dermatology treatments are focused on treating the ROOT CAUSE of your skin problem and while I will prescribe natural remedies to apply to your skin... that is just "Slapping a Band-aid" on your dermatology complaint and it is not going to provide a lasting result. When we don't listen to the symptoms and understand why they are there the body just continues to scream louder and louder with the symptoms somewhat like an angry toddler when you cover your hand over their mouth to make them stop screaming. We all know when we remove our hand they will generally just scream louder and louder until they are "heard" and "understood."
When patients come to see me as their Holistic Dermatologist and they think I am going to just prescribe them some magical root from the Rain forest to cure their hormonal skin condition then we sometimes cannot realistically get a good result with Naturopathic Dermatology because that is not how it works. Incorrect nutrition causes imbalanced hormones especially Female Hormones and it is impossible for me to correct the hormone imbalance without the use of bioidentical hormones when the patient refuses to change their nutrition and work to a more Naturopathic Diet and lifestyle that helps them live itch free in their skin again. I struggle to make diet changes but know that the reward of feeling good in my skin is far greater than eating a few things that make me sick. My own personal triggers I have found are not even foods I enjoy eating but foods I thought were "Health Foods" and was eating them regularly to be healthy. So imagine my shock when I realize that these foods were creating eczema, psoriasis and inflammation in my skin?
The problem with your outside is on the inside. When I teach my new Dermatology patients their new diet for "their body," many choose to never return to their old way of eating because they feel so much better on the fuel that is correct for their body. Imagine having your skin improve AND feeling better, thinner and more energetic? That is what my Naturopathic diet for my skin does for me.... My weight is actually 25 pounds less than in my twenties when I had acne! I weighed 165 pounds when I was graduating college in 1999, and now easily maintain my weight at 140. So the benefits of thinking in a holistic manner for your skin are far greater than just improving your skin!
I only want patients to enroll in to my practice that will be my next Dermatology success story. I can confidently say after practicing Holistic Dermatology for over fifteen years that patients that are willing to follow my instructions will get better with their skin condition and those that are not on the same page as me and won't follow my instructions just don't get better. Many new patients erroneously feel we should be applying only topical treatments or are stuck in an allopathic naturopathic medicine model that treats each symptom with an herb rather than treating the underlying cause of the symptoms with an herb. When we give a patient an herbal medicine, vitamin or supplement for their skin symptom we are "Slapping a band-aid" on the skin problem in the exact same way that steroids and antibiotics do not address the underlying cause. In Naturopathy "Tolle Causom" is one of our most important healing principals because the patient WILL NEVER EVER EVER GET BETTER....Until we treat the cause!
In my fifteen years of experience successfully treating dermatology patients that is what all of my success stories have in common. They trust me to investigate the underlying cause of their itchy skin and they trust me to implement a plan that will address treating the root cause of their skin problems. Please do not take away my "Joy of fixing your skin" if you know you won't be able to change your diet to whatever I say you need to eat and remember to take your supplements as prescribed.
Holistic Dermatology is very complex and when hormone driven, is never usually what the patient thinks or suspects.... which is why it is difficult for me to help patients in Holistic Dermatology that do not understand this key concept and are not committed to finding and treating the underlying cause of their skin condition with natural medicine.
DO NATURAL TREATMENTS WORK FOR ACNE?
I know you all want me to prescribe herbs to apply to your skin and I will. I promise we will also do this. I promise we will still use 100% natural eczema treatments, natural acne treatments and natural treatments for psoriasis. However, I also promise that if you treat the hormone imbalance you will not need to continue to apply natural or prescription topical products. To me as a "Holistic Dermatologist" that is the ultimate goal... I want my patients to not have to apply anything to their skin. I know what a vicious frustrating loop that is and wasted years of my life fruitlessly applying things to my skin when ultimately the problem with my skin was brewing on the insides and I needed to treat my skin from within.
WHO WILL BE SUCCESSFUL WITH HOLISTIC DERMATOLOGY?
If you are able to precisely follow my directions, then I am able to help you with your Dermatology condition. I do not treat patients with skin cancer or provide minor surgery in my office. You would need to see an MD Dermatologist for skin cancer and have it properly removed.
IS HOLISTIC DERMATOLOGY SAFE FOR MY CHILD?
This is a top question we get every day. Can you help my teen daughter with her hormones and acne? Is it safe? As a mom myself, I can say with great confidence that Naturopathic Medicine is by far safer and better for your child than prescription drugs. Why would we want to put your undeveloped teen daughter on birth control pills or antibiotics? First of all birth control pills are causing osteoporosis from inhibiting female hormones needed for bone formation as well as other developmental markers.
Birth control pills do not fix the problem, they mask it. They also do not work when the hormone imbalance is not caused by female hormones and is originating elsewhere in the endocrine system.
Naturopathy is safe, effective and provides lasting solutions for children with itchy skin and acne. Pediatric Dermatology has been a passion of mine for years and it usually is about the child's diet and something wrong with the inside. Giving your child steroids, accutane or antibiotics is not good for their overall health and completely unnecessary if they are a good patient. Accutane can cause liver damage and suicidal thoughts.
WHAT TEENAGERS CANNOT BE HELPED WITH HORMONAL ACNE?
If your child has hormonal acne and you do not think they will make diet changes or remember to take supplements and you are not capable of enforcing this there is also little sense for parents to waste their time and money with Naturopathy. Although it can be helpful we will not see a result with chronic skin problems until we treat the ROOT CAUSE and heal the skin from the inside out. Generally children are my most compliant Dermatology patients because it makes complete sense to them that what they eat impacts their skin. They want to feel good in their skin. Many teen girls are my best acne patients because they feel such saddening shame with their skin.
Teens can also be stubborn though, so lets make sure they are on board with working with me! 😉
HORMONAL ACNE DIET AND NUTRITION
The most common causes of hormonal acne I see in my practice are from female hormone imbalance and insulin resistance. My "Hormonal Acne Diet Program" works to address both of these issues. We must treat the skin at it's Root Cause with the right nutrition and correct foods. I also help guide you through the process of eliminating and testing trigger foods that are starred for a reason in my program. As many triggers are very individualized and certain skin triggers that affect me, may not impact you.
Therefore my diet program will help give your skin a break from these trigger foods so that you can test them after being off them to see if this causes an acne flare within 1-7 days of eating the trigger food.
HOW DO YOU HELP PATIENTS AS AN ACNE DOCTOR?
With my Complete Naturopathic "Hormonal Acne Diet Program" and Telemedicine or In clinic hormone testing to determine the cause of the hormone imbalance impacting the skin we can work together to improve hormonal acne. Since I rarely prescribe medicine or hormone for acne, this is an easy thing for me to work with you on if you are not in Arizona. I do help patients out of state conduct hormone testing.
I am a living breathing success story for treating hormonal acne, eczema and psoriasis with natural medicine and nutrition. If you truly want lasting solutions then I believe in my heart that Naturopathic Medicine is the only answer! The only way out of hormonal acne is through my hormone testing process and "Hormonal Acne Diet" program. If you are not making significant progress with my program, then you definitely need to sign up to work with me so we can figure out why.
I would be happy to help you feel good in your skin again! Simply visit my SCHEDULE page and lets get working towards perfect skin before you end up with permanent scarring like I have!
Dr. Nicole Sundene, NMD
Dr. Sundene is a Naturopathic Doctor in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is considered a Female Hormone Expert in Women's Health and Bioidentical Hormones. She specializes in Holistic Women's Health for Menopause, Thyroid, Hashimotos, PMS, Perimenopause, Autoimmune, Postpartum, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Anxiety, Food Allergies, Digestion, Dermatology , Acne, Psoriasis, Eczema and Adrenal Hormonal Conditions. In 1999 she began working for a Hormone Doctor prior to starting Naturopathic Medical School. With over 22 years of experience in both Prescription and Natural women's health and hormones she presents to women the best integrated health solutions for their Chronic Disease. She has been an Herbalist for over 27 years and enjoys teaching women how to use herbs to balance their hormones, nutrition and optimize their health. Dr. Sundene relies on blood testing for her hormone metrics. The hormone testing is covered per the patient's insurance plan and conducted at certain points in the woman's menstrual cycle. To learn more about Hormone Testing for Women Visit: Bioidentical Hormones. Follow Dr. Sundene on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more tips on Women's Health, Female Hormones and Naturopathy!
You fixed my skin! Thank you for what you do. I have been to a dozen dermatologists and in and out of the hospital for the past 10 years and thanks to Naturopathy and your excellent doctoring I have not been to the hospital for a skin infection in over 6 years. God bless you Dr. Nicole!
Thank God you have the hormone expertise to fix cystic acne. No dermatologist I saw could help me. No esthetician. Get your hormones fixed if you have cystic acne. It was my hormones all this time and I wasted so much money on all the wrong treatments. You are in amazing hands with Dr. Nicole!
This makes so much sense with what I have been going through. Constant lumps and bumps with my period each month. Nothing seems to work. Thank you!
Great blog! Just popping in to let you know I am doing so much better and am grateful my esthetician gave me your number. Together with her facials and the new hormone plan and diets I am so much better. My mom is so happy that she has my beautiful face back! Thank you Dr. Nicole
Thank goodness someone understands hormones and acne! I am already doing better from just 2 appointments with you. Thank you Dr. Sundene