Acne - y?

June 22, 2017

Acne can be quite a fundamental issue in some peoples lives. Even the smallest bit of acne can have a huge knock on effect to self confidence and really effect the way people live their lives. While we spend a great amount of time here working with different skin and rectifying issues such as acne it is important to get to the root and find our exactly what causes acne.

Firstly what is acne? Acne occurs when hair follicles become plugged with oil and dead skin cells. The hair follicles are connected to oil glands. These glands secrete an oily substance (sebum) to lubricate your hair and skin. Sebum normally travels along the hair shafts and through the openings of the hair follicles onto the surface of your skin.

When your body produces an excess amount of sebum and dead skin cells, the two can build up in the hair follicles. They form a soft plug, creating an environment where bacteria can thrive. If the clogged pore becomes infected with bacteria, inflammation results. (acne) Pimples are raised red spots with a white center that develop when blocked hair follicles become inflamed or infected.

So what causes acne? It could easily be hormonal. The vast majority of acne sufferers are teens. This is because the hormones are fluctuating in puberty. Androgens are hormones that increase in boys and girls during puberty and cause the sebaceous glands to enlarge and make more sebum. Hormonal changes related to pregnancy and the use of oral contraceptives also can affect sebum production. And low amounts of androgens circulate in the blood of women and can worsen acne.

Stress is a big acne cause! When you're stressed the adrenal gland that makes the stress hormone cortisol, and puts it out into the body to help the body deal with stress. Unfortunately, a tiny bit of testosterone leaks out with it. So for a woman, this male hormone can drive the oil glands to produce more oil—the root cause of breakouts.

Using the wrong products and even cleansing too frequently. When we feel oily the natural thing to do is the cleanse the face but unless you are using the correct products for your skin and cleansing in a routinely manner it is highly possible you are stripping the face of too much oil. When this happens the skin will produce extra to over compensate therefore creating too much oil and getting build up. It is important to cleanse and scrub but don’t over do it. Scrubbing with an exfoliator twice a week and cleansing at night will be fine.

Finally that sweet tooth! Sugar raises your insulin level. More and more evidence shows that insulin may boost those oil-triggering male hormones, so try to stick to low-glycemic foods—ones that have complex carbs like whole grains, which break down slower in the body and cause less of an insulin spike.

There are many ways we can treat acne but it is good to be aware of the causes so we might be able to stop acne in its tracks!

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