Trust me, I know what it is like to struggle with acne, there is ups and downs, and at times you can feel as if nothing is working, but this is the only source you need to deal with your acne, because we will give you tips, but also encourage you that living with acne is okay, and that all your blemishes make you, you and don’t discard your beauty. I cover my personal accutane journey, try to promote selfcare, mindfulness, fitness and help you feel confident even with all the imperfections everyone has. But today I’m not here to tell you what is magically going to fix your acne, but tell you somethings you may have not heard of before.
“I’M BREAKING OUT!”
Acne can happen at any time and can be really frustrating to deal.
While you might think you are treating your acne with all your fancy face products, there might be more to it than meets the eye. Time to delve deeper into some things that could be causing your acne that you’ve never even thought of.
What is Acne?
Acne is different that your casual pimples or zits on your face. What are pimples? Pimples are actually incredibly common and can occur at any age, but pimples are typically linked with an imbalance or shift in hormones’, typically found in teenagers or women, throughout there menstrual cycle.
Skin acne, though is what’s known as a skin disease. There are oil glands or sebaceous glands -oil and sebum mean the same thing-, all over your face. These oil glands are your pores, these oil glands release oil or sebum- but this isn’t what causes the acne you’re experiencing.
The sebaceous gland function is to lubricate your skin and avoid it from drying out, which is good. The bad part is when the sebaceous glands are clogged. They can be clogged with sebum, dead skin cells, dirt, oil, or bacteria.
There are Many Causes for Acne:
- High Proccesed Food
- Rubbing or Touching of the Face
- Hormones, especially during puberty
- High humidity or excessive heat and sweating
- Certain medications containing hormones
1. GUT-HEALTH
Gut health is so overlooked when you have acne, because no one really talks about it. A study showed that 54% patients with acne also had an imbalanced gut microbiome.
In gut-health, there are “bad” (pathogenic) bacteria and “good” (beneficial) bacteria, when one is up the other goes down, because of the limited space in your gut.
Ideally you want the beneficial bacteria too crowd out the pathogenic, bad, bateria, but that isn’t common for most people. When you have to much bad bacteria it can lead to problems, including:
- Anxiety or Depression
- Digestive issues
- Fatigue
- Inflammation
- Poor immune response
- Skin conditions, including eczema and acne
We know acne is created from bacteria, so why did we never think of a correlation; the bacteria in your gut also correlates to your immune system, they are interconnected. Bad gut health equals more immune response.
2. Your Hair Products
Do you find yourself having tiny bumps, or acne around your forehead or even bacne -back acne?
This could come from your haircare products. You carry oils and residues from your hair products all day with you, even if you think you’ve rensied it off, it’s on your:
- Pillow cases and sheets
- Caps or Hats
- Headbands
- Visors, etc.
Even if you aren’t prone to acne haircare products, including, shampoos, conditioners, styling products, gels and sprays can lead to bumps around the hairline and back. To help you can wash your pillowcases and sheets, limit hair products, and after conditioner in the shower thoroughly wash your back from any residue. I would also suggest getting a bonnet for when you sleep, not only is it good for strengthening your hair and preventing split ends through the night, it will keep off all the oils and product in your hair from getting on your face and pillow.
3. Cuddling Up to Your Pillow
We all know touching or rubbing of the face can cause acne, and clogging your sebaceous glands with bacteria, hair product residue and oils can all lead to acne, but what does my pillow case have to do with anything.
Well all the bacteria oil and nasty stuff breads and stays in your pillow case. Think about it would you want your hand to be on your face for 8 hours with a weeks worth of grime on it? No. Well you allow that to happen every night. No to worry though there are solutions, including:
- Anti acne pillowcases
- Washing your pillow case
- Flipping over your pillow or switching them out
- Wearing a bonnet to protect from hair residue
4. Getting too Much Sun in the Summer
When it comes to sunlight and acne, it can be tricky to manage. Some people love to get tan, including me; but does the sun make acne worse? Or can it be beneficial? Well we know sun exposure can lead to cancer, but too much can worsen your acne.
At a moderate amount sun exposure can help your acne, by the UV rays killing some of the acne bacteria on your face and lessen inflammation. Note: this is all in moderation, too much of anything is never a good thing.
When you get to much sunlight, it can start to damage your skin barrier, and a damage skin barrier leads to more acne, since it’s easier to penetrate your skin, it’s like a weak immune system. Note: if you’re on antibiotics or isotretinoin (Accutane), you’re more susceptible to damage from the sun.
5. Being Around People that Smoke Cigarettes
We all have heard that smoking is bad for us, while yes that is true being around people that smoke is just as bad, if not worse. But, can smoking cause acne?
Well, yes. Smoking can cause wrinkles but it can also cause something called “smokers acne,” this acne is a non-inflammatory type of acne; it doesn’t cause redness, warmth or swelling like other forms of acne, such as cystic acne, nodular acne, and acne vulgaris.
The best way to avoid this is to quit, if you’re trying and stay away from people that are smoking, excuse yourself politely and so. Other than acne smoking causes a whole bunch of concerns for your health and is just overall not good.
6. Stressful Habits
We’ve all most likely heard stress causes acne, while that is partially true. If you already have acne, stress can definitely make it worse, or are prone to acne, ethier in your genetics or environment then the stress from your job can lead to a couple of pimples.
Well if we want to stop acne from stress, we have to figure out how to manage our stress, this could be through minimizing stressful habits, in your daily life or finding ways to cope with them, including:
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Deep breaths
- Recommended amount of sleep
- Healthy diet
- Exercising
- Talking about it
7. Energy Drinks (with Substitutes)
Can energy drinks cause acne? Well it’s more complicated than a yes or no. If you already have acne then the high levels of sugar and caffeine can worsen your acne. The ingredients and combinations of sugar and caffeine can lead to problems, including:
- Inflammation
- Increased or fluctuating hormone levels
- Excess sebum production
All contributing to acne, but if you aren’t supposed to drink your celsius or redbull, what can you drink? Well, I would suggest regular coffee, or even better, green tea.
Green Tea can:
- Alleviate anxiety and stress
- Support bone health reduces blood pressure
- Improves longevity and lowers stroke risk
- May enhance memory
- Stable source of caffeine
- No or limited ‘caffeine crash’
8. Over-Exfoliating
Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the other layers of your skin, so they don’t clog your pores. But is exfoliating doing more harm than good? Well it depends how you exfoliate, how often you exfoliate, and how gently.
When starting off there are two types of exfoliant, physical and chemical exfoliant. I would suggest a chemical exfoliant because it tends to penetrate deeper, and with a physical you can press to hard or leave little microscopic cuts in your face that damages your skin barrier.
When new to exfoliating it can be tempting to exfoliate all the time because all the experienced skin care junkies say they do it every night, but when starting of you want to gradually use it. Start with one a week then every four days and so on. This is key so you don’t damage your skin barrier and cause more acne.
When starting off gentle exfoliants are the way to go, you might get away with using them everyday and if you have sensitive skin you can avoid any harsh reactions.
Exfoliants can cause acne if used incorrectly, because it’ll damage your skin barrier, but if used correctly it can improve your skin a ton.
9. Over-Washing Your Face
Similar to over-exfoliating, over washing your skin can cause some of the same problems. When we wash our face we typically use a cleanser, depending on the ingredients, if there’s active ingredients or not, we still technically exfoliate our face. At one time in my life I was using four different cleansers- YIKES!- and disturbing my skin barrier so bad it was constantly dry.
Too avoid this, stick to washing your face twice a day, or after you workout or do something where you sweat a lot. Some suggest only washing your face with water in the morning, but that’s is dependent on your skin type.
10. Switching Up Your Skincare Routine
switching up your skincare routine, doesn’t obviously cause acne directly, but can worsen it. If you are always taking away and adding new products, one of them can clog your pores or have a bad reaction with your skin.
Keeping your routine simple and consistent can avoid all of that. People tend to switch out products because they think it’s making there skin worse, but that could be due to a purging period, where all your acne come out and then it gets better. Note: sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.
Most ingredients take about three months to work, so if your don’t see improvement after then, it might be time to switch it up, remember acne is all about patience and time.
Thank You
Thank you for reading and making it all the way down to the bottom of this blog post. I hope what you read was interesting and informative. If you have any suggestions or problems, please email us at [email protected], and remember you are always beautiful.