Hormones, Diet and Stress

There are literally dozens of things that can cause acne. For many of us, the ’cause’ of acne in our particular case is a combination of two or more of these dozens of elements, and this is why there is simply no ‘one size fits all’ acne treatment. Even widely applicable methods, like laser acne treatment, are not considered a cure. There are also different levels at which we can understand the causes of acne, though. For example, we know that blockages in the skin, overproduction of sebum and colonies of P. acnes bacteria in the skin are the ingredients in the recipe for a pimple. But what is actually causing that sebum overproduction, or creating that bacteria-friendly environment in your particular case? Today we check out three partially controllable root causes of acne; hormones, diet and stress.

Hormones

How do hormones cause acne?
One of the typically ‘male’ hormones, androgen, can sometimes exacerbate acne. Androgen is a sex hormone, and an almost total lack of androgens is the reason that you don’t see kids with pimples.

How can I control my hormones my hormones as an acne treatment?
If acne in females is caused by androgen activity, using the birth control pill might be an effective treatment. It’s also possible, although certainly not proven, that eating foods containing phytoestrogens such as soy and green tea may also help with androgen control – and both guys and girls can use those products. 

Diet

How can diet affect my acne?
The link between diet and acne is the subject of constant discussion. While it has been quite conclusively disproven that chocolate and fried foods actually cause acne, there is another possible food-based link with your acne. Our diet has a very direct affect on insulin levels within our body, an endocrine hormone that also influences other hormonal activity … including that of androgens. So eating foods with a high glycaemic index that cause rapid rises and then drops in blood sugar levels, could well be a cause of acne.

Additionally, generalised inflammation within the body can also be a contributing factor in your acne, and there are some foods and supplements which may be able to work as anti-inflammatories.

How can I control diet as an acne treatment?
Try to eat a low glycaemic index diet … and for the sake of your general health, as well as your acne, make that low GI-diet a healthy one! Chocolate doesn’t have a particularly high GI, because of its fat content – and even if it doesn’t harm your skin, it won’t do your waistline or general health any good.

Stress

How does stress cause acne?
The link between stress and acne is again hormonal – stress increase adrenal gland activity, and androgens are one of the hormones produced by the adrenal glands. Additionally, if your body is ‘under stress’, even if your androgen levels are normal, it won’t be able to deal with overgrowth of bacteria in the skin as effectively, or heal the lesions that acne creates.

How can I control stress as an acne treatment?
It depends on what sort of stress you are experiencing – you don’t need to be experiencing a relationship breakdown or going through final exams for your body to be ‘stressed’. You’ll need to control physical stresses on your body to ensure that your skin is in the best possible shape to keep itself healthy and glowing; getting enough sleep, getting enough exercise and cutting out drugs (including alcohol, caffeine and nicotine) can all help improve your acne.

These lifestyle-based changes can help you feel better in general, and can also support more direct methods for getting rid of acne such as laser acne treatment, medications and topical creams.

Being a teenager is not much fun at times. Even adults that escaped high school fairly unscathed by other teens’ harsh judgments and petty schemes will remember it as a tumultuous time. When you add acne to problems like school, friends, work and family, everything can start to seem like ‘too much’ very quickly. While school and friends can be complicated problems, fortunately acne treatments for teenagers have come a long way, and are now much more straightforward than they used to be. Today we check out a valuable five-step acne treatment solution for teen skin. The plan can be cut short at any time, if you find that a particular step has cleared up your acne effectively.

Step 1: Oral antibiotics

If there aren’t any contra-indications to oral antibiotics, they are a very suitable first step for many acne treatment seekers. They help tone down breakouts to a level where chemical peels, microdermabrasion, laser acne treatment etc can be undertaken with minimal discomfort.

Optional Step: Oral contraceptives

Obviously they’ll cause more problems than they solve in boys; however oral contraceptives may help acne in some girls, with relatively few side effects. One interaction of note, though – when these are also used as the sole method of contraception there will be a 14-day window in which they are ineffective when starting a course of antibiotics.

Step 2: Laser acne treatment

Laser acne treatment offers a widely effective, very safe way to get rid of all the lesions associated with acne. It works by subtly altering the sebaceous glands in your skin so they produce less oil, as well as killing off the populations of P. acnes in your skin (which take time to build up).

Step 3: Microdermabrasion, dermabrasion and chemical peels

All of the above procedures can help smooth out acne-roughened skin. We recommend they are undertaken after the oral antibiotics are established and laser acne treatment has been completed because they’ll have a better chance to act curatively on your skin. If you end up having the more severe dermabrasion, also, you should do it at a time when you are getting relatively few new lesions, as new pimples can cause scars.

Step 4: Benzoyl peroxide

Benzoyl peroxide increases the turnover rate of the skin and helps kill acne bacteria.It is a fairly common acne treatment, but we haven’t placed it earlier in the program because it does have side effects, sometimes causing cystic acne and flaking, and also making your skin build up a tolerance to it, so constant use is required.  It shouldn’t be used before laser therapy, as it increases sun sensitivity.

Step 5: Oral isotretinoin

Oral isotretinoin is also known as Accutane, or Roaccutane, and is one of the last resort treatments for acne. Usually people that complete a course of oral isotretinoin find that they have permanently improved skin. The fact that it increases turnover rate of the skin means that fine lines and wrinkles are improved as well. It has quite a range of serious side effects though, including flaking and peeling of the skin, exacerbation of sun sensitivity and sometimes mood changes and depression; this is why it is included as the last step.

Remember:

Acne treatments for teens are often a joint decision between the patient and their parents. When they disagree about what sort of treatment will be best, it’s wise to have these ‘discussions’ (or perhaps occasionally, arguments!) in the presence of a doctor. They’ll at least be able to give a professional evaluation of risks and benefits in a particular case.

People with acne are often told to just wait – “You’ll grow out of it”. This is certainly true eventually, although sometimes it only happens after many years of heartache and shattered confidence. Yet, one thing that you never grow out of is acne scars.  Fortunately there is now an enormous range of cosmetic treatments for acne scars, with a process to suit every type of scar and every skin type. Today we go through the full range of acne scar treatments, their suitability for different people and different marks. We’re looking at the range of acne scar treatments in order from the least effective (and usually cheapest and least risky), up to the more effective treatments with greater risks and side effects.

Microdermabrasion (Effectiveness: * )
Microdermabrasion is best used in conjunction with other therapies. It can be useful for acne, but is not particularly effective as an acne scar treatment.

At-home chemical peels (Effectiveness: ** )
Chemical peels, like microdermabrasion, are more effective against acne in its active stages than for remedying scarring. It is low cost but will need to be repeated often.

Medical-grade chemical peels (Effectiveness: *** )
Medical grade chemical peels can be very effective for low grade scarring. They may only need to be repeated once or twice, but they do carry some risk of scarring and the recovery time is far longer than at-home peels.

Dermal fillers (Effectiveness: *** )
Dermal fillers are a mid-range cost, very low risk treatment for deep acne scars. They will also substantially improve the look of an acne scar. However, they are temporary only – you’ll need to keep up the treatments every 6-9 months for the rest of your life.

Subcision (Effectiveness: *** )
Subcision is a great option for single deep scars, but cannot be performed across the whole face. You may need several treatments, but it has a low cost, mid-range recovery time and fairly low risk. 

Diode laser (Effectiveness: **** )
There is minimal downtime from this acne scar treatment, but multiple sessions will be needed to help fill in deep scars. The procedure carries very little risk, especially if you are treated in a professional clinic, as the scarred areas are targeted and surrounding skin is spared. Compared to other single-time procedures, diode lasers have a good chance to fill in acne scars with very little associated risk.

Fractional carbon dioxide lasers (Effectiveness: **** )
Fractional carbon dioxide lasers both ablate the surface of the skin (removing the top layers), as well as causing a mild heat injury to the tissue, which stimulates the formation of new collagen which fills in scras.

Skin needling (Effectiveness: *****)
This very effective acne scar treatment has a fairly substantial recovery time, but will show effective improvements for quite some time. The overall risk is quite low compared to the effectiveness of results. 

Fully ablative laser resurfacing (Effectiveness: ***** )
This is quite an effective treatment, but don’t let those 5 stars blind you to the major risks that are associated with fully abrading the top layers of your skin. It can also result in permanent scarring or loss of pigmentation in the skin that may look worse than the original scars. Only one acne scar treatment is needed, but it is expensive and you’ll need a fair bit of time off work to recover.