I see many clients with skin issues. Although skin conditions are never the primary reasons why women seek nutritional counseling, hormonal acne often goes hand-in-hand with other types of hormonal troubles. If you struggle with hormonal acne and have tried all kinds of acne treatments with no real success, read on. You will find out the best natural ways to clear up your skin and say goodbye to your hormonal breakouts on your jawline, T-zone, shoulders and back.
Hormonal Acne Treatments & Trends
There is always a common theme among my clients when it comes to hormonal acne. They are hopeless. They have tried so many things and yet, have seen little to no improvement. They go from doctor to doctor and walk away with no safe and effective solution for their skin troubles. Sadly, even dermatologists don’t have a lot to offer to remedy the condition. The results seen with harsh topical retinoids and long courses of antibiotics are temporary and marginal at best.
Oral contraceptives are another one of doctors’ favorites to treat hormonal breakouts. While prescribing birth control has become widely accepted, going on the pill comes with serious risks, which most women are not even aware of.
Looking at the statistics, the picture is pretty grim. Puberty is not the only time when hormonal acne strikes. 45 percent of women between the ages of 21 and 30 years old are affected by the condition. (1). Whether you are a teenager, or a woman in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or even 50s, acne can take a drastic toll on your quality of life. Besides the obvious negative impact on your self-esteem, dealing with hormonal acne is an exhausting and frustrating process. The truth is, modern medicine has little to no REAL solutions to offer to remedy your hormone-related skin problems.
Do hormones cause acne?
Most people assume that because acne troubles typically begin at puberty, hormones are to blame for the misfortune. Menstruation and ovulation also seem to play a role in the timing of these flare-ups. Millions of women experience severe breakouts right around their periods. Is it a coincidence? Not at all. However, there is more to this story than pointing fingers at your hormonal fluctuations. Hormones are, by far, not the only pieces to the acne puzzle.
What causes acne?
When it comes to acne, several triggers seem to bring about those unsightly whiteheads. Take stress, for example. Have you ever noticed how your skin can change for the worst right after experiencing an emotional turmoil or a painful breakup? Like it’s not enough to piece your broken heart back together, now your skin is throwing a fit. The point is, hormones are not the only driving force behind your skin troubles. Here are some of the other factors known to exacerbate your issues:
- emotional stress
- poor diet
- food sensitivities
- lack of hydration
- toxic burden
- digestive issues
- long-term use of antibiotics
- use of birth control pills
To understand why these triggers so frequently lead to acne flare-ups, you have to understand two principles:
1. Nothing in the body occurs in isolation
Understand that everything in the body (and mind) is interconnected. For example, a poor diet does not only impact your digestion, but it has an immediate and long-term effect on your body. Poor diet sets the stage for nutritional deficiencies, brain fog, inflammation, lowered immune system, and more. The same thing applies to your stressful breakup. In response to stressful events, stress hormones flood your body. This rush of adrenaline and cortisol creates a trickle-down effect impacting all the different bodily systems, including your immune system.
2. Your immune system has everything to do with your hormonal acne
Research has proven that the four phases of your cycle have a drastic impact on your immune system (2). Ovulation and menstruation both put a strain on your body’s defenses, leaving you weakened and more susceptible to infections and increased inflammation. Do you have a chronic health condition, such as asthma or arthritis? If so, have you ever noticed your symptoms getting worse right around your period. The timing is not a coincidence. This weakening of your immune system explains the worsening of your symptoms. This same principle applies to acne, too, as flare-ups are more likely to occur around this time of the month. The bottomline is, your hormones do not cause your breakouts; Instead, the weakening of your immune system during the different phases of your cycle causes the breakouts.
How does acne form?
On the surface, the process is pretty straightforward. When sebum and dead skin cells accumulate inside the follicle, bacteria gets trapped. This increase in pathogenic load leads to an inflammation on the surface of the skin. Your skin’s immune system will do everything possible to push the bacteria out through the surface of the skin, which results in acne (3).
Do antibiotics work for acne?
Although it may seem that going after the trapped bacteria with antibiotics is a good idea, it is not at all the case. In short, using antibiotics to treat acne is another great mistake of modern medicine. Taking antibiotics for long periods of time is incredibly damaging to your immune system. Furthermore, the overuse of antibiotics has caused an immense amount of collateral damage, and it continues to do so today.
Your body is the home of trillions of microbes, bacteria, and fungi. All these pathogens live symbiotically together to maintain homeostasis. When this balance in your microflora is disturbed, your body activates its defenses to restore the harmony. What’s so wrong with antibiotics? They destroy good bacteria along with the “bad,” weakening your immune system and ultimately worsen acne problems. In addition, as a result of the massive overuse of antibiotics, antibiotic-resistance has now reached unprecedented levels, leading to the development of multi-drug resistant strains.
Natural solutions for hormonal acne
Now that you understand the driving forces behind your hormonal acne problem, let me give you five tips to clear up your skin naturally, without the use of toxic pharmaceutical concoctions. If you are serious about getting your glow back, go all in. If you feel that making these changes all at once is too difficult, take it one step at a time. Give yourself a timeline to incorporate all the tips for best results. Don’t be afraid to ask for support along the way.
Top 5 tips to clean up your hormonal acne naturally
1. Eat more greens
I am sure this is not the first time you hear that eating leafy greens provides a whole host of incredible health benefits. It is not enough, however, to know this information, neither it is to consume greens only once in a while.
Eating spinach, kale, chard, lettuce, and other varieties of leafy greens consistently can be an absolute game-changer for your skin.
Greens have medicinal qualities, and science has not even scratched the surface to understand how they exert their healing benefits. Leafy greens are known to fight bacteria, which is only one of the many compelling reasons why they should be on your menu every day if you are serious about clearing up your skin (4).
2. Add garlic to your salad
Instead of wasting your money on over-the-counter or prescription-strength anti-acne ointments, reach for garlic to purify your blood and cleanse your body from the inside out. Garlic has antimicrobial activity (5), which means it lowers the number of pathogens camping out in your body. Bacteria, such as Streptococcus, do play a role in acne formation, therefore, reducing their numbers is an important strategy to get your clear skin back (6)
It’s best to eat garlic raw and crushed. If you are not a fan of the taste or smell of raw, crushed garlic, sprinkle it on top of your salads, or throw it into a healing green smoothie or juice. It doesn’t matter which way you eat it, but be sure to get it into your body to benefit from its healing properties.
3. Clean up your diet
Cleaning up your diet is essential to getting your glow back. Eat plenty of greens, fruits, and vegetables while reducing your fat intake and staying away from oily fast foods.
Minimize animal products, such as chicken, pork, lamb, beef, and cooked dairy products in your diet. It is best to avoid these altogether while healing your skin.
4. Take your vitamins & herbs
Supporting your immune system is critical as you embark on your skin-healing journey. Zinc, vitamin C, and lemon balm are all excellent at giving your immune system a boost. Whether you take lemon balm in a tincture or drink it as a tea, be sure to incorporate it into your daily regimen. Chamomile, oregano, and peppermint are also powerful herbs with known antimicrobial properties.
Herbs can also be extremely beneficial to provide support to your hormones. Clary sage and Vitex (chaste berry) help rebalance your estrogen and progesterone levels, reduce PMS and menopause-related symptoms.
5. Reduce your stress
As I briefly touched on it above, stress is a real hormone disruptor. Chronic stress also suppresses your immune system, giving way to acne-causing bacteria to thrive and cause flare-ups. Even though scientists are not completely clear on how stress worsens acne, many women find themselves reaching for acne spot treatments at times of high stress. What is the connection between stress and acne? In response to stressful events, your adrenals release massive amounts of stress hormones to help you stay and deal with the situation or to give you the fuel to run away.
The sudden flood of stress hormones, such as cortisol, sends your skin’s oil glands into overdrive. This excess oil ends up mixing with dead skin and acne-causing bacteria, and you find yourself breaking out after stressful life events.
Besides causing massive hormone level fluctuations, stress also weakens your immune system (7). Opportunistic pathogens harbored deep within your body can take advantage of your body’s weakened defenses and make a run for it through the skin, leading to acne flare-ups.
While derm-approved topical treatments can be used at times of crisis, many of them have unwanted side effects, and they do not offer a permanent solution. Instead of this “bandaid” approach, work on improving the way you manage stress. Schedule time for yourself every day. Walk outside, take deep breaths, meditate, or do yoga. There are many effective ways to reduce your stress. No matter the method you choose, consistency is key to success. So be sure to stick with it.
The true solution for hormonal acne
As you can see, hormonal acne is a bit more complicated than a mere consequence of hormonal fluctuations. Strengthening your immune system, cleaning up your diet and reducing your stress should be your primary focus as you begin to clear up your skin naturally.
References:
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5300732/ Emerging Issues in Adult Female Acne, J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2017 Jan; 10(1): 37–46. Published online 2017 Jan 1.
(2) https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.08590 Alvergne A, Tabor VH. Is Female Health Cyclical? Evolutionary Perspectives on Menstruation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.08590. 2017 Apr 26
(3) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsi.2015.12.004 New insights into acne pathogenesis: Exploring the role of acne-associated microbial populations, Dermatologica Sinica, Volume 34, Issue 2, June 2016, Pages 67-73
(4) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.05.060 Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of leafy green vegetable extracts and their applications to meat product preservation, Food Control
Volume 29, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 112-120
(5) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4332239/ Antibacterial Effect of Garlic Aqueous Extract on Staphylococcus aureus in Hamburger, Jundishapur J Microbiol. 2014 Nov; 7(11): e13134. Published online 2014 Nov 1.
(6) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsi.2015.12.004 New insights into acne pathogenesis: Exploring the role of acne-associated microbial populations, Dermatologica Sinica, Volume 34, Issue 2, June 2016, Pages 67-73
(7) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4465119/ Current Directions in Stress and Human Immune Function, Curr Opin Psychol. 2015 Oct 1; 5: 13–17.