I’m sure everyone who visits my blog knows that I’m a long-term sufferer of spots. I’m 28 and have had moderate to severe acne breakouts for longer than I can remember. There have been many products that have helped (there’s an “acne” tag in the cloud to the right if you’re interested in reading more), some that have even reduced my spot-prone skin to occasional breakouts, but I’ve yet to conquer the disease completely.
I’m currently undergoing a Jan Marin skincare review which is thankfully going really well. I won’t go into details about it here as it deserves its own post but what I will say is that I’m still getting spots (albeit fewer and less angry ones) and I’m still devoting the majority of my morning application to covering them up and trying to look less spotty.
The term “hormonal acne” is touted about all the time. I’ve certainly said it on here plenty of times as to me it states that I have acne due to a hormonal imbalance, yet I’ve never really thought about it further than that. However, recently I’ve been researching the impact of hormones on skin and found out a few things that I thought would be of interest to share with my lovely readers. I also met with Ole Henriksen – a former acne sufferer and serious skincare guru – who I had a long discussion with regarding the impacts of a high-sugar diet on skin.
Obviously, the word “hormonal” when discussing skin tends to refer to the idea that something is happening to your hormones to send your skin out of whack and make it produce more sebum and lose it’s ability to regulate oil production. A hormonal issue certainly could mean that you have something going on with your hormones – a good example of this is when us girls are menstruating and our hormones fly about all over the place – but it could mean that you’re unintentionally causing an hormonal imbalance by eating and drinking things that impact your hormones. Whilst we’re all different and there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to dealing with our hormones, two strong ingredients kept popping up as being real hormone aggravators: Dairy and Sugar.
Sadly, I love both dairy and sugar but I can understand why they both create issues. Both these ingredients cause hormonal spikes (that freak your body out and make it do stuff it doesn’t need to – like produce more sebum) and both are now clinically proven to increase breakouts. Dairy makes our body produce more testosterone and sugar creates spikes in our insulin; neither of these results make for a happy body and instead result in fluctuating hormones that in turn often result in acne.
By keeping to a low sugar diet and keeping our glycemic levels low, the results are calmer hormones and calmer skin. I’m starting to come to the conclusion that I can throw the absolute best skincare in the world at my face by the bucket load (and thanks to my blog I’m regularly getting that opportunity) but if I don’t at least make a fairly decent effort to regulate my hormones then nothing is going to stick. I know that not all of my spots are hormonal and that a lot of it is down to my genes and my skin itself, but I think that with the right skincare and a little less dairy and sugar, I have a far better chance of conquering it once and for all.
Therefore I’m currently investigating suitable sugar alternatives that don’t cause insulin spikes and I’d also like to try and wean myself off dairy. I’m not going to be unrealistic about it as I love yoghurts, cream, cheese and the rest, but I’m certainly going to be more conscious about what foods I eat and consider the impact they might have on my skin.
you could try stevia/truvia, i’ve red that doesn’t cause spikes also almond milk is yummy!
I’ve got some of that Stevia stuff; it tastes a bit odd but I’m going to try and persevere. Definitely loving the sound of the almond milk though, thanks! xx
I recently wrote a post about dairy being linked to my acne too. Well, it was more of a rant that anything about my GP.
I definitely noticed an improvement in my skin since I cut dairy out. It’s not complete fail proof though. Obviously there are a lot of other factors that affect hormones. Stress also being a big factor.
I’ve been under a lot of stress over the last 12 months or so (which I won’t bore you with the details) but basically my skin has been topsy turvy the whole time. The last week I’ve seen massive improvements though. I’m still off the dairy (100% off only seems to work for me) but I’ve also been making a conscious effect to stress less. Listening to self hypnosis tracks and forcing myself to step back from any situations for a few minutes that would normally stress me out. Obviously the Face The World massage yesterday helped out a lot too!
Anyway since I’ve been stressing about my skin less (and life in general), it does appear to be helping.
I have also simplified my skincare regime (again) and using a salicylic acid wash and moisturiser, which seems to be helping clear up some blocked pores which would have lead to more acne flare ups.
Although as mentioned my skin is really topsy turvy, so I’m not kidding myself that the acne won’t be back at some point. I’m not out the woods just yet!
Hope you get sorted soon hun xx
So sorry to hear you’ve been under a lot of stress; really hope it’s eased up a bit now 🙁 Have you tried Transcendental Meditation? I get really bad stress acne and it did amazing things for it; the problem I have now is finding time for it as I’m seriously pushed; you need 20 minutes twice a day and I really struggled with that. If you think you can make the time then seriously look into it as it’s amazing for stress.
Really glad to hear things have started clearing up and I’ll check out your post about dairy xx
It has been found that diary acne causes hormonal acne. The post is giving details about it
The post is giving infromation about hormonal acne and dairy acne. Read to know more
It has been reported that hormonal acne dairy sugar causes acne. Good post
I had really bad hormonal acne, and I’m dairy intolerant so my diet is completely dairy free. I have had acne for longer than I care to remember, I’m now 37, recently I came across an article on retinal (vitamin a) used for anti age and the girl suggested by accident it helped her acne. I started using la Roche posey redermic r and it’s been working fantastically give it a go
I have horrendously dry skin and Retinol can add to that, so I have to tread carefully. I’d love to go dairy free but I don’t think I can handle a life without milk and cheese, so well done to you as I would really struggle!