Love this ancient mapping of facial acne to trigger thoughts of how your internal environment may be displaying itself.
The reality is more than 90% of adolescents and up to 50% of adults now suffer with adult acne.
It’s become more common with a combination of stress, genetics, dietary and hormonal triggers.
In many cases, lifestyle, dietary and nutritional factors can have a HUGE impact on skin quality.
Acne is an inflammatory issue when hair follicles become clogged with shedding cells and sebum (oil) creates a beautiful little environment for a bacteria party (🎉) Sebum production is heavily controlled by hormones hence why acne typically appears during adolescence.
For those with adult acne, diet, lifestyle and the OCP impact your hormones and rebalancing can be foundational for healthy skin.
Additionally, the gut may be the source of your skin woe’s. The gut and the skin interact closely and can influence each other’s health. Research shows this when patients with gut conditions such as SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth) have been found 10 times at higher risk of acne 😱
Fortunately, simple dietary changes can influence your skin health.
1️⃣ Eating probiotic rich foods to balance your gut flora
2️⃣ Reduce highly sugary foods - sugar interacts closely with your hormones and the release of sebum from your cells. Reduce sugar to regulate this sebum release and stop that harmful bacteria party.
3️⃣ Reduce dairy - research shows reductions in dairy correlate directly with reductions in acne. Hormones in cows milk can interfere with bodily hormone balances.
4️⃣ Don’t over clean. Although there are some harmful bacteria on the skin, over cleansing also removes the good and can be counteractive to skin health. Cleansing with a gentle cleaner twice a day is a sufficient.
5️⃣ Reduce inflammation with a diet loaded with lots of colourful whole foods (yum!) This advice is general only in nature so for personalised advice about your acne, book into see your local nutritionist.
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