Get to the Root Cause of Your Acne
Are you struggling to keep your skin clear? You may be trying all the skin care products, but you're not diving deep enough. There are numerous root causes to acne and some of them have to do with what's going on inside your body.
Your skin is a reflection of what is going on on the inside of your body
Looking deeper when dealing with acne is so important between hormones, your gut, stress, and diet, there are many different reasons as to why you could be dealing with acne.
What should you be looking at when dealing with acne?
Your Gut Flora
If you don’t have enough good bugs, if you have too many bad bugs, there will be more inflammation, injury to the barrier in your gut (leaky gut) and a higher drive to acne.
This puts you at risk for more food sensitivities and you would notice more acne popping up when you eat a specific food (like dairy).
Overgrowth of certain bugs like H.pylori or Candida albicans have been shown to cause more breakouts when overgrown in the digestive tract.
Other signs that you need to start looking at your gut will include bloating, constipation, heartburn, gas, diarrhea.
Whenever I work with clients who are struggling with break outs, I always make sure to address gut health. Your gut is a big driver of disease in the body. Having a poor microbiome, leaky gut, and high inflammation can worsen the skin and cause more acne.
Your Hormones
When hormones like testosterone and estrogen are too high or aren’t being properly detoxed, this can bring on more breakouts by increasing sebum (aka oil) in your pore. The pore ends up getting clogged, triggering breakouts.
With this type of acne, you’ll notice it more at specific times of your cycle like ovulation or your period and likely located on your chin or jawline.
Your blood sugar
High blood sugar and an irregular blood sugar pattern can be driving your acne. The high insulin activity will signal more androgen availability to the body, including the skin. Androgens are sex hormones like testosterone. Like we discussed in the above section, high testosterone will increase oil production in the skin (the sebum like above), this clogs your pores and brings on pesky breakouts.
Liver dysfunction
Your liver works to reduce the toxins in your body, create bile (helps to absorb nutrients & breakdown food). You can think of your liver like a bucket. Toxins that we come into contact with every day (medications, environmental toxins, alcohol) are going into the bucket. If the liver isn’t able to drain the bucket or it’s filling too quickly, the bucket is going to fill up and then over flow.
Nutritional deficiencies, drinking alcohol, chronic infections, dehydration, medications, and toxin exposure can all impact how your liver is detoxing, slowing down the process.
The liver will work to try to get these toxins out as fast as it can, but those toxins hanging out in the body will trigger inflammation and the acne can be your body’s way of expelling those toxins out of the body as fast as it can.
As a naturopathic doctor, I find that the cause of acne isn’t always something on the face, it’s usually deeper. Skin care alone isn’t going to be the saving grace to your acne. Addressing those specific root causes can be helpful to clear up and heal your skin.
If you’re dealing with acne and are looking for extra support to heal your skin, set up a free discovery call with me so we can discuss what may be triggering your breakouts and get you started on your healing journey.
