This particular type of acne is tied to hormonal imbalances in teenagers and menstruating, peri menopausal and menopausal women.  It affects all ages from teens to 50 plus.

Teenage hormonal acne will usually appear across the forehead, chin and nose area whereas adult hormonal acne tends to develop in the lower face, around the jawline and chin area.  Hormonal acne shows up in the form of blackheads, whiteheads, pimples and cysts.

When acne suddenly appears in ages 30-50, the issue can be a hormone imbalance due to an influx of hormones from sources such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, pregnancy, endometriosis, menstruation, menopause, decreased estrogen and increased androgen levels.

Diet

You may be surprised to know that sugar plays a part.  The more sugar you consume in your diet will cause your glucose levels to spike which forces your pancreas to release more insulin.

Eventually the cells in your body will become resistant to insulin and your pancreas will struggle to keep up with the demand.  This then results in your bloodstream having excess sugar, which can cause spikes in your blood sugar.  This can make your body store sugar as excess fat.  This can cause your body to produce more androgen hormones.  For example testosterone which sometimes influences the development of follicles on the ovaries and can affect ovulation.  This can lead to irregular periods, acne, male pattern hair growth etc.

Our bodies are extremely complicated.  All I am doing is putting some thoughts out there to think about.

I have suffered adult acne, and I am aware how awful it can be.  Having a healthy balanced diet, lowering your alcohol and caffeine intake can help your skin.

Cortisol – stress hormone

Another major player in hormonal acne is the hormone cortisol.  Cortisol is our primary stress hormone, it increases the glucose in our bloodstream.  

If this hormone becomes imbalanced due to high periods of stress it can result in all matter of health issues, one of them being hormonal acne.

During stressful periods of time when your cortisol levels peak.  This leads to your sebaceous glands producing more sebum.  This results in skin becoming oily the pores will clog and become inflamed.  Of course, all of these can lead not only to acne but, other skin complaints such as eczema and psoriasis too.

It’s important to keep your stress levels under control for your skin and many other health reasons, this can be done by removing stressors,

During these stress related hormonal breakout periods your skins barrier function will become impaired.  It is really important to consider this when putting everything else into practice to remove your stressors.

LA Skincare’s Whipped Cream will help to repair you skins natural barrier function.

Our products are made with only natural ingredients, they will not enhance further hormone disruption due to synthetic, plastic and chemical additives.

What does each area of acne mean?

have you always wondered what it means when acne breakouts showing up on different parts of the face?

Let me help to identify the cause.

Forehead – Usually blackheads and whiteheads, will usually imply over active oil glands.

Cheeks – This doesn’t tell us much unfortunately, this could be hereditary.

Chin and Jawline – We would look at hormonal imbalances and fluctuations here in both males and females.

Hormones

Let’s look at causes for our hormones running riot.  The main hormones involved here are estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and cortisol.

If any of these are upset we will get a host of issues and one of them unfortunately can be hormonal acne.  So let’s take a look at just one reason that appears over and over again in hormone imbalanced induced acne, food particularly sugar.

The consumption of sugar and processed foods leads to elevated levels of insulin and provide a burst of inflammation through the whole of the body. These rapid spikes of insulin cause an increase in the production of oils within your skin. The types of food causing this issue, simple carbohydrates and processed food, typically white bread, white rice, fried food, ice cream, refined sugar etc are very quickly converted to glucose.

With regard to the skin, these spikes result in the body responding by producing androgen hormones.  These can make the acne breakouts worse.  This spike can cause the skin to look more aged as well.

The inflammation in the body now adds to the skins barrier function impairment.

Things to try

Hormones play a huge part in the balancing of our body.  To help rebalance hormones, I recommend eating good, clean food and using natural products.

Changing your diet and skin care routine to a more natural approach, reducing your stress levels, regularly exercising, good supplements and plenty of quality sleep will change not only your skin but your quality of life too.