Pimple Causes

How much money have you spent to date trying to relive your face or other areas of your body from acne? When women experience breakouts during certain times of their menstrual cycle or teenagers are struck with little craters and bumps from forehead to chin it is typically blamed on hormones. Other times acne is blamed on poor hygiene or cursed genetics, but what if there was something else to it? What if there was a genuine connection between acne and stress?

While it is true that in many cases the causes of acne are in fact normal hormonal fluctuations and excess oil being produced by the glands under the skin. There can also be a variety of other causes that have nothing to do with stress. This fact in no way undermines recent research proving that there is a connection between acne and stress.

While it is hotly debated whether acne and stress have a genuine cause and effect relationship, most would agree today that stress can cause already existing acne conditions to worsen. People who are able to control and limit their acne conditions routinely find that they have worse flare ups that are more difficult to control when they are under a lot of stress in their daily life.

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Some people who do not typically suffer from acne have also reported that they have outbreaks when intense stress hits their life. This obviously points in the direction of a very clear connection between acne and stress.

The Stress and Hormone Connection

Two things happen inside the body when you are under intense stress:

1. Adrenal glands produce more norepinephrine, epinephrine and cortisol.

2. Adrenal cortex increases production of male hormones.

These happen to be the same hormones that are responsible for teenagers and pregnant women experiencing the oily skin and seemingly uncontrollable pimples of every shape, size and type. The excess hormones stimulate the sebaceous glands which are located right underneath the skin. These glands begin to put out excess oil which clogs the pores and causes the dreadful whiteheads and blackheads everyone hates.

Since stress stimulates the process of production excess hormones which leads to excess oil production, it is clear that there is a relationship between acne and stress. This is why stress can worsen existing acne conditions and create acne in people who have never previously had a problem with it.

The Stress and Food Connection

Another connection between acne and stress could be found in the way dietary habits change during periods of intense stress. People under a lot of stress typically indulge in more comfort foods which tend to be greasy and loaded with sugar. Since there is a clear connection between the foods that go into the body and the amount and type of acne that comes out of the body, it is very likely that stress could stimulate or worsen acne in this manner as well.

Stress Management = Acne Management?

Now that the connection between acne and stress has been explored and it is understood what happens inside the body to create that connection, it may seem like getting rid of acne is as simple as getting rid of the stress. There are two problems with this reasoning:

1. Completely relieving stress is incredibly hard and for many people is entirely impossible.

2. Since there are many other potential causes of acne, living a completely stress-free life wouldn’t necessarily eliminate all acne flare ups for all people.

What should be obvious here is that the connection between acne and stress is not always a connection of cause and effect. Many people suffer from acne regardless of the stress in their life and for them stress is just making the problem even worse. For some people relieving stress can relieve acne, but it doesn’t work that way for everyone.

What everyone can do is try to manage stress to ensure that it doesn’t intensify an acne condition being caused by other things. Doing this can bring great improvements in an acne condition and will make it a bit easier to manage.

Some methods proven to help relieve stress include:

Performing Pilates, yoga or other forms of exercise that engage the mind and body simultaneously on a regular basis.
Working out in any manner on a consistent basis.
Having someone safe to talk problems through with, rather than eating away your feelings.
Meditation.
Calming herbs.

If you suffer from acne and believe that stress may be a contributing or worsening factor, make a list of all sources of stress in you life and eliminate as many of them as you can outright. Use exercise, meditation and a healthy eating pattern to help with the remaining stress.

Acne Causes – What are They and Why You Need to Know

There are likely several factors coming into play that cause your acne. I know that’s frustrating – there’s no single cause to nullify to treat your acne. In a nutshell pimples are caused by one or all of the following: skin bacteria, stress, dieting, or even genetics; each one can play a major role.

What are pimples?

In a nutshell: Acne is simply a disorder that involves the skin’s hair, hair follicle, and sebaceous gland. These all come together to comprise one unit called; pilosebaceous unit. It’s the main reason you never see pimples on the palms, soles, or top of the feet and lips. All of these areas do not have a pilosebaceous unit. Okay, a little technical.

The true acne causes out there are when one of these units gets clogged and an overproduction of oil is present. This is known as sebum, which is necessary to moisturize your skin and hair. Unfortunately if more is made than the skin can handle it will help contribute to acne growth.

It’s also possible that the problem will occur due to abnormal flaking of the cells in the hair follicle. These acne causes revolve around the plug enlarging and eventually rupturing the hair follicle. Once the oil and dead cells are split into the skin it can create acne manifestations. It’s possible you will see redness and swelling.

Acne and Hormones

Pimple causes also revolve around hormones. You might have heard of androgen before, but if not it is the primary cause of acne in teenagers. What happens is it enlarges the sebaceous glands and causes an oil production increase. Any excess sebum then creates a plug that traps the dead cells. Consider it as food for the bacteria to thrive upon. When puberty begins you will see androgen levels surge, but they begin to subside by the age of 20.

Pimples and Bacteria

When bacteria lives on the skin is can contribute to propionibacterium acne. This is where the bacteria feeds on the sebum. Follicles will also be increasing during puberty, which can make the sebum production at its highest level. This in turn creates a chain of natural biological responses. The end result is acne.

Acne and Stress

Now, I know you’ve been told that stress is one of the major pimple causes out there today. Basically because it only aggravates the symptoms you seem to be dealing with every day. It could be something like a lack of sleep, a hectic lifestyle, work that is overly demanding, smoking, drugs, or a number of other issues. This occurs after the stress overworks our adrenal glands. The body gets overloaded with hormones (which includes androgen), which increases the production of sebum. Again, this will cause plugs and lead to clogged pores. When this happens you end up with whiteheads, inflammation, swelling, and tons of other appearances common with acne.

Acne and Food

Then of course you can’t forget about food. Even though the research continues, there is no complete diet that will alleviate acne causes. While this is true, someone telling you that fatty foods like peanuts or chocolate are 2 acne causes is simply a myth. The idea here is to eat the right foods your body needs and you will see a positive and preventable reaction. A great example of this is Omega-3 fats. Since this is considered an anti-inflammatory agent, it can help when the inflammation of acne occurs. It’s also important to understand that if you have the right diet you can eliminate your stress, which in turn will promote normal hormone production and alleviate the issues that encourage acne causes.

Acne and Genetic Factor

The last possibility to your acne causes could be simple genetics. The genetic cause is frustrating because what can you do about it? Fortunately, acne remedies can help even if genetics is the culprit.

My Causes of Acne video:

Acne and Stress – Make the Connection & Clear Your Face Naturally