Dealing with acne can make you feel self-conscious. This is especially true if you are beyond the age where acne is considered “normal” around puberty. Would it help to know that 85 percent of people between the ages of 12 and 24 have some acne? Would it also help to know that there are natural strategies to manage acne effectively without harsh drugs and birth control pills?
What Causes Acne?
In my opinion, there are root causes of acne and aggravating factors. In most cases of acne that I have treated naturally, there is a hormonal imbalance at the root of the problem. There are several reasons why this is not detected:
- Conventional acne treatment involves the use of drugs and birth control pills. Hormones are not usually tested before trying these options.
- If hormone testing is done, hormones are rarely tested thoroughly. The hormones that can contribute to acne include testosterone, DHEAs, dihydrotestosterone, prolactin, progesterone, and estradiol.
- The “normal range the lab supplies to your doctor to interpret your hormone test results is broad. This range only demonstrates an issue with your hormones when your results are extremely bad. Your hormones may be bad enough to cause acne but not yet bad enough to fall outside the lab ranges.
Aggravating Factors for Acne
While hormone imbalance is often the leading cause of acne, other factors will worsen it.
- Stress. Under stress, your immune system doesn’t function as well as it usually would when dealing with bacteria on your skin. The stress hormone cortisol increases under stress. This suppresses your immune system and increases your blood sugar and insulin. All of this can make acne worse.
- Food sensitivities. Certain foods can provoke your immune system. When they do, inflammation throughout your body will increase. Sensitivities are milder immune responses than a full-blown food allergy, like a peanut allergy. That type of food allergy is usually quite obvious. It happens immediately or very shortly after eating food and can be severe, even life-threatening. Dairy is a very common trigger food that makes acne worse.
- Greasy foods and sugar. These are the two categories of food that my patients most often report as problematic for their skin.
- Gut health issues. If you are also dealing with IBS symptoms, it may be that imbalances in gut bacteria are creating inflammation. This gut-derived inflammation is making your skin worse. Gut bacteria are also involved in maintaining healthy hormone balance.
How to Treat Acne Naturally
Given the above information, here are the steps that I will take with my acne patients:
- Comprehensive Hormone Testing. I can’t predict which tests are essential for you to do without seeing you as a patient and doing a full initial assessment. Hormone testing may not be helpful if you are already on birth control pills. They will alter the outcome of these tests. Here is the list of hormones that I would typically recommend:
- Day 3 of your period at 8-9 a.m: LH, FSH, estradiol, DHEAs, total testosterone, prolactin, TSH, free T3, free T4, 8-9 a.m. cortisol, vitamin D, DHT/dihydrotestosterone
- 7 days after ovulating: progesterone
- Once we have the hormone testing, I can develop a natural treatment plan tailored to you. Your plan will include dietary changes, lifestyle adjustments, stress management, vitamins, minerals, and herbs to correct what is out of balance. This process can take 3-12 months, depending on the extent of the imbalance. Continued healthy habits will maintain healthy, clear skin for the rest of your life without pharmaceuticals.
- The primary focus is to correct the hormone imbalance since that is the root cause of your acne. However, you can also investigate contributing factors like food sensitivities and gut dysbiosis through testing. Food sensitivity testing is looking in your blood for antibodies against food. This is a sign that your immune system is attacking the food. Stool testing determines whether imbalances in your gut bacteria are wreaking havoc with your skin. Conventional stool testing is very cursory. It mainly looks for gut bacteria infections that may be life-threatening, such as Salmonella and Shigella. My functional medicine labs will also check stool samples for these and bacteria or yeast overgrowth that may provoke inflammation in your skin.
Get Help
You don’t have to try to figure all this out alone. I’ve helped people with acne for more than 25 years. My system works to not only improve your skin but improve your overall hormonal balance as well. The rewards for putting in the work mean better mental health, enhanced fertility, clearer skin, more beautiful hair and nails, and better long-term health.
If you are within the province of Ontario, Canada, I can provide one-on-one advice. All you need to do is schedule an appointment. Your employee benefits will usually cover the cost of visits with me. If you are outside the province of Ontario, I cannot provide treatment advice specific to you. You can, however, access general information about some of my treatment strategies by purchasing my PCOS ebook here.