Factors That Causes Acne and Pimple Outbreaks
Once you know the factors, you can stop acne outbreaks or stop pimple outbreaks from happening again!
To understand the secret theory of acne, you’ll need to know some human biology.
Don’t worry about it. I will explain it to you briefly and in layman terms.
There are 2 hormones that are primarily responsible for the cause of pimple and acne outbreaks:
- Androgen (Testosterone)
- Cortisols
They are responsible for activating your skin sebaceous glands to secrete sebum (facial oil).
Therefore, if there are too much of these hormones, your skin sebaceous glands will go into a hyper-mode secreting way too much oil. This will increase the chances of your pores getting clogged.
In my opinion, Cortisols are scarier. Not only does it make your sebaceous glands produce more oil, it can also cause skin inflammation!
Here are some factors that are responsible for increasing Testosterones:
- Puberty
- Bodybuilding Supplements (like Creatine)
- Fertility Drugs (it doesn’t increase Testosterones but ‘restarts’ the Testosterones production system)
- Menstruation
Here are some factors that are responsible for increasing Cortisols:
- Stress
- Diet (will explain this more in detail later)
- Insufficient Sleep (it somehow increases Cortisols → lack of sleep → easily frustrated due to lack of sleep → stress)
Our body has appropriate level of hormones to protect our skin. Unfortunately, too much hormones aren’t good as it means our sebaceous glands will produce a lot of more sebum. Therefore, our pores can get clogged easily and that is how breakouts happen.
The red line represents the maximum appropriate level of hormones one should have.
If our hormones level were to exceed beyond the red line, there is an excess level of hormones in our body. Excess hormones will result our sebaceous glands to secrete sebum hyperactively – pores can get clogged easily, therefore breakouts occur easily.
Usually it’s a combination of causes that creates severe breakouts. Pimple breakouts don’t just happen; it needs to have a cause.
Perhaps you’re having an important exam a week later or so. You slept very little because you need to revise or cram the books; you do not have time for a proper diet; and you become very stress as time is getting shorter and shorter as days go by.
Phase 1:
Insufficient sleep makes you frustrated during the day and therefore you’re very prone to stress. And stress unleashes Cortisols, which makes your face oilier than before.
Phase 2:
Then you had an improper diet – you ate fast food or sugary stuffs as you study for your exams. Fast foods have unhealthy fats and toxins. Once ingested, the fats and toxins will aggravate your any existing acne.
When your body’s sugar levels rise to rapidly, your body will automatically secrete insulin, cortisol and other hormones to bring the sugar level down to appropriate levels.
Unfortunately, as you have read, cortisols are the ones responsible for our sebaceous glands’ sebum production and can also cause skin inflammation.
Since your hormones levels are near the limits, you might experience a very minor case of pimples. It could be one, two, or several of pimples.
The worst could happen is when you begin to put certain skin-care products on your face without knowing that they are comedogenic (clogs pores easily)!
Hitting the trigger:
Once it hits the trigger and goes over the limit, the breakout happens.
Phase 3:
Now as your study days gets shorter and you realize you’ve lost your beauty from the pimple breakouts, your stress becomes worst – more cortisol hormone builds up in your body, therefore your sebaceous glands produces even more sebum than before.
What happens?
MORE breakouts! And breakouts after breakouts will happen!
That is why males usually experience pimple or acne breakouts than females.
Because males have more testosterones than females, and we know that testosterones are responsible for activating our sebaceous glands to secrete sebum. And estrogens help to control the secretion of sebum. And of course, females usually have more estrogens than males.
Then there’s cortisol. Yikes!
So now do you get the picture? Pimple or Acne Breakouts can happen either by internal factors (i.e. excess hormones), external factors (i.e. using comedogenic products), or both!
Next Article: The Effective Acne and Pimple Treatment