Acne – A Disease of the West?
Acne…and you thought it would be over in highschool!
In fact acne in adults is on the rise. I’m seeing many more people who “never had acne” suddenly have acne as an adult. But why is it “A Disease of Western Civilization?!”
In their paper, “Acne Vulgaris” Lorian Cordian, PhD, Staffan Lindeberg, MD, PhD, and Magdalena Hurtado, PhD, found essentially NO ACNE in non-western populations. Their conclusion? Lifestyle is an enormous influence on this skin condition.
Our lifestyle, exposures, and stressors are epic in comparison to what our bodies want or had in simpler days…..and these new variables turn on all the mechanisms and pathways involved in making this issue more prevalent.
But our conventional wisdom has not changed its approach to acne management. And yet, people STILL struggle with acne even with the best dermatologists on board. Why?
1. Food: inflammatory foods generally, and foods that might be inflammatory for YOU will drive acne production. You need an individualized food plan.
2. Stress: There are not enough medications to whip this beast into shape. You need an integrated approach for handling stressors and their effect on your body.
3. Hormones: as stress increases, your adrenal hormone changes. And remember those sex hormones that made puberty (and acne!) so much fun? Welcome back to that struggle!
4. Gastrointestinal imbalances: If you think of your skin as an expression of your internal health — your GI tract is the first place to assess. Both the presence of pathogens that create inflammation *and* the inflammation in the gut resulting from foods that are not serving you can show up as unhappiness on your face.
Acne is a multifactorial condition and deserves a multi-pronged, holistic approach.
About DCIM
The team at District Center for Integrative Medicine specializes in helping patients get to the root cause of their conditions. If you’re looking for 1-on-1 help from naturopathic doctors who care, request a free consultation today!
