Lifestyle Choices You're Making That Cause Acne!

What exactly is acne?

Acne.

If that doesn’t send a shiver down your spine, I don’t know what will.

It is a completely un-phenomenal phenomenon that most people deal with in their teenage years and sometimes well into adulthood.

And for you people who have that superhuman DNA and have never had to deal with it; we will find you, and perform experiments on you in the name of skincare science.

On a serious note, we know acne is no joke! We come across so many cases of people who suffer with it, and we know from personal experience just how demoralizing it can be.

The thing with acne is that in some cases it can be unavoidable – it can be a hereditary issue, a skin type issue, or sprung on by hormonal changes in the body.

But that’s not always the case! A lot of the times acne is caused by very avoidable lifestyle choices we make.

So today, we’re going to go over a few of them that you might not have known about!

Eating too many high GI foods

The glycemic index (GI) measures how quickly the carbohydrates in different foods are broken down in the body. Having a diet that consists of too many high GI foods might cause acne. Some high GI foods include: white bread, white rice, breakfast cereals, watermelon, pineapple, potatoes and dried fruits such as dates and raisins!

Poor sleeping habits

Believe it or not, sleep deprivation is one of the three biggest triggers of acne. It’s all about your cortisol levels – when they’re too high our skin becomes inflamed, causing more oil production which then leads to clogged pores! Our cortisol levels significantly decrease during sleep, so get your beauty rest!

Dairy products

At this point we’re convinced the human race as a collective is probably all lactose intolerant to varying degrees – it just doesn’t seem to agree with us. The hormones that are present in cow’s milk can throw off our own hormones which often leads to acne – so if you really want to get rid of it you might have to cut down on the cheese, ice cream, and creamy pasta (sorry to be the bearer of bad news).

Not drinking enough water

Here is your daily reminder to drink your water! Drinking the proper amount of water each day regulates our body’s fluids and helps hydrate our skin. Skin that doesn’t get enough hydration can react by producing excessive amounts of oil which can directly cause pimples!

Stress

Stress is an inevitability in life, obviously. But as if there weren’t already enough reasons to learn to properly manage stress – here’s another one! When we’re stressed out our body released a hormone called CRH, this hormone binds to our skin’s glands and that binding can drive up our oil secretion and therefore cause acne! So, do some yoga, practice your breathing, smoke a joint, play with your kids (preferably not in that order) – whatever it takes, but let’s all just try and relax.

Your phone

Yes! That thing you type, tap and swipe on with your fingers all day long is dirty! Think about everything you touch in a day; all of that excess oil and dirt gets transferred from your fingers to your phone and then to your face when you make a phone call! Even if you don’t make a lot of phone calls, you’re still likely tapping on a dirty touchscreen all day and then eventually touching your face. So, to avoid that cellular device-related breakout, disinfect your phone a few times throughout the day!

Okay – so if you’re dealing with acne and you feel like you’ve tried all the serums, solutions, treatments, formulas, and potions under the sun and nothing has worked, it may be time to take a look at your lifestyle choices – your solution may be simpler than you thought!