Acne can be a devastating experience, affecting your appearance, your self-esteem and even your eye health. However, it’s a common condition that affects millions of people, and with the right care, treatment and lifestyle changes, you can significantly reduce or even rid yourself of acne.
To cure acne effectively, it’s important to understand it fully.
In this post, we will discuss:
Acne is an infection of your sebaceous glands. This can happen when excess sebum — an oily substance produced by these glands to lubricate your skin — blocks your hair follicles. This leads to inflammation and infection.
This is why you can experience:
A lesser-known link with acne, however, is its effects on your eye health.
Acne can cause a whole host of eye disorders and diseases. If you have acne and experience any of these symptoms, seek professional help immediately.
Symptoms: Redness, swelling, itching, burning and a sensation of a foreign body in the eye.
Causes: The exact link is not fully known, but it’s thought that acne on the face can lead to increased oil production, bacteria and subsequent infection of the eyelid area.
Symptoms: Inflamed and irritated eyes.
Causes: A rare condition caused by the spread of acne-causing bacteria to your eyes by touching your face with dirty hands or using contaminated makeup or contact lenses.
Symptoms: Itchiness, grittiness, redness, blurriness and sensitivity to light.
Causes: Hormonal changes that accompany acne can affect the meibomian glands in your eye. These glands secrete an oily substance called meibum that helps to lubricate the eyes and reduce tear evaporation. Studies have shown that high levels of androgen hormones can lead to the dysfunction of the meibomian glands, resulting in evaporative dry eye.
Symptoms: Weakness or paralysis of eye muscles, lid drooping, general weakness, difficulty swallowing.
Causes: a rare disorder that comes from a complication that can occur as a result of extreme scarring, and subsequent cyst and nodule formation, on the back of the neck and scalp.
Symptoms: Sudden onset, painful nodules on chest and back, fever, bleeding of ulcers, painful joints.
Causes: A rare but severe and life-threatening form of acne that can occur from untreated or severe cases. This can lead to scarring, disfigurement and vision loss.
To avoid these complications, you need to make sure that you manage your acne appropriately, and not let it go out of hand. In the majority of cases, it’s more than possible to get acne under control with a few changes to your lifestyle.
To understand exactly how to do this, however, it’s important to know what causes acne and why it keeps recurring.
Genetics are a major factor that are mostly out of your control. And lifestyle and hygiene play a massive role in determining the severity of your symptoms.
But the real source behind this recurring infection is a group of hormones called androgens — one of which is testosterone. In fact, studies have shown that individuals with acne have higher levels of androgens in their blood compared to those without acne. High amounts of androgens can cause enlargement of your sebaceous glands, leading to more sebum, which leads to more infection. This is why pimples appear during puberty — you have a shift of androgens in your teenage years.
This is an important concept to keep in mind as we discuss methods of managing and treating your acne.
Side note for people with atopic conditions:
Multiple studies have shown that people with conditions like dermatitis, eczema and asthma are at significantly higher risk of developing acne.
Data from a study of 7,569 patients found that people with asthma and allergic rhinitis had a higher incidence of acne vulgaris than those without these conditions.
Why? Possible mechanisms include increased inflammatory response in people with atopic conditions. Additionally, they may have an altered skin barrier, making them more susceptible to irritation and infection.
It’s also worth noting that people with atopic dermatitis are more prone to develop acne as they have a higher chance of having Staphylococcus aureus on the skin, which is a bacteria that plays a role in the development of acne.
There’s a protein in your liver, SHBG, that helps you bind oestrogen and testosterone. Low amounts of this protein releases locked up testosterone from the liver into your blood stream, increasing overall androgen levels. In fact, research has found that people with acne have low levels of SHBG.
So… what causes low levels of SHBG?
High insulin.
High insulin means high amounts of carbohydrates in your diet. And teenagers tend to consume lots of carbohydrates and sugars. In fact, the average person consumes the most carbohydrates at any point in their life during their teenage years.
So, an already high level of androgens coupled with an increased carbohydrate intake makes the teenage years a perfect storm for developing acne.
Other causes of low levels of SHBG protein include:
So now that we’ve determined the root cause of acne, we can discuss how to treat it.
But first, let’s discuss some habits that you need to stop right now before your acne gets out of hand — pimple-poppers pay close attention.
Here are some of the biggest no-nos when dealing with acne:
If you adopt these habits, you will see a noticeable difference in the size and severity of your pimples. Now, here are some common myths about acne that we need to bust.
With multifactorial diseases like acne, there can be a lot of misinformation. As there are dozens of exacerbating factors, one treatment strategy that provides relief for one person may not work at all for another.
Let’s debunk some of the most common misconceptions:
It’s important to be aware of misinformation as incorrect practices can exacerbate your acne and even lead to scarring.
With the correct lifestyle habits around acne, you can emerge from your acne phase with no lasting blemishes on your skin. Otherwise, you may recover from acne, but could end up with lifelong scars.
If acne breakouts become more severe — as they can with frequent pimple-popping and inappropriate hygiene — they can lead to the formation of deeper and more painful cysts and nodules. And when these break open, they can cause extreme damage to surrounding skin, leading to scarring.
There are two main types of acne scars: atrophic and hypertrophic.
Minimise sugar and carbohydrates in your diet so that your insulin levels can stay low. Replace these with foods that are high in protein and fibre. Additionally, stop snacking, as this can cause a spike in blood sugar levels and subsequent increase in insulin production. Intermittent fasting has also shown to be extremely beneficial in decreasing sebum and the severity and frequency of acne.
If you are struggling with a carbohydrate-restrictive diet or want to maximise the efficacy of your acne treatment strategy, consider adding one or all of these to your daily routine.
Save this free infographic to help yourself remember and incorporate these 4 remedies into your daily routine:
Remember, if you have any concerns about your eye health, big or small, our specialist eyecare team is here to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out for professional advice and guidance. It is always better to come in, even if you are unsure about whether you need help or not.
With over 20 years of experience treating the most complex cases, our expert team of clinicians will be able to detect any eye problems early on using our cutting-edge diagnostic equipment, and create a timely plan to ensure the best possible outcomes for your treatment.
Even after two decades of service and thousands of happy patients, we continue to treat every single patient as an individual, and personalise their treatment as such.
