So, What's The Real Cause Acne?
Acne. The word is said like a curse and for many of us, it sure does seem like one.
You may be thinking, “Why do I have to suffer from acne when it seems like everyone else around me has clear skin?” Well, let me ask you this: Do you have a lot of emotional issues? How is your digestion? And, do you experience frequent blood sugar fluctuations? Does the word "hangry" mean anything to you?
If you answered yes to these questions, then there is a high chance that your acne stems from those things.
How Negative and Lingering Emotions Lead to The Cause of Acne
Let’s face it, everyone has problems. Even those people you may think lead perfect lives have them, but if you are a grudge holder, highly empathetic, worrisome, alarmist, or just a dweller, you are wreaking havoc on your system. If you let negative emotions take over your thought processes, you’ll find that you become tense and stress very easily. You’ll also start breaking out as a result.
These stressful emotions, whether they are fear, anger, contempt, or jealousy can trigger your adrenals to produce a lot of cortisol. This stress hormone can really bring down your immunity when it hangs out in your body for too long. Have you ever noticed that you catch a cold much easier when you’re stressed? That’s because cortisol is an immune-suppressant! It also leads to blood sugar fluctuations like hypoglycemia (too little sugar in the blood) and hyperglycemia (too much sugar in the blood. This is why kids are called “hyper” when they eat too many sugary treats). Cortisol can also interfere with a healthy sleep cycle and can even over-burden your adrenals.
Cortisol will also impair digestion. If you have ever tried to eat when you’re stressed out you’re basically eating with ill intent whether you realize it or not. Emotions are very closely related to the efficacy of digesting food. When you eat a meal while dwelling on hurtful memories or just stressful stuff in general, you’ll find that your food doesn’t digest nearly as well compared to eating when you are stress-free and happy. Try to eat calmly and with reverence.
Are Emotions Causing Your Acne?
What Does This Have to do With The Cause of Acne?
Well, I firmly believe that all disease starts in the colon. If your intestines are in poor health, so are you! Our bodies are intricately woven systems that wholly depend on each other to work efficiently, and our digestive system is the key to vibrant health. If it’s in less than healthy condition, your cells can’t receive the proper ratio of nutrients, and pretty soon your body will begin to react to inflammatory responses.
Sometimes this inflammation can cause tiny holes to form in your intestinal lining which allows food particles into your bloodstream. That’s when all kind of not so fun things start to happen like chronic fatigue, acne, and frequent colds.
When your stomach can’t digest food properly from stress and negative emotions, it affects your colon, liver, kidneys, and gallbladder. All of which help control the cortisol and sugars in your blood, digest fats, and help regulate your hormones. When these systems begin to degrade, your immunity becomes impaired and your lymphatic system becomes sluggish, leaving you feeling anything but vibrant and healthy. And since your skin is the body’s largest organ, it’s going to be heavily affected as well.
Why Topical Treatments Don’t Fix the Problem
When all of our ill emotions start adding up, it’s going to prove to be very difficult to treat acne with pharmaceuticals and topical treatments. You have to treat the reasons WHY you’re getting stressed in the first place.
Using benzoyl peroxide creams and salicylic acid cleansers and spot treatments aren’t going to solve the problem because they only treat acne from the surface. Pretty soon, you need to keep using stronger and stronger topical creams as your body forces itself to be heard. Does that benzoyl peroxide cream say on the label that it treats poor digestion? Nope. That’s up to you to fix.
Why You Need to Love Your Liver
On top of digestive issues caused by emotional stress, your liver can often attribute to the issue.
When our digestive system is impaired the liver becomes overburdened. In its struggle to stay on top of metabolizing, cleansing, and filtering it misses excess hormones and allows them to recirculate into the bloodstream. This often causes estrogen dominant acne breakouts that can happen in both men and women. Without supporting the liver with the proper herbs, supplements, and cleansing protocol, the liver will likely not be able to revert back to a clear state without some serious lifestyle changes.
Toxins and hormones and negative emotions can all contribute to a sluggish liver, so eating healthy with a calm and clear mind is incredibly important. Try to eat with reverence and purpose, drink plenty of clean water, and stop slathering on the toxic chemicals found in conventional body care products.
Support your liver:
How to Detox your Liver for the New Year with Herbs!
Can You Balance Hormones with Carrots? + a Recipe!
Liver Cleanse Recipe and How to do a Liver Flush
The Silver Lining
You CAN heal. Your body is intelligent and knows exactly how to repair and heal itself without the use of drugs and creams. You just have to let it.
Take a step back and analyze the situation. What types of foods are you eating? Are you drinking enough water? Are you dwelling on negative emotions? Are you unhappy with your job?
You can change all of these things for the better and your body will thank you for it!
I used to think that I was stuck with the job I used to have because I was an assistant manager and that I had a “responsibility” to the company. I was SO unhappy that my hair was falling out at an alarming rate and my skin reflected my poor health. I would wake up feeling like I didn’t sleep at all and feel completely drained and weakened to the point of having trouble getting out of bed in the morning. I was dwelling on negative emotions constantly and developed systemic candida in the process.
But guess what? I quit that job for the sake of my own mental and physical health. Now I’m way happier and have much clearer skin since I've been working on my health and happiness and making it a priority.
I’m not saying that you need to go quit your job. I’m just saying that you can make the choice to be happier. You can do ANYTHING if you set your mind to it.
So, instead of lamenting over the huge pimple you developed because of stress and unhappiness, you might find that the real cause of acne lies in ending hurtful relationships, getting away from people who bring you down, quitting your job for a better one (even if the pay is less), or just letting go of negative emotions will really improve your acne and overall well-being in the long run.
Good Luck! And much Love!
For more acne related articles look below:
Homemade Drying Lotion for Acne
Homemade Serum for Acne Prone Skin
The Best Fruit Enzymes for Clogged Pores
Green Tea Tree Face Mask
Hemp Seed Oil- The New Holy Grail Acne Treatment?
3 Steps to Improve your Female Hormonal Acne – Anyone Can do It!
Vicky says
Wow everything I just read sounded like me I have googled and pinned you name it looking for answers and although I knew why I'm suffering it sometimes takes just one late night read to make you see and understand and hopefully change things, thank you for sharing.
xx
Tash says
You're very welcome Vicky 🙂 Best of luck!
Ali says
This is me! The past year has been an emotional roller coaster ride for me and my skin is a mess of hormonal breakouts. I have tried every topical treatment from all natural raw honey to the expensive stuff with no avail. So, now I am taking a deeper look. Thank you so much for your post. It is comforting to know that I am not the only one.
xo Ali
Tash says
You're very welcome Ali! I'm glad you found it helpful!