Stress Can Bring On Nasty Adult Acne

Published: September 10, 2009Posted in: Skin
Carrie
By
Carrie

So, stress causes adult acne so now you not only have to worry about wrin­kles but acne?   Aren’t you a bit old for acne?  Well, even Meagan Fox has bad acne some­times and she is 21.

Not really, it is a fact of life for peo­ple in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s get adult acne and it is equally frus­trat­ing.    What are the causes of adult acne?

  • Fluctuating hor­mones. Acne is typ­i­cally asso­ci­ated with the hor­monal swings of puberty, but any time hor­mones fluc­tu­ate, acne can flare such as the once-a-month break­out. Hormonal swings also occur dur­ing preg­nancy and menopause, caus­ing acne in some women.

  • Products used on hair and skin. Some prod­ucts such as oily sun­screens and hair greases pro­mote a type of acne called acne cos­met­ica. When buy­ing prod­ucts to be used on the skin or hair, look for ones labeled “non-comedogenic” or “non-acnegenic.” This means that they are less likely to cause acne.

  • Discontinuing birth con­trol pills. Some women get acne when they stop tak­ing birth con­trol pills. The pills may have been keep­ing their acne at bay.  We wrote about Yaz actu­ally help­ing with acne.

  • Stress. Studies indi­cate that stress may trig­ger acne in women. Researchers have found a rela­tion­ship between increased stress lev­els (pro­duc­tion of cor­ti­sol and CRH) higher lev­els of acne in women with fast-paced careers.   These hor­mones pro­duced by stress stim­u­late the oil glands and hair fol­li­cles in the skin. When over-stimulated such as dur­ing times of stress, acne can flare and acne is an inflam­ma­tory condition.

  • Family his­tory of acne. In one study, researchers found that 50% of the adults with acne had a first-degree rel­a­tive (par­ent, sib­ling, or child) who had acne. This sug­gests that some peo­ple may have a genetic pre­dis­po­si­tion to acne.

So worry about stress or wrin­kles can actu­ally start to give you acne.  Then wor­ry­ing about acne can give you wrin­kles.  The next time some­one stresses you at work, just shrug it off.  Think to your­self, don’t worry and that was free advice.   Ahh, where is my massage?