Health Conditions : ACNE

Spotty skin is mainly considered to be a side effect of puberty, but there are a substantial number of adults – male and female, who also fall prone to this condition.

Although acne is considered to be a hormonal condition there are other factors such as liver function, bowel toxicity and diet that act as strong influences for skin health.

Hormonal Influences

Male and female acne is associated with high levels of testosterone. This triggers large amounts of sebum to be produced which shouldn’t really be a problem other than generating very oily skin. The problem occurs because the rise in testosterone also increases the pores production of keratin which binds with the sebum and actually blocks the pore. The result is an enlarged, swollen and inflamed pore, a typical symptom of acne.

These swollen blocked pores can also become infected due to bacteria and toxins normally present in the pore being unable to escape. This results in the formation of a pustule or boil like lump which can become so severe that the surrounding skin becomes damaged leaving scars and pitted skin.

Liver Toxicity

All the toxins that enter your body from an external source or those that are generated by natural daily cellular activities are passed to your liver to be deactivated, processed and eliminated from your body. Your liver has over 400 functions and its role in detoxification is one of its most important functions. If your body has an overwhelmingly high level of toxins then your liver pretty much has its work cut out. If it falls behind on this job then the body looks to other organs in which to get toxins out of the body as quickly as possible.

Two alternative routes of detoxification are the lungs or the skin. If you suffer from acne then there is a strong possibility that your liver has become a little overloaded, your body has become very toxic and your skin is showing the signs of this imbalance. You can start to take the weight off your liver by cleaning up your diet and lifestyle, drinking more water and taking regular sauna’s or steams which help to flush these toxins out of the skin.

Toxic bowel

One way to really overload your liver is to have a toxic or stagnant bowel. If you suffer from constipation then you are likely to be encouraging the putrification and stagnation of foods within your bowel. The longer you go without a bowel movement the more toxic your bowel becomes.

A good measure of bowel health is transit time, which is the amount of time that it takes for food to travel from the mouth, all the way through the digestive tract and for its waste products to be eliminated through a bowel movement.

You should be having 1-2 bowel movements a day, anything short of this and you are likely to be producing too many bowel toxins for your liver to handle.

The Candida connection

The tried and tested medical route for treating acne can be the contraceptive pill or long term courses of antibiotics. Many of our clients say that these medications really help them but when they take a break from their treatment their acne comes back with vengeance.

Both the pill and long term use of antibiotics create an imbalance in good bacteria or probiotics within the intestine. This is masked while you are taking the medications but once discontinued the imbalance become quite apparent. The result can often be an over growth of yeast within the gut called Candida. This yeast can trigger inflammation and irritation of the intestinal lining which leading to a whole host of digestive symptoms such as bloating, wind, bowel irregularity plus headaches, acne and sugar cravings.

Candida produces a number of bowel toxins which is why it is so quick to activate acne flare ups. Unfortunately many people choose to go straight back onto their medication which creates a vicious cycle. The good news is that Candida can be corrected though diet and natural anti-microbial supplementation.

To help identify the cause of your acne, various tests may prove useful

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