Adult Acne Causes
Just when you thought acne was a thing of your teenage past, you begin to see the telltale signs of whiteheads, blackheads and pimples on your face. The next thing you know, acne is written all over your face like an advertisement for oily skin gone wrong. Such is the unpredictability of acne that many will outgrow it while many others probably never will be free from the skin disorder.
But why is this so, you will ask – what are the main adult acne causes? The answer is not as simple as we wish it to be, unfortunately, as even medical science has yet to identify the exact causes of acne in both young and mature individuals. But we do know that acne is a process that starts when sebum clogs the skin’s pores, which then become the breeding ground for bacteria (P. acnes) from which an inflamed pimple is born.
Adult Acne Causes
Adult Acne and the Causes
Many risk factors contribute to the overproduction of sebum in the skin. Your case of acne may be due to one or more of these adult acne causes, the identification of which makes for more effective treatment approaches.
Heredity
Acne can be passed on from your parents and then on to your children, thus, making the skin condition hereditary in nature. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that you will have acne if one of your parents has the skin condition but you are more likely to suffer from it. Even when you managed to escape the scourge of acne as a teenager, your adult skin may be unable to do so.
Hormonal Imbalances
You will observe that acne breakouts happen during hormonal changes in the body. In women, these happen during puberty, pregnancy, menstrual periods and menopause while men experience hormonal changes during puberty. To be more specific, the hormones released during said changes are called androgens, which are secreted by the adrenal glands as well as the ovaries in women and the testes in men.
In turn, androgens stimulate the sebaceous glands to increase sebum production. Your skin then becomes oilier and, hence, more prone to the development of whiteheads, blackheads and pimples. When left untreated, these comedones can become cysts and nodules – the worst kind of acne possible.
The other side of hormonal imbalances is that women may be at greater risk for adult acne but men are not immune to the skin condition. In fact, men can suffer from adult acne longer than women mainly because of their higher levels of testosterone.
Other Adult Acne Causes
Cosmetics Use
Men and women nowadays use cosmetics, makeup and other skin care products obviously for the purpose of maintaining healthy, flawless and fair skin. But many of these products contain ingredients that can actually trigger acne in sensitive individuals. Or it may be that these products are oil-based instead of being water-based, which leads to either blocked skin pores or impacted hair follicles.
We suggest using non-comedogenic, hypoallergenic and water-based skin care products to lessen your likelihood for developing acne. Of course, you must always remove makeup at every possible opportunity especially before going to bed at night.
Medications and Medical Conditions
And then there are certain medications and medical conditions that trigger acne. These medications include steroids used in bodybuilding for men as well as oral contraceptives and hormonal replacement therapies for women. If you observe that your acne breakouts seem to occur during the use of these medications, talk to your doctor so that changes can be made to the dosage and other components of the treatment protocol.
Of course, we cannot overemphasize the role of lifestyle in the development of acne. If your diet is unhealthy, your exercise program is non-existent and your stress is sky-high, you are more likely to see acne breakouts than if you adopted a healthy lifestyle consisting of a healthy diet, a daily exercise program, and effective stress management, thereby reducing all the adult acne causes.
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