What Causes Acne?

We all know that excessive sebum, blocked pores and p. acnes bacteria 'cause' acne.

But did you ever stop and ask why these things happen? You weren't born with pores full or sebum and bacteria. Everything was fine when you were a kid.

So what happened?

Let's look at the cause of acne beyond what derms told you. Because we can track a clear cause and effect relationship between certain imbalances and acne.

Let's look at the 'big picture' first.

The two big evils that lead to acne are:

• Blood sugar problems (caused by insulin resistance)
• Chronic, low-intensity inflammation (sometimes also called silent inflammation)

I dubbed them as 'Acne Engine' because together they 'pump' hormones that lead to:

• Increased sebum production
• Faster shedding of skin cells and skin cells sticking together after shedding (=more and bigger lumps of dead skin cells to block skin pores)
• Overgrowth of p. acnes bacteria because of weakened immune system
• Inflamed (red and painful) pimples because of stronger inflammatory response

Insulin resistance and chronic, low-intensity inflammation go hand in hand. They are like two sides of the same coin. They reinforce each other and create a vicious cycle where insulin resistance increases inflammation which further increases insulin resistance and so on.

To get clear you need to break this cycle. Luckily it's simple. These are lifestyle related conditions and respond well to lifestyle corrections.

Before we get there let me quickly show you the hormonal reactions that lead to acne.

The red line shows what happens to your blood sugar levels when you are insulin resistant (or eat high GI foods). The green line shows a healthier blood sugar response.

After eating high GI (glycemic index) foods your blood sugar levels increase rapidly. The pancreas responds by releasing insulin. Insulin resistance (we'll get to this later) makes insulin less effective. So the pancreas has to release more insulin to compensate. This overshoot eventually causes the blood sugar levels to crash. They drop too much.

Too low blood sugar levels cause another emergency response.

The adrenalin glands release androgens and cortisol. These hormones trigger the release of glucose (blood sugar) from the liver. Cortisol is also a stress hormone. Further, low blood sugar levels trigger cravings for foods high in sugar and fat.

Insulin also affects other hormones. Here we are interested of two: insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and insulin like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3). As insulin goes up so does IGF-1 whereas IGFBP-3 levels drop.

Here's why that's important:

• Insulin, IGF-1 and androgens all increase sebum production
• Insulin and IGF-1 and growth hormones. They cause your skin cells to divide faster (not to mention they increase the growth of cancer cells also and lead to premature aging).
• IGFBP-3 helps the skin cells to separate after they die.

Here's what we have so far:

• More sebum
• More dead skin cells
• Skin cells sticking together after they die (= bigger lumps of dead skin cells in skin pores)

If that's not a recipe for acne then I don't know what is.

Since insulin resistance starts the whole damn thing let's look at it briefly.

You weren't born with insulin resistance. It happens over time and is a direct result of unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

Initially insulin resistance is caused by:

• Eating too much fat (typical Western diet)
• Eating too many calories (regardless of the source)
• Toxins, chemicals and other pollutants that generate free radicals and cause oxidative stress

When you eat too much fat it goes into your bloodstream. Fat in the blood stream makes it more difficult for insulin to 'escort' glucose into the cells. Strike one.

When you eat more calories than you need your liver converts the extra calories into fat (also called triglycerides). So we are back at the point number one. Strike two.

Anything that creates oxidative stress leads to inflammatory response and increases insulin resistance. It has now been proven that inflammation is perhaps the biggest reason behind diabetes, metabolic syndrome and other diseases linked to insulin resistance.

For example see this:

Type 2 Diabetes: Inflammation, Not Obesity, Cause Of Insulin Resistance

Common inflammatory substances:

• Chemicals and additives in processed foods (basically any food that comes from factory increases inflammation)
• Sugars (candy and soda anyone)
• Air and water pollution
• Alcohol, caffeine, smoking

Recognize anything you did as a kid? That's strike three.

As you strike out often enough (this takes years to develop) this cycle starts to feed itself. Your cells are resistant to insulin, your inflammatory hormones are elevated, your body is full of toxins.

Let's look at the other side of the coin: inflammation.

Inflammation begins the healing process, so you need it. But too much of a good thing makes it sour. Inflammation was meant to be acute; meaning it starts quickly after an injury and then fades out.

With our modern diets and lifestyles we keep 'injuring' ourselves all the time. We just don't know it, because it happens below our pain threshold. Eating wrong foods, toxins, chemicals, pollution, stress and so on causes 'oxidative stress'. If you've heard free radicals, then you already know the bad guys.

Oxidative stress causes damage at the cellular level. Free radicals damage cells. After oxidative stress the immune system triggers inflammation which begins the healing process.

As this happens day in, day out, all over the body inflammation becomes chronic. This taxes the immune system and gives the acne causing bacteria a chance to grow out of control.

Further you have inflammatory hormones in your blood all the time. So when your immune system attacks the bacteria in blocked skin pores the inflammatory response gets out of control. This turns otherwise small and 'harmless' pimples into big, red and painful cysts.

For more detailed explanation of this, how and why this process happens and, most importantly, what you need to do to stop the vicious cycle and get your skin back, please see the lessons 1 and 2 of my free minicourse Acne 101: What Einstein would have done to get clear. For details see the end of the article.

There you have it. In simple English how insulin resistance and inflammation cause acne.

This is important, so please sit tight and hold on to your hat.

There is no simple and easy solution to this. There is no single cause that leads to insulin resistance and/or inflammation.

Blood sugar control and the immune system are among the most vital processes in the body. If either of them fails you will die quickly. They affect, and are affected by, almost every other process in the body. You cannot fix these with pills, creams or lotions. Unfortunately it's not that simple.

They are a result of a wrong lifestyle and can only be corrected by lifestyle changes.

I know it's a bitter pill to swallow, but it's what you need to do if you want permanently clear skin.

Further, if left unchecked, these may lead to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular problems (such as heart attack) and every other chronic disease. Consider acne as your early warning signal and be grateful for it.

Now you know what causes acne. This also sheds some light why nothing has worked before.

But this is just the beginning of your 'clear skin education'. Consider this the first step, because there's so much more you need to know and understand before you can get clear.

That's where my free Clear Skin Tips Newsletter comes to rescue. It contains the critical information you need to permanently cure acne.

Do you know the feeling/moment when you don't understand something, but then someone explains it to you from a different point of view, and all of sudden it makes perfect sense?

• Experience that 'Aha moment' about acne and how to cure it?
• Clearly explains why you have acne; why nothing has worked and how to permanently cure acne.

For more information go here:

http://www.clear-for-life.com