A study published in the “Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology” reveals some disturbing facts about acne. This study was made on women between the ages of 25 and 39, and it disclosed the fact that in 1979, 34 percent of women reported having acne and in 2000 that number had increased to 54 percent. An exact cause of acne is yet unknown, but it’s believed to be the result of more related factors. Contrary to what most people believe acne is not caused by dirt, because our pores cannot block from the top down. Pore blocking starts from deep within our skin and body. Also, we must bear in mind that frequent washing or over-washing doesn’t prevent acne from appearing, actually will make it worse.

Diet and acne

     This study has also established that diet has an important influence on acne. You may ask yourself: how is this possible? It is a well known fact that acne is hereditary. So if you have members in your family that had suffered from acne, you’ll better watch what you’re eating because certain foods can aggravate your acne while others can improve it. But if you’re among the lucky ones with “clean genes”, you should not worry much about your diet. In the last years more people are concerned about their diet and some changes occurred. Diet changes are now focused on foods with low-glycemic carbohydrates like: fruits, most meats, fish and vegetables. This has beneficial prospective in the treatment of acne because of the useful endocrine effects. Diets loaded in low-glycemic foods decrease testosterone and prevent rapid raise in blood sugar levels while improving insulin metabolism. These changes are promoting regular growth of skin cells and diminished sebum production, two of the major factors that contribute to acne development.
     When your diet is mainly consisting of high-glycemic carbohydrates, you should know that the insulin production in our body increases. The main motivation for this is that all we eat and drink, not counting plain water, is turned into sugar. This triggers an increased production of insulin in our body and the effect of this is insulin-produced hunger. And that leads to overeating. The food we ingest as a result of insulin overproduction is immediately turned into fat. Overeating is tightly correlated with developing acne, obesity, diabetes and also other diseases.

Insulin and overeating

     Similar to other hormones in our body, insulin has many essential functions. One of these is to help human cells in the process of taking up glucose from the blood and use it for energy. An existing theory about insulin says that from our diet, only carbohydrates stimulate insulin production. Of course this is not true because all foods that we ingest trigger an insulin response from our body. Another false theory is the one saying that insulin accumulates fat only when we eat high-glycemic foods. But the truth is that fat will be accumulated only if too much food is ingested, no matter the source or type of food.
     If the body receives a reduced amount of calories than it needs for the day, all those calories will be used for energy production. It is not important the source of those calories, if they came from fat, protein or carbohydrate. The opposite situation is when the body receives more calories than it burns, like in the case of overeating. In this case insulin will help to accumulate those additional calories as fat.
     The main conclusion would be that overeating carbohydrates encourages insulin production. Overproduction of insulin causes excess oil production. One odd fact was observed during some studies. Eating fat foods doesn't raise insulin levels but slows down the speed at which carbohydrates are absorbed into the bloodstream. This obstructs your body from quickly producing insulin, and at the same time you'll use accumulated body fat for energy.

Insulin and hormones

     Overeating causes excess insulin production that leads to storing fat and increased oil production. Excess insulin production also influences other hormones that in the end can cause excess oil to be produced in the skin, meaning bacteria that cause acne will increase. For example, high levels of testosterone stimulate enlargement of sebaceous glands of the skin, which will produce more oil, and block the pores. Another hormone, androgen, is a supplementary factor that causes acne. Both men and women have androgen hormones, but men have a lot more. Androgens act in two ways: they expand the sebaceous gland of the skin and also make these glands to raise oil production. The increased sebum leads to plugged pores which are the perfect medium for bacteria to develop.

Blocked pores cause acne

     The easy way to understand how the pores are blocked is to see how the whole process works. Pilosebaceous pores are more numerous on the face, upper neck and chest (the places where acne appears). They consist of a sebaceous gland connected to a canal that contains a fine hair. The sebaceous gland produces oil, called sebum, which is usually eliminated through the canal on the surface of the skin. Sometimes the sebum that fills the narrow canal is blocked because of a cap. This cap stops the sebum from getting on the surface of the skin through the pore. The combination of oil and cells formed in the pores allows bacteria, normally living in the skin, to grow in the blocked pores. The bacterium known as Propionibacterium acne is to blame for acne development. It also produces some substances that are the cause of inflammation and redness and also they make some enzymes which melt the sebum producing some irritating substances. This makes acne worse.

Overeating and diabetics

     Overeating is a problem also for diabetics. Eating to much food, no matter if it is or not high-glycemic food, will have as end result obesity. This is the origin of nearly all cases of diabetes. Diabetes is a disease caused by the pancreas’ small production of insulin or your body not being able to successfully use the produced insulin. An old advice for people with diabetes is to avoid carbohydrates. This is not a good advice, because the body needs the presence of carbohydrates to stimulate the production of insulin. Instead of keeping away from carbs, the diabetics should try to eat the right amounts of food that will help them maintain a healthy weight. The general practice is to alternate missing meals with overeating. This is not a good idea because it damages the process of producing insulin and finally causes the body to crash. Diabetics should instead have their meals at regular intervals and in rational quantities that the body can handle.
     We have seen that overeating causes acne. Many also say that acne is hereditary. So, a number of people might think they are of the hook because acne was not a problem in their families, meaning they can eat as much as they like and everything they like. This is no true. All people should be concerned of what and how much they are eating, not only to stay away from acne, but also to have a fit and healthy body.

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