The Connection Between Acne, Hormones, & Sebum

We previously touched based on some causes of acne. Hormones play a huge factor when it comes to acne. Progesterone is a steroid hormone that’s secreted by a structure called corpus luteum, a temporary endocrine gland that produces after ovulation and in the second half of the menstrual cycle. All genders have an amount of progesterone and the progesterone contains androgens. Androgens, in women, are converted into estrogen. When progesterone spikes, the androgens send messages to produce more sebum. Still with me?

In women who take birth control acne can also occur. This is because a combination birth control, like oral contraceptives, contain both estrogen and progestin (a synthetic form of progesterone.) When taking the birth control pill that contains these hormones the pilosabeacous unit and the sebaceous gland get the message that there’s more adrogens around so they make more sebum. Increased sebum is the first step in acne.

New information has surfaced that sebum made by individuals with acne has altered lipid ratios. One of the lipids or fats found in the sebum is called squalene. Squalene transforms into squalene peroxide after it’s exposed to air and becomes oxidized. Squalene peroxide is especially inflammatory. This increases the plugging of the pore. The inflammation is self-perpetuating once it gets started unless it’s interrupted by a treatment and/or treatment plan.

Another compound of human sebum is linoleic acid, which is an essential fatty acid. Linoleic acid is particularly significant to skin health, as it contributes to to the formation of ceramides which are essential for the structure and strength of the lipid barrier. I preach about the health of the lipid barrier pretty religiously! Linoleic acid must be provided in the diet, it’s essential for human health. People who are acne-prone tend to have a low percentage of linoleic acid and a high percentage of oleic acid.

Decreasing androgens is an important step in treating acne. There are botanicals that will be helpful with this. One of those botanicals is Green Tea Extract. Green Tea Extract contains some chemicals that are called catechins. One of those catechins is called EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate.) This chemical is a powerful and helpful antioxidant, it has many soothing and calming propertie, and has some anti-adrogenic activity. Tang Center for Herbal Medicine, The University of Chicago researched that this can be a useful treatment of acne.

There’s a pharmaceutical that has anti-adrogenic activity called Spironolactone. I don’t recommend this for most people because there’s a bevy of unpleasant side effects, notably menstrual irregularities, electrolyte imbalances, gynecomastia, dizziness, and nausea.

Decreasing sebum production is often challenging because it’s hormone driven. A lot of people use toners to attempt to remove sebum from the surface of the skin. Unfortunately, some toners give a false sense of security. Most toners contain a high amount of ethanol alcohol aka SD Alcohol 40. The toner almost instantly evaporates from the skin and a water loss process not a sebum loss begins. Here’s a quick visual to imagine, there’s two petri dishes on a counter, one contains an oil and the other contains water. You leave both the dishes out overnight, when you come back to the dishes the next day, which dish has evaporated into the air? Oil is not easily evaporated and water evaporates pretty quickly into the air. A lot of the time toners take water with them when they evaporate, your skin identifies this as drying, and then your skin creates more sebum production which then eventually makes acne worse. Overall, I find most toners to dry and damage the skin as opposed to decreasing sebum production. Next blog post will be about treating acne!

Photo by: Rochelle Brock

Model: Nazhaya Barcelona