Healing Hormonal Acne
“How do I balance my hormones and naturally?” “I can’t deal with my hormonal acne any longer! I am so stressed and depressed!”
I used to struggle with hormonal acne for a long time. I didn’t know at first that I had hormonal acne. I often felt so frustrated and depressed just by looking in the mirror at my face.
My hormonal acne took over my life. I didn’t have any desire to meet new people. All I wanted to do is to hide my face. Every time I would see a beautiful picture of someone with perfect skin, I would get even more depressed. My skin would never look like the picture online or in the magazine, or so I thought!
I would get even more discouraged and depressed. I was SO desperate and tried to do whatever it took to clear my skin. I spent a ridiculous amount of money to try to clear my acne. Nothing really worked.
Who wants to take the pictures when you feel so depressed and hate looking in the mirror?
Hormones play an essential role in your health. So, Let’s start with some of the symptoms and signs of imbalanced hormones:
Signs and Symptoms of Imbalanced Hormones
· Mood swings
· Premenstrual syndrome
· Painful periods
· Heavy bleeding
· Irregular or light bleeding
· Anxiety or depression
· Premenstrual food cravings (sugar and salt)
· Hair loss
· Fertility issues
· Hair loss
· Abnormal weight gain
· Sleep issues
· Fatigue
· Migraines and headaches
· Hormonal acne is often concentrated in the lower third of the face along the chin and jaw lines
Some of the health disorders associated with female hormonal imbalances are ovarian cysts and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). I definitely had some of the symptoms listed above. My biggest ones were mood swings, heavy bleeding, depression and painful periods. If you struggle with hormonal acne, it’s super important to get to the root issues of your hormonal imbalances.
You won’t see the results you want by just treating the symptoms.
Many health care providers prescribe oral contraceptives for treating hormonal acne. Oral contraceptives have numerous side effects and health risks. It’s important to learn about it and educate yourself.
My doctor in Ukraine recommended birth control for my acne. It didn’t help and it made it worse. I also had some serious side effects from it and I stopped taking it right away.
Proven Steps to Balance Your Hormones Naturally
Here are some proven steps for balancing your hormones naturally without dangerous side effects. The best part is when you balance your hormones naturally, you’ll be able to not just improve your skin, but your health, energy and so much more! The benefits are numerous.
· Address your stress and anxiety first
I usually include this one the last on my list. I decided to include it first. Stress is often a major contributor to imbalanced hormones. As it wreaks havoc on your hormones. It’s really hard to balance hormones if you don’t address stress and anxiety first. Psychological stress induces the production of proinflammatory cytokines (IFN-gamma, IL-6 and TNF-alfa)
Stress and anxiety have been the main contributors to hormonal acne for me. I spent many years worrying about the opinions of others often sacrificing my own well-being. I am also a hard worker and type A personality which are great qualities for achieving things in life. But the issue for me was taking these qualities to the extreme. I would work so hard and try to achieve so much that I would barely rest or take time to practice some self-care. It’s a great recipe for burnout. I had experienced burn out twice or three times in my life. At one point, I was so stressed, anxious and worn out that I felt depressed and hopeless. Nothing was bringing me joy anymore. I knew I had to change my life and start prioritizing my health and well-being or I was going to end up in the hospital or with some major health issues.
Beautiful soul, please don’t make my mistakes. Make sure you take the time to rest and do the things that make your soul sing. Life is too short!
Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.
Please don’t neglect your emotional health. Your body can handle it for a little bit, but at some point, it’s going to burn out causing many health and emotional issues. Your health is your greatest wealth. I encourage you to evaluate your life and see where you need to put your emotional health first. When you prioritize your health, your skin and hormones will improve.
Don’t believe every crazy thought you have!
· Anti-inflammatory diet
I heard this so many times that what you eat doesn’t matter and doesn’t affect your acne. If you hear it from someone, please run away. It’s very outdated information that totally ignores all the scientific discoveries and studies showing the health benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet for helping with acne and balancing hormones.
Some of the foods that contribute to increased inflammation, imbalanced hormones and more breakouts are high sugary and processed foods, fried foods, alcohol, conventional dairy, soy and corn and caffeine. When you eat foods high in sugar, it causes insulin spikes and blood sugar issues which leads to hormonal imbalances, abnormal weight gain and insulin resistance. If you have sugar cravings or get hangry, that’s often the symptoms of blood sugar imbalances.
An anti-inflammatory diet consists of low-glycemic foods, sustainably-raised animal foods and healthy fats to help you naturally balance your hormones.
· Caffeine
A quick note on caffeine, I love a cup of coffee! There is nothing wrong with coffee, but some people have certain genetic predispositions and mutations that make it harder for your body to clear/detox caffeine from your system.
If I have too much coffee, I get jittery, anxious and can’t fall asleep or relax. If you struggle with the same symptoms, it can be super helpful to decrease or eliminate your caffeine intake to help balance your hormones and improve your acne - as too much caffeine can lead to increased cortisol and also negatively affect your hormones. Listen to your body.
· Dairy ( I wrote a detailed post on dairy here)
Dairy is one of the biggest triggers of hormonal imbalances. Milk contains precursors to dihodrytestosterone (DHT) which stimulates an increase in insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). The highest concentration of this IGF-1 elevation was found in women with acne. One of the biggest systematic reviews (reviewed over 78,529 children and adults) found that any intake of dairy, milk, full-fat dairy, low-fat, skim milk, cheese and yogurt are associated with a higher rate of acne – any of it. There are a lot more research studies that came to the same conclusion.
For me personally, I noticed a great improvement in my skin when I eliminated all dairy foods from my diet. It wasn’t easy at first because I LOVE dairy and grew up eating it every day with every meal. But it was worth it because I noticed some amazing results.
· Decrease and avoid hormone-disrupting chemicals
Endocrine disruptors can lead to numerous health issues as they interfere with hormone production and affect our reproduction.
It’s impossible to avoid all chemicals in our environment and food, but decreasing them helps balance hormones naturally and prevent fertility issues down the road. Environmental Working Group (EWG) is an amazing online resource for determining the safety of many body, hair and cosmetic products.
What We Did to Decrease our Toxin Exposure
Here are some of the things my family did in the last few years to decrease the exposure to environmental toxins:
· Install a water filter and stop buying bottled water
· Switched from plastic to glass storage containers
· Use reusable silicone Stasher bags
· Use natural cleaning and body products
· Switched to natural and organic skin products (I’ll write a separate post on my favorite products)
· Use healthier cookware (My two favorite brands are Caraway and From Our Place) #Not Sponsored
· Going to an organic/natural hair and nail salon
· Regularly changing air filters
It’s often helpful to work with a functional medicine doctor or clinical nutritionist (like me) to identify the root issues of your hormonal imbalances. There are specialty hormonal testing that can help evaluate your levels of hormones and determine the underlying issues.
Supplements that Naturally Balance Female Hormones
Here are some helpful supplements that help naturally balance female hormones:
· A multivitamin supplement to help provide overall support
· Magnesium glycinate is very helpful to support healthy mood, sleep, muscle relaxation. It helps decrease muscle spasms and pain during painful periods. Magnesium citrate is great for constipation.
· Fish oil is a great supplement to support overall health as we don’t often consume enough high-quality seafood rich in healthy fats. Omega-3 fatty acids help lower inflammation and support a healthy heart. Make sure your fish oil contains both EPA and DHA.
· Vitex (Chaste Berry) its honestly one of my favorite supplements that I took before. It helps naturally balance hormones. My clients were able to get regular periods and clear their acne with this supplement. In addition, it also helps alleviate premenstrual syndrome symptoms. Many research studies found that women that took this supplement had improvements in their PMS symptoms, premenstrual headaches, nervousness, anxiety, depression and bloating. If you are struggling with getting pregnant, several studies showed that taking this supplement once a day for three months has improved fertility and some participants got pregnant during the trial.
· Vitamin D. I rarely see anyone with optimal levels of vitamin D. I live in the sunshine state and still see a lot of clients deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D is very important for our bones, but it also plays an important role in our immune health.
Do you have any signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalance?
References:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6360964/