Menopause-related acne
The symptoms of menopause can vary significantly from insomnia, extreme night sweats, hot flushes, irritability, mood swings, anxiety, headaches, achy joints, poor concentration and acne. Just when a woman is coming to terms with the natural aging process and her looks, she is sometimes plagued with acne. It seems that almost 10 percent of all menopausal women, pimples and blemishes are a real concern.
The degree of acne can vary from an occasional pimple to a face full of them. It is like the teenage years all over again. And the cause for acne in the teen years and during menopause are the same. Acne is typically caused by hormone swings, which are common at both these times of life. When acne comes with many of the other symptoms of menopause it is often difficult for women to deal with.
How do the hormone imbalances and swings result in acne? The skin has a number of sebaceous (oil) glands. These glands produce skin oil, called sebum. The cells in our skin are continually regenerating. Old ones die, and they are quickly replaced with new ones. When the body's hormones, including progesterone, oestrogen, DHEA, and testosterone, the sebaceous glands become sensitive and start producing more sebum than they need to. More skin cells begin to die. As a result, not only is there more facial oil than is needed, there are also more dead skin cells than needed. The body’s normal process for disposal of these dead cells cannot keep up and the hair follicles on the face get clogged with the oil and the dead cells. The sebum production increases again, and acne flairs up anew.
The white heads or pustules occur because all skin has bacteria that live off of the sebum. Then the sebum or oil builds up under the skin because there is an excess of oil production, the bacteria and the oil combine. This causes inflamed area to build up with white puss underneath. Blackheads also occur when the bacteria and oil combine under the skin, but with a blackhead, air leaks in. As a result, the material that is caught in the pore turns black. Menopause acne isn't entirely like all other acne, though. Both the sebaceous glands and the hair follicles on the face contain an enzyme. This particular enzyme is able to turn estrogen into androgen testosterone. This can cause more oil production than all other sources combine. This means more breakouts than in the teenage years.
Acne during menopause can be very concerning and frustrating. There are things you can do to lessen the occurrence. Firstly you can look at your diet and make sure you are eating foods that are high in calcium and fiber. You also need to reduce the amount of fat and carbohydrates in your diet as carbohydrates can take your body's insulin and turn it into androgens. As discussed before, androgen can increase the sebum production in the skin. It is also important to drink plenty of water – perhaps 8 – 10 glasses of water each day.
After looking at your diet and making corrections where necessary, you also can look at adding supplements to your diet. There are many vitamins, herbs and minerals that are widely available to help reduce oil production in your body. But the main cause as we saw is a hormone imbalance or hormone swings, so what is needed is something to modulate your hormones. Mannatech make an excellent product called PLUS. This phytogenins product is designed to promote general well-being. It is a formulation of dioscorea and essential glyconutrients. This product offers the ‘raw materials’ for a person’s body to manufacture the hormones (regulators and modulators) needed for a strong body and balanced emotions. Hormones regulate growth, energy metabolism, fat metabolism, bone and tissue integrity, body rhythms, sexual function and health, and our sense of well being directly linked to emotional health. This product helps modulate your hormones and so reduce the hormone imbalance and hormone swings which cause acne.
Diet and nutritional supplements can be supported by regularly cleaning your skin – at least twice each day. You should exfoliate on a regular basis, as this can help get rid of those dead skin cells. Also, be sure to use a toner to close up those open pores that are so famous for collecting the things that create acne.