Hormones and Other Conditions Responsible for Acne Formation

You might have seen that your friend is following no dietary restrictions and consuming glycemic and processed foods (one of the causes of acne) and yet enjoys smooth skin while you are prone to acne even after making efforts to follow the restrictions. Although the reasons for this are not yet fully known but they are supposed to hereditary factors and several other factors mentioned below.

• Use of anabolic steroids that are the synthetic steroid hormones used to stimulate muscle and bone growth.
• Use of that medication that comprise of androgens (male sex hormones), lithium and barbiturates (a type of sedative drug).
• Vulnerability to certain chemical compounds that lead to toxic exposure to dioxins (hydrocarbons which occur as impurities).
• Vulnerability to halogens. Acne caused due to exposure to halogens is referred as halogen acne.
• Chronic use of drugs like pep pills.
• Hormones like testosterone, DHT, DHEAS, insulin (IGF-I) are also linked to formation of acne.

Formation of acne in later ages is quite uncommon. True acne in adult women may feature in particular conditions like pregnancy and disorders such as polycystic ovary syndrome. Acne may also occur at the period of menopause in females as production of the natural anti-acne ovarian hormone fails at that time. The lack of estradiol (anti acne ovarian hormone) also causes thinning hair, hot flashes, thin skin, wrinkles, vaginal dryness as well as severe acne.

How to Measure the Severity of Your Acne?

Some of you may have doubled your worries because you might have mistaken your mild acne or simple bumps as a problem of severe acne. You need to know here that worrying about anything will take your stress level high and high stress levels further propagate the formulation of acne. So, it would be wise that you get the affected skin diagnosed before making out any conclusion.

Its diagnosis is very simple; you just visit a dermatologist, he will observe the bump or lesion and may press it a bit to get an idea of its severity. You can also diagnose it by yourself. If you notice a small cyst or a rounded lesion, then it’s severe. Other than this, there are various grading scales available in the market to check the severity of acne. Three of these are mentioned below.

1. Leeds acne grading technique: It counts and then categories the lesions into two groups – inflammatory lesions and non-inflammatory lesions. It ranges from 0 to10.
2. Cook’s acne grading scale: It makes use of the pictures to grade the severity of the lesion. It ranges from 0 to 8.
3. Pillsbury scale: It is a very simple scale that just classifies the severity of the acne from 1 (least severe) to 4 (most severe).