Dairy and Acne

Does Milk Cause Acne? Dairy and Acne:

Everyone have heard it repeatedly : your diet does not trigger acne. However, there are a small number of doctors who believe that what we eat may certainly have an effect on our skin. And they're not pointing fingers at potato chips and chocolate, but rather at milk. That's correct, the healthful drink that we've often believed healthy is at the center of an acne controversy.

Scientist claim to have actually found a correlation between dairy consumption and the occurrence of acne.

It looks milk drinkers get more severe acne than non-milk drinkers. One research study, released in the May 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, examined the diets of teenage boys. The young men who consumed the most milk also had the tendency to have the worst acne.

This supports the results of earlier research studies, that girls whose diets were rich in dairy products had more serious acne than the rest.

Why would particular milk products trigger acne?

Of all dairy products, milk was the worst culprit. Chocolate milk, cottage cheese, and ice cream also had an adverse effect on the skin. However, other milk products really did not appear to trigger breakouts.

Surprisingly, skim milk caused breakouts more frequently than whole milk, therefore, it looks fat content in milk isn't the cause. And those individuals who took vitamin D supplements didn't get more breakouts, so vitamin D isn't really believed to be the cause either.

Many believe it's the hormones found in milk triggers acne. Milk consists of androgen hormones, that have long been related to the development of acne breakouts.

Testosterone is an androgen hormone, and it is highly associated with acne formation. It's frequently considered a male hormone, however, women produce testosterone as well, even though in smaller levels.

Why is Dairy Bad for Your Acne? - dairy and acne

Dairy products induces acne because of the following reasons:

• There is abundance of a hormone known as IGF-1 in milk, that is actually great for baby cows, but not for you. IGF-1 is a growth hormone. This makes baby cows develop big and strong, however, in humans, it has the tendency to make your acne grow big rather. IGF-1 is just one of several factors that result in inflammation in humans, and which gradually lead to acne.
  
• Dairy products result in an insulin increase in humans that induce the liver to generate a lot more IGF-1, resulting in a lot more acne.
  
• Dairy triggers your skin to make excess sebum (oil), this leads to more clogged pores, more acne, and a breeding place for P. acnes bacteria, that feed on your sebum and spread out inflammatory by-products.
  
• Dairy binds together dead skin cells inside your pores, therefore they can not exit naturally, resulting in clogged pores and thus more acne.

 The dairy and acne impact is very well documented in the literature. In the last ten years , several research studies have discovered a strong link between the intake of milk and increased incident of acne.

Generally there is still no hard evidence showing milk intake triggers, or aggravate, acne. Much more study is required before this concept can be confirmed. However, lowering milk consumption might be useful, particularly for those whose acne isn't really responding well to more conventional treatments.

Meanwhile, you can follow the advice that physicians have provided for years: avoid any foods that appear to aggravate your breakouts regardless of whether that be oranges, dairy products, pizza or chocolate.

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