The Top 5 Causes of Acne

Naturopathic Beauties, welcome. I’m Dr. Stacey Shillington, Naturopathic Doctor, acne expert, and I want to go over the root causes of acne with you. So if you’re suffering from acne, I totally get it because I was totally there and acne really changed my personality and changed the way that I related to the world. Honestly, before I had acne, I was self-confident, I was successful. When acne hit and it was bad. It really devastated myself confidence. I didn’t want to go to work anymore. I didn’t want to see my friends. I basically just wanted to curl up in a ball until my acne healed.

Well, curling up in a ball is definitely not going to get rid of your acne. What will get rid of your acne though for good is balancing your body from the inside out. It’s really truly the only way to get rid of your acne for good. And while you do that, you are also going to get rid of other health issues that are probably not making you feel so great. That’s the amazing side effect of healing your acne from the inside out.

So I’ve worked with thousands of patients since 2006 as a Naturopathic Physician. So I really, really, truly understand the root causes of acne. I understand the biochemistry, I understand the pathogenesis and I am able to help you heal your acne. There’s always a reason for acne, which means there’s always a solution. So what are the reasons for acne? Typically there’s five. And the first one is always inflammation. Inflammation starts in the gut. Research has shown that… Especially in the last 10 years, there’s been a lot of research connecting the health of the microbiome to the health of the skin. And that makes a lot of sense because the microbiome exists in the gut and on the skin. If your microbiome in your gut is healthy, chances are the microbiome on your skin is going to be happy. So healing the gut is so important for healing acne. So an unhappy gut, an unhealthy microbiome, that’s one of the biggest root causes of acne out there.

Another huge root cause is insulin dysregulation. What is that? Most people don’t even know what that is, but when your blood sugar is dysregulated, often your insulin becomes dysregulated as well. When’s your insulin is dysregulated, it accumulates in the blood and high blood insulin leads to high androgens and high androgens are the hormones that lead to acne. So balancing blood sugar and insulin levels is a huge, huge way to solve acne and dysregulated insulin is one of the root causes of acne. And you know, that is so prevalent in so many parts of our community and our society because we eat so much sugar. So getting rid of sugar is really a great way to balance your insulin levels. There’s a lot of other ways as well, which you know, as a naturopathic doctor I teach and I heal. So I can take you definitely a step further but that’s a good place to start.

Another root cause of acne is in a efficient detoxification. Often patients with acne have genetic polymorphisms which do not allow their bodies to detoxify optimally. And this is especially a problem in this day and age because we’re exposed to so many toxins on a consistent basis. So naturopathic doctors, we are so good at helping the body detoxify and clean itself out. And as part of my protocol to get rid of acne, we detoxify. Gently not too harsh, but it’s such an important part of getting clear skin.

All right. The fourth really, really underlying important root cause of acne is stress. And we often don’t consider stress as much as say we consider our diet as a cause of acne. But when the stress response is stimulating in the body, there are three different biochemical pathways that lead directly to acne in susceptible individuals. That means stress is a huge underlying cause of acne. And it’s also a vicious cycle because when you get acne, you feel stress. When you feel stressed, you get more acne. When you get more [happy 00:04:59], you feel right. You see what I’m saying? So there’s a vicious cycle that’s going on that really needs to be halted so that we can clear up the acne. So learning how to manage stress and also increasing physical and mental resilience to stress are very, very important. Because we’re always going to be exposed to stress, right?

And then healing the adrenal glands, which are the little glands that sit on top of your kidney, they’re responsible for releasing stress hormones. If you’ve been under chronic stress for a long period of time, your adrenals are going to be tired. So you need to know how to heal your adrenals properly.

Okay. The fifth root cause of acne, and this is something that people focus on ad nauseum, I have to say. Is poor skincare. Using harsh skincare and over exfoliating damages the moisture barrier and leaves us more vulnerable to acne. Now, you know, we’ve been conditioned to believe that skin care will fix our skin. That is not true. Skincare will help, you know, improve the health of our skin. But how can he comes from within. Acne comes from imbalanced hormones. It comes from insulin dysregulation from an inflamed gut, from stress. And skincare is not going to solve that. A very, very simple skincare routine is necessary to heal the moisture barrier, to prevent dryness. But beyond that, you know, you should not be using harsh products on your skin at all. It’s going to make it worse.

So those are the five root causes of acne. I have a program, my seven week clear skin program. It’s incredibly affordable because I want as many women as possible to have access to this information. It teaches you step by step how to address the root causes of acne simply and safely. It teaches you the clear skin diet, how to eat, when to eat, how to regulate your insulin levels. How detoxify. How to apply various simple skincare. It teaches you everything you need to know to get clear skin. So check out my clear skin program if you have acne because we do not have time for acne anymore, right? Like when I had acne, I experienced how traumatic it was physically, mentally, and emotionally. And we do not need to live like that because there’s always, always a solution to acne.

So I hope this video has helped you understand the root causes of acne, what’s really going on. And why you need to heal your body from the inside out to get lasting results. Medications are not the solution. They give temporary results. When you go off the birth control pill off, spironolactone, off antibiotics acne is going to come back worse than ever before. And even Accutane is not a final solution because many times women do [around 00:08:15] an Accutane and their acne will come back. In order to truly get rid of your acne for good, you need to heal your body from the inside out. And side effect of doing that is other symptoms often clear up. Periods become regular, PMS diminishes significantly if not completely headaches go away, digestive disturbances go away, energy increases. It’s all positive. It’s all for a good cause.

So I don’t want you to suffer with acne anymore. It is my mission to help women clear their acne, free themselves of this burden. It’s something that we’ve been suffering with way too long because it’s solvable. All right, so check on my seven week clear skin program. I’m here to help you on your clear skin journey. Reach out to me if you have any questions at all. Follow me on Instagram. Follow me, subscribe to me on YouTube. Please, let’s get this message out there. Let’s stop suffering with acne. It’s unnecessary. There is a solution and I am here to help you, so have a wonderful day. Thank you.