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Some StrongLifts.com Forum members reported break outs since getting into strength training. They asked if increased testosterone can cause acne. Worth a post. Here’s how to get rid of acne, forever.
Why Do You Get Acne? When skin oil clogs your hair follicles, bacterias multiply. You then get white or blackheads. Plugs can rupture, inflaming the surrounding tissues. Several things can cause excess skin oil:
- Change in Hormones. Puberty, stress, menstrual periods, birth control pills, and yes weight lifting can increase the production of skin oil.
- Drugs. Corticosteroids and androgens. But also anabolic steroids. Check the back of someone using steroids: you’ll always find acne.
- Cosmetics. Hypoallergenic means nothing. Products claiming to get you clear skin often aggravate your problems.
- Diet. Milk, cheese, whey, starches, shellfish, chocolate, sugars, sweets, soda, spicy & fried foods, …
- Digestion. If your digestive system can’t clear toxins, your skin will be forced to do the job. Constipation or loose stool are symptoms.
Strength Training & Acne. If you have acne break outs since starting strength training, they’re usually caused by 2 things:
- Change in Hormones. Weight lifting increases your testosterone levels. This can increase the production of skin oil, causing acne.
- Change in Diet. Whey, cheese, milk, oats, breads, … are staples of lifters’ diet. Eating more of these foods can also cause acne.
How to Get Rid of Acne. There’s clearly a link between weight lifting and acne. You can’t do much about it. However you can control acne by improving your diet, digestion and much more. Some ideas:
- Eat Healthier. Anything that you didn’t prepare yourself or that comes out of a box: stop eating it. Buy whole foods and prepare them yourself.
- Drink Water. 1 US gallon/4 liter per day. That’s 2 cups with every meal, assuming you eat 6 meals per day. This will help your digestion.
- Get Fiber. Green veggies, fruits, oats, brown rice, whole grain pasta, flax seeds, … You need 25g fiber/daily for a healthy digestive system.
- De-stress. You get enough stress from weight lifting. De-stress in other areas. Fix problems instead of caring and worrying.
- Take Zinc. Zinc is the most important skin nutrients. But most people have zinc deficiency. Take a zinc supplement, at least 30mg per day.
- Eat Fish. Reduces inflammation, including skin inflammation. Eat fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, … Or take a fish oil supplement.
- Quit Using Cosmetics. Most aren’t helping anyway. Look into natural skin treatment. Natural jojoba oil with tea tree extract could help.
- Get a Better Shave. Move to wet shaving using quality products like Musgo Real. Or trim for a while. Or grow a beard.
- Tan. Tanning gets rid of many skin conditions. Sun is life, check plants. Get some sun exposure. No burning, tanning.
Medication. Accutane, benzoyl peroxide, erythromycin, … They can get rid of acne, but they also have side-effects. Heavy medication will stress your liver. For the majority of people, simply fixing your diet will get rid of acne.
Think of it: 100 years ago, there weren’t the kind of acne’s you see to day. The increased consumption of junk food is to blame. Treat causes, not symptoms. Get your diet in check before looking into drugs.
Cleansing Diet. Remove anything that causes food sensitiveness: dairy, oats, breads, shellfish, nuts, soy, … Reintroduce foods 1 by 1 after 2 weeks. This cleansing diet is adapted from “Healing Skin Disorders”
- Breakfast: rice porridge
- Snack: sweet potato, rice cakes
- Lunch: fish, steamed vegetables rice
- Snack: yam, rice cakes
- Dinner: chicken breast, spinach, quinoa
- Lots of water, flax seeds, fish oil
Allow me to add washing your sheets and pillowcases in hot water every week. Not only did it completely eradicate my lifelong allergies, but it cleared up my face significantly. Never had lifter’s acne though.
I’ll also add that some guys should get used to washing their face twice a day with a non-comedogenic/non-sodium lauryl sulfate face wash (which are cheap). I don’t know if that counts as a cosmetic to you. Meds and fancy products ARE a joke.
I wouldn’t recommend tea tree. Copied from PubMed:
“Prepubertal gynecomastia linked to lavender and tea tree oils.”
“Most cases of male prepubertal gynecomastia are classified as idiopathic. We investigated possible causes of gynecomastia in three prepubertal boys who were otherwise healthy and had normal serum concentrations of endogenous steroids. In all three boys, gynecomastia coincided with the topical application of products that contained lavender and tea tree oils. Gynecomastia resolved in each patient shortly after the use of products containing these oils was discontinued. Furthermore, studies in human cell lines indicated that the two oils had estrogenic and antiandrogenic activities. We conclude that repeated topical exposure to lavender and tea tree oils probably caused prepubertal gynecomastia in these boys.”
In may cases, such as my own, having suffered acne from about age 16 to now, far more rarely at age 30) it seems like the traditional view that it is about too much sebum (oil) production isn’t exactly the problem.
What seems to cause the oil glans to become clogged is inflammation, and some things that seem to contribute to this are:
- stress
- high glycemic index carbohydrates (I seem to recall the explanation is that when you eat these, insulin levels spike, and as a result, you get high cortisol levels, directly leading to more inflamation.) Through experimentation, I learned that I basically just can’t have beer anymore, unless I want to get acne.
- irritating things applied to the skin (Sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate detergents are a big one — I only use Johnson&Johnson’s baby shampoo now, which seems to have far gentler detergents in it.)
While the diet-acne correlation is supposedly still up in debate, from personal experience I have certainly noticed that improving my diet significantly improves my skin.
I remember reading somewhere that caffeine causes acne (for some). Too impatient for scientific validation, I experimented on myself. I eliminated caffeine (which I’ve consumed for years) and my skin has cleared up nicely. Eliminating caffeine has reduced acne by around 75%. Acne products handle the rest.
While these suggestions are good and may help some with their acne, it will do absolutely nothing for others. The headline for this article is a very misleading as there is absolutely no universal cure for acne.
It should also be noted that repeated tanning can cause skin damage, skin cancer, melanoma, premature aging, and can actually exacerbate your acne. I don’t think tanning is good advice for treating acne.
There we go again.
@Blaz86
That study has been disputed several times. First of the 3 individuals, only 1 used tea trea. 2nd, both essential oils exhibit weak estrogenic and antiandrogenic properties in vitro (no tests have been done in vivo). 3rd, the oils weren’t isolated, the 3 boys were using other products too. Study is flawed, results flawed. Read this
@Eric
We’re not talking about repeated tanning, we’re talking about sun exposure. Sun exposure is good, burning is bad.
Drink Water. 1 US gallon/4 liter per day. That’s 2 cups with every meal, assuming you eat 6 days per week. This will help your digestion.
I think you meant 6 times per day, right? Sorry for being a smartass
Ok, I just wanted to clarify because the article said “tanning”. Tanning is bad for your skin, and it’s actually evidence of your skin being damaged. Nothing healthy about that. Repeated or once in a while, it doesn’t matter. Tanning = bad. Sun burn = worse. If you stayed out long enough to get a tan, you stayed out too long and that will definitely NOT help with acne. The brown may camouflage it for a little while, but it will probably worsen after your skin heals.
Limited sun exposure = good.
Vitamin D primarily.
Aside from food-related solutions:
Wash hair, wash your arms, your face, your face sides including ears before sleeping. You need to do this just in case you place your arms over your forehead. It also keeps your pillow clean.
Freakiest picture ever.
I eat very healthy diet consisting of nothing processed. My diet is basically 50% fats (mostly nut, milk and organic meat, poultry and fish) , 40% protein (at least 194 grams a day since I weigh 194 lbs), and 10% carbs (I am obviously trying to get from 15% bf to 11%). I drink 150 oz of water a day too. Yet I have acne. I wouldn’t call it severe acne, but at 35 I would have thought I would have none. I know the milk might casuse flare ups, but I stopped eating dairy for a few months and noticed nothing. I am really wondering what would stop this pain in the ass acne, I even have some backne that I freaking HATE!
” Drink Water. 1 US gallon/4 liter per day. That’s 2 cups with every meal, assuming you eat 6 meals per day. This will help your digestion. ”
I read somewhere that drinking water with your meal does not help your digestion because it thins out your gastric juices. (or stomac juice, don’t know how to translate it)
It’s better to drink it a bit later.
It’s also useful to drink a lot of water before and after your sleep.
I could be wrong.
Excellent article. This is a problem that many men deal with and most of it is simply because we don’t know any better. Changes in diet and relieving stress are two of the best ways to help your body and clear up acne.
Also, wash your face in the morning and before bed with a face wash. This can help remove a lot of bad oils from your face that would otherwise be there for a long duration and can cause breakouts.
BraiNEateR - Have you seen a dermatologist? With acne that persistent, it may help you a great deal.
The biggest reason acne breakouts occur when you start lifting is because of sweating, and inadequate facial cleansing post workout, which means using a foam cleanser that cleans and dries up your skin, and then applying some sort of moisturizer. Diet is huge factor as well. Can’t believe you didn’t mention sweat and hygiene though.
Very good points all. I know what you mean about the sun-exposure. Not tanning, but just getting your skin outside for a bit. - it works for me. I always find that after activity-holidays when i have been forced to eat a healthy diet (because i’m cooked for) and been outside the whole time, my skin clears up beautifully. The second i come back to my inside-all-the-time junk-food dominated life, my skin gets bad again. You’d think i’d learn! Thanks for the nudge, i think i am going to write a list of things to prioritise from this and get started.
I have the actual cure for acne–if you are willing to take some pain. A dermatologist may even advise against this cure. I am not a medical professional, and you may want to consult a dermatologist for similar options before attempting this procedure.
I had severe acne as a teenager. I tried everything that you have ever heard of to treat it, including getting sun, which can actually worsen acne for some. Any change can cause a flare up. As a result, I got sick of it. Here’s what I did.
I washed my face with very warm water several times a day and I scrubbed it well. Needless to say, after a few days of this, my face was chapped. It was almost raw and, yes, it was a little painful. However, I performed this procedure once and once only and I never had acne again. Sure, I had the occasional ingrown beard hair or random zit, but I never again had a face covered with acne as I had before. I also do not have any scarring, as some might assume to be the case. You must remove the built up dead skin. This is actually why getting some sun sometimes helps. It burns off the very top layer of skin.
That said, I would recommend an over-the-counter facial peel or an exfoliating cream over physically scrubbing your face off. I would also be more patient than I was and remove a little at a time over a longer period of time. Make sure that you have something to soothe the skin as well, and do not use anything on your face which may cause a burning sensation. Also, be careful around thin skin areas such as the nose. Do this once and you will have removed years of excess dead skin buildup. For the back and body, a loofah sponge or similar will not only remove this dead skin and cure “backne,” but it will also smooth out scars over time.
For anyone who has beard and mustache problems, never shave against the lay of the hair. Yes, you’ll get a closer shave going against the lay of the hair, but you will also shave off part of the hair follicle. Shave with the lay of the hair and it will still be a fairly close shave. Also, use cold water rather than warm water. This will close the pores and stiffen the hairs at the same time. That goes for you women and your legs as well. Those angry-looking, little red faces are trying to tell you something. I don’t think anyone wants to see that at the beach either. I know I don’t.
I hope this helps someone as much as it helped me. Just be careful if you try it.
hi there, thanks to problogger for reviewing this site… This is the best Health blog! I subscribed to your feeds
These are some great tips! I had acne as a teenager, like most of us probably did. I found acne returned some as I approached 30 and I felt like a darn teenager again (well, not completely like a teenager again). Wondering if ZMA would satisfy the zinc requirement.
(reply to John)
scrubbing your face with a loofah (I’m assuming you scrubbed your face with a loofah as you didn’t really specify) as intensely as you describe for a few days, you’d have to end up with scars or why else would dermatologists advise against scratching and popping out pimples/zits?
I am thinking about trying this especially on my back/chest as it has gotten severely worse but am worried about scarring issues. Would I have to apply a soothing lotion to my back/chest as well?
thanks
Manuka Honey Oil - There is a type that comes from New Zealand that is nature’s strongest antibacterial. I have used it to clear up troublesome skin I have had for 10 years, not chronic acne but enough to be annoynig at 26. By applying oil to your skin your body will stop producing so much of it’s own stopping excessive sebum build ups, and the oil you are applying is antibacterial so it clears up what’s there and stops other infections from forming. It’s pretty expensive but you only need to use a couple of drops a day. I recomend Living Nature Brand as there are a lot of immitations that are in fact Manuka Honey Oil but do not contain the active ingredient, the name of which I can’t remember. LIke everything it probably won’t work for everyone but it has worked so well for me and everyone I have reccomended it too I really can’t say enough about it.
nomercy89,
Sorry if I was unclear. Do not use a loofah on your face. That probably would cause scarring–or the total removal of your face. I mentioned the loofah for the “backne” issue. That skin is much thicker and tougher than the face. I used a regular soft cloth on my face, which some dermatologists also advise against. But medical professionals also tell us to do a ton of aerobics as exercise too though, so… The exfoliation was achieved more by constant repetition than by force.
Dermatologists sometimes advise against scratching and popping pimples because it rips the skin open, which does create small scars. However, I always popped them and I really don’t have any scarring issues. If they’re there, they’re so small that you can’t see them. I do have some nasty scars from scratching fire ant bites as a kid, but, hey, I’m not entering any beauty contests anytime soon.
All I actually did was to achieve a slight peel, which could also be accomplished through the use of benzoyl peroxide, chemical peels, or microdermabrasion, all of which are used by dermatologists. Those might be safer choices if you can afford them.
I wouldn’t use any lotion except maybe something like Aloe Vera gel or something similar that is specifically for dry, chapped, or burned skin, as most lotions will probably sting like the dickens. I just used cold water and tried not to move much. As I said, I was a dumb kid and I was just sick of the pizza face, which I had for what seemed like an eternity, so I didn’t necessarily do everything the best way possible. The point is that if you remove that excess dead skin, you will most likely find that it is more effective than diet changes, medications, or anything else, all of which I tried for years to no avail.
Good luck.
Take a look at this article from John Berardi about nutrition for good skin: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1739961
@Jellen
I Agree that drinking water during eating is not good choice. Drink either before or after the meal.
Regarding your other comments on drinking before going to bed is bad for 1 reason, it will wake you in night for passing. which means you will not be getting sound sleep!! Refrain from drinking atleast 30mins or 1hour before bed.
My acne has improved since I started weightlifting/fitness, because I started eating healthier. For 2 months I ate chicken, fish, steak, fruits, and milk every day (the milk was the only bad part).
That diet is looking very attractive… alright, I’ll try it out!
John,
Your post means good and is appreciated, and it could work, but it’s not what I’m (and most others, I assume), looking for. The whole point of this article is to treat the cause (something in our body), not the result (the acne on our face). Like Mehdi said 100 years ago people didn’t have this problem, and it wasn’t because they were scrubbing their faces and using AcneFree.
Sorry for the triple post, but I have a question. It says to reintroduce one food every two weeks. Does this mean to reintroduce foods that cause acne for me? For example, after 2 weeks I can reintroduce whey, or milk?
1337lolzz,
It will work, it did work for me, and most people are looking for a cure for acne, not the same old advice which we’ve all heard and never works. The cause of acne is a buildup of excess dead skin, not something in the body. 100 years ago, people didn’t have this problem because they were out in the sun every day, which burns off the top layer of dead skin, and washed their faces with lye, which is extremely caustic. The whole point of this article is to cure acne. If you want to do that, forget the diet advice and give your face a good scrub. If you don’t agree, then simply ignore my advice and have fun with your acne.
The whole point of this article is to get rid of acne. To get rid of acne, one needs to remove dead skin buildup. 100 years ago, people spent some amount of time in the sun every day and they washed their faces with lye, both of which would remove dead skin buildup.
ok i’m not a guy and I don’t weight lift but somehow I still found this site and I’m glad I did! I’ve had ‘acne’ since 16 and I’m 20 now and it’s really annoying! I feel so ugly! I remember when I used to go outside all the time and get tan that my skin was clearer, for the past couple of years I havn’t realy gone outside much! I drink lots of water and lemon juice, fresh fruits, and the rest varries. I don’t get much exercise and I think thats also really important in sweating out toxins and circulating your stuff. But the thing is, I figured out my acne is hormonal, once a month just when I think my skin is going to be clear it comes back with a vengance! Also I am now pregnant and not only do I have it on my face but on my chest and back and arms, it’s just everywhere! It’s crazy! So I think acne is totally hormone related not just diet and skin care. I know plenty of people who have perfect skin an they dont even own skin care stuff! They also eat junk food and are couch potatoes!! go figure, but you can’t deny fresh real food, good exercise, sun, fresh air, sleep, water, and showers are good for you!! Also to the comments about sun exposure, I used to be afraid of the sun too like oh it’s gonna give me cancer and make me really old, but I love the sun! I got realy depressed when I started avoiding the sun, sun is a great bacteria killer, gives you energy, it’s relaxing too, and keeps you from getting osteoperosis!! yay sun! and your going to get old anyway might as well enjoy your time here in the sun! haha pale with wrinkles or tan and healthy with wrinkles? I agree with scrubbing your face with a washcloth, the dead skin is the whole cause of the problem right? just dont do anything to dry out your skin I find that makes it worse, just exfoliate and use like cocoa butter intead of chemical lotions or oils to protect your skin. I used to do this when I was in my early teens but I stopped after I wanted to be cool or something and buy expensive skin care products which didn’t work…ok well I’m writing to much!