What do you understand by ‘Pimples’?
Pimples, also referred as spots or zits, can be expressed as one of the most common skin problems. As a matter of fact, nearly 80% of people experience pimples during the age ranging 12-24 years.
Pimples are usually an outcome of disorder related to oil glands existing in your skin. However, contrasted to certain conventional notions, the problem of pimples is experienced not only by teenagers but many people are beset by regular pimple outbreaks for whole of their lives.
Illustrating further, the sebaceous glands lying under the pores are responsible for producing sebum. As and when the shedding of outer skin layers occurs, the leftover dead cells of skin get stuck together due to the sebum. The result of this reaction is reflected by blockage in pores, specifically during puberty when your skin gets thicker. These sebaceous glands generate even more sebum that is being built up at the rear of the blockage. Moreover, this sebum wharfs different bacteria, also counting the species like Propionibacterium acnes, which cause inflammation and infection.
The pimples are identified and characterized by different types like blackheads, whiteheads, papules, nodules, pustules, and cysts. This article is aimed at guiding you about the various causes related with development of pimples. Hope you find it useful!
Causes of Pimples
Usually, the causes leading to pimples are same as those responsible for acne. Putting it simple, acne and pimples are an outcome of many similar causes. Acne implies a skin disease affecting the pores or follicles covering the maximum portion of body and face. A follicle refers to a small skin duct lying beneath the skin from which an individual hair develops. There is a small gland under this duct which generates sebum (a type of skin oil) essential for healthy hair and skin.
Some of the most common causes contributing to growth of pimples include:
- Improper cleansing of face
- Constipation
- Excessive consumption of coffee, tea, and aerated drinks
- Consuming less amount of water
- Hormonal imbalance
The most common factors leading to pimples include:
Clogging
Generally, pimples are an outcome of constant shedding and growing of the skin under and about the follicles. The dead cells of your skin can increase thus clogging the pores up. This clogging of pores is further increased by sebum’s overproduction. After the pores get clogged, the formation of bacteria occurs thus leading to a pimple or lesion.
Excessive washing
Another cause of pimples lies in over-washing. Excessive washing of skin affected by pimples can lead to production of even more pimples. The skin then produces even more sebum, thus making the conditions worse.
Sweating
Sweating plays a crucial role in making the pimples worse. Excessive sweating blocks the pores. This blocking of pores further leads to pimples and blemishes.
Hormones
Pimples, by their nature, are probably considered to be a type of hormonal disease. The hormones play a vital role in maturation of the skin’s oil glands. As a matter of fact, skin is targeted by the hormones. Moreover, it can also produce the hormones on its own. Many a times, the hormones can get unbalanced thus wreaking havoc during situations like pregnancy, puberty, and menopause. Very commonly, pimples are precipitated by androgen (a male hormone) existing in men as well as women. The excessive oil produced by the androgens plays an imperative role in clogging of hair follicles thus leading to growth of bacteria which further causes blemishes and pimples.
However, hormonal pimples are usually common in women due to the natural cycles experienced by them. Due to this, sometimes doctors recommend low-potency contraceptive pills to mitigate blemishes and pimples by maintaining stability in androgens.
Medications
There are also certain medications contributing to the occurrence of pimples. These include medicines like steroids, anti-depressants, medicines for epilepsy, and even some contraceptive pills. These medications can cause the pimples to burst out.
Stress
Stress might be a contributing factor to the symptoms of pimples. The underlying fact is that stress aggravates inflammatory reaction in body thus causing the breakage of the pores’ walls. This breakage of walls further causes the body to respond with redness about broken pores thus leading to the incursion of a pimple.
Moreover, when an individual goes through stress, the adrenal gland experiences an overdrive thus leading to increased production of androgens. This increased level of androgens contributes to growth of pimples. This is how stress contributes to be a cause of pimples.
Poor hygiene
Pimples can also develop as a result of improper personal hygiene. Moreover, pimples are common in people who do not care properly for cleaning their skin. however, sometimes, over emphasis regarding personal hygiene accompanied with excessive washing during a day, or excessive use of astringents and toners can show up as being counter-productive for they, making the skin excessively dry, can lead the oil glands experience an overdrive thus thwarting the problem. As a result, this would cause the occurrence of a vicious circle involving increased skin breakouts.
Dietary factors as causes of pimples
In addition to the aforesaid causes of pimples, there are also certain foods that contribute to ‘what causes pimples’. This is because these foods exacerbate the situations thus exacerbating or even triggering pimples. However, cutting on these foods is not a solution to pimples but avoiding these can help in preventing the situation from getting worse.
Making alterations to your diet and confiscating these foods can show up as an important move towards obtaining clear and healthy skin. These foods include:
Fats
Consuming excessive fats may be the prime reason for problems related to blood sugar. Putting it simple, fat consumption creates sudden fluctuations in the levels of blood sugar. These fluctuations further lead to a cascading reaction by hormones thus causing increased production of sebum and blocking of pores which causes pimples.
Besides, fats also show up one more malicious effect. Excessive amount of fats in your bloodstream leads to slowing down of transportation of oxygen and nutrients to various cells in the body. As a result, the cells are unable to get required oxygen and nutrients due to excessive fat amount thus aggravating the conditions for pimples.
Dairy products
Excessive consumption of dairy products may cause pimples. There are various reasons to support this fact.
- Usually, dairy products (like ice-cream and cheese) contain high content of fat. As mentioned above, excessive fat intake is one of the crucial causes of pimples.
- Secondly, most of the time, milk is sourced from expecting cows. This milk carries hormones. Unluckily, our skin contains enzymes which have the capability of transforming these hormones to DHT hormone which is responsible for boosting the level of sebum production at your skin glands thus leading to pimples.
- Also, many people are sensitive to milk, with or without developing visible symptoms. The digestive system of human beings does not contain enzymes to digest other animals’ milk. Improper digestion indicates that the body is absorbing larger molecules rather than single nutrients thus making the immune system take these as invaders and attack them. Thus reaction in the immune system indicates higher inflammation as well as oxidative stress, which contribute to the causes of pimples.
Refined carbohydrates
These include mainly the refined sugars and grains. It is not a matter of concern if fruits are taken whole. This is because of the fiber contained in them which slows down the digestion process of sugars. The various facts involved in the reason are:
- Primarily, sugars and refined carbohydrates cause problems related to blood sugar. Refined sugars get into the bloodstream rapidly and raise the levels of blood sugar. Eating excessive amount of fats can worsen the situation.
- Secondly, these foods have been refined to an extent where the level nutrients reaches zero. Digesting these grains and sugars requires enzymes, vitamins, and minerals which can be obtained from the reserves. With passage of time, this results in deficiencies which can cause pimples and various other problems.
- Thirdly, just like milk, grains are also difficult to be digested. This is because human body does contain enzymes for complete digestion of grains. This implies that eating grains can lead to allergic reactions, thus higher inflammation as well as oxidative stress, and further more pimples.
Caffeine
Another element essential to be removed from diet includes caffeine. Caffeine leads to two main problems –
- Firstly, it aggravates adrenalin glands helpful in releasing stress hormones, thus increasing the level of stress. Over stress, as mentioned above, can lead to pimples.
- Secondly, caffeine perturbs sleep. In spite of falling asleep after caffeine intake, it is difficult to experience the deepest stage of sleep. However, this stage of sleep is essential as it plays a crucial role in processes like detoxification and physical repair. Being unable to recuperate from day’s stresses can decline your health thus making the condition of pimples worse.
Processed foods
As a matter of fact, any kind of food coming from factory can harm your skin. This is because being highly refined processed foods are difficult to be properly digested. This results in allergic reactions which further cause higher inflammation and pimples as a further consequence.
Wrapping up, following a healthy and hygienic skin care regimen accompanied with a healthy and low fat diet can surely help you avoid pimples to a great extent thus keeping your skin healthy.
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