Why you might have acne
Having suffered from adult acne for years, these are the main aspects that helped me get rid of my persistent pimples and finally find a consistent approach to clear my skin – and keep it that way.
By Antoneta Bursac, Founder of KLARSKIN
I suffered from Adult Acne between the ages of 23 to 26. It started with small occasional red pimples on random parts of my face, that soon turned into aggressive cysts across my cheeks and jaw line, occasionally popping up on my forehead and chin. I had accompanying blackheads, small ‘under the skin’ bumps and breakouts across my entire forehead, an extremely dull and almost greyish skin tone with uneven texture.
I distinctly remember having to wake up an hour before my normal alarm went off just to pile on the make up for my face to look even. I know how it feels to try everything and not get very far, so I hope my story helps you with what may be causing your acne, and what to be aware of when trying to clear your skin.
CAUSE OF ADULT ACNE
My acne was due to digestive and hormonal issues. Before you read on you should know that I had all the relevant blood and stool tests to determine this cause.
Looking back at my journey, I am now grateful for my face reacting the way it did as I realise that skin is an elimination organ, and it was highlighting the internal problems I was having.
Even before the acne had started, I’d been noticing a dull tone to my skin, rough texture and a seeing more pores than usual, however these are easy things to cover up with make up - and if I’m honest that’s where I was spending the most of my time and money (on concealers, full coverage makeup, face masks and alcohol rich pore minimising skincare!).
Although it doesn’t feel like it now, it’s better to address acne or any skincare concern when it starts. I learnt my lesson the hard way, but you can hopefully see from the images how my acne, radiance and glow changed over time, with consistency and an understanding of what was happening to my face and body as detailed below.
HORMONAL ACNE
There is a lot of research that suggests the main cause of adult acne is due to elevated levels of androgens (male hormones, although also found in women). In my situation I went to get a blood test, found that one particular reproductive hormone was comparable to that of a 45 year old woman’s, and this is after a lifetime of eating meat, eggs, dairy, and all animal produce. I was still in good shape and thought that I was eating a healthy diet. I worked through to heal and stabilise this, and am still working on it.
Foodwas my biggest medicine, and I truly believe it is the number one aspect you should concentrate on when trying to calm any skin irritation and regulate hormones or insulin levels. For me, moving to a plant based diet and not consuming the antibiotics and hormones that come with animal produce these days in general lowered my stress levels and stabilised my hormones. Also being aware of the ‘dirty dozen’ and buying organic food where possible helped a lot. You will quickly notice that moving away from animal produce saves you a lot of money also, so reinvest that into good quality, organically grown plants, fruits, legumes, nuts and whole grains.
I personally ate a lot of dairy produce without even realising it, including milk, cheese, sweets, etc - if you do eat pasteurised Dairy, it will be a substance causing your hormone levels to be out of whack due to the testosterone and reproductive hormones found within. There is also research that shows dairy promotes cancerous cell growth and IGF1.
Once you start consciously noticing how much animal produce is in most ready made food you will realise how much you consume on a daily basis. I honestly believe that in 50-100 year’s time when further research comes out our ancestors will look at us like we were insane for consuming the amount of animal produce we do per day in western diets. If you don’t want to stop eating animal meat or products at least cut down to a few times a week, and reduce food that spikes your sugar and causes excess insulin release. It will not only do wonders to your body and skin, but your mental health and clarity. I personally became a lot calmer and level headed which also helped me deal with my acne by believing it would pass, and not crying and picking at my spots when it all became too much!
When I found all of this out I went on a Soy binge (soy lattes, soy porridge, soy everything) until I found out that Soy is one of the most genetically modified plants out there - so try almond, macadamia or oat milk as an alternative rather than Animal Milk or Soy!
6 months after my acne had healed and my diet was on a consistent and healthy path, I introduced animal produce back into my diet. I eat meat once, sometimes twice a week and am enjoy a cheese platter. A disclaimer to this is that I am very picky about where my animal produce comes from. If I’m in a restaurant I ask about the origin, and fortunately having lived in Switzerland and now in Germany, I am aware of my privilege having access to organic, grass fed, small batch produce that comes from local farmers. This is not only good for ethical and environmental reasons, but also for your microbiome and gut.
There are studies that show that eating foods grown close to where you live is extremely beneficial for the stability and function of a healthy microbiome. One study even showed how hay fever allergies were reduced in individuals who consumed honey cultivated from an area close to where they lived. There are hundreds of examples of this on Google, along with an interesting Ted Talk by a scientist who studied the gut of healthy immigrants who moved away from their country of origin and how they lost a large fraction of their microbiome after coming to the USA, which subsequently affected their health and appearance. See ‘How we study the microbes living in your gut’ by Dan Knights. Your microbiome can however be restored, which will in turn stabilise your hormones. This leads me to the second, more obvious issue I had with my gut, colon, liver and digestion.
DIGESTION
If you can’t get a blood or microbiome test, a quick and easy way to check if your body’s digestive system is functioning properly is to look at your tongue in the mornings. If you wake up with a white or yellow residue on your tongue it means waste is not moving properly through your bowels and intestines.
White or yellow residue on your tongue is essentially a result of undigested food. It means your body is not capable of breaking down your food properly and is lingering in the body.
The toxic by-product of undigested food then accumulates in your colon and will eventually enter into your bloodstream (leaky gut). It can even travel through your body and lodge itself in tissue and organs.
What most people don’t realise is that our skin is an elimination organ, so if you have acne it is your body’s defence system trying to tell you something. I eventually came to believe that I was quite lucky that my body came out with acne because if it didn’t there are many other less obvious symptoms to leaky and other gut disorders (sluggishness, body odour, brain fog, fatigue, constipation) that can result in more serious disease down the line.
In my case, listening to my body and not suppressing it with antibiotics was necessary. This is talked about a lot in Ayurvedic medicine, but surprisingly not at all in modern western medicine. Anyone who has taken antibiotics for acne (including me!) can tell you that if you are not cleaning up your lifestyle and diet the acne will always come back - this is because antibiotics destroy the healthy bacteria in your gut, pollute your liver, and can actually leave you in a worse off position than when you started.
Getting your bowels and lymph to circulate and move is a very important first step for elimination (apart from diet of course).
Move your body and get your blood pumping to flush the waste, and nourish your body with fibre and plant rich foods. Avoid all processed food and meat, especially if you have any of the above symptoms because these foods feed pathogenic bacteria.
Drink mint, dandelion or other bitter drinks before eating to help your body create bile and digestive enzymes to break down food easier. Drink lots of water and clean up your diet. There are so many people preaching different diets but you must discover what works for you and your body. Different people feed off different things, my main piece of advice would be to avoid all animal produce for at least a few months to give your body a chance to heal.
Next you need to strengthen your gut barrier and balance your gut flora by removing these pathogens and bad bacteria that are most probably dominating if you have acne. Replenish your system with good bacteria (probiotics) and feed it so that bacteria can flourish (prebiotic).
There are studies that show that eating foods grown close to where you live is extremely beneficial for the stability and function of a healthy microbiome. One study even showed how hay fever allergies were reduced in individuals who consumed honey cultivated from an area close to where they lived. There are hundreds of examples of this on Google, along with an interesting Ted Talk by a scientist who studied the gut of healthy immigrants who moved away from their country of origin and how they lost a large fraction of their microbiome after coming to the USA, which subsequently affected their health and appearance. See ‘How we study the microbes living in your gut’ by Dan Knights. Your microbiome can however be restored, which will in turn stabilise your hormones. This leads me to the second, more obvious issue I had with my gut, colon, liver and digestion.
DIGESTION
If you can’t get a blood or microbiome test, a quick and easy way to check if your body’s digestive system is functioning properly is to look at your tongue in the mornings. If you wake up with a white or yellow residue on your tongue it means waste is not moving properly through your bowels and intestines.
White or yellow residue on your tongue is essentially a result of undigested food. It means your body is not capable of breaking down your food properly and is lingering in the body.
The toxic by-product of undigested food then accumulates in your colon and will eventually enter into your bloodstream (leaky gut). It can even travel through your body and lodge itself in tissue and organs.
What most people don’t realise is that our skin is an elimination organ, so if you have acne it is your body’s defence system trying to tell you something. I eventually came to believe that I was quite lucky that my body came out with acne because if it didn’t there are many other less obvious symptoms to leaky and other gut disorders (sluggishness, body odour, brain fog, fatigue, constipation) that can result in more serious disease down the line.
In my case, listening to my body and not suppressing it with antibiotics was necessary. This is talked about a lot in Ayurvedic medicine, but surprisingly not at all in modern western medicine. Anyone who has taken antibiotics for acne (including me!) can tell you that if you are not cleaning up your lifestyle and diet the acne will always come back - this is because antibiotics destroy the healthy bacteria in your gut, pollute your liver, and can actually leave you in a worse off position than when you started.
Getting your bowels and lymph to circulate and move is a very important first step for elimination (apart from diet of course).
Move your body and get your blood pumping to flush the waste, and nourish your body with fibre and plant rich foods. Avoid all processed food and meat, especially if you have any of the above symptoms because these foods feed pathogenic bacteria.
Drink mint, dandelion or other bitter drinks before eating to help your body create bile and digestive enzymes to break down food easier. Drink lots of water and clean up your diet. There are so many people preaching different diets but you must discover what works for you and your body. Different people feed off different things, my main piece of advice would be to avoid all animal produce for at least a few months to give your body a chance to heal.
Next you need to strengthen your gut barrier and balance your gut flora by removing these pathogens and bad bacteria that are most probably dominating if you have acne. Replenish your system with good bacteria (probiotics) and feed it so that bacteria can flourish (prebiotic).
Needless to say, the Radiance Powder helped me through this process as it contains in one formulation everything I needed to help me, and not just potent Pre and Probiotics. Digestive enzymes, plant based fibres, vitamins and minerals we are most deficient in our diets today helped tremendously with my dysfunction and also supplemented the many deficiencies I had and helped with my food absorption.
This is why my family of Doctors created the Radiance Powder and why I highly advise consuming the full bottle consistently if you have any symptoms - I was not able to find a supplement on the market in liquid format (for ease of digestion and absorption) whose formulation all works together to help with the issues my body and skin were experiencing.
The formulation is also shelf stable so you can take it with you whilst traveling and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. The Radiance Powder uses micro-encapsulation technology which improves probiotic survival during gastric transitioning, ensuring the healthy bacteria reaches the areas most in need.
Needless to say, we use the best quality, tested, certified raw materials that are vegan and cruelty free to give your skin the best chances of bouncing back. The formula is also clinically and dermatologically tested, and based on years of scientific research – it is not just a vitamin powder to add to your smoothie. It was created with the purpose to solve dysfunction and works to regenerate skin from within effectively (with a 90% success rate as shown through our clinical trials).
You will see a huge difference in your skin when including a high quality, complex probiotic and digestive supplement into your diet and morning routine. It helps with your elimination and detox process, supports your body and organs to clear out the waste and purify your skin. Quality over Quantity has been our ethos from day 1, and I am so proud that the Radiance Powder delivers this all in one dose.
Thank You for Reading my Story!
