[Mini] Hormonal Acne Insights from an Esthetician | Ep. 59

This is a mini episode recapping Tuesday's longer conversation with Kate Ursin about acne, hormones, and how to take care of your skin. Listen to Ep. 58 for the full conversation with Kate.

You'll learn where hormonal acne is located on the face, what the main drivers of hormonal acne are, and what hormone imbalances to look out for if you do have acne.

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Chapters

• 0:06 Understanding Hormonal Acne Triggers and Solutions
• 9:46 Dietary Considerations for Hormonal Acne

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hey there, welcome to this week's episode, or rather this week's mini episode, of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, women's hormone coach. This week's mini episode is recapping the earlier episode this week that came out on Tuesday if you want the longer form version where I had an interview with Kate Erson, who is a licensed esthetician here in the San Diego area. We talked about all things acne related. So this mini episode and I'm explaining this because this is something new that I'm doing in case you're new here, but this mini episode is so you can hit the highlights I'll run through what you need to know and then you can always go back to the larger episode for the full rundown or vice versa. If you just wanted a recap, wanted a little refresher, a little snacketizer on what you heard in the longer form version, then you've got this one here. So let's get into it. When we're talking about acne now, there are many drivers behind acne, hormonal or not, but some of the things that are top of mind when it comes to understanding what are contributing factors to acne include insulin resistance, inflammation, and it always comes back to are you ovulating? These are my top three. So last week's episode I talked a lot about blood sugar regulation. Go back and check that out if insulin resistance is a new term to you. But when it comes to blood sugar regulation and overall inflammation in the body, whether that is caused by processed sugars or by other stress emotional, physical, maybe it's because you're eating something that you are sensitive to. Kate mentioned that eggs are a common trigger that can cause acne, among others, too. She also mentioned biotin is a big one Sometimes. Right, we think that I mean this is something I learned in the conversation with Kate was that, while I knew that we could overdo it right, you can certainly overdo it on vitamins there can't be too much of a good thing, but anyway, biotin could be one thing that's impacting your acne, and so take a little look inside that cabinet, see if anything you're taking has biotin in it as well.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Now, on the whole, when we look at hormonal acne, there are kind of two different types that I want to address. The first one is the acne that you get just before your period starts, so during that PMS time. If you have that during your luteal phase and maybe a couple of pimples pop up, what we can deduce from that is that maybe estrogen levels are a little bit high, and or maybe you just are more sensitive to acne, maybe your estrogen levels are totally normal, but you're just somebody who is blessed with a couple of extra pimples, and so potentially, taking action to support estrogen detox would help take down some of those pimples that you have. Now, on the other hand, if you're somebody who has hormonal acne all month long, then you might want to consider okay, what is going on with my androgens? Now, what are androgens? Good question. Androgens are our hormones, like testosterone, androstenedione, also DHT. Now, you don't need to know the specifics about those. It might be helpful to know okay, I know I have my estrogens, I know I have progesterens, I know I have progesterone, I know I have testosterone, and it's the hormones that are similar to testosterone that can well higher elevated levels of them can result in acne.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Now, how do you know if your acne is hormonal or not? Well, some good clues to help you figure this out would be understanding where your acne is. So, if you have pimples that oftentimes pop up around the mouth, on the chin or along your jawline, sometimes even down onto the neck, that is, or those are areas that are more classically attuned to hormonal acne, and that's because we have a greater number of androgen receptors in that part of our face and that part of our skin. So I'll just recap that really quick. While a pimple anywhere in your face could be from a number of different reasons, if you have acne that is constantly recurring in your chin rather on your chin, along your jawline, around your mouth that's a good indicator that, okay, this could be hormonal acne. And so, if your androgens are high, what do you want to consider? Well, supporting stable blood sugar levels as a number one. It's also really important to understand what's going on with your gut health. Now, that's a pretty big one to dive into in this mini, but know that gut health is really important for what's going on with your skin.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Third, check out what's going on in your body when it comes to inflammation. What are the sources of stress that you are exposed to all of the time? And then, last but not least, come back to this question of am I ovulating? Now, if you don't track your cycle yet, I would encourage you to do so. This will also be helpful when it comes to seeing okay, this is the certain time of the month, meaning like, okay, around the middle of my cycle or towards the end of my cycle, or maybe there is no pattern for when I'm getting acne, and so that can help you decide. All right, what is the relation between my acne and my hormones. If you are managing some of these basics that I just mentioned, remember that avoiding processed foods, avoiding alcohols, those sort of things that are inflammatory that can be good for you.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Now, kate shared a lot of good information about what support from an esthetician could look like for you in your acne healing journey. Like I said, I really learned a lot in this conversation, because having the support from somebody who can help you create an at-home care plan, who can really vet the products that you're using to make sure that they're ones that aren't going to clog your pores, to make sure that they are aligned with your individual skin's needs, is so important. So if you are really looking to get to the root cause of what's going on with your acne and you want the support of an esthetician, I would encourage you to reach out to Kate. Check out the link in the show notes. She can support you from afar, or if you're here in the San Diego area, then she's got your back as well.

Speaker 1: 7:08

Now for a couple of last thoughts here and other topics really, that Kate mentioned. What are the sources of inflammation that can result in acne? You also want to consider exfoliation. So, okay, are you exfoliating? Because that might be something that your pores need, right, or it is? Also consider how often do you change your pillowcase, or how often do you wash your pillowcase? How often is your phone, your dirty phone, touching your face? She also mentioned sanitizing your keyboard. She's like how many times do you sanitize your keyboard? And, guys, the answer is zero, never. I've never sanitized my keyboard, but you see where we're going with this Just being aware of all of these other bacteria that we're in contact with that are getting on our face that could be getting into our pores. She mentioned that if you have acne, whatever kind of acne you have, then just be sure not to pop it. I know that's hard, that's hard for me, but that will be really helpful in allowing the acne to heal as quickly as it can.

Speaker 1: 8:25

We got a couple of questions Thank you to those of you who submitted questions in response to my Instagram story and so the first question was about the location of acne and if location of acne specifically can indicate whether or not acne is hormonal. So just to reiterate this answer here if you have acne along your jawline, chin, neck or around your mouth, then you can probably assume that that is hormonal. Now you could also just have a pimple there for any other reason, but there is what's called face mapping and face mapping is kind of saying okay, if you have acne in the aforementioned locations, that's probably hormonal. If you have acne below your cheeks, kate mentioned that that could be due to some imbalance in your lungs, other areas of the face tied to maybe, gut health or liver health. The other question that we got was with regards to any kind of conflicting recommendations with regards to what you're eating. So are there any food recommendations to support your cycle that could be bad for acne or vice versa?

Speaker 1: 9:41

The only thing that I would think of, and Kate and I talked about, was eggs.

Speaker 1: 9:46

I really I talk about eggs a lot here on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 9:49

I talk about a lot with my clients. I think it's a really easy go-to, but it can be inflammatory for some people. So, just being aware, everybody has different sensitivities. Not, I should say, the same food, the same process might not be the best process for everybody. Food. The same process might not be the best process for everybody, but in general, if you're eating a whole food diet, if you're avoiding processed foods, if you are avoiding foods that inflame you, then you should be in good shape. So if that was interesting, if you want more, then go back, check out this week's earlier episode that came out on Tuesday, and, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who maybe is trying to figure out what they are going to do with their hormonal acne or their acne in general, what their options are, because I would really appreciate you helping me to expand the I'm Hormonal community and I know your friend would love getting the information as well. So thank you so much. I will see you here again next week. Until then, be well, my friends.