3 Common Culprits of Adult Acne (and How to Beat Them)

In the new Yahoo Health video series Functional Fix, Robin Berzin, MD, founder of Parsley Health, shares holistic solutions to the most common health woes.

You thought you left your acne days behind in your teens — so why are you still getting pimples on your face?

The truth is, acne also affects adults — though, fortunately, it is possible to get to the root of the problem, says Robin Berzin, MD, founder of Parsley Health. The three most common culprits of skin flare-ups: diet, digestion, and your stress levels.

“The main way diet affects your skin is food sensitivities. If you have a “sensitivity’ to a food, like dairy or gluten, that means your immune system reacts when exposed to it. Many people, for example, are sensitive to casein and whey, the proteins in dairy,” Berzin tells Yahoo Health. “If you eat these foods and your immune system recognizes them as foreign or dangerous, your immune system turns on, causing an inflammatory response that for some people results in issues like acne or eczema.”

Similarly, digestive issues due to food sensitivities or bacterial imbalance in the gut can also lead to skin woes from inflammation. And when stress levels are up, hormonal imbalance can occur, also leading to pimply flare-ups.

So what are the exact steps you should take to functionally fix your adult acne? Watch the video for Berzin’s advice.

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