6 ways to reduce and overcome hormonal acne

Hormonal acne (especially around the jawline, chin, and lower cheeks) is often driven by fluctuations in androgens, insulin, and inflammation. The good news is there are quite a few effective natural strategies that target the root causes—not just the skin.

Hormones like androgens increase sebaceous gland activity, leading to increased sebum production.  During puberty and perimenopause, we often see a prevalence of increased acne.  Ensuring your blood sugar levels are stabilised to support a happy insulin balance, and ensuring that inflammation is low, detoxification pathways are working effectively, and your gut - skin axis is supported is key. 

Inflammatory cytokines impact acne by increasing inflammation in the body, along with our insulin levels, which are produced by our pancreas and oversee blood sugar balance. Insulin's job is to signal to move sugar out of the bloodstream and into the cells, so looking at how we eat, and keeping our diet low-inflammatory with balanced blood sugar levels, can make a huge difference.

Our next step is ensuring you are getting enough zinc, essential fatty acids & vitamin C in your diet. The next step is ensuring your hormone levels are as balanced as possible (in particular your androgens).

Aspects like not removing your makeup at night or washing your pillowcase can also impact skin health, so start here.

1. Stabilise Blood Sugar/Balance Insulin for Hormonal Acne

This is super important!  If your insulin spikes, this causes increased androgens, more oil, and clogged pores.

Look at your diet - Ensure you are eating an anti-inflammatory diet - whole foods, have a good macro balance, and low refined carbohydrates.

Proteins are used by the body for growth, immune function, and tissue repair (including skin), making enzymes and hormones, breaking down to amino acids, transporting minerals into the body, maintaining muscle mass, and regeneration of both muscles and cells. They also support conversion to energy as an alternative to carbohydrates. Ensure you are eating protein (ideally about 30g of protein) at every meal.  Foods like eggs, chicken, fish, nuts/seeds, legumes, & protein powder.

Good fats assist in growth and development, energy, cell membrane maintenance, cushioning of the organs, and assist in stability, texture, and taste in foods, and absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, K, the manufacture of hormones, cholesterol & cortisol, support skin health & help support the mood.  Include healthy fats at each meal.  Easy ways of Increasing your good fats are by adding things like nuts & seeds (3 finger serve), 1-2 TBSP Olive oil dressing, flaxseed oil &/OR mixed with Evening Primrose (Waihi Bush do a lovely one) over salads, over breakfast or in smoothies, coconut oil, olive oil dressing on salads, avocado, lean meat & fish (palm sizeserve), snacks could be fruit or vegetables with nut butters or humus or nuts & seeds.

Fibre is a type of carbohydrate found in plant foods that the body cannot fully digest, but it plays a crucial role in overall health.  It helps regulate digestion by adding bulk to stool and promoting regular bowel movements, which supports the elimination of waste and hormones like estrogen & androgens. Fibre also slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, improving blood sugar control and reducing the risk of Insulin resistance. In addition, it feeds beneficial gut bacteria, supporting a healthy microbiome that influences hormone balance, immunity, skin health, and even mood. 

So overall fibre is critical in helping manage hormonal acne to support gut health, reduce inflammation & support balancing skin bacteria.  A diet rich in fibre from vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains is essential for skin health. Ensure you are including 30g of Fiber per day. Supplements like inulin work well for blood sugar balance, in particular with hormonal acne.

Reducing inflammatory foods like sugar or refined carbohydrates/High glycemic index foods can spike the blood sugar/glucose levels quickly, so aiming to avoid them will be helpful (white bread, pastries, lollies, chips), frequent snacks, alcohol, in particular high sugar alcohol like wine.  Reduce dairy due to the milk proteins casein and whey.  Milk can stimulate insulin production and can cause an increase in acne. Reduce inflammatory fats like canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, safflower & peanut oil; these can increase inflammation.

Water: Ensure you are getting enough water daily.  This is critical to hydrate, support detoxification through cleansing & nourishment of your cells, for your cellular, organ & tissue health, to support clarity, energy & reduce cravings & body functions like breathing, sweating & digestion.

Include probiotic-rich/Fermented foods to help reduce inflammation and support gut health. Fermented foods help feed good bacteria in the digestive tract, like miso soup, sauerkraut, or kefir.  Fermented foods will be supportive to overall digestive health & leading to skin health, to break down nutrients, keep healthy bacteria levels supporting immune protein function, & decreasing inflammation levels.  Fermented foods such as Miso soup may provide a warm, nourishing soup rich with minerals and help feed good bacteria from the probiotics and keep them repopulating. Other fermented food options to try are sauerkraut, kefir (Coconut Kefir from health stores is a great option), kimchi & coconut yoghurt.  Always start with a small amount of fermented foods and build up slowly to prevent them from causing a flush out of bad bacteria.

2 - Low Inflammation & Detoxification Pathways - Liver Health & Gut-Skin Axis for Hormonal Acne

Your liver helps clear excess hormones, and if it's sluggish, acne can show up. We want to ensure again that your inflammation levels are low, your gut microbiota is healthy, so you can have a great immune response and nutrient absorption, as your insides mirror what is happening on your skin.  If you have a healthy bidirectional relationship between your intestinal microbiome and skin health, your skin will be glowing with health.

Consider your alcohol levels

Consider your nutrition as above & include Vegetables like beetroot, celery, and cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage)

Consider adding Lemon water in the morning, or Pure 100% Aloe Vera Juice (Like Lifestream, not sweetened versions)

Consider the use of slippery elm, glutamine, & probiotics

Speak to a medical herbalist and review herbal medicine or teas like Dandelion, Cleavers, Burdock, Milk Thistle, Spearmint, Calendula, Gotu Kola, Licorice, Saw Palmetto, Sarsaparilla, Echinacea, Chaste Tree, Green Tea, and Oregon Grape

3 - Zinc, Essential Fatty Acids & Vitamin C for Hormonal Acne

Seed Cycling to Balance Hormones - This simple protocol helps support your endocrine system, Integumentary (skin/hair) & hormones, helps remove excess hormones, includes zinc & essential fatty acids (EFA). 

Make up in two jars to keep it simple, Phase 1: a jar with equal amounts of flaxseeds (linseeds) & sunflower seeds. Phase 2: a jar with equal parts sunflower and sesame seeds. Each day, use 2 Tbsp over breakfast, salads, in a smoothie, soaked in water overnight, and like a jelly - whatever is easy for you.

Use Phase 1 in your Follicular Phase - Day 1(1st day of bleed/period)-14 of your cycle. 

Use Phase 2 in your Luteal Phase - Day 15 - your period starts each cycle (Ideal cycle between 27-32).

Zinc is critical in many enzyme responses throughout the body. It is essential for hormonal health & insulin pathways, it helps reduce inflammation, and helps skin healing.  Include foods like pumpkin & sunflower seeds, red meat, shellfish, legumes & nuts in each day.  It also pays to take a supplemental form each day (8-15mg) if you are having trouble with your skin.

Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) are required for reducing inflammation, regulating sebum (oil) production, and strengthening the skin's protective barrier.  Include in your diet fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines), nuts, seeds (flaxseed, chia), evening primrose oil, vegetables (dark leafy greens like spinach, kale) & seaweeds & spirulina. It may pay to take a good-quality EPA/DHA supplement, with studies showing that 2,000 mg of EPA/DHA daily can significantly reduce lesions. 

Vitamin C/ Antioxidants  - Vitamin C is critical for reducing inflammation, fading post-acne dark spots (hyperpigmentation), and stimulating collagen to repair acne scars. As a potent antioxidant, it also protects skin from free radicals, regulates oil production, and accelerates the healing of acne wounds, resulting in a clearer, more even skin tone.  Foods like vegetables and fruits are rich sources of antioxidants. It can prevent or slow damage to cells caused by free radicals. Foods rich in colors, red, purple, and blue, are in fruits and vegetables are great sources of natural vitamin C & antioxidants - such as berries, grapes, cherries, peppers, kiwifruit, citrus fruit, broccoli, beetroot, kale, and parsley.  It may pay to use Vitamin C as a supplement, often you will be able to find one that includes Zinc and Vitamin D to further support your skin.

Additional skin supportive vitamins include vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Vitamin C and vitamin E act as antioxidants to bring down inflammation in the body that could contribute to acne. Vitamin A is usually used topically, but is also helpful for skin health as part of your diet.  Magnesium - to help with stress response, hormones, & sleep.  Vitamin D if your acne is very inflammatory

4 - Stress & Sleep for Hormonal Acne

To help keep cortisol levels in check. If our cortisol levels get too high, it worsens the inflammatory effect and can lead to our detoxification pathways and hormones becoming impacted.

Make sure you include 7-9 hours of sleep daily, gentle movement like walking or yoga, and include breathwork or somatic support to help with nervous system adaptation. Epsom salt bath or foot soak to help with relaxation and detoxification, and taking a magnesium supplement or using a magnesium cream before bed can be of benefit.

5 - Hormone Balance for Hormonal Acne

If you can follow 1-4 your hormones should naturally balance, if you feel they are still being impacted, please see a natural health practitioner.

6 - Topical Support for Hormonal Acne

Avoid overstripping your sebum glands in your skin by overwashing or using harsh cleansers, as this can cause an overproduction of oil as your body tries to counterbalance.  Keep your skin protocol simple.  Avoid harsh scrubs or too many products. An oil cleanser or a gel cleanser is often best.

Manuka Essential oil can be used directly as a spot treatment

Aloe Vera Leaf can be cut open and used directly on skin to help with healing and soothing.

A mask of 1 tbsp each honey, raw oats & aloe vera gel with a pinch of turmeric can be used as a face mask 2-3 x per week for antibacterial, soothing, reducing redness, anti-inflammatory, barrier support, and healing - leave on for 10-15 min, very gently rub in circular motions to wash off.

A face mask of Bentonite or green clay to help draw out impurities and reduce excess oil once per week

Add aloe vera as a face moisturizer after your mask

Lemon cut in half and used over the skin

Herbs mentioned above under the low inflammation section may help as a Face steam or please see my website for Hello Clear Skin herbal infusion that can be used as a steam or drunk as herbal tea, or Beautiful skin drops can be used to further assist.

If you are still feeling like more support is needed, or you would like a plan made specifically for you, please be in contact.  At Nourishe Botanicals, Serina Gardner is a qualified naturopath, nutritionist, and medical herbalist. She helps women restore balance naturally through personalised naturopathic care, herbal medicine, and nourishing botanical products. 

Consultations are available online, New Zealand wide, or in person in Papamoa, Bay of Plenty. Please use the book now function, choose a time, and get the support you are looking for