What is the Allergy-Acne Connection? If you have environmental allergies or even
food sensitivities, they could provide clues to your persistent breakouts. Sensitivity in one area can contribute to
sensitivity in another area.
As part of my online skincare
coaching service, Eval by Email®
Online Skincare Consultation, vital information about your skin’s history is
gathered along with full names of all the products you use from head to
toe.
One section that may surprise you is
dedicated to listing your allergies -- anything related to food, environment,
cosmetics and even medication. Why do I
need such details about everything topical or ingested? Is there a connection between allergies and
acne breakouts?
A few clients have even submitted
Yelp! reviews mentioning the difference in their skin after assessing their
allergies and adjusting their skincare product usage accordingly.
Melissa P. from Wisconsin:
I had been struggling with acne for a
long time before I met Daniela. The
damage was done (scars, red marks, self-confidence) and I figured there was no
hope. I randomly found Daniela from a
friend's FB post. I contacted Daniela
and did her online survey. I noted the allergies I had along with the products
I used. Within 2
days, Daniela had assessed my problems over the internet to a T. Turns out I was allergic to everything in the
facial products I had been using!!!! I
tried Daniela's products she recommended over the last few months and doing
everything she said. Here's where the
story gets really good..... My
skin is gorgeous!!!! 50% (MAYBE MORE) of the red marks and scars are gone! My confidance has been restored. My friends
and family compliment my skin vs. look at me with a pained look.
Consider the following:
Allergy =>
Inflammation => Immune Response => Sensitivity
At a very basic level, acne formation
involves inflammation. If there is any
redness at all, and certainly when there is infection, inflammation is
occurring in the pore. This means
redness, swelling, and often, pain. This
is all part of your body’s immune system.
Something bothers the lining of a pore, the body perceives an invader or
irritant, and it sends blood, lymph, and certain chemicals to try and encourage
the invader to die, or the irritant to leave.
As your body reacts to an allergen
entering your system in a certain way like, let’s say, a histamine reaction to
an environmental allergen entering through your nose, it is conceivable that
the same allergen could also cause a reaction entering another part of your
body, like the top layer of your skin.
As a matter of fact, the
involvement of histamine in an allergic or sensitivity reaction actually alters
the composition of your skin’s oil just a little
bit, making it susceptible to inflammation!
I’m not talking about a literal allergic reaction to a product, like
immediate redness, itchy hives or a welt.
I’m talking about a reaction you might not even perceive, slowly
accumulating in pores eventually leading to just enough inflammation to cause a
pimple to form. This can take a week or
a month.
For instance, I have a waxing client
who has a fairly severe case of celiac disease.
Being too long near an open bag of wheat flour can land her in the
hospital. She can accidentally get
“glutened” by the teeniest amount and get a rash all over her arms.
Well. Chamomile and Ragweed are actually cousins of
Wheat. I know, weird, right? She had been struggling with reactions to skincare
products with no solution to the mystery in sight.
Now, because of sensitivity being
an issue (obviously), and with Chamomile being one of the most recommended
botanicals for calming and reducing inflammation, it made sense that all her
products should contain it. Thing is,
while she may not have had allergic
reactions to what she was using, she did have minor but persistent acne breakouts.
We first got rid of everything pore
clogging in her routine, since that is always my first recommendation. Still no luck.
So, I took a drop of chamomile essential
oil, mixed it with half teaspoon of mineral oil, which no one on the planet
would have a reaction to, and put a quarter-sized circle of this mixture onto
her inner arm and waited. Within 20
minutes, the area was red. Clearly her
skin was reactive to Chamomile.
As soon as we eliminated every
product from her skincare routine that had Chamomile and replaced them with
products that had no botanical ingredients, and of course no oat or
wheat-derived ingredients either, her skin started to clear up
beautifully. She now has no breakouts,
even around her period.
Other examples? If someone is allergic to penicillin, I ask
if they’re also allergic to mold (the answer is yes more often than not). If they’ve been using “all natural” or
hand-crafted products, it can explain their more inflamed breakouts. You can’t always detect an odor or
discoloration when mold begins its takeover of a weakly-preserved natural
product. Such a person can end up with
persistent inflamed breakouts way before someone else without such an
allergy.
Or another client, who is allergic
to cherries and shellfish. I
have an enzyme peel that contains cherry, and I used some for her facial, forgetting
about her allergies (a rare occurrence, but I had a lot on my mind looking for
an assistant). Three days later
her chin exploded with pustules and angry undergrounders. We waited a few days with her using as few
products as possible, and it all went away within 5 days.
Even Pollution Solution Mist, one of several toners in my webstore, has a warning on the label itself that it may
cause a reaction in those who are severely allergic to shellfish (because of the iodine coming from its seaweed ingredients).
So you see, so much is connected in
our body systems, it does make sense that I would want to know all about what
my clients are sensitive to, doesn’t it?
Know anyone who might benefit from this post ?
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