What Should I do if I Suffer from Adult Onset Acne?

It’s true that people usually only suffer from teenage acne, but adult onset acne is far more common than you might think. Half of all females, and over a third of all males will develop this embarrassing skin condition on some occasion during their adult lives. This can rang from the odd spot or pimple now again to sever adult acne. This is often concentrated around the mouth and chin area, but it can also affect the entire body, especially the back.

I myself hardly had any spots as a teenager, but they started developing in my early twenties. If you’re anything like me, I was very paranoid that this meant I was unhygienic or had a poor diet, but as I learnt this is not the case. Food like cheese and chocolate, despite popular belief, do not cause acne; and although poor hygiene can aggravate spots and zits, suffering from adult acne does not mean you are an unclean person.

There are so many factors than contribute to adult onset acne. I’ve mentioned a few of the more common ones below:

Hormones

Hormones, especially androgen hormone, are often the cause of adult acne. Unfortunately for women, it is often aggravated by birth control pills and natural monthly fluctuations, so females do tend to suffer from adult onset acne more then males.

Lifestyle

Stress and anxiety can cause overproduction of sebum, an oily skin secretion, which blocks your pores, causes bacteria build up, and ultimately leads to spots breaking out.

Bad Cosmetics

Bad cosmetics have a similar blocking effect, so it also essential that by good quality make up and cleanse properly before going to sleep (or as soon as you get back from work/going out if possible). Try and go at lease one day a week make-up free as well, no matter how hard this can be when all you want to do is cover your acne up.

Skin Cleaning to Treat Adult Onset Acne

A daily cleansing routine, followed meticulously, is the simplest and cheapest acne treatment. You should use a mild cleansing agent that is not abrasive, preferably one specific formulated to treat adult acne that contains salicylic acid. And always make sure your skin is thoroughly rinsed and dried after washing (benzoyl peroxide lotion is a good drying agent to pat your skin with after cleansing).

Don’t overdo your skin cleansing though. You’ll learn what works best for your skin over time, but a good place to start is a three day rotation:

Day 1: Rigorous cleaning and scrubbing once before bed time
Day 2: Gentle cleaning, no scrubbing, morning and night
Day 3: No activity - simply rinse your face in the shower as normal

Adult-Onset Acne Products

You may also wish to try products such as lotions, creams, antibiotics and maybe even surgery if your acne is particularly severe. Obviously a dermatologist should always be consulted before treating adult onset acne of any kind, but the main things you should keep your eye out for are:

Creams and lotions: Products containing Retinol (a form of Vitamin A) can help to unblock pores and even reduce fine wrinkles. Salicylic and glycolic acids are also excellent for your acne, so try and find creams containing these if you can. Benzoyl peroxide, which helps kill bacteria and dry your skin, is also excellent in my experience.

Cleansers: Cetaphil and Aquanil are gentle cleansers, which should be used over strong gels or exfoliating products.

Antibiotics and Prescription Drugs: Clindamycin and Tetracycline are the most common antibiotics taken to treat acne. They help to target the bacteria in the skin which causes spots; Oral contraceptives and a blood pressure drug called spironolactone can help to level out your hormone levels.

Extreme Options: These options should only be used as a last resort, are quite costly, and mainly target acne scarring and residual acne marks rather than the spots themselves. Laser and intense pulsed light treatments are often used to target scars, but to treat acne itself go for blue light therapy treatment which actually kills the acne-causing bacteria.

I hope you found this information useful. You can find more articles written by myself, Sarah Wright, and a free acne treatments mini-course here.