Eric Bakker, the naturopath. Thanks for coming back.
Acne, acne. Okay. That skin condition. A lot of people don't like that skin condition, do they?
But you'd be surprised how many people get acne. It's not just teenagers or young kids
that's stuffing burgers in their face all the time, drinking shakes and eating fries. It's a
lot of people our age too, in their sixties, that get acne still. It's an inflammatory
condition. You've got to understand how to take care of the skin and particularly watch out for
excess sebum production, which is often driven by androgens or male hormones. So sebum production,
clogged skin pores, you get bacterial overload and we get infections and we get comedones and
all this sort of stuff happening. And it's not really pleasant is it?
My guess is that it involves a stressful,
hectic lifestyle and a poor diet or a diet high in inflammatory foods, particularly omega-6s,
alcohol, convenience or takeaway foods and little in the way of fresh or healthy.
You don't generally see people with lots of acne,
eating lots of apples. It's usually burgers or fries, isn't it? But I have seen people
with acne that eat really healthy diets as well, but they're not that common to be honest.
Skin breakouts in teenagers often settle down and subside once their hormones settle down.
But when adults have acne and don't understand the triggers, it can go on for years,
sometimes a lifetime even. You need to learn how to break the cycle of sebum,
excess skin oil production. The sebum and dead skin cells clog up the skin cells,
bacteria multiply, inflammation forms, and the immune system attempts to counter and fight back.
The response. This action is what causes the body to form pimples or acne.
It's an inflammatory response and involves redness, itching sometimes, and spots on the skin.
So there are essentially three different ways in
which omega-3 supplementation can help people with acne.
Hormonal regulation is the first one. Omega-3 helps to regulate the production of testosterone
and other male hormones, other androgens. This in turn helps to regulate sebum production or fatty
oily production. Less sebum means less chance of acne. So that's what it favorably works on
first by offsetting, that balance. The second one is it's a powerful
anti-inflammatory. So omega-3 contains EPA and DHA, but EPA, the eicosapentaenoic acid
is the more anti-inflammatory component that you're looking for. It becomes converted into
antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agents that power up your immune system to deal
with the bacterial overload, as well as reduce the redness and the inflammation associated with acne.
And the third one is called IGF-1 reduction. So your liver produces a hormone called
insulin growth factor, and it's been found in the beginning or cause of acne. So IGF-1,
if we can reduce that production or counter that production, we can really slow acne down.
So the IGF-1 increases sebum production from
sebocytes. Omega-3 has shown to reduce the liver's production of IGF-1.
Diet however, is one of the biggest factors, I believe. A study published
a few years ago in the Archives of Dermatology, involving 1,200 teenagers in Papua New Guinea
and Paraguay, who were fed on a diet of fruits, vegetables, seafoods, lean meats,
revealed the participants did not suffer from any cases of acne, in contrast to the teenagers who
live in California, who commonly develop acne. I recommend 1,000 milligrams, three to four
times daily for people with acne. If they want to improve their body's ability to
reduce the inflammation and counter the sebum response, you need to have a bit in your body.
And of course, to keep away from fried foods, have more fresh foods, look at more natural diet,
like those people on the Papua New Guinea study. Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, lean meats.
These are the things that we want to give to people to keep their skin clear,
right? Works for me. Thanks for tuning in.