Stress Leads to Acne Break Out in Teens

Pimples are the trademark of teen age and one gets numerous advices on cleanliness’ and good diet but now a new study has found out another culprit for the acne outbreak in teens is ‘STRESS.’

It has been seen that previously people used to blame bacteria for the inflammation that leads to pimples. So, now the question arises is what follows whom? Is it stress or acne?

The researchers found that the teenagers are more prone to acne when they are facing a stressful situation, like exam time, during which teens are 23% more likely to experience acne outbreak.

Lead author, Gil Yosipovitch, M.D., professor of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., told Ivanhoe. "A lot of inflammatory processes are linked to stress. If you look at inflammatory bumps, there is a correlation with stress,"

He further added, "The body responds to reactions from the brain, and that's where this study has a lot of implications."

To determine whether stress act as a catalyst or not the researchers conducted the study on 94 subjects, with the average age of just under 15 years, in Singapore so that the climatic condition doesn’t matter. The students were to appear for the exams which would decide which school they will get admission, so in short it was quite stressful situation.

They were required to fill up the questionnaire on stress once while they were taking exam and another during the summer vacation when the students were in relaxed mood.

The team of the researchers found that there was a significant positive correlation between stress levels and severity of acne papulopustulosa, the form of acne marked by pimples.

It was found that there was more acne outbreak during the time of stress.

The subjects didn’t have much of blackheads or whiteheads but developed more of pimples. The study found that the serum production cannot be blamed for the outbreak but the real factor is inflammation.

"The takeaway message is that if we can reduce the level of stress by techniques of relaxation, we could reduce acne," said. Dr. Yosipovitch. "From my perspective, yoga for kids could be helpful."

The study is published in a Swedish medical journal, ‘Acta Derm Venereol.’