Have you looked in the mirror lately and pondered ways to clear your acne? Are you asking yourself ‘Why am I still breaking out’? Acne is supposed to go away in the adult years, so why is it still affecting you now? There are a variety of reasons that adults are having acne problems:
#1 Blame it on the hormones
The male hormone Androgen, which is present in BOTH sexes is the primary cause for adult acne. It’s a well known fact that women go 
through rapid hormone changes throughout their adult life and therefore women are almost three times as likely to be affected by adult acne problems than men. Because of hormone changes throughout a months time, women can find that hormones can cause acne at just about any time – during puberty, ovulation, menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. You can have test performed which will test the various levels of hormones in your body and if any are really off balance, your doctor can put you on hormone therapy. Many women on hormone therapy find significant improvements to their lives in addition to their acne clearing up, not knowing that hormones were bringing them down otherwise!
#2 Cut Back or Quit Smoking to Rid Acne
Have you ever taken a good look at a long time regular smoker? Almost always, their face is more placid, leathery, and wrinkled. This is solely do to the effects of smoking and in younger adult years, can contribute to adult acne. In a recent study printed by the Briton Institute of Dermatology, those that smoke regularly are 440% more likely to have problems with adult acne compared to those that don’t smoke. Perhaps the first step to clearing up your acne should be quitting smoking. In addition to getting rid of pimples, it’ll extend your life and let you breath easier.
#3 Examine your skin products and makeup
As was my personal case, my aftershave was causing me to have acne breakouts. A lot of people are sensitive to one or more of their skin care products and don’t even know it. After going through your wash routine, is your face red or does it burn in any way? If so, you may sensitive or allergic to one or more of the chemicals in your skin care products. Give them a second look!
#4 What you eat can help you clear your acne, or make it worse!
To date, there is still a lot of arguments between dermatologist over diets and whether or not there are things that you eat that can 
cause acne. As such it hasn’t been proven completely yet, you really shouldn’t have to worry about what you eat causing acne, however you can eat things that help make your skin better! Eating carrots for one, is a great source of Vitamin A, which is directly linked to skin care. Green tea is also known to be a great purifier, and finally many can agree that just drinking more water can be more beneficial to anything that you might drink. Most folks don’t drink enough water and proper hydration rids your body of toxins, and truly improves the condition of your skin.
Some other acne fighting foods include: Vitamin A (carrots, green leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes), Vitamin E (green leafy vegetables), Vitamin B-complex (brown rice, bananas), Vitamin C (citrus fruits, green peppers), Essential fatty acids (flax seeds, fish), zinc (whole grains, spinach), chromium (whole wheat breads, broccoli) and selenium (fish, lean meat, garlic, barley)
#5 Stress-management
There have been numerous studies lately about stress and acne correlations and to date all signs point to acne CAN BE caused by stress. Now that’s not to say that a bit of stress is going to cause you to break out, but if you are under constant pressure or are under an extraordinary amount of stress, you can find yourself breaking out. Each person deals with stress their own way, but the best thing to do is to walk away from the stressful event and look at it from an outside perspective. Nothing in life can’t be done as long as you’re smart about things and work hard! You can find out more about stress and acne here!
#6 The Sun
Too much sun has for a long time been determined a source of acne. There are a lot of claims out there that sunlight can help acne, and in small doses it does seem to lighten it up and help heal the wounds, but excessive exposure to the sun can cause your acne to become worse, as well as cause sunburn and possible skin cancer. Always wear sunscreen. What acne might be caused by the sunscreen is nothing compared to what a few hours in the sun unprotected can do. We’ve got a whole article on sunlight and acne that can be found here!
#7 Pressure and Friction
Friction created by your body rubbing up against your clothing can cause acne in the spots being aggravated. This problem is particularly prevalent in athletes and folks working out. If you find your acne is limited to areas your clothes rub up against you, you’re probably wearing something too tight to be working out in. Wear loose airy clothing with a material that isn’t coarse and causes friction up against the skin. 
#8 Drink More Water
A lot of people have seen marked improvements to their acne because they increase their water intake. Most folks just don’t drink a lot of water anymore. The problem is sodas, coffee, teas, beer and other beverages all contain other ingredients that pollute the body and don’t hydrate it properly. Most drinks dehydrate the body as a matter of fact! If we can recommend anything to you, it is to get into the habit of drinking two large glasses of water every day. The pure water will purify your body, help you eliminate toxins, hydrate your sells, and help clear waste stored in the muscles and organs. It’ll also add to your skin elasticity and help facilitate the movement of vitamins from the blood to the skin.
#9 Don’t be so dirty!
Dirty pores cause acne! The best way to clear acne in general is to keep your skin clean and free of bacteria. If you work in a particularly dirty or greasy job, make sure to clean your face as as often as possible even if this includes several times a day. Make sure to pick a face wash that is gentle enough to be used frequently and keep them pores clean and clear!
#10 Looking for ways to clear acne? Sleep on it!
Not getting enough shut eye can cause acne on two different levels. First off, as we talked about earlier, hormones are the biggest cause of acne problems in adults and a lot of your hormone regulation goes on during sleep. When you’re sleeping, hormones can be regenerated and redistributed and not getting enough sleep can cause unbalances to occur which can cause a host of problems 
including acne. Secondly, sleep is when the body naturally releases itself from stress and stress too can cause acne. A lack of sleep puts your body under extra stress just trying to get through the day, and as it is, don’t we have enough stress in our lives already? Try to at least get 7 hours of sleep. Most doctors call for 8 but this seems impossible anymore, but most sleep illnesses start when people get less than 6 hours of sleep so make sure to rest up! Read more about sleep and acne here!