Hormonal acne IS oil-caused acne
It’s no secret that acne has many causes. Excess skin oil is the main offender, but one can’t discount bacteria, a buildup of dead skin cells, allergic reactions, sweat, stress, even lack of sleep can contribute to acne. However, most dermatologists will tell you that stubborn cases of acne are usually hormonal. What’s not always so clear is that hormonal acne and oil-caused are one in the same.
I ran across this very mistake when browsing a few of the usual treatment review and information sites. The site addressed the subject of vitamin B5 acne treatment, dismissing it because “most acne is caused by a hormonal imbalance, not excess skin oil”. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of biology.
Hormonal shifts are not bad things. Producing sex hormones is a natural function of a healthy body. The reason those shifts, such as during puberty, often lead to acne is precisely because they cause your sebaceous glands to pump out too much skin oil too fast.
A flush of certain sex hormones can stimulate your glands to go into overdrive, but that’s not all. Hormone production can also sap your body of the resources it normally uses to metabolize that skin oil, making the problem that much worse. One of those key resources is coenzyme-A, of which vitamin B5 is the biological precursor.
Thus, hormonal shifts directly contribute to excess skin oil, which vitamin B5 treatment directly combats by providing the fuel to metabolize that oil. It would be inaccurate to categorize “hormonal imbalance” as some vague alternative cause of acne that is unrelated to oily skin, or unaffected by B5 treatment. Rather, the two are practically two ways of saying the same thing. Hormonal acne is exactly the type of affliction that B5 is intended to treat.
