Minor Injuries: Seeking Treatment in a Timely Manner

Did you know that many allergy and skin care authorities believe that food allergies are the most common cause of acne? While hormones and age obviously play a role in acne breakouts, the most fundamental cause of skin blemishes may be allergic responses. 

Unfortunately, it's more complicated to correct acne by tracking down food allergies than it is to simply fight acne using skin cleansers and antibiotics. However, determining food allergies or dietary factors that trigger acne will probably be much more effective in the long run than these more superficial means of combatting outbreaks.

Acne is a problem that develops within the body as opposed to on the surface of the skin. If you want to get rid of acne and fight this skin problem through every means possible, you need to consider how the foods you eat may be affecting your complexion. 

How can a food allergy cause acne?

Food allergies are determined by one's genetic makeup. Allergies are immune responses that can be triggered by certain foods. These immune responses could include inflammation, excessive sweat, and the release of histamine. These types of responses can cause or aggravate acne, and they will go away when the food causing the immune response is taken out of an individual's diet.

How can you determine if a food allergy is causing your acne?

One of the major reasons why food allergies are overlooked as a cause of acne is that acne takes time to show up in the skin. You will not notice acne resulting from a food allergy within only minutes or hours of consuming the food in question. Rather, acne will appear over time, usually only if the food to which the patient is allergic is repeatedly consumed. 

There are two ways to determine if your acne problem is related to a food allergy:

1. Removing risky foods from your diet.

You can simply do some experimenting on your own by removing certain foods from your diet. Temporarily avoiding problem foods and determining if a particular dietary change impacts your complexion is one method of identifying food allergies. Foods commonly associated with allergy-induced acne outbreaks include the following: dairy products, wheat, eggs, soy, and nuts.

2. Undergoing a blood test. 

Another way to determine if you have a food allergy that is causing your acne is to undergo a blood test for antibody production in response to certain foods. An ELISA Food Allergy Panel or a Radioallergosorbent test is able to test the body for allergic responses to many different foods that have been identified as common allergy triggers. Talk to an allergist, like Alidina Laila MD, if you suspect that food may be the source of your acne problems.