Does Exercise Cause Acne?

AMost of us will think that sweat causes acne while a handful of us reason that through sweat cleansing process, the stored toxins such as dirt, sebum and dead skin trapped in the follicles will be removed.

Before we find out the truth, do you know why we sweat? Yes, we sweat because we want to cool down our heated up bodies. When the sweat evaporates, it will remove heat from our body and thus will be able to regulate our bodies temperature.

Guess you must know that sweat is released by the sweat glands and you must think that these are actually the blocked sebaceous glands where acne lesions such as blackheads, whiteheads and inflamatory spots originate. Well, if you think so, you really got it all wrong here. These sweat actually comes from the ecrrine glands that are located deeply in the skin and cover almost our entire bodies. Do you notice the amount of sweat you get on your forehead, palms and soles when you sweat? That's because there are lots of eccrine glands at those areas.

The sweat that we perspire not only contain water but also salt (sodium chloride), urea and other cellular and fatty wastes. Therefore, many of us would think that sweat will reduce one's acne breakout.

To really get a correct answer, we need to understand how acne occurs on our skin. In a healthy skin, sebum produced in the sebaceous glands will travel to the follicles ends (known as pores) on the skin surface via hair follicles and excreted to the surface. However, for acne sufferers, the excessive sebum, coupled with dead skin cells will block their pores and this creates a perfect environment for the P. acnes bacteria to thrive. The multiplying bacteria population on the blocked follicles will result in the swelling of the surrounding tissues and the first step in the formation of acne has taken place.

By now, you must have noticed that the toxins removed from the skin are not those from the blocked pores where acne originates but rather from the cells and capillaries located deeper in the skin. Therefore, it can be drawn that sweat does not lessen acne breakout but does it cause more acne?

Well, it does if you let the salty sweat on your skin as sweat provides a great environment for the P. acnes bacteria to grow rapidly.

One way to get around this problem is to apply some acne medications on one's skin especially on the back before exercise. Be careful when you apply a benzoyl peroxide based topical cream as benzoyl peroxide can bleach your clothing. Due to this problem, another alternative would be to shower immediately and use a benzoyl peroxide based cleanser such as Clean and Clear Continuous Control Acne Cleanser or salicylic acid cleansers.

Other steps include wear loose fitting attires and tie one's hair to keep them off the surface of the face.
Some people also figure that it is best to drink plain water rather than those sports "salty" drinks so that the sweat that is being exreted during exercise will be less salty and therefore provide a less than perfect environment for acne bacteria to multiply.