Root Cause #2: Inflammation

Inflammation, just like insulin, isn’t inherently bad. Basically, inflammation is our body’s basic mechanism to help heal and protect the body. It’s our natural response to foreign invaders, like toxins, bacteria, viruses, and physical damage. In moderation, inflammation is a good thing. When you get a cut or bruise, inflammation is your body’s way of making sure it doesn’t get infected. You wouldn’t survive if it wasn’t for inflammation. Inflammation only becomes problematic when it becomes chronic, or, in other words, when we have an overactive immune system that triggers inflammatory events too often.

Unfortunately, just like insulin, inflammation and chronic inflammation are more common than ever before. They can be triggered by extremely common ingredients found in everyday foods – even “healthy” foods, like yogurt, protein bars, and salad dressings. It’s no surprise that rates of both chronic inflammation and acne are at all-time highs.

With chronic inflammation, your immune system (which responds to threats like viruses, bacteria, and other foreign invaders) is overly active. It treats everything like a major threat, even if it really isn’t dangerous. Stress, naturally occurring infections, and even certain foods become sources of inflammation. These are routine bodily functions, but because of an overactive immune system, your body responds to them like serious threats – one of these “routine bodily functions” is, you guessed it, acne infections.

An acne infection isn’t all that dangerous or threatening to the body. It doesn’t take a large inflammatory response to make sure no damage is done, but when you suffer from chronic inflammation, your body thinks any infection is a huge threat. Even small acne infections caused by a blocked pore put your immune system on high alert. Tons of pro-inflammatory cells called cytokines are sent to the pore to clean up the mess. In order to stop this harmless acne infection, your body responds as if it were a serious cut or injury – by producing a red, protruding, inflamed comedo, or pimple.

In summary, acne is an inflammatory response – pimples are the byproduct of inflammation in response to a bacterial infection. This is yet another reason why using harsh chemicals or cleansers won’t get rid of most acne – chronic inflammation is an immune response which occurs inside the body, not on the surface of the skin. While some antiinflammatory topicals can help with the appearance of acne, they’re only treating the surface level issue of inflammation.

That’s why it’s crucial to tackle acne at the source: by fixing the dietary imbalances and triggers that lead to chronic inflammation.

How Our Consumption of Unhealthy Fats Cause Chronic Inflammation

Just like the other root causes of acne, chronic inflammation is largely a side-effect of our modern diet and lifestyle. The main culprit: our increased consumption of unhealthy, industrialized fats.

Note: Digestive issues and food intolerances are also a major cause of both inflammation and insulin, which is why I consider them to be their own root cause – for this reason, they will be covered in the next section. All the root causes connect with each other and influence one another. Before we even get into this topic, I need to start out by saying that fat is not evil. In fact, many fats are extremely healthy for you and your skin. I actually recommend that most individuals struggling with insulin and inflammation-related acne start out by decreasing carb consumption and increasing healthy fat consumption (again, we’ll cover this in the next section).

The problem isn’t fat in general, but a specific type of fats that are inflammatory, known as polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acids. For years the USDA told us that in order to be healthy, we needed to avoid healthy, saturated fats and instead eat plenty of whole grains and refined carbohydrates. The end result is that both consumers and food producers alike have replaced these healthy fats (like coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, and ghee butter) with unhealthy, acne-causing industrial fats (like vegetable oils and margarine).

The reason for this is pretty straightforward – these seemingly healthy fats look a lot better on a nutrition label. If you believe that “saturated fat is evil,” then these processed, low-saturated-fat vegetable oils, like canola, corn, or sunflower oil, seem like they’re a lot better for you than saturated fats like coconut or olive oil. In reality, the exact opposite is true. It’s not saturated fat we need to worry about, but polyunsaturated fat.

Polyunsaturated Fats, Omega-3, Omega-6, and Inflammatory Acne

In the world of fats, none are more important for how our body handles
inflammatory responses than polyunsaturated fats, and more specifically, two types of polyunsaturated fats – Omega-3 and Omega-6:

• Omega-3 Fats: Anti-inflammatory. More Omega-3s means less inflammation, which means less acne
• Omega-6 Fats: Pro-inflammatory. More Omega-6s means more inflammation, which means more acne

Your body needs both fats to thrive. Omega-6 isn’t completely evil – it’s necessary for brain development, hair growth, and a well-functioning immune system, it’s just that too much omega-6 can lead to chronic inflammation. Basically, you need to balance the amount of omega-6 fatty acids you eat with omega-3 fatty acids, otherwise you’re likely to trigger large inflammatory responses.