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It's estimated between 75 and 90-percent of teenagers develop some sort of acne. A natural part of growing up, right? Maybe not. The Health Show's Greg Dahlmann tells us about research that may change the way doctors think about acne. (originally aired January 9, 2003)
4:44 | listen: RealAudio ˇ mp3
Almost everyone has had acne... and probably almost as many people have an idea about why...
{POS} :16
"I heard that it's like a genetic thing... it's a mixture of stress and genetic makeup... stress... chocolate and pizza... yeah, I'm gonna have to stay stress and probably chocolate... chocolate could be a big factor in acne... I don't think so, I've heard some myths about chocolate, but I don't believe that... greasy food."
Theories connecting food to acne have been popular for some time... but not with the medical establishment. Dr. Stephen Webster is a dermatologist at the Gundersen-Lutheran Medical Center in LaCrosse Wisconsin.
{SW: diet not a major factor} :24
"There may be some foods like chocolate or nuts or greasy food that will cause a flare of acne in certain patients. However, universally we don't feel that diet is a major factor. And indeed, we try to avoid putting a lot of restrictions on the mainly young individuals going through acne."
Research conducted a little more than 30-years ago forms the basis for this thinking. In 1969... two dermatologists ran a study in which one group of people ate chocolate bars... and another group ate a placebo bar that contained everything in the chocolate bar except the cocoa. At the end of the study both groups had comparable levels of acne... and after other studies produced similar results... conventional wisdom was formed. Now... it's coming under fire.
{LC: acne caused by W civ 1} :03
"Acne is a disease of Western civilization."
Loren Cordain is a physiologist at Colorado State University. He and a team of researchers have been looking into the lifestyle of pre-agriculture humans... and what that might mean for us today.
{LC: acne caused by W civ 2} :10
"We believe that high glycemic load carbohydrates -- refined grains, refined sugars and potatoes primarily -- underlie the development of acne through a hormonal cascade."
It's complicated... but here's how Cordain's theory breaks down. Thousands of years ago people were mainly hunter-gathers... which meant their diets consisted of meat and whatever plants they could find. Then people learned how to grow crops, so they started eating grains like wheat. And then people figured out how to process those grains... and that's where we get things like Twinkies. And here's where it gets sticky... literally and figuratively. Even though it may seem like people have been eating grains for a long time... Loren Cordain says from an evolutionary perspective... they haven't.
{LC: haven't adapted} :08
"So, we simply don't have evolutionary experience to allow our genome to shape or adapt to these new foods."
And that means working outside the standard operating procedures written in our DNA. When we eat highly refined sugars and grains... the body generates relative torrents of insulin to tackle all the easy-to-digest carbs. That sets off a series of hormonal reactions. Cordain says this insulin-triggered process is what causes our skin to produce excess amounts of oil called sebum and generate extra cells along our pores. Anaerobic bacteria in the pores love to eat to sebum... they get trapped by the extra cells... and the situation results in a pimple.
Cordain's group backs up this theory with evidence gathered among isolated people in South America and Papua New Guinea. These communities live on what's a largely pre-agricultural diet... and they don't get acne... even the teenagers. And Loren Cordain says these people's clear skin isn't the result of genetic luck.
{LC: environmental factor} :27
"We ruled out the genetic effect because other groups of Indians in South America who live in more Westernized settings have acne. Similarly, Papua New Guineans who live in a more Westernized setting also develop acne. That pretty much clinched it for us that it was an environmental factor rather than a genetic factor that underlaid the development of acne in these populations."
Acne can be caused by a combination of factors... and Cordain's group doesn't have any data from a controlled situation to back up its theory yet. But dermatologist John Strauss says they may be on to something. Dr. Strauss is the former chairman of the department of dermatology at the University of Iowa and wrote a commentary that accompanies the Cordain team's work in the December issue of The Archives of Dermatology. Dr. Strauss says he's generally impressed by the study... even if it's not definitive.
{JS: one problem} :15
"The one problem with this study is that they did not feed them a diet that included the high-glycemic foods to see if they developed acne... but that was not done"
To address those concerns... a researcher in Australia is preparing a controlled study in which teenagers with acne will go on a low carb diet to see how that affects their condition. Loren Cordain says if this research supports their theory... it could go a long way toward convincing dermatologists.
For the Health Show... I'm Greg Dahlmann.
a journalist
pieces from various public radio programs
Albany, NY
now and then
it's complicated
why not
gdahlmann (at) hotmail dot com
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