If you've heard it once you've probably heard it a dozen times - chocolate causes acne or sex causes acne.
Or what about pizza, French fries, cola? There seams to be an endless supply of myths floating around about just what causes acne.
Whether it's sex, chocolate, or specific foods - they are all myths.
The only one that has some actual data backing it is high carb foods.
Once recent study in Australia did show that in rare cases high carb foods to cause acne flare ups in a small number of people.
It's believed this happens because of a spike in insulin levels that are needed to aid getting the glucose into the cells.
This is referred to as insulin resistance and at the end of the day it is still tied to hormonal issues because these high levels of insulin result in higher levels of testosterone being produced, which can be linked to acne.
Let's look at a few of these myths individually.
Myth #1 - Sex Causes Acne Once you reach puberty your hormones change and you become sexually mature.
It's these same hormones that can be responsible for acne and that's why the wrong conclusion has been reached about sex and acne.
Myth #2 - Chocolate Causes Acne Just as other foods aren't responsible for your acne chocolate isn't either.
And while some still believe French fries and other greasy foods are responsible for acne breakouts it's simply not true.
Although healthy eating can certainly reduce the number of breakouts and the severity.
Myth #3 - Dirty Skin Causes Acne Just because you have acne doesn't mean you don't properly clean your skin.
Sometimes the melanin in the black heads can make your skin look dirty.
You can actually do more damage and cause an acne outbreak by scrubbing too hard or using products that are too harsh that strip away all of natural oils.
When this happens your body compensates by producing larger volumes of oils on the rebound, which can cause pores to become clogged so, don't make the mistake of stripping your skin of all its natural oils.
Myth #4 - Stress Causes Acne Day to day stress does not cause acne, although some of the prescription medications used to treat depression and severe stress can cause acne flare-ups.
Myth #5 - There is No Treatment That Works to Cure Acne That's simply not true.
While not every treatment will work on every person, a little trial and error and before long you should have a product that works well to reduce the acne even eliminate it.
The lesson here is if one product doesn't work then try another and another until you find one that does work.
There you have it.
The truth about what doesn't cause acne.
Great news keep having sex and eating chocolate because it's not what's causing your acne.