Many acne patients have questions about how male and female hormones affect their acne. I will attempt to answer it here.

Also some suggestions as to what you might do to cut down or eliminate new lesions based on the newest thought about acne and its food and hormone connections.

Now to explain as simply as I can how the hormones play a part.

Androgens are male hormones. Acne is thought to be connected to androgen. Too much androgen is thought to be connected to severe forms of the disease. Androgen controls the sebaceous gland secretion.

Endocrine glands include the thyroid, adrenal and pituitary glands that secrete hormones directly into the blood or lymph. Endocrine disorders, or in other words, disorders of these glands, produce too much androgen and are important because they may be involved in the onset of acne.

There are other hormone factors too complex to go into here that play a small part.

The skin of acne patients shows greater activity of an enzyme that converts testosterone to the more potent androgen.

The strange thing, that makes it hard to figure out, is why the levels of androgen in the bloodstream and the levels of androgen in the skin are so different. You can have high levels in the skin lesions but lower levels in the blood.

For women, some do notice a flare-up of acne symptoms a few days before the beginning of their periods. This can be taken care of by adjusting acne treatments. Check with your doctor if you're on conventional treatment.

If using natural treatments, just take extra care of the skin and eat a diet of living foods like fruits and veggies. Also true for men and teens.

There is still much to be learned about what causes acne. But a basic understanding that hormones may have some influence on acne needs to be considered. Whether you eat a natural diet with living fruits and vegetables or eat dead junk food, may influence the hormones one way or another too.

Many have benefited from the change to a better diet, even though it isn't always known why this works. However anything that boosts the immune system, like live foods, has to be better for one's overall health rather than downing processed, refined, chemical-laden foods.

Live foods are fruits, uncooked vegetables, raw nuts and seeds. You need to eat a lot of them, not just one apple or one banana day. Eat huge dark green salads (not iceberg lettuce,has no nutrients to speak of) and lots of fruits. Cut back or eliminate soy, dairy, red meat, grains and soda pop too.

You especially want to eliminate or cut back on the hormone-laden foods like milk and other dairy products, and meat, like red meat and poultry. All have added hormones and/or come from female and male animals that have been injected with hormones

Evaluate your diet after 30 days, to see if your lesions are getting better. They won't disappear overnight, but a better diet may help prevent new ones from forming.

As time goes by, more research may help determine just how male and female hormones influence acne and the role diet plays.