Does Drinking Water Help With Acne?
By the time we’re adults, we assume we’re done with acne breakouts. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Acne can happen at any age and is increasingly more common in adults between the ages of 20-40.
Blemishes and bumps can make even the most confident among us feel like hiding, and the protective face coverings we’ve all been wearing the past year can conceal blemishes… and cause them. More on “maskne” in a bit.
If you’ve been looking for an all-natural way to get rid of your acne, you’ve probably realized the internet is full of at-home remedies. From crazy kitchen concoctions like egg-white masks to cult favorites like toothpaste, everyone seems to have a foolproof way to get rid of acne without a trip to the dermatologist.
One of the more recent trends is attempting to heal your skin by improving your diet and drinking water to help with acne. While studies show that your diet does impact your overall skin health, we’ll explore whether drinking water can really help eliminate your bumps and blemishes.
We’ll uncover the possible causes of acne, explore whether your water intake affects your breakouts, and talk about how using skincare with clean ingredients can help support cleaner, more clarified skin.
What’s Causing the Bumps?
If you’re getting frequent breakouts, you need to know what’s causing them. While there can be many reasons to develop bumps and blemishes, here are some of the most common reasons you’ll experience acne as an adult.
Hormones
The same hormones that caused you angst as an adolescent could be causing your breakouts and blemishes as an adult. Your hormone levels rise and fall during the month. When certain hormone levels drop, your skin can become drier.
When your skin is dry, your sebaceous glands start working overtime to produce more sebum, which can lead to oily skin.
Hormones are also responsible for acne that is stress-related. When you are stressed, your body produces more hormones called androgens, which can cause your acne to flare.
Both men and women can experience fluctuations in hormone levels. Women are more likely to experience hormone fluctuations that coincide with their monthly cycles.
Genetics
Sometimes acne is unavoidable because it’s just in your DNA. If one or both of your parents suffered from acne, you’ll have a much higher risk of developing it yourself.
Genetics isn’t a life sentence; there are ways you can deal with acne even if you are predisposed to having it.
Sun Exposure
If you’ve ever gotten a mild sunburn, you may have felt that it helped clear your acne, only to find that a week later your breakouts were worse than ever. What gives? Sun exposure doesn’t do your skin any favors, and in terms of acne, it makes it worse.
While redness on the skin may mask your acne for a few days, the effects of sun exposure will cause irritation, excess sebum production, and even more bumps and blemishes. It’s always a better option to shield your skin from the sun with a non-comedogenic sunscreen.
Maskne
Anything that touches your face repeatedly has the potential to deliver bacteria to your skin. Bacteria, dirt, oil, and sweat mix together clogging your pores and creating blemishes. This is why it’s so important to make sure you keep your hands clean when you touch your face.
Protective facial coverings are also known offenders, creating acne hot spots under the portions of our faces that our masks cover. “Maskne,” or acne caused by face masks, is a known issue and an unfortunate side effect of protecting ourselves and others from illness.
Product Ingredients
We do our best to use products that will benefit our skin, but the ingredients in our favorite products could be the culprit responsible for our acne. Unclean ingredients and harsh chemicals can work against our skin’s natural function, causing disruption, irritation, and blemishes.
A quick scan of your favorite products’ ingredient labels can help you determine if your skin is at risk from:
- Sulfates. Sulfates are drying to the skin and strip your skin of its natural moisture. When your skin is stripped of moisture, your sebaceous glands begin to produce more oil, which can lead to breakouts.
- Petroleum products. Ingredients derived from petroleum (like paraffin, mineral oil, and anything with the prefix “butyl”) can cause major skin irritation, and clog your pores.
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Fragrance. Everyone loves a product that smells great, but synthetic fragrance can cause your skin to break out and can even lead to major skin reactions and irritations.
Because fragrance is proprietary information in the U.S., manufacturers aren’t required to disclose the exact ingredients that make up their signature scent.
You can’t determine what’s actually in your favorite lavender scented lotion, you could be exposing your skin to toxic chemicals that are actually making your skin breakout.
Product ingredients can really take a toll on your skin, and not just in terms of causing acne. The wrong ingredients can cause your skin’s natural moisture levels to become unbalanced, leaving your skin dry, irritated, and even rashy.
Does Drinking Water Help With Acne?
It seems counterintuitive, but hydrating your skin is one of the best ways to deal with blemishes. Even if your skin is naturally oily, the reason could actually be because your skin isn’t properly hydrated.
When something causes your skin to be dry (whether it’s hormones or a product you’re using), your skin naturally begins to produce more oil. When your skin produces more oil, there’s a higher chance that oil will mix with dirt, oil, and other impurities and clog your pores to form acne bumps.
As such, keeping your skin’s moisture balance is vitally important. That’s where the idea that drinking water may help with acne. It goes without saying that water is the best source of hydration for your entire body, but how much of the water that you drink actually gets to your skin?
The water we drink doesn’t automatically go to our skin cells to provide hydration; in fact, it’s got a long journey before it gets to our skin.
- Water is taken by the mouth and travels to the stomach. It then travels to the intestines.
- The intestines absorb water and send it into the bloodstream to be distributed to all parts of the body.
- Your body triages which organs get water first based on need. Even though your skin is your largest organ, this can sometimes mean your skin gets the water you drink last.
Studies show that drinking enough water each day can help keep your skin better hydrated, but as far as helping alleviate bumps and blemishes, drinking water likely won’t be the solution. Instead, it’s best to consider drinking water an integral part of helping keep your skin hydrated and healthy along with proper skincare.
Better Skin Care, Better Skin
When you’re ready to decrease bumps and blemishes, better ingredients and better skincare can get the job done faster than any buzz-worthy internet trend can promise. Focusing on clean, clinically proven ingredients helps detoxify your skin and keep it healthy.
For Hydration
Keeping your skin hydrated properly is key in battling acne, and it starts with the right ingredients. One Ocean uses marine actives that are clinically proven to help hydrate skin naturally and restore skin’s natural moisture balance.
- Hyaluronic acid. Produced naturally in your own body, hyaluronic acid helps your skin retain moisture by pulling water from the deeper layers of your skin to the epidermis.
- Byfermented exopolysaccharide. This can help encourage your skin’s natural hyaluronic acid production, increasing hydration levels while improving skin’s elasticity and helping fade fine lines and wrinkles.
For Irritation
Bumps and blemishes are a form of skin irritation, so using soothing product ingredients can help alleviate redness and calm skin that feels hot, itchy, or otherwise uncomfortable.
- Hydrolyzed marine collagen. Derived from the scales of deep-sea fish and biocompatible with human skin, marine collagen works to help promote your skin’s natural collagen production and soothe skin irritation and inflammation.
- Algae. Full of vital minerals, nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants, marine algae works synergistically with your skin to improve moisture levels while soothing irritation and helping bring skin back into homeostasis.
Final Thoughts
The battle against acne isn’t won overnight, and you probably won’t get rid of your acne by drinking an excessive amount of water. What works is time, patience, and a consistent skincare routine with the right ingredients.
One Ocean Beauty’s marine ingredients are hydrating, age-defying, and help to alleviate irritation from troubled skin. Along with adequate water intake and a healthy diet, you can improve the health of your skin by using our clean and clinically proven marine active products.
Sources:
Water & Hydration Benefits | Hydration For Healthion-physiological-basis-adults/