Acne development and androgen level changes due to high glycemic loads affecting serum insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Nutrition and acne.
Clin Dermatol. 2010 Nov-Dec;28(6):598-604. PMID: 21034984
Department of Medicine, Section of Dermatology, Dartmouth Medical School, Manchester, NH 03104, USA. [email protected]
There are significant data supporting the role of diet in acne. Our Western diet includes many dairy sources containing hormones.. The natural function of milk being to stimulate growth, it contains anabolic steroids as well as true growth hormones and other growth factors. The presence of 5α-pregnanedione, 5α-androstanedione, and other precursors of 5α-dihydrotestosterone add to the potency of milk as a stimulant of acne. In addition, foods with significant sugar content and other carbohydrates yielding high glycemic loads affect serum insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels, both of which promote increased production of available androgens and the subsequent development of acne.