Acne and nutrition: hypotheses, myths and facts

Abstract

Acne is an inflammatory and multifactorial skin disease. Different external and internal factors, including air pollution, aggressive skincare products, medication, mechanical, hormonal and familial factors and, more recently, lifestyle and stress, have been suggested as having an impact on acne. Moreover, for many years nutrition was believed to cause or worsen acne. Over the last decades, however, it has become a dermatological doctrine that there is no direct association between diet and acne. Even if recent research has allowed to identify certain nutritional elements and behaviour that may impact on acne, including the excessive intake of dairy products and hyperglycaemic food, modern lifestyle nutrition, obesity and eating disorders, knowledge about the role of nutrition in the physiopathology of acne still remains sparse and hypotheses and myths continue to dominate the debate. Thus, further clinical and translational research is necessary to investigate and confirm the association between nutrition and acne.

Omega-3 Versus Omega-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in the Prevention and Treatment of Inflammatory Skin Diseases

“…An association between diet and acne has been hypothesized for decades. The epidemiological studies have shown that the incidence of acne is significantly lower in non-industrialized societies than in westernized populations [150]. For example, acne is extremely rare among the Inuit, Okinawan, and Kitavian Islanders, and Ache hunter-gatherers.…”

Reply to comments made by M. Donnarumma et al. Comment on “Acne and nutrition: hypotheses, myths and facts” published by our expert group in 2018

“…Consequently, onychomatricoma is often misdiagnosed as onychomycosis, which deprives the patient of appropriate treatment for onychomatricoma. 2 A 47-year-old man presented with a thickened and yellowish right hallux toenail for 5 years (Fig. 1a).…”

Determination of the Effect of Diet on the Development and Severity of Acne Vulgaris by Using Insulin Index and Glycemic Index

“…In these studies, the relationship between glycemic index-based food con- sumption and AV has been investigated mostly regarding fish meat, milk/dairy products, and chocolate. [20][21][22] There are conflicting results in different studies on the effect of BMI on AV development as in certain other skin diseases. [23][24][25][26] In this study, there is no statistically significant difference in mean BMI between the patients with AV and the control group.…”