In
Honor of “National Healthy Skin Month"
It’s
not a highly publicized event with the beginning of all the holiday
buzz, or the World Series highlights, or NFL football every weekend
(Go Seahawks!). But in the middle of all that excitement November
is the National Healthy Skin Month and deserves some recognition.
And it’s just in time because this time of year is not only
prime for sweaters and winter sports; it’s also time for
the dreaded myth of holiday acne. So in the spirit of the holidays
I thought that I would take a moment to honor National
Healthy Skin Month and debunk the holiday acne myth.
Since
the holidays are blamed for so many other things besides acne
like higher credit card bills and larger waistlines, why not add
acne to the list of things that get better in the summer.
It
makes sense to a certain degree. We are less active because it
gets colder outside and the sun sets sooner, leaving less time
in the day to get things done. There’s tons more to watch
on TV with all the new seasons starting of our favorite shows.
Whether you’re a baseball fan, basketball fan, or football
fan, there’s always something to watch on the weekends.
We sit down more. We eat more food. We get more stressed out.
The air gets drier making it more difficult to keep your skin
healthy. That’s the holidays in a nutshell.
None
of these reasons are proven to cause acne though. But figuring
out if holiday acne does exist sparked some interest in researches
to look closer into the belief.
In
one study The Journal of Dermatology looked at 452 people with
acne and found that 56 percent said they had worse symptoms in
the summer back in 2002. Only 11 percent found that they broke
out more in the winter.
In
another acne
study done by the Department of Dermatology that same year
found the opposite. Out of 220 people with acne, most said their
acne got worse in the winter and cleared up in the summer.
Looking
at the facts, there is no conclusive evidence that holiday acne
exists. Although we know that many factors may increase people’s
chance of acne breakouts that relate to the change of season,
we can’t blame the holidays. Too bad, huh?
(The
disclaimer is that personal information was the primary source
for both these studies. That means it’s not the most reliable.
People can remember things incorrectly or give false reports.
But really there is no other way to give a study like this without
using participants’ reports.)
Although
it isn’t proven that acne follows a timeline like the seasons,
acne may seem to have a schedule. I think we should start our
own study in honor of National Healthy Skin Month. Feel free to
make a comment and give your experience with your holiday acne.
Is there a connection between the holidays and acne? What do you
think? Tell us your story.
