Does Vitamin D deficiency cause acne?

Recently scientist and skincare experts are beginning to see further links between acne and vitamin D. You may have heard plenty recently about vitamin D since many healthcare experts believe it is essential in helping the immune system when it comes to covid. Vitamin D being a soluble hormone is essential for us and there are several sources where you can get it. One of the biggest sources of vitamin D is sunshine. It can also be found in foods such as dairy and fatty fishes.

When you suffer from acne the pores on your skin become filled or clogged which causes blackheads or red bumps to appear on your skin. As you remember earlier, we said vitamin D was a soluble hormone and it being a hormone it changes, and this hormonal change can cause acne. One of the main causes of acne are deficiency in vitamin D. There are other causes of acne besides deficiency in vitamin D such as increase in bacteria and oil causing oily skin, but deficiency of vitamin D can be a root cause of many of these issues.

There are many people throughout the world who have vitamin D deficiency in particular in colder areas where there is little sunshine. Vitamin D helps to make your immune system stronger, and lack of vitamin D impacts the immune system making it weaker and with a weaker immune system we are more prone to have acne. So essentially there is no direct link between acne and vitamin D but rather acne and a weak immune system due to lack of vitamin D!

Also, as we said another cause of acne is bacterial growth and vitamin D has properties which are antibacterial. In addition, acne is also related to inflammation of the skin and vitamin D also fights and reduces inflammation. If you have vitamin D deficiency taking vitamin D supplements can help to both fight bacterial growth and inflammation which cause acne.

For those who are deficient in vitamin D there are several options. Sitting in the sun can seem to be an easy option at first hand but overexposure to sun is not going to treat your acne. As we have mentioned in numerous articles before exposure to sun without using proper sunscreen protection is harmful and can cause skin cancer. The option most dermatologist recommend is to eat more food high in vitamin D or taking vitamin D supplements.

We hope that we have made clear the links between vitamin D deficiency and a weaker immune system which in turn can cause acne and ways you can treat vitamin D deficiency.