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jarockinights t1_iymo4pz wrote

Reply to comment by No1005 in Has teen acne been around since prehistoric times? Did cave-dwellers have zits? Or is it related to modern eating, exercise, pollution, etc.? by Snoo-35252

I'll add anecdotally as someone with oily skin and still deals with acne in his late 30s:

Ironically the more dust I'm exposed to, like if I spend a week on a big yard project and am constantly kicking up dusty dirt and end up golden brown at the end of each day, the more under control my skin gets. It's possible that oily skin is a trait that was meant to deal with a lot more dirt and dust in the immediate environment.

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wawawakes t1_iyn6x8g wrote

Anecdotally, my over-2 decade long acne problem vanished when I was travelling through places that were sparsely populated / had little pollution. These were modern western societies and I didn’t exactly eat healthy… but the environment was clean. I didn’t wash my face with face wash then as I ran out along the way and didn’t get more. When I travelled through cities a few zits would pop up, but then go away again when I was back in less populated areas.

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rhapsodyknit t1_iyndj4c wrote

Anecdotally, I have the opposite experience to you. The more dust I'm exposed to (lawn mowing dust, soybean dust/dirt, wheat chaff, etc) the more likely I am to get blackheads and zits.

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Netflxnschill t1_iyof2q5 wrote

Is that because you had to wash your face of dust every day, increasing the frequency of washing? Or do you think the dust helped absorb the oils?

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xtaberry t1_iyolt91 wrote

There may be a different cause to this. UV exposure definitely reduces the quantity and frequency of acne, so if you're spending the whole week on a big yard project, it might be the sun rather than the dust.

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jarockinights t1_iyont9p wrote

No doubt it helps, but last time I spent a week rafting in very clear sunny weather and I was still having issues. It's probably a combination because being outdoors by itself was never enough to reel it in. Same thing happened in my teens when I worked construction for a summer, would come home dusty as hell and my skin was the clearest it had ever been all summer long, but all the time I spent hours outside playing various sports had little effect on my skin.

I think I just have really oily skin.

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