My dad had acne, he even was breaking out in his 30's because of enormous stress. Now he's fine.

His brother also had acne (i think severe from what I'm hearing) so, yeah, genes play a role.

Hollistic approach has definately helped me, but ... I'm prone to it.

studies I know of (both by a Chinese team):

http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produ...RM2006212004338

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/...000005/art00004

There is another study from the early '00 on European heritage subjects; same conclusion, I don't have the link handy. That study concluded it's not a recessive trait, but a dominant one, albeit not with a straightforward pattern.

Also not ALL acne can be traced back to genetics (however a large majority can).

My dad has always had acne on his back, but his face was always crystal clear, so I suspect it may be folliculitus on his back. My mom only had acne when she was on the pill back in the 70s. She went on it at 19 and had crystal clear skin before then.

Both my grandmas had bad acne as adolescents, though it didn't persist into adulthood for either of them.

I'm 27, and I've had acne for 15 years. I have no siblings, but almost all my cousins on both sides have gorgeous, perfect skin. I believe it has a strong genetic component, but they must be recessive genes. And I definitely got unlucky with them!

Both of my parents had bad acne.. and my uncle had extremely severe acne-connected cysts and such.... my sister and I have acne.. annoying, persistant acne but not that bad.. most likely because we're always on meds for it...

yet when I hear of my relatives older than my parents like grandparents and great grandparents it sounds like they didn't really have many skin problems..

My moms the only one in my family that gets occasional zits, but it seems to be primarily hormonal. Her skin is completely clear the vast majority of the time. My dad has perfect skin and my two brothers do as well. Everyone on my dads side does for that matter. My grandpa on my moms side said he used to get zits and always gave me shit for having it my self and not being able to get al long term GF and what not, but on the other hand besides giving me acne he also gave/gives me money so I can't complain too much, I guess. But then again money doesn't buy happiness does it?

My mom had acne one year of her life because of a fragranced cleanser her sister gave her. Her brother on the other hand had severe acne and scarring. My dad had acne but not severe. His brother had severe acne and scarring.

It's weird, neither of my parent have ever had acne. But my sister and I have moderate face acne and body acne.

actually, the food-linked idea makes a lot of sense. from when i was 8 until i was 15, i was a strict vegetarian. no meat whatsoever. then i started eating meat again a little after i turned 15, and i started to develop more acne and it has gotten worse even until today. maybe the fact that i'm probably eating less fruits and vegetables is making my skin worse...

no-one in my family gets acne

my brother got the odd papule here and there and he is 16

i got the odd papule here and there whilst i was younger, and their were only ever 1 at a time.

My Mom: Bad facial ance, she now has lots of scars to prove it.

My Dad: Moderate bacne, not too many scars....but up close you can see them.

Me: I have bad scaring on my back and a little on the face.

...SIGH....

My dad had facial acne, but no sign of it. No scars, nothing. So I don't know how bad it was because I never asked...

well my mom never had acne or body acne and my dad didnt have facial acne but rite now at 53 he has bacne. my sister had no acne and my bro had acne but it vas just like whiteheads but no redmarks. oh boy lucky me with red spots!!

My dad used to have bad acne. My mom no acne. The same with my sister.

Acne probably has a variety of factors that cause it. I think in my case, it could be credited to genes, because my acne also has mostly stopped at the same time that it did for my father.

Its probably a different other factors. Maybe you have the gene, but some environmental trigger just activates it or something.

I think like pretty much everything in biology, its probably a combination of genes and environment and how they affect one another.

my dad had acne and he has scarss on his face.

my three brother's suffered with acne too but it gradually faded and it looked tolerable as they grow up.. but then i think the acne gene is really in my makeup! im the only girl among my siblings and i am plagued with acne as soon as puberty hits me. *sobs*

I don't believe genetics is the main cause of acne for most people, because if you look at groups of people who eat a healthy non-Western diet that is made up of unhealthy fast foods, milk products, sodas, etc. acne is almost non-existent.

 

For example...

 

From the Archives of Dermatology, December 2002 (Volume 138, Number 12) researchers found that:

 

"Acne vulgaris is virtually nonexistent in 2 nonwesternized populations: the Kitavan Islanders of Papua New Guinea and the Ache hunter-gatherers of Paraguay. Of 1200 Kitavan subjects (including 300 aged 15-25 years) and 115 Ache subjects (including 15 aged 15-25 years), no active cases of acne were observed over an 843-day period. Both Kitavans and Ache hunter-gatherers have in common a relative lack of Western influence, subsisting on low-fat and low-glycemic-load diets (eg, fruit, vegetables, fish, wild game)."

 

You see in this group of people, even these young teenagers from age 15 didn't have a single case of acne. Now isn't this the time period where most people in the Western world are supposed to get acne?

 

Okay this describes how their diet is healthy, but it doesn't explain genetic's influence on acne.

So let's observe other ethnicities from around the world who incorporated Western foods into their diet.

 

Here's a comment from the same study:

 

"Inuit Eskimo population was devoid of acne when following traditional living and eating habits, but developed acne prevalence comparable to Western societies when adapting to a Western lifestyle. Others have observed a similar transition in nonwesternized societies such as the Peruvian Indians and Bantu of South Africa."

 

You see, we could've explained that the Inuit Eskimos did not have acne because of their "clear skin genetics" and they were completely devoid of acne at one point in time. But after incorporating Western foods, acne appeared. Same goes for the Peruvian Indians, Bantu of South Africa, and even the Japanese (not included in this particular study)

 

That's why I think genetics and acne is way over-rated and greatly exaggerated. My dad has serious acne when he was a teenager and even sprouts a few pimples no and then in his late 50's. I had moderate acne also...but when I kept a strict diet, following supplementation my acne almost completely disappeared.

 

I don't even use any more of those useless benzoyl peroxide/salicylic acid washes anymore and never take antibiotics or drugs because acne always reappears no matter what when I use these treatments. BUT now that I eat a low GI, healthy diet along with supplementation, I almost always have clear skin.

 

Oh and if you want to look at that study, here's the link (you gotta sign up though):

 

The study in detail...

i wonder if anyone has ever considered the social factors as far as how often people get depressed or anxious and if there were any emotional correlations to the onset of acne. Long term emotional stress is said to effect hair growth, why couldnt the same be true for skin problems.

As far as my understanding, tribes are really close knit socially, i mean the have lots of rituals and dances that keep them together as a unit, people in industrialized society dont really have tribes, we kind of hate each other there is alot of crime and violence here, although this isnt based on the best direct observations, it just seems this way to me. the social order of a tribe and that of america are so different, i just think stress should be something to observe.

I definitely believe it's genetic. I've been on very strict vegetable and fruit based diets before during really bad periods of breakouts and nothing happened, sometimes I got even worse. Meanwhile at good periods I've eaten the worst crap you can ever imagine, and nothing happened, my skin glowed. Boy I miss those times. People actually complimented me, (ME! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? ME??? MISS CYSTIC ACNE ALL OVER) on how great and flawless my skin was.

For me I think it's a combination of hormones and genetics. My mother had horrible facial acne in her 20's - 30's and my dad had horrible facial acne all throughout his teens and horrible body acne even now in his 40's. My mom still breaks out sometimes in her 40's too. Both also have larger pores.

As for me? Horrible facial and body acne since I was 10, brief intermission from 17-19 and now it's back again, though arguably not as bad as it used to be. Genetically, I'm just prone to acne. Hormonally, it sure as hell isn't helping.

Is it bad to slightly resent your parents for knowing that they KNEW they had such awful skin and STILL reproducing, thereby giving their offspring (aka you) bad, painful skin as well?

Nobody in my family history had a problem with acne, not my mom, not my dad or brother. They don't recall any of their parents having acne either. What the hell?

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I'm convinced that my acne is genetic.

Both parents had facial acne. My mother still had it when she was my age, 36, and in a similar pattern: mostly clear but with occasional, angry cysts. I am female, btw.

My father had pretty bad bacne. I'm still battling my bacne. It is highly resistant to treatment.

I eat a strict vegan diet, exercise, drink plenty of water, and rarely drink alcohol, so it cannot be attributed to something I'm doing to my body. I think that for me it's genetic destiny, and the best I can do it try to control it with meds until my body finally decides that it's time to stop breaking out. What is that magic age for me, I wonder? I'd like to enjoy a few years of clear-skinned adulthood before the wrinkles set in (already got some grey hairs, ugh).

i dont know if it is genetics but back in my country, thailand, acne was non-existence, neither my father nor mother ever had acne, but as we moved to america my sister and i developed acne in our teens? what the hell is going on? is it the food? or the harsh chemicals we are putting on our face?

my older sister has severe acne that she has had since she was 11 and now she is 21 i, however, only get a few pimples here and there. i feel so bad that she constantly has to compare herself to me. Its something neither of us can control, i just somehow got lucky and i think she resents me for that. My parents both had very mild acne, so im not sure where hers came from, its possible that my parents both had recessive genes for severe acne which is why she got it and i didnt...not sure though

I think acne is 99% genetic , the other 1% is bad scin care. I dont know if its a dominant gene or not. And why some parents dont have acne, you can have half of the gene so can your soulmate. When they get a child there is a chance 25% that he will get it...

Btw i dont beleave theres a gene that gives you acne. I beleave that theres a gene (a lot of them) that gives you a more sensitve gut and more sensitiveness to candida overgrowth. A bad diet stress and hormones can support this. And cause you to have candida overgrowth and leaky gut. This causes acne. (i have no prove this are my assumptions.)

Hormones and stress arent enough in most cases. Its the western diet. Thats also why so many are getting adult acne nowadays. The diet worsenet. Maybe not in all aspects. But in the most inportant one it did. Sugar=Candida overgrowth=acne

I mean dont you notice an increase in acne after cristmas? 1day after eating a lot of sugar (loods of icecream, chocolat bars etc...) i notice a lot of small pimples showing up. Then 2days later the bigger zits/cysts show up. Then 2days later the huge cysts/weird spot acne shows up. (with me then...)

The increase in acne also could be that it might be dominent genes, hope not...

My dad had VERY severe acne that was cured by Accutane. Luckily, my acne is not as bad as his. Some of my male cousins have pretty bad acne but I'm the only girl with atleast moderate acne in both sides of my family. My mum has had near perfect skin all her life.

My mum had acne until her thirties while my dad didn't have any problems with acne. My older brother took after my dad (in both the looks and skin department) and didn't have any acne problems while my younger brother and I inherited my mum's acne-prone skin (and looks).

I think that genetics plays a part and may make you more likely to get acne but it does not mean that you are guaranteed to get acne. If you have "acne genes" but live healthily, you can have good skin. However, if you don't have "acne genes" but eat badly, then you can end up with skin problems.

The reason I say this is because my older brother and I grew up in the same environment and ate the same foods yet I got acne and he didn't. So genetics played a part there in that my threshold for getting acne was lower than my older brother's. (In particular, I probably inherited my mum's weak liver.)

However, when I changed to a healthier lifestyle and healthier eating habits around 25 years old, my acne started clearing up. My younger brother, on the other hand, didn't change his habits and he still has acne even though he is now in his late twenties.

So I suppose what I am saying is "you may have your dad's genes but you don't necessarily have to follow your dad's pattern if you look after yourself well and adopt healthy habits".

My uncle had severe acne and he has scars now. He's in his fourties now I think. Both my dad and mom had nice face skin, but my dad had/has bacne so I guess that's where it comes from.