Q I'm in my late 20s with a desk job. My skin was fine as a student, but lately acne only comes up around my chin and mouth. Why is this happening as an adult?
A Adult acne, especially when concentrated around the chin and mouth, is strongly influenced by hormonal fluctuations and stress. It tends to appear when the body cannot regulate heat that rises upward, so it calls for a different approach than teenage acne.
Detailed Answer
Acne that develops in adulthood appears when imbalances in hormones such as androgens, lack of sleep, and chronic stress stimulate sebum production and follicular hyperkeratosis. It often concentrates on the lower part of the face, such as the chin, around the mouth, and the jawline, which is a different pattern from forehead-dominant teenage acne.
Korean Medicine Clinic Perspective
At Dongjedang, we see the main causes of adult acne as a state of upper-heat lower-cold (sang-yeol-ha-han) in which heat rising upward cannot be brought back down, and weakened digestive function in which a fragile spleen-stomach allows toxins to accumulate. Rather than treatment applied only to the skin surface, we work to rebalance the body in a direction that draws the surging heat downward.
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