Study: Acne makes skin look younger

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Don't fret if you're stuck battling blemishes: You might end up with the excellent consolation prize of younger-looking skin.

That's according to a new study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, which suggests that the cells of people who've had acne might age more slowly than the cells of people who haven't.

Researchers at King's College London
studied 1,205 female twins, about a quarter of whom reported having Como evitar e remover Espinhas / Acne – 21 Métodos eficazes que funcionaram para mim during their lives. Then, they took blood samples and analyzed the white blood cells of every participant.

The study authors found that the acne sufferers had longer telomeres - the protective caps on our DNA that naturally shorten as we age - than the women who never had acne. They also discovered that a gene that regulates the death of cells was less
expressed in the skin of acne sufferers, compared to their clear-skinned counterparts.


(Side note: Don't believe the headlines saying that people with acne are going to live
longer: The UK's National Health Service explains
that this is a major misreading of the study. We're talking about cells
living longer - not actual people.)

Flickr/ Caitlin Regan




"For many years dermatologists have identified that the skin of acne sufferers appears to age more slowly than in those who have not experienced any acne in their lifetime," lead author Dr. Simone Ribero
said in a King's College press release
. "The cause of this was previously unclear."




Now, this study doesn't definitively prove
anything - it was done in a small, female-only population, so the results can't be applied to everyone. But it does provide some fascinating, previously undiscovered clues as to why people with acne end up with more youthful skin.


Read more about the findings here.