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BY STACEY COLINO<\/strong> \/\/ The Washington Post<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems like a cruel trick from Mother Nature: At a time when you\u2019re becoming concerned with fine lines and wrinkles on your face, you find yourself dealing with acne breakouts, too. This has become a noteworthy phenomenon during the coronavirus pandemic. A study in the December 2021 issue<\/a> of the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology evaluated acne in 172 physicians during the pandemic and found that 45 percent reported their acne worsened, 27 percent reported relapses and over 7 percent indicated that they had acne for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dermatologists are seeing similar trends among their patients. Recently, \u201cI\u2019ve been seeing more acne in adults, predominantly in women, than I had in the last 15 years,\u201d said Joshua Zeichner<\/a>, an associate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although it\u2019s often thought of as a teenage affliction, adult acne has long existed. \u201cAcne is unpredictable \u2014 it does what it wants whenever it wants,\u201d said Rick Fried<\/a>, a dermatologist and clinical psychologist in Yardley, Penn. \u201cWe have zero predictors of when people will outgrow adult acne and what the trajectory of its course will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Acne triggers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, some of the recent boost in blemishes can be traced to the pandemic, experts said. Friction from masks, for example, can cause a type of blemish called acne mechanica, while the trapping of exhaled breath, oil, and humidity can lead to other breakouts. \u201cIt\u2019s an environment where heat, moisture and humidity mix with surface oils and whatever else is on your face \u2014 it\u2019s almost like a greenhouse effect [for pimples] under the mask,\u201d explained Diane Berson<\/a>, an associate professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medicine\/New York-Presbyterian Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our faces aren\u2019t used to being covered with a mask, which \u201cincreases moisture [and] traps dead skin cells and bacteria on the skin,\u201d added Nada Elbuluk<\/a>, an associate professor of clinical dermatology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another factor is stress from the pandemic. When your body and mind experience stress, levels of the hormone cortisol increase, which stimulates the skin\u2019s sebaceous glands to produce more oil. Stress also activates the immune system, which promotes inflammation. More oil and more inflammation can trigger acne flare-ups, said Zeichner, who is the medical adviser for JORI skin care<\/a>, a new line of products designed to treat adult acne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, lifestyle factors such as diet may be playing a role in recent breakouts. During the pandemic, \u201cour whole way of living was shut down and dietary habits for the most part got worse, not better,\u201d Zeichner noted. A review of studies<\/a> in a November 2021 issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that during the pandemic, people increased their snacking frequency and ate more sweets and ultra-processed foods (such as sodas, packaged breads, frozen foods, chips and salty snacks, cookies, cakes and sugary breakfast cereals).<\/p>\n\n\n\n