The following scenario probably sounds and feels a little familiar: 

You wake up on Monday morning and realize you overslept because your alarm clock did not go off. Now you are running late for work. You take an ultra-quick shower, grab a granola bar for breakfast and rush out the door with briefcase in hand.

Making it to the office on time becomes a chore when you hit a traffic jam on the freeway. You finally arrive, but you enter the office five minutes late — earning an earful from the boss. A project forces you to work through lunch and stay later than usual because the deadline is fast approaching and it isn’t close to being ready. 

Finally, at the end of a stressful day, you glance in the bathroom mirror only to see a few pimples starting to emerge from your skin. 

Stress can make pre-existing acne worse. An increase in stress hormones can create all sorts of changes ranging from weight gain to increased blood pressure. Acne also worsens in this situation because stress can increase the amount of oil your skin secretes, which can clog pores and cause breakouts. 

One way to discover if acne is stress-related is to be aware of when breakouts occur, and examine your stress levels up to that point. If breakouts match up with times you are feeling stressed, there is probably a link.

The best way to prevent stress-related acne is to practice some reliable stress management techniques. Take a walk. Do some deep breathing. Find a tool that will keep those blemishes away.

Seeing a candy bar can make most acne sufferers cringe. You and I have been told most of our lives that if we eat that chocolate, we’re setting ourselves up for a guaranteed breakout within a day or two. It leads to the most monumental of decisions: to indulge or not to indulge. 

Well, you can rest easy the next time you have an hankering to munch on a Hershey’s bar. The truth is that there is no conclusive evidence that chocolate is directly connected to acne breakouts. Most dermatologists agree that specific foods are not root causes for acne. 

So what are the root causes? Acne can emerge as a result of excess skin oil production, an accumulation of dead skin cells in the pores or an over-abundance of acne-causing bacteria. Not one of these things results directly from ingesting chocolate. Many of these factors are actually either a direct result of hormonal changes or they are inherited from our parents (So, yes, you can blame Mom or Dad for your zits!). 

That’s not to say a healthy diet won’t aid your body in fighting acne. If you eat plenty of nutritious foods like fruits vegetables, it will aid you in having naturally healthier skin. But it is safe to say that a little chocolate now and then will not be the end of the world when it comes to pimples. 

So feel free to enjoy that candy bar the next time you just got to have one.