CONDITIONS • WESTMINSTER, ARVADA, BROOMFIELD, THORTON & DENVER METRO
Acne Treatment in Westminster, CO
Acne is not primarily a skin condition. It is a hormonal, inflammatory, and gut condition that happens to be visible on the skin. Treating it at the surface without addressing its internal drivers is why so many people cycle through products and prescriptions for years without lasting resolution.
Whether you have struggled with acne since adolescence, developed it as an adult, or noticed it worsening with stress, diet changes, or hormonal shifts, its causes are almost always identifiable and directly treatable. Naturopathic medicine approaches acne from the inside out — which is the only direction from which lasting clearance is actually possible.
Same-Day & Same-Week Appointments Available
WE UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE GOING THROUGH
Acne is not a minor inconvenience. It affects how you show up in the world — what you wear, where you look in a conversation, how many photos you avoid, how much of your mental space is occupied by something that should not require this much management.
The frustration of acne that returns reliably regardless of how diligently you care for your skin. The products that helped for a while and then stopped. The antibiotic courses that cleared things up while you were on them and brought everything back within weeks of finishing. The birth control pill that controlled it hormonally but that you are now ready to stop — and the dread of what your skin will do when you do. The adult acne that arrived after years of clear skin and that your dermatologist has not been able to fully explain. The cystic breakouts that are painful and leave marks long after the inflammation has resolved. If any of this is familiar, you are not dealing with a hygiene problem or a willpower problem. You are dealing with a hormonal, metabolic, and inflammatory condition whose external presentation is the skin but whose drivers are internal — and almost certainly have never been properly assessed.
THE ACNE SPECTRUM
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Comedonal acne: blackheads and whiteheads from clogged pores, often on the nose and forehead
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Inflammatory acne: red, tender papules and pustules on the face, jaw, or chest
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Cystic acne: deep, painful nodules under the skin that leave post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation or scarring
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Hormonal acne: breakouts concentrated along the jaw, chin, and lower face with a clear cyclical or hormonal pattern
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Adult acne: onset or persistence beyond the teenage years, often with a hormonal or metabolic trigger
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Back and chest acne: frequently with a more systemic hormonal or gut-driven component
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Acne that flares predictably with stress, certain foods, hormonal shifts, or antibiotic courses
THE SYSTEMIC PICTURE
Acne is one of the most reliable external indicators of internal hormonal and metabolic dysfunction. Jaw and chin acne specifically reflects androgen excess and often accompanies insulin resistance, PMOS, or adrenal dysfunction. Acne that flares with diet changes or gut disruption reflects the skin-gut axis. Acne that worsens with stress reflects the cortisol-androgen connection. The skin is telling you something about what is happening internally — and that internal picture is what we investigate.
For patients managing pain conditions alongside chronic acne, the systemic inflammation driving both is often the same — and treating the internal environment benefits the skin and the pain simultaneously.
WHAT YOU PROBABLY HAVEN'T BEEN TOLD
Acne develops when four things converge: excess sebum production, clogged follicles, the bacterium Cutibacterium acnes, and inflammation. The first three create the environment. The fourth is what makes it painful, red, and scarring. All four are driven primarily from the inside.
HOW ACNE ACTUALLY DEVELOPS — AND WHY TREATING THE SKIN WITHOUT TREATING THE INTERNAL DRIVERS PRODUCES TEMPORARY RESULTS AT BEST
Sebum — the oil produced by the sebaceous glands in the skin — is the raw material of acne. Androgens, particularly dihydrotestosterone (DHT), are the primary stimulants of sebum production. When androgens are elevated — from puberty, from insulin resistance, from PMOS, from adrenal dysfunction, or from stress-driven cortisol converting to androgens — sebum production increases. The excess sebum, combined with the dead skin cells that line the follicle, creates a plug that forms the comedone. Cutibacterium acnes — a bacterium naturally present on the skin — proliferates inside the plugged follicle and triggers an immune response. That immune response is the inflammation that produces the redness, swelling, pain, and ultimately the post-inflammatory marks that persist long after the active lesion resolves. Topical treatments address the surface manifestations of this process. Antibiotics reduce the bacterial population temporarily. Retinoids normalize follicular cell turnover. All of these are appropriate as part of a management plan. But none of them address why the androgens are elevated, why the immune response is exaggerated, or why the gut microbiome — which directly influences both androgen metabolism and skin immune reactivity — is dysbiotic.
The gut-skin axis is one of the most clinically important connections in acne management and one of the least addressed. The gut microbiome influences androgen metabolism, systemic inflammation, intestinal permeability, and the skin's own immune reactivity. Gut dysbiosis increases the systemic inflammatory burden that amplifies the skin's response to Cutibacterium acnes. It impairs the liver's ability to detoxify and excrete excess androgens through the enterohepatic circulation. And intestinal permeability from a dysbiotic gut releases inflammatory compounds into the bloodstream that reach the skin and prime it for more severe reactions to the same bacterial trigger. Treating the gut is treating the skin — and it produces results that topical therapy and antibiotics cannot sustain.
Insulin, blood sugar, and acne — the dietary connection that dermatology underestimates
Insulin is a powerful acne driver that is almost never discussed in standard dermatological management. When blood sugar rises after eating refined carbohydrates or high-glycemic foods, insulin rises in response. Elevated insulin stimulates the ovaries and adrenal glands to produce androgens, directly increasing sebum production. It also activates IGF-1 — insulin-like growth factor 1 — which stimulates sebaceous gland growth and follicular cell proliferation, worsening both comedone formation and inflammation. The research on dietary glycemic load and acne is now well-established: high-glycemic diets worsen acne in multiple randomized controlled trials, and low-glycemic dietary interventions produce significant improvements in lesion count independent of any topical or pharmaceutical treatment. Dairy — particularly low-fat dairy and whey protein — has a specific relationship with IGF-1 that explains its well-documented association with acne severity. For many acne patients, dietary modification alone produces more meaningful improvement than any topical treatment they have tried.
A 2007 randomized controlled trial found that a low-glycemic load diet reduced acne lesion count by 51 percent compared to 31 percent in the control group — a larger effect than many pharmaceutical interventions produce.
Hormonal acne in adult women — the PMOS and androgen picture
Adult female acne concentrated along the jaw and chin is one of the most reliable external signs of androgen excess and the insulin resistance that drives it. In women with PMOS, the elevated androgens produced by insulin-stimulated ovaries and adrenal glands directly stimulate the sebaceous glands of the jaw and neck — explaining the specific distribution pattern that characterizes hormonal acne. The oral contraceptive pill suppresses ovarian androgen production and clears hormonal acne while the patient takes it. When the pill is stopped, the underlying androgen-producing mechanism — the insulin resistance — is still in place, and the acne returns. Addressing the insulin resistance directly, alongside gut microbiome support for androgen excretion, produces the hormonal changes that the pill was achieving pharmacologically — but through the patient's own biology rather than through external hormonal suppression. This is slower and requires more effort. It is also more lasting and produces benefits across the whole hormonal system rather than simply suppressing one output of it.
The gut microbiome contains bacteria that produce the enzyme beta-glucuronidase, which recirculates excreted estrogens and androgens back into the bloodstream. Gut dysbiosis that elevates beta-glucuronidase activity directly raises the androgen burden the skin is exposed to.
The antibiotic cycle — why it works, why it stops, and what it costs
Oral antibiotics are commonly prescribed for moderate to severe acne and do produce meaningful improvement by reducing the Cutibacterium acnes population and reducing inflammation. The problem is that acne is not primarily an infection. It is a hormonal and inflammatory condition for which bacterial overgrowth is a secondary contributor. Antibiotics address that secondary contributor while doing nothing for the primary drivers. When the course ends, Cutibacterium acnes repopulates, sebum production resumes at the same elevated level, and the acne returns — often with bacteria that are now more resistant to antibiotic treatment than before. Additionally, repeated antibiotic courses significantly disrupt the gut microbiome — removing the beneficial bacteria that regulate androgen metabolism and intestinal permeability that directly influence acne. Many patients whose acne has worsened over years of antibiotic treatment are experiencing this cycle. Restoring the gut microbiome after antibiotic exposure is one of the most important steps in breaking the cycle.
Antibiotic resistance in Cutibacterium acnes is now a significant clinical problem — another reason that addressing acne through its root hormonal and inflammatory drivers rather than through ongoing antibiotic suppression is the appropriate long-term strategy.
OUR APPROACH
Conventional care versus our approach
Dermatological acne care is well developed and we support it — topical retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, and prescription options all have a role in managing the surface presentation. Our naturopathic approach provides what dermatology does not: the internal investigation and treatment of the hormonal, metabolic, and gut health drivers that determine how severe the acne will be and whether it will keep returning.
The conventional approach
What most patients experience
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Clinical assessment based on acne type and severity; hormonal blood work occasionally ordered in adult female acne
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Topical retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, or antibiotic gels for mild to moderate acne
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Oral antibiotics (doxycycline, minocycline) for moderate to severe inflammatory acne — often for months to years
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Oral contraceptive pill or spironolactone for hormonal acne in women
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Isotretinoin (Accutane) for severe or refractory cystic acne
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Insulin resistance, gut microbiome, dietary glycemic load, androgen metabolism, and the systemic inflammatory picture not assessed as part of standard acne management
Standard acne care manages the surface presentation effectively in many patients. Its limitation is that it treats the endpoint of a hormonal and inflammatory process without investigating or addressing the internal drivers of that process — which is why acne so reliably returns when treatment stops.
What we do differently
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Comprehensive internal assessment: full androgen panel (testosterone, DHT, DHEA-S), fasting insulin and HOMA-IR, complete thyroid panel, gut microbiome health, inflammatory markers, zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin D
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Insulin resistance and blood sugar management: low-glycemic dietary guidance, inositol and berberine where appropriate, and carbohydrate quality correction — targeting the primary hormonal driver of sebum overproduction at its metabolic source
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Gut microbiome restoration: targeted probiotic and prebiotic protocols to reduce systemic inflammation, support androgen excretion through the enterohepatic circulation, and restore the gut-skin axis signaling that regulates skin immune reactivity
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Androgen reduction without hormonal suppression: spearmint, saw palmetto, and zinc as evidence-based anti-androgenic interventions that reduce sebum production through the androgen pathway without the hormonal side effects of pharmaceutical approaches
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Systemic anti-inflammatory support: omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and targeted dietary pattern to reduce the inflammatory environment that transforms a clogged pore into a painful, scarring lesion
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For patients coming off antibiotics or the pill: gut microbiome restoration and androgen management to prevent the flare that typically follows discontinuation — providing a supported transition rather than the derailment most patients fear
We work alongside the patient's dermatologist. Topical care and naturopathic internal medicine are highly complementary — the surface treatments manage what is visible while the internal work removes the reason it keeps appearing.
WHAT MAKES OUR APPROACH DIFFERENT — IN A SINGLE PARAGRAPH
Standard acne care treats the pore. Our approach treats the hormonal, metabolic, and inflammatory environment producing the excess sebum that fills it. We identify the insulin resistance stimulating androgen overproduction, the gut dysbiosis elevating the systemic inflammatory burden and impairing androgen excretion, the specific dietary patterns driving IGF-1 and sebum elevation, and the nutritional deficiencies reducing the skin's ability to regulate its own immune response. We do this with or without the topical treatment the patient is already using — because the two approaches work at completely different levels, address completely different drivers, and produce results together that neither achieves alone. The result is not temporarily clearer skin that requires indefinite maintenance. It is skin that is genuinely less prone to acne because the internal environment producing it has been changed.
ACNE AND THE REST OF YOUR HEALTH
Acne is one of the most reliable external signs of insulin resistance, hormonal dysregulation, and gut dysfunction. Treating it comprehensively improves not only the skin but the entire internal environment that was producing it.
At True Health Centers, we regularly identify PMOS, insulin resistance, thyroid dysfunction, and gut dysbiosis in patients who came to us primarily for their skin. The systemic improvements that follow from addressing these conditions — in energy, mood, hormonal balance, and metabolic health — are often as meaningful to patients as the skin clearance itself.
Acne and PMOS
Acne is one of the three defining features of PMOS alongside irregular cycles and excess hair growth. The androgen excess driving the jaw and chin acne pattern in adult women is almost invariably connected to the insulin resistance that is the primary metabolic driver of PMOS. Treating acne in a patient with PMOS without addressing the insulin resistance is treating one symptom of the underlying condition. Addressing the insulin resistance improves the acne, the cycles, the energy, the mood, and the long-term metabolic risk profile — simultaneously, through the same intervention.
Stress, cortisol, and acne flares
The consistent worsening of acne during stressful periods is not coincidental. Cortisol — the primary stress hormone — directly stimulates the adrenal glands to produce androgens (DHEA-S), which increase sebum production. Cortisol also increases intestinal permeability, driving the gut-skin axis inflammation that amplifies the skin's response to Cutibacterium acnes. Constitutional hydrotherapy and autonomic nervous system regulation address the cortisol-androgen pathway directly — reducing the stress-driven contribution to acne severity as a direct, physiologically coherent intervention.
Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and skin repair
The marks that acne leaves after lesions heal — the dark spots and discoloration of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation — are a significant source of distress for many patients and often persist for months. The nutritional foundations of skin repair — vitamin C for collagen synthesis, zinc for wound healing, vitamin A for skin cell turnover, and omega-3s for the anti-inflammatory environment that minimizes scar formation — are directly addressed through the same naturopathic nutritional approach that targets the acne itself. Improving the internal repair environment speeds resolution of the post-inflammatory marks alongside preventing the next wave of lesions.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
The acne is on your skin. The cause is in your hormones, your gut, and your metabolism. That is where we treat it.
Comprehensive hormonal and metabolic assessment, gut microbiome restoration, dietary guidance, and targeted nutritional support — alongside your dermatologist.
Not sure where to begin? Give us a call and we'll help you choose the best first step.