The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology proposes that drinking milk may increase the risk of acne in teenagers. In the Nurses` Health Study II, more than 47,000 women completed an extensive health questionnaire about their health and lifestyles. One topic addressed was their milk-drinking habits as teenagers and whether or not they had been diagnosed with severe acne. The results showed that those who drank milk were more likely to develop teenage acne. Those who drank more milk had even a higher risk.

The Journal of American Academy of Dermatology tested 47,335 women in a health study to see if acne and milk were related. They asked these women about what milk they drank as well as if they had severe acne as a teenager or not. The results from the research showed women who drank two or more servings of skim milk each day were 44% more likely to suffer from cystic and nodule acne. Women who drank over two glasses of skim milk each day were 22% more likely to have suffered from severe acne than those who drank one glass serving a day. From this data, the researchers were able to make a positive connection between acne and milk. The Journal of American Academy of Dermatology reported that the root cause of acne from milk were hormones and bioactive molecules.

Milk also contains testosterone, estrogen, progesterone and other hormones. Some of these hormones are known to promote acne. In addition, there are a number of other bioactive hormones; insulin-like growth factor and transforming growth factor may also have effects. Some milk producers inject additional hormones into the cows so they will produce more milk. These hormones find their way into the milk and, ultimately, into those who drink the milk. Milk producers argue that the level of these hormones is very small. However, there are questions about how these hormones and their effects are measured. Although the levels of these hormones may be small, the consequences can be big.

Iodine in milk may also be a culprit in causing acne. Since there is a significant level of iodine in milk - farmers give their cows "iodine-fortified feed" in order to prevent infection - which results in more iodine inside of dairy products. Iodine could be a factor that contributes to acne, but hormones and bioactive molecules could also be involved along with iodine in causing acne.

Other dairy foods have been tested along with this study, but it turned out the different dairy products such as cheese didn`t have as much as a correlation with acne as skim milk did. Whole and low-fat milk didn`t show definite results either. Interestingly, pizza, french fries and chocolate did not have a significant correlation with acne.

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