Category: Acne

If you are an adult woman who suffers from acne outbreaks, you have probably often felt frustrated or embarrassed by this condition. Rest assured; you are not alone. Millions of women worldwide who have long since past their teenage years now continue to go through the trials of adult acne today. If you are a woman who feels that all is lost, know that regardless of your situation, there is an acne treatment available for you.

Women go through hormonal changes many times in their lives. If you are suffering from a recent acne outbreak, it may be because of hormone changes going on in your body. When the body has a high androgen level, the hormone known as testosterone, it can cause acne outbreaks in the female body.

For mild cases, a number of over-the-counter products are available such as Clearasil or Oxy 10. These products often use benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, or a combination of both. These act as an antibacterial cleansing agent and can be effective for less severe cases of adult female acne.

For severe or prolonged hormone imbalances, you may consider talking to a physician about hormone treatments. If hormonal imbalance is the cause of your acne, a doctor can help identify and diagnose the problems. Hormone treatments can be effective against even the most severe cases of acne found in women. The treatment inhibits the androgens from stimulating the oil glands, thus cutting down on excessive oil that can cause clogged pores and hair follicles. A blood test and often a prescription for oral medication are required for hormone treatments, so it is only available through a doctor. They can be very effective treatments, however, even to the point of stopping the acne before it even occurs.

One last-resort option is a prescription medication called Accutane. It is a concentrated form of vitamin A. Vitamin A is an effective nutrient that strengthens the protective tissues in the skin. It helps repair and maintain the cells that mucous membranes are made of. It also inhibits the body’s production of sebum, a kind of oil that the body produces in the sebaceous glands. When the body produces too much sebum, the pores and hair follicles can become clogged. Accutane should be used when other treatments have been tried and failed because it has some side effects such as possible complications during pregnancy or birth defects.

Another option may be birth control pills. Hormonal pills such as OrthoTryCyclen and Estrostep are standard prescriptions that often help prevent acne outbreaks. They are not always totally effective in clearing up blemishes and at times must be used in combination with other forms of treatment. Again, a physician is the best person to consult with in helping to determine what the best options may be. When taking any kind of hormonal birth control pills, women must remember to follow health restrictions that come with use of the pill, such as not smoking cigarettes.

Remember, whatever level of acne a woman has can be treated and helped. The first step in acne prevention is to consult a doctor or dermatologist. If you are ready for beautiful skin, it is very attainable with some effort and care.

Jane used to fight acne for years until she found this natural cure for acne.

Acne affects most of us at some stage in our lives. Even the lucky ones who seem to by-pass acne during their teenage years still get the odd pimple and spots. Whilst you may find the occassional pimples hard to deal with, what if you have more serious acne condition?

If you are suffering from a serious acne condition you may have visited your doctor to see what can be done. Unless the condition is extremely serious your doctor will unlikely suggest taking a prescription acne treatment, such as Isotretinoin. Whilst these can work they are often associated with side effects such as effects that include depression, hallucinations and cracked skin. So taking an acne medication may not be safe for everyone.

Under direct medical supervision drugs like Isotretinoin can be effective and if you are prescribe this particular treatment its because your condition is serious enough to warrant it. Sometimes steroids are prescribed for some serious acne conditions, which is taken in a variety of ways by injection, topical cream or orally. Steriods can quality reduce the inflammation associated with acne. Again there are side effects with steriod treatments the main ones being weight gain and mood swings.

So what are your options for treating mild to moderate acne conditions?

There are a number of options if your acne condition is not severe these are in the form of topical skin care treatments. The effective treatments typically contain tea tree oil that is gentle to your skin and yet effective at attacking the bacteria in your pores. Importantly it can clear up acne without damaging your skin and help you fight off acne at the source.

Benzoyl Peroxide is another active component used in many acne treatments. Whilst this is also effective at killing any bacteria it can often led to drying of the skin, which can have the knock on effect of increased production of oil. Some the more effective acne treatments tend to use tea tree oil and possibly Benzoyl Peroxide in smaller amounts.

Another ingredient popular in some acne products is Salicylic acid. This is applied to the skin and is used for mild acne conditions. You may suffer from mild stinging and irritation on your skin when using Salicylic acid.

In summary, if you are suffering from mild to moderate acne it can be safe and effective to use an over the counter acne treatment. If you suspect your acne is more serious then you should visit your doctor who may prescribe an acne drug that will require more medical supervision.

How frustrating is it to go out during the summer and have to deal with annoying mosquitoes and worry about applying an oily mosquito repellent on your skin. You have to debate if you want to use insect repellent and if you should spray it on your face. If you battle from acne or sensitive skin this can be a major headache.

Traditional mosquito repellents are oil based and contain harmful chemicals that can cause your skin to break out. There are certain chemical based insect repellents that are linked to causing your pores to produce excess oil. If you are out during the day and have repellent on your hands there are going to be times that you are going to touch your face.

Scientist have discovered there are over 300 chemicals that our body produces that mosquitoes are attracted to. They have kept some of these chemicals a secret, but has made public that these chemicals are embedded in our lactic acid. Lactic acid is excreted from our pores.

This is also the reason why some people get bit more than other people. Some people produce more lactic acid that others and some produce more chemicals that the mosquitoes are attracted to. It?s just like body odor.. some people smell worst than others when they sweat or not.

The way most mosquito repellents work is by reducing and changing the chemical structure of your lactic acid by clogging your pores. Think about how certain deodorants keep you from sweating and smelling awful. Deet which is the active ingredient in most insect repellents clog your pores and prevents your lactic acid from being identified by mosquitoes. The major problem with Deet is that it has many harmful side effects. There are also certain parts on your body that produce more lactic acid than others. This is also why people receive more bites in certain spots. The bad news is that if you are prone to acne you produce a larger amount of lactic acid on your face. The last thing you want to do is spray harmful pore clogging insect repellent on your face. There is actually a new product on the market that is scientifically proven to mask the chemicals from your lactic acid without having to clog your pores or apply anything to your skin. It releases a natural aroma that has been proven to cover up and eliminate the chemicals that are found in your lactic acid. It works exactly how Febreze works by eliminating odors in your house.

In the USA, about 85 percent of all teenagers will suffer with acne with many of these persons carrying the affliction into their adult years. Nonetheless, there is a very effective home treatment and cure for acne which is certainly not a normal state of health. Without a doubt, the waves of hormones that come with puberty are responsible for an increase in the secretion of sebum (skin oil) which is associated with the onslaught of acne. Some researchers have forwarded the theory that acne is a malady that is genetically transmitted. Others have supported the idea that external conditions such as the food we eat are the most important factors. In our western culture that consumes 47% of calories from fats and oils (this is an enormous amount it should be 10%), genetic factors can have a significant part to play in how prone a person might be to developing acne. To really know whether or not diet is the dominant factor in causing acne, we would have to show that acne is missing in cultures that have diets that are significantly varied from what Americans eat.

Your doctor will mostly likely parrot the reigning dogma that acne and excess oil in and on your skin are not related to what you eat. When you hear this, ask to see the evidence. You will then witness this man of science falling into speechlessness with nothing more than empty platitudes. This inaccurate data goes back to a lone article written by Dr. James Fulton in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1969. In addition, the conclusions of this study have been rightly criticized and effectively skewered for more than twenty-five years. Because of this misinformation, many millions suffer.

Thirty teenagers were studied by Dr. Fulton (16 boys and 14 girls) who were patients at a clinic for acne. Also studied were thirty-five young male adult prison inmates with moderate to mild acne conditions. The study was funded by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association of America. They provided the participants with two varieties of candy bars one contained chocolate and the other did not. The contents of both bars were primarily sugar and fat and had closely matched calories (592 and 557 per candy bar). The participants were asked to consume one bar or the other each day for four weeks. No other aspect of their diet was changed for the duration of the experiment. Dr. Fulton and associates then took a census of the pimples. Forty-six of the sixty-five participants showed no change in pimple count. Ten were improved and nine were worse. It should be noted that the amount of sebum (skin oil) was elevated by 60 percent when either of the sugary high-fat candy bars were consumed regardless of whether or not it contained chocolate. It is astonishing that the outcome of this one, very flawed and totally irrelevant (it only examined the effects of chocolate) study is the foundation upon which it is claimed that acne is not caused by diet!

Our Plague of Acne Occurs Solely Where Fat Laden Food is Eaten

Acne forms when the sebaceous follicles or skin pores are blocked with dead skin cells followed by the accumulation of fatty oils and waxy substances (sebum) in the clogged pores. The afflicted pore is then infected with bacteria which causes the inflamed pustule we know as a pimple. The bacteria dine on the sebum. Current orthodox treatment is aimed at unclogging the skin pores, releasing the pocket of sebum, destroying the bacteria and lowering the inflammation by numerous drugs sold by prescription and over-the-counter. As with most diseases in our Western culture, there is a more effective natural treatment and cure for acne which is diet. Diet is the cause and diet is the natural treatment and cure of acne.

Multiple Studies Acne and Traditional Diets

Many studies have been done on persons eating their native traditional diets. Most all of these diets are low in fat and center around the consumption of fruits, vegetables and starches. It has been universally demonstrated that these cultures experience little or no acne. When these same persons move to a location that consumes the typical Western fare, acne will bloom with full fury. This is true for other maladies such as breast cancer, diabetes, prostate, heart disease and obesity. Some thoroughly studied cultures include the Ache of Eastern Paraguay have a diet that provides 70% of calories from cassava (a root vegetable) and the Kitavan Islanders of Papua New Guinea who consume a diet of carbohydrate plant foods providing 70% of calories. Not a single case of acne can be found in these two cultures subsisting mostly on unrefined plant foods that are low in fat.

We see the same results when studying African tribes living on plant-based foods. They are mostly free from acne. Teenagers in southern African Bantu have a 16% occurrence of acne as opposed to white persons in Africa who have an acne incidence of 45%. It has been noted that Zulu persons have developed acne only after they migrate from their tribal village to the larger cities and adopt a Western diet. Persons in both Zambia and Kenya have much less acne than to African Americans living in the USA. Persons from Malaysia consuming diets based on rice have been shown to have little or no problems with acne. A rice-based diet also accounts for the fact that persons living in rural Japan have very few problems with their skin. It should be further noted that persons of European descent living on low fat diets in Crete and Southern Italy have far less acne than persons in Western Europe who consume high fat diets. The Yemenite Jews who eat a healthy low-fat diet report much less acne that do European Jews. So the picture could not be any clearer. Switching from a Western diet based on dairy and meat to a low-fat, plant-based diet will vanquish your acne problems. Without a doubt, there are aspects of the rich Western diet that cause the skin to deteriorate and become unsightly. This is not normal and it is not natural. It is a disease.

How Diet Causes Acne

1) The amount of fats and oil (sebum) on the skin increases as the amount of fat in the diet increases. By changing ones diet to include near total rejection of fat or, conversely, the inclusion of fat as the near total source of food, it is shown that the amount of sebum excretion will be greatly changed. It should be noted that it takes little fat to clog pores, feed bacteria and cause acne in persons who are susceptible. These offending bacteria do as well on vegetable oil as they do on animal fats.

2) Our rich Western diet causes an elevation in sex hormones which encourages early puberty. Early pubescence of women has been shown to be related to the onset of severe acne. Excess male hormones in women and men are well understood to bring about acne and elevated sebum excretion.

3) The sebaceous glands (oil producing) are negatively affected by growth hormones allowing them to be plugged more easily. IGF-1 (Insulin-like growth hormone-1) has been shown to become elevated by consuming meat and dairy foods. Studies show that an increase in acne is related to an increase in IGF-1.

Other items that may have a smaller role are:

4) Lack of other plant-derived nutrients and anti-oxidants cause deterioration in health thus promoting acne.

5) A diet high in fat causes poor blood circulation to the skin making one more prone to acne.

6) Hands and fingers in contact with greasy foods such as French fries can cause acne when transferred by touch to the skin. This clogs the pores and provides nourishment for bacteria.

Natural Cure and Prevention of Acne

We all know that teenage surging hormones and acne are related but to think that puberty is the cause of acne is like saying old age is the cause of heart disease. More heart disease manifests in old age because of a lifetime of poor diet. Heart disease does not occur in areas where the inhabitants eat healthy foods such as rural Asia and Africa. Heart disease can also be cured when those afflicted switch to a healthy diet. The same is true for acne.

The horrors of acne may be the best tool one could ever have to promote a healthy diet to teenagers. After switching to a low-fat, plant-based diet you and your teenagers can expect to see an obvious decrease in the oil on your skin and hair in about four to seven days. The pimples will begin to go away in a short time following that. It may take as long as 30 days for improvement to begin to show. Absolute discipline with what one eats is vital. Even small lapses can bring a bloom of pimples within a couple of days. One evening at the local pizza place will result in crop of pustules in short order. You must adhere to a diet consisting of vegetables, fruits and starches. By all means avoid added fats such as vegetable oils, soybeans, olives, avocados, seeds, nuts and the so-called beneficial fats. Carefully wash all oils from your fingers and hands before you touch any part of your face. Use a buff pad to assist the opening of your pores. Thoroughly clean your skin. If your skin does not show improvement, then you are most likely not being strict enough in your diet. We should remember that many millions of persons who live in rural Asia and Africa, Paraguay, and Papua New Guinea are eating a low-fat, plant-based diet and they are free of acne their entire lives. There is no reason why you cant be free of acne if you adopt the same diet.

It seems like every time I sit down to watch TV there are at the very least 10 different acne commercials that pop up within an hour. This one is promising you this and this one has a celebrity saying it works and this one over her is saying use a cleanser for your exact skin type. It can get quite overwhelming. I could only imagine the people out there, especially the teenagers, who have acne and are so embarrassed of it watching these commercials believing that there is hope. So, in my scenario, these people use the acne cleansers to only find out they have been had. How devastating is that. So for all of you people out there that have been ripped off by a brightly spotlighted acne cleanser company, I have some information for you. The only way to be sure you are using the best cleanser for you is to read the reviews and know your ingredients.

Reading the reviews: cleanser reviews, acne treatment reviews, or anything else you can thing will give you a ton of information that you can use to make your decision. You should be able to find out ingredients that will work for your skin, and the general consensus from consumers as to what these products are capable of and how they are perceived. Review sites are a savvy shoppers guide to finding the best cleansers or creams out on the market. For example; the acne products I have been using goes by the name Dermajuv and this is how I found out about them. I went online searching for help to fight acne and came across Dermajuv. From there I kept seeing good review after good review, plus I loved the ingredients they used, and decided to give it a go. I have been using it ever since. This just goes to show what a good avenue review sites can be.

Even though reading the review sites is a huge part of finding the right acne cleanser of cream for your face, the ingredients are what you should focus most of your time on. Due to the fact that acne is pretty much a severe irritating breakout present on your face, you should take extra precaution not to use a cleanser with ingredients that will irritate your skin further. Your skin has already been through enough, it needs treatment not torture.

So to find these ingredients in your acne cleanser you can either look to the review sites or the company’s direct website or anywhere else you can think of for information. If we want to continue with the Dermajuv example; the Dermajuv cleanser that I use for acne is called the Detoxifying Cleanser. The active ingredient for acne included in Dermajuv’s cleanser is called Resveratrol. This ingredient has been described as Benzoyl Peroxide without the side effects. So what Resveratrol does is kill the bacteria that cause acne to happen while not drying or irritating your skin further. Other ingredients included in Dermajuv’s Detoxifying Cleanser are Glycolic Acid and Tangerine Oil. Both of these ingredients aid in the killing of bacteria while exfoliating your skin allowing new skin cells to come forth. Plus, my favorite part of the ingredients, they all come from a natural base so no chemicals are involved to irritate or have a reaction with the skin. So after visiting the cleanser review sites for acne and finding a cleanser that you like, dive deeper in and learn about those ingredients. It will make your choice a lot more enjoyable if you do.

Read reviews, know your ingredients, and do not get fooled by the glitz and glamour of a TV commercial with your favorite celebrity. Take my experience with Dermajuv’s cleanser and follow the steps I have taken to clear up my acne. Use your own intelligence and start the search for the best acne cleanser in your opinion. Believe me; you will be closer to find a great product doing it this way than believing a commercial.

Ashlyn Martin has worked in the dermatology profession, as well as starting off as a skin care professional in retail markets. Having vast knowledge of the skin care industry, she has decide to give advice on such topics as acne and the scars they produce and giving tips on some of the best companies and products like looking at the reviews. For example; with the company Dermajuv you would use Dermajuv cleanser reviews or any other company of interest.