Are there any difference in creams, gels, lotions or foams in topical acne treatment?

The base of the product that frames the active ingredients determine how well the active ingredients are being absorbed in the skin. It can also make the active ingredients stronger or weaker. Therefore, there are indeed some differences with  products that have the same active ingredient (such as a 1% benzoyl peroxide) but come in different forms such as creams, gels, lotions or foams. 

If our skin is very oily, gels are much better for it. When the skin is dry, creams or ointment products are more suitable. Lotions and oils are usually used in the summer months where humidity is higher.

Products that are more moisturizing are normally greasier, making it unsuitable for most people as most people who have acne would normally have oily skin. Therefore, one definitely wouldn't want to put something which is greasy on one acne prone skin to treat acne.

 

 

However, a more drying product will make our skin irritated. Sometimes, a combination of more drying and more moisturizing products can be used to achieve good results as in acne treatments. As most acne treatments are drying, we recommend them to be used with moisturizers to make them less irritating for the skin to achieve an acne free complexions.

Benzoyl peroxide is known to be more active when used in the gel formulation than in other forms. However, it may be too irritating for some people. Hence the options are to use a lower concentration of benzoyl peroxide in the gel formulation, choose a higher concentration in a cream or use the cleansers in various strengths.

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Does facial treatment help clear acne?

Don't we all love facial treatment? It gives us a feeling of refreshment and cleanse after we have one. A typical facial treatments by beauticians in salons and spas consists of cleansing, massaging, heat wrapping, extraction of blackheads and application of creams.

Simple procedures such as cleansing and extraction of blackheads (open comedones) by aestheticians are usually safe. However, in the extraction of the blackheads, the beautician normally uses a tissue paper or blackhead remover to extract the contents which can lead to redness and swelling. Furthermore, this is only a temporary improvement  to free the pores from impurities as the pore will be clogged again over the next few days.

The cream or lotion used might cause irritation to your skin. And the skills of the beauticians or aestheticians in different salons vary tremendously. An aggresive facial can leave your face worse than no facials at all.

Should you decide to have a facial, ask your dermatologist or friends who have had facials on a good beautician. Ask your dermatologist on the products that they recommend to you and try them one by one in order to minimise the chance of skin irritation and acne breakouts.

Therefore, facial treatment only clears blackheads from our faces for a few days only. We also have to be alert on the type of creams and lotions that are being used on our faces, and also on the skill of the beauticians.   

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Do I need to treat my acne?

This question is often asked by people with one or two pimples at a time. Of course, the decision to treat the pimples is entirely up to each individual. Some people have many acne lesions and do not seem to mind while others are full of worries even with one pimple, especially on their nose.

Let us put it this way. If you get one new acne lesion per month with each lesion leave behind a scar, you will have 12 new scars per year. Therefore, it would be wise to treat the acne in order to prevent new acne lesions from forming and clear existing one so as to minimize the occurrence of permanent scarring.

Treating acne is definitely a lot easier than treating acne scars. And by the way, no matter what people tell you, one can never really get rid of acne scar, one can only lessen its appearance. Treatments are available to make the raised tissue around the scar flatter but I have yet to know any treatment that can raise sunken tissues effectively. And the cost of such treatment is prohibitive. So it is better to prevent the occurrence of acne scars than to treat acne scars. Therefore, it is indeed wise to treat acne from preventing any acne scar to form later on.

Wherever possible, avoid squeezing your acne lesions at this might lead to permanent scarring. Picking or squeezing at acne lesions also leads to a longer existence of your lesion and not to mention the associated pain that developed at the acne spots.

Anyway, by observing factors such as the duration and severity of your acne lesions, whether they are itchy and painful, the duration you have acne, your past response to acne treatment and the tendency of scarring and hyper pigmentation can greatly guide you in seeking treatment. It will help your dermatologist to decide the appropriate treatment for your acne condition too.

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Why antibiotic doesn't work forever for your acne?

The typical acne treatment, especially those that are being categorized as mild and moderate acne, is by using topical medications. It can either be purchased from your local pharmacy stores either through off the shelf or prescribed by your dermatologist.

However, for those with severe acne, it seems that the application treatment gels or creams do not do anything to improve the condition of one's acne. Most of the time, acne sufferers with severe acne condition will be recommended to go for antibiotic. Normally, this is the last resort in the medication profession to treat acne, Why? Because antibiotic, such as Accutane, does has its shares of harm in treating acne . Its side effects can be devastating and that is the reason why your dermatologist will use it to treat your acne for a short term period.


Antibioitics, as with most topical treatments, not only kill off P. acnes bacteria but also other friendly bacteria such as those pro biotic bacteria in your GI tract. Antibiotics work, where topical medications failed, because they contain stronger dosage of bacteria killing effects. Even though it works, its effect is never everlasting. In most cases, acne will return after the antibiotics treatment has been stopped for some times.

You would never cured it using this method as it is only treating the symptom of your acne condition, not the cause. That being said, it doesn't mean one should not resort to antibiotic to treat one acne condition which is severe. As a temporary counter measure, yes, we should try this treatment when typical acne treatments do not show any improvement in treating acne. Furthermore, in severe case of acne, the possibility of getting acne scar if nothing is done to treat it (and please believe me, acne need to be treated, it won't go away by itself) is high and believe me, treating acne scar is much much more difficult than treating any type of acne. In short, acne scar condition is almost non reversible. One can only lessen the effect of the scar, and never to get rid of it.

Prolonged usage of antibiotics will make your acne bacteria immune or resistance to its after some time as persistent exposure to the antibiotics will make our body develop a strain of acne bacteria that it resistant to it. When this happens, it is deemed that the antibiotic is futile in combating acne.

Remember that I did mention that antibiotics not only kill P.acnes bacteria but also other friendly bacteria in your G I tract? These friendly bacteria helps a lot in assisting us to absorb nutrients from the food we take. They also prevent fungus and many parasites to occupy the linens of our digestive system. I guess you can imagine what will happen to your overall health with the prolonged intake of antibiotics (to treat your acne) that completely kill off all your friendly flora bacteria. Now, you will not only get the severe acne condition again but also get a lot of chronic infections, among others include stomach ulcers, as an overall poor health system acts as a floodgate to lot and lot of diseases.        

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Why do we need to continuously treat our acne?

I bet this question will pop up on any acne sufferer who has acne pimples for a while. Do we really need to treat acne until it decides to go away? Do we really need to apply those topical acne gel or cream diligently? Couldn't we have some control over its popping up all over our face and body? Can't it be cured?

Well, if you read my post on the What is the true cause of acne?, you would know that there is indeed a solution to keep acne at bay. In the Is acne contagious? post, we know that acne bacteria can thrive only if they are being nurtured with the right environment. The act of applying acne gels or creams to the acne zits or spots meant to kill the bacteria that are proliferate there.

So you see, as long as we keep on applying the topical solution to the affected acne prone skin to kill off those acne bacteria, acne won't get a chance to develop. The moment we stop doing so, the acne development process will restart and acne will return will soon. This is unavoidable since we are treating the symptom, and not the actual root cause of acne.

That's why we often heard that acne is treatable but not possible to cure. We are not tackling the actual root cause of acne which is hormonal imbalanced and  toxins accumulation. Therefore, if one is really committed to keep acne away away for good, we need to tackle these two causes. But most acne sufferers just don't have the patience, faith  and time to travel this route as it really takes a long time to take effect. Even the time duration of seeing the effect of acne subsiding by the application of topical medications (a week or two) is too slow for them. After all, when one has acne, one is very anxious and embarrassed and want to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Most acne sufferers want instant result. Apply the medication today and see the acne pimples vanish the next morning. Believe me, this is not going to happen. The expectation of instant gratification in anything we do including getting rid of acne makes us concentrate on using medications to treat acne.       

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Is acne contagious?

I guess this question will be on the mind of every acne sufferers. Is acne contagious? Could acne be transferred from one person to another simply by touching or making contact with the acne prone area? Or is it possible acne can be transferred from one spot of the skin to another spot simply by touching both areas with a hand or finger?

In my previous post on The True Cause of Acne, we know that acne is caused by hormones imbalanced and congestion of toxins from our blood. Hormones imbalanced causes our sebaceous glands to excrete an immense amount of sebum. Congestion of toxins coupled with excessive skin shedding in the pilosebaceous unit (hair follicles) provides a conducive area for the acne bacteria to breed and multiply. With the presence of bacteria, the excessive sebum will become hardened and finally form what we known as acne.

That's why you often heard people said acne bacteria aggravates acne condition. It is only with the right condition (excessive sebum and a congestion of the toxins from our internal body system) that acne bacteria can thrive and cause acne to spread.

Therefore, simply touching one area of your skin free acne with your hand or finger laden with acne bacteria won't simply make that area infected with acne pimples. And do you know that some area of our skin (even with an enormous amount of acne bacteria population) won't have acne? Have you noticed your hand, fingers, and feet simply won't have acne?

So that means perfect skin person has acne bacteria on their skin but without the proper environment, acne won't get a chance to proliferate. Even though the acne bacteria are there, acne pimples are no where in sight. That's why I often say acne bacteria don't cause acne.








       

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What is the true cause of acne?

Whether one is looking to treat or to cure acne (yes, that right, I did mention the word cure), it would be a lot easier to do so if we understand what causes it.

Most of you might answer bacteria. Unfortunately, bacteria doesn't cause acne, even though it might aggravate acne. If bacteria causes acne, then how do you answer when there is certain place in our skin that acne just won't grow no matter how much acne bacteria you transfer to it.

Some of you might say genetic plays a big role. True to a certain extent but that it not the actual cause either. If it is, then one whole family would suffer acne. Do all your brothers and sisters have acne? And when there are two or three members in the family who are prone to acne, they said it is genetic. Have they ever paused and think that there might be something else that causes acne? Maybe there is some external trigger that causes acne. Something like one's lifestyle or the environment one live in.

Aha, now some of you might say overactive oil glands. Very close, as most of the acne sufferers were in their teens. In this stage of life, one's sebaceous oil glands secrete lot and lot of oil  and cause blockage to the follicles and eventually the accumulation of the hardening of oil there is known as acne.


Hmmm, seem like we have our answer there. Or is it? Let me ask you one question. Why do our sebaceous oil glands are so active in that stage of our lives? Why do pimple, acne, blackheads, zits, or whatever you like to call it, pop up at those unwelcome period?

Well, the answer lies in the imbalance of hormones. As hormones control the amount of sebum excreted by the sebaceous glands, an imbalanced hormones condition would make one's skin very oily. That's why most people will oily skin have acne. Most people but not all. Why? To have acne, we would need another ingredient. And this ingredient is none other than the congesting toxins in the sebaceous units originating from our blood and lymph. 

So now you know that an imbalanced hormone condition coupled with blood toxins cause acne.
 

     

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