Acne Tips

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

2011-04-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Does facial treatment help clear acne?

2011-04-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Do I need to treat my acne?

2011-04-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Why antibiotic doesn't work forever for your acne?

2011-04-27T01:38:00.000-07:00

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.

Why do we need to continuously treat our acne?

2011-04-21T02:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Is acne contagious?

2011-04-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

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.

What is the true cause of acne?

2011-04-19T05:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Birth Control Pills to Treat Your Acne

2010-06-22T03:16:00.000-07:00

Birth control pills for acne? It's won't come as a surprise if we fully understand how acne begin in the first place. Caused by a blockage of pores in the hair follicles by excessive shedding of dead skin and secretion of sebum, acne pimple begin to take shape.

What causes an abnormally high amount of sebum secretion by the glands in our skin? It is mainly due to the excessive amount of male hormone, androgen and testosterone presence. When one is in teenage years, the female and male hormones are normally out of balance. And yes, the male hormones also made themselves present in a female body.

Birth control pill is used to bring back some stability of these hormones in the woman's body. Women normally experience great hormone fluctuation before their menstrual period. When these hormones are regulated and become more balance, acne outbreaks would not only become less severe but also less frequent.

A visit to a dermatologist for those with severe case of acne would normally lead to the prescription of isotretinoin. This medication, usuall come in the brand Accutane, is a risky drug to treat acne.

To say that Accutane is risky to a pregnant woman is an understatement. It is a well known fact that Accutane causes great harm to one's fetus. Therefore, federal regulation are in placed to confirm one is not pregnant before taking Accutane. Also, screening of pregnancy is required for each refill of Accutane medication.

That's why your doctor normally prescribed birth control pill be taken together with Accutane to minimize the chance of getting pregnant during one's acne treatment using Accutane. However, as with all other acne medications, once you stop taking them, acne will come back to haunt you and might even be more severe than before.

One final note I must stress that when birth control pills are used to control one's acne, its effectiveness on its main function, ie. to avoid pregnancy, is greatly reduced due to the presence of Accutane. It still have its effect but it pays to get another birth control method in place to further reduce the probability of getting a baby.

How to prevent acne: is it possible?

2010-05-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

I guess everyone who have acne would look for ways to prevent it. But is that possible?

To answer that question, you got to know why acne occur in the first place. It is not due to dirt or, the stuff you eat (though there're lots of debates going around about this point). It is mainly due to the hormonal change in our bodies. For teenagers, this hormone change is unavoidable. So is acne that come together with it.

Next, you may ask, "Since everyone experiences hormonal changes in their bodies, why not everyone get acne?" Interesting question. I guess by now, you already known that everyone of us is different. That includes our bodies. For most of us, our sebaceous glands will secrete more oil as a reaction to our hormonal changes while a small number of us do not show such symptom.

And when too much oil (sebum) is produced and coupled with the abnormal amount of dead skin shedding , our hair follicles will be blocked. When this takes place, it only a matter of days that acne lesions will pop up on our skin.

Though acne can't be prevented, it can be minimized. Taking steps to minimize the acne occurrence in our skin will save us tons of problem in dealing with our skin appearance later on in our life. So let take a look at ways to do so.

Remember I said earlier on, acne is not caused by dirt. So there is no need to wash your face repetitively daily. It won't make your pimples go away. Instead, it would only worsen your skin condition and makes it more acne-prone as over washing makes it drier. When your skin become too dry, the sebaceous glands will secrete more sebum and as a result, more acne breakouts will occur. Usually washing your face two times a day is sufficient in keeping your skin hygiene.

And do pat dry your skin after washing instead of rubbing with rough towel. Why? Surely you don't want to give your existing acne a chance to infect the skin area which is free of acne.

Some skincare companies give the misconception that hard scrub is good for our skin. Hope that you didn't tag along the same line. Remember our skin (especially the part that is on the face) is very delicate. To keep it clean, you don't have to scrub it vigorously. Such action would only "puncture" and injure it which would pose more problem to your acne condition.

Remember the age old saying that it is not wise to squeeze your pimples? Guess it is true that such an action would result in more breakouts. Squeezing or picking your pimples pushes the acne bacteria deeper into your skin and bacteria can also be transferred from your fingers to the respective skin area. Squeeze too hard and you increase the risk of having an acne scar. So it is best to leave your acne lesions alone unless you know what and how to do it properly.

As most of us have a mild case of acne, over the counter acne treatment would do fine. Get something mild (usually those medications contain benzoyl peroxide and go for the lowest concentration available) and give it a few weeks to work. Use it sparingly in the beginning to give your skin a chance to adapt it. More application of the treatment will only aggravate your acne breakouts and pose the treatment unsuitable for your skin. The moral of the story, more is not always better!

Why Is My Skin So Greasy?

2009-06-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

Having a greasy skin is definitely not a beautiful sight to behold and it also creates an uncomfortable feeling that our skin is not clean. Come to think of it, possessing a greasy or oily skin definitely makes dirt easier to stick to it in comparison to a dry skin.

Why do some of us have greasy skin while others have a dry to normal skin? The answer lies in the way our sebaceous glands that lie beneath our skin surface respond to our hormone fluctuation.

Most of us, while in our teenage years, will produce immense amount of androgen hormones. For a greasy skin person, the sebaceous glands will become overactive and excrete large amounts of sebum (oil) which is being excreted from his pores. Hence, the skin will always be covered with a layer of sebum.

I know it is uncomfortable to get oil covering our skin and also the fact that one might have a higher chances of developing acne from such an occurrence make us want to get rid of greasy skin at any cost but looking at it in another angle, people with greasy skin will age slower. Most of us with greasy skin will try to remove the sebum on our skin especially in the face by washing or using blotting paper but the oil will return in around 30 minutes. There is a product known as seban pads which when use on our skin will keep those oily patches away for as long as 4 hours.

Another school of thought states that hydrogenated oils which when oxidized by our bodies will become rancid fats. These rancid fats are toxins to our bodies and that is the reason why we have greasy skin as our system will try to excrete these toxins through our skin.

This is also the reason why some acne sufferers reported that they are having great success in using large doses of Vitamin A in treating their acne.

Could Acne Be Cured?

2009-06-04T05:26:00.001-07:00

I believe that you been told countless times; be it at by the dermatologists, friends, relatives or even by many acne sufferers out there in the net, that acne cannot be cured and that it can only be treated.

Actually I even told the readers of my blog the same thing but if I tell you NOW that acne can actually be cured, would you believe me ? Well, I am not pulling your legs but it is indeed true that acne can actually be cured.

Why do we have a general consensus that acne cannot be cured? It is due to the method we use to tackle our acne problem. Most of the acne problems out there are being tackled with medicines or drugs that focus to remove acne symptoms; be it topically or orally. These acne treatment methods are recommended by dermatologists, health care practitioners and also by those acne sufferers who have successfully keep their acne at bay. Surely they can't be wrong, can they?

Of course, treating acne with focus on the acne symptoms such as the pimples, zits, blackheads, whiteheads or cysts could successfully get rid of the acne lesions as long as we continuously and stick to our acne treatment regimen day in and day out of our lives. The moment we stop our acne treatment, the acne lesions will pop out all over our face and skin unless the system in our bodies have decided to pop those acne lesions out on our skin. So that is the reason why we always say that acne cannot be cured.

If we really want to cure our acne, then we have to shift our focus in tackling acne to the root cause that makes acne to break out on our once flawless complexion. Most of the time, pimples are caused by high level of toxin accumulated in our bodies and for most acne sufferers, these toxins are being released to the external through the skin in the form of acne lesions.

To get rid of the high level of toxicity in our blood and lymph node systems, we need to conduct a cleansing and detoxification process. Here, a good cleansing colon system coupled with a liver and kidneys strengthening regimen would not only able to detoxify our bodies but also able to restore and strengthen our immune system.

A herb combination that consists of Burdock, Chickweed, Yellow Dock, Cascara Sagrada, Oregon Grape, and Fenugreek would be able to do an excellent job in cleansing one's badly toxified body. So is a liver cleansing formula that consists of Dandelion root, Parsley herb, Chamomile flowers, Gentian root, Black cohost root, Birch leaves, Horsetail herb etc. This liver cleansing formula can cleanse, detoxify and nourish our immune system and restore one's digestive system.

Once we are done with the detox system, we can further build up our immune system with probiotics, vitamins and minerals.

You might ask, "if detox system is so effective in curing acne, why don't professionals recommend it?" Well, it will work if and only if you have the confidence and patience to stick to the regimen for months. To tell you the truth, it is not an easy thing to do as during the course of the regimen, it is best to restrict our diets to mostly fruits and veggies and drink plenty of water. Coupled with the fact that we don't see instant result ( I really mean that as it might take a long time - months for the result to be seen), most acne sufferers would ditch these sort of magical acne cure!

Treat Acne With Tea Tree Oil

2009-05-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

The antimicrobial activity of tea tree oil is what makes tea tree oil effective in treating acne. Its two important chemical constituents, Terpinen-4-ol and Cineole are responsible for killing bacteria and germs. As Cineole is also a powerful irritant aside from its strong anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, we would prefer to go for tea tree oil with low Cineole content to minimize skin irritation when applied topically to our skin.

As tea tree oil is an essential oil derived from steam distillation of the Australia's Melaleuca Alternafolia tree leaves, it is much safer from benzoyl peroxide which is often the standard ingredient used in treating acne. Even though tea tree oil might cause some skin irritation to acne sufferers especially those with sensitive skin, its degree and number of side effects are much more lower than benzoyl peroxide which will often itching, dryness, burning and stinging to its users.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that some acne sufferers are using tea tree oil as a supplement to benzoyl peroxide as their acne treatment as its antibacterial property will kill the acne causing bacteria; Propionibacterium acnes and its less harsher side effects.

As with most aromatherapy oils, tea tree oil completely penetrates your skin without leaving any residue on its surface. With such a strong penetration power, tea tree oil is able to reach and kill the acne bacteria that resides in the pilosebaceous units. With regular application, acne bacteria are killed and reduced and over times, new acne lesions are prevented and even the appearance of acne scars are minimized. The best part is tea tree oil still remain active in the fatty cells even after 3 to 4 weeks of application.

If you experience immense skin irritation with tea tree oil, then dilute its concentration with jojoba oil or pure aloe vera gel. When you start your acne treatment with tea tree oil, you should apply to your acne spots only and leave them overnight. To your surprise, those acne blemishes have become less inflamed in the next morning.

Aside from its usage in treating acne, tea tree oil is also effective in treating Athlete's Foot, Bronchitis, dandruff, Whooping Cough, and even Ringworm.

Does Vitamin B5 work for acne?

2009-05-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

There are lots of home remedies around which can be used to treat acne. One of them involves using large dosage of vitamin B5 which is also known as pantothenic acid to treat acne.

But does vitamin B5 really work in treating acne? According to a study conducted by Dr. Lit-Hung, not only high doses of Vitamin B5 (10 to 20 g ) was effective in treating acne but it also decreased pore size. I guess you already knew that one of the factors that causes acne is the overactive sebaceous glands that excrete an abnormally high amount of sebum/oil and when the P. acnes bacteria feed on it, acne lesions are developed. As most acne sufferers have a low level of fats metabolism, these fats are deposited in our sebaceous glands. As it takes Coenzyme-A to break down these fats, consuming mega doses of Vitamin B5 will provide our bodies with lots of Coenzyme-A.

Now, before you decide to take such a high doses of Vitamin B5 immediately, I would advise you to increase the intake of B5 gradually as your body need some times to adapt to such a high doses of B5 intake.

For the first 3 days, take 5 grams of B5 every day. And do remember to spread out your daily intake; say 3 to 4 times a day so that the level of B5 in your body can be more stable. Some people resort to time released B5 supplements but they are usually more difficult to procure. Then go for a B5 10 gram daily intake for 3 months. A tip that I like to share with you is to take B5 15 minutes before or during meals as doing so will minimize stomach or diarrhea problems.

How fast acne disappear from one's skin will vary from individual to individual. Some people reported that they have a clearer skin after a week while for others, they need a month for it to be effective. For me, it took around 2 weeks to have some noticeable improvements in many acne condition. For acne sufferers with severe acne condition, it might take 2 months for their acne to start diminishing and a total of 6 months for a flawless complexion. I know this news would be a BIG deterrent for many people but if you have tried almost everything under the sun to clear your acne, what do you have to lose in seeking this solution to your stubborn acne condition?

The key here is to be consistent in your intake of B5 and that means you must take the mega doses of B5 everyday in the 3 months period or until your skin is clear of pimples. Don't be alarmed if you notice that you have more pimples or zits after starting your acne B5 treatment as it only shows that vitamin B5 is working in pushing your existing pimples to the surface of your skin.

I also noticed that after a few days of taking B5, my skin became less oily. I guess B5 was lowering the amount of sebum that was produced in my skin follicles units and making my skin drier.

As taking mega doses of Vitamin B5 will cause deficiencies in other classes of vitamin B, I would advise you to take a supplement of vitamin B-complex (B50 or B100 complex would do). If possible, aim for a B complex which contain a low level of B6 or pyridoxine (less than 50 mg) as there were some study out there B6 increases acne breakout if taken alone.

You might experience chapped lips, stomach irritation, diarrhea or hair thinning during the course of your acne B5 treatment. For minimizing hair thinning problem, take more biotin ( a certain class of B complex vitamin). You can use the following guideline : 1 mg bitoin for every 2.5 g of B5 that you take.

Even though it is next to impossible to have an overdose of B5 as it is water soluble, somehow I would not recommend women who are breastfeeding or pregnant to take it as there is not much studies on its safety on such cases. Since B5 is water soluble, it is wist to drink plenty of water during your acne B5 treatment to lessen the above mentioned side effects.

Lastly, did I say that you can also apply B5 to your acne prone skin? Using B5 topically to complement its oral intake will make you having a higher success in treating acne with B5.

A Look At Toothpaste in Treating Acne

2009-05-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

You must have heard many contradicting views on using toothpaste in treating acne. Some people reported that toothpaste performs miracle for their acne while others swear that they would never ever try this acne home remedy again for treating acne as it only produces more irritation and burning to their face.

Why is it some of us are having great success in treating acne while for others, toothpaste do more damage to their skin? To have a better understanding, let's take a look at a toothpaste typical ingredients.

In most toothpaste, you will find fluoride or a variation of it such as Sodium Monoflurorophosphate or Sodium Fluoride. Fluoride is the ingredient that is used to prevent tooth cavities. If you ever suffer burning or irritation when using toothpaste to treat your acne, it is due to fluoride and it might also cause skin allergies for some of acne sufferers who have sensitive skin. However for acne sufferers who have less sensitive skin, they might find that it works for their acne as fluoride dries up the pimple contents and that's why people say that it works for their pimples.
Sorbitol, hydrated silica, titanium dioxide and Polyethylene Glycol which are found in toothpaste do appear in some dermabrasive products used to treat acne but their minute presence in toothpaste are too insignificant to render their effectiveness in clearing acne.

Glancing further at the toothpaste contents, you will note that the presence of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. This ingredient is also present in many toiletries products such as your shampoo, body wash, facial wash etc. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is the ingredient that produces bubbles in most of the toiletries products and you can bet that these foamy bubbles won't do anything to improve your acne condition.

To minimize tartar deposits on the tooth, Sodium Pyrophosphate is added to toothpaste to remove calcium and magnesium from the saliva. In the skin, calcium promotes skin cell growth and causes more hair follicles to grow.

When Sodium Pyrophosphate is applied to the skin, calcium reduction lowers skin cell growth which leads to less activities in the hair follicles. Bear in mind that one of the factors that leads to acne formation is the abnormal shedding of skin cells in the follicle unit and by having less cell growth activities, you will get less pimples on your face.

Now that you know more about toothpaste in treating acne, would you still like to use it to treat your zits? If you decide to proceed, make sure you only apply toothpaste to your acne spots (spot treatment) and don't leave it overnight. In fact, you should only leave it for 10 to 15 minutes. Never ever apply toothpaste to your pimples which has been popped as you will experience extreme stinging and burning sensation.

If you feel that toothpaste makes your skin too dry, apply a mixture prepared from three teaspoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder. This mixture will make your skin feel soft and less drying. On a final note, treating acne with toothpaste will make your skin ages faster due to its drying effect.

Laser and Light For Acne Treatment

2009-05-15T06:57:00.000-07:00

Laser and light therapies offer an alternative approach to treat acne without the associated side effects present in Accutane and oral antibiotic and also to acne sufferers who can't find a traditional treatment that can get rid of acne on their skin.

Working on the surface of the skin, light and laser treatments not only bring improvement to imflammatory acne but also to acne scars as well.

The wonder of laser in being able to shrink the sebaceous glands (causing them to produce less sebum) and kill acne causing bacteria (Propionibacterium acnes) without causing damages to the skin surface lies in the adjustment and focus of the laser beam used in treating acne. Bear in mind that overactive sebaceous glands and P. acnes bacteria are the two main causes of acne and by tackling these two factors, we can effectively treat or maybe "cure" acne.

Imagine a glass souvenir crafted with bubble images of words and images in the center with no damages to its outer surface. This is exactly what happens when we target the sebaceous glands and P. acnes bacteria which lie in the deeper layer of the skin. Both of these outcome are made possible by the application of controlled laser beam.

By inhibiting the growth of acne causing bacteria and also shrinking the overactive sebaceous glands that secrete sebum, we would be able to curb potential future acne breakout on our skin.

When using a high intensity visible blue light in treating inflammatory acne, a photosensitizing agent is first applied and left for 15 to 60 minutes on the skin to let it accumulated in the sebaceous glands. Therefore, when the intense blue light is applied to the skin, the chemical reaction with the photosensitizing agent in about 10 minutes will generate heat and kill the P. acnes bacteria.

After such a treatment, you have to keep yourself away from directly exposed to the strong sunlight. Remember to use a sunscreen to protect your skin to avoid sunburn and peeling. You will also experience temporary pigment changes, redness and dryness of the treated area.

Multiple treatments are necessary to produce satisfactory result as the P. acnes bacteria killed in this light acne treatment process will be replaced rapidly.

To treat acne effectively, it seemed that we need to destroy sebaceous glands as well as the bacteria. Hence, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) which consists of a multitude of different light wavelengths are used to penetrate targets that lies in the various depth of the skin.

In pulsed light and heat energy therapy (LHE), light and heat are used to kill P. acnes bacteria and shrink sebaceous glands, and leads to a decrease in sebum production.

Diode laser uses invisible infra red frequencies which are longer in wavelength to not only treat acne but also in minimizing the acne scars appearance. It destroys the sebaceous glands in the inner part of the skin without causing any harm to the outer skin layer. As this type of treatment is painful, analgesics is applied before treatment.

In general, light and laser treatments side effects will include redness, dryness or swelling of the treated area. Other drawbacks include its high cost, time consuming and not covered under most insurance plans. Darker skin acne sufferers are also not advised not to go for laser treatment for their acne.

Celebrities With Acne | With Photo

2009-05-11T05:40:00.000-07:00

Don' t think that celebrities do not have acne with their flawless complexions which are shown on TV and movies. The fact is acne can affect everyone; and being a celebrity doesn't mean that one is immuned from acne.

Our previous post touched on Cameron Diaz acne condition and how she manage to control her adult acne condition. You can bet that she is not the only celebrity that deals with acne problem.

Britney Spear is another famous celebrity that have to face acne problem in her teens. She also had to deal with acne flare up problem during her first pregnancy as she experienced tremendous hormone changes during that period. Those flawless and perfect skin complexion pictures of that you saw during that time had been air brushed. Her acne problem was being highlighted along with Britney being a bad mother, an overweight dancer and starred in a bad movie as well as her many outrageous and destructive behaviors such as kissing Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.

However, nowadays it seems that not only Britney is able to put her acne problem at bay but also make a comeback with her electrifying Circus Tour concert.

If you have been paying attention to those acne ads out there, you would notice Jessica Simpson on ProActiv products promotion. This lady sure knows how to make money out of her acne problem. Not only the luxury deal she signed with ProActiv made her tons of money but also many youngsters with acne problem are lured into trying out the products. However, I do believe those who lay their hands on ProActiv products will have a successful solution as their acne treatments provided that they exercise patience and use the correct method in trying an acne medication.

Are you surprised if I tell you that Brad Pitt, the sexiest man alive, has acne? If not for the heavy make up put by his make up artists, Brad pock marks and acne scars would be visible under the camera lenses.

Even Leonardo DiCaprio had to deal with acne in his teens. But I guess his successful career launch with Titanic made people care less on his acne condition. In fact, it seems that the men in the spotlight show less care on their acne condition while the for women, having a flawless skin is paramount for them to remain in the public eyes.

Other celebrities who have acne include Victoria Beckham, Lindsday Lohan, Vanessa Williams and Kelly Clarkson. For Richard Burton, Tommy Lee Jones and Laurence Fishburne, having acne scars on their faces makes them more attractive and macho. But then again, all these celebrities all guys!

If the celebrities with acne can go about crafting a successful career in the limelight where appearance is of utmost importance, I think you should have the confidence to face those embarrassing and awkward moments that you might have in your daily life. If they can do it, so can you.

Cameron Diaz Acne

2009-05-11T01:27:00.001-07:00

Well, what you heard is indeed true. Isn't it comforting? Cameron Diaz, being one of the most beautiful woman in the world, has acne. In fact, acne has been part of Cameron Diaz life for the past 10 years and she attributed her acne to her heavy smoking habit.

What Cameron, 37, has is adult acne and unlike many people, acne still break out on her skin after her teenage years. Statistic shows that adult acne affects 50% of adult women out there.

Through many interviews, Cameron revealed that she has tried almost every possible acne treatments out there which include facial and acne medications and yet did not have any significant improvement on her skin till she stops smoking and drinks plenty of water. Zits and pimples on her face are a thing of the past till she uses a powder sunscreen. Before you head for some powder sunscreens, I would like to remind you that powder sunscreen instead of acne lotion works on Cameron skin because she has lot of sunlight exposures and I guess in her case, sunlight causes her acne to breakout on her skin.

Nowadays with the cigarettes out of the way, her skin looks youthful and glowing with the help of facials, oil free moisturizers, and acne medications such as Pro-Active. She is using Colorescience Sunforgettable SPF30 sunscreen to protect her skin under the sun.

Some sources reported that Cameron cleared her acne by taking certain type of birth control pills while other sources quoted that she got rid of acne with a cleansing diet, fruit juice and exercise.

Whatever the reasons that she cleared her acne, one thing is for sure. In order for her to have a clear skin, Cameron has to bid farewell to her smoking habit.

Treating Acne with Yogurt.

2009-05-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

Treating acne with yogurt is one of the home remedies that you should try as yogurt is found to be effective in treating acne and has no side effects at all. Not only it is easy to use yogurt to treat your acne but yogurt is also easily available and is practically affordable to any acne sufferers.

Some of us might have the opinion that yogurt might make our acne worse as yogurt is produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. Something which is full of bacteria couldn't be good for our skin, could it? Well, don't think that all bacteria are bad for our skin as there are good bacteria which are beneficial not only for our skin but also health. And the bacteria contained in yogurt is good bacteria as the harmful bacteria in it has been killed by the acidity level in the yogurt (pH 4 to 6).

One of factors that causes acne is the proliferation of P. acnes bacteria in the pilosebaceous unit which causes infection, inflammation and finally leads to acne lesions. The population of P. acnes in the pilosebaceous unit which is made up of hair follicle, hair shaft, sebaceous gland and erector pili muscle is wiped out by yogurt acidic nature.

Aside from its antibiotic nature, yogurt also strengthens our immune system as it is rich in vitamin B and zinc. Having a stronger and healthier immune system will keep acne at bay. Have you ever noticed that you have more acne break outs when you are stressful ( for example, during the time when you are facing an exam or rushing to complete a project deadline)? It is during this period that you are experiencing high level of stress.

Many people have an upset stomach after consuming milk. It is the sugar (lactose) in milk that makes our stomaches unable to tolerate its effect. Instead of lactose, yogurt contains lactic acid which does not pose the same problem as milk to our skin and therefore a healthy digestive system will clear our acne.

Even though you can opt to consume or use yogurt topically to reduce acne, it is better to take it orally. Aside from its tasty feel, the healthy bacteria together with the minerals and vitamins will be absorbed into your body through the blood stream and not only will you begin to notice less and less acne lesions on your skin but also enjoy a healthier life.

As a topical use to treat acne, people usually go for a face mask made out of yogurt to soften and smoothen the skin, dig up impurities and heal blemishes. Here's how to make a face mask out of yogurt.

Mix a teaspoon of comfrey leaves fine powders(which you can prepare by grinding with a food processor), a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of cosmetic clay to a teaspoon of plain yogurt (preferably low fat type) to make a paste. Spread the yogurt face mask to your face for 15 minutes. Then remove the yogurt mask with a warm damp cloth. Lastly apply a sunscreen moisturizer.

You also use yogurt with pieces of fruit bits in it. Stir the yogurt content with a spoon till the fruit mixes and floats. This fruit bits are very beneficial to reduce and treat acne and acne scars as it consists salicylic acid. Next apply the solution to your face and leave it for 15 minutes. Finally rinse the face with clear water and pat dry with wash cloth.

Other than using yogurt to treat acne, you can take a look at more home remedies method to remove acne. Though some of them might look unconventional, but if it works on your acne, what do you have to lose? Your acne, of course!

Dermabrasion For Acne Scar Removal

2009-04-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

Dermabrasion has been around for decades in its usage to remove superficial acne scars. Would you be shocked if I told you that initially sandpaper was used to remove a thin layer of our unsightly skin and then the skin is left to grow by itself to replace the removed skin ?

Luckily, nowadays, electrical machines that have a rapidly rotating wire brush wheels are used in placed on the sandpaper. Dermabrasion is particularly suitable to minimize the appearance of small and shallow acne scars.

If it is used on ice-pick scars and deeply depressed scars, the end result after the dermabrasion process might make your skin look worse as it exposes the deeper part of the acne scars which may be more wide in scar formation.Therefore, dermabrasion won't be used on hypertrophic scars.

Dermabrasion process is initiated by a qualified dermatologist with anesthetizing the acne sufferer's skin with a spray to make it numb. A sedative may also be used to make one drowsy so as to make the scar tissue removal process less painful.

In contrast to dermabrasion, aluminium oxide crystals are being used instead of a rapidly spinning brush in microdermabrasion. These aluminium oxide crystals are blasted to the scarred skin and then vacuumed away together with the scar tissues .

However, microdermabrasion is only effective in removing fine lines and age spots and not effective at all for even very mild acne scar spots as a very mild exfoliation process takes place here.

For darker skin acne sufferers who suffer mild acne scar condition, you might run the risk of suffering big changes in your skin pigmentation color. Due to this reason, it is wiser to opt for laser scar removal process even though it might be more expensive to do so. We surely don't want our skin to look worse than before the scar removal process, do we?

Can Neosporin and Rite Aid clear acne?

2009-04-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Neosporin and Rite Aid are antibiotic creams that are used to prevent infection and relieve pain when one suffers burn or cut.

These antibiotic treatments are indeed very effective against bacterial skin infection such as staphylococcus or streptococcus skin infections when one suffers open wound injury where such bacteria can easily get into one's skin when it is exposed to the surrounding. Note that in acne , P.acnes bacteria are responsible for causing acne and not the above mentioned bacteria. Do bear in mind too, these ointments can also clog your pores and will further worsen your acne conditions if you really have acne!

Some of you might hear that some acne sufferers had successfully treat acne with Neosporin. Have you ever ponder for a moment that what they actually have is not acne blemishes but some red rashes that mimics acne?

Acne causes stress, a myth?

2009-04-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

We know that acne cause emotional stress. But how about the reverse ? Up until recently, it is generally believed that there is no link between stress and acne. But a recent study by researchers at Wake Forest proves that not only stress cause acne but also why stress cause acne.

Since sebum level production which is generally associated with acne tends to change with a variation in the weather, the study was conducted in Singapore. The study tracked the stress level of 94 high school students with mild or moderate acne for several months. It was found that in periods of high emotional stress, such as before exams, the students were 23% more likely to experience acne breakouts. However, the sebum production did not vary much whether they were experiencing high or low stress. This indicates that the level of the sebum did not contribute to the increase of acne. So the studies concluded that it is due to inflammation. Other studies have shown that stress can prove inflammation and acne is an inflammatory disease.

The result of these studies do seems to ring a certain truth to this myth.

Yet other school of thought believes that during the times when one experience high stress level, his body will release an ernomous amount of glucocorticoids which is a form of natural steroid. As glucocorticoids has some androgenic properties, it causes the sebaceous glands to excrete more sebum and worsen one's acne condition.

If you notice that you DO get an increase in acne breakout during your high stress level time, it is wise to calm and relax yourself a bit by going for exercises such as qi qong and meditation such as yoga . Oh of course get yourself plenty of sleep even though I know that it is pretty tough to do.

Various Type Of Skin

2009-04-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

Which type of skin do you have? Knowing the type of skin that you are bestowed with can go along way in keeping acne at bay.

Normal Skin
This skin type contains a balanced amount of oil and moisture, making it soft , smooth and having a fine even tone appearance. The pores are fine and barely visible.Normal skin is a reflection of healthy life and good blood circulation.It is usually blemish-free.This is the type of skin everyone hope for. However, normal skin need to be taken care to prevent wrinkle and premature aging.Using soap,oil-based moisturizer,mask and sunscreen product go a long way in keeping normal skin healthy.

Oily Skin
Oily skin appears shiny and oily due to overactive production of sebum by sebaceous glands under the skin.The visible coarse pores make the skin prone to acne. Oily skin often present a youthful look. Oily skin require more regular and thorough cleansing due to dirt easily attracted the the skin surface and pores. Cleansing removes the skin surface of oil, dead skin cells and dirt , uncloggs the pores of hardened oil. Use oil-based cleanser to dissolve the sebum effectively. After cleansing it is important to apply a toning lotion to tighten the pores (for keeping dirt away) and heal the skin. Rose water based tonic is excellent for oily skin.Or use oil-free moisturizer to prevent excessive shining appearance.

Dry Skin
Dry skin look dry, dull and patchy due to its inability to retain the required amount of moisture and insufficient production of sebum. Dry skin can easily flakes and chaps.Appearance of wrinkle and fine expression lines are common for dry skin, however pores are not visible. Dry skin is often a problem in cold weather. Apply moisturizer to increase water content of the skin.This will make it soft and moist throughout the day.

Combination Skin
Combination skin is a combination of dry and oily skin. The oily areas on the face, are forehead, nose and chin which is also known as T-zone. The cheeks and the area around the eyes and mouth are normal to dry. Apply deep-pore cleanser and toner on the oily T-zone. Sensitive skin tends to be dry and easily get irritated. It is also prone to allergy and temperature fluctuations. Extra care should be taken for sensitive skin as it is prone to rashes breakout as an allergic response to ingredients used in cosmetic or moisturizer products. It is best to use natural or organic product for sensitive skin. Using a good sunscreen and moisturizer offer excellent protection for sensitive skin all days.

What? Adult Can Get Acne?

2009-04-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

People who suddenly get acne for the first time in their twenties or thirties might remark, " It can't be happening! Acne is only for teenagers!" After passing their teenage years with a pimple free skin, these people thought that they are the lucky fews who wouldn't have acne problems in their lives.

Well, adult-onset acne is a reality and it is getting more common as compared to the past. The fact that acne on adult is a lot more worse than those that on teenagers makes adult acne sufferers having difficulties in accepting that they really have acne. Adult-onset acne, which is also known as post adolescent acne or female acne is very prominent in women who experience vast hormonal changes in their bodies during their pre menstrual cycles.

In adult-onset acne, there are less occurrence of comedones (blackheads and whiteheads) but more of inflammatory acne lesions. Nodules, which are tender and firm lumps may leave scars when they heal, are also present but luckily the occurrence of nodules is less frequent in adult women who have acne.

In general, the adult acne will center more often on the lower part of the face; particularly in the lower area of the cheek, chin and also on the area along the jaw line. This means that the acne is more difficult to control as the skin around this area is more sensitive and will be easily irritated from the dryness that are caused by the application of acne medication. Therefore, many women are taking oral antibiotics and combination of topical treatment such as Neutrogena On-the-Spot Acne Treatment, Vanishing Formula to treat their acne. Taking oral contraceptive pill is also a good method to treat adult acne.

Is There Any Area On Our Skin That Won't Get Acne?

2009-04-16T02:01:00.000-07:00

For acne sufferers who practically get acne on lots of areas on their bodies, they might come out with this question. They might be wondering if there is an area on their skin that won't get acne.

Typically, acne sufferers will experience acne on the face especially on the T-zone area and upper back. As these areas have the highest density of sebaceous glands, the tendency of getting blocked pores and later on develops into acne lesion is very high.

Others may also get acne on their chest, upper arms, shoulders, and to a lesser extent on the legs and even buttock. These second group of skin surface also have sebaceous glands even though their quantity are less than those of the above mentioned area.

Now, the good news is you won't get acne on your hands, feet, lip and elbows as these areas do not have any sebaceous glands. No sebaceous glands means that no pores clogging. Clogging of pores, coupled with the presence of P. acnes bacteria and high shedding of dead skin cells causes acne to form. Keep in mind that clogged sebaceous glands and not sweat glands that leads to acne.

Are Oil-Free Products Really Free Of Oils?

2009-04-14T02:51:00.001-07:00

Most acne sufferers will have oily skin and therefore, as a general rule of thumb, it is best to avoid oily cosmetic or medication acne products. Luckily, nowadays, most of these products will have the term "non comedogenic" imprinted on its label which simply means they are oil free.

An oil-free product or which is more popular known as non comedogenic product avoids most ingredients that contain the word oil in their name, such as mineral oil. However,there are a lot of ingredients that do not have the word oil in their names such as glyceryl tribehenate or lanolin which are actually oil.

Ingredients such as carnauba and oily hydrocarbons such as petrolatum and squalene are not oils but should not be included in an oil-free product as these oils may aggravate your acne condition.

Essential oils used in fragrance does not pose a problem to acne as their oil behaviour is different from other oils.

There are two classes of oil-free products. One contains strictly oil-free products which are usually drying. Of course, there are some exceptions. Propylene glycol, glycerin and silicone bases are oil-free and yet they are not drying. For acne sufferers who are resistant to acne treatment, it is important to identify strictly oil-free products to complement their topical medications. These products include gels, solutions and emulsions of oil-free ingredients. Ingredients such as fatty acids, fatty alcohols, sterols and silicones are acceptable in strictly oil-free products.

The other classes consist of certain amount of oil that contains oil-like emmollients called esters. Technically, esters are not considered oils or fats but they do exhibit the behaviour of oil. Products containing emmollient esters are classified as comedogenic. Oil-free emulsions of emollient esters and water are weakly moisturizing and are best used by acne sufferers with slightly oily to slightly drying skin.

Does Dirt Really Cause Acne?

2009-04-14T02:07:00.000-07:00

e can't blame our parents for asking us to keep our faces clean if we want to reduce the occurrence of acne. You see, with the appearance of blackheads in the form of black spots on our faces, our parents must think that the dirt are deeply "stuck" on our faces. And to get rid of them, all we need to do is to wash them away and our acne will be gone for good.

I wish it would be THAT simple but unfortunately thing is a little more complicated than it seemed.

First, these black spots are actually made up of melanin; pigments that provide coloring to one's skin and not DIRT! When melanin in the sebum comes in contact with oxygen in the air, they turn to black color.

Second, acne formation takes place from underneath our skin. It means that the blockage of the follicles does not occur from top down. Therefore, washing all those dirt away won't reduce the breakout of acne on our face. If acne is on its way to break out from our skin, no amount of washing will halt the process. Moreover, over washing our faces will further irritate our skin and making your inflamed skin condition worse and redden.

Some of you might argue that washing will remove the excess sebum on your face but do you know that the sebum will come back within half an hour after you wash it? However, don't get the idea that you do not need to wash your face.

If your parents still say that dirt causes acne, ask them why do all the people who work in coal mines, construction sites or in the streets do not get their faces full with acne? And why do some of us who work in the offices or even doctors get acne? Surely those who work in the open will have their faces covered with dirt most of the time.

Go For Accutane Only As The Last Resort!

2009-04-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

If you are an acne sufferer, I guess you will have heard of the name Accutane. Accutane is actually a brand name for isotretinoin which in turn is a powerful oral acne medication.

Why do I say "powerful"? Well, many severe acne sufferers who take Accutane experience significant improvement in their acne condition even though they only take one course of isotretinoin treatment.

By now, you might ask, " If it is so effective, why don't all dermatologists recommend it straight away to treat one's acne? ". For one, it has very extreme and serious side effects. Headaches, temporary hearing loss , nosebleeds, joints pain, dry skin or lips are just a few of the negative symptoms resulting from taking Accutane.

In addition to that, if a pregnant woman takes Accutane, it could cause severe birth defects. Therefore, a woman must ensure that she does not get pregnant while she is on the prescribed medication. Effective birth control method should be adhered one month before you start the Accutane treatment and shall be terminated only 1 month after you stop the treatment.

Why does a woman still have to use birth control method after stopping the prescribed isotretinoin for one month? Because this drug will stay in her body for quite some time! And surely she wouldn't want to run the high risk of having a baby with any birth defect.

For a guy, he is luckier as so far no evidence show that isotretinoin has any serious implication on his sperms.

Isotretinoin, derived from Vitamin A, when taken orally, is classified as a tetratogen which simply means that it can cause defects to one's baby.

By focusing on the root of acne causes, isotretinoin is very effective in putting acne at bay. As acne are caused by excessive oil (sebum) production coupled with dirt and dead cells that clogged the follicle openings (pores), the curbing of excessive sebum production in the sebaceous glands by isotretinoin will lead to the reduction of P. acnes bacteria that play a big role in acne development. These curbings of sebum also causes your skin to be dried after taking isotretinoin.

In addition to the reduction of sebum excreted, isotretinoin also regulates the dead skin cells shedding process. Less dead skin cells would mean that the tendency for a clogged pore is less and hence one would experience significant reduction in one's acne as the treatment is continued.

Making Your Skin Less Shiny!

2009-04-08T06:39:00.000-07:00

It is mentioned that people with oily skin are lucky. People with oily skin will age slower and therefore look much younger than their actual age as the sebum on one's skin will keep it "moist" and therefore sagging and wrinkles won't show up so soon.

The drawbacks of having an oily skin are one will always feel greasy and always seems to have shiny patches around his skin particularly in the T zone area where there are a high concentration of sebaceous glands.

These shiny patches on our face are definitely not a pretty sight for anyone to look at. And it is no wonder blotching papers or anything that can remove this oil, albeit temporarily, are so highly in demand. I guess it is psychology at work that makes these products so saleable.

Even though most products such as cosmetic powders will absorb the oil, the oil from under the skin (sebaceous glands) will continue to flow to the surface.

That being said, for those who still want to keep their face especially the T-zone oil free can lay their hands on Clinac Oil Control gel. This gel is one such product that will absorb your surface skin oil but you won't be able to feel its dryness.

Yet there are other products that can absorb oil and also prevent oil from "breaking through" your skin. These products are known as mattifier.

Does Exercise Cause Acne?

2009-04-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

AMost of us will think that sweat causes acne while a handful of us reason that through sweat cleansing process, the stored toxins such as dirt, sebum and dead skin trapped in the follicles will be removed.

Before we find out the truth, do you know why we sweat? Yes, we sweat because we want to cool down our heated up bodies. When the sweat evaporates, it will remove heat from our body and thus will be able to regulate our bodies temperature.

Guess you must know that sweat is released by the sweat glands and you must think that these are actually the blocked sebaceous glands where acne lesions such as blackheads, whiteheads and inflamatory spots originate. Well, if you think so, you really got it all wrong here. These sweat actually comes from the ecrrine glands that are located deeply in the skin and cover almost our entire bodies. Do you notice the amount of sweat you get on your forehead, palms and soles when you sweat? That's because there are lots of eccrine glands at those areas.

The sweat that we perspire not only contain water but also salt (sodium chloride), urea and other cellular and fatty wastes. Therefore, many of us would think that sweat will reduce one's acne breakout.

To really get a correct answer, we need to understand how acne occurs on our skin. In a healthy skin, sebum produced in the sebaceous glands will travel to the follicles ends (known as pores) on the skin surface via hair follicles and excreted to the surface. However, for acne sufferers, the excessive sebum, coupled with dead skin cells will block their pores and this creates a perfect environment for the P. acnes bacteria to thrive. The multiplying bacteria population on the blocked follicles will result in the swelling of the surrounding tissues and the first step in the formation of acne has taken place.

By now, you must have noticed that the toxins removed from the skin are not those from the blocked pores where acne originates but rather from the cells and capillaries located deeper in the skin. Therefore, it can be drawn that sweat does not lessen acne breakout but does it cause more acne?

Well, it does if you let the salty sweat on your skin as sweat provides a great environment for the P. acnes bacteria to grow rapidly.

One way to get around this problem is to apply some acne medications on one's skin especially on the back before exercise. Be careful when you apply a benzoyl peroxide based topical cream as benzoyl peroxide can bleach your clothing. Due to this problem, another alternative would be to shower immediately and use a benzoyl peroxide based cleanser such as Clean and Clear Continuous Control Acne Cleanser or salicylic acid cleansers.

Other steps include wear loose fitting attires and tie one's hair to keep them off the surface of the face.
Some people also figure that it is best to drink plain water rather than those sports "salty" drinks so that the sweat that is being exreted during exercise will be less salty and therefore provide a less than perfect environment for acne bacteria to multiply.

Safe Acne Drugs During Pregnancy

2009-04-06T02:43:00.000-07:00

The best way to treat your acne during pregnancy is by using a topical medication and avoid oral medications at all cost except oral erythromycin. You can safely use oral erythromycin or an oral penicillin such as amoxicillin provided that you are not allergic to them.

Even then, it is best to check with you dermatologist on suitable acne medications to be used as some of these medications may be harmful to your developing fetus. A visit to your health provider might lead you to try the following acne fighting drugs. You will be recommended to use erythromycin, which is actually an antibiotic presents in many topical treatment. If you are puzzled with the content of benzamycin gel, it actually contains benzoyl peroxide and erythromycin.

If you are currently using benzoyl peroxide, sulfacetamide or sulfur, you can continue to use these drugs safely even if you are pregnant. These drugs are classified as pregnancy category C products

Even though clindamycin, aczone gel which contains dapsone and topical retinoids are also classified under pregnancy category C products, they should be avoided as they are still very new in relative to the other established pregnancy category C acne medications.

Another less popular choice would be azelaic acid which is actually a natural chemical produced by yeast. This active ingredient in the prescribed medications Azelex and Finevin is classified under pregnancy Category B drug. Therefore, use this drug only as a last resort in fighting your acne during the breast milk feeding period or pregnancy.

Oral drugs such as tetracyline, oral isotretinoin available as Accutane, Amnesteem and Sotreet and anti androgen hormones can cause serious birth defects if they are used while one is pregnant. They still pose considerable risks to one's baby even if one becomes pregnant within one month after taking the drugs to treat acne.

How To Wash Your Face Properly!

2009-04-02T02:39:00.000-07:00

Guess you must think that I am a bit crazy in trying to teach you something so simple as to how to wash your face. I am very sane here and I just got to tell you that many people got it all wrong in the way they wash their skin. Hope you are not one of them.

Washing your face is the first step in the stages of applying a topical medication to your face. Therefore, it is better to get it right rather than wrong.

To begin with, there are endless types of soaps and cleansers in the market for you to choose. Some of these soaps come with Vitamin E, avocado, sandalwood, oatmeal, lemon, citrus, aloe vera, rose etc. For cleansers, some of them exfoliate while they clean and the medicated types normally contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide in various concentrations.

Bet your parents often tell you that you have acne because your face is dirty and they always ask you to wash your face more often. Well, you can tell them that they have it wrong here as over washing one's face will only irritate his/her face and might your face become red and inflamed.
In fact, washing your face more than two times a day will have no favorable effect on your acne.

Moreover, excessing washing and cleansing with a multitude of commercially available cleansers and soaps will dry out your skin and that's what gives you skin irritation.

Therefore the tip I am going to share with you here is to wash your face with a mild soap twice a day. Yup, that's all you need to do on the part to get a "clean" face. Nothing fancy here and I would like to further recommend that you use ivory soap if you have oily skin. For the few acne sufferers who have dry skin, you can go for Dove soap.

And to the unfortunate group of people who have very sensitive skin and might be allergic to soaps, try Cetaphil or Aquanil cleanser.

Now, let move on to the method on using those soap of your choice. Using lukewarm water, wet the soap. Apply the soap to your skin with your fingertips or with a soft cloth and then rub it gently in circular motion.

You might think that using brushes or loofah sponges will make the washing process cleaner but these stuffs are definitely a no-no! These washing utensils are too harsh for your delicate acne prone skin.

After you are finished with the rubbing process, splash your face with lukewarm water to remove the soap application. Rinse your skin a few seconds only.

Finally use a cotton towel to pat dry your skin and again never rub on your skin!

Presto! The process is complete and shall I ask is this what you are currently doing in washing your face?

Does Cosmetics Cause Acne?

2009-04-01T07:32:00.000-07:00

Would you feel sceptical if I tell you that cosmetics does not cause acne ? In fact, cosmetics does not really cause acne cosmetica even though some of you might get some reactions that present themselves as inflammatory acne. The truth is this so called "inflammatory acne" is actually your skin reaction to the ingredients found in the cosmetics that makes your existing acne redder and more prominent.

So you can continue to use the cosmetics that you like without having any worry on them for worsening your acne condition. If you are still in doubt whether the current cosmetics that you are using are worsening your acne, stop using them for a couple of weeks and observe whether there is less acne lesions on your face.

Almost all cosmetic products that you find in the market nowadays will have the term noncomedogenic imprinted on its label. Noncomedogenic simply means that they are oil free or they won't clog your pores.

Put in another word, using noncomedogenic skin care products won't lead to any acne flare up on your face. So you can stop blaming those blackheads and whiteheads that pop up after using a new cosmetic. They are already there in your skin and in the process of rising to the top layer of your skin.

You can check whether your cosmetic contains lanolin, isopropyl myristate or D & C red dyes if you do get negative reaction on acne after using it. These three ingredients are believed by most dermatologists to cause acne.

Lanolin is actually oil originates from sheep skin while isopropyl myristate is an ingredient that makes the product go smoother on the skin. Other ingredient in the same classification as isopropyl myristate are isopropyl isostearate, butyl sterate and laureth 4. Surely you won't want to use D & C red dyes on your skin as it originates from coal tars.

Thick creams, blushers and make up foundation powders are the most acne causing class of cosmetic as the ingredients that are used in these cosmetic to replace oil is synthetic base and is more harmful than those excess sebum produced in our sebaceous glands.

Moisturizers can be another source of acne causing products as they do contain ingredients that make them slide on the skin smoothly and easily. You can see that the above moisturizers often contain searic acid, acetylated lanolin or cetyl alcohol.

Therefore, you should get those moisturizers that contain petrolatum or mineral oil in order to skip their acne causing effect on your face. I know the word oil here would terrify you but certain type of oil is good for our skin and have no provoking effect on our acne.

Teenage Acne

2009-04-01T02:46:00.000-07:00

Up to 90% of teenagers have to deal with acne as it is the most common skin problem that they face.

Acne on teenagers is often known as acne vulgaris. You might not like how the word vulgaris sounds but it simply means common in Latin. For most kids, their acne often begins from 10 to 13 years of age but girls have a tendency to develop acne earlier than boys. If you are a boy, let not rejoices as your acne might be more severe than those that are developed on a girl. Acne is also a signal that your body is going through puberty.

Before acne outgrow itself when one reaches 19 or 20 years old, don't think that you don't need to do anything and wait for it to go away. Even though it cannot be cured, it still have to be treated so that it won't leave permanent scar on one face or skin.

With the onset of more androgens hormones, teenager skin tends to be oilier and less sensitive. The good thing about having more sebum on your skin is your skin will be less irritated when treated with acne products as the extra layer of sebum that you have will protect your skin from irritation.

Having more sebum on your skin also means that your scar will heal more easier and completely after an acne onset. This good news makes your skin steers clear of permanent scars and dark spots that are left after acne lesions heal which are very common in those darker skin people.

For teenagers, the most common area that acne will develop is on the T-zone, that is the forehead, nose and chin (refer to figure- pink color). Teenager acne will be characterized by many blackheads (open comedones) , whiteheads (closed comedones) , inflamatory acne lesions such as papules, pustules, nodules or cysts and also macules (acne that have healed).

Hormones Role In Acne

2009-03-31T05:35:00.000-07:00

Do you know that without hormones, you wouldn't have acne? But then again without hormones, you won't be able to live as hormones control every function of our bodies, from regulating our metabolism to enable us to grow and produce off springs.

I bet you have heard of the hormone named androgens. Androgens is the hormones that give us a masculine feature. It is also the hormones that cause facial hair growth, increase of muscle mass and other sex characteristics in a male. By now, surely you would have the term testosterone. The androgen testosterone is the main male hormone. However, females also have androgens too, except that the quantity present in them are less than those in males and also these hormones are weaker.

The bad news about having androgens in your body is that these hormones can cause acne. Even though the primary female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, that control menstrual cycle, also have some effects on acne, their effects are far more weaker if compared to the androgens hormones.

All acne developments start with blocked sebum in our skin follicles. And the tendency of a follicle getting blocked is vastly increased if there is an increase in the production of sebum by the sebaceous glands in our skin. By now, you might be asking what androgens got to do with the sebum production. Well, androgens regulates the production of oil in the sebaceous glands.

Don't ever think that acne sufferers have more androgens compared with non acne sufferers. Actually it is their sensitiveness of their sebaceous glands to the hormones' message that leads to an excessive production of sebum on our skin.

As your face, chest, shoulders and back contain the highest amount of sebaceous glands, you will stand a very high chance of getting acne in these areas.

During your adolescence years, your androgens production will increase tremendously and make your sebaceous glands larger and producing more sebum. After the adolescence years are over, the amount of androgens will also decrease and with less androgens, you get less sebum and for most of us, acne will be a problem of the past in this period.

Of course, some of us, males and females inclusive, will continue to have acne well into our adulthood due to our bodies retain their androgens sensitivity. Yet, there are some of us who only get acne when we are adults.

Benzoyl Peroxide Benefits On Acne

2009-03-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

Glancing through your local drugstore, the term benzoyl peroxide will show up very often as the active ingredient on the label of the acne medications there.

By now, you must be wondering what makes benzoyl peroxide so widely used and whether it is really so effective in fighting acne.

Aside from being a very potent anti bacterial agent that kills P. acnes ( the bacteria that causes acne), benzoyl peroxide drying effect does a great deal on clearing your acne . It dries and peels the skin and also removes dead skin cells. By clearing the blocked follicles your skin, P. acnes bacteria won't have a chance to multiply and thus the further development of your acne is being stopped. That means comedones which are blackheads and whiteheads won't have a chance to develop on your skin.

Unlike antibiotic, prolonged usage of benzoyl peroxide for months, or even years, won't make your acne become resistant to it. Up to date, there is no known dangerous long term side effects and it is even safe to be used even if you are pregnant.

Bear in mind that benzoyl peroxide that comes in creams, lotions and pads are more effective than those in the form of soaps, scrubs and washes. You probably won't need those high concentration of benzoyl peroxide that is available as a prescription as it is wise to go for the lowest strength of benzoyl peroxide available. So far, Neutrogena-On-The-Spot contains 2.5% benzoyl peroxide which is the lowest concentration of benzoyl peroxide that one can get in the market.

It is a misconception that most acne sufferers have in thinking that a higher percentage of any active acne formula ingredient will treat their acne successfully and at the shortest time possible. In contrast, the higher concentration will only irritate your acne prone skin and cause excessive dryness to your skin. It is also due to this perception that makes acne sufferers can't find a suitable acne medication that works for their acne.

Start with using the lowest available concentration of benzoyl peroxide and use it sparingly. As your skin is the best feedback on the result of the application, observe and take note of its appearance. You will get more acne initially after you start to apply the medication as the medication is working to bring the existing acne from "underneath your skin" to the surface.

You can increase the application frequencies gradually if you don't developed extreme dryness on your skin.

Use to treat existing as well as preventing new acne from developing, benzoyl peroxide should be continued to be applied on your acne prone face and skin even if your acne has cleared to maintain an acne free skin.

How To Treat Acne - The Unconventional Ways!

2009-03-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

The bad news about acne is that we can't cure acne but that does not mean we cannot treat it. Before you resort to prescribed products or seek a consultation with a dermatologist, there are many topical treatment as well as unconventional products available to treat acne.

The problem lies in finding and identifying the suitable products that works on your acne. Don't be surprised and puzzled when you find out that the products that your friends use to treat their acne successfully do not work on your skin.

As each of us is different, the acne on our face and skin will react differently to the thousands of acne treatments available in the market. Some might also find successes in treating their acne with unconventional method such as using toothpaste, honey, lemon, rice powder or even turmeric!

Some of us claim that honey treats their acne successfully. Even though honey is known to possess antibacterial properties, the properties of the active ingredient in honey that kill the staphylococci bacteria, hydrogen peroxide, is easily destroyed by heat and light.

Go for Manuka honey if you like to use honey to treat your acne as manuka honey possesses additional anti bacterial properties beside hydrogen peroxide that is derived from the enyzme added by the bees. Be prepare to face the stickiness and messy condition that you will face when you apply honey on your acne. Manuka honey is very effective in fading those post acne red marks left by acne rather than clearing acne on our face and skin.

Why don't we recommend table honey for your acne? As table honey contains so much sugar, it will make the honey anti bacterial properties less effective.

Have you ever heard that some acne sufferers are finding some successes with toothpaste in their quest to treat acne? Toothpaste does indeed work in treating cysts and red blemishes as they dry up the acne pimples and then tighten the acne pores and its surrounding skin area to make them easier to come off. However, be careful when you pick on your acne after the toothpaste application as blood may be oozing if you do so.

You will get a slight burning and stinging sensation after applying toothpaste to your acne spots. Therefore, don't ever apply tooth paste to your open pimple wounds.

Even though we don't recommend using tooth paste to treat your acne, if you want an instant home remedy to reduce your pimple swelling, use tooth paste that comes with the white content. And don't ever leave it longer for more 15 minutes on your acne spots due to its strong drying effect. After removing the tooth paste from your face, apply C & C Oil Free Moisturizer to your skin.

Here is more information on toothpaste used in treating acne.

There is some truth to the statement "lemon juice clears my acne" as lemon juice contains citric acid which is a form of Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHA) that is commonly use in many topical acne treatments. This ingredient will slouch off dead skin, promote skin elasticity and rejuvenate your skin by enabling new skin cell that grows to rise to the skin surface. You will feel that your skin is very fresh as it flushes your pores; clearing the sebum and dead skin in them.

In contrast to tooth paste, lemon juice will need about 3 to weeks to clear your acne. Applying a dab of lemon juice soaked with cotton pad to your acne pimples and leave overnight. Lemon juice also fades scar spots.

It is no wonder that some of us will turn to garlic to treat our acne. Garlic is a well known antiseptic, anti viral, anti fungal , anti bacteria as well as anti inflamatory product all roll into one.
Even though it is so potent, you must be prepared to wait for weeks for garlic to show its effectiveness on your acne. The way to apply garlic to your acne pimple (not face) is to apply the garlic juice from the crushed cloves. For lighter complexion acne sufferers, they might find garlic is too harsh on their skin that causes slight burn and stinging sensation while darker complexion individual should experience next to no of these effects.

Should you find the stinging and burning sensation is too extreme for your acne, wash the application off from your face in order to prevent redness and swelling. It might be that you are one of those who are allergic to the active allicin ingredient of the garlic.

All is not lost even though you belonged to this group of people or someone who does not want to go through all the hassle to prefer the garlic juice. You can use Garlic Oil 500mg 250 Softgels from Source Naturals. Apply the oil from the punctured garlic softgels to your pimples. These treated garlic does not contain allicin as allicin is a very unstable compound and further more allicin is not biologically active in the body. Actually it is not the allicin ingredient as claimed by many so called "professional" that clears your acne.

Not only could garlic be applied externally, they can also be taken internally. In the long term, garlic will not only treat your acne, but also boosts up your immune system. A weak immune system will cause us to catch cold easily and always falls sick and feeling tired.

For this, it might worth your time to take a look at Kyolic aged garlic extract. Kyolic aged garlic has been around for many years and it is known to be the best garlic product available in the world. you would be surprised to find out that Kyolic aged garlic goes through a 20-month cold aging process before it is sold. This lengthy process preserves most of the natural ingredients inside the garlic and remove the pungent smell and irritating allicin contents from the garlic.

Ever wonder why most Indians have smooth and flawless skin complexion? Do you know that they not only apply turmeric on their skin but also drink it with milk daily? Beside, they also often consume curry which is cooked with this curry spice in their daily meals.

The yellowish curry spice turmeric , also known as haldi, possesses anti inflamatory and anti oxidant properties that reduces pigmentation and also has an ever lasting effects on treatment on scars, acne and pimple marks. Turmeric also prevent the harmful UV ray of the sun on our skin.

So how do we prepare turmeric to be applied to our acne? First mix turmeric with cucumber or lemon juice. Then apply this mixture to the acne prone area and leave for 15 minutes. Then remove the turmeric on your skin by cleansing milk.

Instead of the above mixture, you can also mix turmeric with sandalwood and rose water.

You will be overjoyed after a few weeks of applying the mixture of turmeric and cucumber or lemon juice daily when you see your new radiant and stunning skin glows without any trace of acne lesion.

One note about turmeric that we would like to stress is turmeric can cause yellow stains to your clothes, tubs or basin if you accidentally spill it onto these parts. However, do not be alarmed as you can remove it by sprinkle some lemon juice on the affected area and let it dry in the sun. You will notice that the concerned area will turn to red before the stain finally disappears.

As with garlic, there is also a commercial available cream for turmeric in the form of Vicco Turmeric Skin cream. This cream will dry up your acne blemishes over night and fade away all those unsightly red marks in two weeks. It is more suitable for those who have oily skin due to its drying effect which may be too much for people with dry skin. But then again, most acne sufferers have oily skin.

The Chinese have been using rice powder for years to keep their face and skin blemish free. As rice has a very cooling effect on our skin, applying them on a regular basis to our face will sooth and prevent acne lesions from developing. Just mix a few pellets of rice powder with water and apply the solution to your face. After a minute or two when the mixture dries, you will notice patches of white powders on your face.

Finally, there's another unconventional method to treat one's acne. However, it can only be used by the softer gender. Females, whether they are teenagers or adult women, can use birth control pills to control their acne outbreaks. Not only it works, it does wonder on severe and stubborn case of acne.

To those guys with severe acne that are thinking of trying out the birth control method, please don't do it at any cost. It will cause havoc to your system as these pills are just not meant for the hormones in your body.

Do Chocolate Or Greasy Foods Cause Acne?

2009-03-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

We all like to eat chocolate and greasy foods, don't we? Bet your parents will say that these foods cause acne and advise you not to consume them. But do they really cause acne?

Luckily there is no scientific evidence that links acne and these foods up to today. But before you lay your hand on those yummy and delicious chocolate bars, consider this. If you note that every time after you consume those foods, you have an acne breakout, it is better to avoid them.

And to those of you who have practically no acne breakout after consuming these foods, moderation is still the best way to go in eating them. Anything that is consumed in abundance will be detrimental to your health in one way or another. The effect might not show up in your acne but definitely it will show up in your waistline.

Luckily the high amount of carbohydrates and fat in these greasy foods does not increase the production of sebum in the sebaceous glands in the skin and cause an acne breakout.

There are reports there dairy foods cause acne. Some people claimed that they have significant improvement in their acne after they eliminate or consumes limited amount of milk products in their diet. Studies indicated that girls have a more prominent effect of milk consumption on their acne compared to boys.

Why is there a linkage between milk or dairy consumption and acne? It might be due to the fact that the 75% to 90% of the milks and dairy products in the market are produced by cows, especially pregnant cows. The hormones in these milk and dairy products when consumed by us might cause some of us to experience an acne flare.

Therefore, should you decide to try a dairy free diet, do take a supplement of calcium and protein to keep you healthy. Surely you wouldn't want to risk contracting other diseases in your struggle to keep acne at bay.

Yet there are some people who find that lots of acne pop up on their face and skin after they consume seaweed and seafood. This is due to the reason that these seafood are rich in iodine. Iodine, if consumed in large quantity, does indeed cause acne.

Is Sunlight Good For Acne?

2009-03-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

People used to say that exposing one self to sunlight is good for one's overall health but does that include acne? Well, people with inflammatory acne will derive the benefit if they don't expose to sunlight excessively.

As sunlight kills prophyrins which are a part of the P. acnes bacteria that causes acne, it means that we will have significant improvement in our acne condition. However, do remember that sunlight contains ultra violet rays such as UV A and UV B that can cause premature aging as well as skin cancer.

Initial exposure to sunlight will dry up the acne by making the sebaceous gland less active. However, the accompanied sweat and heat can worsen one's acne condition. To get around this problem, some people think that tanning salon is a way out. Here , one must still bear in mind that tanning beds still emit the same harmful ultra violet lights as natural sunlight even though their compositions are slightly different. UV B is the light component that causes sunburn while UV A does not cause any sunburn, it has very deep penetration power to one's skin and indirectly damages our DNA. Therefore, it is wise to buy a sunscreen that blocks out not only UV B (as indicated by SPF rating) but also UV A.

Ulta violet light UV A UV B
Natural sunlight 90% 10%
Tanning bed 95% 5%

Excessive exposure to sunlight will increase one's comedone ( blackheads and whiteheads). This means that you will get more acne in due times as comedone is the earlier stage of acne. Not only that, collagen production on our skin will also decrease and drier and more inelastic skin plus slower healing of wounds will become more noticeable. This in turn will slow down our acne recovery and also make one's skin more prone to scarring after an acne is healed.

In summary, a decent amount of sunlight exposure is good for our acne if it is accompanied with a sunscreen moisturizer such as C & C Oil Free Day Moisturizer. As in everything in life, moderation is the key to a successful acne treatment; be it in food intake or topical treatment when it comes to improving one's acne condition.

How Soon Is The Result After Taking An Oral Antibiotic?

2009-03-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

The most commonly prescribed type of oral treatment in treating acne is by taking antibiotics. Antibiotics have been proven effective and safe in treating acne. Oral antibiotics reduces the P.acnes bacteria that cause the formation of inflammatory acne by as high as 90% or more. Systemic antibiotics also stop certain pro-inflammatory chemicals action and reduce inflammation in moderate to severe acne.

Some improvement in the acne condition can be seen in four to six weeks after starting the oral antibiotics medication. During the early stage of taking oral antibiotics, the acne sufferers have to take the medications regularly. Irregular taking of oral antibiotics will cause the treatment to fail. The dosage of antibiotics will be reduced as times goes by when the inflammatory acne becoming less and less. Inflammatory acne usually take three to six months to clear.

As the safety of systemic antibiotics in acne treatment is well established, there is no worry to be concerned in taking the medications for such a long time. Once your acne stop, your doctor will stop the treatment and put you on a maintenance topical medication. Some doctors also recommend that you take a topical medication together with a oral antibiotic.

How To Prevent Acne Scar or Make It Heal Faster?

2009-03-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

Preventing yourself from picking or squeezing your pimples is the best method to prevent scarring. Another method is to treat acne lesions early in order to prevent acne scars from developing. That's why it is alway said that prevention is better than treatment in tackling acne problems.

Acne lesions normally take weeks or months to heal and can still leave red or brown markings even with no picking or squeezing of the acne. This is especially common for people with skin that is genetically prone to scarring or hyperpigmentation. Fairer skin acne sufferers often have red marks that stay on their skin for months. These marks may remain red or turn to brown while darker skin patients experience increased pigmentation when the acne finally clears.

The red and brown marks left from acne lesions will eventually goes away as these discolorations are not true scars; with no depressed pits or different skin textures. However, it may take months for the marks to fade . Therefore, many acne sufferers use fading cream to lighten it.

While creams are used to lighten the skin, laser can be used to reduce the redness. Most lightening creams contain hydroquinone as its active ingredient used to lighten the markings. Some products combine hydroquinones with glycolic acid, tretinoin, sunscreens, moisturizers and antioxidant. The difference between over the counter and prescription medications is that the over the counter formulations can contain up to 2% of hydroquinone while the prescription type can go up to 4% only.This is important as to minimize the effect of over-bleaching the skin colourations.

You should use the product on the whole acne prone area instead of just the spot itself as this will create a patch of lighter skin around the spot.

Hydroquinone normally doesn't cause any side effects in comparison to the accompanied ingredients that are used to increase the absorption of hydroquinone such as glycolic acid and retinoids. These two ingredients can be irritating to the skin. A skin reaction known as exogenous ochronosis in which dark brown or black spots that can occur in the skin after treated with hydroquinones inlarge doses or for extended periods is very common in African Americans.

How Long Does It Takes For An Acne Medication To Work?

2009-03-22T05:36:00.000-07:00

We bet that one would be impatient in getting rid of her unwanted acne after applying an acne medication to her acne prone face. Therefore, one would expect something like instantaneous or over night disappearance of the acne blemishes on one face after application.

However, in the real world, thing does not work out in such a way. It takes time for acne medication to show its effectiveness. Furthermore, as each of us is different, results can only be seen in days and significant improvement on our skin can only be seen in 4 to 6 weeks. Therefore, it is important to continue a new treatment that we try for at least 6 weeks before we decide that the treatment is not working for our acne problem.

At the initial stage of the acne treatment, the pimples will dry up. These pimples will leave marks or pigmentation that will be visible for days, if not weeks or months. Acne treatment that we use won't have any effect on these marks as they are remnants of the acne that we have earlier. The important thing to stress here is not to touch or pick on these marks on one skin so that they will recover as soon as possible.

With the continuation of application of the acne treatment, one will get less and less acne lesions and the new acne lesions will clear up faster and appeared less red. As time passes by, the red mark will turn to brown and if one is impatient to wait for them to disappear, one can choose a fading cream to make it fades faster.

One should always stick to the instructions on the label of the medications during the whole period of acne treatment. Don't ever think that applying more in volume or more frequent will quicken the results that one seek. In contrast, it will only irritate one's skin and make her face to have more acne breakouts.

Finally,keep this in mind!

Most people fail in seeking a suitable acne medication due to the fact that they give up too early.

Why Are There So Many Type of Acne Treatments?

2009-03-22T05:16:00.000-07:00

If you visit the pharmacies, you will be at loss in choosing what type of acne treatment that is suitable for your acne. Do we really need the multitude of acne medications out there in the markets? Aren't they all the same?

Well, to be frank, as each of us are different, be it in our skin or the factor that causes our acne, we do need to seek the acne treatment that works for our skin. Your friend might be having success with a particular type of acne medication that works for her acne but that doesn't mean that it will work on your acne as well.

Furthermore, as our skin and the acne causing bacteria learn to adapt to the treatment that we use, we need to rotate or alter the type of acne medication that we use in order to keep a blemish free skin. Therefore, there are times that topical treatment is used in conjunction with oral medications to prevent an acne breakout on our skin.

Nowadays, the best acne treatment that is often recommended is to use a combination of acne medications. It is no wonder that combination treatments such as Clearpores and ZENMED® Derma Cleanse System are now the standard of acne treatment therapy as these system consists of a multitude of acne products to treat our acne. They are developed to treat our existing acne, and prevent new acne from developing by tackling the source of acne internally.

Why Do Our Pores Keep Getting Bigger?

2009-03-22T05:01:00.000-07:00

Pores are the openings of the follicles in the skin surface. We all have them. We need them to excrete toxins in the form of sweat from our skin.

Pores are more obvious in some people than in others. As big pores size make us look unsightly, we are very concerned with pores sizes.

Genetics, sun exposure and hormones affect our pore size. As we age, our pores appear larger and more prominent due to increase inelasticity of our skin. There are treatments available to help minimize the appearance of pores. Regular exfoliation used with retinoids can help the skin cells regenerate more and control the sebaceous glands activities that make the pores look larger.

Sun ray is one of the most harmful agent that can cause our pores to become bigger and make our skin ages faster as it intensifies the loss of moisture from our skin. Therefore, protecting our skin against harmful sun rays by using a sunscreens such as Clean & Clear Oil Free Day Moisturizer,SPF 15 go a long way in making your pores appear smaller. In addition to this, many cosmetics companies are marketing powders, creams and lotions that help conceal our pores. This is the simplest way to manage the pores size problem.

Topical treatments containing retinoids improve the pores appearance as they affect the sebaceous glands activities. However, this treatment can cause extreme dryness and irritation to our skin and might not be everyone cup of tea. Another temporary method to control our pores size is to have regular facials treatment.

Lasers and intense pulse light treatments do offer long lasting, safe result in minimize pore appearance over time. However, multiple treatments are necessary and result vary from person to person.

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

2009-03-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Products that are more moisturizing are normally greasier, making it unsuitable for most people. While 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.

What are the factors that can make acne worse ?

2009-03-20T05:55:00.000-07:00

There are a myriad factors that can worsen acne. It can be a change of seasons or residence. Acne can be worsen from makeup or moisturizers that we used or cleansers that we don't use. However, individual might share the same acne triggers as well as different triggers with one another.

We list down the most common factors that leads to the worsening of acne below :

changing of hormone level in adolescent girls and adult women about a week before the menstrual cycle.
friction from bike helmets, backpacks or tight gears.
pollution and hot, high humidity climates.
Pollution causes dirt which can clogged our pores leading to acne flares.A hot and high humidity climates causes our outer layer of skin to swell tremendously. The pressure from swelling could clogg our pores that cause acne.
squeezing at pimples.
hard scrubbing of the skin.
stress.
Acne often worsens during period of stress, tension and anxiety. A study by Stanford University published in the Archives of Dermatotology reported that acne suffering students worsened in hte examination period. This indicates changing hormone level during stress may have a significant influence on acne. In additon, acne flares during this time is made worse due to failure to use acne medications regularly.
durgs
Drugs such as corticosteroids given orally or by injections, lithium for treating manic depressive illness and testerone pills or injections used by professional athletes and bodybuilders may acts as acne aggravators. Danazol which is sometimes given to women for endometriosis (promote growth of tissue from the uterus on other parts of the body) has a similar effect as testerone which worsen acne.
poor skin hygience.

How Often Should I Wash My Face?

2009-03-20T05:38:00.000-07:00

Washing the face keeps it clean and oil free. This lessens the chances of having acne flares due to clogged pores and bacteria infection. For this reason, acne sufferers tend to wash their faces excessively to reduce the oiliness of their skin. However, there is no scientific data to show that the lack of face washing causes acne or frequent washing improves the acne condition.

However, over washing or scrubbing your face will not only make your skin irritated and redden but also worsen the inflammatory stage of acne.

Normal washing actually does not affect the reservoir of oil in the follicle which is the place where acne originates. Furthermore, antibacterial soaps that contains triclosan and chlorhexidine which can be irritating to your skin and do not kill P.acnes bacteria. However, a benzoyl peroxide wash does reduce and kill P. acnes bacteria even when used as a cleanser but even with a benzoyl peroxide wash, over washing still irritate the skin.

Sometimes, you may not get acne but an irritant dermatitis (a skin inflammation) that look likes acne. When you treat your face with acne medication, the rashes can get worse. So in these cases, what you should do is wash your face less; twice a day by using a gentle surfactant free cleanser followed by a moisturizer.

Generally, washing in the evening is more important than in the morning. However, if you have heavy exercise and sweat a lot during a particular day, you should get your face wash. Do you know that you should use different products according to the season. A gentle, moisturizing product is more suitable during the winter, with only occasional exfoliation. For the warmer and more humid summer, use a more drying, foaming cleansers and more frequent exfoliation.

Cleansers come in various forms. Some are foaming washes which are drying and irritating while others are nonlathering that is less irritating and foam. Microbeads cleansers exfoliate while they clean and some other types comes in cleansing cloth use with or without water which are great for travel use. Finally, medicated cleansers generally contain benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid or AHA.

Put in mind that an exfoliating cleanser should be used only once or twice a week or less depending on the sensitivity of your skin. For some acne sufferer, cleanser is the only acne treatment that is needed.

For acne sufferers who are allergic to topical benzoyl peroxide based products, a benzoyl peroxide cleanser may be the ideal solution as their acne treatment. As the benzoyl peroxide is only left on the skin for a few minutes before being rinsed and then followed by a face moisturizer, the chances for getting a skin irritation is very low. However, benzoyl peroxide is still effective in killing the acne causing bacteria even with such short time of contact with the skin. Thus, a benzoyl peroxide cleanser is successful in treating acne with minimum irritation.

How Do Hormones Affect Acne?

2009-03-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Teenagers normally get acne. Why? This is the time they experience a change of androgen or sex hormones in their body. An increase of androgen hormones in teenagers cause the sebaceous glands to enlarge and increase the sebum production. Excessive sebum production, abnormal shedding of dead skin cells, the "stickness" of the follicle walls and the presence of P. acnes bacteria cause acne flares.

As you can see, the presence of androgen hormones such as testerone, DHEA and 17-Hydroxyprogesterone plays an important role in getting acne on your skin. If there is no androgen hormone, you might not get acne at all. In some acne sufferers, a high hormone level circulating in the blood triggers acne. But for most people, the level of androgen hormone is normal in the blood.It is the abnormal response of the pilosebaceous unit of over accepting the hormones from the normal amount of circulating androgen hormones that make us getting acne.

By blocking the effects of androgens on the sebaceous glands with oral contraceptives, women who are affected by acne and yet show normal amount of androgen level in their blood test can be successfully treated.

In addition to androgen hormones, cortisol hormones also affect acne. Cortisol hormones are released by our body when we are under stress, such as in encountering a dangerous situation. As cortisol suppresses the immune system, it gives the chance for P. acnes bacteria to multiply, leading to a flare of inflammatory acne.

What Are The Type Of Oral Antibiotics Available?

2009-03-19T06:59:00.001-07:00

The most common antibiotics are tetracyline,doxycycline, minocyline, erythromycin and cotrimoxazole. Oral antibiotic can change the normal bacterial flora of women vagina which leads to an overgrowth of the superficial fungus Candida. Women in this condition will discharge a white vaginal fluid for several days to weeks after starting the therapy.

Tetracyline has been proven safe and effective in treating inflammatory acne. The initial dosage prescribed is usually 500 mg for twice a day.This dosage will be maintained for about six weeks by which a significant improvement can be seen. Thereafter a lower dosage is prescribed. As tetracyline absorption is affected by the presence of food and dairy products, it must be taken on an empty stomach or at least one hour before meals.

The side effects of taking tetracyline includes mild gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea and vomitting. It can also cause discolouration of teeth in children and should not be used during pregnancy.

Doxycyline can be taken with meals as its absorption is not affected by the presence of food. The initial dosage is usually 100 mg for twice a day, taken after meals with water to reduce gastric problem. It also causes a photosensitive rash that is worsen by sun exposure.

Minocycline is a newer version of tetracycline that can be taken together with food. The initial dosage is 50 mg for twice a day. Its side efffects includes dizziness,nausea and a bluish pigmentation of the skin.

Erythromycin is an alternative to acne sufferers who are allergy to tetracycline and for pregnant women. It is as effective as tetracycline. The initial prescribed dosage is usually 500 mg for twice a day. Its side effects include gastrointestinal problem, diarrhea, vomiting and farting. If you are taking carbamazepine to treat epilepsy or theophylline for asthma, you should inform your doctor as these medications might react with erythromycin.

When the above oral antibiotics cannot be taken, it is time to try cotrimoxazole (trimethoprim / sulphamethoxazole). However, cotrimoxazole can cause severe skin rashes. The usual dosage is two tablets for twice a day. Look out for skin rashes or mouth ulcers when you take cotrimoxazole for the first few weeks.

How Long Does A Pimple Last?

2009-03-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Indeed it takes time for pimples to clear, sometimes months. Comedones (whiteheads and blackheads) can last for weeks or months if not treated. Inflammatory acne lesions clear within a few days to a few weeks. However, red marks that was left after the pimple subsized later on turn to brown color can stay for months; sometimes for as long as 6 months.

In certain case, when an acne heals, another one starts to develop at exactly the same spot. So it appears that the acne can last for months. Cysts have a tendency to occur in the same spot and you may notice that they may have various sizes as time progress. No matter how great the temptations to pick on this lesions, do not ever give in to it as it will only make the cysts prolong and worsen it as well as causing scars on the spot.

Why is it so bad when we pick a pimple? The irritation caused by picking or squeezing your pimple may give you an immediate feeling of satisfaction as you have done something to clear the contents of the pimple and make your skin feel smoother. However, in the short run, what you have done is making the spot redder and prone to having a brown marks or a depressed scar. And it doesn't prevent the pimple from reoccurring at the same spot again.

The main purpose of treating acne is to prevent it from appearing. However, once acne appears, our priorty is to clear the acne in the shortest possible time. Early treatment of acne and avoidance of picking of acne go a long way in keeping scarring at bay. To properly identify what cause acne in your case, try to avoid applying acne medications that irritated your skin. Note down anythings that you do differently that cause the acne flare. It can be due to new cream or gel that you use, or certain medications that you stop using. Or is it exams just around the corner ?

Are We Supposed To Pop Blackheads and Whiteheads?

2009-03-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

In general, it is recommended that you does not squeeze or pop your pimples. Squeezing pimples make them worse and can cause scarring as you might cause damages to the surrounding skin tissues and pushing the pus content and bacteria deeper into the skin. Of course there is exceptional case in which you can squeeze pimples such as when they are ready to pop.

Whiteheads are a type of comedones which contain inactive P. acnes bacteria. The sebum content are blocked under the pores with no opening to the surface. That means they don't have any "heads".

Whiteheads content can only be removed with popping with extreme force as there are no opening on the spot. This might leads to inflamed lesion being developed and skin tissues damages. Therefore, whiteheads should never be squeeze at all cost.

Even though the above rule for whiteheads apply to blackheads as well, there are cases where the blackhead should be squeezed. Maybe it shouldn't be done by you but by a dermatologist.

Squeezing of blackheads contents only provides a temporary solution to clear the sebum in those particular spots, they will come back again very soon. A typical example is the blackheads that are located in your nose.

For self help acne sufferers, you can squeeze the blackheads with a blackheads remover tool. Follow proper procedures carefully when squeezing the blackheads with this tool.

Why do my acne have no reaction to the standard treatments?

2009-03-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Specific medical conditions that you have may cause and aggravate acne. Acne sufferers with these medical conditions normally have more severe acne that do not respond to standard acne treatment.

Women who have an excess of androgen hormone normally have irregular periods, excessive hairiness and oiliness, male pattern baldness and deepening of the voice. They may show no improvements at all when treated with the standard acne treatment.

What causes the excess androgen hormone in women? Having polycystic ovarian syndrome in women is one of the most common causes. Women with polycystic ovarian syndrome have large and cystic ovaries, resulting in an imbalance in the hormones produced by the ovaries. The concerned women have oily skin, acne and irregular menstrual periods and usually obese, hairy and sub-fertile.

Another cause is due to Cushing's Syndrome in which the body contains too much cortisol (a glucocorticoid hormone) that results from an excess production by the body or from prolonged ingestionof steroid tablets such as prednisolone and dexamethasone) or from repeated injection of steroids for other medical conditions such as eczema and asthma.

Cushing's Syndrome causes face obesity "moon face", neck obesity "buffalo hump" and body obesity.Limbs won't be affected. Being hairy, skin thinning, easy to bruise and having purplish stretch marks (striae) are signs of Cushing's Syndrome as well.

My Acne Medication Doesn't Work Anymore!

2009-03-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

Is it possible? Could acne medication that worked in the past stops working ? You have been expecting the acne spots to be cleared but instead they grow larger as each day passes by.

As with anti dandruff shampoo, acne medication can fail to clear our acne lesions one day even if it worked so well in the past. Our acne can become resistant to the medication being used over time. However, once you find an acne treatment that worked in clearing your acne lesions, you should stick to it till it fails in its job. By then, you should seek another acne medication that is suitable for you. You can also try using the acne medication that you have not used for quite some time but was effective in clearing your acne spots in the past.

Taking oral antibiotics for your acne indefinitely will surely make your acne resistants to the medications. So what you should do is to take the oral antibiotics for 3 to 4 months and then stop. At the same time, you should also apply a topical treatment that contain benzoyl peroxide such as Neutrogena-On-The-Spot for your acne. Doing so can minimize the resistance of the acne to both medications. You can also use retinoids in conjunction with oral antibiotics but most of us will find that our skin will become more irritated.

People use oral antibiotics in order to get a quick result in treating their acne. When the oral antibiotics treatment is stopped, continuing application of a topical medication will maintain an acne free skin . As topical medications have to be applied gradually in terms of frequency as well as quantity over time, applying oral antibiotics can assure the result we seek in clearing our skin to materialize quickly.

As our skin is the best source of feedback on the acne medication that we applied on our skin, always observe the reaction we get from our skin after application. If after application, we feel that our skin is dry and irritated, use less of the topical medication. On the other hand, when our acne breakouts increases or when our skin is oiler especially during the hot summer, we should use the medication more often.

In short, we have to continue experimenting to find out the right amount and frequency of acne medication that we should use for our skin.

Most people fail in finding a acne medication that works for them as they give up too soon and applying too much of the medication in the initial stage. We should only apply

Could facial treatment clear your acne?

2009-03-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

Some of us have a habit to go to salons and spas to give ourselves a luxury treat. Our facial treatment at these places could include cleansing, massaging, heat wrapping and blackheads extraction.

Even though extraction of blackheads is a relatively simple process, when it is being done by a beautician at the salon who usually uses a tissue paper or a blackhead extractor to extract the blackhead content, it might do more harm rather than good. After a typical session, the face will appear red and swollen. Furthermore, the pores will be clogged again in a the next few days.

In addition to that, some of us might have skin that are easily irritated by the creams or lotions that are applied in these salons. This will only lead to more acne and blackheads!

As the skill of a beautician or aesthetician can vary tremendously, it is recommended that one should ask a dermatologist or a friend for a reference when she decides to go for such a course. To lessen the chance of getting your sensitive skin irritated by the lotions or creams used in a new salon that you are visiting, try them one at a time.

Your skin is your best feedback indicator and if it doesn't show any sign of irritation after usage, you can safely assume that the cream that you have tried doesn't have any adverse effect to your skin.

Oops! I have acne!

2009-03-12T05:43:00.001-07:00

Don't worry. It is not the end of the world. Most of us will get acne in some stages of our lives. Some get it in their teens while for others, acne only appears in their adulthood.

Even though acne is not a disease (why is it not a disease? Well, do you get sick, ill or not feeling well having acne around and not treating it?), it makes us dread to have any acne spots on our face. Why? Because it affects our looks. It makes us feel miserable and causes embarrassment in front of our friends. These pimples on our faces or other parts on our bodies, especially the shoulders, neck, back or arms are definitely not a beautiful sight. It affects our self esteem. Look is paramount especially in our teens.I know many people say beauty is only skin deep but I wonder would they say the same thing if they have acne, especially the type with severe condition?

And even if it is not a disease, it has to be treated. Ignoring it might lead to scarring for the rest of our life. you don't have to head for a dermatologist once you have acne as most of us will have mild to moderate acne which can be treated with OTC medications.

Ge this fact right! Acne can be treated but cannot be cured. Yup, that is the common saying which the medical profession has been ingraining into our mind about acne but personally, I think acne can be cured. However, it is definitely not any easy task as it takes a long time and tons of discipline and patience.

Don't despair.If we don't use the route to cure acne, we can still treat it. But we would have to continuously treating it till acne outgrow itself (believe me, one fine day, it will come). I know it causes great inconveniences to your life but would you like to have permanent scarring on your face for the rest of your life? Beauty is only skin deep but it is human nature to go for beautiful thing as well as look.

One thing for sure. Acne definitely need to be treated!

Privacy Policy

2009-03-01T06:02:00.000-08:00

At www.acnemine.blogspot.com, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by www.acnemine.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files
Like many other Web sites, www.acnemine.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons
www.acnemine.blogspot.com does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

DoubleClick DART Cookie
.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include ....
Google Adsense

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on www.acnemine.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

www.acnemine.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. www.acnemine.blogspot.com's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at leochoo@streamyx.com

Contact Me

2009-01-01T00:31:00.000-08:00

Your Name
Your Email Address
Subject
Message