Is Sunlight Good For Acne?

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.

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How Soon Is The Result After Taking An Oral Antibiotic?

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.

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How To Prevent Acne Scar or Make It Heal Faster?

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.

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

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.

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Why Are There So Many Type of Acne Treatments?

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.

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Why Do Our Pores Keep Getting Bigger?

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.

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

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.

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. 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.

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

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