Acne Magazine

It occurred to me this morning as I was driving in to work that you tend to have “good skin days” (and bad skin days) just as you would have good and bad hair days. Of course, the latter is the most well-known expression. However, the former is also very true, it’s just not as often discussed.

Just as you have good and bad hair days, your skin has good and bad days too. How could your skin be subject to look different from day to day? After all, we know there are a million variables that affect your hair such as humidity, the products you used that day, the alignment of the stars (ok that’s sarcastic) and so forth.

But what variables could cause your skin to look so dramatically different from day to day like your hair would? And are some people more immune to fluctuating skin appearance than others, like some seem to also be immune to dramatically varying hair appearance?

Here are some things that can dramatically alter the appearance of your skin in a matter of days:

1.) Hormones

This one is HUGE, especially if you’re a woman. Estrogens and some of the circulating androgens (male hormones) can make your skin look dramatically different. They can make you break out in a single day with acne. They can flush the face and change its color. Being on the birth control pill can even cause melasma and age spots to accelerate! My dermatologist recommended that I get off my pill because of some of the brown spots it was causing or worsening on my skin. Of course, this is just not an option for me at this time since it does a lot more for me than just prevent pregnancy, such as help keep my skin clear and regulate my period, but hormones are really no joke in what they can do to your skin.

2.) Hydration

I’m talking primarily internally by drinking plenty of water, but I also do mean externally by keeping the skin smooth and supple with effective external hydration agents (natural oils are the BEST at doing this hands down, you just want ones that won’t clog pores). You would not believe how much being dehydrated can age you. When I took a vacation in a tropical, very hot location, I was often dehydrated because I couldn’t constantly have water on me and I was constantly sweating it out of my pores. When I look at the pictures of me there, I look ten years old. My nasolabial folds (the creases the extend down to the mouth from the outer corners of the nose) were much more visible. My eyes looked more hollowed out, and my fine lines and wrinkles were more visible. Think of your skin as a grape that needs hydration to stay plump. Now think of a raisin. That’s your skin, dehydrated.

3.) Environment

Believe it or not, the environment you live in can really affect your skin. This could mean anything from the temperature and humidity typically in the air where you live, to the amount of sunlight your area gets, to the amount of smog and pollution your skin is exposed to. Humidity can make your skin look more dewy and hydrated, but if you’re not internally hydrated it can still look “older”. Dry climates make your skin appear dry and requires that you apply topical moisture products more often. Areas with lots of smog and pollution can really promote free radical damage much faster since the toxins promote aging. Areas that get a ton of sunlight expose your skin to a lot more UVB rays than you think, even when you’re not thinking you’re getting a lot of exposure, such as in your car. These factors ALL make your skin look different from one day to the next.

4.) Diet

This totally applies to me. Some people may be a little more immune to it but there are a lot of people like me who absolutely, unequivocally show their diet in their skin. If I have a day where I eat a lot salt and sugar, my skin looks terrible. It becomes reddish, more easily flushed, and has a generally bad color to it. On the days where I’m eating plenty of fresh fruits and veggies and lots of wholesome, unprocessed foods, I can look a decade younger and my coloring looks worlds different.

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I wanted to talk to about something that I think I may have found out about one of the vitamins I take on a daily basis, which incidentally contains Vitamin B12, typically known as an energizer (aka stimulant). The supplement has multiple vitamins in it, and this is just one of many but it does have a significant percentage of the vitamin in it.

It’s actually not a supplement that is meant to boost energy either, so the fact that it has this vitamin is interesting. It’s actually a vitamin that is supposed to contribute to the health and wellness of the skin and hair. I love taking it every day because it really seems to make my hair look great and it helps it grow faster in my opinion too.

Anyway, on to my point about this vitamin possibly causing me to break out. I usually only take one of these vitamins a day. I find that two is a little more effective if I want to grow my hair out more quickly, however I think I’ve discovered some unwanted side effects when I take two a day.

That side effect is something all of my readers at Acnemag know about. ACNE! I’d been popping two of these multivitamins a day for about a week when I noticed that I had a breakout on my chin. I wasn’t really under a lot of stress, so I eventually made the connection that the only thing that I had changed in correlation with the breakout was my vitamin taking habit.

The only vitamin within the supplement that I could identify that might have the potential for causing me to break out was vitamin B12. I came to this conclusion, not so much based out of a scientific knowledge of the inner workings of this energy-inducing vitamin, but because it was the only nutrient on the ingredient list that I could identify as a potential “stimulant”.

My skin has been notoriously susceptible to stimulants breaking me out. I break out if I have too much of just about any energizing supplement – you name it.

Coffee, caffeinated tea, different types of stimulants used in diet supplements (especially “fat burners” which is usually just a euphemism for an extreme energizing agent that will get you so jacked up you forget you want to eat), ephedrine, certain prescription painkillers that act as stimulants and more. They all make me break out just as quickly as a stressful day at work will.

I was curious if there was any validity to my little thesis on vitamin B12 breaking me out. So I Googled it of course, the modern day wonder in finding any piece of information you need at the drop of a hat.

I wasn’t too surprised to see that right away my search came up with stories of people breaking out from too much vitamin B12, including a dermatologist who warned against taking high dosages of the vitamin and even avoiding the typical energy drink that has B12 in it.

So there you go. I’m not crazy! I actually put it together and it’s true! Guess I’ll never be taking two of these vitamins a day again…

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Diabetes has been on the increase now here in the US for decades. Most speculate that it has a lot to do with our diet. The Western diet is full of processed foods that have all the vitamins and mineral stripped out of them. They are also high in sugar, fat and sodium typically, adding even more skin woes to the picture since these are all bad for the health and appearance of your skin.

Not only that, but eating a diet like this is an almost certain way to become diabetic at some point in your life or at the very least become pre-diabetic, which is just treading the line of having serious blood sugar stability issues.

Your blood sugar levels, and keeping them stable, are definitely tied to the health and beauty of your skin. I notice when my blood sugar is out of whack, I tend to break out more. Why? Because your blood sugar is also tied to hormonal balance.

As you know, the androgens (male hormones) are the underlying cause to most acne cases since they stimulate the body to over-produce sebum which collects pore clogging materials like a magnet and causes inflammation of the pores in the form of blackheads and whiteheads.

It is estimated that approximately 33% of all diabetics are afflicted with some sort of skin condition. This can range from boils and acne to rashes, rosacea and redness that is not easily controlled. Of course, along with that you also have the additional problem of slow wound healing which most diabetics suffer from.

Slow wound healing means that if you get an acne pustule, your lesion will take longer to heal than it would on others who do not have diabetes. This means acne breakouts could take days or weeks longer to clear up. It also means that things like boils and other infections deeply under the skin could become life threatening because they become so deeply embedded and hard to treat.

Immunity is key to clear up acne breakouts, and when your immunity is compromised by having diabetes, you really tend to see a lot longer periods of breakouts and skin issues (as well as other health problems, I actually have a family member who couldn’t be operated on because their blood sugar was so high they were afraid she wouldn’t heal fast enough and the risk of infection was sky high).

My sister, who is in school for nursing right now, told me that if there is any health issue I want to avoid like the plague, it’s diabetes. She said that your blood sugar is so closely tied to so many other vital bodily functions that once you get diabetes, massive additional health issues are almost certain to ensue.

When you consider the serious ramifications of diabetes, coupled with the skin conditions it can cause, it becomes important to treat your body right and try everything in your power to not get it. Of course many times it is genetic, but you can still control it via a clean lifestyle to a large extent.

And the bonus of a clean lifestyle? BEAUTIFUL, SQUEAKY CLEAN, HEALTHY SKIN. FOR LIFE.

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I’ve been what you might call a “Flexitarian” several times now. I’ll go on jags where I’m totally vegan for days or weeks stretches of time to simplify my diet and get back to basics, to cleanse me of toxins and foods that weigh down the digestive system, and just generally to lose a few pounds since the vegan diet seems to agree with my waistline.

This time is no exception. I’ll probably never be a full time vegan, but I do like giving my body a break from animal fats, meat and dairy for a while. I find it centering. However, I also like a big, juicy steak or cheeseburger when I crave meat, so I don’t plan on ever giving that up permanently.

This time, I’m really going vegan for at least a few weeks if not a few months simply to help me shed some pounds I put on. I visited my Doctor as I do yearly and jumped on the scale (which incidentally I only do once a year at these checkups, I avoid scales at all costs otherwise), and found that I was the heaviest I’ve ever been.

That didn’t sit well with me, so I decided I would swear off meat and dairy right then and there and have stuck to it for a little over a week now. I wanted to tell you some of my observations of how I feel and look from eating this way.

The first thing I always notice when I’m eating vegan is how much easier it is to go to the bathroom. I know I know, no one likes to talk about this stuff, but it’s a fact of life. I’ve suffered from IBS and constipation my entire life, and when I’m eating vegan I’m eating a lot more whole grains and fruits and veggies simply because that’s the bulk of what you CAN eat. The result is that I don’t have any bathroom issues any more. I can see why this diet is very colon and digestive system friendly.

The second thing is that my skin seems to look better. I actually think I look slightly younger after eating this way just over a week, which is pretty amazing. I’ve always thought that your skin is the window into your diet. You can really tell when I’m eating healthy because it shows in spades on my skin.

My skin is clearer, more toned and just looks more supple and is a bright, healthy color. No doubt in part because of the sweet potatoes, veggies and fruits that are making me glow a little more.

The third observation is that I seem to be more satisfied by each meal, especially as I’ve gotten used to my meals being meat and dairy free. This is unexpected since I always thought I needed a whopping serving of animal fat or meat to stay full.

Not so at all. I’m finding the whole grains and starches to be very satisfying. What’s more, I’ve found that my sugar and chocolate cravings have all but vanished – unheard of for me!

If I incorporate a healthy fat, like an avocado, or some coconut oil or almonds or walnuts into the meal, it really satisfies me. If I incorporate a protein like black or garbanzo beans, that adds bulk and filling fiber and makes me feel even more full. BONUS!

My fourth observation is that there is a lot more I can eat than I thought. I’ve gotten inventive and am having fun with it! I made a great sweet potato hash the other day for example.

I’ve also experimented with various Asian inspired veggie and brown rice dishes, lots of Asian sauces, Spanish rice dishes, noodle dishes with vegan friendly butter, and more. Heck, if nothing else is available I can just throw a potato in the oven and eat a baked potato for dinner!

My fifth observation is that I’ve saved a lot of money eating this way.  You’d think the opposite, but if you don’t get into the fancy vegan prepared foods, you really can spend a heck of a lot less on your food!

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I’ve periodically donned a vegan style diet here and there for years now. I usually can make it up to three weeks before meat or dairy somehow weasels its way back in, usually via a visit with friends or family or a night out to dinner since it’s so pervasive in the American diet.

Oh yeah, and eating vegan at dining establishments here in Northeast Ohio is pretty hard at most restaurants. It’s not like the Pacific Northwest or California where vegan friendly establishments are found practically on every corner, or where even your typical restaurants have added vegan friendly items to their menu in that geographic location.

I’ve decided to go vegan again because I had an alarming visit with my yearly physical, truth be told. I weighed the most I’ve ever weighed in my life. I knew that I was probably going to, but the number on the scale shocked me into reality.  I had known that none of my work pants were fitting me comfortably for a while, and that even some of my shirts seemed to “ride up” on me whereas before they didn’t.

Well, I had it all confirmed for me on this Doctor visit, and I left the office very alarmed that I had reached this particular number on the scale. I swore off meat and dairy on the spot, and it’s actually been very easy for me this first week because my motivation is unwavering at getting back down to a healthy weight.

But there’s more than weight that veganism promotes, as most people find when they make the conversion. It’s definitely not for everybody, and I still think that having a couple servings of animal protein here and there, such as fish, is a good thing for most people.

Some of the other benefits that I’ve noticed from going vegan are that my skin does seem to look much healthier, more luminous, and my acne definitely goes into somewhat of a remission usually.  It just seems that the naturally higher intake of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables really clears your skin from within.

Of course, I’m also foregoing some of my favorite sweets like milk chocolate because of their dairy content, so the curbing of sweets is definitely what’s helping as well.  I know that for me, when I really increase things like citrus fruits, orange veggies like sweet potatoes, and other foods that have a really high natural vitamin C content, they make my skin “glow” from within.

It also really helps clean you out.  Most vegans almost never have a problem with constipation or slow digestion, because they aren’t clogging up their system with the dairies and meats that so often get the whole process slowed down.  Since you are so regularly ridding your body of toxins, and are keeping things moving along instead of sluggish, this is notably good for your skin as well.

Many times people who “detox” like this experience the best looking skin of their life. It’s a reported phenomenon already, so I’m not really reporting anything new, just refreshing memories so that people can remember how truly important it is to eat right for great skin.

I’ll report back in a few weeks and let you know how my vegan conversion is going and how my skin looks!

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This may sound like a bit of a bizarre conclusion for me to come to. Especially considering that I’m not a Doctor, nor do I have any sort of medical background on which to base this. It’s really purely my observations of my own skin and of people who have oil skin to begin with who also happen to drink lots of coffee or other caffeinated beverages during the day.

People who imbibe a lot of caffeine seem to always have much larger pores. But they also tend to product more sebum. So, can excessive caffeine consumption lead to excessive sebum production as well as to larger pores?

Well, one can lead to another as they say, and producing a lot of oil on the skin and immediately below the surface can definitely make the pores larger, or appear larger.

But is there any scientific basis other than simple observation?

Well, enlarged skin pores are often coupled with excessively oily skin. Since consumption of caffeinated products and other nervous system stimulants that are quick fixes actually alters your hormones – and not in a good way – it affects the amount of oil your body produces. This does not happen in all people, but it happens in enough people to warrant serious consideration of avoiding excessive caffeinated indulgences if you are acne prone to begin with.

The reason your pores get larger when too much oil is produced is because this oil makes dirt and other particles cling to the skin, stretching the pores and infecting them.

If you’ve ever had a really nasty blackhead or whitehead (especially a blackhead), you may notice what looks like a permanent tiny “hole” in that area because the pores have a difficult time shrinking back down once they’ve been enlarged.

I think anyone who had acne when they were younger has some of these types of pin hole scars where the pore just never quite closed up all the way again. One of the hallmarks of great skin is to have very small or virtually nonexistent pores, so it’s a really important part of keeping your skin looking pristine and smooth.

When you drink a lot of caffeine, really start to pay attention to the way your skin looks. Is it breaking out? Are the pores around your T-zone area really showing up a lot more? Are you breaking out in tiny bumps, or is your skin much more the texture of sandpaper than smooth porcelain when you drink it too much?

Well these are just a few of the effects of caffeine that some readers have reported here on this blog over the years, and it’s likely something that you’ve experienced yourself at one time or another.

Some of the things you can do to make sure your pores stay shrunken to a virtually nonexistent state is to use a good toner after washing your face. Also rinsing with ice cold water helps seal the pores back up after they’ve been opened by warm water when you cleanse the skin.

There are even foundations that help to minimize the appearance of the skin’s pores. Look for “pore minimizing” or “smoothing” in the description of the makeup, and avoid materials like mineral oils and waxes that tend to seal the skin and block the pores, which can just add to the problem of open, large pores.

There are some cosmetic procedures that can shrink pores as well, or smooth them over. Microdermabrasion and lasers can help smooth the skin’s surface and shrink the pores for example, however lasering can often impart a waxy, shiny look to the skin until it fully heals over.

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Many of us are unfortunately relegated to making the pit stop for a quick meal here and there. There’s no getting around that fact in today’s deliriously fast paced world.  But many times the choices on the menu are not skin-friendly nor are the figure-friendly.

Foods like french fries, red meat and cheese and fatty mayonnaise and other toppings and dressings are really the recipe for sallow looking, tired and uneven toned skin. However, there looks to be promise on the fast food front after all – and a savior for those of us on the go for healthy skin and a healthy weight!

I’ve gotta say that I’m somewhat impressed with a few fast food restaurants that really seem to up their game when it comes to serving clients who are looking for healthier, lower calorie options when on the go. After all, not everyone wants to add to their thighs or belly even more simply by having to eat on the run more than once a week!

Burger King has offered a vegetarian (or even vegan) version of their Whopper sandwich for years. True, it’s only a Whopper sandwich with no meat, but it offered vegans and vegetarians a tasty version of their hallmark sandwich for less cost and with zero meat. I used to practically live on these both when I worked there as my first teen job, and then in college where I was a vegetarian for about two years give or take.

Another meatless option they’ve offered for a long time on their menu is the veggie burger. This is a Morningstar meatless patty with the most of the fixings that go on the Whopper like tomato, lettuce mayo and onion, only with no meat and less calories. I’ve had one a few times, and it’s not bad, especially since it’s charbroiled!

Now Burger King, ever the trailblazer in the newer menu offerings that always seem slightly more abundant than other joints, is adding a turkey burger to their lower calorie offering. Although it’s really not THAT much lower than the beefy burgers. If it’s as big as a Whopper though, that’s not a problem!

The turkey burger will give healthier diners the option to get something that isn’t red meat, while still satisfying their fast food tooth with tasty toppings like guacamole (which is great for your skin with all the fatty acids). Of course, it’s also going to be charbroiled, which means it will taste better than a turkey burger that’s pan fried. Bleh!

The cost of the burger is going to be about $3.99, which is pretty much in line with a lot of their other offerings. I’m anxious to try this one out. Hopefully I can have the willpower to not order the fries with it. But what’s a burger without the fries!

McDonald’s is healthy-ing up one of their most popular menu items too in other fast food news. They’re going to be offering their popular Egg McMuffin with a yolkless egg – just egg whites, which have way less calories, no cholesterol and no fat like their normal eggs have. I bet you can barely tell the difference!

Another restaurant that offers some tasty healthier options is Wendy’s, although it is limited. They offer baked potatoes made any way you want them, which can be low fat depending on what you order. Also, one of my favorites is their chili. It’s actually an accepted food on the Weight Watcher’s plan!

That’s because it has so much fiber in it and is also actually low fat even though it’s made with red meat. Their vegetarian options are obviously very limited though, so I’ve been wondering when they’re gonna come up with something fun other than salads for vegetarians.

Steak ‘n Shake is another one that has some healthier options on their menu. They have a veggie burger and also turkey burgers – unheard of for a fast food joint! Plus their food is pretty darn good. Now, this is a place my husband and I go when we know we’re gonna be “bad” but who knows maybe one day I’ll actually get something healthier there, it might be tasty like their other stuff!

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I am a believer in skin exfoliation. Let me just start off by stating my support for this crucial skin care regimen. It’s not only effective at sloughing off dead skin cells and helping keep wrinkles (and acne scarring) at bay, but it’s dirt cheap and you can do it with a $2.00 puff you can buy at any local drug store.

Of course there are more sophisticated devices like the motorized scrubbing brush tools and microdermabrasion types of tools, however you can really get a good exfoliation going with a scrub pad as well. I wanted to talk today about a mistake I think some people make when it comes to exfoliating acne prone skin.

I made this mistake when I was younger as well, when I was desperate to get rid of some bothersome acne lesions. I would scrub and scrub until my skin was raw. This was before I understood that I was really only irritating the situation more, not to mention making my skin look ten times worse in the process.

You really shouldn’t scrub raw or open sores when you have acne that is active on your face. The first reason is obviously that you irritate the lesions more and can even re-break them open or make them look a whole lot worse by simple mechanical irritation.

The second is that excessive exfoliation can actually stimulate your skin to produce more oil. Actually any type of mechanical over-stimulation of the skin can set your sebum producing glands into overdrive. This makes the skin more oil, and the pores then attract more of the stuff that gets in them and causes the tiny infections known as acne to flame up in various areas of the face.

While it can help clear the bacteria that cause acne, it also acts as an acne irritant because it does stimulate the very thing that causes acne to occur – the oil.

If you have acne, you likely may also have skin that can be sensitive, so you should probably be careful with the types of exfoliation you do. You may want to avoid super-harsh peels like glycolic acid peels and instead opt for the more acne-friendly salicylic acid peels or lactic acid peels which not only help gently exfoliate the dead skin cells, but also helps add a softer skin tone.

Here are some of the more gentle exfoliation methods I recommend:

1.) Use a sugar scrub. It’s super cheap and it won’t irritate the skin. Just make sure you rinse it all off completely.
2.) A store-bought scrub that contains very fine aluminum crystals, not the bigger, chunkier and more harsh ones. The bigger and chunkier the crystals of any exfoliation method, the more harsh it is going to be on the skin and may take off a little more than dead skin cells. With exfoliation you don’t want to strip the skin, you simply want to gently remove surface skin cells, that’s it. Any more is too invasive and can remove the delicate protective lipid layers of the skin, opening them up to more damage.
3.) One of those soft brush head rotating motorized devices. Several brands now make a product like this. It is a gentle exfoliation tool that can be used on any skin type. However, even this one I’d caution against using if you have open or weeping acne lesions on the face – stick to washing with good old fashioned cleanser/soap and water and your hands.
4.) A scrub pad. Just don’t be overzealous with it and scrub too hard. If it hurts or causes discomfort, you’re rubbing too hard. You can also buy these puffs in different types of textures. There are usually textures for a lighter exfoliation and rougher textures for a more physically deep exfoliation.
5.) Baking soda can make a good exfoliator. Just be careful to rinse it all off as too much can dry out the skin. As with the sugar, use lighter pressure. Sugar has more of a skin softening effect whereas baking soda may be better if you want more of an antibacterial effect added in.

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Since I’ve started making skin care products, I’ve really done a lot of research on which natural oils will not clog pores. I’ve been pleased to find that many natural oils actually are noncomedogenic. This is great news since many of these oils can really be excellent moisturizers, and even those of us with acne still need to apply moisturizers to our skin in the delicate areas especially.

It’s interesting to note that the man-made oils so often used in skin care products today such as petroleum based ingredients like propylene glycol, and all the various iterations of mineral and petroleum oils, are actually the biggest pore cloggers of all.

Nature’s own oils are actually “smarter” than the man made stuff that way, which is great news since petroleum based oils are basically “dead”. By dead I mean that they contain no extra beneficial nutrients, fatty acids, minerals or vitamins like natural oils so often do. If I haven’t gotten my point across, naturally based moisturizers are ten time better than a moisturizer based in petroleum, hands down.

Many people think that oils all cause or aggravate acne, and while this may be true for some of them, it’s actually not true for the vast majority of the natural ones. Coconut oil is actually a very thick and rich oil (it’s actually solid at room temperature as you know).

However, this oil is actually not pore-coating. Instead of coating the skin like man made oils usually do, it actually penetrates the skin without coating it and clogging it. Coconut oil also contains natural fatty acids, which protect the skin and nourish it while helping to maintain moisture without depositing harmful toxins. I like to use only oils that are organic, this way you can be sure they’re pure.

Two of the best oils that are used in naturally based skin care are apricot kernel oil and sweet almond oil. These two oils are not only non pore-clogging, but they are also so light that they easily absorb into the skin without that heavy, greasy feeling that other oils may have.

I tried making a lotion with 1/3 olive oil for instance one time and it was so heavy and greasy that I doubted anyone would enjoy the sticky feeling even if it does have a myriad of skin benefits – who wants to look like they have an oil slick on their skin?

Both sweet almond and apricot kernel oils are very light, and they have a lower molecular weight (they are very viscous and light), so they absorb right into your skin without a problem or a greasy or sticky after feel. They also happen to be rich in vitamin E, vitamin A, and a variety or fatty acids such as linoleic acid and oleic acid.

In addition, apricot kernel and sweet almond oil both possess anti-inflammatory properties because of their nutrient dense quality, so they make excellent choices for those of us with acne show still want to keep our skin smooth and supple.

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There was much buzz about a recent discovery that acne-free people tended to have higher levels of a certain skin-friendly bacteria, whereas the people who tended toward acne breakouts were basically amiss of this same bacteria, or had very little of it.

The thought has always been that most bacteria is not good for those with acne, but it turns out that, much like our guts rely on gut-friendly bacteria (the kind you find in active yogurt cultures), our face also relies on a good type of bacteria to stay clear and vibrant. Those who don’t have enough of the bacteria tend to see their faces break out more often, and don’t have skin that looks as healthy.

This discovery may lead not only to specialized zit creams that are based in bacteria (years down the road still most likely), but also may lead to a tailored, specialized approach to treating acne in the dermatologists office by tailoring a treatment based on the patient’s bacterial profiles of their skin.

If they can tell what types of bacteria typically inhabit one’s skin, then they can actually target specific bacteria to add to the skin that will help to keep the skin clear, making treatment more effective for the individual instead of taking a universal cure-all approach, which often doesn’t work anyways with acne patients.

The new treatment therapy may actually be able to stop acne before it even starts. This is sure to be a hit if it really does work, but patients would also have to make sure they are keeping their skin clean and using the right skincare techniques as well. Acne treatment always has two different approaches that need to be followed if it is to be successful.

First off, the internal part of acne needs to be addressed. Whether that is through some sort of herbal therapy or through an effective acne medication (many of them are dangerous in my opinion) depends on the patient’s preferences and means.

Then, there is the external part of treating acne. This means that the proper products must be used on the skin in order to maintain proper moisture balance and to help adequately cleanse of bad bacteria while also cleaning the pores, and reducing surface sebum at the same time.

This absolutely has to be a method that does not dry the skin out, which just perpetuates acne because it creates the foundation for the oil glands to continuously pump out more and more oil, which just attracts more dirt and bacteria to the pores.

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