Acne Magazine

If you’re looking for a quality skin care system, or individual products that will naturally treat and eliminate rosacea and acne rosacea, you can try visiting our page to the right of this weblog for information on natural rosacea treatments and for a special link to reviews on some of these herbal and botanically based skin care products. They are specifically formulated to be gentle on skin with rosacea and acne rosacea, as well as to tone down redness or ruddy skin tones and calm and soothe the skin.

There are also products for different skin types, whether you tend more toward the dry side or more toward the oily side, so the product can adjust itself to your skin type accordingly and provide the results that will make your skin look clear, even and toned all over again.

Rosacea and acne rosacea is a more and more common skin complaint that dermatologists and physicians are dealing with. The question is, why is it becoming more prevalent? Is it our environment? Our lifestyles? The food we eat? The products we use?

Your guess is as good as mine, but it may be safe to assume that it is a combination of these factors, and that we can fight rosacea and acne rosace by using a couple of common sense themes in our lifestyles as well as using the right type of skin care. Skin care that is aimed at eliminating rosacea and acne rosacea is specifically formulated to be very, very gentle on the skin.

This is key. Any irritants such as heavy or harsh detergent-like ingredients will cause people with rosace and acne rosacea to break out much worse, and the skin to take on a much redder, or ruddy tone.

Teen Acne

Teen acne is probably one of the most difficult to treat, since it is usually fueled by extreme imbalances in the hormones that occur during the time of puberty, and also tends to be exacerbated by common foods that teens love to eat like french fries, chocolate and other carb and sugar loaded foods.

Teen acne is often treated incorrectly, through over the counter medications, cleansers and lotions that do nothing but aggravate the problem even further by excessively drying the skin out, and causing redness and flaking. Excess dryness actually leads to more and more breakouts, and it becomes a vicious cycle of breaking out, drying up, and your skin trying to recouperate the oils lost by overcompensating in their production of sebum and oil.

Common prescriptions for teens who go to a dermatologist for acne help are ertythromycin, retinA, tetracylcine, doxycycline, and if the acne is severe, accutane. The common prescription of antiobiotics for acne can present a few problems. Many who are on antibiotics for long periods of time develop antibiotic resistance, and need stronger and different medications to treat them if they do become ill.

Not only that, but extended periods of time on antibiotics have been proven to cause an overabundance of yeast, which in turn causes health problems of its own. Teen acne is always the most difficult, since the teen years are ones filled with angst and social scrutiny, where clear skin is treasured most since it can be such a rarity in this time of hormonal adjustment and awkwardness.

Teen acne is also a bug business for cosmetics companies. Think of how many acne products and acne product commercials you see specifically targeting teens. The problem is, half these advertised products don’t do the job, and can even aggravate your skin more thank help it!

WIth the plethora of natural acne treatments out there, it’s hard to determine which one will actually work - ON YOU.

Some of the treatments are designed with acne fighting in mind, but due to their antioxidant ingredients, they also benefit your skin by fighting free radicals that not only aggravate and contribute to acne, but also contribute (big time) to aging - ie wrinkles, crows feet, age spots and all that fun stuff!

So, you ask, how can something that fights acne also combat the signs of aging. That’s easy. Acne and aging are both skin disorders that effect nearly everyone. They are both caused to some degree by defects in the oil glands, over or under production of certain skin-balancing hormones, and environmental factors such as stress, sun, and other uncrontrollable factors.

Antioxidants, especially those found in some particular vitamin packed natural and herbal acne remedies - see the acne product reviews page to the right for information on some of the best one - they actually help to equalize your skin by fighting all of these elements and bringing your skin back to hormonal harmony, as well as keeping those nasty free radicals that only cause further aggravation, redness and scarring, at bay.

Evening primrose oil is a rather popular supplement for menopausal and premenopausal women these days, and is known for it’s hormone-balancing properties, as well as it’s often therapeutic effect on the skin in general.

What can evening primrose oil do for people with acne?

Well, in addition to being helpful for other skin conditions like eczema and rosacea, evening primrose can also be of help to those with acne (although it never completely treats acne, and has never been claimed as an acne cure-all), since it can help to dilute sebum (oil secreted by the sebaceous glands - it’s overproduction is the primary cause of acne flareups).

The essential oil found in this oil, gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), helps to actually help heal the skin and lessen inflammation. This is the reason that it can help with eczema and also helps with the redness and irritation caused by rosacea.

Bottom line: Evening primrose oil can be a helpful supplement for calming acne flareups, but I wouldn’t recommend it as an overall treatment, as it has never been demonstrated to be that potent for overall lessening of acne flareups and the general condition of acne vulgaris.

We’ve talked in previous posts about the relationship of high-sugar foods to acne breakouts. The correlation between the two has reared it’s ugly head again. after having a piece of rhubarb pie at about 10:00 last night (mind you, I had a clear face last night), I woke up this morning to two new blemishes.

I guess I’ll have to use my soft light laser for an extra long time tonight to hopefully reverse the adverse effects this diet faux pas has had on my poor face.

This is just conjecture partly, but there is a principle in the zone diet books and also in the south beach diet books (I believe) that taking a hefty dose of omega 3 acids, found in fish oil and flax oil supplements, with high sugar meals can help to reduce the effects of the sugar on your blood sugar. When your blood sugar skyrockets from eating too many refined sweets (like pie), this causes an inflammation response in your skin - acne. So, it makes sense to try to take a supplement like this, especially when you’re being naughty!

I remember being a teenager with acne, and I always thought a day in the sun would really help to dry up my zits, and give me clear skin for a couple days. Boy was I wrong. Especially since I am 50% Irish, and usually ended up scorching my skin in the name of a clear complexion.

Little did I know that my time in the sun actually further aggravated my acne breakouts, because it dried my skin out severely for the next few days after the sun-bake, and made my skin over compensate for the oils that were being literally sucked up like a sponge to help heal my burnt and dried out skin.

Sure, it might have helped camouflage the actual pimples a little by adding some color to my face, but other than that, laying in the sun, and especially scorching ones self, does quite the contrary to the skin.

Not to mention the long-term damage this does. Basking in the sun for prolonged periods adds to that lovely cumulative aging effect of the skin called wrinkles, sunspots, liver spots and fine lines because it breaks down the foundation of the skin, since the excessive free radicals created by the destruction of your “good cells” by the sunlight have wreaked havoc on your skin’s cellular structure, breaking it down and wearing it away, or AGING it!

So, the moral of this story is, use your sunscreen. A good one to buy that does not contribute to acne is neutrogena’s sunblock for the face. It is noncomedogenic and doesn’t contain any of those nasty irritating sunblock ingredients that cause redness, itching and burning in many individuals.

Any others, who use any other good types of soaps or facewashes? I myself prefer to use a good facewash, since I still feel soap is usually too drying.

Let me know - email me or feel free to post the product you use.

Ok, now for more on the low light laser experience. I’m in my second week of using the product, and I must say, I like it so far. It has not only started to diminish my pock marks from acne, but also has made my skin have kind of a glow it didn’t have before.

I’ve also noticed that when I’m done with my laser treatment, my skin feels and looks great - it feels like there’s a lot more circulation going on beneath the surface, kind of like a warm feeling.

I’ll keep you posted in the next week or two.

Oh yeah, I’m using it about 15-20 minutes every night while I watch tv. Due to my schedule, I can’t do it in the morning and night, so I just do it for a longer stretch at night only.

Looking back, I am glad I never took this serious drug. Especially now, hearing about the new allegations of serious depression and even suicidal tendencies that some Accutane patients have experienced. You can’t search the net for Accutane without coming across stories of litigation, and advertisements for lawyers who exclusively represent Accutane patients.

Not only are the potential side effects scary, the drug also permanently dries up your primary oil-producing glands, which are the mechanism responsible for acne. While this is good in acne prone adolescents, what about when your skin starts aging? You WILL need that oil as your skin ages, to replenish and protect the moisture in your skin, and help prevent the signs of aging and progression of wrinkles.

My cousin now has some regrets too, since her skin seems to be chronically dry and flaky. She blames the medication for some of her premature aging signs as well, and hypothesizes that had she not undergone Accutane therapy, her skin may have maintained more of it’s elasticity in later years.

You should know, there are some excellent natural accutane alternatives on the market today (see our suggestions in the product review page at the top right of this magazine) that will prevent and fight acne internally just as well as Accutane can, for a fraction of the cost, with no adverse side effects and excellent, long-lasting results. You just need to know where to look!