Acne Magazine

I’ve always loved the claim that bacteria and all that icky surface stuff is really mostly to blame for acne.  I say, yes, I do believe that it is partly to blame, but it is nowhere near the biggest culprit behind the mystery that acne presents for many women and men.  Bacteria is only something that can worsen acne in my opinion, but it is not the actual cause.  The actual cause, as we all know by now, and have at length discussed here at AcneMagazine.com, is hormones, and hormones are the culprit of keeping you from clear pores. 

Hormones cause acne.  We’re talking about chronic acne here.  Sure, some people are lucky and only get the occasional blemish, which very well may be caused by bacteria or resting their hand in one spot or some other surface-generated reason like that.  But for the majority of people with recurring or chronic acne, their worries are not with how they externally treat their skin, but should primarily begin with how they treat their skin internally. 

It is inside the body that the hormonal turmoil and imbalance that causes acne vulgaris originates, and it is there that the battle for control over these raging hormones is waged, not topically.  Although, topically there is a certain regimen to be followed that can help reduce inflammation, redness and further irritation. 

This is not to say at all that topical products used to cleanse the face, tone and moisturize and otherwise spot treat is not important, because it is.  But the fact still remains that surface bacteria is one of the least of your worries, and the internal aspect of acne treatment (oral treatment in other words) should be what the majority of your time spent researching alternative acne treatment is on. 

When I initially read the headline for this news article, my first inclination was to scoff at this “obviously” ridiculous form of quack therapy.  But then I thought “you know, here I am telling everyone how I believe stress - a purely psychologically imposed condition, causes me to break out in acne, and I’m laughing at the thought that therapy can help your skin?”

That’s not fair, right?  And then I read the article, and was convinced that psychotherapeutic dermatology, a newly dubbed area of dermatology and perhaps of psychology as well, could be the perfect complement to other alternative acne treatments such as herbal acne supplements and some of the other best natural acne products you will often read about here that naturally help beat acne. 

Psychotherapy, or “talking through” emotional issues, as well as incorporating various deep relaxation and decompressive techniques like meditation adn deep breathing techniques, or even hypnosis, unlocks a lot of deep seated emotional stressors that often manifest themselves in various skin problems like eczema, unexplained rashes, and acne as well. 

There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence that your emotional state is strongly tied to the health and beauty of your skin, so I believe this can be a very powerful form of therapy for your skin.  Not only that, anything that can naturally treat acne, in my opinion, is an option worthy of further exploration. 

Well, I got a lovely spam email, which I love so much, but this time I actually had to open this one because it was for an acne product I had never heard of before called AcneRase.  I’ve heard of Acnease before, and in fact, when I did a Google search for AcneRase, it kept asking me if I was sure I wasn’t looking for Acnease, so I’m thinking either this AcneRase is a brand new product that’s trying to get off the ground (they really shouldn’t be spamming to do that, but whatever), or it’s one that is kind of hanging out, like the thousands of others, and not garnering much interest. 

I checked out the website and it looks like what they are going for is a Proactiv type of system.  It’s advertised as a revolutionary (aren’t they all) acne treatment system that does not dry out the skin, which is very much how the Proactiv system advertises its skin cleansing and acne treatment system, as a gentle alternative acne treatment.

It also advertises as a natural acne treatment, and upon further examination, it’s a three step system, using both a daytime and night time “serum” for the skin and what looks like a cleanser and possibly a  toner (I couldn’t find and actual description of the products, so I had to rely on squinting to see the writing on the picture of the bottles of products), and then two smaller bottles of the serum. 

I can’t really tell you my opinion of the AcneRase product, because I’ve heard so little about it, and being introduced to the product by spam email is not exactly the best way to be introduced to a product that they want you to trust, so if anyone has any HONEST feedback on this acne product, please leave a comment! 

This isn’t much of a stretch actually, that the nervous system-calming practice of yoga could help clear up acne, which is a problem often made worse by taxed nerves and stress (at least in my case, 90% of the time I get a big zit, it is brought on by stress and anxiety of various kinds).  Yoga is an ancient practice that has some religious undertones, but which primarily exists for the peaceful existence and a peaceful coexistence between humans and nature, bringing people more in tune with themselves, and with nature. 

I practice yoga for its benefits for the immune system and for its stress-fighting benefits both.  I also like to practice yoga because it keeps me in a peaceful state of mind, and keeps my nervous system more even, smooth and more calm.  Likewise, it does seem when I am exercising regularly as well as practicing yoga, my skin tends to look it’s best. 

Is yoga the end to the means or the means to the end in this case, I don’t know, but I take what I can get when it comes to my skin, even if it is just a psychosomatic benefit I am getting from it. 

Practicing yoga not only can help with stress and increase muscle flexibility, keeping you young and lithe, but it also increases blood oxygenation, another key to beautiful, youthful, blemish-free and resilient skin.  When we do not get enough oxygen in our blood, our body tends to age faster, and our skin definitely shows this in its tone, luster and clarity.  It can be an excellent addition to our alternative acne treatment regimens that most of us have undoubtedly made for ourselves if we have had this touchy skin condition ever. 

Also, when we are stressed, we tend to breathe less efficiently, and yoga teaches us and conditions us to constantly keep a smooth, even breath, which keeps that oxygen flow going, and in turn destresses our mind and skin. 

There are certain low dose birth control pills that are currently on a consumer right’s group’s hit list to be banned because of impending health risks that they think are significant enough to seek banning. I’m talking about birth control pills in this blog because many women actually use birth control pills, especially certain kinds, to both prevent pregnancy and to help control their acne problem.

Some of the now-popular low dose contraceptive pills are appealing to women because they offer very comparable pregnancy protection compared to try phase or higher hormone dose birth control pills, without the high doses of hormones.  If you’re like me, this sounds like a good deal, because you are getting pregnancy protection without the potential mood swings and other unpleasantries that we link in our mind to higher doses of hormones. 

The consumer right’s group asking for the banning of some of these low dose pills claims that certain ones can cause almost double the risk of blood clots which can be potentially life threatening, especially if they travel to the lung, where they can cause a fast death.  The information I read did not give the specific names of the birth control pills that they are asking for to be pulled unfortunately. 

The low dose pills called into question contain a variable of the typical estrogen hormones used in birth control pills is called desogestrel, so if you are concerned, you can probably look at the package your birth control pills comes in and see if this is one of the active hormones your low dose birth control pill uses. 

I’ve noticed a lot that the newer high resolution TV’s are really distorting the Hollywood star’s images of perfect complexions and they look like, yikes, one of us normal people!  Oh no.  Not really, I don’t feel bad for them at all.  I’m sure all that fame and money more than makes up for the embarrassment of having every little complexion flaw outed on tv via high def.

You see, what high definition, or HDTV, does, is it pretty much acts as a magnifying glass on people skin.  So even those people who you think have the most perfect complexions, and not a blemish to speak of, actually are exposed on television, whereas before, with our slightly grainier resolution, many of these imperfections were nto visible because it didn’t look as if the camera were right up on them.

Especially now that our big screen tv’s are getting bigger and bigger.  Heck, my boyfriend and I were looking at a lot of the 60″ screens the other day, all in high definition, and I couldn’t believe how bad it made actors and actresses skin look!  As a matter of fact, the Circuit City outlet store we were browsing in happened to have the tv show “Heroes” playing, and some of the women and men who I had previously thought had pristine skin in fact had several bumps and even acne lesions on their skin!

Well, I guess this is a good thing - makes all of us feel a whole lot better about what we see in our mirrors, especially in those ultraviolet lights they put in retail stores (why do they do that, why???)

We know that lack of sleep, or lack of quality in the sleep you get, can have profound effects on one’s mood and productivity capabilities, but what about on your skin?  Well, the term “beauty rest” actually does mean something in the real world it turns out, especially in relation to acne and clear, vibrant, toned skin. 

It may not be the actual lack of sleep in itself which causes things (bad things) to happen to the skin, but the domino effect that lack of sleep, insomnia, and the resulting stressors on the body and skin that actually can cause or worsen skin conditions that aren’t particularly savory, like acne. 

The problem with not getting enough sleep is that when our mind is tired, we start to drink caffeinated drinks more, which can lead to breakouts, and we also tend to get more riled up easily and more emotional.  Getting enough sleep means our hormones can remain in balance more easily, and emotional ups and downs, along with ailments can be avoided much more easily.  In short, getting enough quality sleep can help you keep those clear pores you’ve undoubtedly worked so hard to achieve. 

Lack of sleep leads to other potential skin problems as well, such as rashes, lack of good color, puffiness under the eyes and allover the face, inflammation occurs more easily (acne actually IS a form of inflammation, so it’s not much of a stretch to assume that insomnia and lack of good quality sleep can actually be detrimental in the fight against acne). 

We’ve talked a couple times about how the birth control pill has been reported by some women to have a beneficial effect on helping to regulate hormones and correct acne on the face and other areas of the body, but I saw an interesting article on birth control and one of it’s little known possible dangers to women who think they are being adequately protected against pregnancy by the pill.

Apparently there have been some studies correlating situations where the birth control pill has not been as effective as it should be, when it is used by women who are considered to be medically obese.  It is usually true with any medication that its efficacy (effectiveness, concentration in the body), is going to be dependent on how much tissue that medicine has to be effective for.  In larger individuals, they simply have more body mass for a medication to travel through, and can essentially become a weaker form of the medicine due to being “stretched too thin” so to speak.

This might mean a little more regulation as far as having doctors educate their patients on their likelihood of success on a certain birth control pill method, in correlation to the patient’s weight and the likelihood that it will be rendered a little less effective if a patient is heavier. 

Question from reader : Hi,

Thank you so much for your tips. I also break out with stress and I
am almost always stressed out with school work.

I’ve been on the Zenmed treatment for about a week and my acne has
gotten a little worse so far, but I am also a week away from my period
and that usually causes me to break out more as well. About how long
did it take to work on you?

Thanks,
XXXXX

Answer : 

Well, it used to be that only one contraceptive had the “right” as ok’d by the FDA, to claim that it could help control acne in women by controlling the hormones that cause acne, but now it looks like another contraceptive (oral of course), has been approved to make these same or similar claims, by the FDA, the Federal Drug Administration, which is basically the approving arm of the government which tells drugs what they can and cannot say they can do. 

The already somewhat popular contraceptive called YAZ (I myself had thought about going on this pill before), has been approved by the FDA to treat moderate acne as well as to combat some sort of PMS syndrome.  This could mean big sales boosts for the oral contraceptive, since many a young women are looking for a birth control pill that can not only solve their birth control issues and prevent pregnancy, but why not also help to keep their skin clear?

The YAZ manufacturer, big drug company Bayer Schering Pharma, says that YAZ is the fastest growing feminine contraceptive today, and they hope to expand their market grip by introducing these new claims in ads and word of mouth.