Acne Magazine

I posted a little over a week ago how I did my first in-home, high grade glycolic acid peel.  Man oh man, it burned when I put it on my face.  Some of the warnings on the directions were that there would be a burning sensation while the solution was on, and not to leave it on in excess of five minutes.  I could barely keep it on for three!

Another one of the warnings, which I was prepared for, was that it said the aftermath of the powerful peel could, potentially, lead to a breakout.  And, of course, since my skin is so sensitive to these things and is acne prone in the first place, guess what I was blessed with about a week later?  I knew they were cropping up days ago, I could feel them just itching to break the surface of my then-clear skin.  And of course, as I predicted of my now very predictable skin, I have a new zit on my cheek (where I never get them, by the way), and above my eyebrow (another very odd place for me to get a zit).

They look to be ones that will subside fairly quickly, but they broke the surface pretty quickly once I could feel them brewing beneath the surface.  The problem is, they are the really red kind, and they do protrude, so it was a tricky task getting my cover up on as I was getting ready for work this morning.  It’s now evening, and the one looks as though it may come to a head, and the other looks like it might be a little more stubborn than I thought initially.

As for the acid peel, I still plan on doing them every 4-6 weeks as a smoothing agent for my sometimes bumpy skin, alternating with my home microdermabrasion system (zenmed), which I used at least once a week, if not more, for fresh new cells and also to help keep my natural tendency toward a rougher texture down, as well as to keep my acne scarring down. 

Oy ve, I’m 33, why do I still have to worry about zits???

It seems Ms. Britney Spears, amongst a host of other personal and professional problems in her life right now, is suffering from some kind of bad skin.  I saw a picture of her recently which revealed several new acne lesions as well as older acne scars that looked like the kind that had just recently healed.  In other words, they were still red, or at least discolored, but they were no longer protruding. 

We all know how long it can take for an acne postule to go completely down, and many times it leaves a discoloration in that area for months, especially if we were naughty and we squeezed before it was anywhere near to being ready to come out. 

Britney Spears seems to be a prime example of what stress can do to our skin, especially if we have acne tendencies to begin with.  Stress, which Britney certainly has had her share of lately, whether self inflicted or public inflicted, is taking it’s toll on her skin, and she may not even be eating properly or perhaps drinking too much or eating too much sugar or caffeine, which we can all fall victim to when stressed.  All these types of habits do though, is unfortunately make our skin worse, and make our hormones bounce allover the place even more. 

Stress and hormone control is directly related to eachother.  When we are stressed, it throws our natural hormone balance completely for a loop, and either our androgens (male hormones) or estrogens (female hormones) are too high or too low, depending on the person, and this alone can spur on a huge breakouts, as well as dull, tired looking skin. 

On a totally separate note, we really hope people start leaving Britney alone.  It is clear to me that this is a woman who, yes, has made some really bad choices in life, but I also think she has serious issues that she needs to deal with, and if the press could just not be so vicious, it might be a little easier for her to get through this obviously difficult time in her life. 

I’ve been really interested in theories that antioxidants in fairly high doses can benefit people with acne.  I began to get interested in this when I started reviewing a product called Acnezine, which is an herbal supplement which uses this as some of its basis for clearing acne naturally. 

It is essentially a potent antioxidant formula which helps to clear the skin by attacking free radicals which cause inflammation in the skin, among a host of other bad things that it does to the skin, including accelerated aging and wrinkle formation, aggravating acne and acne rosacea, and causing a generally bad complexion with little glow and bad tone. 

I had never really heard of using antioxidant therapy as a natural acne remedy, and this intrigued me, especially since antioxidants are touted as having a multitude of additional benefits besides just skin care, including heart and organ health, preventing diseases such as cancer and nerve related diseases, and many, many other health benefits too numerous to mention.  I read again about how high priced anti oxidant drinks such as Xango, which containg the potent juice of the mangosteen fruits, and other high antioxidant fruits such as noni juice and acai berry had shown promise in helping to clear acne.

I read several different places that antioxidant rich drinks and supplements, while they could not be solidly proven to help fight disease, did show that people with varying degrees of acne benefitted from them, and this cemented the belief that antioxidants in potent supplement form could definitely be of benefit.  For a review of the product we reviewed on this site that contains high antioxidant counts as a means to fight acne, see Acnezine review. 

If you’d like to read more about juices that contain high antioxidant counts, try mangosteen, acai and noni as a start.  Also, broccoli, tomatoes and several other foods rich in antioxidants can benefit the acne sufferer, so it is important to keep a lot of fruits and veggies in your fridge at all times.  Just another example of why we “are what we eat”. 

I have told you about an alternative acne treatment device that uses laser light therapy to help treat light lines and wrinkles, as well as rosacea and acne rosacea, well now, a company is working on and having younger teenage subjects test out, a laser light pen that uses varying degrees of light therapy - blue light and red light - to help treat existing acne lesions as well as target those ones below the surface that have yet to make an appearance, before they come up to the surface.

One wavelength the subjects can use treats the acne that’s already on the surface, and then there is another light that they can adjust their small, portable pen to that is a stronger light wavelength, which penetrates the layers of skin more deeply and targets those below-the-surface zits that are brewing underneath, and tend to be more agressive, more painful, and harder to get rid of.

The brains behind the new acne light treatment pen says that the goal right now is to give relief of acne lesions within 24 hours, but his overall goal is to give the patient relief in total - meaning no acne at all I guess - within 48 hours.  We’ll see how this new pen tests out.  I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be offered as a prescription only device, and will be FDA approved, or will be sold online as the newscast I watched did not specify, but it has yet to finish it’s trials. 

Next on the horizon, the company who has thought of the acne pen wants to create a whole face mask that uses light therapy, and treats a wide range of facial skin issues, but allover at once, since the mask can be treating the entire face at one time, instead of moving a pen over the face, which would be more of a spot treatment option.  This could be one of the greatest alternative acne treatments ever, if it proves to be as successful as the company is hoping! 

I’ve heard the theory before that dairy foods cause and aggravate acne, and I actually think I’ve heard that the Chinese method of treating acne and their theory includes the fact that dairy foods cause acne and should be avoided by acne sufferers.  I think that this theory is very misleading, not only because I’ve eaten dairy foods and not had any problems through the clear periods of my life, but also because low fat dairy products, I think, are essential to healthy weight maintenance, and can be a very healthful addition to any woman’s diet, both young and old. 

Low fat dairy products, like low fat milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, egg beaters, and other enjoyable dairies that aren’t loaded with fat, actually contain Vitamin K, Vitamin D, and calcium, all of which are essential to the health and protection of our skin as well, and to eat a diet that is completely free of dairy may lead to dried out skin, and not enough protein, which I think is essential to healthy skin that glows and is immune to such skin conditions as acne and aging. 

If there was one dairy product I’d say to stay away from, it would be high fat creams, like ice cream, and high fat, sharp cheeses, as these actually do clog the system and can lead to skin irritations simply because of their very rich, high fat content.  Other than that, I’d say skim dairy products are a great addition to any diet, especially a woman’s, who needs dairy to prevent osteoporosis and bone degeneration. 

A friend of mine at work and I were having an interesting conversation today about Vitamin K cream, which comes in many forms, but is perhaps most notorious through the brand of Vitamin K vitamin called Vita-K.  Vitamin K concentrated creams are supposed to be good remedies that are natural for dark under eye circles, which quite a few men and women struggle with these days.  Dark under-eye circles may be from lack of sleep, or even tougher to get rid of, they may also be genetically inherited or from some sort of nutritional deficiency.

She was interested in getting a Vitamin K cream for circles she said had formed under her eyes, but notes that Vitamin K could also be used for acne scarring, which I actually had heard in passing years ago, but had never tried.  Concentrated Vitamin K creams are supposed to help fade acne scars, but to my knowledge, they would not help with pitting and ice pick scars caused by acne lesion leftovers.  If any of my great, informed readers know more please do post a comment

I will keep up on this topic, as I think it could be a great, inexpensive way for people with hyperpigmentation left over from acne scars to cheaply treat them and help to fade them, but hesitate to recommend it for this, because I have read mixed reviews about the ability of Vitamin K cream to help fade dark under eye circles, which would make me doubt the efficiency it would have in reducing red acne scarring. 

Again, if you have some knowledge or personal experience on the subject, please do share!  I wanted to take a minute to thank all those readers who have taken the time to post their ideas and share their stories on everything from home made acne remedies, herbal supplements for acne, acne irritants, makeup for acne, and their personal experiences emotionally with acne. It truly makes AcneMagazine a gathering place for kindred spirits! 

I’m kind of bummed about this one, although it should come as no surprise that my uber sensitive skin (to caffeine, that is), is having a sort of reaction to ECGG, a very healthful compound that is found in the popular “health” drink green tea.  I began taking a supplement recently that contained fairly high amounts fo ECGG, and unfortunately was greeted the next few days with new bumps on my chin.

Now, I didn’t break out in the larger, more under-the-skin acne lesions, but my skin became rougher and I did get the actual acne bumps on my chin that I always do when I start to drink any beverages with stimulants or take any supplements with stimulants.  So, this one’s a bummer because ECGG is actually chock full of antioxidants and may also have a cancer prevention benefits. 

However, I haven’t given up hope because sometimes supplements that contain other ingredients are not actually “pure” and this may be the reason I’m finding I’m breaking out, so I may purchase a more pure supplement that is also organic so I’m not getting any extra pesticides or anything I’m not banking on, and I’ll let you know if that makes any difference whatsoever.  I hate having skin this sensitive to caffeine and stimulants - I mean, what’s a girl to do when she needs an energy boost? 

As you all probably have heard, in an effort to protect unborn fetuses from very high chances of being born with serious deformities and even dying at or before birth, the FDA imposed something on all pharmacies and doctors dispensing the powerful acne drug that now admittedly is also used in milder acne than it should be, so that this risk could be put down to an acceptable level. 

However, since the inception of what is known as the iPledge program, more than one hundred women have become pregnant who are either within 30 days of using Accutane for acne, which is still in the danger zone, or were pregnant before being prescribed, or conceived while on Accutane.  Some were even found to have falsified pregnancy tests, which are required for females taking Accutane.  I have no idea why anyone in their right mind would do that, but apparently someone did. 

The program was expected to work better than this, so the FDA has put together an advisory panel to see where the failures are coming in with this program that was designed to protect fetuses, and although it was known they would not have a perfect record, their record so far is not as good as they had hoped for in preventing women from conceiving while taking, or directly after taking the acne medication.

This program was pushed for when it was found that women were still getting pregnant at an unacceptable rate on the drug and since the risk of deformities was so high for these children, they thought this needed to be put in place for protection.  I do tend to agree, but their results do seem to be not so great, so they are re-evaluating the success of the program, and whether it is really even helping.  After all, people are going to do what they’re gonna do anyways, you can police them to some extent, but if they really want to get pregnant or be careless, by gosh they will.  Take a look at natural acne skin vitamins to help clear up your skin before even considering something like Accutane - that’s my opinion, as you well know. 

This was quite a bizarre story that I read, to say the least.  Apparently a French citizen was picked up on the island of St. Martin, for allegedly stabbing his dermatologist, Dr. David Cornbleet, fatally.  The reason he stabbed him to death in his office is even more bizarre.  Apparently, Dr. Cornbleet’s son is alleging that the man went ballistic because his father, the dermatologist, prescribed the suspect an acne medication which the suspect said had rendered him impotent. 

There was no hint in the article as to what acne medication it might have been, and I’m not sure that any of the acne medications I know of are known to possibly cause impotence in men, but I’m sure it’s on the side effects list of at least one acne medicine, since there are quite a few these days. 

Since the French government does not extradite suspects for trying if the potential punishment could be the death penalty, it is doubtful this suspect would be extradited.  He needs to be, because someone cannot just get away with not being tried if they are seriously suspected of committing murder, especially over something so pointless.