Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

Although there does seem to be some connection between a person’s blood lines (genetics) and whether they are or are not prone to getting acne, there are no clear cut definitive answers as to whether acne is definitely a genetic trait or not, because there hasn’t been a specific gene difference discovered yet for this.  I can tell you that for me personally, my mother never had acne really and my sister did not either.  My dad said he used to get acne when he was in his teens, but none of them had it as severe as I did when I was in my teens and even into my early adulthood.

So for me, I was trying to figure out what the genetic connection was, if any, and it was pretty clear to me where my genetic connection came in. It was definitely on my mom’s side, with my mom’s sister (my aunt), and her daughter (my cousin) had acne pretty bad too.  I traced it to them because my cousing and I also had the exact same birth mark on our legs, a dime sized dark spot which she had gotten removed years and years ago for safety reasons and whih I also finally broke down and got removed just two years ago from my leg for the same reasons.

We both had acne that was so bad at times it becamse cystic and painful. She actually went on Accutane when she was younger, and it did help her skin immensely, but now that she is older she does think that it has also dried her out as well, because it does basically cease your oil production, which is the whole point of the medication.  This was the only genetic link for me though.  Some of you that have acne may have a parent that has acne as well, and for you that would be where you can trace it back to, but there are also those anomalys who have acne when absolutely no one in their family suffered from acne.

It really is hard to tell, but it definitely has something to do with the individual’s hormone balance, which can definitely be a trait that is inherited or not inherited.

You’d think I learned my lesson by now, but apparently I haven’t.  At least not totally. I guess I have to make my way down a product specific list of supplements, drinks and foods to avoid before I actually learn that there are certain entire categories of foods, drinks and supplements that I simply cannot put in my mouth without disaster striking my complexion.  One of those items is ANY diet pill with a stimulant in it. That include the green tea supplements unfortunately.

I thought that maybe since green tea also has some antioxidant effects, I could get away with trying a temporary appetite reducer slash diet pill that gave me a boost in energy as well called Mean Green green tea supplement, but I guess the fact that it had all kinds of other caffeine in it and a stimulant called guarana (which I didn’t notice until AFTER I had a giant zit on my chin from it) had bad effects on my skin and caused a zit to appear.  Guarana is one of the worst in my opinion, second only to ephedrine which should have been banned from all products on the shelves by now anyways, and I thought that since this particular supplement was green tea, that was the only stimulant in it, well I was wrong.

The effect didn’t hit me until two days after I took it, but I knew from the moment I took it that it would have ill effects on my complexion because it gave me that jittery nervous kind of energy and and stimulated my sweat glands, a dead giveaway that a product is going to mess with your nervous system, and hence your hormonal balance. I only took one pill, but it was enough to break me out, and I knew it that day that I would be dealing with bad skin for a few days because of it.

One day I will learn!  Or maybe I can quit my job and never need another cup of coffee or stimulant to get me through my day – oh and no stress, so I don’t ever have to break out again!  Yeah right, I won’t hold my breath!

If there was ever any proof that your skin reflects on the outside what’s going on inside your body, it’s the fact that you can see the differences in your skin when you are eating right, getting plenty of wholesome, healthy foods, and when you are eating totally wrong, as in lots of high fat, greasy, sweet sugary and processed foods. I know I can certainly tell when I’m eating healthy just by looking at the mirror and seeing what my skin is doing.  If I’m eating a lot of refined sugars and processed foods, my skin tends to look off color, drier, and with more blemishes, both blackheads and whiteheads.

Not only that, there are a few creases in my face that I can unfortunately see a lot more clear when I’m eating badly, particularly one by my mouth that tends to pop out of the woodwork only when I’ve been on a week long binge of eating lots of chocolate, sugary sweets, processed chips and snacks and fatty processed foods.  I really tend to notice the dryness though, first and foremost.  I will notice that I get more flakes on my forehead, and my skin appears more ruddy (red), and flushes much more easily.

When I’m eating right, which is a lot of raw foods like fruits, and broccoli steamed, olive oil, and almonds, and other things that are high in omega 3′s and the right vitamins and minerals, then I notice my skin actually takes on a different, more healthful and youthful tone and color.  It’s also much less prone to inflammation, which means I experience less puffiness around the eye area, and a lot less acne flareups.  There really is something to the fact that your diet determines what you look like on the outside.

Your skin is literally the largest organ on your body. It covers over ninety percent of you body, protects your organs, and repels environmental toxins and damage from your internal workings, so it’s important to treat it, and the rest of your organs the right way by eating healthy the majority of the time.  We all slip up and go on binges, but as long as you always come back and don’t let it get out of control, that’s the key.

People often question me about what ingredients are the worst when it comes to aggravating and further worsening their acne problem.  While I always caution against not using moisturizing agents on the face and overdrying the face as conventional wisdom sometimes dictates to do with acne, there is one ingredient that is in some moisturizers and definitely is in quite a few foundation products that usually does aggravate acne and clog the pores, especially if it’s one of the main ingredients.

The way you can tell if something is one of the main (highest concentration) ingredients in a product is by looking at what order it appears in the ingredient list on the package.  If it appears toward the end of the ingredient list, then that means there probably isn’t too much of it in the product, however, the closer to the beginning of the list means that it has a high concentration and percentage of that one ingredient.

If something has just a bit of mineral oil in it, it may very well not irritate your skin, but there are quite a few people who find that they are sensitive to it and that it does clog the pores and lead to breakouts.  Mineral oil is a cheap ingredient, which is fine, but it’s really not good for the skin in my opinion because it is such a high density oil and there are a lot of people who are actually sensitive to it.  I realize that it is going to be in a lot of the cheaper cosmetics that you find in drugstores, but at least try to get one that has it as a minor ingredient if you do have some drugstore brands you want to try.

A lot of us break out in those tiny, little, but abundant bumps on our forehead periodically.  Lots of times this forehead acne is not really hormonal and huge, but it’s more of the pesky smaller and concentrated acne that looks somewhat like a rash and is easily visible in natural light.  Because it’s not extremely inflammatory like the larger zits are that you might see pop up on your chin or around your nose, which hurt to the touch and take weeks sometimes to heal, it is somewhat easier to treat this type of bumpy, annoying acne, especially if you happen to be one of those people who only gets that kind of acne and really doesn’t have much trouble with the other larger stuff that is more cystic in nature.

What you want to be sure of, as the first rule of thumb against forehead acne, is that you are not wearing your bangs down too low, or you may want to get rid of your bangs all together if you happen to notice you get forehead acne a lot.  If you have oily hair, that oil eaisly gets into the pores on the forehead, and you’ll soon see that you have a mini breakout there.  Also, because heat gets trapped under the bangs, this acts as an extra irritant, and the bumps can become worse, so it’s best to not have bangs at all to be honest, but if you just love your bangs or think you look bad without them, then make sure you keep them super clean all the time to at least reduce their irritating quality.

Treat the forehead with a serum of some sort that has salicylic acid in it.  My choice for areas of acne like this is a clear serum, not a cream, and one that definitely has the aforementioned ingredient in it since it’s great for unclogging the pores, which causes this type of irritation.

Well, in an obvious, but long studied conclusion, tanning beds have finally been added to a list of “definite cancer causing agents”.  This is something that your dermatologist has always preached, but that tanning bed companies will vehemently deny, insisting that as long as their beds are used responsibly, they do not add any risk to you developing skin cancer.  Well, I definitely have always thought they are dangerous, and I even baked myself in them over and over, trying futilly to get my pale white irish skin to take on the sheen and dark glow of those that I envied in high school.  When I think of all the damage I did to my skin in my youth, it really makes me sick.

Not only are tanning beds bad for your health, but they are really bad for your skin, causing age spots, growths and uneven skin pigment when they are used.  The lighter your skin, the worse the damage these beds are, but you are still at risk even if you are not a naturally lighter skinned person.  There has been a huge spike in the skin cancer cases seen in young teens, as the popularity of these tanning beds reached their zenith.

With the boom of excellent, natural looking and highly effective self tanners though, I would have thought that more young people would skip the tanning bed in favor of a fake spray tan, or a cream tan, but this must not be that case, as skin cancer cases have still been skyrocketing and tanning salon’s popularity has not faltered.  However, after seeing this in plain, black and white, and on several major news outlets, maybe it will finally hit people that tanning beds really aren’t good for you, and should be avoided at all costs.

Some think that tanning beds makes their skin look better. While this may be very temporary due to a darkening of the skin pigment, which I’ll admit, is pretty universally flattering, the long term effects are going to make your skin look much much worse, and you’ll wish you had never set foot in one of these beds in your life.

With how much we’ve talked about the effects of caffeine on your skin, specifically in regards to increasing your pore size and causing acne to come to the surface, you know that I’m always on the prowl for products and natural supplements that may be a good alternative to caffeine loaded drinks and products for energy enhancement.  If you’re like me and you work long hours and long weeks, and even when you get home you’re still working on one thing or another, you like to have the energy to carry you through so you can be a productive person.  That’s exactly why half the world has to enhance their energy levels artificially by eating or drinking caffeine and other stimulants.

I’ll admit, I drink the occasional cup of coffee, sometimes I’ll resort to it several times a week if I’m having a particularly taxing or busy week, however I also like to keep an eye out for other alternatives that will work well without making my skin more susceptible to the dreaded breakout.  So, while innocently surfing the net for something unrelated (actually I was searching for a good water purifier, a little experiment I’m trying that I’ll talk about in a few weeks involving alkaline water made at home to help with system acidity and also help your skin and other bodily functions and detoxing), when I came across this stuff called maca root powder.

I have heard of maca before, but there are so many dried herbs and natural supplements out there that have such a plethora of benefits that I wasn’t sure exactly what it was.  It is apparently a dried indian root that can be used to enrich and energize smoothies, shakes, and even in your cooking.  There are totally mixed reviews on how it tastes though. Some say it imparts a slightly sweet taste and thickened texture to foods and drinks, and some say that it is totally bitter and gag worthy.  I’ve never tried it, so the jury is out on that one for me to give you a review unless I try it.

It supposedly contains amino acids, minerals and antioxidants which are supposed to help cleanse the endocrine system (this could potentially balance your hormones, another advertised benefit of maca root.  It also may enhance the libido since it helps to balance the hormone.

There is so much emphasis on hydrating your skin from the outside, using the best wrinkle skin care creams, serums and emollients, and just straight up moisturizers, that we often forget that we also have to hydrate our skin (and our organs) from the inside, using water instead of things like juice, soda and sweet drinks.  The amount of water you drink actually directly affects how your skin looks.  I’ve even noticed that when I’m dehydrated, which happens easily since I’m a constantly thirsty person, my skin actually looks less firm, and my wrinkles start to show a bit more.

This is because water actually hydrates and “puffs up” your skin cells” which makes your face and your skin everywhere else look more taut and firm, the way everyone wants their skin to look.  It’s important to make sure that you do hydrate with purified water, all day long.  Try to stay away from the caffeinated and sugary beverages that always seem to suck the moisture right out of your skin and act as a diuretic (where you literally pee all of the water out of your system almost as soon as you drink it).

Our bodies are composed of mostly water, which is why it is so essential for continued life and health, and the reason why people can die so easily from dehydration, much more quickly than they can from starvation.  Water is an essential necessity when it comes to your health and also to your skin’s appearance.  If you want to find out more about becoming more hydrated, you may even want to check out ionized or alkalized water, as they supposedly are able to hydrate you much more quickly since they have smaller clusters of molecules that are more easily absorbed by your body.

If you do drink water, at least make sure it is filtered of purified, this is the best way to ensure you are getting toxins like heavy metals and chemicals (including chlorine) out of your water and out of your body.

When we recently went to a wedding where I was literally only outdoors in the daylight for twenty minutes and had forgotten to apply my sunblock that day, instead only applying a regular lotion and then my SPF foundation, which apparently isn’t enough to prevent sunburn, I learned that you really have to be dilligent in applying your sunscreen, especially to your face, every single day.  Even if it’s the dead of winter, your skin on your face is still exposed to the burning rays of the sun, and it’s still getting sun damage, even when it feels like it wouldn’t be due to overcast skies or a darker day in general.

The sun’s rays even can penetrate through your car window, so when you feel the sun beating down on the left side of your face as you’re driving your car, it could very well be damaging your skin on that side, just by you sitting in your car.  I know that this is true, because my wrinkles and sunspots are actually worse on the left side of my face, and there’s no reason other than increased sun exposure that would be true unless it were because of my car driving time.  This also reinforced for me the importance of wearing it every day.

As far as acne sufferers go, wearing sunscreen that does not irritate or clog the skin’s pores is a must of course.  So just make sure you find one that is a combination moisturizing lotion that just so also happens to have a great SPF in it as well.  I know Aveeno is good, I actually use their day cream with SPF 15, and have had no problems, even though I’ve had problems with sensitivity to sunscreens in the past.  I make sure I apply it every single day, and noticed that my sunspots are gradually fading on the sides of my face thanks to my new dilligence in applying it every morning, and generously, as well as my regular at home chemical peels that help to lighten the pigmentation there.

I know that at first sunblock application seems like a pain, but if you just incorporate it in to your morning routine like you would brushing your teeth, and replace your old moisturizer with a great, noncomedogenic SPF moisturizer, then it really becomes like second nature quickly, and your skin is protected 365 days per year.