Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

Hello everyone. I’ll be out of town for the next two days, so I wanted to make sure I wished all my wonderful, beautiful readers, a really happy, fun and above all safe New Years Eve.

What are you doing?  We’re going to a party most likely.  One of the best ways to enjoy New Years Eve safely is to go to a hotel shindig.

Many hotels have parties and special rates so that you can spend the night and attend the party without breaking the bank.

It’s a great idea to get some friends together and go to one of these.  Not only do you get to have a great time and get all fancy if you want to, but absolutely no one that you’re with has to drive.

Everyone can have their drinks and have a great time, eat, and then be off to the comfort of a hotel room. They won’t have to contend with all the impaired drivers that tend to be on the road that night, and neither will you.

Anyways, just a thought. I hope you all have a really awesome New Years Eve. See you back here next year for some more great acne news, reviews, tips and stories here at AcneMag.

HAPPY (EARLY) NEW YEARS!!!!!

It’s winter time, and in intemperate climates, such as we have here in Northeastern Ohio, we resort to pumping the heat up to stay warm and mostly indoors for the majority of the cold, blustery winter season.  So, while we may enjoy cozying up to the fire and getting warm and snuggly under the blankets to watch a movie, the dry, indoor air that we surround ourselves with can really do a number on the natural beauty of our skin. Why?

Well, indoor “fake” heat is really dry, and it can really sap the moisture from your skin. This can lend itself to more inflammation, increased dryness and flaking, increased incidence of things like rosacea and psoriasis, and a host of other problems that make for not-so-hot skin.

It’s especially important in the winter time to stick to a rigid moisturization schedule with your skin. I go through waaaay more moisturizer in the winter than I do in the more humid summer time when natural humidity makes my skin look more supple and moisturized without so much help from the bottle.

Many moisturizers, particularly the cream-based emollient ones, help to form a protective barrier against the drying, damaging elements. Not only that, SPF creams help protect you also against UVB and UVA skin damage, which causes premature photo aging as well as skin cancer when over exposed.

Other damaging elements which can damage your skin cells are wind, dirt and dusty debris, and extreme temperatures – especially extreme cold, which can chafe and flake the skin and lead to a loss of moisture. Moisture is very important to the appearance of your skin because it makes you skin look soft and supple.

Without adequate moisture, our skin is almost like a piece of fruit. It can be dehydrated, much like a grape becomes a raisin when it goes through the dehydration process. When our skin is moist, both from outside elements like a great acne-safe  moisturizer, and internal hydration, like drinking lots of replenishing fluids and pure drinking water, it plumps out, and looks younger and more supple.

You may want to use liquid facial cleansers or a very mild, creamy soap in the winter as well. These types of cleansers are better for the dry, humidity-free environment of the winter time. They are less apt to suck moisture out of your skin and are also more likely to not irritate the skin like many common soaps can.

I’d say the most important part is drinking lots and lots of pure water.  I’m a big believer on moisturizing your skin from the inside.

I know it’s a bit premature and all, considering it’s really only Christmas Eve, and not even the evening at that, but like many other on tomorrow’s very special day, I will be indisposed to write to you. You, my dear readers, are the very reason that I started this blog, and you are the very reason I will keep it going until I can no longer write

Acne prone skin is never easy to deal with, but it’s nice to know you have others out there that go through the exact same thing as you, and it’s nice to know there are natural ways to get clean, clear and acne free skin without putting all those drugs and harsh chemicals in your body.

So, I would like to wish everyone a very happy, very safe and warm Merry Christmas. Here is to a wonderful 2010, which is almost over, and an even better 2011 for all. Let’s hope 2011 brings economic and spiritual prosperity to more people, and let’s take a moment to count our many blessings.

Love you all, and ………

MERRRRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

For those of us who have had acne, whether on or off, or pretty much our whole lives, there are some great skin care gift ideas that we can offer family members, or that family members can consider.  Acne skin care is really a lot about lifestyle and diet, but you also do need to use the right and appropriate skin care products to ensure your skin stays clear.

One of the authorities in natural acne skin care and treatments, Zenmed, offers a full line of acne skin care products, as well as an advanced rosacea skin care line that work wonders on skin that is easily irritated and inflamed. They also offer excellent supplements for acne, and even supplements for rosacea prevention.

There are many different types of topical products that are used in the treatment and daily care of acne prone skin. First and perhaps one of the most important, is the cleanser. This is because cleansers are the first step to purifying and clarifying any impurities and surface bacteria and dirt which may become stuck in the pores and lead to inflammation of the pores.

I personally like emollient, yet cleansing soaps, or my favorite is liquid cleansers that are clear.  These tend to really deep clean the best without overdrying the skin. Whereas soaps are usually more drying, liquid cleansers are usually a bit more moisturizing and soothing, simply because they are not in solid form.

There are also some excellent acne treatment masks and topical treatments like serums and also moisturizers which not only help to maintain the moisture and protective barrier against environmental toxins.  Moisturizers are vital to acne prone skin, because you don’t want one that clogs pores or is overly oily, since this can lead to worsening of acne.

Yet, you absolutely NEED to use a moisturizer on your face every day, acne or not. Otherwise, the skin dries out, and can actually go overboard on producing oil (sebum) to make up for being dry, which means you can actually trigger a breakout by having skin that is too dry.

We’ve talked at length about how stress and anxiety lead to acne flare ups on this blog. I’m sure you yourself, if you have suffered from acne breakouts, can make some sort of correlation between the two in your own life.  Some doctors may say that acne and stress/anxiety are not related. They would just be plain wrong for a lot of us.

It may be true that some people have a better built in stress management system and different chemistry that allows them to prevent breakouts and even inflammation from commonly felt stress. However, most of us are profoundly affected by stress, and it shows itself in our skin, or in other ways which indicate inflammation somewhere in the body.

You may get sick more often, may experience disorders like IBS and colitis, or it may show itself in things like sore and tense muscles, flare ups of things like herpes and other STD’s, or other irritations of existing conditions. For asthmatics, they even experience more problems with their breathing because of inflammation due to stress and anxiety.

It’s totally safe to say that avoiding stress and at least coming up with a really good stress management system in your life is beneficial to your overall life and life span.  If you cannot manage it, you open yourself up to developing all sorts of inflammation related disorders and discomforts.

Why does stress and anxiety lead to inflammation? Well, it causes chain reactions of certain hormones in the body.  When these hormones get out of whack, they have a sort of domino effect on the body’s mechanisms, and exhibit themselves in inflammation in different areas of the body.

Of course, it probably all depends on where your “weak spots” are, as to where stress will express itself most. Some people who are not prone to acne sure might not express their stress in breaking out on their face or chest or back, but they certainly will feel it or see it elsewhere.

Because inflammation is best beat by eating lots of antioxidants and other anti inflammatory foods, it’s a surefire way to clear up the skin and keep it healthy looking by making these foods prevalent in your diet.  Foods like raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries are antioxidant and anti inflammatory powerhouses.

Walnuts are one of my favorites, and they are excellent for several reasons, they contain vitamins, antioxidants, and omega 3 fatty acids, which are all excellent for glowing, “calm” hormonal-acne free skin.

As a 36 year old woman now, I still will get acne on and off. Although I’ve been able to successfully control acne when it does come calling (which is usually when I’m under stress or I’ve had too many stimulants – ie caffeine), is through natural hormonal acne treatments.

Another favorite way for me to help control both acne breakouts, and help smooth out wrinkles and fine lines, as well as to help further smooth out old depressed acne marks or redness, is the chemical peel.  Chemical peels are a great way to help treat adult acne because they help to really clear out the pores and get rid of all surface debris and dead skin.

A big part of why acne occurs is because of debris that is on the skin’s surface getting stuck in the over abundance of topical sebum (oil) left on the skin.  The debris then gets stuck in the pores, and a resulting infection occurs, with inflammation. This is why the skin becomes inflamed, and a bump becomes large.  Pus builds up, and an acne lesion forms.

Chemical peels that are done regularly simply help reduce the likelihood that your pores will become clogged. They also may temporarily reduce sebum, but they don’t address the actual underlying issue of the problem.

That’s where the natural hormonal acne treatments come in. If you address the root of adult acne, which is an imbalance in the hormones, which causes the oil glands to become overactive, at the root cause, then you have a much better chance of solving the problem on a more permanent level.

A chemical peel can really help refresh your skin and make it look radiant though. It is one of my favorite ways to make my skin look really glowing and fresh since it does take off so many dead skin cells and helps to increase skin cell turnover as well as increase collagen production.

I was amazed, although not totally shocked because I am one of these statistics when my skin is not cooperating with me or I’m under a lot of stress, that it has been reported 50% of adult women here in the US actually complain of getting acne. When I say adult, I mean women ranging from their twenties all the way up to the menopausal years.

This is quite a range, and although acne is typically associated with the younger teen years and even early twenties since this tends to be when women’s hormones are more active, it is no longer just a skin condition that affects younger women. That is clear when you see the range of adult acne products that are out there now.

Manufacturers aren’t stupid. They see that adult acne, especially in women who tend to have more hormonal issue throughout life beyond the teen years than men, is prevalent amongst adult women. They see the huge marketing opportunity to address both acne and aging skin issues at once, and laser target a specific audience and need.

Let’s talk a little more about why adult acne is more prevalent in women.  Womens hormones are simply a bit more unstable than mens are. I wish there were a better, more diplomatic way to say that, but there isn’t, and believe me, I’m not bashing women – I am a woman!  Because of this, we are just more susceptible to hormonally driven acne.

Women’s hormones go through a lot of changes because of our biological purpose, which is to get pregnant and give birth. Our periods are a large reason for our hormonal imbalances.  We have spikes and dips in our hormones throughout every month thanks to our menstrual cycles.

And because of the way we are built to be so dependent on our hormones, we also are a bit more susceptible to the hormone balance upsetters like stress and bad eating.

Adult women usually have issue with acne on their chin, jaw and neck, whereas teen women usually can have it in a larger variety of areas, including the body. I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to see more acne in places I didn’t have it when I was younger.

However my personal experience is that I’ve seen more body acne as an adult, whereas most other women do not.

It seems that the infamous link between acne and depression, which could never quite be fully understood or even quantified and put into a valid theory, has made the news a lot lately. This link really begs the question, is one theory putting the cart before the horse, or another vice versa? Or you could say the chicken before the egg, you catch my drift.

No one really fully understands, and certainly probably cannot commit to 100%, a theory that acne causes depression or that depression causes acne. Some people see their acne clear up when they start to also notice their mood lifting. Are the two interdependent on one another? Most definitely. But the question is, does one actually cause the other?

Or is it different per the individual it is affecting? That’s really the heart of the matter. I’m sure that if your face has a ton of acne lesions on it, you really don’t feel like going out and painting the town red and meeting people and socializing, right? Hence, acne itself could definitely lead to, or at the very least, feed into, depression and anxiety.

On the other hand, depression itself is often linked to fluctuations in hormones and imbalances in the delicate hormone/mood balance. Guess what else is heavily influenced by hormones? Yep, that’s right – ACNE! So it seems that both depression and acne are highly dependent on your hormones in most cases.

It’s no secret that our moods can express themselves outwardly in our appearance. When you’re feeling down, or anxious, you may even eat all the wrong foods, fueling any skin problems you had even more. You may also over eat, and gain weight, another influence on your physical appearance that your mood definitely exerts over you.

Our thoughts are powerful. They can really dictate not only what we accomplish in life, but also how we present ourselves – physical appearance-wise – to the outside world. When our thoughts take turns for the worse, or we ruminate a lot about different situations, our behaviors can change in a thousand different ways, taking our hormones and our habits right along with them.

So, maybe part of the key to being acne free is keeping positive, happy thoughts! Now there’s a novel concept! Of course, there is a lot more to hormonal acne, but it’s a great start if you can have a positive attitude, then the rest of it, solving the problem with natural acne treatments and such, seems a lot easier.

Well, the season is officially upon us now. Thanksgiving is over, and we’ve gone full bore into the Christmas season. While it is truly a wonderful time of the year, to quote from one of the most popular holiday carols of all time, it can also be quite stressful for a lot of people. It can also be quite a time span of bad eating, where we are indulging a lot in things that are very skin-unfriendly.

This can be the perfect recipe for acne breakouts.  I already had a small breakout, which I quickly helped control by popping some herbal acne supplements for a few days, and watching what I ate and trying to watch my stress and anxiety levels.

Eating a lot of fats, salts and sweets do a number on your skin, and are really bad for your hormonal balance. Since most acne is hormonally based, it’s vital that you eat a diet and live a lifestyle that is conducive to balanced androgens (male hormones) and estrogens (female hormones). This goes for whether you are a guy or girl, since both men and women have certain levels of both hormones.

Any upset in the delicate balance can lead to a breakout.  Eating lots of sugar and salt does a double whammy on your skin.  The sugar puts your blood sugar levels out of whack, which not only puts your hormones out of balance, but also makes you want to eat MORE sugar and refined carbs.

Salt dries your skin out from the inside out.  Eat a highly salty diet for a few days, and notice how dried out your skin gets. That’s because it dehydrates you, and your body will take water from the tissues under your skin, making you look older than you really are, and making your skin look terrible!

You can eat fat, but only if it’s the healthy kind of fat. Monosaturated fats are actually good, and very hydrating from the inside, for your skin. They are also excellent at helping your body to naturally balance their own hormone levels.

I recommend that everyone take an omega 3 fat (monosaturated fat) supplement like fish oil or flax oil.

Stress from the holidays is enough to make anyone’s skin go haywire. Try to avoid the stress of the holidays by avoiding large crowds at shopping time. Go shopping after work during the week to avoid the stress, and try to skip those big sales that attract a million crazy people. They are just too stressful!

Try to engage in working out hard or doing yoga also to relieve the holiday anxiety. This will help you manage any holiday breakouts, and it will also make you a much happier person!

Sometimes I have experiences that are thought provoking (wow, interesting revelation I hear you saying, and it’s ok because I’m even making fun of myself for that).  And when I say thought provoking, I mean that they prompt me to start thinking in certain patterns, in certain ways about things in life that not only have to do with health and beauty, but also about how incredibly intuitive the body is, and how incredibly interlinked all the body’s processes are.

The thought I had this time, of course, was about acne, and more specifically about my experiences with acne, and how they were mostly, when you got down to the root cause, incepted by some form of inflammation in my body. How do I know this? Well, this inflammation made itself not only apparent in my skin by making me break out in various places with acne lesions, but also caused other things to happen which were quantifiable and identifiable as issues to me, that are linked to inflammation in some way.

Inflammation is really just an irritation of a body part or a lining in the body, or even something that has been caused by infection, which often causes pain because inflammation does that.

My experience this time has to do with my before-Thanksgiving time.  I had three very stressful all day meetings at the last minute, the three days leading up to Thanksgiving, at my job.  There was a sort of urgent matter that required a certain group of people be gathered together to help solve the problem, and I was one of those people.

We were put on the spot for a couple of days, and basically, the issue really relied on me and others giving the right answers, complete answers, and having a lot of knowledge of something. It was stressful. Especially to me, since I’m by nature a perfectionist and a pleaser, and I’m really trying hard at work because I truly feel that I’m lucky to have this particular job right now.

I noticed that the day after the first meeting, I woke up having an asthma attack. I rarely get asthma attacks any more.  Asthma is sort of an inflammation of the bronchial passages that causes restriction. I also happened to be eating badly – a lot of junk food, which also tends to make me more prone to inflammation. Well, lo and behold, I woke up with two welts on my chest the next morning, and a new welt (yes, acne welts) as well.

Just that brief period of time of eating poorly and experiencing a lot of stress caused inflammation in my body enough to disrupt my hormones, causing a sort of hormonal acne breakout, as well as to give me an inflammatory response in my bronchial tubes.  Crazy!