Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

I remember reading, a loooong time ago in a book about skin care (when there really wasn’t a lot known on the subject), how one person recommended that you always buy a liquid cleanser over a soap. They insisted that this was the only way to get the skin clean.  However, this is really not true.

You can get the same cleansing and bacteria-removing action from a bar of soap, especially with some of the more natural soaps today for acne.

They were talking about the “old days” when many opaque soaps for acne had too many drying ingredients in them.  This was also when it was basically unheard of that a soap be SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) free, like you can get today. SLS is a drying ingredient that is used in many body and face soaps today.

It is a cheap sudsing agent that most companies use in soaps to get that perceived cleansing action.  However, it is a harsh surfactant that can remove protective surface oils that help to protect your skin against the elements. In response to that, your body often produces more sebum to give the skin back that protective layer.

This is where conventional soaps fail acne prone skin, in my opinion.  Instead, there are other ingredients that can help to get the skin clean and free of bacteria. Ingredients like lemon grass, tea tree oil and lavender, as well as other totally natural materials can help to really get the surface bacteria off the skin as well as below the skin’s surface in the pores.

Not that SLS can’t be in liquid cleansers too, but it may not be as necessary since it is already in liquid form and more easily suds up.  SLS and SLES (Sodium Laureth Sulfate, a close mimick of SLS) is in many other products we use every day too. It’s in toothpaste, shampoos, and basically any other personal care product you can think of that lathers up really well when you apply friction and water to it.

It has gotten bas press because it has been linked to drying out the skin, mouth and scalp, depending on where it is used.  It has also been linked to other health issues as well, and it listed as a toxin ot the liver, which cannot process it once it is absorbed into the body.

More to come on the topic of SLS and SLES in the next post, sorry to get on my soapbox about this (no pun intended), but I think that it’s an important topic that we discuss.

Before reading about wine being a potential UV protectant for the skin, I was aware that a few other nutrients helped to block the harmful effects of the sun’s UV rays.  Let’s first say that I believe sun exposure is VITAL to one’s health.

I no longer subscribe to the believe that we must shield our skin from the sun at every opportunity. I believe that thought process may actually be leading to more cancer in this world, and a total lack of the necessary amounts of vitamin D to bone up our immune system, make our skin look fantastic, and prevent a myriad of cancer types.

That said, I do want to talk a little about building up what is now being called your “internal sunscreen” factor. This means, how you can actually help protect your skin from producing harmful, mutated cells from UV ray damage and resulting in things like skin cancer and wrinkles.

You can still expose yourself to sun light, you can just be a little more lax on sunscreen and time in the sun when you have a great built in SPF by eating the right foods.  One of the foods I was already aware of, or actually nutrients, was astaxanthin. Astaxanthin is a substance that is found naturally in the skin of salmon fish.

It is what gives them the characteristic pink flesh, and it is an excellent nutrient to take for building up your own internal sunscreen.  Another is lycopene, which is found in tomatoes primarily, but is also found in brightly colored orange and red veggies as well.

Studies have found that both of the these nutrients can help your skin to build up a sort of immunity to sun damage, and that is great news – especially for those of us that love the outdoors and have been enjoying the heck out of this absolutely beautiful summer.

Now, I’m reading that wine may provide this same sort of UV protection against cell mutation from sun light (or artificial sunlight, such as that received in a sun tanning bed).

Here’s how it may work. Researchers are thinking that compounds found in grapes, which are the main ingredient in wine, called flavonoids, help to prevent a chemical reaction from occurring that ultimately kills healthy skin cells and causes sun damage.

Here’s a really interesting side bar to this story. They are interested in this research because they think that it may lead to better topical sunscreens – but here’s the really interesting part – sunscreen drugs!

Can you imagine taking your sunscreen in a pill? Well, that’s kind of what I do already by taking my precious astaxanthin every day I guess, and I do believe that I have a higher degree of tolerance for the sun now.

If there ever was a time to make sure you’re relaxing, and doing everything you can to make sure that anxiety isn’t making its way into your psyche, it’s now. The pervasive mood in this country is that we are going to hell in a handbasket, to put it bluntly, and I must say that I do share some of that sentiment.

However, on a spiritual and personal level, I’ve told myself that if things get really bad and we do end up in a second recession, or worse, an actual depression the likes our great grandparents may have seen, I will be ok. Why will I be ok?  Because everyone else will be in the same boat.

I know it sounds terrible, but the knowledge that you aren’t going through something alone can make things seem dramatically more endurable.  Not only that, but I know that even if I lost everything – my home, my job and my savings – I would still be ok, because I know how to get it all back – with perseverence and tenacity, just like I got all of that the first time.

Right now, with all the economic uncertainty, it is not a time to make money and “things” your God. It’s time to get a little spiritual folks, because this ride could be a little bumpy for some of us. Not just the middle class – but the very rich may lose a lot as well.

These times call for drastic skin care measures, because if you have acne, then you know that stressful times full of anxiety can really take a toll on your skin. They can make you break out, but they can also dramatically accelerate the aging process of the skin, making you look a lot older than your years.

We unfortunately “wear” our stress on our skin, and when we are going through difficult times, we often will see a big difference in the tone, color and general appearance of our skin.

I have been trying to do more intense exercise, as I find that this is a way for me to really work out a lot of the stress and anxiety that are happening now. I’m worried for myself, but I’m also worried for my family and friends, and I tend to take the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Working out hard really helps me to gain an advantage over my stress, and to actually use to to my benefit instead of having it eat away at me inside. I’d highly recommend it to anyone as a form of stress and anxiety control so that the hormones can stay pretty balanced.

Acne is such a wonderful thing (you can hear my voice dripping with sarcasm I hope). Yesterday, for no reason at all, in my mid thirties, I woke up with a big, cystic type of acne lump on the back of my neck. What an odd place for a huge cyst bump to pop up on!

I went through in my mind why, for the second time in the past few months, I might be getting these huge cyst like acne breakouts on the back of my neck, and I couldn’t come up with why for the life of me.  I mean, I’ve heard of body acne, but who knew there were so many oil glands on the neck!

That’s part of the great mystery about acne. Sometimes you will go a month without breaking out on your face (which is reason enough to be thanking your lucky stars if you have very oily, acne prone skin), but in place of facial acne, you get it popping up in weird places like on your neck!

In addition to the back of my neck large cyst, I’m also getting them under my chin. So I guess if I have to be grateful for something, it’s that these are in relatively low visibility areas that you can only really see if you are at certain vantage points of ir I have my hair up in a high pony tail.

BUT, I do wonder – WHY? Why are they in the location that they are?  If you’ve been an acne sufferer for years in your youth like I was, then you know the process or trying to figure out that common denominator.

I went through my head, trying to think if I had something pressed up against these areas that may have triggered a breakout – couldn’t think of anything. Then I tried to think if I applied any different type of lotion to these areas. Still came up empty.

I even tried to think of the foods and drinks I’d had in the past few days, or supplements or even pain relievers I had taken in the past few days – still nothing out of the ordinary. In short, I came up totally empty on what the reason could possibly be for my odd placement breakout.

I do know that my face is clear now, but my neck and under-chin area seem to be taking all the heat. If anyone else has had this type of experience, please share!

Or even if someone thinks they know the reason for these counterintuitive types of breakouts, please share! It helps everyone to know that others experience the same frustrations as they do when it comes to maintaining clear skin.

Cystic acne is very serious. Take regular ol’ acne vulagaris, and put it on steroids, and you have cystic acne. Cystic acne can actually change the shape of an entire section of a person’s face in its most serious form. I have known some younger kids with this type of acne, and it can really be devastating to their appearance, not to mention their self esteem.

I myself have had some cystic acne lesions, but thankfully they were kept to a minimum when I was younger. Not sure why, because it seemed that my face was always a mess and my hormones were swinging wildly from one end to another, given my temperament as well as my rapidly changing and developing body at that age.

The first natural remedy for cystic acne, or any other kind of acne, is diet modification.  If you can eat a diet rich in low fat protein, low in refined carbs and sugars, and rich in wholesome vegetables, minimally cooked and whole fruits (organic preferably), you are halfway there.

Of course, there are people who still have wild hormonal swings even after they modify their diet and eat the right kinds of foods. However, the diet is key to at least getting people with cystic acne on a level playing field with others who don’t have hormonal acne.

Another natural remedy that may help tone down cystic acne is a natural oil found in a tree from New Zealand. The name of the oil is manuka oil. It seems counterintuitive that an oil, the very thing we try to avoid putting on our skin if we have had acne for a long time, would help to actually treat cystic acne, but there is evidence that this oil has some pretty powerful antibacterial properties.

However, there are multiple essential oils that also have great antibacterial properties. Take lavender oil for example. Most people think it’s just a pleasant smelling, relaxing oil that is used in lots of bath and body foofoo products.

However, it is one of the essential oils that has higher antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. It is actually an excellent all natural additive to natural acne soaps and products!  Some experts even believe that it is better for acne than tea tree oil, which has gained lots of kudos for being a natural acne remedy for its own antibacterial properties.

I’ve always felt, myself, that when I’m going through those periods of zen, when I’m most at peace with myself and my lot in life, that so happens to also coincide with the times when my skin is its most clear and radiant.

When I’m calm and happy and content, that’s when my skin really glows. My skin is also calm, not red or ruddy, or irritated, or acne prone. That’s because when you are experiencing that “zen” zone, you are also experiencing a superior hormonal state of balance.

Think about it. As a woman myself, I can say that the times when I feel most insecure and most anxious about everything is times when I also tend to be irritable, such as during PMS.  This is also the time that my body just feels tightly wound, and my stomach has more issues.

Everything just seems out of whack, and my hormones are the primary reason that I can’t really focus and feel like I might cry at the drop of a  hat. Well, acne, and even acne rosacea, are hormonally based skin issues.  They are conditions that are DIRECTLY related to the balance of your hormones.

When your hormonal balance is out of hand, usually you experience more female hormones surging if you’re a guy, and more male hormones, or androgens, if you are a woman. These two clash with eachother, and they cause the skin to erupt, just like how you are feeling inside “like you are going to erupt”.

This is why many feel that things that relax them, like massages, yoga, and other activities that they find peaceful and enjoyable, help their skin to look radiant and unflawed.  When you are in the zone, and you are feeling comfortable and happy with everything in your life, that is when all is right with the world.

If you are a person who is naturally tightly wound, I suggest you find ways to really culminate relaxation and peace in your life.  Some people find this in kickboxing and other really agressive sports, while others find more peaceful sports like yoga and tai chi to be more complementary to their state of mind.

Whatever the case is for you, make sure that you try to cultivate this sort of peace and balance in your own life. It’s only then that your true beauty shines – from the inside out.

This is part two of our two part articel on what we feel are the problems/issues with the current state of conventional acne medications today here in the US.  We of course, prefer to treat acne naturally, and that is what our Acne and skin care magazine is all about.

We want you to know what options are available, but also what the issues are with some of the medically prescribed options that involve the taking of a pill. There are many great medical alternative treatments out there that don’t require taking a drug, and for those, we are generally pretty excited about and advocate.

However, there are drugs that one must seriously consider before taking when it comes to acne, and that is what this article series is all about.

Another group of drugs that is commonly prescribed for acne are antibiotics.  This may seem an odd choice to treat an inflammatory skin condition.  The purpose of antibiotic prescription for acne is to kill the bacteria that are merely one facet of the overall skin condition.

Patients who use this method often report that their acne comes back twice as bad after they are finished with the drug.  This is because the prescription did not really treat the underlying problem.

Instead it only put a temporary bandage on one small part of the problem.   The main underlying issue for most acne sufferers is hormonal imbalance.  A complementary treatment of lifestyle, stress reduction and diet can often rectify this in itself.

Antibiotics may also seem fairly harmless on their surface. However, there are many risks in taking these drugs for a lengthy period.

The first risk is increased yeast infections.  Antibiotic drugs kill the bad bacteria in the body. Along with that, they also kill the good bacteria which inhabit our bowels.  This often leads to bowel disorders.

Another suspected danger is an increased risk in breast cancer. Studies have shown that women on long term antibiotic prescriptions display a much higher risk for this type of cancer. Long term antibiotic use can weaken the immune system as well.

There is great concern that the use of this drug class may lead to ongoing antibiotic resistance in the general population. We have already seen this happen with the need for increasingly powerful antibiotics in just a few short decades.

This is a two parter, and it is an article that I’ve written about what I feel are the problems with conventional acne medication as it is today. There are some, which are not taken orally, which I think are good, including blue light acne therapy. However, the majority of oral acne medications have drawbacks that I feel acne sufferers should seriously consider before taking them.

Enjoy!

Part 1 :  The Problem with Conventional Acne Medications Today

Acne is a skin condition that affects male and female adults and teens more frequently than ever. It is often treated with conventional medications here in the United States, all of which have unfortunate side effects and repercussions.

This includes the prescription of the most controversial acne medication isotretinoin, better known commercially as Accutane, which is currently only sold by its drug name. It also includes the prescription of various antibiotics as well as topical medications such as tretinoin gel.

Isotretinoin is the most dangerous of them all.  The company that initially created and marketed this drug has discontinued the offering from their product line.  They were so flooded with lawsuits and complaints over the acne drug that they could no longer afford to include it in their product line.

Of course, generic versions took over for the most well known brand name of the drug, and are still available.  The medication is a derivative of vitamin A.  This sounds harmless enough. However, the truth is far from harmless.  It was soon discovered that those who took the drug were at a much higher risk for serious health issues.

At the top of the list was the high risk of birth defects in children born to women on the drug.  The risk was so high that female users of the drug were required to take birth control and be on a national registry list.

Other dangers of this so called acne wonder medication surfaced as well.  Among them were increased risk of serious depression, suicidal thoughts, hair loss, and a range of bowel disorders.  The lawsuits piled up as physicians continued to prescribe the controversial drug.

More to come on this controversial subject. The next time we will be talking about more of the issues with the common prescription of things like antibiotics and potentially threatening acne medications as well.

Sweating does not increase the chances of acne. Human sweat glands are entirely separate from the sebaceous glands, which are the glands that produce sebum, the substance responsible for acne.

However, sweating does result in the wiping, rubbing, and patting of the face and neck, areas with a higher concentration of sebaceous glands than other locations on the body. This contact can result in the spread of dirt which can clog pores, and also in the transportation of bacteria which can facilitate the acne production process.

The excess dirt spread while wiping sweat is only one obstacle to overcome during the summer in order to maintain clean and open pores. Even the highest quality moisturizers and hypoallergenic sunscreens leave behind small amounts of pore clogging residue.

Frequent washing, with any temperature water, as long as it is clean, is the number one methods of for keeping pores clean. BUT too many people abuse this and over wash and over dry their skin.

You should only be washing your skin if it is truly sweaty, overly oily, or if you are trying to wash off sunscreen for the day and start over with a new layer and don’t want all the dirt built up over the day.

Many may think that frequent washing will help control the oil production.  It will to a certain degree, but over drying the skin actually stimulates oil production, so make sure the skin is truly in need of a wash, and use only the mildest soap. Don’t lather too long either, just do enough to get the surface grime off and be done with it.

Be sure to reapply a good acne fighting moisturizer with SPF again afterwards as well.  If your sole purpose in washing your face is to take away that tell tale oily sheen on the surface of the face that always shows up so lovely in pictures, you may be frustrated that you can’t get to a wash basin.

Many summer activities, such as beach trips, biking, boating and any sporting activity, are not conducive to constant face washing. In these cases a quality oil blotter or portable facial cleanser are an appealing option.

Ultimately, knowledge and dermatological maintenance are an acne prone skins greatest ally, during the summer, or any other season.  Tweaking your skin care routine is a must, especially if you live in inclement weather climates where the weather can go from one extreme to another like here in Ohio.

Knowing how to care for your skin in various environments is key to keeping it healthy and acne free the whole year round.

In addition to sunscreen, it is also important to use an appropriate moisturizer during the summer. During the summer it is extremely easy for skin to become dry and dehydrated due to overexposure to the sun.

While we have moisture in the air in the summer due to humidity, we still have the drying effects of the sun, and the fact that we sweat out a lot of our fluids more means that we may not be hydrating our skin as well from the inside either.

This is important for all people suffering acne outbreaks, even those with oily skin. An oily skin type does not mean that skin is properly hydrated. In fact, an oil free moisturizer can serve to balance natural oil levels.  When I say oil free, I mean free of mineral oil and other “heavy” types of oils.

There always has to be some sort of moisturizing component, and there are certain oils that do not clog the pores.  Coconut oil, vitamin E oil, olive oil, jojoba oil and a variety of other all natural oils do not clog pores for example.

Even the oiliest of skin types needs to moisturize. It helps protect that precious barrier between your skin and the elements, and of course often contains ingredients to protect against UV exposure as well.  There are also some excellent acne fighting moisturizers out there that can help control the production of sebum.

Regardless of what products are used during the summer, the most important thing to remember during the summer is to do everything possible to keep skin pores unclogged and debris free. Many summer factors are responsible for clogged pores, and it is important to identify the best methods for mitigating these factors.

Sweat is one of the reasons that so much more dirt, dust and debris clings to our faces in the summer time. I’ve noticed that I’ll get zits after a day in the yard doing a ton of work, or even a day at the zoo or an amusement park, where walking around on hot pavement all day long seems to sear dirt into my face.

Using a great moisturizer with a sunscreen in it that’s very light and not too thick or sticky will help to minimize the dirt and debris that sticks to the face.  Heavy moisturizers are not meant for acne prone skin, especially during the day, and they only lead to more clogged pores and more chances as acne proliferation.

More to come in the next post about summer skin care and acne prevention…..