Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

Isn’t it kind of weird to think that if the bacteria that normally lands on our skin on a daily basis, just from exposure to the elements alone, were to escape off the surface of our skin like it normally should if we didn’t have over active sebaceous glands that trapped it in oil that is on the surface of the skin, we wouldn’t have to worry about acne? That’s why acne and oily skin go hand in hand, one wouldn’t exist without the other, and vice versa. So, you have to attack acne one of two ways, or both together.

You have to either treat the underlying problem, if you would, which is the overproduction of oil on the surface of the skin by the oil glands, which is done by drugs such as accutane. You can also get hormone controlling natural supplements for acne, like Zenmed caplets which work wonders for me personally when I’m having a flare up, which help to control the production of sebum, which comes from the sebaceous glands. You can also attack the bacteria on the surface of the skin, so there is not any bacteria that escapes to the depths of your skin.

This type of approach is achieved with topical cleansers and gels that kill bacteria, but it can also be achieved by topical treatments such as blue light therapy, which helps to control surface bacteria.

Or you can take a two pronged approach, which is probably the best way, and attack acne two fold by addressing the bacterial problem by using only high quality products that are also gentle on the top of your skin (cleansers, gels, creams, lotions, etc.), and you can also use something internal like a natural supplement for acne control or a dermatologist prescribed medication, although I personally warn people away from antibiotics because of their potential long term effects on your body and your probiotics in your intestines.

For women, there has also been a suggested potential link between long term antibiotic use and breast cancer, and I personally believe there are better ways to internally treat acne anyways. Diet is important, yes, but there are also ways that you can help regulate your hormones through supplementation and lifestyle.

Well, I’m at an ultra stressful juncture of my life, planning a wedding with very little time to do so to my boyfriend of seven and a half years, and my skin is definitely showing the stress in the way of new acne lesions, as it always does and always has for the past twenty or so years. But I know something that always works for me in that arena, and since I have a little over one month until we get married in Las Vegas, I can use the Dermacleanse capsules to ensure that my skin is pristine once again in time for our nuptials.

After all, a girl dreams about her wedding day for a long time, and she definitely doesn’t want to be all broken out, red and patchy for her special day and not to mention for all those photographs that will live on in infamy for years and years in the family photo albums. I know you’re thinking jeez, this is just a Vegas wedding, but we booked a full on chapel with flowers, and photography and the whole shbang, with a lot of people in attendance who are flying out there to witness our marriage, so I really want to put my best face forward, so to speak.

I will be sure to report my results with the acne cleansing supplement Dermacleanse by Zenmed as soon as I’ve been using it for at least a week, so be sure to check back and look for my results using this great supplement for the third time. Coming from someone who’s tried everything for their acne, it’s really a compliment that I would use this product for a third time, trust me!

Well, this may be one of the coolest inventions ever – if it truly works.  For those of you who have heard the ever perpetuated myth that “chocolate causes acne”, this is going to look really ironic, which I think is the point the makers of the new chocolate candy that is supposed to help you fight and treat acne were going for.  Of course, we do know that there is no truth to the thought that chocolate causes acne, but we do know that diets high in sugar can definitely aggravate acne, which is probably where the chocolate myth came from in the first place.  After all, what better favorite sugary dessert of everyone’s to pin it on than chocolate?

Well, this news came out of Australia although it is an American company called Frutels that is making the chocolate for acne treatment, and apparently a company that is manufacturing chocolates is saying that after consuming some of their chocolate candies every day, you should notice a significant improvement in your acne.  Sounds like quite the gimmick, right?

So I decided to read a bit more on this seemingly bogus, yet very intriguing (I have to admit, who wouldn’t want to improve their skin by eating chocolate, now come on!) topic, and found out a little more about this interetsing new product offering and why it’s supposed to help naturally treat and clear up acne.  So far the product is only set to hit Australian shelves, I’m ont sure why, but maybe this is their test market and then they will hit the US?

Frutels acne treating chocolate comes in a bright orange box, and says that it “supports clear skin form the inside out”.  Interesting concept, and I must admit I’m an advocate of internally treating acne by means of natural remedies such as Zenmed’s dermacleanse capsules and other remedies that are taken internally that help balance the hormones and also calm the nervous system for maximum clear skin advantage, so I read more.

Apparently you should eat between two and five of the chocolates per day, and within a matter of a few weeks, your skin is supposed to be noticeably more free of acne.  They achieve this they say, by packing their chocolate with additional antioxidants (this is the same principal that one of the more popular natural acne supplements here in the US, Acnezine, uses in their formula), and micronutrients that support healthy, unblemished skin.

The company claims that about 73% of the users of the product experienced significant improvement in their skin within 2 weeks of taking two of the chocolate bars per day, which is pretty impressive.  The product costs about forty bucks for a month supply.  The company is Frutels, you can look them up on Frutels.com for more information if you’re interest in doing some more of your own research on this unique new product.  If anyone has any experiences with Frutels chocolate acne treatment, PLEASE share them with us here, we’d love to hear about it, and share with all of our other readers.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, or so that’s how most everything in life goes if you believe fairy tales and cliches.  As far as your skin care routine and special treatments used for acne, sometimes the same thing that may be good for acne and acne scarring may also be good for aging skin.

For example, the chemical peels that are good for aging skin are also many times good for acne since they can clear the pores as well as take layers of dead skin cells off and smoothe out old acne scars and ice pick scars that are going to be smoothed out dramatically from removing the old dead skin cells that form scars in the first place.

Another good example of a treatment that is god for acne as well as aging skin (wrinkles) is microdermabrasion kits. These come in home treatments kits that massage away the dead skin cells with force.  They use small crystals of sand or of other organic materials that help to “blast” the skin and smoothe away the wrinkles as well as acne scars at the same time. 

You should be careful when using these treatments though since you can actually damage the delicate skin around the eyes if you use too much force when rubbing the crystals around the eye area.  This skin is especially delicate (hence, how easily it wrinkles and is the first to show the signs of aging on the face).

You’ve probably heard a lot about “anti inflammation” or anti inflammatories that naturally occur as a natural acne remedy or herbal acne remedy to be used to help quell what causes acne, which many times if rootly caused by hormones, but which is actually “carried out” by inflammation in the skin cells, which in turns causes those nasty little eruptions that you’re probably all too familiar with if you are reading this blog about acne. 

So, what are some naturally anti inflamation foods, juices, fruits and veggies that can help fight acne and other unsightly skin problems like rosacea and acne rosacea which are largely attributed to inflammation of the skin.  Well, one of the best is omega 3 oils, which are naturally heart protective and also tend to help the skin by reducing inflammation and promoting faster healing.  Anti oxidants are also often excellent anti inflammatory agents that go to work on free radicals, which cause their own form of destruction by going against the healthy skin cells that make your skin look great. 

Omega 3 oils can be found in supplements, such as fish oil supplements, but they can also be found in almonds, macedamia nuts, certain types of fish, acai berry (which also happens to be one potent antioxidant!), olives, olive oil and other foods that are a bit too numerous to mention here.  Those ones I mentioned are some of the best sources you will find for omega 3 essential oils though.

As far as antioxidants which also perform double duty as anti-inflammatories, there is the acai berry which is typically found growing wild in the Amazon forest, and elsewhere may be farmed, raspberries actually have a wonderful anti inflammatory property which is said to be almost akin to taking a pill for inflammation, only obviously much healthier, blueberries, strawberries, and dark leafy veggies – and by dark I mean the darker the better, and the more antioxidants!

I have just started a body wrap and cellulite reduction program through a local salon by me, and I think I may actually be getting a little fringe benefit that I wouldn’t have expected – less blemishes.  It’s either just because my hormones are really settled right now (coincidence), or that the thermal body wraps that are part of the regimen are helping my facial skin clarity and tone.  Not only have I noticed my blemishes improving, but my skin looks “fresh”.

Of course, that could be because I’m sweating my butt off with every body wrap since it’s a thermal (infrared) body wrap which produces extreme heat so as to penetrate the layers of skin and the deeper fat layers and prepare them for a massage therapy that then breaks up the fatty tissue beneath, and hence the cellulite.

Here’s how the thermal (infrared) wraps work that I’m having done now, twice a week, alternating it with a machine that sort of massages the fat and cellulite and smooths the skin out in problem areas like the thighs and buttocks.  You are laid out on a table with towels covering what they call “hot spots” that tend to get too hot and can even burn your skin if your skin is not protected. 

It’s a rubber wrap that you are wrapped tightly in, and you basically sit there while it heats up for 50 minutes, and sweat like you’ve never sweated before.  It greatly increases circulation and also is said to have detoxifying effects since you are supposed to sweat a lot of the toxins out of your body. 

This may also account for the skin benefits, but I can’t be sure of course because I don’t know enough about the science of these treatments to know for sure that they would benefit that skin.  It just seems to be a small benefit that I’ve personally noticed.  Hmm, maybe this could not only be a treatment for my cellulite, but sort of a complementary alternative treatment for acne prevention. 

Another natural astringent is a good old favorite, witch hazel, which is dirt cheap. Unfortunately, I’ve never liked the way witch hazel has worked on my skin personally, but I certainly can’t speak for everyone. Hey, if you want to try it, you don’t have much to lose since it’s cheap!

I am currently testing a product, as I believe I’ve mentioned over the last few posts, and the one component of the product that I still can’t decide on is the Tea Tree Oil Toner.  I really do not like the smell, but I think that it cleans my pores very well.  Tea tree oil is a very potent natural astringent that is used as a natural antiseptic, and had just recently gained some notoriety for being beneficial in the natural treatment of acne, as a natural cleanser and toner that gets deep down in those pores and helps clear the pores and open them up for some serious cleansing. 

The color of tea tree oil, at least in the toner I am using is a very deep amber color, almost an orange like iodine would look, but not quite as deep.  The smell, to me, is not pleasant, but it definitely smells pungent, like a cleaner should.  I do see a definite good bit of dirt and grime on my cotton pad after I’ve swiped over my face a few times with just a little squirt of the toner, especially after I’ve swabbed my nose, which seems to be a magnet for dirt and grime.

All in all, I think tea tree oil can definitely be of benefit to acne sufferers, but honestly I think it may be a little too rough to use on the skin alone, but rather should be used as a complementing product, in combination with others that are a little more mild to offset the antiseptic feel of the tea tree oil.

 

Cystic acne is a very severe, and often even deforming type of acne, which becomes so inflamed and painful that it can often swell up to the point of deforming the section of the face or body that it has “taken over”.  Cystic Acne treatments often are more serious in nature because they are so severe and so powerful that they make for a very noticeable, embarrassing and often life-altering change in a person’s facial features. 

I had a good friend who suffered from terrible cystic acne when we were teens together.  She was so embarrassed about the severity of her acne that she would cake cover up and foundation over the acne bumps, unfortunately making them even more obvious.  They would eventually come to a head, and unfortunately would leave terrible red and infected looking scars. 

These were the days before istotretinoin (accutane) and all the great natural acne treatements and herbal acne supplements that seem to dominate the natural remedy market today.  She was forced to use terribly drying topical treatments which only seemed to further the aggravation and irritation of the topical acne and further inflame and swell the acne lesions on her face, turning her pretty face into literally acne upon acne. 

This is why cystic acne requires not only externally applied medications like retin-a, erythromycin and the other topical acne treaments that abound on the pharmaceutical market today and are prescribed by dermatologists and physicians only, but this type of acne is so stubborn that it also always needs to be treated internally. 

This means the person with cystic acne needs to take an internally swallowed pill or product which helps to balance the body from within, and correct the imbalances and issues that affect the skin from their source -inside the body and the physiological body processes that cause cystic acne to start.  This can be done either with a natural acne treatment or with a medical acne treatment.  It’s your choice. 

I had a curious conversation with a good friend tonight over dinner.  She said she asked her dermatologist about a very well known natural alternative to treat her particular skin condition, and although hundreds of people have experienced great relief using this particular skin car product, the dermatologist “poo pooed” the treatment.

This doesn’t really surprise me all that much.  I mean, if these natural treatments really did work, oh my gosh, the dermatologists might be out of a job some day.  While I’m being facetious of course, this is a good example of how the medical field will try to discredit a number of natural treatment options, on everything from cancer to skin care, without actually knowing or studying that particular natural treatment.

It’s just interesting, that’s all.  Especially when I receive emails all the time telling me how natural acne treatments have worked for people where traditional medical acne treatments have failed them.