Acne Care Online

My first education on how to buy acne skin care products came from Johnson & Johnson and Noxema. They had their models wash their clear complexions with the perfect acne cleanser and then, once the suds vanished, the models were dancing around so happy not having to worry about zits.

Alas, benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid and most other acne washes do not wash away zits.

One trap to fall into with cleansers is over cleansing, which can aggravate acne. The next trap, which is common, is to expect too much from one product.

For example, benzoyl peroxide works by destroying excess acne provoking bacteria. Salicylic acid exfoliates the skin and clears the pores, which reduces the chances for waste buildup in the pores and producing a zit.

If you have severe acne like I did, over the counter acne washes cannot provide the amount of bacteria control and exfoliation you need to keep acne at bay.

It’s like trying to empty a bathtub with a teaspoon instead of just unplugging the water clog. Severe acne requires regulating the skin on an internal and external level. You can regulate the growth of excess bacteria on the face and body in a number of ways.

1. Decrease or control your stress response.

Stress sets off a series of hormonal reactions that can ultimately produce excess oil on the face and provide an ideal environment for excess acne-causing bacteria growth on the face.

2. Moderate sugar consumption.

Excess sugar, like stress, moves the hormones to excrete more oil on the face. It’s not the chocolate the causes the acne, just the collective hormonal response of a sugar overload.

3. Take a multi-vitamin.

It may sound silly, or trivial, but taking a multivitamin can provide vital nutrients that boosts the immune system and help you manage stress better. Collectively, strong immunity and stress control help reduce acne breakouts.

I learned these three points the hard way. Trial and error and buying a lot of acne skin care products. If your at a loss about choosing an acne product, I can only say this, high price does not guarantee high quality. When I used Oxy 10 for instance, I found it worked just as well as products that costs 5 times as much. One drawback is that these drying products are not ideal for maturing skin. If you are battling acne and wrinkles, I suggest using essential oils to combat acne flair-ups such as tea tree or eucalyptus oil.

On a final note, if you’ve been using an acne cleanser for months with no noticeable improvement in your skin, I suggest trying to regulate you skin’s condition from the inside, with sound nutrition and relaxation.

Health author and Stanford University graduate Naweko San-Joyz lovingly writes from her home in San Diego. Her works include “Acne Messages: Crack the code of your zits and say goodbye to acne” (ISBN: 0974912204) and the upcoming work “Skinny Fat Chicks, Why we’re still not getting this dieting thing” (ISBN: 0974912212) for release in June of 2005. For useful acne self-help articles visit http://www.Noixia.com

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One of the most irritating things that could happen to a boy or a girl in puberty stage is to have acne. This chronic inflammation of the hair follicles and sebaceous glands cause black heads, pimples, lesions and in some cases, cysts, infected blisters and scars to appear especially on the face. Acne may also affect the shoulders, the chest, the back and the upper part of the arms.

There are many known causes of acne; among them are hormonal changes in the body, stress, hyperactive sebaceous glands and bacteria. Whichever of these symptoms causes one’s acne; surely, the person doesn’t like having this skin condition. Aside from its unsightly effects, especially on the face, it also lowers one’s level confidence. For many adolescents, acne even causes depression and insecurity. Thus, for anyone affected by this skin disease, the first thing he would want to do is to get rid of it.

Acne treatment is not a very big problem because there are different kinds of treatments available. However, not all are scientifically proven to be effective. Nevertheless people’s experiences with these products have made these acne treatments so popular. In many cases, combining two or more acne treatments reduces severity of acne more effectively.
Below are among the widely used acne treatments:

Topical treatment - Topical medicines are among the most popular treatments for acne. They are prescribed by dermatologists in order to reduce inflammation, open the clogged pores of the skin, stop bacterial infection and reduce sebaceous gland’s production of oil.

Among the topical treatments usually recommended by a dermatologist are Benzoyl Peroxide (Topical Bactericidals); Sulfur and Resorcinol; Azelaic Acid; topical antibiotics such as Clindamycin, Erythromycin and Sodium sulfacetamide; Retinoids (Vitamin A derivatives); and alcohol and acetone for milder forms of acne.

Exfoliating agents -Since one of the causes of acne is the accumulation of dead skin cells, exfoliating agents are needed to encourage peeling (not visible shedding of skin although in some instances, flaking occurs) of the outermost layer of the skin so that they won’t build up and block the pores. Exfoliating the skin can be done by scrubbing the skin using a harsh cloth and liquid scrub or by using agents like Salicylic Acid and Glycolic Acid.

Oral Antibiotics

Antibiotics can also be taken orally to destroy the bacteria that cause infection. Most common oral antibiotics are Erythromycin, Oxytetracycline and Doxycycline. Taking these antibiotic drugs however could not in itself stop acne since it doesn’t reduce excessive oil and normalize cell behavior that primarily cause blockage of the hair follicles.

Natural Treatment

Nothing can be safer than natural methods of treating acne. Natural acne treatments are advisable if your acne is just mild to moderate. One of the natural methods you can do is by eating unprocessed food, and vegetables and fruits rich in Vitamin A (this vitamin reduce oil production) and omega-3 oils. You should also drink lots of water and fruit juices. Avoiding food and beverages that aggravate acne is also helpful; among these are chocolates, fried food, coffee and milk products.

Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in acne care. For more information regarding acne body wash, please drop by at http://acne.answerwisely.com

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Acne is a problem that is more than skin deep. The best treatment for acne will involve nutrition and herbs both internally and externally. In addition to these two elements, the control of acne requires thorough, gentle cleansing. Therefore, there are three steps to beautiful clear skin - internal treatment, external treatment, and cleansing.

The best internal treatment for acne will be one that contains herbal medications. These require no prescription. Many other medications for acne control do require a prescription, and can only be used for severe cases. In addition, many of these prescription medications have serious side effects. Some, like Accutane, have been found to cause depression, and even suicide. Herbs, on the other hand, are natural, gentle, and effective.

The external part of a good acne control system must have certain characteristics as well. For one thing it needs to not be a drying formula, and yet it needs to control the oil in your skin. It should be able to be used on either a severe case or a mild case. It should contain botanical ingredients that heal and strengthen the cellular structure of your skin. The cleanser should remove extra sebum, the natural oil in your skin, which contains the bacteria that cause acne.

The other part of a good quality acne control system is a lotion or gel to treat the blemishes after cleansing the face. This product should be able to unplug the pores. It also should fight the bacteria that causes acne. It should also be formulated with a transdermal delivery system so that the helpful, natural ingredients are absorbed into the skin thoroughly.

Why do you get acne? The actual outer layer of skin is dead, but under this thin layer called the epidermis, the cells are alive and multiplying. Normally your skin is shedding the old cells and replacing them with new ones. The problem happens when too many dead skin cells clump together with the natural skin oils, called sebum, and cause the pores to get clogged.

Acne is a skin disorder that actually starts two or three weeks before the blemish appears. The beginning is the clogging of the pore. The natural bacteria that live on the skin begin to multiply inside the pore since the excess oils can’t get out. Since the body is fighting bacteria, white blood cells arrive on the scene, and inflammation is the result.

Obviously, frequent cleansing is an important step in acne control, since the extra skin cells and oils need to be removed in order to keep them from clogging the pores in the first place. But washing too often can be drying to the skin. For these reasons, skin cleansers need to be very gentle.

Written by Jim McDonald, a writer for http://www.natural-acne-treatment.info/, an informative website about Acne Control and natural effective treatment methods.

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