Skin Zen » Acne

4 Tips to Get Rid of Bothersome Arm Acne

GuestPoster — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:55:07 +0000

Arm acne can be very embarrassing to both men and women, especially when it occurs in its severe form. Fortunately, there are several ways to get rid of it, including the use of acne spot treatment and medications. Follow the given tips below to get a smooth and flawless skin on your arms and anywhere on your body.

Tip # 1- Tight clothes are a no-no!

One of the reasons why arm acne occurs is because of the dirt, dead skin cells, and sweat that block the pores on the skin. When tight fitting clothes are worn at all times, chances are sweat and dead skin cells are trapped on the body. Sweat does not easily evaporate when tight clothes are worn while dead skin cells are not shed off properly. Thus, you might consider wearing loose and comfortable clothes to get rid of the acne on your arms.

Tip #2- Do wear clothes made of natural and light fabric.

There are some types of clothing that irritates the skin on your arms. Prolonged irritation can cause acne later on. Thus, you should change your line of clothing to those made of natural fabric such as cotton. Also, cotton is good to wear during hot weather days or summer to help air circulate on your body and dry off sweat easily.

Tip #3- Cleanse your body regularly!

As we all know, clogging of pores with dirt, oil and dead skin cells are the main causes of acne on the arms. Thus, it is important to regularly wash your skin with mild soap. People who sweat a lot should also wash their body immediately after doing any rigorous activities to prevent the sweat and dirt from staying too long on the skin.

Tip #4- Using acne treatment products and medications.

There are several anti-acne products sold in the market. It comes in forms of soap, creams and ointments. While they are readily available over-the-counter, it is still best to consult your doctor first before using any of these products. Severe arm acne requires medical consultation.

Make sure you follow the given acne tips above to get rid of your arm acne for good. Arm acne, unlike facial acne, takes a few weeks before it completely heals since the skin on the arms is thicker than on the face. Usually, medications do not go through the acne until a couple of weeks later.

Tips On Getting Rid Of Acne

GuestPoster — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:28:05 +0000

I suppose that you have read numerous advice and information about getting rid of acne. Experts say that you should better understand what the causes of acne are and what its effects on a person’s well-being are in order to know what are the appropriate procedures to perform.

Puberty stage is the starting point of acne growth and increases as the peak of adolescence comes. Hormone testosterone increases in your body and causes this human skin disease. Acne diminishes as time goes by and disappears or decreases after reaching the twenties. It can be hormonal, genetic, psychological, infectious, or brought by a person’s diet.

Various treatments are recommended by trainings using the right fitness equipment and dermatologists that can help in getting rid of acne. First line of treatment could be Benzoyl peroxide that can cure mild and moderate acne. For severe cases, antibiotics are prescribed by experts or it could be a combination of estrogen or progestogen methods that is particularly effective in reducing hormonal acne.

Procedures such as dermabrasion, phototherapy, and laser treatments are among the expensive cosmetic procedures performed to remove damaged skin. In dermabrasion, removing of sun-damaged skin or lessening the scars, have been effective. On the other hand, blue or red light phototherapy is proven successful in treating short-term acne. Laser treatment reduces acne scar by burning away and preventing the growth of acne.

Since stress is a factor for acne growth, cold water weight loss can also help to reduce stress and refresh the body thus reducing acne. Healthy diet such as eating more fruits and foods rich in Vitamin E could also help.

Rest is the best way to prevent further growth of acne. An active body produces more hormone and sebaceous gland that cause the increase of skin diseases. A person at rest will calm the body and the well-being as well, hence reducing stress and acne growth. Getting rid of acne has been a problem for some, but healthy ways on how to stop acne will be the best ways to do.

Three Essential Black Head Prevention Tips

GuestPoster — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 04:24:05 +0000

Nearly everyone in the world is familiar with black heads. They are a very common type of skin blemish that form when dirt and dead skin cells mix with oil produced by your skin to clog up the pores of your face. As the plugged surfaces of the pores are exposed to oxygen, they become black, which gives this type of blemish its characteristic name.

Black heads can be quite stubborn once they have started to appear. When trying to remove them, great care must be taken to avoid damaging the skin and causing infection. Here are three safe and effective black head removal tips that you can rid yourself of black heads:

Morning and Evening Cleansing

The first step in black head prevention is to keep your skin free of accumulated oil and debris. This is best accomplished by washing your face once in the morning and once in the evening. Take care not to cleanse your face too much, or you might dry out your skin to the point where it stimulates your sebaceous glands to produce yet more oil for re-lubrication.

Exfoliation Treatments

Excess oil is one of the causes of black heads, and another cause is the dead skin cells that build up on the surface of your face. A gentle exfoliation treatment once or twice per week will help to prevent the accumulation of dead cells and other debris, which gets rid of much of the raw material that can easily clog up pores.

Oil Blotting Pads

You can purchase oil-absorbent pads very cheaply at any drugstore or pharmacy. They work very well for keeping control of your oily skin during the course of the day. Whenever your face starts feeling a bit oily, you can pull out an absorbent pad and soak up the excess oil.

Ever since marketers discovered how to make money from black head removal products, good information on black head prevention has been hard to find. But prevention is much smarter and easier than removal – so try using these three techniques to keep your complexion clear and free of black heads.

Acne Scar Home Remedies

Ava — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:35:51 +0000

You have probably heard of several acne scar home remedies. Sure, there are stories of them all over the internet. But the question is, are they just stories, or do they actually work?

If you have finally overcome your insomnia, but now want to resolve the leftover scarring then you might want to have a look at acne scar home remedies to get rid of those scars.

There are lots of commercially available solutions. These tend to be pretty harsh on your skin though. If you choose chemical peels, you will be chemically removing a layer of your skin. If well done and if your skin is not too sensitive, a chemical peel can give lasting benefits. But for some people, something goes wrong and they are left with worse scarring than before.

Another option is laser resurfacing. This uses light to remove or blur the signs of acne scars. This will make them less noticeable. This is an expensive and a successful way to minimize scarring.

Home remedies are more effective on relatively light scarring. Natural remedies rely on the body’s own healing process to heal the scars. The actual remedies that we use are therefore intended to help the body to get back to its normal condition in which it can heal itself.

This is a gentler and often slower way of removing scars but it can be more effective in the long term. It involves considering how you will look and feel in 20 or 30 years time, not only right now.

Many natural remedies for acne scars rely on food products. The nutrients that they contain can nourish the skin and help it to regain its natural beauty. In this respect you can either take the nutrients internally or externally, or both.

Taking a long hard look at your diet is one of the best things that you can do for your skin. Cut out refined sugar. Do not cook with oil or eat fried foods, because cooked oils contain free radicals that will suck up all the good antioxidants you are taking in, and stop them getting to your skin.

Add into your diet all foods that are high in antioxidants. These include raw vegetables, salad and fresh fruits. Try eating ‘all raw’ for breakfast and lunch – for example, a big fruit smoothie for breakfast, fresh fruit for snacks, and a big salad with nuts and avocado for lunch. Do this for 6 months and you should see an improvement in your skin.

You can also use face packs made with sliced or blended vegetables that are high in antioxidants. Tomatoes and cucumber are a good combination. Cucumber is well known as a skin remedy as it tightens and tones the pores. Tomatoes have a very high antioxidant component. However, do not use tomato on your skin if you are allergic to it.

Fresh aloe vera juice can be a very effective way to treat acne scars. Aloe vera is a succulent plant that you can keep in a pot indoors. You will need a leaf about 2 inches wide. Remove it from the plant and peel it. Put the flesh in a blender and puree it. Then apply it as a face pack twice a day for at least 5 minutes each time. The puree will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, but take it out an hour before using it to let it revive to room temperature. This is great for scars and also for healing and preventing pimples.

Tea tree oil is an antibacterial that can help prevent scarring and clean the skin to give it the best chance of healing scars that are already present. Use this in addition to other acne scar home remedies.

How To Get Rid Of Blackheads On Your Nose

Ava — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:13:39 +0000

Blackheads on your nose can be a major annoyance. Blackheads seem to never go away, and can lead to pores becoming permanently enlarged and will get worse as you get older. Can anything be done about blackheads on your nose?

Blackheads are caused by overproduction of oils (sebum and keratin) by the sebaceous glands in the skin. These substances solidify and darken on contact with air, blocking the pore and creating a plug that can be hard to remove.

People often think that the black color at the surface is dirt, but it is not. It is caused by oxidation. You cannot wash it away with soap. However, there are other treatments that you can try.

First, you can buy preparations from the drugstore that claim to get rid of blackheads. These vary in their active ingredients and how they work. Some dry out the skin, which can look alright in the short term but only leads to more oil production.

Other products contain salicylic acid which is believed to dissolve keratin. In fact, aspirin is mostly salicylic acid so if you are not allergic to aspirin you can make a home blackhead removal face mask by making a paste from a soluble aspirin tablet and a few drops of water. Mix with honey to help adhesion if you wish. Apply to the affected area and leave for 15-20 minutes before rinsing off with water. Then moisturize, otherwise the skin can become too dry.

Most people can use the aspirin face mask a couple of times per week, but test on a very small area first to make sure that your skin can take it. In most cases any redness associated with acne will improve after using this mask, so if your redness is worse after the aspirin, this is a sign that salicylic acid is too harsh for your skin and you should not use it.

Do not use any other type of painkiller, only 100% pure soluble aspirin.

Some people prefer to physically remove the blackhead. If you want to do this, please do it gently. The best way is to give the face a steam bath to open the pores, then take a tissue and use your fingers (not your nails) to press against the sides of the blackhead. Be sure to close the pores again afterward either with an astringent wash or cold water.

Another method is to use a blackhead removal strip which adheres to the blackheads and pulls them out. These seem to work for some people and not others, depending on the texture and oiliness of your skin generally.

We are all unique, so always consult a health professional or dermatologist before trying any treatments for acne and nose blackheads.

Steam As An Acne Treatment

Can Dairy Products Cause Acne?

Ava — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:55:46 +0000

Acne Vulgaris: Is There A Dairy Connection?

Is it really possible that milk, the highly touted super-drink, can be the cause of your acne? Believe it or not, the answer may be yet.

Around 80% of American teenagers have acne, while in countries on traditional diets that do not include dairy products there are virtually zero cases of acne. However, as soon as a culture becomes westernized and starts including milk and cheese in the diet, acne appears. Japan is an example of this.

Of course there may be other factors at work, but there are two reasons why milk and other dairy products may contribute to acne.

First, many people do not digest milk products well and their bodies react by dumping many of the elements that they cannot digest through the lungs in the form of mucus and the skin in the form of acne vulgaris.

Second, even in people who can digest milk just fine, there may be a reaction to the hormones that are believed to be in milk. The main cause of teenage acne is said to be hormone imbalance, and milk these days probably contains a lot more hormones than it did 50 or 100 years ago. Here’s why.

Any female human or animal that is pregnant naturally has more of certain hormones in her body. In the wild, this doesn’t matter because milk is not used until after the baby/calf is born, when the excessive hormones are no longer there. But in present-day commercial milk production cows are kept pregnant almost constantly, to make them produce more milk. Because of this, the excessive female hormones are believed to get into the milk that we drink, probably contributing to acne and possibly other problems such as obesity, breast tissue forming on men, and even breast cancer in older women.

So if you have acne, consider staying off dairy products completely for 2 weeks. This takes some planning because dairy products can be hard to avoid. You will have to check the ingredients in every food or drink that goes in your mouth. Milk powder can appear in places you would never expect it.

If you are a teenager and your mother says that you need milk, explain that this is just a 2-week test, and why you are doing it. She was young once and she probably understands more than you think! Tell her that you can still have eggs, and you can take a calcium supplement, but for these 2 weeks you will have no milk, butter, yogurt, cheese or anything containing them.

During these 2 weeks be prepared for your acne to get a little worse before it begins to get better. You may be detoxing for the first 3-7 days. You may also develop a cough or cold symptoms.

After 2 weeks, has your skin improved? Very likely the answer will be yes.

Now you can informally test your dairy tolerance by drinking a glass of milk or eating a normal portion of cheese. If you are dairy intolerant you may have an immediate reaction such as blocked or runny nose, or a headache soon after. You may have diarrhoea or a very loose BM the next day. Or you may have no immediate symptoms but if you go back to eating dairy regularly your skin may break out worse than ever. If as a result of this informal test you believe that you may be milk intolerant, have your results checked by taking a food sensitivity test with a nutritionist.

If you had a reaction, stay off dairy for another 5 days and then test yogurt. Some people can digest yogurt but not other milk products.

If there was no reaction, you are probably not sensitive to milk. You may still want to cut down your consumption to avoid the hormones that it is believed to contain, but don’t stress out about little bits of milk or cheese in foods that you eat.

Be sure to get enough calcium through other food sources or supplementation, and consult a doctor or dermatologist about treatment for severe acne vulgaris.

Steam As An Acne Treatment

Ava — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:52:47 +0000

Steam is one of the easiest natural treatments you can use to treat acne. How does steam actually treat acne, and will it work for you? Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of treating your acne with steam treatment.

There are two ways to take a steam bath for your acne. One is to use a sauna or steam room. The other, for facial acne only, is to steam at home. Let’s take the second one first.

Steam At Home Acne Treatment

This is a very simple treatment where you take a bowl of hot water and a sheet or large cloth. Never use plastic – this is very important – you could suffocate if you put plastic over your head. Only use fabric that you can breathe through.

Fill the bowl with hot water and put your head over it, facing the water. Put the cloth over your head to hold in the steam.

Don’t have the water too hot. This means do not use boiling water from the kettle. Only use hot water from the tap.

You can stay for about 10 minutes (but just 5 minutes the first time to check for any adverse reaction). Then wipe your face with an astringent such as witch hazel or apple cider vinegar to clean off any oils that have been drawn out of the pores by the steam and close the pores. Test for any allergy to these products by applying them to a small area first. Cold water can also act as an astringent.

Steam Room Acne Treatment

If you want a more controlled way of treating acne with steam, you can either take a sauna that will treat the whole body, or you can take a facial steam treatment from a specialist.

If you like to use a sauna, be sure to wash or rinse away all the impurities from the skin and then close the pores with cold water.

Professional treatments are available from some dermatologists, beauty parlors or commercial saunas. These will have you lie on your back with the eyes and hair protected, and steam will be directed at your face. The advantage of this is that the temperature is controlled at the best level for acne.

The professional steam session will usually be followed by cleansing and perhaps a face mask whose properties will be selected to suit your skin type.

How Does It Work?

Steam treatment can help cases of acne in two ways:

First, it opens the pores and hair follicles and causes sweating that can wash away any dirt and bacteria in the pores.

Second, it stimulates blood circulation to the skin. This brings oxygen and nutrients to the skin which helps it to resist infection.

Are There Any Bad Effects?

A few people with very sensitive skin may find they have a bad reaction to the steam, especially if it is too hot. In a very small number of cases it can even aggravate the acne. Consult a dermatologist to check if steam is recommended for your own acne.

It is normal for the skin to be red straight after. The redness should disappear within about a half hour, but this can vary from person to person. So do not plan any social events immediately after your steam for acne treatment.

Cystic Acne – Treatments For Cycstic Acne

Ava — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:49:29 +0000

Without a doubt, cystic acne is the most painful, disfiguring form of acne you can be inflicted with. Also known as nodulocystic acne, it creates cyst-like lumps under the skin that are in fact inflamed nodules. These are bigger than the small whiteheads or pimples of other varieties of acne vulgaris (common acne) although like those pimples, they usually contain white pus.

Cystic acne is rarer than other types of acne, but still it is fairly common.

Contrary to popular belief, acne is not caused by a lack of personal hygiene. The direct cause is an excess of sebum or oily fluid in the pores of the face, neck, chest, or back. The sebum blocks the pores which then become inflamed or infected.

Acne usually begins at puberty. It is believed that hormonal changes or imbalances in adolescents are the reason why there is an excess of sebum in the first place.

Even though hygiene issues are not the cause, if you have acne it is important to keep the area clean and try not to touch the pimples, to prevent the infection spreading.

Probably the worst feature of cystic acne is the scarring that it leaves behind. If a nodule or cyst is not treated immediately with medication it can leave a scar that in some cases will be permanent. In other cases it leaves a ‘macular scar’ which is not a true scar but an area of redness that will slowly fade within about 6 months.

It is better not to try to pop the pimples of cystic acne, especially when they are deep. You will often fail to extract the pus, making the cyst look worse and probably creating a bigger scar.

There are some medications that can have a remarkable effect on cystic acne in up to 90% of cases. The main one is Isotretinoin. This is a product that is derived from vitamin A. It is marketed under various brand names – one of the most common in the US is Accutane, but there are many other names for it.

You can also get an Isotretinoin product that is not taken internally but is used as a topical cream applied directly to the cysts. Brand names for this include Isotrex and Isotrexin.

These products can act very fast to clear up cysts and prevent scarring if taken quickly enough. However, always take medical advice before beginning to take a product like Isotretinoin. It is not safe for everyone, e.g. pregnant women should not take it. Consult with your dermatologist or doctor to find the best product for your acne.

Vitamin A is found in many fresh raw fruits and vegetables including most of the ones that are colored red, orange and yellow – for example, carrots. Increasing these in the diet may help to prevent future breakouts. Be careful if considering supplementing with vitamin A for cystic acne, however. It is possible to overdose with this vitamin.