How To Get Rid Of My Acne

It’s the burning question that everyone asks at some time or another in their lives. We all go through it, some of us only have to deal with pimples when we go through puberty, then it clears up with only the occasional pimple. While others seem to be plagued with chronic acne and nothing seems to make a difference no matter how many times they bombard their skin with all manner of products and remedies.

Understanding how a pimple forms will help you work out the causes of your acne and which treatments are likely to work for your skin type.

The canal that contains each hair is called a follicle. The sebaceous gland produces an oil called Sebum that lubricates the hair follicle and moves out through the skin pore to lubricate the surrounding skin. Over active hormones can cause an excess of this oil to be produced.

Each day the surface of your skin continuously sheds cells, if these cells aren’t cleared away regularly the excess sebum can’t flow to the surface and the pores become blocked, the resulting mix of oil and dead skin cells is a breeding ground for bacteria. These blockages will cause blackheads, whiteheads and even worse cysts.

Stress can be a defining issue when dealing with acne, exams, problems at work or in your relationship can all lead to a dreaded breakout. It’s guaranteed you’ll get a pimple for that wedding , formal or other special event.

Being such a common skin complaint there are many varied ways to approach treatment, listening to your body and finding out what triggers your acne and brings on a breakout will help in finding what works. First take care of the basics and if there are no results, you may need to step up the arsenal until you find the right program for you.

Cleaning your skin regularly is paramount, clearing away the dead skin cells will certainly help to stop blockages. Finding the right soaps and cleanses can be a battle in itself. You don’t want to strip away all the oil as this will leave your skin dry and reactive, it’s a fine balance.

Never ever squeeze your pimples, doing so will only spread the infection beneath the skin making it worse and will lead to redness, inflammation and can leave you with ugly acne scars that will require laser treatments, better not to cause the scars to start with.  LEAVE THEM ALONE!

What you put into your body can have a direct impact on your complexion, it’s well known that drinking more water can help flush out acne causing toxins and impurities before they cause a breakout. Some people will find chocolate and fried foods are the culprits in causing pimples others might struggle with the added burden of finding skin products that don’t cause allergic reactions. Sensitive skins can be more prone to acne breakouts, natural acne treatments may suit this skin type.

Eating more fruit and vegetables may seem like a chore, but not only is it better for your health it will be reflected in your skin tone. Again trial and error will inform you of which diet suits you, the foods to avoid and the foods that are okay.

Performing some kind of regular exercise will not only keep you healthy, but can stave off stress before it can lead to a breakout. Burning off your stress can help reduce the over-production of acne causing hormones.

Work through the solutions until you find the right one for you.

I was in the drug store the other day, and having used so many of the other face washes at one time or another that are suitable for acne prone skin, I was drawn in by one I hadn’t used in years.

Mostly by price, because I happened to be low on money that week, I must admit, but also partly out of nostalgia because this was one the first soap bars that I ever used when I was old enough to start developing skin problems in my very early teens, in addition to Clearasil, Noxzema and Basis and Purpose Soap (Purpose is actually another Neutrogena product, and believe it or not, I have no idea if it’s even still made!)

The Neutrogena traditional amber soap bar which is a see through amber colored bar of gentle but deep cleansing glycerin based soap, clocked in at just over two bucks. Right up my alley when I’m running low on cash, so into my little shopping basket it went, along with some other necessities like toothpaste and shampoo!

I use one bar of soap or liquid cleanser outside of the shower at the sink for cleansing my face in the AM before work since I take my shower at night, and one in the shower for cleansing my face in the PM. So the Neutrogena amber soap bar is now my AM cleansing soap.

I love it’s pleasant, earthy, minimally messed with smell, and boy did it bring back memories of my early struggles with acne. It really does do a nice cleansing job on your face, leaving no residue and not drying it out too much. It probably would work well for your back and chest as well and other body acne areas.

Although I like it for once a day, I choose to use a deeper, more acne targeted and skin cell renewing cleanser in the evening with salicylic acid, which is my preferred OTC acne topical treatment over benzoyl peroxide for a variety of reasons. One of them being that benzoyl peroxide is too drying and irritating for my skin and doesn’t seem to do squat to prevent breakouts on my face.

I also like the sloughing aspect of salicylic acid since it helps to renew the skin cells, and this is how it helps fight acne. Acne is caused by a buildup of this kind of crap on your skin, which clogs your pores and creates erosions because or small infections.

So, I got off track, but the down low on the Neutrogena amber bar – it’s a still a great face soap for basic cleansing that doesn’t over dry – and it’s really easy on your wallet. Word of caution, if you’re using this in your shower, either take it out after every use or shelter it in a water proof case so that the warm water doesn’t melt it too much since it is glycerin based.

You may not think that exercising and keeping a fit body can help your acne, but if your diet can help you stay acne free, your exercise regimen can also most definitely be a large part of the equation when it comes to keeping your skin clear and glowing.

Exercise is a key to keeping healthy skin. There are a number of reasons why. Number one, as it related to acne at least in my opinion and experience is the fact that exercise is probably the greatest stress reliever that you can have.

Stress and acne go hand in hand because stress releases hormones that affect your overall balance of testosterone (or androgens, male hormones) and estrogen. Estrogen and androgens, of which we have both even though you are a male or female, can be very delicate to balance.

When they are out of balance, this causes acne. Acne and androgens and too much estrogen or androgens go hand in hand. Exercising helps keep all your hormones in balance. It keeps the stress hormone cortisol in check all the time. Cortisol is the hormone that is released when you are stressed out.

When I exercise, I can almost “feel” the stress flowing out of my body. I also happen to enjoy glowing, healthy looking skin that’s got a healthy color and healthy tone and texture when I’m working out regularly.

When I’m not working out, my skin looks less toned, and takes on a powdery, dry look. I also do tend to break out more because all that stress that I experience builds up in my body. I can literally feel my skin boiling over with potential acne, and I can feel an acne lesion brewing when I’m under a lot of stress.

Exercise banishes those feelings of stress and anxiety. Not only that, it increases circulation, which is necessary to keep your skin healthy and toned. Exercise in itself helps your hormones balanced.

I have a funny story to tell you. When I got married in Vegas, I brought along a TON of Five Hour Energy. Five Hour Energy are these little bottles of hyper caffeinated, vitamin B12, otherwise known as Niacin, loaded energy drinks. I figured if I was in Sin City and getting married, I didn’t want a little thing like getting tired getting in my way of partying all night and enjoying the amenities that Vegas had to offer.

I also figured that I didn’t now how I’d sleep in the hotel, because sometimes sleeping in a foreign bed really interferes with my sleep. Five Hour Energy, when I take only a half bottle like I should, doesn’t make me break out with acne like other energy drinks such as Red Bull do. I think it’s because it has more B12 and other energizing ingredients and doesn’t rely on pure stimulants and caffeine like a lot of other energy drinks do.

What I didn’t count on though, was the side effect of drinking too much vitamin B12 was. I drank a few of the Five Hour Energies in one day, and that’s when I started to notice all these little bumps on my shoulders and my back and my chest. It was sort of like really mild acne bumps, not inflamed, but almost like a rash.

I didn’t put two and two together until long after we got back from Vegas though. I ended up reading about how Niacin, when consumed in too much quantity can actually make your skin flush and also break out in rashes in different areas.

So what I had experienced was a sort of “overdose” of Vitamin B12! Just a word to the wise, Five Hour Eenrgy may not make you break out with acne per se, but it can definitely make you break out in a rash that you may not know what it’s from.

Not only do people want to feel good all the time, they want to look good all the time. And sometimes looking good is far more important then feeling good. The obsession over perfect skin is the people need to look great, almost perfect. Reaching the scale of perfect nowadays requires surgical treatment that can be dangerous if not handled properly.

Normally, when people have unwanted healthy issues with the skin, they prefer to have good skin instead of perfect. They will do anything to solve the healthy skin problems which can further endanger health. These procedures are considered easy and not very likely to be cosmetically focused.

Now, focusing on the real reason why society is obsessed with perfect skin is the look. Cosmetic skin treatment is very popular nowadays, almost 95 % being women. Women pay far more attention to their skin then men. They want to have clean, soft skin with a chocolate color.

Having the chocolate color is not an issue for people with dark complexion, that is natural for them. But women with whiter complexion want to have the brown color on their skin because it adds more style and sensuality. They prefer summer holidays on a beach, applying sun-tanning cream on the skin and letting the sun do all the work for a chocolate complexion.

It seems that summer holidays are not enough to maintain darker complexion. So, there are tanning saloons offering the same effect. That way, women don’t have to wait for summer to come. They can easily get a skin treatment any time of the year.

Apart from skin color, women take good care not to have stretch marks on their buttocks. It is a situation that with age, becomes harder to eliminate. There are, however, various skin treatments in beauty saloons for this type of skin problem.

Both women and men have occasional problems with skin spots on the face. They are easy to treat but don’t quite help for a good look. Again, beauty saloons have treatment for treating spots that tend to appear often on the skin.

Beautiful skin is also hair-free skin. Small hairs on the legs and arms are quite natural for the human body. But while it is natural for men to have small hairs on the arms and legs, women do not accept a single hair on their legs or arms. Waxing does the trick, with a small price of pain during the procedure.

I got an interesting comment from one of our readers last week, and because I had never heard of this natural remedy before, it prompted me to research a little about it and write about the possibilities it offered for those that have the eczema skin condition. Eczema is basically a skin irritation that appears outwardly as scaly, sometimes oozing and usually itchy skin rashes.

Needless to say this condition could be both very bothersome and embarrassing as well. It can appear anywhere on the body but it most commonly appears on the face and scalp, and also shows up a lot on the knees, legs and feet.

Although the exact causes per individual are never truly known, it it suspected that eczema is really nothing more than an over active allergic response from the body’s immune system against some sort of allergen.

Often times, since people who suffer this skin condition may have multiple allergies, it is nearly impossible to tell exactly which one may be causing the eczema. Also, eczema, much like acne, is known to flare up when there is a lot of stress in a person’s life. Funny that most skin conditions react to or are aggravated by stress!

Well, a woman posted on here that she has found out about a possible natural remedy that may help folks with eczema. Specifically, she used this remedy to help her son’s battle with eczema. The remedy is very simple – it’s using high quality probiotics taken orally to help combat it.

There have been studies that suggest that those with healthy intestines and plentiful flora in their intestines that are replenished by these probiotics, may also suffer form less eczema. Also, many folks who have eczema have found that taking a high quality probiotic has helped them to battle and greatly reduce their eczema flare ups, so it seems that there may be something to this.

It is suggested however, that you try it and if it does not work after a few weeks to help you, to try other avenues. One treatment does not usually universally work for everyone when it comes to most health issues, so it is best to try these things out and see if they work, then move on the next idea if that does not work. Everyone’s body is different, and therefore many times different treatments produce different results.