Here is the email I received, and it contains all the information you need if you have taken an acne drug and are interested in participating in this interesting study/information gathering experiment.

I am a graduated student of Roosevelt Academy working on an internship project in conjunction with rateadrug.com to collect primary user data about side effects and benefits from commonly used treatments for Acne.  The goal is to build a large, public access database of unbiased, anecdotal data about Acne treatments.

We want to let both patients and practitioners know about how they can participate in or benefit from the project.  Users can add their experiences with a treatment and learn more about how the treatment is affecting them by taking a short, confidential survey.

They can also use this website to compare aggregate data for different Acne treatments- both conventional and alternative (http://rateadrug.com/Acne-symptoms-feedback.aspx) – and forward the results of their own surveys to their doctors or family members.

Rateadrug is an independent data gathering and information website that does not accept funding or advertisement from drug companies.

Would it be possible for you to make this information available to your viewers so they can help us collect important data on Acne treatments?

Thank you in advance. I’d be happy to speak with you if you have any questions or comments.

Yolanda Mabuto

We’ve all had them, and we’ve all hated them, and most of all, we’ve all gotten them at some of the most important times in our lives, when all eyes would most likely be on us. Of course, when all eyes are on us, this triggers certain hormones to come out in abundance, and those little hormones cause havoc when it comes to keeping your cool and controlling your stress levels.

Stress zits are the worst. They can really feel like a slap in the face when you’re anticipating something huge in your life that’s really important to you like a wedding or a class reunion of something to that effect.

They always seem to grace your face when you have a big event to go to, because you are cranking out the stress hormones so much, and this is effecting your hormonal balance, creating “hormonal acne” which is the biggest, most painful zits and which is also some of the hardest to treat if you don’t know what you’re doing or try to take the easy way out by using the harshest ingredients on your skin.

Many times when we get a big old hormonal zit, we tend to try to drown it with harsh chemicals and the harshest of surfactant cleansers and gels and creams, when in fact we are probably going to make it inflame further. Not only that, but these harsh chemicals also cause redness, dryness and flaking and often can result in scabbing that isn’t the most becoming sight either.

One of the biggest points you want to remember when treating stress acne is to treat it with care and also to make sure you are incorporating lots of lifestyle changes and tweaks to alleviate the stress, the underlying cause, or your acne.

Some say that stress doesn’t cause acne, but that quite simply isn’t true for a lot of people. It depends on the person and how they manufacture hormones when their body is stressed out. Some people respond by cranking out cortisol, which has a domino effect on the delicate balance of testosterone and estrogen in the body, which aggravates skin conditions.

When you are outdoors in this current midwest heat and humidity streak we’ve had for a long period of time, it’s pretty much inevitable that you are going to be a sweaty, soaked mess when you do finally come inside to the cool, clean air conditioned air.  I sweat profusely when I’m working out in a flower bed, or helping my husband mow the lawn. When I come in, I’ll often have sweat marks in places where I didn’t even know I could sweat.

One such place is the area right under the crease/fold of my breasts.  The sweat just pours right out of there, and I can often feel it coming down to my belly when I’m really working up a sweat.

Even if I’m just working out, I have to make sure I’m wearing a very light cotton sports bra, or else I end up with a breakout under my boobs from the irritation and rubbing and friction of an underwire, which is my preference of bra for work since it gives more support and coverage.

You should make sure that when you are going to be out for a long time in the hot sun or in the humid heat, you are wearing only the lightest (and of course cleanest) cotton bras. Cotton is a very breathable material, and that makes it “noncomedogenic” to the skin that it’s surrounding.

When you wear nylon and cotton mixes or anything other than 100% cotton, then you are basically inviting in a buildup of sweat, dirt and ultimately bacteria which lead to breakouts. Actually, the breakout I had under my boobs almost looked like a combination of inflammatory acne and a heat rash, so I treated it like both, first washing it, then putting a soothing acne product on it that wouldn’t just dry it out with chemicals.

I know that not everyone is a fan of fish, but it really does have some outstanding health benefits if you can eat it a few times a week. Of course, the media has trumped up the fear of mercury in the news, but the health benefits of fish may far outweigh any mercury possibilities. Not only that, you can minimize your risk of mercury contamination by choosing fish that is wild caught instead of farm raised.

Farm raised fish actually has much higher levels of mercury typically than the fish that is swimming around freely in the ocean of fresh water.  Have you ever noticed how asian women have really beautiful skin usually?  Well, of course some of this boils down to genetics, but it’s also no coincidence that the asian diet is typically high in fish consumption.

Fish really is good for your skin, and if you consume it a few times a week, you can really start to see the benefits in your skin’s suppleness, it’s moisture, and it’s overall balance. If you don’t like fish, you can definitely take a good fish oil supplement. However, if you do take a fish oil supplement, don’t buy the el cheapo brand, and try to get one that has been filtered for mercury.

Purified fish oil is a much more potent form of the oil since it contains only the good stuff, and not all the extras that you don’t want in your body.  Fish oil has been known to help the skin to retain moisture more. It is also excellent for the heart and also for your circulation since it helps keep the vessels and passageways limber rather than rigid, which is a problem as we age.

Guess what better circulation does? You guessed it – it makes your skin look better!  There is also some evidence that fish helps you feel fuller for longer, so it has some weight benefits as well. The fact that it helps you feel fuller longer also means it stabilizes blood sugar long after other types of protein do, and when your blood sugar is stable, your hormone levels are more stable.

One thing we’ve learned is that all acne is hormonal in nature, one way or another, and if you can find a way to keep your male and female hormones balanced, then that is half the battle with acne. It’s all in a comprehensive approach, including diet, exercise and using the right acne products topically and internally to keep your skin clear.

Just like air that is too dry, air that is too humid can definitely make your skin go a little nuts. When the winter time hits full on and the air gets really dry and you’re sitting in stuffy, recycled air all day at the office, your skin definitely takes a hit and starts to look bad.

Excessive dryness makes flaking, redness and irritation all that much more apparent. Oh, and your wrinkles look worse too, so it’s pretty much all all around bad thing for your skin.

But what about the opposite? What about these humidity drenched hot days we’ve been having here in the midwest pretty much all summer? Does that do a number on your skin or not?

Well, it definitely makes you skin look much more oily since the humidity adds to the oily look by making it “sit” on the surface much longer, and accumulate more often. So blotters have DEFINITELY been in order all summer long for this oily faced girl!

Other than that though, can humidity actually contribute to acne at all, or is it really just an environmental annoyance that makes your skin appear more oily to the eye? Well, humidity can definitely help contribute to a breakout, but if you take some minor precautions, your skin will be fine. Especially the skin on your back and chest, which is prone to accumulate the dirt and oil that builds up under your clothes.

You have more oil glands in these areas, so sebum can get trapped more easily when you are sweating all the time, which tends to happen pretty much nonstop when you are out in the elements in the summer heat. The good thing about humidity is that your skin will almost never look dry, and it’s much harder to get dry skin.

Humidity keeps the skin moist, and if you drink plenty of water as well, this acts as your sort of “internal skin quencher”. This makes for smoother, more supple looking skin, but us with the oilies really need to break out the blotters a couple times a day.

I swear, in this humidity, I’m blotting several times, and it’s not just when I step outside, it’s inside as well since some of that humidity seems to translate into higher humidity indoors as well, even when the A/C is on.

I’m a bit of a nut about the fact that caffeinated drinks and stimulants like guarana and even prescription pain killer narcotics (they somehow stimulate you, believe me, I think it’s different for different people, but that’s the effect they had on me) like Vicodin make my skin break out. I’ve taken great care to avoid drinking too much coffee on the weekends, and I’m very careful about taking any energy pills or any energy drinks that contain maximum amounts of caffeine.

One of the energy drinks I can get away with where it doesn’t break out my skin is 5 Hour Energy, but even that I never drink a full bottle of all at once, I take one half at a time, which gives me plenty of energy.

As I mentioned, I love to drink my coffee on the weekends. My husband is an every day coffee drinker, so it’s even hard to not drink it on the weekdays when he brews it in the morning before we go to work. But I do usually resist during the week, simply because I don’t think it’s good to drink it every day and develop a caffeine addiction.

And oh boy, is caffeine addictive. I’ve noticed that if I got four days drinking coffee and then stop, I get a massive headache the day after from withdrawal! I’ve discussed before how I believe that too much coffee makes me break out. Many people have this same problem, it all depends on your body and your individual physiology.

So, one of the things I do that I find offsets the likelihood that I will break out from drinking coffee, is to add two fully squeezed lemon wedges to my large glass of water that I drink with my coffee in the morning .The lemon juice neutralizes the abundant acidity in the coffee, and it helps my skin to stay clear.

Here’s a tip to help you get the most juice out of your fresh lemons for lemon water. Wash the lemon thoroughly and scrub it’s skin to get any pesticides off. Roll the lemon on the counter several times back and forth with the ball of you palm. It sounds weird, but man does it make your lemon produce more juice! I thought it wouldnt’ work, but I was amazed by how much juicier it made my lemons.

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.