Monday, April 2, 2012

Acne… it’s not just for kids anymore

I was a really lucky teenager, I may have had the occasional blemish but overall I never really had acne. That is until I started my Chiropractic internship and then opened my own business.  Here I thought once I passed my teenage years this would be a problem of the past, FALSE! So, I started to look into all the different causes of acne… and there are several.  This is why it can be really hard to treat acne, you have to first determine the cause.  For those who have acne here are a couple of the causes with some suggestions on how to help. 

  1. Oily skin – the best way to treat this type of acne is by keeping it clean, which means always washing your face in the morning and night. Also, there are several oil absorbing products that can help throughout the day, such as oil absorbing sheets and oil absorbing powders.
  2. Inflammation – watching your diet will help the most, during outbreaks you’ll want to limit the amount of simple sugars and simple carbs you eat since they will make the outbreak worse. Also, anti-inflammatories like fish-oils could be helpful.
  3. Hormones – the best way to help this type of acne is by helping right your hormones. For this you should talk to your health care professional.
  4. Stress – that’s right stress. During stressful periods you can get acne breakouts on your face or your back. The best was to treat this type of acne is by finding ways to relax and get out of your own head. Suggestions… yoga, meditation, watching 30 minutes of mindless/funny tv, and singing out loud to music during your commute.
In general, not matter what the cause of your acne you should make sure to have a good cleanser to remove dirt and oil, be careful of heavy moisturizers that can make acne worse, and make sure your cleanser doesn’t strip your skin or it will change the pH and cause more oil to be produced.  Also using primer can help make-up stay longer.

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