The Skin Society Natural Skin Care and Psoriasis treatments
I am sorry to burst your bubble.
There is a plethora of treatment which will diminish the symptom but you will have to keep using them to stay clear. This is also the reason that so many companies are marketing the same basic product: You have to use it or you lose it (meaning the battle against acne)
The cause of acne is multi facetted: First: your Family/Genetic history is the number one factor, the tendency to develop acne runs in families: Hormonal activity, such as menstrual cycles and puberty. During puberty, an increase in male sex hormones called androgens causes the glands to get larger and make more sebum. Hyperactive sebaceous glands, accumulation of dead skin cells, bacteria in the pores, all those conditions will cause acne. Skin irritation or scratching of any sort will activate inflammation.
Acne affects approximately 85% of the teenager’s population. In some case it will linger until their 30’s but generally 95% of that teenager population will be acne free by the time they reach their 20’s.
What are the treatments of choices?
I will discuss only the over the counter Cosmetic / Skin Care products and will not touch on the clinical and medical aspect of sever acne. Which is not the purpose of this forum, and I believe strongly if the problem is sever a consultation with your physicians, dermatologist or plastic surgeons are recommended! Newly developed laser therapy looks promising.
For mild acne the largest used active ingredient in the market is Benzoyl Peroxide. Probably more than 90% of the so called acne cures are based on that chemical.
Benzoyl Peroxide is also one of the most irritating products you can use on your skin! Many scares are the result of the vicious cycle: flare up of the zit, application of Benzoyl Peroxide, scratching and more Benzoyl Peroxide and more scratching and…I think you get my point.
Use strong exfoliating action only when your skin is clear as prevention; but not where you have a flare up. You can only very gently extract the pimples, it help but it has to be done very gently and apply a product like Neosporin immediately after the extraction. No Benzoyl Peroxide it will make scares.
What are the alternatives?
The alternatives are numerous, from oral vitamin B5 to exotic essentials oils. However there are some common ingredients to all of those Benzoyl Peroxide free products. I have examined probably 2 dozen of them and they all includes one or more but not all of the following four ingredients: Vitamin A (Retinol Palmitate), Tea Tree Oil, Green Tea Extract, and vitamin B3
(niacinamide). Green Tea extract is an excellent anti oxidant and there is no doubt that it helps the formulation, and the other three are well known acne fighting ingredients. In my career I manufactured hundreds of Benzoyl Peroxide based anti acne products but I prefer to use those three alternative products in my newest formulations. They work as well as Benzoyl Peroxide with the advantage of almost zero irritation!
Probably the two key ingredients to fight acne are beta hydroxy acid (salicylic acid) and Niacinamide. Niacinamide has a very strong anti inflammatory effect and will improve skin elasticity. Also a mild sloughing effect, that will overtime help in reducing the acne scares. If you can live with the smell; Tea tree oil or Melaleuca oil has beneficial medical properties including antiseptic and antifungal action, and is also known to have beneficial anti acne properties.
Mike A. Hegi, PhD
http://www.theskinsociety.com/Breast/Breast-augmentation.html
http://www.theskinsociety.com/Acne/Acne.html
http://www.theskinsociety.com/Escin/escin-cream.html
http://www.theskinsociety.com/
