Acne And Skin Blemishes - Alternative Remedies Often Work

Our drugstores and shopping malls are crowded with acne cures of all kinds. The eBay Health and Beauty section is crowded with them. No wonder young people afflicted with acne don’t know which treatment is most likely to suit them.

Because everyone’s skin is different and the causes of acne are many and various there are some treatments that will probably make your condition worse rather than better. The problem is in trying to find out which ones those are, and avoiding them. However, on the positive side, there is almost certainly a combination that will help YOU, and this article is about giving yourself the best chance of discovering it.

What we are going to cover, briefly, are the causes of acne, the over-the-counter treatments, herbal remedies and a couple of “hands on” techniques that have been shown to work well in many cases. The important things to establish, first of all, are the type of skin you have, and the likely cause of your problem.

It’s a popular fallacy that chocolate and other sugary foods cause acne, but in fact they don’t. The main culprit is an excess of a certain protein called keratin that is produced by the skin cells to prevent your skin drying up. Anything from stress to prolonged exposure to the sun to seasonal changes can set this off.

The resulting gunk then blocks the oil ducts within your hair follicles and stops the oil escaping onto your skin surface (thereby tending to dry out the skin, leading to the anomaly of greasy spots on dry skin). Add the bacteria naturally present in your hair follicles, and the resultant waste material becomes trapped just beneath your skin surface, leading to spots, blackheads, and so on.

If you can find a way of preventing this blockage, or, even better, preventing excess keratin from forming in the first place, then you will have your acne problem done and dusted. Most over-the-counter remedies concentrate on unblocking the blockage by making your pimples and spots open up to release their contents, thus resolving the problem. But there is a downside to this.

And that downside is the side effects that usually manifest themselves. The treatments make the spots open up by drying them out. The trouble is that adjoining areas of the skin, which invariably share the same treatment applied to the spots, also dry out, often leading to irritation, chaffing and rashes, and often the return of the acne.

If your treatment involves drugs or antibiotics then there are often further side effects such as nausea, headaches, bone and joint pain and even, in rare cases, tendonitis. This leads us to consider the next possible treatment - herbal remedies.

The dandelion flower is probably the most well known repository of a herbal remedy for acne. You can eat the leaves in a salad or steam them in order to ingest their valuable vitamins and minerals, which are conducive to healthy skin by assisting with digestion and helping the body to rid itself of skin bacteria.

Take the roots and dry them before chopping and roasting them. Then put two teaspoonfuls of them into a quarter of a litre of water and simmer for twenty minutes. Drink three to four cups of this each day.

For a more direct treatment, take some lavender oil, which is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, and dab it on individual spots with a cotton bud. If you prefer, use pure aloe vera instead.

Alternatively, you can raise your game and treat your whole face to a natural remedy mask. The fruits usually used are grapes and pineapple husks or strawberries. Put them into a blender and make them into a puree. Apply to your face for ten or fifteen minutes and then wash off. This can help remove excess amounts of keratin and dead skin cells that are probably blocking your pores.

Next are some preventive measures. If you’re a woman, check your makeup, and try to avoid products containing lanolins, isopropyl myristate, sodium lauryl sulphate, laureth-4 and red dyes. Rinse your makeup off thoroughly every night and wash with mild soap twice a day.

It’s possible your makeup has too much oil and is at least contributing to your acne problem. Check this out by putting a generous portion of your makeup onto a piece of bond paper and leaving for around 24 hours. Then check it to see how big the ring of grease is. A big ring betrays excessive oil in the makeup.

As another little “experiment” it may be worth giving up seafood for a while to see if it affects your acne. The trouble with seafood is that it contains iodine, which excretes through the oil glands, irritating the pores.

Any medication, such as creams or gels, that you are applying should be spread over the whole area affected and not just the spots themselves. Allow an extra half an inch all round to give the best chance of success. And cleanse your skin thoroughly before each application of over-the-counter medications.

Now for a little advice which may sound weird, but it works. Try a little TLC for your skin. Giving your face a little affectionate squeeze or massage may be just the ticket. This will help your skin rid itself of excess oils and keratin. Do this a couple of times a day. Stretch it gently in all directions, but don’t pinch. You and your skin will feel much better for it.

Finally, here is a little nugget of wisdom I want you never to forget. Your acne may be caused or exacerbated by stress and if you think this may apply to you then try the following little exercise. Locate the two hollow points at the base of your skull on either side of the back of your neck and press them gently but firmly for a minute at a time with your thumbs. Breathe deeply and relax. If you do this two or three times a day then after a week or so you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at how your acne is receding.

The important thing is to never give up. By assessing what is and isn’t good for your skin, examining the likely causes of your acne, and reviewing the best medications you will give yourself the best chance possible of achieving results you never thought possible.