THE BATTLE WITH ACNE
80% of people are affected by acne at some time in their lives, but while some people are lucky and able to resolve the problem quickly, for others, acne can lead to a life long battle leading to low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
It is no surprise or coincidence that most people see acne develop during puberty. This is because of the hormone changes that come with puberty and stimulate the sebaceous oil glands to make more sebum (oil). When there is too much sebum, it clogs the pores and leads to acne.
Adult on-set acne is a condition that affects more women than men and is also caused by hormonal changes – this time through menopause, ceasing to take the contraceptive pill and even stress which can cause changes in hormones too. Acne of all varieties often appears on the face, neck, shoulders, upper back, and chest and the heat of the Australian climate certainly contributes to making acne worse. Luckily there are a number of things that you can do to help limit the acne breakouts.
These include:
- Washing school hats more frequently as sweat and grime can build up under the rim making acne on the forehead worse. Better still, sew some Velcro on the inside of the hat rim and attach fresh piece of non-woven disposable cloth to the Velcro each day so that the skin is only in contact with clean fabric.
- Avoiding touching your face, leaning on your hands and wipping sweat away with your hands. Keep a small clean towel for wiping away sweat to avoid transferring oil and dirt onto your face.
- Keep your hair tied back and off your face. There may be a temptation to cover as much of your face as you can with your hair to hide the acne but hairsprays and hair gels can make your acne problems worse
- Change your pillow every other night and turn it over the night in between so that you are not transferring bacteria or products from your hair and face back onto your skin
- Use only make-up marked as “noncomedogenic” or “non-acnegenic”. These contain molecules that are too large to block your pores and will allow the skin to breathe. Never use products that contain talc as this is a very fine powder guaranteed to block your pores.
- Use good quality skincare products designed to help you manage your acne. - Avoid acne products that use hydrogen peroxide which is essentially a bleach and is very drying to your skin.
It also takes the dye out of your towels! It is also important to recognise (and ignore) bad advice given by well-meaning friends and family. For example “drying out” the spot may not be the right approach if your acne is caused by dead dry skin cells. While it is important to keep acne areas clean and free from excess oil and dirt, over washing or scrubbing can dry out and irritate your skin, making the acne worse. Other false myths include “acne is caused by eating chocolate and chips” (there is little evidence to substantiate this)
Popping your pimples is never the way to go as this risks spreading the infection deeper into the skin and making matters worse and can create scarring.
At the Ultimate Skin & Body Clinic, we use a number of treatment modalities to control and remedy acne including microdermabrasion, peels, radio frequency and active skin care.
In addition we have several treatments for acne scarring such as Fraxel Laser, radiofrequency, and skin needling.
If you need more advice on acne, call Ultimate Skin and Body Clinics on 07 5509 0081 for a complimentary appointment to see how we can help you.
THE BATTLE WITH ACNE