3/08/2007

Can Your Diet Affect Your Acne?


There are a number of vitamins and minerals that can be used to improve the look and condition of your skin. The mineral zinc, and vitamins A, C, and E, and B-complex vitamins like vitamin B6 are often used to support acne treatment, as these vitamins are very important for the health of your skin. Eating foods that are rich in sulphur may also be helpful as sulphur helps to cure acne. Garlic and onions both contain a good supply of sulphur. Your health care provider may also recommend that you avoid eating sugar, fried foods, or foods that have a high fat content. Also eliminate any sugar based carbonated beverages.

Does chocolate really cause pimples? How about oily foods? Do French fries bring on the acne? The latest reports show that although scientific evidence is not 100% accurate in this area, your diet does not directly cause acne. And by diet, this means not only chocolate and French fries, but also any other dietary combinations with sugar and oil or other ingredients.

There are basically four types of acne: whiteheads, blackheads, pimples, and nodules. Whiteheads are when the sebum (oil) and resulting bacteria are trapped below the skin's surface and you can actually see a white head appear above (or near popping out of) the skin. Blackheads are when the sebum and resulting bacteria are only partially trapped, slowly draining out the surface and turning black because of your skin's melanin or pigmentation. In the absence of either white or blackhead are generally (but not always) smaller pimples. And the often deeper, boil-like lesions are referred to as nodules.

Hygiene helps to control it, yet acne is not caused by a lack of hygeine, it comes about because of bacteria already present in the skin. The only true combatant, it seems, is to use a multitude of acne prevention methods at the same time or to find a permanent natural cure.

Unlike the small whitehead pustules that most people with acne experience on the surface of their skin, cystic acne appears as large irritated bumps, often with the pustule hidden deep beneath the skin's surface. These cysts are caused when hormonal shifts result in your skin glands overproducing oil (sebum) at an unnatural rate. The gland becomes swollen and eventually bursts, but not before the sebum has swelled and hardened into a clump too large to escape through your pores. The irritation from your gland bursting results in inflammation, and buried pustule can remain in your skin for a very long time.

While laser skin resurfacing, Dermabrasion, and chemical peels are the most popular methods for acne scar removal, injection methods are also used. The injections may contain collagen, or fat taken from other parts of the body. While these injections work well, they do have to be repeated often, and they can be quite expensive. The injections do not actually remove or heal the scars - it simply hides them by filling them up.

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