7/30/2007

Home Acne Treatment - Better than Proactiv


Dermatologists encourage parents to seek medical treatment for teenagers with acne and warn against taking a "wait and see" approach. "Many parents are often stuck in the mindset of past generations that nothing can really be done about acne," says Sandra Swanson, a Charlotte, N.C. dermatologist. "They still believe in those old wives' tales that chocolate, pizza, french fries, and their child's hygiene habits are to blame" Dermatologists, however, almost always fail to recommend the safe, natural, and inexpensive treatment that actually cure acne permanently.

Using a natural acne remedy on the inside and out is your best acne solution. For exterior cleaning, try to find a product without alcohol, as it will dry your skin. Tea Tree oil is natural, but also very strong. I wouldn't use it for mild to moderate acne unless it had other ingredients in it to dilute it. If you have severe acne, that may work for you. An acne product that protects your skin and prevents acne from coming back is even better. There's one listed on my web site, see below.

Natural acne products can actually clear the skin for good, only requiring occasional follow up treatments, whereas conventional methods can require constant treatment, and the results disappear as soon as the individual stops using the medicine. Also, many acne treatments prescribed by doctors or dermatologists are antibiotic in nature. Continuous antibiotic treatment can result in antibiotic resistance in the body, meaning when you really need your body to respond to antibiotic treatment, such as in illness, it may have built a tolerance and need more powerful meds to respond correctly. Some prescribed acne medications can even be dangerous, and are to be taken only for the most severe cases of acne and with the utmost caution.

Prescription topical medicines can result in side effects, the skin may look worse for a while before hopefully improving. Other side effects include stinging, burning, redness, peeling, scaling or discoloration of the skin. Similarly some prescription oral medicines can have side effects such as increased tendency to sunburn, upset stomach, dizziness or light-headedness & changes in skin color. Also some drugs decrease the effectiveness of birth control pills making it necessary to use a backup birth control method.

For most mild to moderate forms of acne, daily use of a good skin cleanser is enough to control the outbreaks. However, there are many forms of the disease that will require a more serious acne treatment for effective results. Acne on the back, sometimes called 'bacne', is often resistant to normal cleansers for instance. Bacne often requires additional cleansers that are too harsh to be used on facial areas, but work well on the back because the skin is much tougher there. Glycolic acid is one such cleanser that can be effective for acne on the back, upper arms, or legs, but is not recommended for the neck or face.

Although there are some topical skin care products and medications that can improve mild scarring and acne problems, almost all of them are artificial and invasive methods. For example, acne scars usually are treated with a combination of surgical procedures and skin resurfacing. On the other hand, natural products only have natural ingredients and biological substances. Such is the case with tea tree oil, green tea extract, Vitamin E, rapeseed oil, Aloe vera, and some of the essential oils, which had long been proven to act upon blemishes on the skin.

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