:Clear Skin Blog

So why is vitamin B5 considered the “anti-stress vitamin”? Is it part of a conspiracy to sell more vitamin B5?

The truth is that B5 has been noted by many healthcare professionals as being one of the best supplements you can take for improving your stress response. Stress, like acne, is often related to hormonal shifts that can throw your body out of its natural comfort zone. When vitamin B5 is processed by your body into Coenzyme-A, it serves numerous functions related to hormonal activity, including the formation of hormones. As you may know from reading about how vitamin B5 aids in acne prevention, when there is not enough Coenzyme-A present in your body, producing these hormones may be the only thing that gets done efficiently.

The excess Co-A produced by taking B5 supplements helps your body more easily weather the changes that it goes through during periods of high hormonal activity, because despite the higher amount of hormones being produced, there is still enough Coenzyme-A left over to take care of other functions such as metabolizing skin oil. Specifically, the extra B5 can aid in bolstering your immune system, enhancing your body’s ability to handle the physical effects of stress on many levels.

Vitamin B5 is also essential for the proper functioning of your adrenal glands, one of the centers of stress-related hormone production. The regulation of these glands is essential to your body’s ability to respond to stress, and vitamin B5 is a required ingredient.

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Stress is one of those nearly inevitable problems that can contribute to everything from wrinkles to hair loss, and, of course, acne. So what can you do about it? Acne sufferers with high stress levels can find themselves in a bit of a catch 22, since acne breakouts caused by stress are a source of more stress in and of themselves. It’s hard to “take it easy” when you have to go out in public looking so far from your best.

There’s no easy remedy for total stress relief, but here are a few tips to help keep your stress level under control:

Get enough sleep. Seriously, just go to bed early and let your body and your mind rest. Stop going on 6 or less hours of sleep every night, and you’ll find you have more energy during the day. When you feel more energetic, you feel like you can get things done, and this will naturally eliminate a bit of the negativity that stress brings on.

Schedule your daily routine. A huge contributor to stress is the unexpected. Chaos is naturally stressful, so try to make your days as ordered as is comfortable for you. This doesn’t mean that you should be working all day, just that you should be consistent in how each day goes. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time, eat at about the same time, do your homework at the same time - and have things that you regularly look forward to each day and each week. Generally, the more you’re able to predict how the day will go, the less likely you are to get stressed over it. (Of course, if you hate how each day goes, you probably need to look for a new job.)

Don’t exaggerate your fears. This is a big one. When there’s the possibility of something we don’t like happening in the future, we tend to create a monster out of it. Take a deep breath and ask yourself “how bad would this really be?” I know of someone who was on the verge of losing a fairly large fortune due to a business startup he’d founded that just wasn’t performing. He had already lost millions as was about to lose everything he had left. He really didn’t want to quit because he loved the business, and so he found himself torn with the decision. When he really put his fears into perspective, he realized that the worst that could happen would be that he would have to get a normal job, perhaps starting from the ground level at a restaurant or hotel. He decided that it really wasn’t as horrible a fate as he had imagined, and decided to go ahead and risk everything. The bet actually paid off in this case, but perhaps the most important thing he gained was the ability to change one’s perspective and empower yourself to make those hard decisions. It never helps getting overly worked up about a situation that, chances are, is still a lot better than what many people have to deal with. Don’t blow your fears out of proportion.

Lastly, vitamin B5 is not exactly going to cure your stress, but it is called the “anti-stress vitamin” for a reason. I’ll be exploring this topic a bit more tomorrow ^_^.

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When it gets colder during the winter and the humidity dies down, most people find that your skin is a lot more susceptible to dry skin. For people with skin that is normally very oily, this can actually be a welcome feeling, but if you find your skin getting to the point of being dry, cracked and peeling, you should really take some steps to protect it.

It’s important to find the right balance when treating dry skin. On the one hand, dry skin that starts peeling looks unpleasant in itself, and this irritation can also lead to acne and other problems; however, if you slop on too much of a cheap moisturizer, you’ll just end up clogging your pores and causing yourself other problems. Make sure to buy a noncomedogenic moisturizer (preferably with SPF 15), and apply it lightly over your face every morning.

One of the biggest mistakes that cause your skin to get overly dry is overwashing. When the air gets cold and dry, washing your face three or more times a day is a bad idea. Your skin needs some oil in order to protect itself, and constantly depleting it can come back to hurt you. Even worse is if you happen to wash with very hot water, as this will leave your skin even more susceptible to damage. Vitamin B5 acne treatment can, of course, also lower your oil levels, but since it only eliminates excess oil for most people, it shouldn’t be a problem. Still, just listen to your skin and lower your dosage if you start to become too dried out. Obviously topical treatment intended to combat acne by means of benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid are definitely a bad idea during this time of the year. Use them sparingly if at all.

Lastly, watch your diet and make sure you’re getting a daily multivitamin. Sometimes internal factors can contribute to dry skin. Specifically, it’s important for your skin to get enough of those essential fatty acids. People who are trying to lose weight with certain diets may find their skin more at risk. Some fat is a good thing, especially during the winter.

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Well, I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done over the weekend, and I didn’t even bother visiting a single store! Being the lazy, computer-bound mammal that I am, I just decided it would be easier to do all my shopping on the internet. Since everybody is having these sales and free shipping specials, it was a lot cheaper too. I made the usual stop at Amazon, but also found a few smaller specialty sites for those harder-to-find gifts (which I probably couldn’t find at any local stores anyways). The only downside with doing your Christmas shopping online in the tension of hoping that everything gets to your door on-time. Of course I should have probably taken care of this all a month ago, but…

In other news, I can’t help but find it amusing that there’s all this controversy over the word “Christmas” this year (moreso than in the past it seems). It’s fairly obvious that certain people want to eliminate all references to religion from everything, but none of the atheists or Jewish friends I’ve known really care in the least. People with a mature attitude are not so ridiculously sensitive as to take offense when someone says “Merry Christmas” to them. Even if you don’t agree with the actual meaning, you can appreciate the sentiment. Considered logically, the words would actually be meaningless, not offensive, to an unbeliever - much like a Protestant asking a Catholic if they’ve “been saved”. It’s simply not something that applies to you if you hold a different philosophy, so it’s rather inconsequential really.

In our quest to be as accommodating as possible to every other culture out there, it seems like we’re trying to abolish our own. I think we need to lighten up before there’s nothing left of Christmas but the shopping. Hehe, and make sure not to let the anti-Christmas people in on the fact that the word “holidays” comes from “holy days”, or we might lose that one too ^_^.

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OK, I haven’t done any acne help blogging for a while so here you go.

Cystic acne is probably the most frustrating and painful variety of acne. These are the large bumps in your skin that are sensitive to the touch, and tend to swell up without revealing a white pustule at all. Because the acne bacteria is located deep beneath your skin, these blemishes cannot easily be popped and may leave long-lasting scars if you try to force them to burst. Cystic acne can also last a long time, such that some sufferers even resort to stabbing a sewing needle into the inflamed region in order to give the pus a path of release (not recommended, but may actually be safer than violent pinching of the skin - at least as far as scars go).

Why does cystic acne happen?

As with most acne, your hormones are the main culprit. In the case of cystic acne, a large hormonal shift results in your glands overproducing sebum to the point that the gland becomes stretched and swollen, hardening into a large clump. This large, hardened clump of sebum cannot fit into the passageways of your pores, and thus is stuck buried beneath your skin. The oil gland also cannot support such overproduction, and bursts, resulting in the inflamed red lump that shows up on the surface of your skin.

How do you treat it?

Most topical acne treatments are ineffective against cysts, so what can you do? Well, if you only suffer from the occasional cyst, there area few products that may help. Strong acne creams with benzoyl peroxide (like On-The-Spot), will speed the recovery process by killing the underlying bacteria. An anti-inflammitory cream such as Neosporin will also aid in taking the redness out of cystic acne a little faster. After that, you need to be patient and resist the urge to pick at that cyst. Do not attempt to pop cystic acne zits until the pustule rises to the surface and is plainly visible, otherwise you risk long-lasting scars. Many times cystic acne lesions will melt away once the inflammation is gone, provided you don’t try to force the pustules to the surface. Just follow the treatments provided and focus on reducing the redness and irritation, not eliminating the pustule before it’s safe to.

If you have more severe cystic acne (cysts all over your face and body), then you really need to see a dermatologist. Don’t mess around, you may need a prescription treatment.

Will vitamin B5 help?

Yes, B5 treatment can definitely help with cystic acne, although I would recommend going straight to Accutane for individuals with severe cases. Accutane is recognized by dermatologists as being the most effective treatment against cystic acne, but this actually bodes very well for your chances with vitamin B5, as B5 combats acne in a very similar way to Accutane - by targeting oil regulation.

Because vitamin B5 works by enhancing oil metabolism, it can effectively prevent cystic acne from occurring by eliminating the oil as fast as your glands produce it. The glands don’t get a chance to become swollen and burst, because your body efficiently processes the sebum despite your hormonal shifts. Also, B5’s effect in enhancing circulation and wound healing can mean that the cysts you already have will clear up faster. So unless your cystic acne is very severe, it’s definitely a good idea to try a treatment such as Clear5 before considering prescriptions. Just don’t pick at your cysts!

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Hey, that was fast! Instead of blogging I took the time to create a new skin care products reviews page yesterday, and it’s up now. It has some good information, and is about as objective as you’ll get with one company talking about the competition’s products. Of course, it’s plain from the beginning disclaimer that I’m not recommending anything over Clear5, but as it says, there is that percent of people who simply don’t get results with B5 for some reason (I know they’re out there, I give them refunds!), so maybe they will benefit from the information provided.

Understanding the main active ingredients can save anyone a lot of time and money when considering acne treatments, as if you simply move from one treatment that’s not working to the next, you could be trying a dozen different products that basically all work the same way, and that’s just money down the drain. It helps to know that benzoyl peroxide based acne products attack and kill the acne-causing bacteria in your skin, while salicylic acid products burn away the top layer of your skin, unclogging your pores. Some treatments, like the herbal concoctions in the ZENMED pills though, take a little more homework to understand, especially when you take ratios into account (I’m not gonna go there).

I also have a few over-the-counter acne product recommendations near the end of my reviews page, and these are always good products to have on hand in case you get that one odd zit that pops up despite your best efforts. Nothing OTC is going to really clear you up unless you have very mild acne (or unless you slop on a whole bottle of On-The-Spot every few days), but especially when first starting on B5 for instance, a spot treatment can always help until you no longer have acne at all.

PS: Doh! I was able to eliminate all my email spam in one step by accessing my Google Groups account page. It was really easy since I already have a “Google account” by means of Gmail. I guess the big G is good for something after all.

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A few weeks ago I mentioned starting an acne products site for my next web project. I even went so far as to buy a domain name and start building templates. This was going to be both an affiliate site and a means of directing more traffic to Acne-Vitamins. Well, I got to thinking a bit more and basically decided that it’s not really worth the effort of building another acne site, when I could be creating more content for Acne Vitamins and optimizing it for those same terms. Of course, I am kind of addicted to creating websites now (too many of which I leave unfinished…), so I’ll probably build something else anyways, but filling the acne products niche will be the job of this site alone.

Besides the fact that I believe Clear5 is the best acne treatment out there, and using my skills to promote other products would not necessarily help that end (although it might make a lot of easy money), there’s also the simple truth that I’ve discovered it’s much easier to expand the offerings of this site than I had previously thought. “Acne Products” is a much more competitive search term than “acne vitamins”, but with some link text modifications and a single article I’m already on page 2 of MSN and 5 of Yahoo. Not bad for a term I didn’t even rank for two weeks ago.

Ranking and bringing in traffic is one thing, but I also want the site to be truly helpful to people that come across it, and offer some information that really relates to what they were searching for - not simply my product. In this case, I’m thinking about building an acne product comparison page (or pages) that will describe the major acne treatments out there and give information about their active ingredients, as well as what works and why. I don’t plan on doing any affiliate marketing, but I’m not going to tell visitors that nothing but Clear5 works either (other stuff can work, just not as well ^_^). I’ll just put up some objective descriptions and maybe link out to sites where you can get user reviews, such as acne.org. Not all acne treatments work the same way, so by educating people about the differences it could help some sufferers discover what works for them.

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Well, I finally found the time to update our acne treatment testimony page with some of the best feedback we’ve gotten in the last two months. As usual, we could use more before-and-after pictures, but a few users have said that they plan to update us with those, so that would be great. I actually did get a few pictures last month, but the lighting on the acne pics made it a bit hard to tell how much improvement took place, and one of the users didn’t have much acne to begin with (although I know a lot of our customers use the product more for lowering oil than fighting acne - even some users that don’t have acne find that B5 can really help their skin texture).

I always wonder if visitors believe that our testimony is real or if someone like me is just making it all up. I know I would be skeptical about any site trying to sell me something and showing off a bunch of testimony. The funny thing is that some of the testimony I receive is more over-the-top positive than even if I imagined writing something myself! I just post it as I get it, although I do fix some people’s spelling errors ^_^. We do give incentives for feedback, so I suppose this makes our testimony a little more believable. It always makes work more exciting when I get to see that our product is really making a difference. So keep that testimony coming, and be sure to send us some before-and-after pics if you can (especially you ladies!).

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Well, in submitting my latest acne article I’ve discovered one unfortunate side of automated article distribution: tons of spam email!

Setting up my article distribution service involved automatically subscribing to a bunch of Yahoo and Google groups, and unfortunately, their email updates are opt-out rather than opt-in. So now I’ve got to visit and manually turn off email updates for about 30 newsgroups before my personal email address becomes flooded with a million article announcements that I really don’t need. It’s not really spam, as I did technically subscribe to these groups….but it’s a pain either way not having the initial choice of whether or not you want to receive their emails.

Another thing that bugs me is that ezinearticles - probably the biggest and best article site on the net - has become extremely strict about the inclusion of links in your article body. In the past they allowed no more than 5 links (I’ve never seen more than 3), but now they seem dead-set against any at all, “unless absolutely necessary”, and when is a link really that necessary? They were really just there for those of us that understood the benefits of a little seo and wanted to build some on-topic IBL’s. With all the free content we are providing them, you’d think they’d be a little less stingy in their policies. None of the articles I’d seen before looked anything at all like keyword stuffing, but now I’m having to resubmit because of having two links in the text body, pointing to pages that relate directly to the text. Wake up guys, it’s the white hat seos that are your main user base…

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I’m working on a new article right now, entitled: “clear skin without cleansers”. This one will be more along the lines of a personal experience article, relating mainly to some of the stuff I posted about earlier in my remembering clear skin post, although I’ll go into a bit more detail about my experiences with acne and different products this time.

Besides writing a new article, I’ll also be trying out a new article distribution service. The service is called articlesender.com and was created by one of the members over at SEOchat when the point was made that it would be a lot easier if there was a service that saved webmasters the trouble of having to submit to a hundred article sites individually. A day or so later, article sender was born, and it looks like a great idea to me. I just hope it’s as easy to use as it sounds. In the past, I only bothered submitting to a few article sites that I knew would provide good exposure and backlinks for my acne articles, since submitting everywhere was just a crazy amount of work. This could be a great alternative if it works.

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