:Clear Skin Blog

It’s officially a sad time for Nintendo fans to live. Seriously, I don’t know what they are smoking over there at Nintendo, but the recent decision to name their next console (previously codenamed Revolution) the “Wii” is just plain horrible. There’s no getting around it. I’ve been a Nintendo fan for a long time (having faithfully bought every one of their home consoles since the NES), but I feel more or less like the company just kicked me in the face. While some may try to sugar-coat this decision or make it sound like a smart, attention-grabbing move, I’m going to just say it straight: By naming their next-gen console Wii, Nintendo may have just committed suicide in US and European markets.

Pronounced “Weeee!” (imagine a kid on a swing), Nintendo probably hoped the Wii would evoke a playful image in line with its new motion-sensing controller. However, while the controller is a departure from the norm that could have been truly revolutionary, the name is a departure from common sense.

First off, Nintendo systems have already been handicapped with the stereotype of being childish, an image Nintendo fans have long tried to expose as false. Unfortunately, rather than trying to break this stereotype, the Wii brand name embraces it head-on, making most of Nintendo’s long-time fans feel like they’ve been betrayed after trying to defend Nintendo all this time. Secondly, the explosion of potty humor on the net has already made the name synonymous with the child’s slang term for urine. In fact, even major media outlets such as CNN have run headlines stating “Nintendo takes a Wii.” If you thought Nintendo fans had it bad before, these poor gamers are really going to get blasted now. How many younger gamers are going to care enough to risk being ridiculed over a gaming system?

The whole situation just stinks of a corporate malfunction. The decision was probably made by a small group at Nintendo (mostly non-English speakers, I would suspect) without the least shred of actual polling or opinion from potential customers. I honestly feel sorry for the underlings at Nintendo of America who have to defend this decision. They’ve been futilely trying to draw comparisons with brands like Google, Amazon and iPod, but none of these have connotations with urine, or require someone to walk into a store and say “I’d like a have a Wii.” How about “Let’s go play with my Wii!” I think not. Furthermore, the idea that any publicity is good publicity is blatantly false, as is obvious to anyone who actually studies marketing.

What this more closely reminds me of are those situations when companies enter a foreign market without the necessary research, and poorly translate their slogan. Purdue Chicken made one of my favorite such blunders when they tried to translate their slogan “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” into Spanish, but due to a poor translation, ended up advertising that “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”

Unless major changes are made, or Nintendo’s new controller truly redefines gaming in ways unimaginable, the Wii may be the signal of Nintendo’s death in the West. It’s a sad situation, as the fact is that no other company makes a greater variety of truly top-quality games than Nintendo. Their software has carried them this far, but Nintendo seems bent on self-destruction.

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Alpha hydroxy acids (AHA’s) have become some of the most popular ingredients in modern skin care products. Acting primarily as exfoliants, these acids have most recently come into the limelight for their anti-aging properties, although a few have also become popular in acne treatments.

Alpha hydroxy acids are derived from milk and fruit sugars. As exfoliants, AHA’s cause the top layer of your dead skin cells to peel away. Because most people to not shed their dead skin cells evenly, these cells can build up in certain areas, leading to clogged pores and uneven pigmentation. AHA’s can help to prevent this from occurring by evenly causing exfoliation over the applied area. Alpha hydroxy acids can also help firm up the skin and preserve elasticity by stimulating the production of collagen and elastin. For acne sufferers, deep-penetrating AHA’s such as glycolic acid can get beneath the surface to unclog pores where acne lesions are trapped.

For both those seeking younger-looking skin and acne relief, alpha hydroxy acids are a good recourse in mild cases. Enhanced exfoliation prepares the way for new cell growth, clearing away the unsightly layer of dry and cracked dead cells. This, combined with the benefits of more firm and elastic skin, can help to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. While exfoliation can happen rapidly, users should keep in mind that it can take months to see the visible affects of AHA’s other skin-firming properties.

Minor acne breakouts can also be dealt with by the use of AHA’s, particularly in cases where small acne pustules form near the surface of your skin. For those who suffer from deeper acne lesions that form farther below the skin level, AHA’s may not help, since even with your pores unclogged, large pustules that form rapidly cannot fit out the narrow passageway of your pores (and thus remain trapped in the socket of your sebaceous glands). To be effective, AHA treatment must penetrate the area before the bacteria hardens within your glands.

Alpha hydroxy acids are generally used in concentrations of 5% to 8%, and at a pH of 3 to 4. It’s generally best to start with a lighter (and less frequent) application and then gradually increase after your skin adjusts to the strength of the acid. Initially, many users experience dry and irritated skin when using AHA’s. This is natural, as the acid is basically burning away the top layer of your skin. Users may or may not find the irritation to decrease over time. In the case of continued irritation, I would highly recommend discontinuing the treatment, as dried-out skin is even more prone to the very problems AHA is intended to correct. Also, be aware that the use of AHA’s will increase your skin’s sun sensitivity (as much as 50% with higher concentrations). Since sun exposure is the leading cause of fine lines and wrinkles, using alpha hydroxy acids and then spending time outdoors will actually do more harm than good to your skin. Take into account both the positive and negative effects of alpha hydroxy acids, and time your use of them accordingly.

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Wow, our shopping cart server was crawling yesterday. I keep the cart hosted with a different server from Acne Vitamins (easier for security reasons), so the main site was loading fast enough, but I apologize to anyone who wasn’t able to order for half the day due to the cart simply not loading thanks to Netfirms. These occasions are few and far between, but since Netfirms is so big, when they do a server update it seems to take forever. Everything is back up to speed now and there shouldn’t be any problems. I would like to remind PayPal users that, when checking out, to make sure that you come back to our confirmation page from PayPal. PayPal automatically forwards you to the Acne Vitamins confirmation page (the PayPal confirmation page states this), but some users just close the window instantly. The sale will go through either way, it’s just that you lose out on the invoice from our shopping cart if you leave before it is finalized.

In other news, my green tea acne article is finally up over at EzineArticles.com (visit the health>acne section). They seem to be taking longer and longer to get articles reviewed these days, and then they update in large batches, so I may be down on the second page even though they just put the article up. If you would like to know more about the benefits of green tea for acne sufferers, it’s worth a read. The payment options I mentioned last week are also fully functional now (as you could probably guess from the new credit card graphics). So Acne Vitamins now accepts American Express and Discover cards in addition to Visa, MasterCard and PayPal.

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Could an Atkins-like low-carb diet help with acne? There’s a lot of evidence that this may be the case. Whole grain, processed foods such as breads and cereals have been shown to exacerbate acne in many individuals.

When breads and cereals are rapidly digested, it can lead to an excess amount of sugar, which in turn leads to the body producing lots of insulin and the insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). With elevated insulin levels, the body produces an excess of sex hormones, causing the glands in your pores to secrete more sebum (skin oil) which is the leading cause of acne. IGF-1 also promotes the multiplication of skin cells known as keratinocytes, which have been connected with acne.

The link between excess insulin and IGF-1 leading to acne has been well documented, with acne sufferers often found to have elevated levels of these factors (Journal Dermatology April 1995, Gynecol Endocrinol August 2002), and some dermatologists are also now recommending limited-grain diets to help with clear skin. It’s also interesting to note that in recent studies in undeveloped countries where processed grains have never been introduced into the diet, acne is also nowhere to be found (the Ache of the Amazon and the Kitava islanders in Papua New Guinea were two societies where this was observed).

It seems quite clear that if your diet includes a lot of processed breads and cereals, an important step towards clearer skin involves limiting your intake of these grains. This is also in line with vitamin B5 theory, that the excess skin oil produced by such a diet is at the heart of acne for many people, and stopping that skin oil is the key to stopping acne. Cutting back a bit on grains can help lessen your production of sebum, while vitamin B5 can aid the body in metabolizing it faster.

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Whether you call it vitamin B5, pantothenic acid, calcium pantothenate or any other name, the fact is that if you find B5 in solid form (tablets, capsules, or powder) there’s bound to be some calcium holding the molecule together. I’ve read a few scares concerning this, as unlike vitamin B5, you can build up too much calcium in your system, leading to problems such as kidney stones. So let’s shed some light on the calcium content in B5, and obviously Clear5 as well.

Is there a chance of you exceeding your daily recommended value of calcium while taking vitamin B5? First, let’s consider exactly how much calcium is in “calcium pantothenate”. The average 500mg capsule or tablet of vitamin B5 contains at most about 45mg of calcium. If you’re taking 3 grams daily of B5 using a treatment such as Clear5, that amounts to 270mg. If you’re megadosing at 10 grams per day, then it rises to around 900mg.

How much calcium is recommended? The daily recommended intake for each age group is:

Ages 1-3 : 500 mg
Ages 4-8 : 800 mg
Ages 9-18 : 1300 mg
Ages 19-50 : 1000 mg
Age 51 or older : 1200 mg

So unless you’re very young, vitamin B5 alone is unlikely to tip you over the scale, but if you’re megadosing it’s definitely going to push it a bit closer, especially if you have other sources of calcium in your diet (milk and dairy products being the most obvious). For instance, the average glass of milk contains around 300mg of calcium. Even with 2 glasses of milk and 6 Clear5 tablets per day, you’ll usually still be under the recommended value, but this can also depend on how well your body absorbs calcium.

What to do in order to make extra sure you don’t experience any of the negative aspects of too much calcium? Simply drink more water. I’ve mentioned before the helpful effects of water in cleansing the body and naturally ridding toxins (water is an important element of effective acne treatment), and the same applies in this case. Drinking the recommended eight glasses of water each day helps flush excess calcium from your body and prevent it from getting to toxic levels. Your body is more easily able to excrete these unwanted elements. Making sure to take 2 glasses of water each time you take your vitamins (especially if you megadose) is a good start.

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In the interest of making checkout as easy as possible, we’ll be adding some new payment options to Acne Vitamins over the next week. It’s probably long overdue, but we’ll finally be accepting American Express and Discover cards now, in addition to our standard Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal options. While the effect on sales will likely be only marginal, at least it looks more professional. And for customers, more options are always a good thing with all the incentives that credit cards offer these days, so you’ll be able to use whatever card you want. After a few months I may introduce alternate payment means (such as mail order forms) as well. Besides these updates, I’ve got another helpful change in the works, but it’s something best talked about when it actually happens, so I’ll save that one for later.

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Happy Easter to all our visitors! I’ll be spending the weekend with family, but I managed to write another acne article last night that should be published soon at the usual sites (ezinearticles.com’s acne section is the easiest place to find mine and other acne articles).

This last article was on green tea and acne. I blogged a while back about green tea acne treatment, but the new article goes into a lot more depth about the different methods of using green tea and the positive or negative aspects of each. Drinking green tea (6-8 glasses per day, freshly brewed, with no sugar) remains the easiest and best way of reaping the benefits, but I learned a few new interesting facts, such as:

Green Tea is actually one of the most popular beverages in the world, apparently second only to water.

Also, simply placing a warm green tea bag on acne lesions can help draw out the toxins and speed healing.

Since green tea can deter hormonal shifts, it’s one of the few treatments that can help prevent, or at least diminish the intensity of, future acne. While vitamin B5 treatments such as Clear5 tend to have stronger, more dramatic effects (and are easier to take than constantly brewing tea), since green tea works differently - targeting toxins in the skin rather than oil production - it may work for those people who do not have great success with B5.

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Well, the acne testimony page got a little longer today as I updated it with some new entries we’ve received over the last month. Despite the Clear5/All-in-1 differences mentioned in an earlier post, we definitely have received more positive feedback since introducing Clear5. I expect that simply the size of the tablets make a pretty big difference, as the 1000mg All-in-1 tablets seemed to scare a few first time users ^_^. Clear5 gets a better compliance rate simply because it’s easier to swallow. One of my sisters recently started using Clear5 also, and she’s been very happy with the difference (hehe, maybe I should start charging her).

I also fixed up a few pages on the site. I found one typo on the “about” page that I can hardly believe I missed for so long, as it was pretty obvious. Also updated some wording to reflect the fact that a B-complex supplement is less important for Clear5 users than straight B5 mega-dosers. Nothing too exciting. What I am excited about is our next packaging update, although it’s still a few months away. My friend Erik is helping me out since I don’t know much about vector graphics but like to be hands on with my labeling (he’s a professional in the graphics field, and quite a great artist). The design includes some subtle changes and the packaging will finally have barcodes, making the product more ready for potential resellers.

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Update - The new Clear5 formula no longer includes competing B-vitamins, as we’ve found these can negatively effect the results of vitamin B5. A B-complex is recommended for long-term users of any B5 treatment, but the fact still remains that you do not need a dosage equivalent to your B5 dosage, this dosage of other B-vitamins is unnecessary.

I realized I haven’t updated a few sections of Acne Vitamins since making the switch to Clear5, and this can lead to some confusion over whether a B-complex supplement is still recommended for long term users. While All-in-1 did not include any B vitamins other than B5, this is not really a problem with Clear5. Clear5 has an ample supple of the supporting B vitamins, as well as biotin and zinc which are also recommended for long-term vitamin B5 users. With these supporting ingredients, there simply isn’t much need for an additional B-complex, as you’ll already be getting over 100% of most of the B-vitamin group.

There are a few vitamins that are not present in the formula, most notably vitamin B12. However, the amount of vitamin B12 recommended for your daily value is so small that it’s really not even worth including (Recommended daily value is only 2.4-6 mcg, depending on the source). Most multivitamins include well over 100% of your RDV for B12 (mine includes 300%, and it’s a generic Walmart brand). Basically, if it’s not in Clear5, you’ll probably have no problem at all getting it either in your diet or via a typical multivitamin. The multivitamin I use right now is the Pro Source brand, and it easily covers all the bases. Keep in mind that you do not need to take as much of the other B-vitamins as you do with B5. You should merely make sure that your body absorbs at least 100% of your daily value for these other vitamins.

If you want to be sure you get the absolute highest rate of absorbance when you take your daily multivitamin, make sure to take it by itself - not alongside a variety of other vitamins. Certain vitamins compete for absorbance by the limited amount of receptors in your stomach, and by spreading out your doses it helps to ensure each pill has the best chance to show its full effects. This is also one of the benefits of time-released pills, in that they resist being broken down inefficiently within the stomach and are instead metabolized within the small intestines, which provide for more efficient metabolism.

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While the vast majority of our sales at Acne Vitamins are for our newer Clear5 brand, we still sell our original All-in-1 formula as well. Why do we choose to keep All-in-1 in stock? And why do some customers still prefer it? Well, there are a few reasons why All-in-1 may actually be more effective for some individuals. Unlike Clear5 that contains supplemental ingredients besides vitamin B5, All-in-1 is nothing but pure time-released B5. Also, instead of 500mg at 100 tablets per bottle, All-in-1 is 1000mg at 50 tablets per bottle. Because different individual’s bodies may be more or less efficient at processing vitamins, some users (especially those that require a higher dose) may have a higher absorbance rate when taking pure B5. The larger tablets also ensure a slightly longer time-release period (which is what I would assume plays the largest factor).

In our shopping cart, All-in-1 is still listed as the top seller, but this can be a little misleading since we had been selling it for nearly a year before Clear5 was introduced (which is rapidly catching up). For new customers I always recommend starting with Clear5, as it works great for most people and is much easier to take at the smaller size. Clear5 is also more convenient since the added ingredients really help in most cases. We do recommend at least three intake times per day since the time-release doesn’t last quite as long for the smaller pills (limits of the technology), but at 3-4 intake periods most users actually have a higher absorbance rate and faster results. So yes, Clear5 is definitely recommended for most users, but there are definitely some cases where All-in-1 is still the right choice, and so Acne Vitamins will continue to stock both.

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