:Clear Skin Blog

With more people than ever taking an interest in eating healthy, it seems like every nutritional product out there is advertising itself as a “rich source of antioxidants”. Acne vitamin treatments and various clear skin products are following suit, but let’s be serious here, how many people even know what an antioxidant is? And how would taking them help you achieve clear skin?

Oxygen is an essential compound for life to exist. Through the process of oxidation, our bodies burn calories and provide our cells with energy. Unfortunately, not all oxidation is good for us. This is because the oxidation process can also result in the formation of free radicals – highly reactive molecules which are prone to causing unwanted chemical chain reactions. These reactions can cause serious cell damage.

Antioxidants are substances which can prevent or counteract the damaging effects of oxidation and free radicals. A common means by which they work is through joining with free radical molecules, creating a new, more stable molecule that is less prone to cell-damaging chemical reactions. As free radicals play at least some sort of role in more diseases than can easily be counted, antioxidants are often marketed as “cures” for everything from fatigue to acne.

Antioxidants are certainly a good thing, but do you need extra supplements to make sure you are getting them? That depends on your diet. The fact is, antioxidants are everywhere. Virtually all fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, and you may already be getting a lot of them each day.

Can taking a lot of antioxidants give you clear skin? The short answer is no, at least not without help.

Acne is virtually never the result of mere free radical damage within your cells. Its cause lies in the P. Acnes bacteria, which lives within your pores and can even migrate over your face (lovely thought, I know). P. Acnes primary food source is sebum – your skin oil. This is one of the reasons why oil-targeting treatments such as vitamin B5 work so well against acne.

Some antioxidants may also have antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, (etc.) properties that help combat specific afflictions such as acne. However, antioxidants are not a natural miracle cure. They usually are a not a “cure” at all, but a preventive measure. For instance, the sun’s UV radiation can cause the formation of free radicals in your skin cells, and vitamin E is especially helpful in preventing these free radicals from doing damage.

When dealing with most specific afflictions, you almost always need something more than just antioxidants. Foods, drinks, or supplements rich in antioxidants may still be very healthy for you, but don’t put too much faith in treatments which rely on the “rich in antioxidants” tagline as an explanation for how they combat a specific health condition.

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Ingrown hairs can be an unsightly and painful blemish on your skin. The best solution is avoiding them altogether by maintaining good shaving habits. However, if you’ve fallen into inconsistent shaving habits, or your skin is simply taking time to adjust after switching to a new type of razor, you’re likely to experience a few ingrown hairs.

Shallow ingrown hairs are mainly just a minor annoyance and can often be loosed by a gentle pinch. Deeper ingrown hairs can be much more of a pain though. In these cases, the skin around an ingrown hair can form into a painful lump, not unlike the appearance of cystic acne.

The first thing you don’t want to do is treat an ingrown hair as you might an acne spot. You don’t want to pick at or squeeze the lump (and honestly, you wouldn’t want to do this with acne either). An ingrown hair continues to grow beneath the surface of your skin, often irritating and inflaming your skin all on its own. You don’t need to make the situation worse, especially since you’re not going to succeed in “popping” an ingrown hair anyway. Leave the lump alone at first and allow the inflammation to die out.

Sometimes a deep ingrown hair will puncture through to the surface by itself. However, other times the hair will continue to grow under your skin, forming loops or spirals. If it emerges on its own, great. Get out your tweezers and, in a smooth and gentle motion, pluck the problem hair out. You want to be careful to pluck the entire hair out, as otherwise the hair may break and force you to play the waiting game again. The enzymes in your cells can weaken the strength of an ingrown hair over time, making these hairs more easily broken.

When an ingrown hair does not show any signs of breaking the surface of your skin, you still need to be patient for the inflammation to go down. You should wait and allow the hair to grow until the dark line of the hair is clearly visible from the surface of your skin. Now, using a sterilized needle, gently puncture the skin, aiming to hook underneath the hair and pull it out. It is of utmost importance not to attempt this if the hair is not clearly visible. You don’t want to start poking yourself randomly with needles and end up trading an ingrown hair for a scar. See a dermatologist if you are not confident releasing the hair yourself. You may find that a stubborn ingrown hair can grow over an inch, usually forming a tight spiral, before you’re able to get it out. Once the hair is exposed you can repeat the same process with the tweezers to remove it.

Never pick at ingrown hairs, as besides causing the inflammation to worsen, you can also cause a patch of scar tissue to build up above the area, making it that much hard to remove the hair. As with acne, this can also easily happen if you are impatient and try to attack the problem prematurely. Ingrown hairs are both a less visible and shorter lasting skin problem if you are patient and smart when dealing with them.

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While all the B-family vitamins are highly important, vitamin B5 is among the most versatile and beneficial when it comes to taking extra supplements. The benefits of vitamin B5 for acne sufferers is common knowledge on the internet these days. With the role it plays in the production of Coenzyme-A, and the resulting benefit of reducing excess skin oil, vitamin B5 is the most important natural supplement an acne sufferer can take. But besides promoting clear skin, vitamin B5 is becoming popular for a number of other uses as well. One of the most prominent of these is energy enhancement.

Energy drinks and supplements have become increasingly popular lately. While natural energy products may take a variety of forms and use many different ingredients, some of the most commonly seen include vitamin B12, Coenzyme-Q10, and vitamin B5. Given the important role that vitamin B5 plays in energy production, it’s not hard to see why.

It’s important to understand that vitamins are not a “source” of energy. Energy comes from foods such as sugars, proteins and carbohydrates. What vitamins actually do is enable your body to process and use that energy. They “unlock” the energy from the foods you eat. As you grow older, your body becomes less efficient at unlocking this energy, so energy supplements are increasingly helpful, although they are also helpful if you simply suffer from fatigue or want to get as much energy as possible for use in activities such as weight training.

Converted into Coenzyme-A, vitamin B5 plays a vital role in the release of energy from fats, carbohydrates, starches and sugars. This energy release occurs in your mitochondria, known as the energy production centers of your cells. As vitamin B5 also plays a critical role in the production of red blood cells, it further enhances energy release in this respect. This information is not new, and in fact vitamin B5 has long been popular among athletes such as marathon runners who require a sustained supply of energy over a long period of time.

Even if your main interest in vitamin B5 is for the purpose of acne treatment, it’s good to know that there are many side benefits to the vitamin (and virtually no negative side effects). Many users will experience clear skin and have more energy than ever to go out and show it off.

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It can be embarrassing both to have it and to talk about it, but many people get acne on their butt. Worse, this type of acne can be especially stubborn, and may stay for a long time (or get worse) if not correctly treated. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to manage and potentially eliminate butt acne.

Since this area of your skin is often covered by clothing, you should put some thought into what you’re wearing. Loose-fitting natural fabrics are best, as materials such as nylon can cause excess friction that may aggravate acne, and tight fabrics that don’t breathe well can trap perspiration against your skin, also potentially worsening your situation (and setting the stage for new acne). Obviously, regular cleansing is recommended, but you may need more than soap to deal with butt acne in a timely manner.

This area of your skin can easily be inflamed, so you definitely want to avoid unnecessary picking at these pimples. Besides the fact that their position can make it very difficult to accurately pop them, you’ll most likely just end up making the pimple larger by aggravating and inflaming the region.

Standard topical acne treatments, such as spot treatments that use benzoyl peroxide, can still work here. However, they may take a little longer to give results, as your skin in this area is thicker and tougher to penetrate than on your face. Although I don’t recommend its use regularly as an every-day acne treatment (it can pose health risks if used too frequently), Neosporin is actually one of the best solutions for acne in these hard-to-reach areas. Neosporin is a strong antibiotic, and has powerful anti-inflammatory effects. This will often kill these stubborn butt pimples quickly, but even if it doesn’t totally eliminate an acne blemish, it can reduce the inflammation, taking the red out of the pimple. This way, at least these pimples are much less noticeable. If left alone and treated properly, they should fade away without too long of a wait. Internal solutions such as vitamin B5 acne treatment are also helpful simply for prevention if you find these blemishes are a frequent occurrence.

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