:Clear Skin Blog

Vitamin water is a hot item right now. With everyone out there trying to be more health conscious, almost any product that features catchwords like “natural”, “vitamin”, or “mineral” is bound to sell. It’s no wonder that Glaceau, makers of the Vitamin Water brand of beverages, was bought by Coke last year for over $4 billion. Of course, not every product that includes vitamins, minerals or herbs is actually going to make a difference for your health. Many times the benefits of natural products are overstated, or the products themselves contain such a small amount of such ingredients that they end up being inconsequential.

A common selling point for vitamin water and other vitamin drinks is the inclusion of antioxidants, and these ingredients have also made acne sufferers take notice of them. Some have suggested that those seeking clear skin should try switching their beverage of choice to a vitamin drink high in antioxidants. So can this actual help you combat acne? Generally speaking, the short answer is no - at least not under normal circumstances.

The situation with vitamin water is very similar to the benefits from drink antioxidant-rich teas, such as green tea or white tea. There are certainly beneficial ingredients in these beverages for promoting clear skin, but when taken in normal doses, the amount of these ingredients is far too small to make any real impact upon your health, much less cure a stubborn defect such as acne. Just as some online users promoted drinking 8 glasses of green tea per day for helping with acne control, you would need to be drinking a similar amount of vitamin water - in other words, you would need to be drinking a whole lot of it every day (and spending a lot on it as well).

If you’ve ever tasted concentrated liquid vitamins that provide doses similar to the average adult multivitamin, you’ve probably noticed that they usually taste pretty bad. The amount of these vitamins needs to be sufficiently diluted for vitamin drinks to actually be enjoyable. Even still, most vitamin drinks only have a very limited number of vitamins included, and even a whole 16 oz. bottle is usually no substitute for a multivitamin or dedicated supplement. It’s rather telling that many of these products do not even disclose the amount or daily value of the vitamins included.

There’s no question that many of these products are certainly healthier than a soft drink, but unless you’re really loading up on them, you shouldn’t get your hopes up about improving your skin by drinking vitamin beverages. And oftentimes, you would get the same improvements simply by drinking more water.

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Exercise is certainly a good thing that most of us could use more of. It keeps our bodies functioning in top shape and is a great way to relieve stress. However, sweating itself can cause some problems for your skin and even lead to acne breakouts.

Sweating allows your body to stay cool, but along with your sweat a lot of waste products also make their exit from the body. If you don’t wash up afterwards, sweat can leave a film of waste over your skin that can promote bacterial growth and make you more susceptible to skin blemishes. Because of this, it’s always best to take a shower soon after doing any strenuous full-body exercise that leaves you covered in sweat. You don’t want to invite bacterial build-ups in your pores after working out.

Most of us don’t exercise in the nude, and so it pays to also be aware of the threat to clear skin that sweaty clothes can pose. When your clothes become wet with sweat, they often stick tight to your skin. This can promote clogged pores, as the pressure provided by sweaty clothing (especially tight outfits, as many wear when exercising) can trap sweat and bacteria within the pore, preventing it from easily escaping to your skin’s surface. The combination of sweat and fabric can also attract additional bacteria, further promoting skin problems. If you suffer from back or body acne, it’s especially important to remember to change out of sweaty clothing as soon as you’re done working out.

The last point is the simple fact that when you sweat, your body loses a lot of water. Your skin cells are particularly susceptible to irritation and infection when they are dried out, so you need to replace that water soon afterwards. This should seem like common sense, since working out leaves many people thirsty, but it’s always good to keep in mind the importance of getting plenty of water when it comes to your skin’s health.

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Ingrown hairs are an annoying skin problem that can happen to anyone if you miss shaving now and then, but are particularly common for people with sensitive skin (like me). One of the worst things about them is that they can be very stubborn, cropping up again and again in the same spots. Even if you have otherwise clear skin, you may be susceptible to them.

So how do you deal with problem areas of your skin where ingrown hairs are common? First, make sure you’re shaving properly and regularly. Make gentle motions with your razor and don’t shave against the grain. Make sure to replace your blades [i]before[/i] you notice any pulling, and if your razor is simply irritating your skin too frequently (your skin requires an adjustment period with any new type of razor, but if irritation continues…) don’t just put up with it, start shopping for a new razor. Remember that if you have sensitive skin, the closest shave is not always the best shave.

You are most susceptible to ingrown hairs when you shave irregularly. Try to avoid letting your beard grow out on the weekends, etc. - as your skin is more likely to get damaged when your hair has grown out. Your razor is less likely to pull on hairs if there is less to pull on, so it’s always better to shave more frequently rather than less.

Sometimes real life gets in the way, and you find you have to deal with actually removing an ingrown hair. If it is buried within the skin, but still clearly visible, you can use a sterilized needle to release the hair. Only consider this if the hair is very near the surface, as you don’t want to cause long-lasting scars. Deeper hairs will usually make their way to the surface eventually, but you may want to see a dermatologist in extreme cases.

When ingrown hairs burst through the surface (either on their own or with your help), they can sometimes leave a groove in your skin. These grooves can sometimes take seemingly forever to heal. The reason for this is that new hairs try to grow up through the pathway created by the previous ingrown hair. In this way, trouble areas occur where you continually experience ingrown hairs in the same spots. In problem areas like this, sometimes the best thing to do is simply twease the hairs. By tweasing hairs the are popping up around an inflamed region of the skin, you give the skin time to heal without the healing process being interrupted by the hair pushing its way through and creating a source of friction.

Prevention is always best, but if you need to occasionally twease an ingrown hair, it’s better to remove the hair and allow your skin to fully heal. Otherwise you may be dealing with repeated ingrown hairs in the same spot for a long time.

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Many vitamin B5 acne treatments include a host of other B-vitamins in addition to B5, but a few (such as Clear5) do not. There are plenty of other oral clear skin treatments that also pile on the B-vitamins, since many of them are regarded as aiding healthy skin. So what are the benefits of including the entire family of B-vitamins in a single treatment, and what are the downsides?

It’s no secret that the B-family vitamins work well together within the body. Many of them naturally compliment each other and are used together in the same bodily functions. That said, they are still very different chemical substances, and your body’s requirements can differ greatly for each one. A healthy dose of vitamin B6 may be a toxic dose of vitamin B3. Some people get stuck on the idea in that all your B-vitamins should be taken in similar doses, but while this may sound good to some holistic health nuts, it’s not an intelligent or medically sound position.

While there are plenty of chemical reactions within the body that require multiple B-vitamins, it’s not true that taking other B-vitamins will necessarily help the actual absorption or effectiveness of another. For instance, taking other B-vitamins is not going to make vitamin B5 more easily absorbed, or more effective at combating acne (unless you have a deficiency in those other vitamins). This is usually just marketing hype. In reality, some B-vitamins compete for the same receptor molecules, and can actually inhibit maximum absorbance.

While small amounts of all the B-vitamins may be helpful for those wishing to make sure they are covering any possible deficiency, the doses of most of these are typically too small to make for an effective treatment, and can ultimately just end up interfering with the real active ingredients. I noticed this early on when my own treatment, Clear5, was giving inferior results after we added a group of other B-vitamins that were supposedly helpful in promoting clear skin. Our product actually became less effective.

There is another downside as well: increased likelihood of side effects. While most B-vitamins are relatively safe even at high doses, a few of them are much more prone to negative reactions. Niacin (B3) can cause flushed skin and rashes, for example. Especially if your doses are high enough to actually make a difference, you run a higher risk of causing some unpleasant side effects.

It’s for these reasons that we ended up keeping our list of ingredients in Clear5 very short, without a ton of additional B-family vitamins. Taking a daily multivitamin is always a good idea, but multivitamins are not treatments, and you shouldn’t expect a treatment that looks like a multivitamin to work very well at solving any particular health problem.

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