As you may know I live in Calgary and here in Calgary we have two real problems with the affects of the sun. In the Summer we have very strong sun and lots of it with long days this far noth of the equator. In the Winter time there is also lots of sun and very low humidity leading to dry skin – and lots of skiers in the mountains.

Samara Felesky-Hunt is a registered dietitian in Calgary at The Downtown Sports Clinics. Her website is at dietitian-online.com and she wrote the following article for the Calgary Herald newspaper.

Although summer is a time to get outside, the sun can leave skin looking and feeling dry and worn out. You tan it, shave it, scrub it and exfoliate it; it gets scratched, scraped and burned. It endures pimples, bites, freckles and moles, while wear and tear may show up as lines, wrinkles, blotches, spots and sags, rashes or even adult acne.

So, this summer, care and nourish your skin. Sunscreens can protect against sun damage, but a healthy, nutritious diet plays a role, too. Fill your grocery basket with foods that are good for your complexion and feed your skin from the inside out. Read the rest of this entry »

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Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: acne, anti-aging skin care products, borage seed oil, calgary, Calgary Herald, dermatitis, eczema, freckles, primrose oil, Q, registered dietitian, Samara Felesky-Hunt, the Calgary Herald, vitamin a

If you have wrinkled or sun damaged skin or acne, you may be considering a chemical face peel. There are several different types ranging from the mild AHA peel which is just one step up from many exfoliating skin products, to a deep peel that requires anaesthetic and can take several months to heal.

Whatever type of peel you choose in consultation with your dermatologist or cosmetic surgeon, the idea is that the new skin revealed by the peel is less wrinkled or blemished. This can be a great bonus for people wanting to maintain a youthful look, as well as having health benefits for some people.

The AHA or alpha hydroxy acid peel is usually applied by a dermatologist. Beta hydroxy acid is sometimes used as an alternative. These treatments are not painful and do not require an anesthetic, although there will be some discomfort during the process and for a few days after treatment you are likely to have some stinging, redness and mild irritation. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acne, chemical face peel, chemical peels, cosmetic surgeon, croton oil, freckles, gentle cleansing products, irritation, pain, phenol chemical peel, skin products

Many people rely on home remedies for boils. Boils (also known as skin abscesses or furuncles) are not serious but they can be ugly and painful.

Boils can be caused by the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, by an infected hair follicle or an ingrowing hair. Staph infections are likely to spread to other parts of the body or to other people if not treated. You should see your doctor, especially if you think you may have a Staph infection or if you develop a fever along with your boil.

Simple Boils

Simple boils are easier to treat and can often be eliminated by natural methods. They are a little like large, hard pimples, pus-filled lumps in the skin. Most methods of treatment involve removing the pus. A doctor may do this by lancing the boil with a sharp instrument but it is not recommended to do this at home. It is very likely that you would make the situation worse.

External Treatment

The best way to treat boils externally at home is to bring the infection to a head using heat. Apply a sterilized hot compress every 15 minutes. This should bring the pus toward the surface of the skin and it will start to drain off. Continue, being sure to wash the area and your hands frequently with antibacterial soap.

When the boil is fully drained, the whole area should be treated with antibacterial soap or lotion. Repeat until the area has healed.

Internal Treatment

If you catch the boil early, you can often prevent it from developing by taking the spice turmeric. Turmeric is an Indian spice commonly found as an ingredient in curry. It is believed to have anti inflammatory and blood purifying actions as well as being good for the digestion.

You will need around a teaspoon of turmeric 3 times a day. You can make it into a drink or add it to food. Eat it in curry or add turmeric to soup. You can also take it mixed into yogurt, or try making a tea of turmeric, powdered ginger, lemon juice and maple syrup. You can even add it to chocolate milk.

Drink plenty of water if taking turmeric, as it tends to provoke sweating and you may be more likely to become dehydrated.

Other Types Of Boils

Cystic acne will often produce boil-like symptoms. Unlike a boil, a cystic acne pimple will often go away in time without ever coming to a head. However, you may need antibiotics, either internally or in the form of a cream. Do not try to force the pus out by squeezing. This can lead to scars.

Hidradenitis suppurativa is a serious form of abscess that occurs in clusters in sweat glands or hair follicles, usually in the armpit, under breasts or in the groin area. This disease is rare and often runs in families. It is not easy to cure and will not respond to home remedies for boils.

Tags: abscess, acne, anti inflammatory, antibiotics, Boils, fever, food, furuncles, Hidradenitis suppurativa, home remedies, pus, scars, staph infection, Staph infections

I have written before about the best way to suntan and the best ways to get rid of a sunburn but now that Summer is here and I really do get concerned about the people that read my suntanning articles.

I worry that people will get sunburned, I know that people can easily get skin cancer from overexposure to the sun but also I remember how hard I tried in my late teens and twenties to get the best suntan possible with the skin type that I have.

These sun worshipers bake themselves carefully and with proper apparent care. They are careful to turn and twist their bodies in a way best calculated to get an even, rich suntan over as much of their skin as possible. They slather themselves with the latest lotion that promises to keep out harmful sun-ray effects and most importantly guarantees a deep tan.

“Ah, it feels so good,” they say. And I, with a trace of the sun worshiper still in me, agree. The warmth feels like a balm. Vitamin D is brought to the body by the sunlight’s effect on the skin. The pimples of acne can diminish or disappear when the sun’s ultraviolet rays play upon them.

Any teen-ager who winces with pain of sunburn when clapped on the back can testify that the extra time in the sun is never good. For everyone there is an amount and degree of sun beyond which danger lies.

Even a person who tans readily and easily may get harmful changes in his skin if he has too much exposure. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acne, blisters, chills, fever, lupus, oatmeal solution, olive oil, pain, physician, skin cancer, sun oil, sunburn, Tennis, Vitamin D

I just drop ideas on my wife sometimes and she just shakes her head wondering what I am thinking. This happened a couple of days ago when I mentioned that I was going to do microderm abrasion at home. May not be entirely a good idea but I will get to that a bit farther down the page.

Microderm abrasion is a method used either in office or at home to scrape the top of your skin off. I know that this description is not very fair but most articles on the subject are very fluffy and vague. Actually in an esthetician or dermatologist office there is specialized equipment which will help the person to gently scrape that top layer of skin off and then suck that off your skin so that it does not clog your pores.

Usually people will go for about 12 sessions or so of microderm abration and this should clear the skin really well getting rid of some of your scars and uneven coloring of your skin. So if it is so easy why not do this procedure at home? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acne, microderm, microderm abrasion, scars, USD

One of my goals this year is to pull some of the posts off of this blog and create blogs that are more tightly focussed. Don’t worry about the posting frequency or the content, I just want to make sure that this blog concentrates on diet, exercise and fitness. Over the last year or so I have been diving a little bit away from this focus and giving you posts about a few other topics.

Today I want to announce that I have moved off all of the acne and skin care posts over to a new blog. That blog is Acne Info Today. Acne info today will be focussed exclusively on skin care.

So as I start looking through the 600 or so posts on this blog what would you like to see? I have been thinking of doing more muscle building but of course the motivation for diet and exercise are important as we get near the end of January and the quick death of the new years resolutions. Do you want more diet articles? More supplements? I started new categories for both supplements and for nutrition so that I could start getting a bit more concentration on those two important topics.

More to come.

Tags: acne, acne info, diet articles, fitness, motivation, muscle building, new years resolutions, nutrition, Skin Care, skin care site, supplements

Vitamin B3 niacin is an essential vitamin for your body, and it is just one of the eight water soluble types of B vitamins. Nearly all of the B vitamin classes will help the body convert carbohydrates into sugar or glucose, which can then be burned to produce energy. Also known as complex B vitamins, B3 niacin are essential in helping the body break down protein and fat.

Complex B vitamins also play an important role with maintaining muscle tone within the digestive tract, along with the health of the skin, nervous system, live, eyes, hair, and mouth. Even though a lot of people associate creative with the aspect of muscles and muscle tone, vitamin B3 niacin is as equally important – if not more important.

B3 niacin is also important with getting harmful or toxic chemicals out of the body. It can also help the body produce different sex and stress related hormones within the adrenal glands, among other parts of the body. The vitamin is also useful for helping with sexual dysfunction as well. This can be great news for those who have problems with pleasing their mate. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acne, anti-aging products, b vitamins, energy, niacin, niacin skin care products, prevention of skin cancer, reduce cholesterol, sexual dysfunction, skin cancer, toxic chemicals, Turkey, vitamin b3

As an acne sufferer you have probably wondered for years what you can do to naturally get rid of your acne. Most dermatologists are quite happy to very quickly throw a prescription for Accutane or Tetracycline at you. How about more holistic natural methods to treat your acne? Eating is a great natural acne treatment.

Instead of immediately trying to treat your acne with pills or creams why not try your best to be more healthy in the way that you eat and see what your eating is going to do to help you.

Most dermatologists and the health industry as a whole do not seem to care much about the food you eat but think about your body and the way that your body reacts to food in other ways. If you eat greasy food how do you feel? Tired? If you  drink too much coffee how do you feel? Shaky and distracted?

Fogetting what the skin doctor days for a moment why not take a serious look at your diet and get really serious about cleaning up your diet. Here are some things that you should definitely avoid.

Greasy Foods – Deep fried foods are the very worst thing that you can eat. I have always found that my skin will break out if I eat a lot of greasy food.

Sugar – Sweets are very bad as they start your body in unnaturally increasing your metabolism and we do not even want to talk about how this will affect your blood sugar.

Caffeine – caffeine stimulates hormone production. This is bad.

Other than the above foods it is important to remember that dairy products like milk and cheeses as well as refined and cooked carbohydrates like flour, bread, rice, and chips are acid-forming in the body.

If you really want to get rid of acne, you need to eat more alkaline-forming foods like fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as some nuts and seeds.

Eating really can be a great natural treatment for acne. Looking at this list of foods you can probably guess that the more natural a food that you eat and the closer that it is to the source (unrefined) the better it will be for you.

One more thing to remember in this system is that you really need to drink water. Water is going to have a much bigger effect on your then almost anything else. What water will do is clean out your body as well as regulating your sweat and metabolism.

Try this natural acne treatment using healthy eating and your will see that it will help you get rid of your acne better then any prescription can.

Tags: acne, Acne Treatment, caffeine, dairy products, eating, food, greasy food, Health Issues, sugar

I get asked often what is the best acne treatment and as you have probably seen by many of my post good diet and correct methods of facial cleaning is all it takes for most people to treat their acne.

When I have looked at products in the past I have always tried to cut through the hype and the crap and concentrated on which products are going to work from the inside to cure acne. Creams and soaps and lotions are fine for basic, simple acne but you need to make some real changes in order to cure the tough acne problem that you are dealing with.

In the case of those that have struggled with acne for many years as I did though, there are two different products that I think both qualify as the best acne treatment. I have reviewed both Acne No More and Acnezine in the past but wanted to again bring these up to answer the question that I get asked so often:

What is the best acne treatment?

Acnezine – Pills to fight Acne

Acnezine acne product review introduction
Over the years I have suffered as many others have with acne. During the time that I had severe acne I tried everything. I tried all of the lotions, Accutane, tetracycline and even shots directly into cysts. Eventually my acne went away and I am so much happier now that it is gone. Now, years later I have found a natural product that does a great job of getting rid of acne and I have not had even one person say anything bad about this product.

One of the most powerful treatments for acne is taking something orally. Taking pills will help heal you from the inside out by controlling how yoour body reacts to the factors that produce acne

Acnezine is a herbal product that is specially formulated to treat and cure acne. Acnezine was previously sold as Acuzine is one of many products on the market that treat acne but the difference with Acnezine is that it uses ingredients that have been proven in clinical tests to successfully treat acne. It is very well known, works quickly, has safe ingredients, and is reasonably priced. Acnezine provides antioxidants that can help eliminate the free radicals that are dangerous to skin and promote infections. It also fights inflammation, to reduce redness. Clients reported much clearer and smoother looking skin after just a few weeks. They also have a cool website with lots of information.

Acnezine ingredients
-Vitamin E Acetate
-Vitamin C Ester
-Collagen Hydrolyzed
-Alpha Lipoic Acid (as Thioctic Acid)
-Hyaluronic Acid
-Ubidecarenone Co-Enzyme Q10
-Proprietary Blend
-Aloe Vera (Aloe vera) (leaf)
-Bioperine Extract
- all bound in a gelatin capsule -

Acnezine product availability
The only negative is that Acnezine isn’t sold in stores. Acnezine is only sold online. Some people are a bit nervous about buying products online but in this case it should be fine as Acnezine comes with a full six month guarantee, this is much better than any other product that I have seen.

Acnezine product review conclusions
If you have any kind of acne, even very severe acne, there is nothing you will find that works better to clear your complexion than the revolutionary Acnezine anti-oxidant! Acnezine is all-natural and scientifically formulated to treat acne from the inside-out. Practically everyone has to deal with acne from time to time. It’s not because we eat chocolate. It’s not because we don’t wash our face enough. In fact, washing too vigorously can make acne worse!

Buy Acnezine today

Acne No More – A diet and more to cure acne

What is the best acne treatment? There are many ways that you can deal with acne. There are diet and healthy eating methods, there are stress management methods, and there are lots of pills and lots of creams.

The most common acne treatment that doctors look at is to treat the acne itself instead of the underlying reasons that acne is starting up in your body in the first place. The best acne treatment however would be to treat the causes of the acne itself.

When I hit my 30’s my acne just started going away naturally, in saying this though I do not believe that the best acne treatment is to wait until you are 30. Although my acne is now mostly gone, this did not end my quest of looking for real cures to the acne that I suffered with for so long.

As you can imagine there are a lot of acne methods out on the market that claim to be the best acne treatment but there are very few that work and most of the so called acne cures, plans and treatments are no more than shams and scams.

What is the best acne treatment on the market?
While researching for my own acne articles I ran across an ebook that seems to have unanimous support from people that look at these things. Acne No More is the best acne treatment, or so it seems, an acne plan that seems to work. The reason that “Acne no more” seems to work is the fact that it looks at the base, underlying causes of acne instead of just treating the acne breakouts and scarring itself.

There are many principles that Mike Walden looks at in the book Acne No More and the basis of the Acne No More system goes through the following principles:

1. It balances your hormones and prevents any future hormone irregularities.
This action alone will yield dramatic results on your acne and on your skin and hair condition in general.

2. It naturally and permanently gets rid of any blocks in your system. This will allow your main organs of elimination to handle hormonal irregularities more properly thus help prevent future breakouts.

3. It eradicates the internal organisms that contribute to this system blockage. In this way you regain more control over what the main causes of your acne.

4. It controls the environmental elements, as well as your own daily habits that cause hormonal imbalance and system blockage leading to acne formation.

5. It builds, fortifies and strengthens your natural internal mechanisms responsible for hormone regulations and blockage prevention.

6. It neutralizes the external factors that may lead to acne during and after the plan. It this way your skin will not only will it stay acne clear it will always look healthy, clean, and glowing.

7. It maintains the results you have achieved (acne free system) using a well structured maintenance plan.

So which of the two treatments above is the best acne treatment? Well I have had people buy both of these products and have not had a single person say that they were disappointed with the results.

I would have to say though that Acne No More is probably my number one choice for treating acne and then if you need a bit more of a boost then you can order a month or two of Acnezine just to finish off your acne problem.

The really funny thing about this is that both of these products are so cheap. Apparently the writer of Acne No More as well as the creators of Acnezine never saw how expensive a product like Accutane is. If anyone has noticed either of these products is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of Accutane or even a second class product like Proactiv.

I have to say in the end that both of these products qualify as the best acne treatment in my eyes.

Tags: accutane, acne, Acne Treatment, acnezine, acne_no_more, best_acne_treatment, cysts, Ester -Collagen Hydrolyzed -Alpha, herbal product, inflammation, Mike Walden, natural product, writer

Treatment of severe acne is something that some of us need to deal with at one time or another. Severe acne is when you have lumpy acne that does not go away and is very red. When I was younger I took Accutane to get rid of my severe acne as well as injections and drainage to get rid of my severe acne.

Drainage and Surgical Excision
Some large cysts do not respond to medication and may require drainage and extraction. Drainage and extraction, or acne surgery as it is also called, should not be performed by patients. Dermatologists are trained in the proper technique and perform acne surgery under sterile conditions. Patient attempts to drain and extract comedones by squeezing or picking, can lead to infection, worsening of the acne and scarring.

Severe acne requires an aggressive treatment
regimen and should be treated by a dermatologist.

Acne Injections
When an acne cyst becomes severely inflamed, there is a good chance it will rupture and scarring may result. To treat these severely inflamed cysts and prevent scarring, dermatologists may inject such cysts with a much-diluted corticosteroid. This lessens the inflammation
and promotes healing. An interlesional corticosteroid injection works by “melting” the cyst over a period of 3 to 5 days. As painful as this may sound I never found it to be bad at all, the needle is this and it is really good to get rid of the lumpy red zits.

Accutane
Accutane is a potent drug reserved for treating severe cystic acne and acne that has proven itself resistant to other medications. Accutane is a synthetic (man-made) retinoid (form of vitamin A) that comes in pill form. It is usually taken once or twice a day for 16 to 20 weeks.

Today, it is the most effective acne treatment available because it is the only acne treatment that works on all four factors that predispose a person to acne – excess oil production, clogged skin pores, P. acnes and inflammation. The remissions achieved with Accutane usually last for many months to many years. For many patients, only one course of Accutane therapy is needed.

While Accutane is the most effective acne treatment available, it cannot be prescribed to everyone due to a number of potential side effects, some serious. One of the most serious side effects is the potential to cause severe birth defects in a developing fetus. For this reason, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that women not be (or become) pregnant while taking Accutane. FDA regulations require women of childbearing age to take 2 pregnancy tests prior to beginning Accutane therapy and use 2 forms of birth control for 1 month before therapy begins, while taking the drug and for 1 full month after therapy. It is also important that women not breast feed during this time. Women who wish to become pregnant after taking Accutane should talk to their dermatologist and gynecologist about when it is safe to get pregnant after receiving Accutane therapy.

Other possible severe side effects that may occur while taking Accutane include:

* Severe pain in the chest or abdomen
* Trouble swallowing or painful swallowing
* Severe headache, blurred vision or dizziness
* Bone and joint pain
* Nausea or vomiting
* Diarrhea or rectal bleeding
* Depresion
* Dryness of the skin, eyes and nose
* Thinning hair

If any side effect occurs, the patient’s dermatologist or other healthcare practitioner should be contacted immediately because some of these side effects can lead to serious health problems.

While taking Accutane, patients are regularly monitored for side effects through follow-up visits. For most people, these side effects are tolerable and not a reason to discontinue therapy before remission is achieved. However, it is important to keep appointments for follow-up visits because monitoring can reveal conditions that a patient might not notice. For example, a patient may not realize a rapid increase in bad cholesterol that is detected through a blood test.

The decision to use Accutane should be made jointly by patient and dermatologist. When used with all due caution under close medical supervision, Accutane can resolve severe acne that has not responded to other therapy. It has proven especially effective in resolving cystic acne, a severe form of acne that usually does not respond to other therapies.

For a substantial number of patients, one course of Accutane therapy is all they will ever need. A small number of patients require more than one course of Accutane therapy to control severe acne.

It is important to take Accutane as prescribed even if the skin clears before all of the pills have been taken to prevent relapse. At the end of an effective course of Accutane therapy, all or most of the acne lesion will have cleared. Patients may notice residual erythematous (reddish) macules (flat spots) where acne lesions were present. These macules are not scars, and they will fade in 6 to 8 weeks.

After therapy, patients should continue to follow the Skin Care Guidelines for People with Acne.

Antibiotic pills
Oral antibiotics have been a mainstay of therapy for severe acne for many years. Like topical antibiotics, oral antibiotics work to reduce the P. acnes population (a contributing factor in acne), which, in turn, decreases inflammation. Treatment with oral antibiotics usually begins with a high dosage, which is reduced as the acne resolves. Over time, the P. acnes bacteria can become resistant to the antibiotic being used to treat it. When this happens, another antibiotic can be prescribed. Numerous studies support the effectiveness of the following broad-spectrum oral antibiotics that are used to treat acne in the United States: doxycline, erythromycin, minocycline and tetracycline. For information about each of these oral antibiotics, see Prescription Acne Medications.

Birth Control pills
Birth Control pills have been shown to effectively clear acne in women by suppressing the overactive sebaceous glands. Oral contraceptives can be used as long-term acne therapy; however, this medication should not be prescribed to women who smoke, have a blood-clotting disorder, are older than 35 or have a history of migraine headaches without the advice of a gynecologist.

Spironolactone, a synthetic steroid, may be used in combination with birth control pills to treat acne in adult females. Spironolactone inhibits androgen production. Side effects include irregular menstruation, breast tenderness, headache and fatigue

Are these tips all you need to prevent acne? If not you should be interested in a proven method to rid you of your acne. Then read my review of a best acne cure. Another great product I have reviewed is Acnezine.

Tags: accutane, acne, Acne Treatment, acne_cures, antibiotics, birth control, birth defects, blood-clotting disorder, cyst, cysts, diarrhea, dizziness, drainage, excess oil production, gynecologist, headache, healthcare practitioner, inflammation, joint pain, migraine headaches, nausea, Oral, Oral contraceptives, pain, scars, surgery, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, United States, vitamin a, vomiting