Acne...? Eat a Low-Carb Diet....!

Curbing carbohydrate in your diet not only helps reduce your tummy, but may also improve acne, according to a report. 

WebMD News reported that low-carb eating could help clear up acne by controlling glucose levels, which can promote a healthier complexion.

People with acne may have what is called hyperinsulinemia, which is characterized by excess levels of insulin in the blood.

"Foods that are low in the glycemic index (GI) may contribute to the hormonal control of acne," the Independent quoted Alan R. Shalita, MD, chairman of the department of dermatology at SUNY Downstate Medical Centre in New York, as telling WebMD.

"I would encourage patients with acne to moderate the amount of carbs that they eat and not to overdo dairy," which can also cause acne, he added.

Selecting foods lower on the glycemic index means avoiding blood sugar spikes with white rice, sweets, and white flour breads and opting for fresh foods, such as vegetables, meat, and fruits.

Shalita also debunked the myth that chocolate triggers blemishes, noting that for people who do react to chocolate, it is more a result of the sugar and fat in the candy. 

Tips...Acidity...Acne

Acidity

• Consume a small piece of jaggery after having all three meals and see what wonders it can do to keep acidity away.
• Take a cup of water and boil it. Add 1 tsp of Aniseed (Saunf) to the water and leave it overnight. On the next morning, filter the water and add 1 tsp of honey to it. Drink it thrice a day and bid goodbye to acidity.
• Take a cardamom and a clove and powder it. Consume it like a mouth freshener after having your each meal. Not only this remedy will take care of your acidity problem, but also will keep away bad breath.
• Take about 1-½ liters of water and add 1 tsp Caraway seeds (shah jeera) to it. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Drink it while warm at least 2-3 times a day for 5-6 days.

Acne

• Gently apply fresh limejuice on pimples and blackheads.
• Dab the mixture made by combining 1 tsp fresh coriander powder and a pinch of turmeric powder on the pimples, while going to bed in the night and wash it off when you wake up the next morning.
• Take a few fresh curry leaves and make a paste. Apply the paste on the acne-affected area and keep it overnight and wash it off with warm water the next morning.
• Apply the paste made of nutmeg (Jaiphal) and raw milk on acne and wash it off after 20 minutes. Do it for about 10-12 days and see the magical effects.
• Take some fresh fenugreek leaves and make a paste to apply on the acne pimples overnight.
• For people with oily skin, the perfect home remedy is to apply a paste made by mixing sandalwood and few drops of rosewater on the acne affected area for about an hour and then wash off gently.
• For dry skin, the best remedy is to take a piece of sandalwood and rub it on a smooth stone and make a paste using a few drops of raw milk. Apply the mixture on the acne and keep it for an hour and thereafter gently wash with water.

How to treat acne at Home...Home remedies

Tired of the regular zits that keep popping up every now and then? While if you suffer from an acute acne problem, it's best that you visit a dermatologist, you can bid adieu to a pimple here and there by following these simple home remedies - just make sure you don't suffer from any allergies. Acne usually starts with blackheads, which are formed when oil along with dead cells gets stuck in your pores and turn black. The inflammation when it turns red are the unsightly pimples that all of us dread. While a regular clean-up will reduce your blackheads, here's what you can do to prevent them...

- Take a few pieces of jaiphal (nutmeg), mix it with some unboiled milk and apply the paste on your acne. Wash it off after about two hours.

- Make a mixture of cinnamon powder and honey and apply on your pimples before you go to bed in the night. Wash it with warm water when you wake up in the morning. Do this for a fortnight and watch your pimples disappear.

- Not only are oranges good for overall health, you can use orange peels as a remedy for pimples too. Grind the peels, mix them with a few drops of water and apply it on your face.

- Mix a tablespoon each of fresh lime juice and groundnut oil and apply it on your face to avoid blackheads.

- Leave fresh mint juice on your face overnight to tame pimples.

- Take methi (fenugreek) leaves and make a paste. Apply it every night for 15 minutes and wash it off.

- Take turmeric powder and neem leaves. Apply the mixture on your pimples. Leave it on your face for about half an hour.

- Take equal quantities of rose water and lime juice and apply the mixture on the affected area. Leave it on for 20 minutes.

- Make a face-wash by adding fresh lime juice to a cup of unboiled milk and using it on your face.

- Take some tomato pulp and apply it on your face. Leave it for 45 minutes and wash it off.

- Take a few drops of gulab jal (rose-water) and mix it with sandalwood. Apply the paste on your face and wash it off after 20 minutes. 

Pimples and Acne? Go for garlic juice or mud pack

If pimples and acne scars on the face are bothering you, try putting some garlic juice or a mud pack. Or if you are game for medical help, laser treatment and chemical peels are an alternative, say dermatologists. 

The acne problem usually starts around the age of 10-13. Though many get rid of it by their 20s, for some it lingers. 

In teenagers, there are two things that trigger acne problem. First is hormonal changes in their body. In boys, it is the increased secretion of testosterone and in girls, the levels of both testosterone and oestrogen rises.

Due to these hormones the oil secretion in the body increases and the skin becomes oily and more prone to acne and breakouts. The other trigger for acne is bacterial infection.

About 90 per cent of teenagers suffer from acne in varying degrees of severity. It has a psychological effect on youngsters who want to have clean and clear skin. 

Various medical and natural treatments are available. 

"Medicated creams and face washes are there. Topical treatments for teenaged acne include benzoyl peroxide, sulphur, resorcinol, or salicylic acid are there. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found these effective for treating acne," said Meenakshi Agarwal, a Mumbai-based cosmetic surgeon. 

If the condition worsens, doctors prescribe oral antibiotics for bacterial infection, hormonal pills and light therapy with lasers. 

The lasers can cost Rs.5,000-Rs.10,000. 

"Chemical peels and microdermabrasion are used to lighten post-acne scarring and cost anything between Rs.1,500 and Rs.3,000," said Indu Tolani, dermatologist, Clinic Dermatec. 

Post-acne scars can be cleared by clean-ups with salicylic or glycolic acid at a clinic. Gentle exfoliation with these acids helps in taking out blackheads and whiteheads. Also, the skin becomes acidic and the bacteria doesn't grow in an acidic environment. 
But she warns teenagers against random treatments at beauty salons, saying: "It is important that the clean-up should be undertaken under the guidance of a dermatologist in a clinic." 

Some natural remedies like garlic juice, clay packs and lemon juice also help in avoiding acne and lightens scars. 

To avoid acne, wash your skin twice a day. Make sure that you use a mild face wash that is meant for your skin type. Washing your face too frequently, especially with harsh cosmetics, can aggravate your acne. Try to avoid processed foods like white bread and noodles as they often trigger outbreaks. 

"Use a face pack made of Fuller's earth (non-plastic clay or claylike earthy material) at least once or twice a week. This will help extract excess sebum and is therefore one of the best natural methods to treat acne. 

"You can also apply a little garlic juice on your face, for about an hour at least once a week. Although garlic juice will kill off acne-causing bacteria, do not keep it for too long as it can aggravate sensitive skin," she added. 

Mix equal parts of milk cream and lemon juice and apply on your face. The lactic acid and citric acid in these two (respectively) help in lightening the scars. 

Tolani says natural remedies help, but medical treatments are more efficient. 

"A lot of people try out natural, home-based remedies like clay packs to cut back the oil from their face. Some use gram flour to scrub away the debris and acne-laden skin, but these treatments are not sufficient and can't replace the efficacy of medical treatments," she said. 

ACNE SCARRING

What is acne scarring?

Acne is a skin condition that affects up to 80% of people in their teens and twenties, and up to 5% of older adults. While many people recover from acne without any permanent effects, some people are left with disfiguring acne scars. There are some topical skin care products and medications that can improve mild scarring, but most acne scars are treated with a combination of procedures. Early acne scars  After an acne lesion has healed, it can leave a red or hyperpigmented mark on the skin. This is actually not a scar, but a post-inflammatory change. The redness or hyperpigmentation is seen as the skin goes through its healing and remodeling process, which takes approximately 6-12 months. If no more acne lesions develop in that area, the skin can heal normally. Any colour change or skin defect still present after 1 year is considered to be a permanent defect or a scar.

Treating early acne scars

The post-inflammatory changes caused by acne are part of the skin's natural healing process. There are certain practices and medications that can help facilitate this healing process. Unprotected exposure to the sun causes more skin damage and delays healing, therefore using a sunscreen is important.  Using tretinoin speeds up the skin's remodeling process and helps heal post-inflammatory changes.  Appropriate formulations of Alpha-Hydroxy Acids (AHAs) and Beta-Hydroxy Acid (BHA) that contain the correct concentrations and are at the appropriate pH also help the skin's remodeling process.  Picking at scabs should be avoided at all costs. Scabs form to protect the healing process that is going on underneath them. Pulling a scab off before it is ready interferes with the healing and remodeling process, prolonging the time that post-inflammatory changes will be visible. Acne scars are stubborn, and no single treatment is best for everyone. Various procedures can help treat these from collagen injections, in which the results are temporary to microdermabrasion to remove the cells on the surface of the skin or dermabrasion to completely remove the top layer of skin. Various laser treatments can also be used to treat acne scars. However, in some cases, surgery may be needed to remove deeply indented acne scars. The best way of treating acne scars is to start early and continue for as long as is necessary. There are, however, a number of treatments available when suffering from scar formation: Dermabrasion Dermabrasion is a cosmetic medical procedure in, which the surface of the skin is removed by abrasion (sanding). It is used to remove sun-damaged skin and to remove or lessen scars and dark spots on the skin. The procedure is very painful and usually requires a general anaesthetic or twilight anaesthesia, in which the patient is still partly conscious. Afterward, the skin is very red and raw-looking, and it takes several months for the skin to regrow and heal. Dermabrasion is useful for scar removal when the scar is raised above the surrounding skin, but is less effective with sunken scars. Laser dermabrasion is much easier to control, much easier to gauge, and is practically bloodless compared to classic dermabrasion. Microdermabrasion Microdermabrasion comes from the above mentioned technique dermabrasion. Microdermabrasion is a more natural skin care that is a gentler, less invasive technology for doing an exfoliation on the skin. The goal of microdermabrasion is to eliminate the superficial layer of the skin called the epidermis. If the surface of the abraded skin is touched, a roughness of the skin will be noticed. The roughness is keratinocytes, which are better hydrated than the surface corneocytes. Keratinocytes appear in the basal layer from the proliferation of keratinocyte stem cells. They are pushed up through the cells of the epidermis, experiencing gradual specialisation until they reach the stratum corneum where they form a layer of dead, flattened, strongly keratinized cells called squamous cells. This layer creates an efficient barrier to the entry of foreign matter and infectious elements into the body and reduces moisture loss. Keratinocytes are shed and restored continuously from the stratum corneum. The time of transit from basal layer to shedding is generally one month. Corneocytes are cells derived from keratinocytes in the late stages of terminal specialisation of squamous epithelia. Microdermabrasion is done to eliminate some of the corneocytes. These cells are responsible for the impermeability of the skin. The minimising or elimination of scars, skin lesions, blotchiness and stretch marks from the skin can be an easy process with the use of skin exfoliation. The result depends on how well the procedure known as skin remodeling works. Results are optimal and fewer treatments are needed with more recent and/or superficial scars. Still, microdermabrasion can be used on scars that showed up during puberty or many years later. Laser therapy Fractional laser resurfacing is a procedure, which wounds the skin using microscopic pulses of light. Over the course of several treatments scars are softened as the body regenerates the areas of microthermal wounding. Laser resurfacing is a technique used during laser surgery wherein molecular bonds of a material are dissolved by a laser. CO2 or erbium energy is used to treat the areas of discoloration closer to the surface and also penetrates deep into the dermis, eliminating damaged cells and stimulating the growth of new collagen. Collagen is stimulated for up to 6 months and this new collagen regeneration lifts and supports the skin's surface. The generation of the new skin cells in combination with collagen stimulation dramatically improves the appearance of acne scars. Depending on the depth of the scars, some patients may require anywhere from 1 to 3 treatments for acne scar removal. Chemical therapy Chemical peels improve and smoothen the texture of the facial skin using a chemical solution that causes the skin to blister and eventually peel off. The regenerated skin is usually smoother and less wrinkled and scarred than the old skin. Surgical therapy Subcision is a process used to treat deep rolling scars left behind by acne or other skin diseases. Essentially the process involves separating the skin tissue in the affected area from the deeper scar tissue. This allows the blood to pool under the affected area, eventually causing the deep rolling scar to level off with the rest of the skin area. Once the skin has leveled, treatments such as laser resurfacing, microdermabrasion or chemical peels can be used to smooth out the scarred tissue.

Tips to help control acne

Wash the skin twice a day using a mild soap, especially after exercise.

Avoid scrubbing the skin. Hard scrubbing of the skin is harmful because it irritates the openings of the oil glands and can cause them to be more tightly closed.

Avoid putting any oily or greasy substances on the face. Oily and greasy substances make acne worse by blocking oil glands. If unavoidable, use water-based cover-up cosmetics, and wash them off at bedtime.

Shampoo the hair daily. Avoid hair tonics or hair creams especially greasy ones. These substances spread to the face and aggravate the acne.

Avoid picking blackheads as this delays healing. In general, it is better not to "pop" pimples.

Exercise regularly and keep fit.

Wash your pillow covers regularly and always use clean face towels. Dirty towels and pillows can harbor bacteria and germs that can make acne worse

Don't stop the acne medicine too soon. It may take up to 8 weeks for a good response.

Avoid exposing your skin to other sources of oil and irritants. Break the habit of touching your face as your hands are often dirty.

Drink plenty of water.