Every now and then I see a question where some acne patient laments their lack of success despite following healthy diet. Understandably the person is confused. They’ve been told how diet causes acne and they follow the diet that should get them clear to the tee. And yet results are wanting. I wanted to address … Read more
Avoiding iodine has been stock advice for acne patients for several decades now. Iodine is said to cause acne. But is it so? Does iodine really cause acne? That’s what I’m trying to answer with this post. Given that pretty much everybody knows that iodine aggravates acne I was surprised to find very little evidence … Read more
Antioxidants have emerged as health silver bullets, at least if you pay attention to the popular media. It’s clear that media hype far outruns scientific evidence when it comes to antioxidants and in some cases antioxidants may even be harmful. But acne is one area where reality slowly catches up with the hype. Emerging research … Read more
Into my Google Reader account popped this Korean acne-diet study. The researchers investigated the effect of dietary glycemic load (GL) to acne. They put 17 acne patients on a low GL diet and another 15 acne patients on a control diet. Here’s the composition of the low GL diet: 45% of energy from low GI … Read more
As I was reading some studies at PubMed I came across this study on the effect of chlorine on the skin barrier function. Skin barrier function is one measure of skin health. One of the thing the skin does is regulates what goes in and out of your body. For example it adjusts the water … Read more
If you regularly shave, you may find yourself experiencing red itchy bumps on your skin, sometimes more often than usual. They can be quite unpleasant, especially if you shaved for a special occasion, like a date or an important meeting. Old recommendations called for infrequent shaving with single-blade razors. This was due to increased inflammation … Read more
Most acne patients suffer from oily skin. Excess sebum produced by the skin causes clogged pores and acne. In this post I’ll share some scientifically proven remedies that can cut down sebum production by 50% or more. Genes make acne-prone skin sensitive to hormones, and those hormones boost sebum production in the skin. Lucky for … Read more
There are few substances as harmful and widely abused as cigarettes. The list of negative health effects of smoking is as long as California. But does smoking also cause acne? Evidence to date is conflicting, and smoking seems to have both positive and negative effects on acne. Conflicting findings from epidemiological studies Epidemiological studies compare … Read more
The web is filled with bad acne advice. Q&A sites are full of well-meaning but simplistic advice about how to cure acne. Often how to cure acne questions are answered with put toothpaste on it or use this homemade skin care recipe type of advice. While there’s some truth to such answers and they miss … Read more
My acne treatment product of choice is Exposed Skincare. Simply because they have the best formulation I’ve seen. A few days back I went traveling with my friends for a couple of days. I didn’t want to pack the whole Exposed system as there are a lot of bottles to lug around. I figured I’ll … Read more