Posts Tagged ‘Alternative Medicine’

The Three Ways To Treat Acne

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Acne is horrible. However, it’s not something that cannot be tackled. There are heaps of acne skin care products around. We can pigeonhole acne skin care products into 3 broad categories -

A] Preventive or general acne skin care products; B] Over-the-counter, specialised acne skin care products; C] Prescription only acne skin care products.

The general acne skin care products are the ones that are used as an acne-prevention measure. These include cleansers, make-up removers and similar products that help prevent acne. In the real sense, these acne skin care products are those that should be part of your daily routine anyway. However, some of these are more orientated to act like an acne skin care product.

These acne skin care products work against the reasons for acne e.g. limiting the production of sebum/oil and avoiding the clogging of skin pores. Basically, these acne skin care items prevent the oil from becoming blocked in pores and consequently hamper the escalation of the bacteria that lead to acne. Broad-spectrum acne skin care items also take in exfoliation products like skin peels. These work by exfoliating dead skin cells, hence reducing the possibility of pore-blocking and bacteria development.

Then there are specialised acne skin care products that are available OTC i.e. without the requirement of a prescription. These embrace products like vanishing creams which remove the extra oil from the skin. Most of these acne skin care products are based on benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid, both of which are the enemies of bacteria (and hence acne). You must start with a product that has a lower concentration of benzoyl peroxide (e.g. 5%) and see how your skin responds to it.

Alpha-hydroxy-acid based moisturizers are also popular as acne skin care products. You might have to test a few, before you find the acne skin care product that is most effective for you. If nothing seems to work, you should get in touch with a dermatologist.

Prescription acne skin care items are the ones that are prescribed by a dermatologist. These include ointments that can be applied on the affected area or oral antibiotics or just any topical medication. Dermatologists might also suggest a minor surgical process to do away with the contents of pustules. However, never try to squeeze or do this by yourself, it can lead to the everlasting injury of your skin.

Your physician could also prescribe a hormone-based treatment (since hormonal changes are also known to cause acne). Such acne skin care items are known to be very effective in some circumstances. So, with all those acne skincare products, tackling acne is really not all that arduous.

Are you having problems treating acne scars? If you are or you would like to know more about acne, please go to our website called http://treating-acne-scars.com

Are Acne Scars Permanent?

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Acne scars are a sad reminder of the having suffered pimples or even acne previously. They are intolerable because of their seeming longevity and their non-complimentary look. Generally speaking, acne scars are rather difficult to eradicate, but tissue regeneration is not unusual these days with all the fantastic technological developments.

In general terms, by acne scarring, we mean the healed lesions caused by an acne infection. While most scarring is temporary and will probably disappear on its own in time, scars from the more severe forms of acne can become permanent.

Acne scarring may be avoided if the sufferer sees dermatologist when the acne scarring is in an incipient stage, especially if nodules or cysts accompany the red pustules on the skin’s surface. If the bouts of acne have marked your skin, you will have to approach the problem from another perspective, which most of the time means surgery.

Laser resurfacing is one way of removing the damaged skin areas and stimulating the natural regrowth of the tissue underneath. The procedure requires only local anaesthesia and can last between a few minutes and an hour depending on the extent of the problem.

Fractional laser therapy is one of the most recent forms of eliminating acne scarring. It involves surgical intervention at deep skin layers. The therapy is better than both dermabrasion and laser resurfacing in terms of quality and has a much reduced healing period. Nevertheless, fractional laser therapy lies within the reach of only those few lucky people, who can pay for it, since it is the most expensive acne treatment currently available.

It can happen that further sessions are required to improve the condition of the superficial layers of skin, before they can start the deep level treatment of the acne scar. The doctor may inject collagen into the scars in order to elevate the existing skin level or she/he may suggest micro-dermabrasion for the same reason. Trying to carry out chemical peels at home is a bad idea given the chance of aggravating the condition by irritating the scars even further.

As for the types of acne scarring, they can be classified by the way they look. Scars can result because of an increase of tissue or due to a loss of tissue They both have an adverse impact on the way the face looks. Specialists’ evaluation of the nature of the scars is a very important factor in deciding on the adoption of one form of treatment or another.

Are you having problems treating acne scarring? If you are or you’d like to find out more about acne, please go to our website entitled http://treating-acne-scars.com You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

Acne is Not the Same as Spots

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

There are quite a few different forms of acne, depending on how or why the acne started. Some of the kinds of acne are: acne conglobata (chronic boils); acne fulminans (an extreme form of conglobata); acne cosmetica (caused by cosmetics); acne keloidalis nuchae (from shaving); acne medicamentosa (caused by starting or stopping a medication); acne rosacea (redness on the face); baby acne; hormonal acne; cloracne and the common variety, acne vulgaris (also known as \’puberty spots\’). In this article, we will take a closer look at acne vulgaris.

Acne vulgaris can be defined as: \’an inflammatory disease of the skin, caused by changes in the pilosebaceous units (skin structures consisting of a hair follicle and its associated sebaceous gland). Acne lesions are commonly referred to as pimples, spots or zits\’ (from Wikipedia).

Acne is most usually found in white Western teenagers, although it is to be found in every country in the world, so there could be a genetic weakness to it. It is possible that it may be an exceptional reaction to fairly normal levels of testosterone. For most sufferers, the condition lasts only until the age of twenty or so, probably only a few years or at the most ten. For other people, however, it may be a life-long affliction. It usually appears on the face, upper-chest, upper-arms and back. However, an occasional spot does not constitute acne.

Acne vulgaris appears in various ways, which include: whiteheads, caused by pores that are totally blocked, trapping sebum (oil), bacteria, and dead skin cells, resulting in a white appearance on the top; blackheads, resulting from pores which are only partially blocked, allowing some of the trapped sebum, bacteria, and dead skin cells to slowly drain to the surface (the black colour is not a result of dirt, but is a reaction of the skin\’s own pigment, called melanin, with the oxygen in the air); papules, which are inflamed, red, tender bumps with no head and pustules, which are like whiteheads, but are inflamed, and appear as red circles with a white or yellow centre.

Whiteheads do not often last for a long time; blackheads can last a long time and pustules are what people usually refer to as spots or zits. Severe acne vulgaris is distinguished by nodules and cysts. A \’nodule\’ is a rather larger and much more painful sort of pustule and may sometimes last for months. Nodules are large, hard bumps just under the skin. They frequently cause scarring and should never for any reason be squeezed, since this could make them last for months longer.

A \’cyst\’ can appear similar to a nodule, but it is pus-filled, and has been defined as having a diameter of at least 5mm and, again, can leave scars and cause pain. Squeezing an acne cyst may cause a deeper infection and more painful inflammation which will last very much longer than if it had been left alone. Skin experts have ways of lessening swelling and preventing scarring with both nodules and cysts. It is not true that acne sufferers are not careful about cleanliness.

In fact, over washing can exacerbate acne. There are many, many fake \’cures\’ on the market and many, many old wives\’ tales, but any good dermatologist would advise you that there is no known cure for acne and that the patient should follow a deliberate regimen of cleaning until the acne just \’goes away\’ of its own accord.

Are you experiencing trouble treating acne? If you are or you\’d like to know more about acne, please go to our website called http://treating-acne-scars.com You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

Strategies for Treating Acne

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Most people with acne try to treat their itchy skin with astringent creams, fruit washes, natural soaps, lotions and treatments. However, the easiest way to treat acne is by altering your diet and avoiding acne-producing items like fried food. A healthy diet, comprising organic unprocessed foods like vegetables, fruits, grains and beans is the first bit of advice for curing acne.

Foods with trans-fatty acids, chocolate, milk, milk products, margarine, shortening and man-made hydrogenated vegetable oils, as well as fried foods, should not be eaten. It seems that the prevalence of acne in the USA is caused by the typical American diet. Americans typically eat fried food in large quantities and usually cook it in the worst possible fats and oils.

However, not all fats are bad, but the fats that typical Americans eat make them more susceptible to get acne and other skin problems. Items that can cause are ice cream, cheese, bacon, and milk. Furthermore, acne cannot really be cured using creams and soaps because the root cause of the condition lies underneath the skin.

Pimples, spots or zits and blemishes are caused by bacteria and other irritants lying below the skin\’s oil glands and hair follicles, which are most often produced by insufficient hygiene, scratching or squeezing and poor diet.

This poor diet could be a result of too high a proportion of items like processed, fatty, fried and sugary foods in your diet. A diet that is good for your skin must consist of raw or lightly cooked vegetables, especially green, leafy vegetables that are rich in valuable trace minerals and fibre. Fresh green vegetables are essential, however you should also eat more lean protein sources, such as fish and chicken and complex carbohydrates, like rice, whole-grain bread and potatoes in your diet.

These fibre-rich foods will help ensure a clean gastrointestinal tract, which is so important in the management of acne. You should eat three healthy meals every day in order to provide you with sufficient vital nutrients and decrease your craving for sweet or/and fatty, fried food.

You should eat much more food that is rich in vitamin A, like apricots, watermelons, and broccoli, as well as lean beef, nuts, beans and whole grains, because they are rich in zinc, which should also be useful in curing acne breakouts. It\’s also imperative to drink lots of water to help clean the poisons out that cause acne.

Are you experiencing trouble treating acne? If you are or you would like to find out more about acne, please go to our website called http://treating-acne-scars.com Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

Acupuncture Can Help Treat Migraines

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Acupuncture can help treat headaches. This was discovered after a comparative study was done with typical medical treatment. In a number of cases, it even stops it from taking place which helps improve the standard of life for the patient. To understand how acupuncture helps headache sufferers, you\’ve got to appreciate that in traditional Chinese medicine, it is assumed a disequilibrium in the flow of blood and energy causes this to happen.

To treat it, the specialist must relieve the strain by inserting needles into the body to lift the blood flow to the brain so reducing the pain experienced in an attack. The needles used helps the body balance the serotonin levels since it is a neurotransmitter which has an impact on veins and has a role to play in headaches. In truth the more frequent these sessions are the better. It may even come to a point where the categorical contact point is now not needed but the general kick itself.

The final result of undergoing acupuncture is fantastic. If you experience fifteen to 20 days of painful agony, this is going to be count down to only eight days. You will not need to use that much medicine any more as before. For those that are working, this is good so that they\’re not absent from work that much and there will not be that much discounts in their income.

But how well acupuncture does for one patient may change with another. This relies upon the state of the assault and the individual. The better part about acupuncture is that there are no side-effects and it is painless. Skillful execs can do this so you do not suffer with hematoma or pneumothorax. Another illness is doubtless perilous is HIV or hepatitis which can be prevented naturally so long as the needles used are properly sterilised. It\’s going to be much better if the person uses dispensable needles.

Acupuncture has been practiced in America for over twenty years. Though tests have shown how effective it can be to treat determined conditions and certain obsessions, more studies must be done to see where else it can be beneficial. Though one test has demonstrated that acupuncture can help headaches, other tests will also have to be done to prove if this is right. Until the point that other results are broadcast, patients must rely on classic medicine that is prescribed by a doctor.

But you do not have to attend for the results to come out. If you believe it is worth a try, go for it. Just ask for a referral from your GP as there are several practitioners who have accepted the indisputable fact that alternative types of medicine can also help a patient. You may also find somebody on the web. You can be certain they\’re certificated if they\’re recognized by the nation\’s Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

Apart from that, you have to also make some life changes as there are trigger factors that\’ve been famous for causing headaches. Stress is number one on the list so you get enough rest and exercise as well as a healthful diet. Patients that suffer from headache should also check if acupuncture is covered by their HMO. Most insurance providers and HMO\’s today cover part of the pricetag but there are restrictions so you check what\’s covered by your policy.

Learn more about Alternative Medicine. Stop by Michael Mccoy\’s site where you can find out all about Health and More