Acne Cream - Your Guide to Skin Problems

the most realistic aim is simply to lessen the severity of the outbreaks when they do occur. Also it is important to try to prevent skin scarring and any additional stress that can occur.

As discussed in the causes of acne page, there are lots of conflicting ideas about what can cause an outbreak, or make one worse, and therefore opinion is divided on what you can do about it. However studies have demonstrated that people with new outbreaks can have less vitamin A and vitamin E in their blood.

To keep skin healthy generally it needs vitamins A, C and E, as well as zinc and a good supply of water. Although studies have been inconclusive and often contradictory there is enough evidence that processed and high-sugar foods can cause or worsten outbreaks. Reducing your intake of these things is a good habbit to be in anyway as leading a healthy lifestyle and having a healthy body will have all sorts of benefits, not least to keep your skin looking good.

So making small changes to your diet is all part of a sensible approach to looking after yourself. Although you'll probably find a piece of research to back up any one particular school of thought there is enough to suggest that a diet which regulates the intake of processed foods, refined sugars and fats may help to keep acne at bay.

People who only suffer acne mildly are best to use a medicated cream or face wash which provide a more thorough cleansing and help remove the grease which causes the problems and there are treatments which all try to act upon the bacteria and dead skin.

Other solutions are discussed on the acne creams page.

Spots are treated essentially in four different ways:

1. Firstly treatments can help shed dead skin and stop blockages which helps stop the spots from being generated.

2. The second method is to reduce the prevalence of 'Propionibacterium acnes' which are the bacteria linked to acne.

3. The third method is to reduce the inflammation of the spot eruptions themselves.

4. The fourth method is to control the hormones in the body to try to stop the chemical effects which produce outbreaks.

Lots of treatments are available for each of the four different methods and they will provide different degrees of effectiveness depending on the person to whom they are administered. A combination of the treatments is usually the effective way to have some effect on most cases.

Usually medications take a couple of weeks to start to take effect and thereafter the acne will decline over a period of a few months. Some treatments do claim to have a much more rapid success rate but this may be somewhat optimistic due to the different factors involved, although Cortisone in short bursts has been known to provide very quick results at times.

The stronger a particular medication is the more serious the side-effects so it is always worth considering carefully how severe the acne problem is before looking a severe treatment which would need careful monitoring. If you are considering combining different treatments or are particularly worried about acne, you should consult your doctor.