Keep Your Skin Healthy

The best way to keep your skin healthy is to avoid sun exposure. The sun can be hard on your skin. Besides sunburn, your skin can show sun damage through dark spots or wrinkles resulting from sun exposure.

Sunlight can help our mental outlook and help us feel healthier. For people with arthritis, the sun’s warmth can help relieve some of their physical pain. Many people also think that a suntan makes a person look young and healthy. But sunlight can be harmful to the skin, causing immediate problems as well as problems that may develop years later.

A sunburn is skin damage from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays. Most sunburns cause mild pain and redness but affect only the outer layer of skin (first-degree burn). The red skin might hurt when you touch it. These sunburns are mild and can usually be treated at home.

• Stay out of the sun. Avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. This is when the sun’s UV rays are strongest. Don’t be fooled by cloudy skies. Harmful rays pass through clouds. UV radiation also can pass through water, so don’t assume you’re safe if you’re in the water and feeling cool.
• Use sunscreen. Sunscreens are rated in strength according to a sun protection factor (SPF), which ranges from 2 to 30 or higher. A higher number means longer protection. Buy products with an SPF number of 15 or higher. Also look for products whose label says: broad spectrum (meaning they protect against both types of harmful sun rays — UVA and UVB) and water resistant (meaning they stay on your skin longer, even if you get wet or sweat a lot). Remember to reapply the lotion as needed.
• Wear protective clothing. A hat with a wide brim shades your neck, ears, eyes, and head. Look for sunglasses with a label saying the glasses block 99 to 100 percent of the sun’s rays. Wear loose, lightweight, long-sleeved shirts and long pants or long skirts when in the sun.
• Avoid artificial tanning. Don’t use sunlamps and tanning beds, as well as tanning pills and tanning makeup. Tanning pills have a color additive that turns your skin orange after you take them. The FDA has approved this color additive for coloring foods but not for tanning the skin. The large amount of color additive in tanning pills may be harmful. Tanning make-up products are not suntan lotions and will not protect your skin from the sun.
• Check your skin often. Look for changes in the size, shape, color, or feel of birthmarks, moles, and spots. If you find any changes that worry you, see a doctor. The American Academy of Dermatology suggests that older, fair-skinned people have a yearly skin check by a doctor as part of a regular physical exam.
• Keep up regular exercise. Regular exercise helps to keep the skin elasticity which prevents wrinkles. Exercise is also good for your body as a whole as it helps to maintain a low amount of body fat.
• Taking vitamins and minerals helps to keep goodness in the skin. Vitamins and minerals have been developed to help your body. By taking one multivitamin can help to keep your skin fresh and clean.
• Try and maintain a constant sleep pattern. Sleep is the body’s time to restore itself and to re-energies the body’s organs and skin. By maintaining a regular sleep pattern, you will feel more energized and your skin will become more healthy and fresher looking.

Stubborn Acne Problems

For many people, nothing is more embarrassing or difficult to deal with than acne. Even adults can suffer from acne are search for a way clear their skin quickly and effectively. When you are suffering, there are many things you can do to eliminate acne immediately and effectively.

The most important and simple thing that you can to do is keep your skin clean as possible. Acne is typically caused by clogged pores from excess oils and bacteria. These clogs cause the skin to become swollen and red. A few varieties of acne are due to clogged pores; blackheads, whiteheads and pimples. Keeping the skin free from dirt and excess oils is one way that you can make sure that your pores don’t become clogged.
Scientific discoveries to understand and cure acne are occurring every day. These results may be able to help eradicate the type of acne you have in the future for good. For now, know what products are available and make the best-educated choice about your most valuable asset – your skin. Some who have a very stubborn type of acne will not respond to the usual products sold over the counter. Several will also not respond to their prescription medications.

Previously, most considered sulphur preparations the best of acne treatments. They caused short-term abrasion of the skin and acted as disinfectants, too. However, research eventually revealed that acne treated with sulphur-based preparations returned with increased severity. The search for the best acne treatments continued. The most commonly used acne-control agents today contain either benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. Both work by removing the obstructions that cause acne, but also seem to be of no long-term benefit unless used in conjunction with other preparations. Under the right conditions, the application of a compound containing benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid or glycolic acid will generally obtain good results.

Most dermatologists will advise preventive measures at the first signs of serious acne infestations, and maintaining these at every stage of treatment to prevent reoccurrence. Such measures include scrupulous skin and internal hygiene and elimination of certain foods. The correlation between foodstuffs like milk products and fat-saturated items is yet to be scientifically established.

Regularly cleaning acne-beset skin with a good quality deep cleansing lotion can be nothing but beneficial. It will make even the best acne treatments more effective. However, contrary to popular belief, astringents do more harm than good – though they do remove excessive superficial oils, they cause the very closing of pores that may have lead to the acne in the first place.

Home remedies for acne abound, but the term needs clear definition. An effective home remedy for anything can and should transcend messy poultices whipped up from exotic vegetables in the kitchen blender. There is no limit to inventiveness on this one – people have used potatoes, basil, garlic, vinegar, lemon/lime juice and even toothpaste. They claim various levels of success.

There are certain domestic therapies that have proved very effective in controlling acne. Tea tree oil appears to be among nature’s best acne treatments. However, it must be borne in mind that tea tree oil causes the secretion of extra sebum, and washing the skin scrupulously after its use is important.

If you are searching for a way to eliminate acne, the key is to not give up - look for a product that is attacking the problem in another angle if the first one did not work. Your acne may not respond to all products, but try to find a different solution that will address the problem not only from the inside but also from the outside.