Sunday, December 7, 2008

Preventing Acne Outbreaks

By Jennifer King

Instead of trying to deal with an acne breakout after it happens, people who have to deal with regular acne breakouts would be better off if they worked to prevent breakouts from ever happening in the first place. Acne breakouts happen for a lot of different reasons for everyone. For example, excessively tight clothing or clothes that trap sweat and oil can cause the skin to breakout with acne. Hormonal imbalances can also be responsible for acne.

Essentially, acne care involves insuring the sebum from the sebaceous glands does not have the chance to mix with dead cells. This causes acne and pimples because it blocks the pores, and causes a build up of bacteria.

Some experts believe that certain foods contributing to the outbreaks of acne, but science has not yet been able to find a connection. Also, keeping your skin clear is not something that only people going through going through hormonal changes associated with puberty need to worry about. Spots and pimples know no age limit and is not gender specific. It can attack people of any age unless good skin care is exercised.

An adult or teenager has an extra high risk of experiencing an acne breakout after they have done strenuous exercise. That risk is even greater if they were wearing tight clothes. Showering as soon as you can after exercising will help to prevent any acne breakouts. Exfoliating is another important part of acne care, since dead skin cells need to be removed from the surface of the skin. After exfoliating, you need to use a moisturizer so that dry skin does not begin to flake off.

Some acne sufferers think that they are doing everything that they can to prevent breakouts of spots and pimples, yet they still suffer from poor skin. Most of the time the soap that sufferers think is helping to prevent acne is actually the source of the problem. Soaps that make the skin too dry are responsible for a lot of acne problems. Depending on what type of make-up you use it can contain high amounts of oil, and this can make the skin prone to a breakout of acne as well.

Using a weak benzoyl peroxide cream ( 5% ) on sensitive areas of the skin, and a 10 percent on areas where the skin is stronger is usually recommended for acne care. You have to be careful though, benzoyl peroxide can cause dry skin and irritation so using an oil-free moisturizer can help keep the skin looking and feeling better.

You may need to visit a dermatologist if you're still suffering from your acne breakouts after trying everything you can think of to cure your condition. The dermatologist could suggest a topical treatment, or even a prescription antibiotic if they believe it would be necessary in your case. - 16003

About the Author: