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Acne breakouts can be frustrating and embarrassing. Acne is a chronic skin disease that occurs when oils and dead skin cells clog up your pores, typically during puberty for most people. There are many reasons you may experience acne breakouts: your diet, hormones, stress, and even your menstrual cycle. Unfortunately, experiencing an acne breakout means more than just having red or black spots on the surface of your skin. It also means that some of those oil deposits have broken below the surface, causing those infected areas to swell up into large pus-filled pimples, which then turn into small scars as they heal.
Acne breakouts can be mild or severe depending on how deep those infected oil glands go or what types of bacteria live in them. If you are experiencing acne breakouts for the first time, it is customary to panic about what you are seeing on your face suddenly. But don’t worry; by learning more about what’s causing them and how to treat them, you will be able to get clear skin again in no time at all.
What are some signs of an acne breakout?
The signs of acne vary with everyone, but it is common to experience the following:
- Red streaks on the surface of your skin. This is not normal for most people who are not experiencing an acne breakout.
- Tiny white or black spots on the surface of your skin when you look in the mirror.
- Puss-filled pimples can range from being very tiny to be more prominent and filled with pus.
- They have swollen, puffy red areas in some cases. These are called “cysts” rather than pimples because they contain infected oil glands that have broken below the surface into tiny pockets beneath your outer layer.
- You will feel pain when these cysts burst and release the infected oil from their pockets.
- Tiny scabs on your skin where a cyst has healed over the top of it. This is common with acne breakouts that are not healing themselves or going away quickly enough due to a lack of treatment.
What causes acne breakouts?
The main culprit is sebum, an oily substance that your body produces naturally to lubricate those pores for more effortless movement of those cells on the surface of the skin and keeping bacteria out and keeping our bodies moisturized. Unfortunately, some people produce more sebum than others, making them more prone to having problems with clogged pores and subsequent breakouts. The leading causes of acne are:
- Hormonal fluctuation –For both males and females, hormones can trigger acne breakouts. In the case of women, the menstrual cycle plays a vital role as it triggers more sebum production within the skin pores. This is why adult women tend to experience more breakouts around their menstruation periods.
- Wrong facial hygiene – Sometimes, just washing your face with plain water may not be enough for those with really oily skin types or combination skin types. It is best to use a mild soap on your face at least once a day and follow up with a gentle toner on your face after you dry it from wiping it clean with a clean towel. A good choice of toners would be witch hazel, rosewater, or green tea.
- Bad Diet –If you are overeating foods rich in saturated fats, sugars, and simple carbohydrates, you will likely have more acne breakouts on your skin. Complex carbohydrates are suitable for the skin, so if you can increase your intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, this will be a good start in helping your body reduce sebum production, which is one cause of acne breakouts.
- Harsh skincare products –Stay away from harsh skin care products that have alcohol or aspirin-like ingredients because these may dry out your skin or affect its ability to produce enough oil on your face to keep it moisturized, whether that is incurred at school, work, or home.
- Stress: Stress can also cause acne breakouts by giving your body the signal to produce excess sebum. And that’s why one of the treatments for this skin condition is to reduce stress levels in life.
- Medications:Â Some medications like corticosteroids, lithium, and some hormones may trigger more oil production on the skin, which results in acne breakouts.
- Too much sun exposure – Sunlight can cause your skin to produce more oil than its usual amount, which means that you may experience more breakouts than expected, especially on the regions of your face which are exposed to sunlight the most.
- Poor diet – Consuming too many dairy products or salty food items can result in acne breakouts all over your body, not just the face alone. Those foods contain high amounts of hormones that are released into our systems when we digest them, leading to overproduction of oils throughout our bodies and resulting in acne breaking out on other parts as well.
- Skincare products are ubiquitous with women who use many skincare products, especially oil-based ones, for moisturizing purposes. Using several different types of skincare products at once can clog your pores and lead to an acne breakout. It is best to stick to a kind of skincare product only and make sure it’s mild enough to be used on your face without causing damage over time.
What are home remedies for an acne breakout?
You can do many things at home before calling for professional help to get rid of your acne. To start with, you need to do something about the appearance of the acne itself, such as:
- Wash your face correctly using lukewarm water and mild soap (no harsh chemicals). Choose a product designed for average or even sensitive skin types because these products are less likely to irritate your skin further, which will only result in more oil production and pain while trying to get rid of acne breakouts. Afterward, rinse clean with cold or lukewarm water, then pat dry gently using a clean towel.
- Use ice packs on especially painful areas. In cases where your skin feels very itchy due to an acne breakout, applying ice can effectively reduce swelling and redness due to acne. Ice is good for reducing inflammation which will reduce the pain as well as itchiness of your skin.
- Apply any acne-fighting medication – If you have already gone to a dermatologist, they may give you some prescriptions or over-the-counter medications containing ingredients that can kill acne-causing bacteria like benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid (which also has anti-inflammatory properties).
- Use mild astringent lotions – Astringents are designed for people with oily skins because it helps control the production of sebum to keep pimples from forming on your face during peak oil production hours which is usually at night or early morning when we sleep (when the body’s metabolism slows down). Some astringents are also designed for use on acne-prone skin because they help kill acne bacteria while controlling oil production.
- Clean your face with a cloth, pat it dry, then apply moisturizer – Washing your face with water or even an astringent alone isn’t enough to take care of the skin. It would help if you used a gentle facial cleanser that does not cause wrinkles on aging skin yet is strong enough to get rid of dirt and excess oil. When done, you must cleanse gently using lukewarm water over your entire face, then wipe off excess dirt with a cotton ball or cotton pad before applying moisturizer right after washing your face every morning at least.
- Use toner only when necessary – Some people might think that using an astringent is enough to get rid of excess oil in their skin without realizing there are other ways to do so. Using a toner when your face already feels clean isn’t necessary, but if you feel like your skin needs it after washing, do not use it on your entire face but just areas where you have oily regions instead. This way, your pores will be clogged up less often and won’t end up with acne breakouts because of that.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables for clear skin – A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help get rid of acne by keeping the body healthy enough to fight off illness or infection, which could trigger acne breakouts. If you are not eating healthy already, it may be time to change your diet.
- Get at least eight hours of sleep each night – Getting enough rest is very important in the process of healing because it gives your body the chance to rejuvenate itself and concentrate on fighting acne-causing bacteria during peak oil production periods throughout the day even without any help from skincare products or medications.
- Do not touch your face too often – Touching or scratching your face can irritate the skin, prolong recovery times, especially if you’re using harsh chemicals to get rid of acne breakouts that might further damage the skin surface. It would help if you also washed hands often after touching objects that have been exposed to the environment, like doorknobs and faucet handles.
- Don’t get stressed out – Stress can cause cortisol production, which will increase oil production by activating the sebaceous glands to produce more sebum or oil that makes your skin oily. If you’re stressed, try doing things that relax you, like listening to music or exercises that let your mind and body breathe and release tension and stress so your acne breakouts won’t last any longer than they should.
- Use a clean pillowcase – Sleeping on a pillowcase that has been exposed to the environment for some time might trigger acne breakouts on your face. This is because bacteria and dead skin cells from your face may end up trapped in the cotton fibers of your pillow, making it a hotbed for acne-causing bacteria that may cause breakouts. Ensure you replace your old cushions or wash them often to keep away acne breakouts from appearing on your face, especially around the nose area where pimples commonly form first before they spread all over other parts of the face.
- Stop touching, popping, and squeezing – Touching, scraping, or popping pimples can further irritate the skin by bringing more oil out of pores, which will clog them up, even more preventing them from happening opening up to release fat that’s built up. This is why you must keep your hands off the face, especially around acne-prone areas where pimples are most likely to form, because this will irritate the skin more than it already has and may cause breakouts for weeks or months before healing takes place.
- Take supplements – Taking supplements of any kind might help get rid of acne but make sure you consult a doctor first before trying new products on your skin, particularly if you have sensitive skin or allergies that trigger adverse reactions on the body. This will prevent further complications from developing throughout recovery periods. Some people start having allergic reactions whenever their bodies are exposed to certain chemicals commonly found in skin care products due to poor diet choices, making acne more severe.
- Start your treatment at the right time – You can start your acne treatment once you observe signs of acne breakouts on the face. If you start them too early, it may be difficult to pinpoint which products might trigger adverse reactions making your fight against acne even harder than it should be because you’ll have no idea which products to stop using if they don’t work for you.
- Choose Homeopathy acne treatment: Homeopathic acne treatment is one of the best and most effective treatment options for reducing the recurrence rate of acne breakouts and maintaining healthy skin without causing further damage with other harsh chemicals found in acne products.
Benefits of using the homeopathic treatment for acne:
- No side effects – Homeopathic remedies are 100% natural. There are no side effects of using them, unlike other acne treatments that can cause skin irritation, dryness, or even rashes on the face if they’re made with chemicals that your skin might be allergic to.
- Treats the source – The best thing about homeopathy is that it treats the root of the problem rather than just getting rid of acne breakouts like conventional chemical-based acne products, which only attack the most apparent symptoms like redness or pimple formation without really treating why these problems occur in the first place.
- No need to go under the knife – Since homeopathic remedies do not cause any interference with how our body naturally works, they don’t require invasive treatments that can cause scars or blemishes that are more difficult to get rid of over time.
- No synthetic chemicals –Since homeopathy is made with all-natural ingredients, you can always be sure that no harsh chemicals might trigger adverse reactions on the skin, especially if your body is sensitive or allergic to certain substances.
This makes it an excellent alternative acne treatment for teenagers whose bodies are still growing and changing every day, so they must avoid using conventional acne products during this critical period in their lives until they become adults where their bodies have fully developed and will not be adversely affected by other types of skincare products that are available in the market today. For more information, you can book an appointment with a registered homeopathy doctor through OHO Homeopathy.