Resolve this

I don’t think that New Year’s resolutions are that great of an idea. Yet, against my better judgment, I make a list every year. Why? I think that setting a goal is important because it gives you something to aim for. At the same time, it’s important to set goals that you can actually reach. Otherwise, you just get disappointed in yourself. Constant failure doesn’t usually work in a person’s favor.

That’s why I’m always careful to keep impossible goals far from my list of resolutions. For example, I almost always put something on my list that could help me further prevent my acne problems. Some times it’s something very simple. I might vow to try a new OTC medication that’s been on my unofficial list for some time. Or I might vow to use a body cleanser after working out. These are things that you can definitely do. Plus, you know whether you did or did not do them. They are quantifiable, so you don’t have to sit around feeling bad about whether you really tried your hardest.

A really bad resolution, I think, is “get in better shape.” What does that even mean? How do you know whether you reach that goal?

Instead, I think it makes more sense to say something like “I will run five miles a day, three times a week.” That’s something that you can definitely accomplish, barring injury.

Another really bad idea: get rid of acne forever. That isn’t something that you can realistically control. You can take steps to eliminate acne (such as trying a new treatment or visiting a doctor), but your setting yourself up for failure when you make goals outside of your control.

It’s always the imbalance

I’m all for healthy living. A good diet, plenty of exercise, and an appropriate amount of sleep have always helped me get through the roughest portions of my life. Even when everything else is out of whack, I can focus on good food and exercise to keep me healthy.

I say this to show that I don’t (at least I think that I don’t) have a knee-jerk reaction to people who suggest diet and exercise as preventative measures that can keep the body healthy. Still, I find this YouTube video really annoying.

Here are some of the problems that I have with the statements made in this video. I’m totally going to ignore how annoying the guy is and how he looks starstruck by every sentence that escapes his mouth.

1- I have yet to see any real proof that acne numbers are on the rise for adults. I’m not saying that the numbers haven’t gone up. I’m just saying that no one ever cites their data! If you have seen a reliable study showing this, then please pass it on so that I can read it.

2- Anecdotal evidence doesn’t mean anything. OK, so you had chronic fatigue syndrome that caused a whole litany of physical ailments. That sucks, dude. I’m glad  that you feel better now. The thing is, your personal experience doesn’t apply to the rest of the world. If changing your lifestyle worked for you, then good. Awesome. Maybe other people should give that a try. But, your personal experience is not scientific evidence. It would be much more helpful if you would conduct a study that used double-blind experiments to determine whether specific lifestyle changes can, in fact, help prevent acne.

3- People in the U.S., and probably other “developed” countries, tend to fetishize “traditional” cultures. We so commonly associate anything traditional with positive results. Case in point, this guy claims that traditional cultures don’t have problems with acne. Seriously? I don’t know whether they do or not, but I’m fairly certain that there aren’t many scientists running extensive experiments in freaking sub-Saharan Africa to find out who gets zits. If there isn’t an acne problem in most traditional cultures, it’s probably because they’re too worried about finding food to think twice about skin blemish.

Again, if someone has done this research, please send it my way. I really would like to read it.

Post-adolescent acne on the rise

According to at least one recent study, the number of adults that experience acne has increased over the past few decades. While many people still think of acne as a teenage problem, the report shows that 50 percent of women over 25 still struggle with acne. 25 percent of men over 25 have similar problems.

There are several potential reasons that this trend could occur. Factors such as stress, pollution, and poor diet are being considered.

If the evidence shows that the number of adults with acne is increasing, then I’m willing to accept that. As an adult with acne, in fact, I’m kind of glad to hear that I’m not alone. The reasons behind the increase, though, seem a little fishy to me.

It seems to me that people certainly experience a lot of stress today. I find that my own stress levels have a major influence over my acne breakouts. Do people today, though, really experience more stress than they did in the past? I mean, sure, we have more traffic to deal with and smartphones mean that some people are constantly tethered to their jobs, but, at the same time, we have abundant food, a level of safety that’s unprecedented in human history, and access to clean water. If given the option, I would choose today’s lifestyle over those in the past.

I have some question about whether we actually have more pollution now than in the past too. Yes, we have more pollutants in the air, but I would much rather bathe in NYC’s water today than 50 or 100 years ago. Not to mention that most cities have blocked indoor smoking these days, making the air that we actually live in much cleaner than the air that people lived in over the past century.

Perhaps it just has to do with the types of pollutants that we’re exposed today. Regardless, a  lot more research is needed before we can pretend to have an answer to the problem of adult acne.

Exercise benefits acne-prone skin

Undoubtedly, some people have experienced increased acne related to athletics. This causes many people to think that sweat and heat increases the chances that they will get acne. According to doctors interviewed by WebMD, though, the opposite is true.

Dermatologists claim that exercising offers numerous skin benefits, especially for people with acne-prone skin. When you exercise, your body uses up excess testosterone. Large levels of testosterone have been linked to acne. Burning off some of that unneeded testosterone, therefore, could help you prevent acne.

A benefit closely linked to this but not discussed in the article is that exercising helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Regular exercise helps you maintain an even keel in life. If you are the kind of person that gets flare ups during stressful times, then exercise can help mediate the negative effects of stress.

Exercise also helps prevent acne by increasing blood circulation to the skin and flushing out toxins. This gives you healthier skin that can more easily resist acne and signs of aging.

If exercising helps prevent acne, then why do so many people get pimples when they workout a lot? There could be several reasons. Wearing tight clothing when you exercise, for instance, can cause acne and irritation. It’s one thing to flush toxins out of your skin, and another to keep those toxins trapped next to your pores with tight clothing. Choose loose clothing made of fabric that breathes easily.

Another possibility is steroid use. This isn’t to suggest that every muscled person with acne uses steroids, but it is certainly a realistic reason that some people relate intense exercise with acne.

Free Zapzyt

Today, Zapzyt is giving away free samples of their acne treatment product. To receive a free sample, visit their site at http://www.zapzyt.com/index.php?page=promotions.

I don’t have any connection to this company. Nor have I ever used their products. But I heard about this, so I figured I would pass it on. Consider it a late Christmas present.

Since I don’t have any affiliation, I’m more than willing to point out a couple of shortfalls and offer my own suggestions. First off, don’t be tricked into thinking that this promotion is totally free. You have to click the Facebook “like” button to get the sample. I suggest logging out of Facebook before clicking the button. That way you can get your sample without putting up with daily ads in your Fb news feed. Unless that’s really the way that you want to start your morning. In which case, go for it.

Second, this acne treatment contains a 10 percent concentration of benzoyl peroxide. 10 percent is really, really strong. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t use this as an overall acne treatment. Anything over 3 or 4 percent is probably going to cause more side effects than you want to put up with, especially if you have sensitive, dry skin like me. It could serve as a decent spot treatment, though. Applying a small dab to one or two pimples should help dry them out and destroy bacteria quickly.

I decided to give it a shot. Mostly because, you know, free stuff! Once it arrives I’ll let everyone know how it worked for me.

Practically healed

It’s amazing how much high-quality facial creams can make your skin feel so much better. 24 hours ago, I was an itchy mess. Anytime that you wake up with blood on your pillow, you know that you’ve had a bad night.

At this point, my face has almost completely healed from the dryness.

If only it were that easy to eliminate acne in a day.

As far as I can tell, most acne medications take a few weeks to really get the job done. Some times they provide observable results within a few days, but it takes at least two weeks before they’ve done all that they can do. That’s why it’s important for people to start with mild acne treatments and move up to maximum strength OTC products over the course of several weeks or months.

I’ve tried starting off with maximum strength acne products before. Bad idea, especially if you have dry skin. I was using some maximum strength stuff that I picked up at the local pharmacy. I don’t really recall what brand it was but it had something like 7 or 8 percent of its active ingredient. Probably benzoyl peroxide. It didn’t take more than a couple days before my face was in pain.

It took even less time for me to decide that I wasn’t going to use that stuff anymore. I’ve heard, though, that people with average skin can work their way up to maximum strength acne treatments without experiencing serious side effects. Of course, those of us with really sensitive, dry skin will probably never be able to use those products. Even with a good moisturizer, I’m not convinced that I could get through more than a few days without scratching my skin off.

The awakening

Luckily, I woke up this morning and my skin wasn’t as itchy as it was last night. Still, it’s pretty dry. To make matters worse, I think that the air is even dryer than it was yesterday.

I’m happy that my skin doesn’t itch as much as it did yesterday, but it is visibly dry. If you’ve never had extremely dry skin, then you might not know what a pain it is . Not just the physical pain of it, but the self-conscious emotional pain. Having pimples is one thing. Sure, it looks odd on someone my age, but everyone knows what it is. When it comes to dry, flaky skin, though, people can look at you like your a total freak of nature.

My guess is that I get extra-weird looks because I have a combination of dry skin and acne. I hardly look like the Elephant Man, but my face isn’t exactly normal looking when it’s like this. The dry, flaky white skin coats the red pimples like flour or powdered sugar.

I try keeping the long-term in mind. If I use the moisturizer a couple times a day, then this problem should be gone my tomorrow or the next day. Really, I just don’t want to look horrible in family Christmas pictures. The long-term, however, puts me in an odd predicament this time. If I wash my face, then it will almost certainly get dryer. If I don’t, then my pimples will almost certainly get worse.

I’m going to try washing and using moisturizer. Fingers crossed. Let’s hope this clears up in a couple days.

The itchy

Regular readers of this blog might recall that one of my biggest skin problems is excessive dryness. Yes, in a cruel twist of fate, I have really dry skin combined with acne problems. The dryness usually reaches its peak desert conditions in winter. This year is no different. Right on cue, along with the winter solstice, my face has turned into something that resembles a lunar landscape: dusty, cratered, and mostly dry (I would guess that the tiny amount of moisture recently found on the moon is relatively close to the amount currently found in my skin).

The problem was evident as soon as I woke up this morning. I had been scratching in my sleep and there was a slight streak of blood on my otherwise white pillowcase.

I immediately knew what the problem was.

It didn’t take long before I had gone through my medicine cabinet. Finding it empty, I tore through the house while trying to resist the temptation to scratch. I had to accept that there wasn’t a drop of non-comedogenic moisturizer in the house. There was a brief moment when I stared down a bottle of regular moisturizer and thought about using it. I imagine that dehydrated seamen have a similar feeling looking out over the salty ocean. I knew that using the regular moisturizer would lead to bigger problems, but it would the immediate, more pressing one.

Instead of giving in, I headed out to a pharmacy and picked up some good oil-free moisturizer. If only sailors had such a simple solution.

I slathered a bit on my cheeks right there in the car, didn’t even bother going home. The cream burned my skin upon contact. Yeah, it kind of hurt, but it was doing something good. Now I have my fingers crossed that I don’t wake up tomorrow with another streaked pillowcase.

Christmas wish list

I’m beyond the age when I feel that I should get everything I could possibly want for Christmas. In recent years, I’ve actually become much more conscious of how I buy and what I buy. I know that economists, politicians, and CEOs want us to go out and spend money, but I have a hard time believing that all spending is equal. Like spending money on a worthless knickknack  is the same as spending money on something useful. You simply cannot compare Star Trek action figures to food.

Despite my conservative leanings, I have a Christmas wish list. Many of the things on that list are completely extraneous. I just think that they’re really cool.

Just because I have a fairly long list doesn’t mean that I expect to get everything. In fact, I don’t expect to get much of anything. If you do, however, decide that you simply must spend money on me this holiday season, make it easy on yourself and choose from the list below.

• This trippy Lunar Calendar is one of the most awesome things that I’ve seen in a while. It would look great hanging above my desk.
• John Fahey records. I love Fahey, but I don’t have any of his music on LP. I don’t even own a CD player anymore, people. It’s vinyl all the way for me.
• Real health insurance. Thanks a whole bunch government. You totally didn’t drop the ball on that or anything.
• Proactiv’s 3-Step System. I’ve avoided this product for a long time, mostly because I’m not willing to spend the money on it. If someone else wants to fork over the cash, though, I’m more than willing to give it a shot.
• On e ticket to Paris.

 

Treat your skin like a Hollywood starlet (treats her skin)

When I want serious, groundbreaking news reports, I always head to Hollywood Life. Especially when I want to feel really self-conscious and bad about myself for not living up to impossible standards. If only there was a way to Photoshop skin blemishes in real life…

According to a recent post on Hollywood Life, starlets turn to four quick fixes when they need to get rid of a pimple in a hurry. So, what are the hottest acne eliminators in the biz?

• Sonya Dakar’s Drying Potion
• Murad Acne Treatment Concealer
• Zeno Hot Spot Blemish Clearing Device
• Clearasil’s Ultra Rapid Action Treatment Gel

Personally, I’ve never tried any of these products, so I won’t pretend to know whether they can really eliminate pimples as quickly as they claim. I do know, however, that these are spot treatment products that you should use sparingly. They contain high concentrations of their active ingredients (well, except for the Zeno device, which doesn’t have active ingredients, but still…) that people can only use on small areas of the face. If you were to rub these products all over your face, you would get the worst side effects. We’re talking about excessively dry skin that flakes off, redness, puffiness. Basically a bunch of stuff that looks worse than your pimples.

That means that these products are basically made for starlets. The chosen few who never have more than a blemish, maybe two. Those of us with real acne can’t get anything out of these treatments. They’re simply not made for us. If you only get the occasional zit, then good for you. Go ahead and give these a try. If you have real acne, though, forget about it. These will only make your troubles worse.