Entries from April 2008 ↓

There are certain foods that are very controversial when it comes to your skin’s health, and whether or not that particular food will aggravate your acne.

Garlic seems to be one of those foods that is either listed in acne treatment resources as your friend - a great way to treat your acne, or your foe - a food that has the ability to make your acne worse. So which do we believe?

The diet guidelines that I live my life by are the result of reading a collection of diet and acne books, talking to medical and health professionals, and through trial and error on my own skin and body (basically seeing what happens when I eat certain foods). Through all of this I’ve discovered what I call ‘danger’ foods, foods that I know WILL aggravate my acne. One of these being garlic.

Why garlic is bad for your skin when taken internally

It’s really important to note here that I’m talking about eating garlic, not using it as a topical. I’ll talk more about garlic and topical treatments later.

I have had differing opinions with the food garlic, which is why I think it’s one of those very controversial foods. I went to a naturopath about my skin once, and she actually recommended that I eat lots of onion and garlic to help my skin heal. I actually didn’t follow her advice because I don’t like to cook with these two foods (for other reasons) and I’m glad I didn’t! Because I’ll share a garlic related story with you that made me realize that yes, garlic is not good at all for the skin when taken internally. Continue reading →

Bula Today is my last day in Fiji, so what a good day to tell you about my skin in Fiji and post a few nice beach pics.

Our room was just outside this yoga sign, so we did yoga on the beach right here.

From the second I stepped off the plane in Fiji I was freaking out about my skin. Because Brisbane has been very dry, and the plane was EXTREMELY dry, but Fiji is on the other end of the scale - humid, humid, humid. So I was kind of worried about my skin and how it would react going from very dry to very humid weather. Would I get a massive breakout? Would the natural oils in my skin have a little panic?

Well, I shouldn’t have bothered worrying because my skin has been getting better and better every day. I’m not sure if it’s the relaxed lifestyle, the salt in the air or removing myself from the stresses in Brisbane …but today my skin is great (I hope I haven’t just jinxed myself). I haven’t even been eating THAT well either, we’ve had to struggle a bit to find meals that contain some kind of vegetable and I’ve had pancakes and maple syrup from the buffet every morning at breakfast …yum. Resorts I’ve discovered are not good for vegetarians or healthy people. They even had chocolate danishes and lamingtons in the breakfast buffet today, I was strong and stayed away from those, but damn I love pancakes.

This was before the pancakes!

This takes me back to an email I wrote in my min-course, which some of you may have already read. It’s about giving yourself a break and finding something relaxing and stress-free to do. My acne is caused by stress so I guess a little Fiji getaway with a stack of books, plenty of food and a bit of yoga has worked wonders for me.

I know not everybody can afford the time to do something like travel to Fiji for a holiday, but what you can do is start planning for a local getaway which will take you away from work and all the little problems that you have in your life. You need to find that special oasis that will allow you to full relax and well, get bored!

Stress acne is something that adults experience more than teenagers, so it’s something that adults could benefit from a lot more than those younger than us. I’m hearing more and more from women who had pefect skin until they hit their mid to late twenties when they got struck by bad skin and cystic acne that seems to have come from nowhere. This is the type of acne I’m talking about that could really benefit from some time off. Hey, I didn’t have too many spots when I got here, but those that I did bring with me I’m quite happily leaving behind in Fiji.

Fran

I received an email the other day from Laura, a beautiful girl who suffers from Acne Dysmorphia. When I read Laura’s story it really touched my heart, and I could feel similarities in my own life, and how closely it aligns for those of us who suffer from skin picking.

I cannot thank Laura enough for sharing her story, because I feel as though Acne Dysmorphia is actually quite a common condition, and something that is not talked about enough. Here is Laura’s article …

*****

Hi, my name is Laura and I want to share with you my journey of a condition I did not even realise existed. It is my hope that some people may identify with the symptoms of Acne Dysmorphia and get the appropriate help to end this tormenting mental condition.

It all began around January 2007 when I began to get obsessed with the condition of my skin and would constantly be looking in the mirror checking for any blemishes or new spots. Looking back I realise that they were really not as bad as I thought but it caused me to become very self-critical and destructive. My self-esteem levels had never been particularly high but they were becoming lower and lower. I found myself making excuses when friends asked me to go out.

I just thought I was acting like any normal teenage girl in today’s society who obsesses about their physical appearance. As the months went on I found myself breaking down in tears on many occasions because I hated the way I looked so much. Any little spot made me feel ugly and disgusting which made it hard for me to be confident and my relationship with my boyfriend began to suffer with my continuing obsession with my skin which caused me to have mood swings.

At night I would apply endless amounts of creams and potions in an effort to get rid of what I saw as a face full of acne when in actual fact I was only suffering with the odd one or two spots. Continue reading →

Hello from Fiji! Now is a great time to talk about skin care and sleep, because my sleeping patterns have been totally disrupted by preparing to leave Australia for 6 months, and now starting to settle into a new country for a few days before I leave for another one

So everyone says that if you don’t get enough sleep at night, it will shown on your skin AND it can give you more acne. I always took this ‘fact’ with a grain of salt because let’s be realistic - things happen in life and we can’t always get a full eight hours of sleep a night. That was until the universe …or something bigger than me anyway …decided to force me into doing a sleep and skin experiment without me even wanting to do one.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, then you’ll know that I’ve been moving around a lot. A month before I started my overseas journey, I left my beautiful one bedroom apartment to stay with a friend in preparation for travel. My apartment was part of a large complex in the city so it was quite noisy and people in my area had a lot of parties so my sleep was often disturbed. So moving to my friends house, 20 minutes drive out of the city, was like a mini vacation for me. The suburbs were so peaceful. His house is built on old farmland so there is still a lot of nature around. I found myself getting 8-10 hours of solid sleep a night. I hadn’t slept that well in years. And you know what else? My skin started to get a lot better. Not straight away, not magically overnight ..but after 3 weeks it was looking better than it had in a very, very long time. In fact, one morning I woke up with only one very small emerging pimple, and a few old red scars. That was it. Hallelujah! There is something to this sleeping thing after all. Continue reading →

I was very excited when my friend Clara emailed a news article to me today about scientists finding a cure for acne.

Apparently scientists were doing a study on a drug that is used to treat another condition. In their research they discovered that the drug also reduces the sebum production in pores by 90% (this is similar to what roaccutane does). But, this drug is very different to roaccutane because they are yet to find any significant side effects. Wow, that’s great.

HOWEVER (and unfortunately there’s always a however), around three in every ten patients taking the drug did not respond to it, this means it will not work for everyone These things also take time. A pharmaceutical company is currently conducting trials on the drug and to make it into a cream form which they think will work faster. So, we may find that once this drug is made available, all of us reading this article will have been long cured from our skin condition and will no longer have acne!! Hey, but that’s great too.

In any case, this is promising news and I’m definitely going to keep my ears and eyes open for any further developments. Hey, it’s not a natural product and we don’t exactly know what it is yet …but if it’s in a cream form and there are no significant side effects, it sounds damn good so far.

Fran

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