Acne and Wrinkles At My Age?
by Naweko San-Joyz
Puberty brought bouts of acne. In your 20s, finding Mr. or Mrs. Right
was of chief consequence. When the 30s hit, you worked to raise little Johnnie
or Suzie to be a model kid. Now that your hitting the fabulous 40s, you should
be coasting through life, right. Well, why are you suddenly dealing with the
cosmetic double whammy of acne and wrinkles? Even your insurance company figures
that you should have gotten rid of acne by the age of 25.
The number people over 30 needing acne treatments has climbed to the extent that
a report published in Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology recommends
raising the age for insurance coverage of the acne drug tretinoin to at least
40. The authors of the report, Drs. Steven Feldman and Alan Fleischer, add that
many insurance companies refuse to pay for tretinoin prescriptions for patients
older than 25.
Cosmetic Catch 22 Even if your insurance company leaves you to fend for
yourself, you still have options for freeing yourself from acne and wrinkles. At
first, coping with acne and wrinkles may seem like a cosmetic catch 22. Do you
dry your skin with acne cleansers containing benzoyl peroxide and salicylic
acid, and worsen your wrinkles? Or, do you smear on the moisturizer to smooth
the wrinkles, but cope with the zits brought on by the extra oil or sensitivity
to a new product?
There’s a smarter way to handle acne and wrinkles. 1. Interpret the acne 2.
Allow your skin to improve as you use self-awareness to remove zits.
Interpret the acne While dealing with acne and wrinkles, target the acne first
because acne is an autoimmune disease. Having an autoimmune disease means that
your thoughts, emotions, and/or environment are affecting you in an adverse way
and require immediate attention. Thus, acne may reveal that you need to relax
more, change your eating habits, reframe your interpersonal dialogue, stop
dating that jerk from the office and/or make another beneficial alteration to
your lifestyle.
Zits arrive on your face to report on some unpleasant activities within your
body and life. Once you get feedback from these zits, you can take action to
send the zits away while augmenting your health in the process.
Acne is usually an indication various hidden or overlooked health problems.
Here’s a sample of the questions you should ask yourself when dealing with acne
so that you can unravel the mystery behind your zits. Are you:
Regular? About 70% of your immune system is located in your intestines. If this
area is blocked with waste, your immuno-defenses are down. So, instead of waste
leaving your body via the rectum, it chooses to leave through the skin. Waste
leaving the skin can cause an infection that presents itself as acne.
Tense? Tension likewise reduces the vigor of the immune system. Take a few deep
breaths throughout the day to calm your body. Take a long walk in the fresh air
to wind down.
Eating nutritionally? Cases of acne have been improved with consuming foods
containing zinc, essential fatty acids, vitamin A and a host of other nutrients.
All of these vital nutrients are available in leafy green vegetables, fruits and
olive oil.
Worried about unresolved issues? Not resolving personal issues creates conflict
and tension in the body. Again, these issues most be addressed to avoid undue
stress within the body.
Exercising daily? Exercise reduces stress and gives you an opportunity to
subconsciously contemplate challenges that you may be facing. Physical activity
also keeps your muscles and intestines toned, which keeps encourages regularity.
Changing pillowcase frequently? Using a dirty pillowcase aggravates an acne
condition. Your face naturally secretes oils during the night. These oils are
sticky. So if you pillowcase if dirty, you are allowing your face to collect
extra waste during the night, which could further clog your pores.
Moving or changing your job/career? New demands or feelings of lose can
sometimes accompany change. Transfer these emotions into something constructive
by writing in a journal or envisioning how these changes are going to benefit
you. Find comfort in these changes and opportunities for new beginnings.
Experiencing excessive facial hair growth and erratic periods? Conditions such
as acne, excessive facial hair, and erratic periods could indicate an androgen
disorder or other underlying hormonal imbalances. Your doctor can provide you
with a series of endocrine tests to ascertain your hormone levels and what
corrective actions you should take.
Ricardo Azziz, M.D, who serves as Chair of
the Department of Obstetrics and Director of the Center for Androgen-Related
Disorders at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, estimates that 80 percent of women
with excessive androgen levels suffer from an endocrine disorder called
polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Dr. Azziz adds that women with PCOS often have
insulin resistance and are at increased risk for developing Type II diabetes,
hypertension and heart disease.
Once the acne is under control you can move on to the wrinkles. Another reason
for treating the zits first is because if you alter your lifestyle in such as
way as to free yourself from acne, and you doing this in a healthy and patient
fashion, you will actually lessen the number of wrinkles you have.
Health is wholeness and beauty is a reflection of robust health. You’ll never
buy robust health in a jar. It is a mind, body, spirit and environmental support
system that garners full-bodied health. Lets look at want you actually need from
a “beauty cream”.
Face Cream Education
There are five basic ingredients in any given anti-aging or
anti-wrinkling cream.
1. The oil or moisturizer 2. The preservatives to keep the cream from spoiling.
3. A scent or flavor 4. A color 5. The active ingredient.
Only one of these components is essential, the oil. The preservative is only
needed to keep the cream useful. Your face does not need preservation because
the skin is alive. Since some people have allergies to scents and colors in
cosmetics, the body says that these two ingredients are not necessary. The
active ingredient is usually the latest cosmetic drug or multivitamin that is
supposed to lift or dramatically reverse your age by 5-20 years.
Researchers S. Jay Olshansky, Leonard Hayflick and Bruce A. Carnes bluntly
comment on the antics of cosmetic companies in their report "No Truth to the
Fountain of Youth," published in the June 2002 edition of Scientific American.
The authors warn everyone aiming to reverse the signs of times on their face
that, "… anyone purporting to offer an anti-aging product today is either
mistaken or lying."
I bet you are thinking, “Won’t that oil make acne worse?” The answer is not if
you are using the right oil. Some essential oils such as bergamont, lavender,
lemon, neroli, sandalwood, tea tree and ylang ylang have cleansing and
antibacterial properties which help combat acne infections. Other essential oil
like geranium, clary sage and orange regulate the production of oil on the face.
When mixed with a carrier oil such as jojoba or camellia, these essential oils
are ideal moisturizers.
Nothing that you put on your face will truly change your appearance. Creams are
useful, but they are only one instrument in an orchestra of anti-aging concerts.
Health starts on the inside. If you want to improve your beauty start with how
you treat yourself and feed yourself. I mean not only what foods you eat but
what thoughts you eat.
You may eat thoughts of the sort, “I can’t…”, “I had a stressful day”, “I’m
tired of…”, “I can’t wait until…”, “I’m getting old”, “My body isn’t as healthy
as it used to be”. The menu is endless. If you want to look young and healthy,
you have to think young and healthy thoughts. Here’s steps to jumpstart your
quest:
Start by changing your thinking. Develop your own youth model, i.e. with steps
you’ll take to maintain your vitality and stick to it.
Enjoy nutritious foods. A study in the Journal of American College of Nutrition
found that eating a variety of fruits and vegetables and using olive oil every
day could help keep wrinkles away. The researchers found that people who ate a
diet rich in green leafy vegetables, beans, olive oil, nuts and multigrain
breads, while avoiding butter, red meat and sugary goodies, were less
predisposed to wrinkling. Researchers believe that antioxidant vitamins, such as
A, C and E, which are found in fruits and vegetables, may help protect the skin
from environmental damage.
Use a gentle cleanser each day.
Steam your face everyday for 5-15 minutes, especially if your have acne. The
steam removes waxy build-up on the skin while it stimulates circulation. This
combo of benefits cleans to pores to reduce the possibility of acne while
firming up the skin and facial muscles.
Exfoliate your skin daily. Moisturize your face in the morning and evening with
natural oils. In addition to the acne fighting oils listed above, you can mix
essential oils such as frankinsense, myrrh, neroli and rose to help encourage
the growth of new skin cells. You can create a moisturizer by diluting 1-3 of
your favorite essential oils in a carrier oil such as jojoba or camellia oil in
a ration of 1 part essential oil to 3 parts carrier oil.
Massage your face daily when you apply your facial oil.
Lie down on an incline bench for 5-20 minutes each day to let the blood flow to
your head.
Wear a sunhat in the sun.
Give yourself a light skin peel once a month.
Finally, forty can still be fabulous and your beauty-plan a lot less enigmatic.
Just remember the basics, interpret the messages of your zits, and educate
yourself about wrinkle creams- you don’t need them.
About the author:
http://www.noixia.com Naweko San-Joyz is a graduate of
Stanford University. She recently published “Acne Messages: Crack the code of
your zits and say goodbye to acne”. To challenge and verify her research, San-Joyz
trains for figure competitions. She currently writes health articles from her
home in San Diego.
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