Individuals that work out regularly and maintain a healthy diet have major advantages on those who do not when it comes to the appearance of the skin.  The sweat that is expelled through regular workouts detoxifies the skin, ridding it of the impurities that can cause acne or irritation.  The healthy diet provides the skin the right balance of nutrients to keep acne prone skin in line as well as maintain nourishment levels that directly impacts the elasticity of the skin.  These advantages will not solve the issues or guarantee that if you do these two things you will have beautiful skin, but it will never hurt the condition of the skin.

Just as being healthy has its advantages, being unhealthy can cause many problems for your skin as well.  Greasy, or foods that are high in fat have proven to have a direct impact on the complexion of the skin.  These foods can cause acne breakouts in acne prone skin and can lead the premature aging of the skin in most people who over indulge.  But there is something that is even worse than being unhealthy.  It is the rapid weight loss and weight gain that many individuals go through.

This constant starting and stopping of diets and weight gain of 5lbs and the loss of 7 lbs plays a huge role on your skin.  Experts used to think that only large weight gain and loss can cause issues with the skin, but the small fluctuations have proven to cause wrinkles over prolonged periods of time.  If you have spent your life trying this diet and that one, and working out for this month but not for the next three, this means you!

There are some steps that you can follow if this is the case, and the damage can be treated, but not without the use of some medical grade skin care.  Therapeutic facial cleansers and complete rejuvenation systems can cleanse away the toxins and rebuild the skin cells from the bottom up, delivering you with healthy, elastic, youthful skin that looks years younger.  This is the perfect one-two punch for those of us, who are not exactly as healthy as we wish, but we are not that bad.  These systems and cleansers can restore our skin to its former appearance, without sacrificing the nutrients and nourishment it needs to stay looking that way.  These creams do not replace a healthy lifestyle, but when combined with one, the results they can provide are second to none.

Chronic acne can be a manageable life solution. The catalyst is dry skin, and for those who suffer from acne usually suffer from skin that is either too dry or not dry enough. This can be prevented by not overdoing the routines of daily hygiene. As a tip, splash the face with cold water before washing with warm water; and after washing, splash with cold water once more. This will ensure that the sensitive pores will be closed during agitated rinsing, thus minimizing the affects of sensitive skin. If washed too roughly or frequently, dry skin will chap and flake. The loose skin particles will cause even more breakouts than from bacteria and dirt alone.

Remnants of chronic acne appear in the form of unsightly scars and, in the long run, keloids. Keloids are lumps of damaged or dead tissue that resemble cysts. Typically inactive, keloids sometimes spread and persist on their own, even without the presence of acne. There is no sure topical solution in the removal of keloids. For that, oral treatment is necessary. The recently approved Accutane helps to lessen the appearance of keloids; though it works indirectly by minimizing the sebaceous glands that irritate the skin. For direct treatment of keloids and cysts, an injection of cortisone is the most common answer. Cortisone triggers a reaction in the immune system that helps the body fight inflammatory ailments. Once injected, its affects can take as long as a few days to fully work. The lumps may still persist, but injections help to soften them, thus making it easier to gradually heal.

Chemical peeling is invaluable in the treatment of acne scars. Scarring typically affects the outer epidermis, and peeling it away to reveal the newer, untouched skin is aesthetically affective. But peeling should only be done after the acne has subsided and little keloids remain. Peeling will expose new, sensitive skin, thereby increasing the potential for infection; any presence of acne will no doubt raise that risk.

In the long term, lotions and body oils will lead to unbalanced skin if used improperly, especially excessively. They supply the body with more oils, and excessive body moisture is a common cause for acne and other topical conditions. Know your body before investing in expensive topical solutions. For those suffering from chronic acne and keloids, recent research indicates that the oil extracted from the emu bird contains nutritional properties that aid the skin in healing, as opposed to simply eliminating germs and excess oil.

The Danger: The basic danger is septicemia (blood poisoning). Other serious complications are notably pneumonia, nephritis, and rheumatic fever.

Symptoms: The skin (most particularly the face) is painful and warm. The rash, which is raised, varies from dull red to scarlet with advancing margins. The most tender spots are immediately beyond the margins. The rash can also appear on the legs. Attendant symptoms are chills and a very high fever, with severe, intense, intermittent headaches plus nausea and vomiting as the body tries to fight off septicemia. The face can become badly swollen, often closing up the eyes. The lymph nodes also become swollen and painful.

Treatment: Oral penicillin is highly successful against this once very dangerous disease. A cold compress of magnesium sulphate is both therapeutic and soothing. Since erysipelas is highly infectious, proper care and sterilization of clothing are necessary.

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Pemphigus
Lichen Planus
Contact Dermatitis
HIVES (urticaria)
Psoriasis

Vitilogo and Baldness

Skin Diseases: BALDNESS (alopecia)
The only cure for male pattern baldness (hereditary) is a toupee or hair transplant. The latter is unpleasant, tedious, and expensive, involving the transplanting of each individual hair by punch graft from a thick spot to the bald area. Despite years of research and large expenditures of money to cure this affliction all that has been learned so far is that it is not an affliction-it is the same as inheriting blue eyes or a long neck or pointed ears.

There is some small solace believed by many, including some authorities (perhaps they are bald themselves), that bald men with heavy beards also enjoy a superior virility, noting that such men have a higher output of male hormones. Eunuchs, they argue, are known to have a heavy head of hair and little or no beard. The validity of this concept has not been thoroughly investigated.

Male pattern baldness can start in middle age or in youth, often as early as in the late teens. Patchy baldness (alopecia areata) , ranging in size from a dime to a quarter or larger, is a different matter. After a few weeks or months the hair returns as mysteriously as it disappeared. No one seems to know much about it. Women do not suffer from hereditary pattern baldness. They can and do lose some of their hair, but it is usually in late middle age and follows a less definite pattern. However, hair loss earlier in life does occur, resulting from specific causes, such as pregnancy (the hair will return after the child is born).

Other conditions that can produce some degree of baldness in both sexes are high fever, syphilis, TB, and infectious diseases. If and when the underlying condition is removed, the hair usually returns. Hair loss in women is more often due to abuse-dousing the hair with rinses, bleaches, hair dyes, none of which does the hair the slightest bit of good.

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Other articles about skin:

Pemphigus
Lichen Planus
Contact Dermatitis
HIVES (urticaria)
Psoriasis

Skin Diseases, General

ACNE
(common acne, acne vulgaris)

Although no one suffering from acne dies or is often hospitalized, it is not a minor disease, for it can be not only disfiguring, but also embittering, altering the personalities of many sensitive young people. Acne affects more than $0 percent of all teenagers in varying degrees of severity, striking hardest at those who have the misfortune of inheriting an oily skin.

The basic cause is a step-up in the production of androgen (male) and estrogen (female) in maturing teenagers. The increased production of these hormones stimulates the sebaceous glands of the skin to produce an oversupply of sebum, an oily substance that keeps the skin normally pliable and healthy. The sebum plus other biochemical factors clogs up the pores, resulting in blackheads and whiteheads (a blackhead is not dirt but the result of oxidation of the skin and oil). Acne has no relation to sexual indulgence or lack of it; nor will sexual intercourse cure this disorder.
Although not as deeply implicated as once thought, such foods as chocolate, nuts, milk, and so on are still a factor in a majority of cases, For girls, menstruation can be an aggravating factor.

The Danger: Besides the possibility of scarring and pitting, severe acne can cause psychological problems, affecting social development.

Symptoms: The lesions appear on the face, neck, shoulders, upper chest, and back, presenting a crop of pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads ranging in size from pinhead to a small pea. Some lesions develop into abscesses and cystic masses, which hang on for a month or more until they finally rupture and heal, leaving scars and pittings. The skin becomes flabby, without tone, and remains oily.

Removal of pimples or blackheads by finger squeezing can only bruise the skin, making it more vulnerable for spreading infection than ever.

Ultraviolet lamps and sun lamps should be used only under a physician’s directions, because of the potentially harmful effects on certain skins if misused.

Tetracycline (250 mg daily before meals for a month or more) and other antibiotics can be very helpful. Hormone treatments are sometimes valuable but need very careful administration by the dermatologist and the gynecologist.
For home treatment there are a large number of lotions and ointments that can be bought over the counter, that cause a mild degree of peeling, loosening the hardened sebum. Benzoyl peroxide, sulfur compounds, Resorcinol, and vitamin A acid have been proven useful.

For best results, a dermatologist should be consulted in arriving at a good regimen, which most often will include medication available only by prescription and must often be reevaluated as the condition changes. As in all skin disorders, therapy must be individualized for each patient.

Prevention: Acne cannot be prevented, but constant, energetic treatment will noticeably reduce its severity. The use of greasy make-up on a skin condition can only worsen it.

Outlook: Usually the patient has one bad year. Inevitably, however, acne disappears. After twenty-five it is much less common.