What’s the best treatment for Acne?

Suffering from a few spots, or full blown Acne? If you suffer from acne then you know just how much it affects your confidence, and makes you want to hide your face away.With so many companies advertising Acne cures, it’s hard to pick out the best way forward. So what is the best treatment for acne? And also which ingredients are the ones to look out for in skincare products which will help you most?

Let’s first look at what causes Acne

Your skin naturally produces oil, from sebaceous glands, which empty onto the skin’s surface.  The skin is made up of flattened cells which naturally shed and new cells push up from underneath.

Sometimes the dead skin cells and oil combine together to create a ‘plug’ which basically gets stuck in the pores.  This then becomes a ‘spot’.  To make things worse, a bacteria called ‘P’ Acnes bacteria can also get trapped and can then multiply.  A build up of this bacteria will lead to red, swollen areas – pustules and cysts.

How to improve Acne

Now that you know about the productions of spots and cysts, there a few steps that need to be taken to undo this situation. It makes sense that to get rid of acne, we need to unplug the blocked pores, reduce the amount of oil, get rid of the dead skin cells, calm the inflammation, and reduce the amount of P Acnes bacteria.

The difficulty is that there’s no single treatment which fits everyone, and can magically wipe it away.  However I have personally seen excellent results on Acne with the following treatments.

Professional Skin Peels

A Beta Hydroxy Acid (BHA), skin peel is ideal to treat acne.  This is because it will reach the oil glands and dissolve the excess oil which is clogging up the skin.  Salicylic Acid (from Aspirin) is a good choice for this.  Not only will it help with the oil, but it also breaks down the dead skin cells which are trapped on the surface.  It will help your skin shed and is also good to help reduce the angry swelling.

You could also opt for gentle Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) skin peels such as Glycolic Acid or Mandelic Acid.  These will help get rid of the clogged up pores by breaking down the dead skin cells, so they can slough away.  Mandelic Acid (from almonds) is also good to help reduce the oil in the skin.

If you don’t want to go to a clinic, you can start by using products with these ingredients in them.  Plenty of acne products contain Salicylic acid and Glycolic Acid.  Another good ingredient is Azelaic Acid – which is known to reduce inflammation.  This makes it particularly good for anyone suffering from Acne and Rosacea or very sensitive skin.

IPL Treatment

This is one of my favourite treatments for Acne, because I’ve personally seen some excellent results.  IPL – stands for Intense Pulse Light (a bit like a laser).  The good thing about IPL is that it can be carried out on the skin immediately after a skin peel – so you can get a double whammy at killing off those spots.

You need to visit a clinic with the right technology and with experience at treating Acne.  The treatment involves flashing a bright light into the skin, which contains particular colours of light known to kill the P Acnes bacteria. The day after an IPL treatment, you will get a reduction of inflammation and the spots will be more dried up. Ideally you need a course of at least 5 sessions spaced around 2-4 weeks apart, to get a significant improvement.

LED Phototherapy

This is a also a type of Light therapy but using LEDs instead of a laser/IPL device.  This is much gentler on the skin, but also a fantastic treatment.  Again this is a perfect choice to combine with peels, products and even IPL.

You may have seen ‘Light Masks’ advertised which look like space masks, however you need to be wary about buying home versions of these, or even under-powered salon versions.  The power emitted by some masks and home LEDS can be so insignificant it will have very little effect on the skin.

One of the world leaders in Phototherapy is Dermalux – their powerful medical LED devices can be found in clinics around the globe.  The blue light emitted helps shrink the sebaceous glands and kill P Acnes bacteria.  Also a very specific wavelength of red light calms inflammation. You simply lie under the hood for 20-30 minutes per session, and would ideally have a course of treatments.

Conclusion

Which is the best treatment for Acne for you… it’s really hard to advise which you should try first.  If money was no object and you want to achieve the best results in the quickest time possible, you could combine all 3 of these treatments.

However acne is a complicated condition – and you can’t just cure it. You would need to factor in continual maintenance sessions, to keep it at bay.

The other thing you will want to consider is your diet and lifestyle.  For example high sugar intake is linked to excess production of oil in the skin.  So you can literally be ‘feeding’ your acne with the wrong foods.  Like anything a whole approach is the best way forward.

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I hope this article has helped you, and if you have any more questions about treating Acne with peels, IPL or Phototherapy then feel free to email me at: rach@radiantliving.co.uk.  Or visit our web page here.

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