Natural Acne Treatment Creams

What Helps Counteract Acne Triggers?

The evidence shows acne is an inflammatory skin condition characterized by superficial skin eruptions. And those may or may not become infected with Propionibacteria acnes bacteria living inside our hair follicles.

Propionibacteria lives in symbiosis with our body, feeding on dead cells, helping the sebaceous glands transform them into sebum and free fatty acids.

Sebaceous lipids are responsible for the three-dimensional skin surface lipid organization and contribute to the integrity of the skin barrier. They also exhibit strong innate antimicrobial activity -which inhibits the growth of some pathogenic bacteria and fungi always ready to thrive-, transport antioxidants to the skin surface, and express proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory properties.

Fact is also that when sebum does not flow properly and gets trapped by either clog pores or pinched-off sebum glands — OUCH! — disrupts or destroys some of the lining cells of the sebum ducts. And guess what? Our body readily reacts to the OUCH signals. Of course! It’s far from being deaf to them, unlike us that usually have a poor ability to listen to signs of danger or even to those warning us out loud of imminent perils.

Pinpointing the Acne Triggers

Yes, our body reacts in very much the same way it has learned to react during the millions of years of our evolutionary drift. By sending to the site of injury and insult all its army of immune system soldiers (lymphocytes, macrophages, neutrophils...) overcharged with chemical death weapons to get rid of the offenders, with no consideration even for its own cells that might happen to be in their way and also do get killed. After all... it used to be a matter of life or death! NOT of Beauty and Health.

This is what is meant by “inflammatory reaction”. And, Oh Boy! You might as well bet those soldiers are inflamed!

Now of course there are factors that "cause" hyperactivity of our glands, clogged pores, bacterial infection and the like. Stress is the hands-down number one cause of sebaceous glands hyperactivity that may turn out into acne inflammation. An there are other contributing factors as well, including picking and squeezing pimples, pressure or friction (head bands, caps etc), lifestyle, birth control pills, cosmetics, climate and diet, but stress is the Big Kahuna! Now, "stress" is another story, and you may latter go to our FAQ and find more about the biology of stress & acne.

Again, you can not blame your body for producing large amounts of sebum. The problem is how it reacts to injury inflicted to the cells that line the sebum canals, when the canals become overcharged with sebum pressing to outflow to the surface —where it belongs—, or when they are not able to reach the skin surface because of clogged pores and pinched-off sebum glands.

Okay! You will address very oily skin and clogged pores with an acne cleansing lotion, for a while, and until your skin is back in balance. And you might as well consider changing some of your nutritional habits to avoid sebum canals pinched-off by the pressure of excess moisture attracted by toxins discharged within your dermis by your lymphatic system, as you may learn by visiting the Acne & Rosacea FAQ and the links there on skin detoxify and about the connection between adult acne and dairy products or acne and diet.

Now, what about the inflammatory reaction which occurs each time those events re-occur as it is guaranteed because of your natural hormonal imbalances? Well unless you live in a perfect world, totally free of stress. Maybe not a very attractive realm though.

Counteracting the Acne Triggers

Got the point? Modulating the inflammatory response is the recipe for success! Cool down guys (immune cells), past are the times when bacteria and other micro-organism ruled. Or is it just wishful thinking? Is it not true that we carry on and inside our body three times more bacteria than the number of cells our organism is made of?

Fact is our body is ingrained with the memories of past battles, fought to protect our system whenever damaged or injured and does not listen to just any argument made up by the pharmaceutical or cosmetic companies that sell anti acne products aiming to control bacteria.

During our evolutionary drift, injuries and wounds represented a serious threat to our organism, not only due to blood loss, but also due to tissue damage or infection from the invasion of foreign bodies such as dirt, splinters and bacteria. The adult wound healing mechanism that evolved to respond to this threat has two fundamental characteristics: First, there is a rapid and robust inflammatory response, with recruitment of activated macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes to the injured site; and second, there is a fibrotic "walling-off" response to isolate the foreign body, with liquefaction of adjacent tissue leading to abscess formation and scarring.

In fact acne lesions are in this respect similar to any skin injury. Our system responds with the same strong inflammatory knee-jerk to the sebum that is supposed to outflow to the surface of the skin but remains trapped within the hair follicles as if it where a foreign body; or when sebum production is exacerbated and the first flow of sebum through the previously empty duct creates shear forces of sufficient magnitude that injure the walls of the sebum canals or the pilosebaseous glands.

Inflammation exacerbates when acne bacteria (Propionibacterium acnes) and other deliriously happy bacteria always present on the surface of the skin (Staphylococcus aureus, Staph. epidermidis, diphtheroids, streptococci, Candida, etc) start to proliferate uncontrolled in skin punctured or broken. The problem is magnified if right there the deliciously rich feeding fatty sebum is plenty.

Is the inflammatory response still appropriate ?

Scar Less Healing

An abscess and its subsequent scar is not an evolutionarily optimized end point for today's injuries, Dr. Mark Ferguson, D.D.S., Ph.D., professor in the faculty of life sciences at the University of Manchester, England, says. The abscess and scarring response, with its massive inflammatory overdrive, is optimized for a very different type of skin lesion than those occurring nowadays where hygiene and clean faces and bodies rule. The abscess and scar is induced by this inappropriate inflammatory response...

The healing mechanism should be very much like what our system accomplishes for fetal wounds which heal quickly by reconstructing cells and leaving no trace behind whatsoever. For the whole process there is signaling the growing baby is being taken care of properly.

Lesions that affect the cells lining the sebum canals, arising from a sudden overflow of sebum or pinched-off sebum glands, occur in an otherwise clean skin without dirt or contamination by foreign bodies. These lesions should therefore be ideal candidates for healing, without complications, by a regenerative wound healing mechanism rather than a scarring mechanism. And the outcome should be characterized by scar less healing.

The healing process inside the hair follicles should be very much like what our system accomplishes for fetal wounds which heal quickly by regenerating cells and leaving absolutely no trace behind.

This is What is Omitted in All the Products Out There. Something that would alert your body it is being taken care of effectively and does not need to counter with its inflammatory army. Not just the natural or chemical ingredients that fight the symptoms, when it is already too late: acne bacteria gone wild, occlusion of the ducts (microcomedones) and then enlarged comedones that become inflammatory lesions.

This is a vicious cycle causing continued and/or increased obstruction of the outflow of the sebum, which in turn leads to more pressure, more inflammation and continued or progressive infection.

Such continued obstruction, with or without infection, leads to the formation of cysts. Infection of a cyst results in the formation of an abscess which leads to local tissue destruction. If this destruction of tissue has involved the connective tissue elements of the skin or subcutaneous tissues to a sufficient degree, healing is frequently accompanied and/or followed by scar formation.

Acne scars can vary from minimal to extensive and severely disfiguring problems which are permanent sequallae of acne. While the process by which acne arises and lasts for an indefinite time may and frequently does come to a halt as a result of treatment or spontaneously but the scars persist for life unless they are removed.

Continue >>> What Makes A Difference In A Solution for Acne?

A choice of acne creams depending if acne is mild or moderare, or it is cystic acne or frequent and stubborn acne breakouts:

• BIOSKINCLEAR - an oil free gel for people with rosacea and oily skin.

Prevents and heals mild and moderate acne breakouts and relieves rosacea symptoms.

Ingredients: Deionized water (solvent), hyaluronic acid 1% solution (moisturizer), glycerin (humectant), seaweed extract (moisturizer), sodium salt of pyroglutamic acid (natural moisturizer), Helix Aspersa Müller Glycoconjugates (biological active glyco-protein complex), ethylhexylglycerine (surfactant and preservant enhancer), phenoxyethanol (preservant), and Glycyrrhiza inflata Batalin (Licorice) Root Extract.

• BIOSKINFORTE CREAM - for the treatment of acne cysts and stubborn acne breakouts but the strong effects comes with a price and is not for the faint of spirit or weak for you must use the product twice a day with discipline even though it smells like medicine, and for anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes you can not get away without the strong activation of your olfatory neurons by the essential oil of Coleus Forskohlii that it contains and is... well essential for it working powerfully as it does. (Full list of ingredients is listed further below)