Is It Safe to Try the Lemon Juice Acne Treatment?

The first thought that many people have about the lemon juice acne treatment is that since it uses a natural ingredient, it’s not possible for it to harm your skin. While I would wholeheartedly agree that it is of the utmost importance to avoid chemical ingredients in your acne products, I would also like to point out that even ingredients found at home have the potential to harm your skin.

Your skin is a delicate and vulnerable organ that serves the purpose of protecting your body from outside damage; it works to regulate temperature, release toxins, and keep your body protected from injury.

However, what so many acne sufferers have already come to realize is that it is so easy to disrupt the delicate protective barrier of your skin to leave you at risk for long-term skin conditions, like acne, discolorations, and even disorders like rosacea and eczema.

Should You Use the Lemon Juice Acne Treatment?

When an acne sufferer has tried every possible product out there, they often turn to natural home remedies as a last resort, with lemon juice acne treatments being one of the most popular. The reason behind this is because lemon juice is an easy ingredient to come by at home, and based upon many of the beauty blogs that I have read, it is believed to immediately clear up your skin and even reduce acne scars.

Lemon juice contains citric acid, which provides the benefit of exfoliating the skin to possibly reduce acne. [1] This ingredient works as a natural astringent, which will dry many of the surface oils on the skin to potentially clear up acne breakouts. Lemon juice also has the ability to bleach and lighten the skin, so many people believe that it can reduce surface redness and inflammation.

However, I must caution you from my firsthand experience as an aesthetician that it is very probable for this “gentle” home remedy to go wrong.

Firstly, it is not a good idea under any circumstance to apply pure lemon juice directly to your skin. As I already established, your skin is a delicate and sensitive organ, and when you apply a harsh and drying ingredient like lemon juice directly to your skin, it could cause irritation, an abrasion, and even more redness.

Even more importantly, do not under any circumstance ever apply lemon juice to an open acne wound! Not only will that be incredibly painful, but it will cause serious irritation and potential scarring in the future.

Yes, lemon juice has the potential to exfoliate the skin, but since it is used in such a strong concentration, the odds are that your skin will become red and irritated immediately. Instead, I would recommend a natural and gentle enzyme fruit scrub that may contain diluted lemon juice to gently remove dead skin cells and reduce your risk for acne breakouts.

The truth is that if you are not a skin care professional, using such an aggressive ingredient as lemon juice at home in a lemon juice acne treatment may do more harm than good.

Here’s what a few acne sufferers from the acne.org forums had to say about using lemon juice to treat their skin:

I read all about this so I decided to give it a try. Used it for 2 weeks straight and saw no change in my acne. Waste of time & money.

I used fresh squeezed lemon on my face for seven days. After two days I already saw a difference in the size of the flat pink scars. I’m a naturally really pale but the lemons seemed to give my face a darker glow which I loved! The skin that was unaffected by scars or acne ended up very smooth and my pores looked nonexistent. However my current blemishes took WAY longer to go away when I put lemon on them. It seemed to prolong the healing process. My forehead also mildly broke out in tiny red bumps, not pimples, just some irritation.

Using Lemon juice was working great, giving me quick results, but then after things were going good, I broke out again, and things just suddenly got bad. Maybe it was something I ate?

To take it a step further, you can dramatically improve your skin by attacking acne at its root and making healthy dietary changes. Yes, it is incredibly important to care for your skin on the outside through exfoliation and moisturizing to prevent acne, yet you will be fighting a losing battle if you don’t first improve your diet by cutting out harmful preservatives and unhealthy fats that trigger acne in the first place.

Once you make these essential changes to your diet, you can manage and maintain the health of your skin through using natural acne products, but not the other way around.

Sources:

Stratford, SJ. “Lemon Juice Help Pimples – LoveToKnow Skincare.“ Skincare Tips | Skin Health | Skin Care Products and More… Web. 17 Jan. 2011. <http://skincare.lovetoknow.com/Lemon_Juice_Help_Pimples>.

About the Author: Bethany Ramos is an aesthetician and makeup artist with a special interest in using nutrition to heal and alleviate a number of conditions in the skin. You can find out more skin care and makeup tips by visiting her blog at FacebyBethany.

by Bethany Write a Comment

Is There a Way to Clear Up Moderate Acne without Damaging Your Skin?

We’ve all been there: trying out a brand-new product that’s supposed to get rid of your pimples, only to have it dry out your complexion so that your face is tight, itchy, and inflamed. Is that any way to treat and clear up your skin? I think not!

The truth is that if you want to finally get rid of your moderate acne, it’s time to get serious about eliminating any lifestyle and dietary triggers and also clearly reading your product labels.

What Characterizes Moderate Acne?

Moderate acne is defined as blackheads, whiteheads, pustules, and papules that appear on anywhere from ¼ to ¾ of the face or other regions of the body. [1] Most sufferers of moderate acne seek out treatment from a dermatologist, who may prescribe a number of prescription medications to be applied topically or taken orally. But have you ever thought about how these drugs will affect the quality of your skin in the long run?

Topical Treatments of Moderate Acne

When you apply any substance topically to your skin, it is immediately absorbed into your bloodstream to potentially affect your circulatory system for the worse. This means that if you have been using over-the-counter acne products for several years to treat your moderate acne, it is likely that you are filling your body full of outside toxins and chemicals that are damaging your skin as we speak.

What I like to tell my aesthetic clients as a rule of thumb is that if any ingredients on a product label are too long or difficult to pronounce, then you shouldn’t put them on your skin!

In the same manner, if you visit a dermatologist for the treatment of your moderate acne, only to be prescribed a harsh topical product or cream, this is a substance that will only damage your skin in the long run. In addition, many moderate acne sufferers also find that the quality of their skin becomes worse after using topical prescription acne treatments, according to testimonials from the acne.org forum:

4 months after accutane I now have these problems. There are many more, but these are just a few.

Severe Osteopenia high fracture risk/Loss of height 1/12 inches. I was 5'6 1/2 before accutane and after 5'5. (verfied by med records that I did shrink while on the med.)

Swelling behind the knee/Mri showed trauma to patella/red marrow/small joint effuison/tendosis of the quadricep (which is diff from tendonitis)/ I had no trauma to my knee/ Dr's are baffled.

Severe Joint, bone, muscle and nerve pain. The string is still in my foot and one is now in my hand, I have severe tendon swelling throughout my body, which is believed by some doctors to have traped some of my nerves/ or caused soft tissue calcifications. Thier still baffled.

IMHO retinoids are a scam, yes they work for some people but from what i've seen from the board and from friends and family it doesn't work all it does it make your skin cracked, dry, and red. its all about money for doctors so they prescribe you something knowing it probably won't do shit so you come back and keep coming back to them.

Acne is a symptom that something is wrong with your body INTERNALLY, treating it from the outside only relieves it temporarily not for the long run..If you really want to defeat acne treat it from the inside, now from here its all about finding out what works for you.

With all of this information in mind, you may be asking yourself exactly what you can do to get rid of your moderate acne. The simple answer I would love to share with you is in examining what you eat each day since your daily diet could be full of harmful triggers that are making the quality of your skin much worse. To give you an example, high carbohydrate foods, often found in many of the fast foods and processed foods that we eat each day, are full of the simple sugar called glucose, which is metabolized and stored as glycogen in the body. However, what you may not realize is that your body only needs a certain amount of glucose to function, so it is often overloaded with more carbohydrates than it knows what to do with, imminently resulting in an outbreak of acne.

As you begin to regulate your diet by cutting back on unhealthy carbohydrates, you will see immediate results in the clarity and quality of your skin. The health of your skin reflects the health of your body, so isn’t it time to finally do your body good and improve your skin from the inside out?

Sources:

"Treating Moderate to Moderately Severe Acne." SkinCarePhysicians.com. Web. 06 Jan. 2011. <http://www.skincarephysicians.com/acnenet/treatingmoderatesevereacne.html>.

by Bethany Write a Comment

Struggling with Chin Acne? Find Out How to Get to the Bottom of It!

Acne breakouts are unpleasant no matter where they occur, but they can be especially persistent and difficult to treat on your chin. If you’re wondering to yourself what causes chin acne and if there is a cure in sight, then you’ve come to the right place!

First of all, I have observed from a few simple online searches that many product companies are trying to capitalize on “chin acne” by dedicating entire blogs, websites, and product pages to this keyword. Still, as a sufferer of acne trying to clear up your own chin acne, it is important to understand that acne and breakouts are the same in any area of the complexion or the body. This will demystify the entire treatment of chin acne for you by helping you to clearly understand that all acne treatments revolve around one key element: a healthy and balanced diet that will give your skin the nutrients it needs to repair itself from the inside out. Believe it or not, it really is that simple! Now on to the nitty-gritty…

Chin Acne Causes

As I’ve already stated, chin acne is no different than any other acne on your face, yet many people struggle with breakouts in this area because of excess oils transferred to their chin from their hands. If you find yourself constantly rubbing your chin or jaw line, resting your phone against your chin, or resting your chin in your hand at school or work, then that is one of the simplest ways to stop problems before they start. Stop touching your chin! For many acne sufferers, your complexion may be highly sensitive, so it is never a good idea to transfer germs, bacteria, and oils from your hands onto your chin or other areas of your face since it could trigger a series of breakouts.

In addition, chin acne can be caused by hormonal fluctuations, excess stress, an imbalanced diet, and excess toxins in the body. [1] These triggers are so essential to take notice of since almost all of them can be prevented, with the exception of hormonal fluctuations during a woman’s monthly cycle or as a teenager in puberty.

In the plainest of terms, you have the opportunity to make alterations to your diet to improve the quality of your skin and clear chin acne without having to pay hundreds of dollars for expensive acne products. Products that may, or may not work! Isn’t that wonderful news?

Here is what a few chin acne sufferers had to say about their breakouts firsthand at the acne.org forums:

From my experience, chin acne (especially cysts) are caused by hormones. Before starting my regimen, I used to get at least 1 or 2 every month right on the day I ovulate. Since using retinoids, glycolic/salicylic/azlaic acid, Yaz, and Spiro, I don't really get them anymore. I think one of the necessary things (at least for me) is to take something internal in order to control your hormones.

I often get tired at work or when sitting at a table somewhere and put my head down, resting my chin on the back of my hands. I rarely have any issues with that. But recently, I have been getting sun on my body and when I turn over to get some sun on my back, I end up resting my chin on the back of my hands. The difference is that outside in the sun there’s sweat in the mix. I got a “mysterious” breakout under my chin area recently and it perplexed me until I put this together. It was the sweat plus irritation combination that most likely caused the breakout.

The bottom line is that ridding yourself of chin acne takes a little bit of common sense mixed with a willingness to make the right dietary changes. Yes, that is truly the recipe to your success if you want to clear up your skin for good! When you check out the Ladder of Acne Causes, you can clearly see that making poor dietary choices triggers excess toxins in the body, leading to a hormone imbalance, which is one of the main causes of acne on the chin. Voila! As you clear up your diet, your chin acne will clear up in correlation.

There's more you should know. . .

We've really only touched the surface of what you should know about this debilitating disease that we've all grown to hate. Here at Focus:Acne, we have started an information revolution - where we put all misconceptions aside, and inform the "motivated-to-cure" on the true nature of this disease. Stop buying acne medications, stop visiting the dermatologist, and simply enter your name and e-mail below - it's time to be inspired and officially put acne in the past...

Sources:

"Chin Acne, Causes of Chin Acne, Treatment for Chin Acne." Acne, Acne Treatments, Acne Remedies, Acne on Body, Acne Skin Care. 14 Nov. 2007. Web. 03 Jan. 2011. <http://acne.ygoy.com/chin-acne/>.

by George Write a Comment

Why Do I Have Acne? WHY ME!?

Why me? Why me? WHY ME? We've all asked it before. Why in the world did I have to deal with this shitty skin? Maybe your dad would say 'Well at least your not fat!' Thanks, pops.

There is a two fold answer to this question. The answer on a larger spectrum would be 'You are what you eat.' Poor diet choices and poor diet choices alone have put this burden on you. I don't care what your drug pushing dermatologist says. Read through the rest of FocusAcne – you will see it brimming with this same concept. Read through excerpts online. Some people have figured out the diet acne relation already and have wrote about it. Unfortunately, the cycle of information leaves little to find in this regard. You are very lucky to have found this website.

The answer on a smaller spectrum would be, 'Everyone deals with toxins differently.' Your body is a lean mean immune system machine. It does everything in its power to get rid of toxins, anyway it can. Sometimes its through eczema, sometimes it's dandruff, sometimes it's through a cold, and sometimes its through acne. This all depends on many factors, many of which are not worth getting into. What's important is you have acne – you now have the knowledge to cure it.



George McCumiskey, ND