5 reasons you fail to banish your acne

Whether you are weathering the puberty storm or it is an occasional flair up, acne breakouts frustrate the best of us! While in general, people prone to acne are born with five-fold more skin cells which produce sebum in direct proportionality, there are other under-the-radar daily habits that prevent our skin from healing and stop erupting every now and then. Following are little known reason pimples rear up their ugly heads despite best laid plans:



Diet

Remember when you used to laugh at your grandma because she’d blame all your health problems on your tummy? Well, in case of an acne-prone skin, she may not have been wide off her mark! As a general rule of thumb, what you consume fuels the mitotic division which allows your body to scrape old and damaged cell and whip out brand new ones. That's why you are literally what you eat and also why poor diet is related to both digestive problems and skin ailments. But some foods, while they may be healthy in nature, may have constituents that promote break out. For instance, dairy products which serve as staple source of calcium may cause flair up in babies and children prone to eczema and acne, and these individuals benefit from restrictive consumption of these foods. Similarly, too much sugar, carbs, and greasy foods have all been linked to poor skin conditions, also because they exacerbate the insulin release for their digestion which kicks your sebaceous glands into overdrive and forces it to produce more oils which ultimately causes outbreaks. Conversely, fruits and vegetables, which are rich in antioxidants and essential nutrients, are associated with good organ health, including skin, but not quiet if drenched in a boat load of oil and buried in the entire pantry worth of spices.

Beauty products       

For starters, too much make-up clogs up your pores which serves as ground zero for acne outbreak. Then, if you fail to properly remove all of it, every last bit, you allow your pores to stay in that stretched state for a long time causing them to lose elasticity. Sleeping with your "slap on" ages skin by a decade in matter of a month, which is not a hyperbole, rather an evidence backed notion. Secondly, no matter how expensive your choice in make-up is, if it does not correspond to your skin type, it's all a ginormous waste of time and resource and would do little to improve your skin. For instance, if your skin type falls in the dry category, using products with aggressive scrubbing ability will make the texture sand-papery. Inversely, if you have acne and are using face washes devoid of main anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial ingredient like salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide, there is hardly any hope for your oil ridden, clogged pores. So regardless of the product type (toner, moisturizer, foundation), the type of formulation should correspond to your skin along with the brilliance of key ingredient.

 Hygiene

Before you embark on the quest of attaining that baby soft skin, come to terms with the fact that it is impossible in a day's work. Good hygiene is that steady step in the right direction, and does not encompass washing and bathing like a maniac. Little habits like using silk pillowcases to avoid friction, washing sheets weekly to get rid of cell debris, washing your make-up brushes, storing your product containers away from sunlight to maintain their strength and ingredients, keeping an eye on product expiration and using it under that time, not talking on phone too much and thereby putting too much pressure and friction on skin, and finally resisting the urge to pop that pimple, all go a long way in ensuring your skin routines don't backfire and can effectively keep your pores from enlarging.

Emotions       

Have you ever noticed that just as a major event rolls around, zits come a-knocking? However, that's not the case. Research proves that your emotions play an important role in how your body reacts under pressure. This is why your complexion fades during exams or during high priority events because scientific evidence alleges that stress causes up regulation of sebum production, which in turn chokes your pores, allowing more zits to form. However, this flare up is only seen in people with previously known condition of acne. So if you are prone to event acne, don't skimp on sleep prior to it, drink plenty of water and effectively cleanse your skin.



Sun exposure

It's amazing that despite sharing the neighbourhood with the equator, most of us are Neanderthals when it comes to donning protection from sun. And before you blame the scorch, understand that sun burn, tanning and wrinkling of skin is your body trying to protect you from graver consequences like skin cancer. Too much sun exposure can cause the skin to lose its natural bounce, blow up your oil production thereby promoting acne, and age it prematurely, not to mention put you at high risk for second-degree burn and melanomas. You'd be surprised how much a dollop of sunscreen saves you from future worries.