What is the best treatment for acne?

We’ve talked about how Acne develops and dos and don’ts about acne, we’ve now come to the treatment for #acne.

Some people advocate a low sugar/ carbohydrate diet and avoidance of junk food to manage acne. There’s no harm in trying this.

Did you know that one of the important vitamins your skin needs in fighting acne is #vitamin A? Vitamin A is found naturally in fruits like carrots, paw paw, avocado, mangoes and in red palm oil. That’s why one of the best treatments of acne is #retinoic acid which is a form of vitamin A.

These retinoids come as creams that are applied once daily to clean and dry skin.  Doctors usually combine with antibiotic creams or capsules. Please get a prescription from a doctor before using any antibiotics.

Products that contain #Benzoyl Peroxide are also useful.  It is effective against the organism that causes acne and you can easily get them over the counter. It is available as washes, lotions, soaps, creams and gels. You can use it once or twice daily. But be aware these products can also cause an allergic rash.

 Treatment for Stubborn Acne

If Acne doesn’t respond to the measures outlined above, hormonal drugs may need to be prescribed these include estrogen and oral contraceptive pills, same ones used for birth control.  What these do is to decrease oil production and reduce production of the sex hormone which may contribute to the development of acne. Of course you need to see a doctor for this.

Sometimes acne is so recalcitrant that people have to undergo procedures to manage it like using steroid injections, steroids generally are useful for inflammatory conditions.

There are also ways to remove the pimple physically, this won’t stop the progression of the condition but it can make the person feel better by improving his or her appearance. Laser therapy is one way people are looking to. This may not be readily available in our environment though.

We can’t shy away from talking about the psychological toll acne puts on people, some develop anxiety, depression and social awkwardness just because of the condition, so we have to be sensitive and supportive to people with acne.

Thankfully, with treatment they should come out of such distress. Remember that one can develop permanent scars also.

Does acne go away with time?

For men acne should have cleared in the early adult years though about 5 in 100 will still have it by 25 years of age with a similar figure for women at age 45.

When you have skin conditions and you see that they are beyond your knowledge it is better to see a doctor preferably a dermatologist who is a specialist in skin disorders.

You can ask your local doctor for a referral or walk into a General or teaching hospital.

Join me tomorrow as we talk about fungal skin infections.

Stay Healthy!

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