Beat hormonal acne

You’ve made it through your awkward teens and vein twenties and checked into your thirties, forties and fifties with grace, elegance and confidence. Your only foreseen beauty challenges are the stamps of life that line your face. But why is it the case that just as you begin to work on accepting your wrinkles, you suddenly develop the beastly curse we call acne. That’s not how it’s supposed to work surely!
Typically when we experience break-outs around the jawline during this age, we can identify it as hormonal acne. Hormonal fluctuations, whether caused by lifestyle (e.g. stress and diet), PMS, pregnancy, or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the result is an increase in the male hormone testosterone, which creates excess oil. This overproduction of oil, along with dead skin cells, dirt and stress, is  probably the cause of your acne flare up. 
Let’s face it, we have enough problems to deal with in our later years without having to put up with our hormonal skin too. Here’s some simple solutions we recommend you try to overcome this somewhat ghastly problem. 
Eat correctly 
Much of the evidence surrounding food and diet tells us that acidic foods (usually the stuff that’s bad for you) are known to increase inflammation, which in turn will wreack havoc with your skin. Think sweets, sugar, trans and saturated fats, refined foods, meat, dairy, alcohol, chips, breads and yeasts. These all create toxins in our digestive system. In this moment the body needs to balance itself by alcalizing itself through the lymphatic system, our waste and through our skin. Acne, sadly, is the by-product of this. To help our bodies in the alcalizing process, one sure thing we can do is to eat more alcaline foods. Think leafy greens like spinach, broccoli, asparagus, cabbage and fresh fruits like avocado, mangoes, papaya, coconut, figs and dates. Delicious!
          
Use the right skin routine 
Our skin is so delicate, we should treat it with the care it needs and deserves. Alcohol-based products are so harsh and drying that they can cause skin to produce even more oil. So avoid such products where you can! What we should focus on is using alcohol free products to mildly exfoliate, which will help to unclog pores. Following this, use tea tree based oils to cleanse your face which will help regulate the secretion of oil. We have a great one in the pharmacy or on our website called Gel Árbol de Té. 
         
Treat it
If diet and skin care fail, using mild over the counter treatments that are easy on the skin may help. The product we recommend at the pharmacy is Acknes gel. A herbal remedy which contains tee tree oil, azelaic acid, zinc, vitamins A, E and F and is paraben and perfume free.
        
 If you’ve made every effort with diet, change of skin care regimes and over the counter treatments but those pesky break-outs continue to appear, a meeting with a dermatologist may be necessary. They may suggest pescription retinoids, or antibiotics. However these are very harsh solutions to acne. First try the other kinder methods and be patient. Sometimes, just like any delicacy, our bodies need time to respond.
        
For now, have faith that your skin will clear. Your La Pedrera team

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