1f7c

If you suffer from acne then you already know that there are hundreds of acne alternative treatments being sold in stores and online. In fact if you do a search for acne alternative treatments using the Internet you will find a myriad of websites that are stuffed full of testimonies from former acne sufferers who have used the latest zit and pimple treatments in order to eliminate their irritating skin blemishes. Unfortunately what these testimonies can’t do for you is guarantee the elimination of your acne because every individual that has acne could very well need a different type of acne fighting solution. The actual proof is in the pudding so to speak. You won’t know 100% for sure if an acne alternative treatment will cure your blackheads until you actually try it out on your acne.

For many consumers that have successfully eliminated their acne it only came after they had gone through a lineup consisting of acne topical treatments, a dose of pimple fighting antibiotics and in the most serious acne cases a prescribed treatment using Accutane. If these are considered the traditional methods of treating your acne then what about the alternative or nontraditional acne fighting solutions? Can they effectively prevent an acne outbreak from happening on your skin? Just like the routine ways of fighting zits, you won’t know if an alternative method will work until you actually try it for yourself.

Before trying any alternative acne treatment it is highly recommended that you become an educated consumer. You can accomplish this task by asking around with your family and friends, chances are one of them is suffering from acne or has recently cured their acne outbreak. Check to see if they used any type of alternative means or methods to clear their skin up. If they did, then use that combination of prescribed treatment on your own acne to see if you can duplicate the same results. I’m sure you already know this, but traditional acne remedies are rather expensive. Fortunately many of the active acne fighting ingredients are the same in the cheaper alternative solutions. It may be worth it to experiment with the lesser priced creams and zit cleansing solutions in order to cure your acne at a reasonable price.

One aspiring method of alternative acne treatment involves the use of a naturopath. This professional specializes in the use of gentle cleaners made from herbs and vitamins to treat you acne. In fact, they have been known to clear up acne by prescribing a simple treatment plan consisting of regular dosages of Vitamin A, which is what the more expensive Accutane is derived from.

Another very promising method of alternate acne treatment focuses on the use of red and blue ultraviolet rays of light. This regiment of light therapy treatment can be done in the comfort of your own home with a laser that safely emits the required light rays. For a more powerful application you can seek outside help from a trained esthetician who specializes in using a more power light emitter too cure your acne.

The reality is even if traditional means of curing acne don’t truly work on your eliminating your unsightly skin blemishes you don’t have to despair. There are many different acne fighting alternative treatments that you can easily and safely try out to see which one is right for curing your zits and pimples.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Clear-Skin-Solutions.com. He provides more acne clearing solutions, remedies and acne alternative treatments that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

If you are looking for a healthy way to help keep your acne under control without resorting to the typical over-the-counter topical drugs that may cause more harm than good, green tea may be a treatment worth looking into. Green tea has long been a staple of traditional Chinese medicine, taken to treat ailments such as acne as well as to improve general health. It has become popular worldwide both for its taste and the many health benefits it provides.

Green tea is definitely a healthy beverage, but is it really effective at treating acne? The answer seems to be yes, although how effective it is may depend on the severity of your acne (and just how much green tea you are willing to drink). The main reason for green tea’s effectiveness is due to the fact that green tea is extremely rich in antioxidants. Thus, by drinking plenty of green tea you help rid toxins from your body and maintain a healthy cell structure.

Besides fighting off bacteria, research has shown that green tea can help reduce redness and inflammation, and even deter hormonal activity. Thus green tea can both speed healing and help prevent acne, which is often caused by the activity of hormonal shifts.

For acne treatment, green tea may be taken as a drink, a pill (green tea extract), or in a topical cream. Also, simply placing a warm teabag on acne lesions can help draw out toxins and promote faster healing.

By far the most popular method is simply drinking green tea. Green tea with honeysuckle is known as “pimple tea” in many Chinatowns. Drinking a glass of green tea each day will help a little, but if you plan to use green tea as a main factor in your fight against acne, you will need a higher dose. For more dramatic results, many regimens recommend as much as 8 glasses of green tea each day until your skin clears. This is most effective if the tea is freshly brewed and sugar-free. Preservatives and sugar will neutralize many of green tea’s benefits.

Taken as a pill, green tea is similar to vitamins for acne that focus on detoxifying your skin through antioxidants. Unfortunately, this approach does not typically work as well as simply drinking green tea due to the fact that the nutrients are much more easily absorbed as a liquid rather than a pill.

According to a recent study reported to the American Academy of Dermatology, a topical cream with 3% green tea extract produced similar results to a solution containing 4% benzoyl peroxide. Thus, green tea appears to be very effective as a spot treatment as well, without causing the dryness and irritation that generally go along with benzoyl peroxide. However, I would still recommend drinking the tea over using a topical cream, since the benefits of the topical treatment are limited to only the applied area, and do not include hormonal effects that can help you actually avoid, or at least diminish the intensity of, future acne.

Don Amodeo is the webmaster of Acne-Vitamins.com, where you can find vitamin B5 acne products and a free guide to vitamins for clear skin. This article may be republished provided that the author’s information and all active links are left intact.

As we all know by now, Weight Watchers is based on a points system and that point system basically runs the diet and everything in the diet is based on this point system. There are a few variations of the POINTS system but there isn’t much of a difference at all. The main differences are based on how the dieter looks at fiber and how much fiber they want to eat. If the dieter uses fiber as a “point enhancer”(reducer) then they would substitute the 50 pt. value in the Weight Watchers Formula for a 70 pt. base value. Other variations are that the POINTSfinder manual calculator that is handed out in Weight Watcher meetings does not reach a points value of 2 until after 70 calories have been reached, rather than 50 as the formula states. This makes the point values 20 pts. higher than first thought.

As time has progressed, so has the Weight Watchers diet. Recently the diet has started to take into consideration how much people want to exercise and how that affects the point system in a whole new way. Certain exercises are given certain negative point values to offset eating some foods that might not have been allowed in earlier variations of the diet.

The Core Plan

When the Atkins Diet and the South Beach diet became more and more popular, Weight Watchers had to come up with a different variation to compete with these diets to be able to keep their dieters happy and feeling like they were still using a diet that was modern and up to day. So, the Core Plan was invented to mirror the Atkins and South Beach diets respectively. In essence, the Core Plan eliminates certain foods all together and focuses on “core” foods that they should eat until satisfied but not full. These core foods are basically deemed healthy foods from all food groups. Still staying with the points system, dieters are allowed 35 pts. a week to eat non-core foods.

The Flex Plan

This is yet another variation that was touched on above that includes exercise into the Weight Watchers equation. A set number of points are given for a given day based on the dieters current weight. Then, the number of points could be increased when the dieter would exercise. This is a reference to the clever title “flex” which allows the dieter more points that are not based on their weight that they could use each week, but are not required to use.

TurnAround

This program was adopted in late 2004 and incorporates all the above plans into one big plan, and was created to help a person maintain a healthy lifestyle beyond just eating foods with points assessed to them. The program includes healthy foods of course, but also 8 Good Healthy Guidelines, activities, and support of other Weight Watcher members. This well balanced plan is supposed to help a dieter maintain their weight through a lifetime maintenance plan.

Weight Watchers is a diet that is tried and proven by millions of people around the world. Find more info and blog entries about this time-tested diet and other great diets here at http://www.eweightlossblog.com, or you can find great health tips and diet tips here at http://www.ihealthblog.com