The Pros and Cons of Proactiv for Acne

Proactiv® is the most popular acne treatment in the US. If Proactiv is so popular (and used by all those now-acne-free celebrities), then it must be a great product, right? Well, maybe. Here are the pros and cons of Proactiv.

Pros

Proactiv works. It attacks the two main causes of acne: blocked pores and buildup of bacteria. Proactiv uses exfoliants to unclog pores and uses an antibiotic, benzoyl peroxide, to kill acne-causing bacteria.

The three part Proactiv system is mild, but because it is repeated twice a day, every day, it is effective. By sending you products every two months, the company encourages you to continue using it (after all, it’s already paid for) even when you don’t have a breakout. This helps prevent new acne, which is better than treating pimples you have.

Cons

Although it is designed to be mild, Proactiv can cause redness, stinging and peeling. Some people cannot tolerate the active ingredients in Proactiv and have to limit their use to once a day or less.

Like any acne treatment, Proactiv takes about 8 weeks to see results; you won’t see much improvement before then. Also the benzoyl peroxide in Proactiv can bleach clothes, towels, pillow cases, and even hair.

Proactiv can be expensive. The active ingredients in Proactiv can be purchased separately for less money than if you paid for the Proactiv brand.

Proactiv does not cure acne, but nothing does. The average teenager has acne for 7 years and adult women can have acne for 20 years! Even if your acne is well controlled, as soon as you stop treating it, it can come back.

The primary reason why Proactiv and other acne treatments fail is because people stop using them. Treating acne is time consuming and continuous. Just like exercise, treating acne only helps you if you keep it up.

If you have moderate to severe acne, painful acne cysts, or scarring from acne, then Proactiv is not potent enough to treat you. A dermatologist can prescribe medications that are more potent and more likely to improve your acne.

That is, if you use them.

Photo: Uh, Bob (flickr)

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Flat Irons Damage Hair When Straightening

Ceramic hair straighteners are everywhere, including my bathroom. It’s not mine, I’d have to use a regular iron if I wanted straight hair. But many women use flat irons to get a sleek, cosmopolitan hairstyle. Ceramic irons are meant to be safer for your hair because they heat your hair evenly.

Flat irons work by breaking the structural bonds in hair, then letting them reform. The heating and cooling alters your hair’s structure making it smooth and straight. Unfortunately, this heating also damages your hair. Repeated use of a flat iron causes hair to become brittle and break. This can lead to hair loss and frayed, fly-away ends. Wet hair, fine hair, and colored or chemically treated hair is more likely to be damaged by straightening.

Minimize damage by following these tips:

1. Use your flat iron at a low setting. Treated hair and fine hair burns easily. Thick hair can tolerate higher temperatures. Temperatures above 350 degrees Fahrenheit will damage most hair after 5 minutes of use.

2. Use on dry hair only, preferably with a hair product designed to be used with a flat iron.

3. Do not straighten your hair every day. Optimally you should use your flat iron only once a week.

4. If you feel that your hair is thinning, that you are loosing your hair, or that your hair is becoming more and more difficult to straighten, then stop using your iron.

5. There is nothing you can do to make your hair grow out faster. If you hair breaks, it can take a year or longer to grow it back to the length you desire, so treat your hair well.

Photo: whatsnextonline, flickr.com

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Vitamin D Might Improve Cancer Survival

The vitamin story of the next decade will be vitamin D. As we learn more about this fascinating prohormone, we realize how important it is to maintaining health and preventing disease.

Research from the Mayo Clinic has linked vitamin D levels to improved cancer survival in patients with lymphoma. They found that their B-cell lymphoma patients who were vitamin D deficient were more likely to have progression of their cancer than patients with normal vitamin D levels. Death was twice as likely in the vitamin deficient patients compared to the lymphoma patients with normal vitamin D.

Getting sun is an efficient way to increase your vitamin D levels; however, your skin only makes vitamin D when UVB radiation is plentiful. For most of the United States during winter, the sun is too low in the sky to provide adequate UVB to produce any vitamin D — even if you were to like naked out in the snow (note, DermDoc does not recommend lying naked in the snow).

During winter months vitamin D is best gotten from diet and supplements. Eat lots of fish like salmon, mackerel or sardines (note, DermDoc does not recommend eating lots of sardines). Better yet, take vitamin D3 supplements in doses of 2,000 IU a day to help build your depleted vitamin stores during winter.

Photo: Grant MacDonald, Flickr.com

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Twins Show That Aging Is Not All in Your Genes

Have you ever looked in the mirror and noticed how much you’re starting to look like your mother or father? It happens to all of us: much of aging is determined by the genes we inherited from our parents.

But surely not all wrinkles, sagging, and brown spots are due to “bad genes?” So, how much of aging is due to choices we’ve made over a lifetime and how much is out of our control?

The way to answer these questions is to study adult twins. Twins have identical DNA, but experience different lives. Different habits and life experiences over years should effect we look. A study of what causes aging in identical twins published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery examined how a lifetime of good or bad habits made twins look younger or older compared to their once identical counterparts.

The 186 pairs of twins in the study looked remarkably alike, but there were differences. As you might expect, the longer people smoked, the older they appeared compared to their non-smoking twin. Also, the more sun exposure people had, the older they appeared compared to their sun-avoiding, sunscreen-applying twins.

Being divorced or taking antidepressants also made people appear older, suggesting that a stressful life can take a toll on your appearance.

Some things in life, like the genes you inherited, you cannot help, but choices you make can make a difference. Make 2010 the year you wrestle control over bad habits like smoking and excess sun and resolve to fight the ubiquitous stress of life by eating well, sleeping well, and exercising —  you’ll save yourself a lot of money in Botox later.

Photo: Simon Whitaker, flickr.com

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