Sleep is perhaps one of the most natural acne treatments ever discovered. I’ve seen the beauty of sleep myself whenever I get more than 8 hours’ worth of sleep… most especially during weekends off. Bring me back to my old routine and there goes my zit-free face going haywire. This is because lack of sleep increases cortisol production which also increases the amount of androgens in the body, hence, there are more androgen-sensitive oil glands working heavier than usual. An overproductive oil gland equals oiliness and zits for zit-prone individuals like me.

The same principle of overworked androgen-sensitive oil glands is in play in women who get pimples when they’re about to have their period. This is because there’s a lot more androgens circulating in the woman’s body due to the natural shift in hormone-production. At times like these, keeping the face clean and bacteria-free is of utmost importance so you won’t get blocked pores which make you more predisposed to acne during periods.

However, when sleep becomes the culprit to acne, there is no other best solution for your acne problem than getting enough zzzzzs to keep your hormones from going haywire.

I just finished reading a thread from Candymag’s teentalk (yes, I know I am way past my teenage years LOL). I must say I am pretty amazed at how “knowledgeable” teens are nowadays when it comes to beauty and skin care. But then it also alarms me at the same time; because admit it or not, what they “know” is most often courtesy of Google whose reliability has always remained to be in question.

Having recently finished my rotation in Dermatology, I’ve come to appreciate a lot of facts and health and beauty practices which I weren’t fully aware of before. That is despite my addiction to googling the worldwide web. I must admit that what I’ve picked up from my 15-day stint as a pseudo-Dermatologist will never come up in any Yahoo or Google search. In fact, the actual experience of handling a patient beats the millions of search queries that these engines will harvest for you at any given time.

Perhaps what bothers me most about what I’ve witnessed to be going on online among many women is how the practice of self-medication has become more rampant than before. And for that I point the accusing finger towards Mr. Google because of his ability to come up with results from Medicare supplement to the latest fad in skin whitening. Don’t get me wrong. Internet results are not necessarily evil; but misleading advertisements under the guise of reliable medical information are and I sure hope that internet users have high enough IQ to know how to spot a fake from the real deal.

I’ve realized that Dermatologists in practice are losing in the battle against non-medical people peddling their skincare goods online. It’s actually a double whammy. For one, they lose potential patients. Second, they become the option of last resort of patients whose problems are even worse than how they started from trying various products without knowing their drug interactions. I’m a witness. Most of the patients I’ve seen would claim to have applied certain lotions, medications and ointments they could not even read. For me, such practice is the same as taking medications without knowing what they’re for. Perhaps most think that the harm would be less since they are topically applied. They have entirely forgotten however that the skin is virtually the largest organ in the body with a huge potential for systemic absorption.

I wish people would be more vigilant not only on the price tag of the goods they see online but moreso on the indications of their use; because no matter which way you look at it, they’re all drugs and just one and the same banana.