Certain situations at work have huge potential for causing stress—and an unwanted breakout of acne.  But by being organized and easing up on self-imposed time pressures, you can dodge these situations, skip the stress and reduce acne.

Meeting a deadline
It may not be uncommon for your boss to ask you to complete a project on short notice. You can use this opportunity to flounder or shine. Being organized in general can help make a pressing deadline a little less stressful. Practicing good time management skills will also reduce stress when you’re crunched for time. Consider writing out a to-do list or making a schedule to help stay on track even when a major deadline is looming. Taking these methodic steps will increase your confidence level and help you avoid stress.

Arriving on time
To reduce stress from being late, plan for unforeseen delays and give yourself extra time to reach your destination. If you arrive early use the extra minutes to freshen up, get organized, return a phone call that you thought you’d have to delay, and delight in the fact that you avoided the stress of cutting it too close!

Making a presentation
Many people become anxious about giving a presentation whether it’s at work, a PTA meeting, or in front of a volunteer group. Taking the necessary time to get ready, though, can help you avoid stress. Plan ahead so you have plenty of opportunities to practice your presentation. Take the time to prepare, review, and give a dry run of your presentation in front of a friend or your spouse to build up your confidence, because  if you feel confident about your knowledge of the material, you will reduce stress. If you’re still feeling nervous, relaxation techniques such as deep breathing before, during, and after your presentation,can help slow your heart rate and make you feel calmer.

In 2005 the FDA provided a public draft guidance document to the pharmaceutical industry on how to develop drugs to treat acne vulgaris, or acne. The draft guidance document contains the FDA’s current thinking on the development of acne drugs and the methods that should be used.  Some of the guidance document information is summarized below. At the time of this writing the FDA document had not been finalized.

Types of Acne Lesions
The two major types of acne lesions are classified as non-inflammatory and inflammatory. Non-inflammatory acne lesions are more commonly known as whiteheads and blackheads. Inflammatory acne lesions include papules and pustules and are more deeply seated in the skin than the non-inflammatory lesions.

How Acne Severity Is Rated
Currently there is no standardized method for rating the severity of acne outbreaks. Several methods have been proposed, but each has its difficulties. A sample scale for rating acne severity is summarized below, from least to most severe:

• (0)  Clear skin with no inflammatory or non-inflammatory lesions
• (1)  Almost clear; rare non-inflammatory lesions with no more than one small inflammatory lesion
• (2)  Mild severity; greater than Grade 1; some non-inflammatory lesions with no more than a few inflammatory lesions (papules/pustules only, no nodular lesions)
• (3)  Moderate severity; greater than Grade 2; up to many non-inflammatory lesions and may have some inflammatory lesions, but no more than one small nodular lesion
• (4*)  Severe; greater than Grade 3; up to many non-inflammatory and inflammatory lesions, but no more than a few nodular lesions
  (* worsening beyond Grade 4 is possible).

Acne Drug Treatment Study Groups
Pharmaceutical companies recruit participants to form test groups, which consist of people with similar symptoms who use the medication to test its effectiveness. Acne drug test groups should be large enough to be statistically significant so that any claims of success and safety can be supported. Test patients are usually recruited during their most severe acne breakouts.  Acne drug trials are recommended to be randomized, blinded, multicenter trials, and other requirements will also apply. A control or placebo group should be utilized.  Furthermore, those doing testing should recruit test populations that are representative of the age, race, gender, and geographic location of acne patients in the United States.

Determining The Success Of Acne Drug Treatments
Acne severity is rated at the beginning and end of every test. Photographic evidence and/or lesion counts may also be taken. It is proposed to measure the success of acne medications as either a success or a failure, based on one of these two methods of measuring success:

1. Success meaning a rating of clear skin or almost clear (severity rating 0 or 1) within the test period; or
2. Success meaning an improvement of 2 severity grades within the test period. Under this definition, a successful test subject would have a severity improvement from 4 to 2 within the test period, as an example.

The Final Decision On New Acne Drugs
Several phases of testing are recommended for proposed acne drugs. Studies must be designed to account for effects such as test dropouts. Rigorous data analysis must be performed in conformance with FDA regulations. Only acne drug test data that has been validated and undergone quality assurance testing should be submitted to the FDA for approval.  Only through a rigorous and tightly-controlled testing and analysis procedure, followed by FDA approval, can new acne drugs be made available to the public.

Acne can be embarrassing and painful—those  large red spots and lumps under your skin can hurt and take away your self confidence.  There are a lot of acne products on the market.  They come in a variety of forms and all have some benefits.  But, the best method of treating acne is to ensure that you stick to a regimen of washing your face daily.

Step one – find the right acne product.  There are a lot out there.  Look for a good quality benzoyl peroxide product that doesn’t irritate your skin.

Step two – Wash your face daily, preferably at night. The acne medication you searched high and low for has some powerful ingredients.  However, if you do not wash your face before applying them you are dramatically reducing their effectiveness.  The creams and gels will help your acne, but only if the excess oil is first removed with a cleanser.

One thing to remember – soap can dry your skin, so try to use a specially-formulated cleanser. The best idea is to choose the same manufacturer as the cream or gel your have purchased.

It isn’t just teenagers who are plagued by zits ­– a huge number of adults are cursed with problematic skin.  Adult acne is increasing and a recent study in the US shows that 25 per cent of women aged 30-40 will suffer from the condition.

Stress is a major cause of the spot epidemic.  Acne is caused by hormonal changes normally onset by puberty but it’s now seen in adults who lead more stressful lives.

Stress stimulates the production of male hormones. The major culprit is dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which increases the production of the skin’s natural oil, sebum, clogging the pores.  The bacteria associated causes acne to thrive in these conditions, feeding on the sebum and irritating the glands, which leads to spots.

We all hate getting acne.  But, it’s not something that can’t be dealt with.  Basically, you have three areas of help:

• Going to the pharmacy and get something basic to treat your acne
• Going on-line to get a better quality treatment
• Going to the dermatologist to get a prescription

All of these efforts are for not if you’re not cleansing your skin properly.  If the oils on your skin aren’t getting trapped in the first place there won’t be a place for the bacteria to grow.

Using a mild exfoliating cleanser every day will help.  They work be removing dead skin cells, thereby reducing the likelihood of pore-clogging bacteria to increase.

Our CoralActives Retinol Exfoliating Cleanser is a perfect way to keep your skin clean.  If your acne is more moderate follow up with our Penetrating Acne Serum Gel.

Wash your face, apply the gel, and go to bed.  Simple.