sovereignsdaughter

I wrote about the connection between various foods and Adult Acne breakouts . Naturally, the time around Valentine's Day brings up questions about the chocolate-breakout connection. Dermatologists have long poo-pooed the idea that there is a connection between the two, and I think it's because the focus was always on the chocolate -- that is, the cocoa.  There's more here than meets the eye! Think about this: when are you most likely to eat chocolate? Around your period!   And when do you break out the most?  You get the idea... However , and this is a big however, with mounting evidence that there is indeed a connection between dairy and some acne conditions, and between sugar and increased inflammation in the  body leading to worsening of existing acne conditions,  chocolate is starting to be seen under a new light. Considering that most Valentine's Day gifts are in the form of milk chocolate, let's examine dairy first... The most common claim that I hear...

As an Adult Acne Specialist , I get asked all the time how to get rid of large pores - slash - make them smaller - slash - make them disappear, etc. The answer is pretty disappointing (no, they cannot be shrunk), but also kind of fascinating.   There is, however, a way to prevent them from looking bigger than they already are. Large pores are a sign  that your skin is genetically oily. Right at puberty, as your testosterone rises to start your journey to adulthood, so does your skin’s oil production.   As described in a previous post , testosterone is responsible for oil production in your skin.   Now, since before puberty there is so much less oil being produced, your baby pores have no reason to be anything but invisible.    However, as soon as the rising testosterone comes and tells your oil glands to start pumping out more oil, more room needs to be made.   So, the funnel-like mouth of each pore, also known as the Ostium (the very opening of t...