Over the Counter Topical Niacinimide Products for Acne, Aging Skin

So I've been mixing a niacinamide capsule with aloe vera for years. Niacinamide is Vitamin B3.  It's a cell communicating ingredient that improves skin barrier function in a number of ways including reducing inflammation,  increasing ceramide production,  preventing water loss in skin, and improving skin elasticity. This makes it effective for acne, hyperpigmentation, wrinkles and more. And the best topical for aging, acne prone skin.

Per the Cosmetic Cop Ingredient Dictionary:

Topically applied niacinamide has been shown to increase ceramide and free fatty acid levels in skin, prevent skin from losing water content, and stimulate microcirculation in the dermis. It also has a growing reputation for being able to treat an uneven skin tone and to mitigate acne and the red marks it leaves behind (known as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation). It is an excellent ingredient for those struggling with wrinkles and breakouts. Niacinamide is stable in the presence of heat and light.

And in clinical studies:

Topical niacinamide reduces yellowing, wrinkling, red blotchiness, and hyperpigmented spots in aging facial skin. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18492135

I will still  mix my own to save money and avoid unnecessary chemicals. (Studies show a 5% solution works.)  Below are some options all with good reviews. Probably because Niacinimide works.  I'd show a picture of my mixture in my pretty vintage cut glass bottle, but I add turmeric and I accidentally added a ton. It's a scary yellow. Termuric is also beneficial for acne or other irritation prone skin, but it can stain. It hasn't stained my skin yet though. And I think a bit of a 'golden glow' would be a good thing on my white skin.

Wet N Wild Free of the Most Toxic, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Found in most Nail Polishes.

This article says that cheap drugstore brand Wet N Wild nail polish is free of the 3 worst chemicals that make nail polish one of the most toxic things you can do to yourself.

http://www.care2.com...ternatives.html

Resolve to Take Charge of Your Health This Year

Chronic inflammation ages you inside and out

The same anti-inflammatory diet habits that clear your skin & prevent wrinkles will also prevent, reduce and even reverse diabetes, cardiovascular disease.  Monitor what you can yourself and for the rest, see your doctor. But ask for copies of test results, review them yourself, and keep them to compare with the next tests.  And let food be your medicine. Along with sleep, exercise and other healthy lifestyle habits.

I began making this list of things to monitor for Vascular Disease after my mother has had 3 strokes in a little over a year despite not having any of the usual risk factors and seeming to be perfectly healthy and planning to live a long and active life. And while you younger people might not be concerned, be aware that these things are occurring in younger and younger people. Look at all the teenagers with type 2 diabetes now. That should be an old person's disease. 

Blood Pressure

Check blood pressure frequently. Get your own machine or do it at the drugstore.  Hypertension damages arteries. Test in both arms. A difference in the systolic of @15 or more points can be an indicator of increased risk for vascular disease. http://www.webmd.com...taken-both-arms

Blood Sugar/Insulin Metabolism 

Sugar floating around in the bloodstream pro-inflammatory, pro-oxidant and along with high blood pressure  causes the damage to arteries that are repaired by cholesterol. And when you consume more sugar than your cells can take in, your body will keep releasing more insulin desperate to get that sugar out of your bloodstream. Insulin

A1C hemoglobin test  looks for signs of frequently elevated blood sugar/insulin (which promotes chronic inflammation)

Serum Uric Acid
-Elevated serum uric acid is a consistent feature of the insulin resistance syndromes,
-Elevated levels associated with increased cardiovascular events/disease risk, increases LDL.
-Elevated by excessive fructose intake.

Markers of Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation and oxidation are the causes of heart disease, not cholesterol. It's also a major factor in aging and most non-infectious disease.

-C-reactive Protein
-Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase Lp-PLA₂ - an inflammatory enzyme implicated in the formation of rupture-prone plaque associated with stroke. elevated levels associated with stroke risk.
-Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)
-interleukin (IL)-6 - an inflammatory cykoteine
-serum amyloid A protein
-total homocysteine
-fibrinogen

Clogged Arteries

Plaque forms where arteries are damaged by high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar and is caused by LDL oxidized due to chronic inflammation.

Ultrasound scan of carotid arteries to look for plaque, one of the main causes of stroke. There's also an artery coming out of the heart that's a common culprit, but it has to be scanned with one of the various machines involving radiation so much more invasive. Plaque forms where arteries are damaged by high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar and is caused by LDL oxidized due to chronic inflammation.

-ApoB levels - Apolipoprotein B is a protein which can lead to plaques that cause vascular disease.  This keeps LDL circulating rather than binding to receptors. The longer it circulates the more likely it is to oxidize and form plaques in your arteries.

ApoB levels, along with it's ratio to apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) which is protective, is probably a much better indicator for cardivascular disease than the lipoproteins/cholesterol.

Diets high in fructose lead to elevated apoB levels.   Just 2 weeks of consuming 25% of calories from drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup dangerously elevates levels.

flow-mediated dilation - FMD is the gold-standard technique to measure endothelial function.  The endothelium is the lining of the blood vessels.  FMD is considered a good predictor of cardiovascular disease risk.

Coagulation of the blood
PTT - partial thromboplastin time - Tests the time it takes blood to clot
Patients with a normal PTT test result will take 25 to 35 seconds for their blood to clot.
Platelet Count AKA: Thrombocyte count; PLT http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/aptt/tab/test


About Cholesterol

A total cholesterol test is of little value unless it tells you your levels are over 300. In which case, you need more tests. Regardless, you really need to know your HDL, LDL & Triglyceride levels because its a ratio of those that provide useful information.  And you need to test regularly as they fluctuate.

These are the the useful things the tests can tell you:

• Trends – Are your triglycerides going down over time? That’s great. Is your HDL trending up? Also good.
• Normal fluctuations – Your numbers can jump around 20-30 points in either direction between readings without it necessarily meaning anything.
• TC:HDL-C ratio – Lower is better and indicates fewer LDL particles.
• Triglyceride:HDL-C ratio – Lower is better and indicates larger LDL (and, usually, fewer) particles. Ideally, this will be close to 1 or lower; one study (PDF) found that 1.33 was the cut off.

Prevention

Chronic inflammation is caused by stress, environmental toxins (pollution), lack of sleep, lack of exercise, prolonged intensive activity like body building, running 10 miles,etc.  And by Diet i.e. spiking insulin/blood sugar and too many inflammatory foods (hydrogenated/trans fats, Omega 6 fats (grain/grain oils) and foods to which you are intolerant/can't digest) in relation to anti-inflammatory foods (omega 3 fats, anti-oxidant rich plant foods, herbs, spices, teas).

Manage stress with yoga, meditation, walking or other relaxing activity; move around a lot every day; consume an anti-inflammatory diet high in fresh whole fruits, vegetables, spices & teas; sleep well at night and keep as natural as possible circadian cycle of exposure to bright outdoor light in the daytime and darkness at night.

Brad Pitt has Stopped Using Soap & Shampoo & So Have I

So, it's been in the news lately that Brad Pitt has Stopped Using Soap & Shampoo

My unwashed hair after 2 weeks.

Most articles and reports I've seen or heard have been silly gossip and ignorance, so don't bother looking for them.  But the fact is that we don't need all these chemical products we've been convinced to buy use, wash down the drain into our waterways and then dump the packaging into our landfills. Then buy more products to restore our skin & hair after the harm the cleansers did, wash down the drain into waterways, discard packaging into landfills, repeat. 

I've come to the conclusion that nearly every product in the skin & hair care aisle is there to treat a problem caused by some other product in the same aisle.  Not only do we not need them, they are bad for us.

Let Your Skin Function

As I've explained in my last post, your skin isn't dead leather & your sebum isn't dead grease. They are ecosystems for enzymes and other substances that play vital roles in skin function. Your sebum contains living cells that produce these substances. It protects and exfoliates. It inhibits DHT production which is a major factor in oily skin, acne and male pattern baldness.  It inhibits melatonin reducing hyperpigmentation, It produces retinoids & ceramides. All those things you pay big money for in moisturizers & creams. Ceramides & other lipids are also stripped away by cleansers.  Stripping your skin of all these things makes it hard for skin to function and causes the problems we then try to solve with more products.

I haven't used soap for anything but hand washing in about 2 years. Maybe 3. I didn't write it down. I am still constantly surprised by how soft my skin is and how much better it looks. And I get frequently comments on my lovely skin, which as a lifelong acne sufferer, always surprise me.  Sure, my skin is clear now, and it's not dry, flaky or wrinkled, but lovely? And comment worthy? That surprises me. (Reminder: No one looks as critically at your every flaw like you do! The don't even see those things you think are so horrible.) 

And before  you tell me how you have such oily skin this couldn't work for you, let me tell you, nobody has oilier skin and hair than I had. Nobody.  At least not back before my diet changes cleared my skin and made it just a bit on the oily side.

Now, not only do I not smell, I've had people ask me what perfume I was wearing.  And I don't wear perfume.  Perfumes give me headaches or make me nauseous. Sometimes both.  I use only a bit of oil and aloe vera for daily topical treatments. The only thing she could have been smelling was my hair conditioner I was using at that time, which couldn't possibly compete with a foul body odor if I had one. 

Which brings me to my next stage. No Shampoo.

My No Shampoo Story: Let Sebum be your Conditioner

Same hair in the best selfie I could do.
I'm so not photogenic

I'm still working this one out so will probably keep updating.  But here goes.  Background: I have fine thick tangly long hair that really shows the grease. For most of my post adolescent life, I not only washed my hair daily, I washed it in the morning so it would stay 'clean' throughout the day.  The night before didn't cut it. However, I had over the last few years--since my diet changes--been washing every other day, then every third day although it varied how 'dirty' it was that third day. I've off and on done the conditioner only method in which you wash with a cheap, no silicone hair conditioner.  A couple of months ago, I started the No-Poo method of washing with a teaspoon of baking soda in water then conditioning with a diluted Apple Cider Vinegar rinse. That method was fine at first, but doing it every three days left the ends dry and unmaneagable. Also, vinegar is a grease cutter (great in the kitchen & the grill). It loosens oil from the scalp, and maybe breaks it down and deposits the residue on my hair.  Whatever. The result was that the hair on the back of my head felt waxy and stiff.  I've never liked stiff hair. I could try putting it only on the ends, but I wanted to restore the PH of my scalp.  The only time my hair looked nice was in the week after I colored my hair and used the conditioner the color came with. I could go a whole week without washing at that time and my hair just fell into place. I didn't even need a hair brush in the first several days.

But those weeks without washing got me thinking of going water only.  I'd started bathing my dog with water only as he has skin problems too and I didn't want to impair his skin function.  It works pretty well for him. It removes the doggy odor and left his fur feeling clean & soft. Plus it's a lot faster, getting this horrible punishment over with quicker and eliminating the risk of not getting all the soap rinsed out causing itchier skin.  I wanted that too.

So, 4 weeks ago, I stopped using the baking soda and have only done water only.  I first went two weeks without washing. And let me tell you, it gets bad. Just put your hair up and get through it, because it miraculously gets better. For me it was bad for a couple of days near the end of the week. Really waxy & greasy. but about day 6 I woke up with lovely hair. By lovely, I mean it's shiny. It has body, something I've never had. It's not flyaway or frizzy. It seems thicker. And it doesn't tangle and I have always had horribly tangly hair.  I don't need conditioner, yet it's manageable all the time. I can get out of bed and just comb into place with my fingers. Now, it's not what I used to call clean, but since I'd been washing every three days and being a bit oily on that third day, I've adjusted that perception.

Now, here's my problem.  After 2 weeks including a week of lovely hair, I washed water only & had to go through the whole thing again with the really bad greasy period. Now, I did wash with very hot water as it's winter, my bathroom is cold and my tile tub surround just radiates cold at me. I can't stop myself from turning the temperature up in the shower.  I'm considering the conditioner only wash. Or washing in tepid water in the sink or kneeling outside the tub with the sprayer. I'm hoping to wash water only once a week or whenever needed to remove airborne soils & smells without going through the greasy period.

However, today it's time to color my hair again. So that's my experiment for the next two weeks. To see how my hair responds to that. The conditioner only will have to be a couple of weeks from now. The goal is to wash water only once a week or whenever needed to remove airborne soils & smells without going through the greasy period. I'll keep you informed.

Linoleic acid is a vital component in normal sebum that does what it is supposed to: Protect the skin.

Your skin isn't a dead leather outer wrapping and your sebum isn't a layer of dead grease. Both are composed of active living cells that perform many vital functions.  Soaps, cleansers and topicals prevent them from functioning. 

Linoleic acid is a vital component in normal sebum that does what it is supposed to: Protect the skin.  

 Skin and sebum in people (and other animals) prone to acne and other skin problems have been found to be deficient in linoleic Acid. Sebum deficient in linoleic acid is hard and sticky and clogs pores. It looks greasy and has fewer protective and anti-inflammatory properties.

Key points:

• Acne and other problem prone skin (in people and animals) are lacking in linoleic acid.
  Linoleic acid is a component in the ceramides that make skin strong and impermeable and thus less easily ruptured and less sensitive to irritations.
• This deficiency can be changed with topical application.
• Grape seed and Safflower oil are over 70% linoleic acid.
• Linoleic Acid inhibits the enzymes that convert Testosterone to DHT. Both types. So it can help with hirsutism, hairloss and acne.
• Linoleic Acid is anti-inflammatory and protects the skin from UV damage.
• Linoleic Acid inhibits melatonin and thus fades hyperpigmentation.
• Linoleic acid is anti-microbial, as in anti P. Acnes blamed for acne formation.
• Linoleic acid deficiency causes an increase in interluekin -1a which is a factor inflammatory response.
• Tretinoin (Retin A & the like) alters the lipid profile improving the linoleic acid composition.
• Linoleic Acid improves the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR) situation that regulates sebum production and hyperkeritinization/differenciation (and is what accutane affects)
• Increase formation of Lamellar granules that produce the enzymes involved in normal exfoliation. They also form the armor that makes your skin strong. Acne prone skin has been found to contain fewer lamellar granules.
• Thyroid hormones affects your lipid profile. One way that perhaps both hypo and hyperthyroid conditions affect acne.
• We don't necessarily have a dietary or systemic deficiency in linoleic acid. Just in the sebum and thus a topical application is the best course of action. This tendency is genetic.

Examples of skin problems affected by a deficiency in linoleic acid include acne, eczema, psoriasis, keratosis pilares, hypersensitivity to allergens, and dry itchy sensitive skin of all types--aka dermatitis. This applies to all mammals, such as your itchy pet dog.

Slaves to Sugar: History of Sugar article in National Geographic

Sugar Cane was first domesticated in Papau New Guinea 10,000 years ago.  It spread slowly reaching the Asian mainland around 1,000 BC.  By 500 AD it was being processed into white powder in India.  The Arabs perfected the technology and it was brought back to Europe by the British and French Crusaders. But so little trickled into Europe it was only consumed by the nobility and classified as a spice. And this was one of the spices they sought when Columbus and other explorers set off in search of a route to the East.  Columbus brought cane with him and thus the cultivation of sugar cane in the Caribbean. And the clearing of rainforests and the decimation of the native inhabitants.  And the slave trade, because growing and refining sugar cane is brutal work.   Throughout the Caribbean millions died in the fields and pressing houses or while trying to escape.  The Portuguese turned Brazil into an early boom colony with more than 100,000 slaves churning out tons of sugar.

On top of all this evil, there's the damage it does to your health.  Almost any of the major health conditions rampant today can be traced to the consumption of added sugar.  Because as more and more cane was planted, the price of the product fell. As the price fell, demand increased. Eventually, it became a staple for the middle class, and finally the poor. 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/sugar/cohen-text

How to Eat Well for Skin and Health while Indulging a Little

So Gynneth Paltrow has been advising people on how she eats well, but indulges on favorite foods.  

The things is, it isn't tricky.  And I don't understand why people make it so hard that they need Gwynneth's advice.

 What you do is eat mostly very well. And occasionally indulge a little. 

See? It's no so hard. Eat mostly real, whole nutritiously dense anti-inflammatory foods, as I've mentioned over and over in past posts such as the two below.  You do that. And a few Oreos won't hurt you. Although, I'll bet as you start eating better and trying quality foods, you won't like those Oreos so much anymore.  They don't compare to quality chococolate.

An Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Clear (and Wrinkle Free) Skin

What To Do for Clear Skin: The Basics