First of all, let's talk reality. When you're a teen, your life is pretty much your friends, your school, your... life. It's tough to see the big picture sometimes. You have stress just oozing out the ears and taking over your entire existence practically. It's a rough world out there for teens these days. However, one of the first key ingredients to fighting acne is learning to relax and shake off the stress.



It's true: stress provokes acne. It's not just your hormones! You can, in fact, learn to deal with stress and in many cases clear up most of or all of that acne! This is one of those tricky areas where it's not concrete science. But it's worth a shot, no?

Here are a few tips. Go running. Go biking. Go walking. Select an activity that allows your mind to wander a bit. These activities in particular, besides being good for you, are very therapeutic in nature. They allow you to just chill out and be one with the road, nature, and your soul.

Another great way to shake off that stress is through meditation. Meditation does not have to be some fancy schmancy hour-long thing. You can simply sit down for a few minutes each day and think about you, your life, your past... just think! Learn to get in the zone and calm your mind. You can also put on some relaxing music and just let your worries melt away. Learning to relax and nullify your stress will make a huge impact on your health and your acne.

Secondly, your diet does play a role in preventing acne. In 90% of acne patients, acne is caused by consuming foods that can aggravate the condition. That's no joke! In 2003, a study proved that diet does play an important role in acne infection and that Western diets may be the root cause of 79% to 95% American teenagers having acne. The study was published in the December issue of Archives of Dermatology and it centered around village people's dietary habits on Kitava Island, Papua New Guinea. In more than 1,200 people studied, no acne was found. The study included 300 teenagers and young adults from 15-25 years old.

Here are some dietary tips to help out with acne:

1.) Eat organic foods, particularly when dealing with meat. Hormones and synthetics used to produce the "enhanced" processed American foods we see everywhere actually aggravate acne and make it much worse.

2.) Too much dietary fat aggravates acne.

3.) Not enough anti-oxidants and plant-based nutrients cause the skin to become irritated and break out.

Our final suggestion is to get help! There are products (such as Acnezine) that pretty much take care of the entire problem for you. They cost money, so this may not be the solution for everyone. However, if you are looking to eliminate acne in a few days as opposed to months of lifestyle change, then they will definitely do the job.

Good luck and stay healthy!