Your Teenager’s Acne

It can be heart breaking to see your teens suffer from acne. The low self-esteem it causes can be extreme. Teens, both – male and female are very sensitive about the way they look. Acne can be hard to get rid of and also leave scars. A good course of action is to prevent them from starting in the first place by taking some preventative measures.

Usually a bad case of acne starts with a blackhead. Your teen picks at this thinking it is a pore filled with dirt. This is an illusion Oil, dead cells and other substance block the pore and mix with bacteria and it is the exposure to air that turns it black. Once these become inflamed they turn into the angry red pustules we know as teenage acne. What it really amounts to being are a hole in the skin that can become inflamed.

Over time these inflamed pustules develop white heads and when these break they cause horrible scarring on the face. Many teens, especially girls find this quite disfiguring. Unfortunately covering up these scars with make up is also not such a hot idea. It can make the acne problem look even worse.

There are some acne home remedies you can try. Some are actually silly sounding but they do work. Some might worsen the condition. Common remedies include toothpaste, egg whites, ice, salt water, and steam, wheat germ and apple cider vinegar. Usually these ingredients are applied directly to the acne pustule in an attempt to shrink the inflammation.

Your teen's acne may also respond to Acutance. If it is you that has the acne keep in mind that you may not be pregnant while taking it. The same goes for a pregnant teen if you should, God forbid, happen to have one!

Sometimes it is just hormones. Birth control pills may be prescribed to a girl to help correct her acne in that case. Some teen girls break out in acne around their period just like we do. In adult acne incases the pustules almost always develop along with a severe case of premenstrual syndrome or PMS.

There are also a lot of herbal remedies for acne. Herbs such as juniper, dandelion root, chamomile, lavender, bergamot, and burdock root can be used to reduce toxicity and improve the overall condition of the skin. Echinacea, pokeroot and red clover may aid us.

Witch hazel is a cheap medicine that can help dry up acne and it has excellent astringent properties.

If scarring is really bad you can get acne laser surgery. This can help clear it completely. Laser surgery is very safe and there is next to no risk of damaging the skin surrounding the scar. This is important as acne scars can affect a person's self-esteem for a very long time in life.

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Cooking When It’s Hot

When it's hot who feels like cooking a heavy meal? Not me. Why heat up the kitchen. It is time to make lighter meals for you and the kids because the heat reduces the appetitive anyway.

In the summer I just go for the fresh fruits and vegetables. You can make all kinds of different simple and delicious dishes with them. Most need very little preparation to make them absolutely delicious.

You can also use spices to add some pep to a meal that might seem too plain (as is often the case with dishes that consist of just cut up vegetables.) Use spices to add pep to a meal instead of drowning everything in a heavy sauce. There is also no need to cook anything. I like grating vegetables in the summer to make them more palatable.

You can also experiment with lettuces. They can be used as a base for a dish as in making a bed of lettuce or as part of the salad. You should also not use too much dressing as it can be really fattening for both you and the kids. I like to make my own oil and vinegar dressings for a salad. These dressings give a light taste that adds a spicy taste to the dressing for different flavors.

Lettuce of all kinds is a good platform to start building a meal on. You can add potatoes, macaroni, chicken, shrimp, turkey and other things to lettuce. I sometimes just pour hamburger made with taco mix and grated cheese over a bed of lettuce. You can make a complete meal like this in a matter of minutes and you won't bore your kids taste buds (or your own!). Also these types of meals can be very nutritious as well.

To save time I sometimes buy precooked meat or that chicken that is part soy in the store and just dump it in the salad.

One of the most nutritious meals you can make is a macaroni salad. My kids love it with peas, cheese and tuna. They love this mix of foods whether they are cold or hot. Sometimes I add chopped up boiled eggs or a few chopped up raw tomatoes to this mix as well.

Another macaroni recipe I like is eggs, onions, tuna, relish, mayonnaise and cup of mustard. This makes a cool spicy macaroni salad dish. Of course you could add a little yellow or red curry powder to this to spice it up.

Of course if it is really hot I make sure there is a lots of cool fruit on hand for dessert. My kids love frozen fruit chunks, especially grapes. Frozen bananas with chocolate drizzled all over them are also a nice idea.

Don't bother slaving over the oven in the summer. Instead save energy, air conditioning bills and keep your kitchen cool.

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