Don’t Let Acne Spoil The Party This Summer

Acne is one of the most common, frustrating, and annoying skin conditions effecting people of all ages. It is a highly personal nuisance, and most of the treatments people use every day are ineffective and/or even harmful. Truth be told, there is no magic bullet to eliminate acne from occurring in most people.

The best way to minimize your chance of developing acne is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Diet, exercise, cleanliness, sufficient rest, and managing stress are all very important is decreasing acne outbreaks throughout your lifetime.

We now have additional scientific knowledge along with a greater understanding of how our body organs function and how to keep them in balance. This improved understanding of our microbiomes has shed light on ways to treat acne in a safe and healthy manner. For the record, there are multiple, distinct microbiomes in and on our bodies. The most commonly studied ones include the gut, skin and oral.

For years people have been ingesting probiotics to enhance their health. Today, we have also been able to confirm that probiotics applied to the skin are also effective in treating a variety of skin conditions including acne.

In patients with acne, living microorganisms on the skin are recognized as foreign by the body’s immune system. The immune system springs into action to counter this potential threat, resulting in the inflammation, redness, or bumps common with acne.

Using probiotics such as Columbia Probiotic Concentrate & Probiotic Complex on the skin prevents the skin cells from seeing the bad bacteria and parasites that can cause this immune system response. This is known as bacterial interference, as probiotics protect the skin and interfere with the ability of bad bugs to provoke an immune reaction.

We also have evidence that when Columbia SkinCare strain-specific probiotics are placed in contact with skin cells, they calm the parts of the cells that may want to react to the presence of bad bacteria that they see as a threat. These healthy signals produced by the probiotics stop the skin cells from sending “attack” messages to the immune system that result in flares of acne.

The rapid increase in the medical use of probiotics has confirmed their excellent safety profile. They have been used in treating inflammatory skin conditions, including atopic dermatitis and their role in acne, wound healing, and sun barrier-protection is well accepted. For this reason, the use of probiotics represents an alternative, and a more holistic approach to treating acne.