How your Lifestyle Causes Acne

By Teja Chavali

Had a late night? Didn’t remove your make up before going to bed? Stressed about work or your life? How we live our lives determine how our bodies change. Many factors in our daily lives affect our health and when the body is unhealthy it shows mainly on your skin. Things like stress, smoking, alcohol, bad eating habits, and lack of exercise show immediately on your skin. Many people may have problems with their hormones or maybe having an adverse reaction to a certain type of medication. These are factors we do not have in our control. But making small lifestyle changes can go a long way to have a healthy mind and body. And when your body is happy, it shows.

Here are a few things that reap havoc on our skin and what you can do about it.

Smoking: I know it is very hard to give up smoking. Whatever the reason is for smoking, one thing is sure; it is making your skin age faster than you think. It dries your skin, especially around your lips. Lips are the most sensitive part of your face, and the only part that cannot rehydrate itself on its own. Most of us know smoking is harmful, yet we cannot seem to stop. Smoking fills your lungs with nicotine and tar. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen your body needs to function at its most optimal capacity. Your skin starts to shrivel and age faster due to lack of oxygen. Your skin starts to breakout in acne. And this coupled with smoke from the cigarette leaves marks and pigmentation all over your skin. When the smoke hits the face, the chemicals in the cigarette spoil the skin’s natural glow, making it dull. Try to avoid smoking as much as possible. It may be hard to stop suddenly, but trust me with the effect it has on your skin, it’s totally not worth it. For your lips, wet a green tea bag and gently squeeze out the water. Press it on your lips for 5mins. This helps in replenishing the lost moisture on your lips.

Dehydration: We all think we drink enough water every day.  But the fact remains that most of us hardly drink even a litre of water per day. We’ve all heard that drinking minimum 8 glasses of water a day can help you keep your body hydrated. Then why do we ignore it? From the moment we get up we are busy with something or the other. We forget to drink water because we think we are hydrating ourselves by having other fluids like cool drinks, coffee or tea. Drinking unhealthy drinks like soda or alcohol can mess up your body system resulting in breakouts. The body needs water for rehydration. It is an important part of our lives. Try drinking minimum of two litre of water every day. Drink green tea to hydrate and to flush out toxins from your system. Drinking water brings a nice glow to face and a healthy hue to your cheeks.

Stress: These days we live our lives with so much stress that our poor skin takes its toll. The result? Acne! If you are having a bad day at work, or you are stressed about a relationship, take a step back and relax. We all have bad days and each of us react differently to it. Close your eyes and take a deep breath when you are in any stressful situation. Sometimes just slowing down your breathing and taking a moment to analyse the origin of stress can help in a big way to deal with what is bothering you and what you can do about it. We need to remember that sometimes certain situations are not in our control and that we cannot achieve anything by getting stressed about it. Learn to meditate at your own pace. Sitting in a park and enjoying the warm sun on your skin can be very relaxing. The sun also gives your skin vitamin D.

Let your skin breath: Women love their make-up. But what happens when you don’t remove your make-up before you go to sleep? The pores on your skin get clogged by chemicals that are not supposed to be there in the first place. This allows for bacteria to build up and then to acne. Most of us never leave our skin alone. We pick at it till me scar it for life. Hence avoid products that have way too many chemicals in them. And always wash your face of all the make-up and dirt you accumulate during the day. Let your skin breathe. It is difficult to go anywhere without make-up, especially when you have bad skin. But try using products that are more or less natural, or that are made for sensitive skin.

These are a few of the many things that affect our skin. After all our skin is who we are; and having a healthy, glowing skin, reflects good health and a happy mind.