How to Reduce Stress?

Some said stress may cause worse acne!!

Stress is one of the biggest precursors of acne, especially in adult women. Controlling stress can help reduce the release of the stress hormone cortisol, and therefore reduce the severity of the acne. If you suffer from stress regularly, try and recognise the early symptoms and take action. Practicing relaxation methods can help prevent stress before it happens. Learning to relax more will not only help alleviate stress related acne, but will also help you cope with the psychological effects of living with acne.

Take a mini-vacation from the day's tensions. You'll feel a sense of calm and peace, refreshed and renewed. For examples, to chill out, read a book, listen to music, have a bath, go for a walk, whatever it takes for you to relax and de-stress. If you take time to relax, you'll find yourself being able to do more in the rest of your day because you're not wasting time getting stressed out.

• Breathing exercises - learn these techniques to breathe more effectively


• Meditation - simple methods of meditation that anyone can do
  

While some stress is actually necessary for you to function at your best, too much takes a mental and physical toll. Learn to manage stress levels to prevent anxiety, depression and other conditions.

Step One
Write down everything you have to do when you're feeling overwhelmed. Set a time frame, then block out when you will accomplish what. By divvying up your workload into manageable chunks, each with an allotted time, you'll feel more relaxed about the work before you.

Step Two
Concentrate on one task at a time. Stressing about work you haven't done yet only detracts from accomplishing the task at hand.

Step Three
Manage your energies wisely ' prioritize your workload and put in less effort for low-priority jobs, and avoid expending energy on unimportant tasks.

Step Four
Delegate responsibility and get outside help if you feel overwhelmed. Hire a gardener for your lawn or a baby sitter for your child when you feel pressed for time.

Step Five
Reward yourself for accomplishing things. Acknowledge the work you put in and give yourself a pat on the back, instead of immediately rushing into the next task and creating more stress.

Step Six
Take small breaks during work. Visit a nearby café or take a quick walk, or allow yourself 10 minutes to relax in your office: Close your eyes, strip your mind of work-related thoughts, visualize a pleasant landscape or vacation scene and relax your muscles.

Step Seven
Exercise regularly to maintain your health and release stress, or take up a hobby.

Step Eight
Give yourself vacations. If indulging in a long vacation (and staying away from work) seems even more stressful, try taking several short vacations per year.

Step Nine
Maintain your perspective by asking yourself, "Is the situation at hand really that serious that I should become stressed-out about it?"

Please remember! stress is directly linked to the worsening of acne, it might be helpful to develop techniques for bringing down the stress level in people suffering from acne and help them control their acne.

A Link Between The Diet And Acne

How to know acne is caused by certain foods, without having to buy anything?

Foods don't seem to be related to acne. But if you feel that some foods make your acne worse, you may want to avoid those foods.

That is easy. All you need to do is to eliminate ALL foods that can cause acne (for example: foods that increase Heat in the body, fat, spicy foods, garlic, and coffee), for about one to two weeks. During this period you will see a drastic improvement in your skin complexion and you should keep on maintain this strict procedure until your skin is totally clear, and then you have your proof. Of course you can keep on maintaining this diet forever, but that is extremely hard and also not necessary. Once your skin is totally clean, you can either do your own experiments or you can start adding 'munch-foods' that are the least 'acne-causing' to your diet, to the extend that you want your skin to be clean. The big difference is that you are in control about how clear you want your skin to be, instead of that the acne rules your life.

Diet factors -- Foods to avoid include:

• Dairy products (milk, cheese, cream, yogurt etc)
• Refined and cooked carbohydrates (flour, bread, rice, crisps and chips, sugar etc)
• Cooked fats (fried food, hydrogenated oils, roasted nuts)
• Meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb etc)

All the above foods are acid-forming in the body. If you really want to get rid of acne, you need to eat more alkaline-forming foods -- fresh vegetables and fruit, nuts (sparingly) and seeds. The foods to avoid listed above also cause a sluggish digestive system. If food travels too slowly through the body, toxins build up and aren't carried away by the usual processes and are expelled via the skin, causing acne. That's why you need to drink plenty of purified water or spring water (up to 8 glasses of water a day) to flush out toxins and transport nutrients.