I really was not sure where to begin my search. What far away, hidden tribe in the Amazon rain forest, that had never had contact with the outside civilized world, thought urine was a good acne treatment? So like all good researchers I decided to start with a phone call to an expert on culture and customs.

Brad is my go to guy when I have a question that at first sight seems bizarre. He has an uncanny knack for explaining to me how something is not as crazy at it may first appear. He will also fill me in on the people that practice it and how long they’ve been doing so. But I have to admit. I was a bit surprised when I called, told Brad my question and he explained that urine therapy has been used to treat and prevent all kinds of illnesses and enhance beauty for a very long time.

It’s been used buy the holy men of India who have been drinking it for thousands of years. It’s rich in vitamins and minerals that are necessary for the human condition and although considered dirty, it is in fact sterile. Stop right there!

Unless my plane crashes high on a mountain top and survival is at stake. There are two things that I don’t ever consider indulging in. One is eating human flesh and the other is drinking my urine. It’s one thing to pat a little golden fluid on a couple of zits if it’s going to help get rid of them and give me a great complexion and nice glow at the same time. But I didn’t sign up to partake in the first morning midstream cocktail.

Brad told me I didn’t need to drink it straight, “There’s a benefit in mixing a couple of drops in your juice in the morning”. He went on about how people of the world think it can cure almost illness. Things like AIDS, smallpox, broken bones, constipation, fatigue, hepatitis, and the list goes on and on. I remained on the phone another hour and though I may not be an expert on all the urine treatments known to mankind. I have a pretty good idea how urine can help us in our search for the best way to get rid of acne.

So here’s where I come down on the issue. Look. if you want to splash some wee wee on a cloth and give it a shot on your zits. I really can’t see any harm. Who am I to buck thousands of years of acne and beauty research conducted by ancient civilizations . If you have followed this blog, you know I am a big believer of what may work for you may not have the slightest impact on someone else. That’s what makes us individuals. So who am I to say urine is not your magic acne cure.

But when it comes to drinking urine to get rid of my zits, I’ll take a pass. And here’s why. I don’t doubt Brad and his sincerity. That people world wide believe that drinking urine can cure and prevent all kinds of conditions. And acne may very well be one of them. Brad and others make a strong case that urine contains all types of vitamins and minerals that are beneficial and necessary for a strong properly functioning body. But this is also where their argument falls short. The way I see it. Anything that is contained in urine is something that you body already excreted. It didn’t need it or it would have used it. Simply drinking your urine is giving you body something it doesn’t need. It will just excrete it again. Seems to me that after everythig is said and done. The one thing your body needs now to get rid of pimples is a nice tall glass of water. Enjoy.

Now let’s begin.

There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t run across a reduce your stress, relax and unwind article in some magazine while I am standing in the checkout line at the drugstore or Winn Dixie. While I find many of the stress reduction techniques to be useful, I don’t recall ever seeing an article on ways to keep stress from entering your life in the first place? Ways to catch the horse after someone left the barn door open may make a good read but I am much more interested in not letting the horse out of the barn in the first place. I want to get to a point in my life where stress doesn’t even enter the picture. In order to reach that goal I have to eliminate the sources of stress in my life. It’s that plain and simple.

Don’t misunderstand, I am not dreaming the impossible dream of living a completely stress free existence. Just the simple act of living is going to entail some level of stress. Think about it. Stress is just a natural response to the challenges that life throws at us every day. Living stress free would be living challenge free and how much fun would life be without challenges, risks and taking chances, without even considering the rewards that go with conquering that unknown. No there is a certain amount of stress that comes with just living. I accept that fact; as a matter of fact I welcome and embrace it. What I don’t welcome is that stress that is unnecessary. Stress that is brought on by certain triggers that most people don’t even realize are happening. Triggers that are fully predictable and controllable yet we allow them to operate and creep into our lives.

Allow me to set up a fictitious situation to illustrate my point.

My husband over sleeps and is now in a hurry to get out the house and off to work. In his haste he nicks himself saving and must now change his shirt because some blood has stained it. This sets his clock further back and adds to an already stressful situation. He heads out the door without giving me a kiss goodbye or having a piece of toast to put on his stomach. Before he gets to the car he realizes he has left the keys on the hook next to the door so he’s back in and out again. As he drives off he realizes he has forgotten to put on his gold and stainless Ebel wrist watch but doesn’t feel he has the time to turn around to get it. I know it’s kind of silly but he feels naked without that watch and he decides it will just be a day he’ll go through without knowing the time. The it dawns on him the cell phone has a clock, but when he looks down at the console he realizes he forgot to plug the phone into the charger and it’s battery is going to be low. It’s about at this time he reaches the interstate and finds himself backed up in morning traffic and things go downhill from here. He’s starting to think about the unfinished work that is waiting for him at the office. The calls he didn’t return or the emails that went unanswered. That 10 am sales presentation he’s got set and how his boss is questioning his dedication to the company. And here he sits backed up in traffic getting more frustrated because he doesn’t think the car in front of him is being aggressive enough. He wants to get in the next lane because he thinks it is moving faster and when he makes an attempt someone cuts him off. Now he’s honking and cursing and those little veins in his forehead are turning purple and about to explode as he pulls into the company parking lot. The day at the office goes about as expected. He limps through the sales pitch and closed the deal but the order is for less than expected. His boss congratulated him for the new business but makes a crack about maybe next month they’ll submit a bigger order. More phone calls and emails will go unanswered and it’s off to the late evening traffic and home. Home where the main conversation with his kids will revolve around him almost killing himself tripping over the toys they left lying around. Where he’ll wolf down a dinner so he can position himself in front of the TV where he’ll spend the remainder of the evening. Then it’s off to bed so he can get up in the morning and do the same thing over again.

Ok, I admit. I took a lot of literary license in the example above. But it illustrates the point I want to get across. Most of the stress in an individual’s live is unnecessary stress that is brought on by one’s self. When you see it in a scenario like above it becomes quite obvious. It also becomes obvious how to get rid of that stress.

Identify things that trigger stress in your life. There probably is no more important step than this. I can’t even begin to imagine getting rid of stress without knowing what the things are that are causing it in the first place. Sit down and find a place where you can get in touch with yourself and discover what those stress triggers are for you. Are there certain people or relationships causing stress in your life? Do certain tasks or activities bring the added costs of stress when you under take them? Find the triggers you can eliminate from your life and do it. With those triggers you may not be able to eliminate try to find a way to reduce their stress level. Do what you can to make those triggers less stressful.

Stop procrastinating. Take care of matters when they arise. Putting off even small easy tasks has a way of weighing on your mind. Before you know it all those little annoyances can add up and start occupying a stressful place that is larger than their sum.

Be on time. And allow yourself adequate time. I don’t know about you. But whenever I feel the constraints of time bearing down on me my stress level elevate in direct proportion. I can’t stand being late and realized a long time ago that by allowing me plenty of time the issues caused by stress never has a chance to get a toehold.

Start something and finish it. I don’t know who started this whole idea that multitasking was a good idea but whoever it was needs to be committed to the asylum for the hopelessly insane. The idea of taking you focus off one task so you can totally refocus on another and then another has got to be out of their mind. These have to be the same people that are telling our kids the heroin junkie as in heroin chic is an attractive look they should be striving for. Look, start a task, finish it and move on whenever possible.

Stop trying to control everything in your life. Its impossibility and the perfect receipt to remain stressed out for life. Live life recognizing you can’t control every situation or other people and trying to do so is a lost cause. Learn to accept situations and others as they are. The sooner you realize the sooner you will find a whole lot of less stress in your life. It also a good time to examine your relationships with others, get rid of associations that make your life more difficult. Identify people in your life that are a drain on your energy and happiness and just cut them out of your life. I have a brother that I haven’t really spoken to in ten years. Many people when apprised of this fact think it’s absolutely awful. “He’s your blood you really need to talk, that’s horrible.” But the fact is when I assessed our relationship those many years ago I realized that he was adding nothing but stress to my life. I may not be able to choose my family but I certainly choose how I spend my time and live my life. I have never regretted the decision.

Try to live a simpler life. Today we are under constant bombardment to acquire things. More is better, he who dies with the most toys wins. This is utter foolishness promoted by advertisers to sell their clients products. If you have fallen under the spell of the American consumer treadmill, that fact alone has added enormous stress to your life. Have you noticed all the self storage places that have sprung up over the last two decades? Americans now have so much stuff that they have to rent places to store it because there isn’t enough space in their homes for it. How important is something to you that you lock it up in some dank dusty storage unit.

Relax, take it easy. Stop trying to rush through your life at warp speed. Savor the moments and mark the occasions. I attended a wedding some time ago where it was obvious that a great deal of time, planning and expense had gone into the affair. The happy couple was off in a side room where the photographer was taking pictures when I overheard the bride tell the groom “we’re missing our own wedding”. She was right, the reception had been going on for at least forty minutes and there they were still in picture mode. I grabbed three glasses of champagne delivered them to the couple and photographer. My parting words on my departure were” you guys sure are missing a great wedding”. They weren’t far behind me and to this day that lovely bride thanks me for those words of wisdom. Her exact words to me were”its one thing to mark the moments and quite another to live the moments”, I know I couldn’t say it better.

Stop trying to schedule every minute of every hour of everyday. Create more free time in your life. It’s not necessary to plan your life in such detail. One of the greatest most unforgettable adventures of my life was taking a trip to see a Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California. It was totally last minute spur of the moment deal where some tickets were given to me and a place to stay once I got there. I pretty much packed a couple of things and my husband and headed west. I have been all up and down the east coast but the west was unknown territory as far as I was concerned. The first day my husband and I traded off driving. We traveled about a thousand miles when we arrived in Albuquerque New Mexico very late in the evening and secured a hotel room. The next morning when I went out to load up the car I witnessed one of the most spectacular sunrises over the mountains I have ever seen. Since we were a couple of days from Jan 1, actually it was Christmas Eve we decided to see the Grand Canyon and made the only reservations we made the whole trip at the El Tovar. It shouldn’t have taken us too long to hit our destination but the weather was not going to cooperate. I remember diving out of Flagstaff, Arizona and how the snow was blowing sideways. We reached a peak were the visibility was zero and all I could think of was that scene in the Shining with Jack Nicholson. Anyway what should have been a simple drive turned into an adventure where you really don’t see the road you basically follow the tail lights of the truck ahead of you and if there aren’t any tail lights in sight you drive in the ruts. We got to the El Tovar late that night and had no idea of the spectacular beauty that awaited us that Christmas morning. We bought each other some native jewelry in the gift shop but the sight of the canyon that day was beyond anything we could have bought for any amount of money. As I write this I realize that I have no pictures of this entire trip. Yet I can close my eyes and see it as if it were happening as I type. I don’t want to short change any of the rest of the trip because it was just as fabulous as what I have described to you so far. We saw The Rose Bowl Parade, the Game, took a trip up the Pacific coast highway to San Francisco, saw the wine country. It was fabulous. But this is a blog about getting rid of acne, what are the best ways to get rid of pimples, zits and blackheads and I find myself going on and on relaying a story about a fantastic memory of a once in a lifetime trip. What’s really important here is for you (as well as me) to realize that great things can happen when you don’t live your life by a schedule. When you allow yourself to be free, slow down and instead of rushing through life, enjoy and savor where you are. Enjoy the moment, the food the company the fact that you are alive. Do these things and your stress will just fade away.

Finally be thankful. I don’t want to sound like a preacher but be thankful for all that you do have. I understand that in the world in which we life today it’s real easy to feel inadequate. The media constantly brings stories of people that are fabulous, rich and popular. Athletes that make millions of dollars and politicians that are loved by all. Recognize it for what it is. It’s a sales pitch. We live in an advertising age. Don’t get sucked into the pitch. Money doesn’t bring happiness. Neither does fame nor any of the things that are being sold. Happiness comes from a definition you create for yourself not one that is sold to you by others.

So there you go kids. If you are looking to get rid of acne caused by stress you need to remove as much stress from your life as possible. If you follow the stress reduction techniques that I’ve outlines above, you will find your life becomes less stressful and you acne problems and issues decrease in unison. If there is one thing that will always remain consistent with this site How to Get Rid of Acne, the best way to get rid of acne will always be the natural way to get rid of acne and one of the touchstones principals of that idea is reducing stress will not only allow you to live a healthier more productive life. But it will also help you get rid of acne. Peace

My fight with acne is a war and I need to regroup and have the general’s marshal up a troop surge so I can win this thing once and for all. I don’t want to be complacent and learn to live with acne, no matter how successful I have been. I need to rededicate myself to being rid of this cancer. Have it out of my body completely and accept nothing less than a total victory, which can only be accomplished by getting rid of my acne forever with its total annihilation. No more fighting acne. The solution is curing acne, finding that lotion, potion or pill that will wipe my acne seed from the face of the earth. Why aim for anything less? That will just assure the continuation of the condition. And I am no longer just fighting to fight, I’m fighting to win.

You see, a great deal of my teen acne issues revolved around bacne. While I got a good dose of face acne I also had a good face treatment in my arsenals that actually keep my face blemishes to a minimum. But those back zits, well that was a different story.

None of the pills or potions that my dermatologist prescribed (today it’s most likely tetracycline or minocycline) and suggested offered any relief. And it was the same negative response with the topical ointments and washes (Retin-A, benzoyl peroxide etal.). So there I was left to fend for myself. It took me awhile, but sure enough after some trial and error with various acne fighting solutions I stumbled upon a bacne natural treatment that worked for me many years ago which I was more than happy to impart to my friends 15 year old and now I guess I’ll relay to you.

Because the back is difficult for most people to reach by themselves you should invest in a long handled very soft bristled brush. This brush is used to exfoliate your back once or twice a week with a sugar scrub. If you want or feel you need to get a tad more aggressive, you can do a salt scrub, but don’t go nuts. When you are not exfoliating to remove dead skin wrapping your face clothing around the brush and using castile soap or your favorite acne cleanser makes an excellent every day cleansing instrument for your back or your whole body for that matter.

Wear loose fitting cotton garments whenever possible. If you don’t believe that tight fitting clothing and sweating are a cause of bacne, talk to some football players and ask them about forehead acne from tight fitting helmets and chest and bacne from shoulder pads. I saw it first hand with my son when he played football. So lay off the spandex and other tight fitting clothing that don’t allow your skin to breath.

You guys know how I feel about pimple popping. Don’t do it. I almost didn’t bother to even bring this up because the back is that one place that’s just about impossible for someone to do any self zit popping. But with all the You Tube acne video’s that I’ve seen on the net there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of accomplices willing to have at those nasty pimples wherever they may be. Besides bacne has a nasty habit of leaving scars and while they may not be as noticeable to you like face acne scars would be. A pitted and scared back is not a pleasant sight.

Now, here’s the secret to my bacne remedy. In a spray bottle mix 2 ounces of vinegar to 6 ounces of water and approx 1/32 of an ounce of tea tree oil. And after every shower spray a light mist over your back. While I have no scientific explanation why this acne home remedy works, I can say. It worked wonders for me, my friend’s 15 year old and my own son. Everyone reported their bacne was gone in 2 weeks.

Yep, that was the response from my adorable anonymous high school teen acne author who “volunteered” for the previous post. Bless his heart. He’s the spitting image of Zac Efron only better looking. Bangs over his forehead, flawless complexion and an ever present skull cap under a hoodie that I guess makes a seventeen year old boy “fit in” nowadays. Anyway when he came by after school and dropped off my teen acne request. We made some small talk (I was dying to see what he had written. But it was sealed in an envelope so I left well enough alone figuring he would have been embarrassed by me to read it in front of him) and while I thanked him as we walked to the door, he drew back his hoodie, removed his skull cap and whispered “how do you get rid of a blackhead” as he brushed back his hair.

What stood before me was a child with a porcelain complexion from the temples down and a forehead that resembled a pair of dice rolled box cars on a Las Vegas craps felt, there were so many blackheads. Fortunately, the cause of his forehead acne was a classic example of self induced hair acne aggravated by a skin hugging skull cap. I explained to my young friend that he was walking around with a pimple Petri dish for a forehead. The bacteria, grease and oil from his hair was fermenting under the dark, unventilated cover of his form fitting cap.

But not to worry because there was a quick acne fix for his self induced environmental condition. First, he needed to always make sure his hair was squeaky clean. If it wasn’t, then get it off the forehead until it was. Next, he needs to stop sleeping in the skull cap. Like any other part of the body. The skin needs good old oxygen, air, it needs to breath. Trapping the toxins and holding them against the skin by way of a skull cap and hoodie was a zit train wreck in the making. The cause of his blackhead problem was really as simple as that. I didn’t need to spend 4 years at the University of Acne, Pimples and Blackheads to see the solution to his problem. And if he simply pays attention to these two factors he would virtually do away with the growth of any new blackheads. Now, all we need to do is to get rid of the blackheads that are there now.

Enter the olive oil acne face wash. Once my Zac Efron look-a-like heard those words in the same sentence he responded in the manner in which I opened this post, “hum, olive oil acne”. I have to admit, I was not totally surprised. I fully understand the stigma that is attached to using olive oil to get rid of acne. We have been conditioned to think that some things are just downright nutty. It seems perfectly logical to think that if one of the cause of acne is the over production of oil by your sebaceous glands, then how in the world is adding more oil to your face (and olive oil at that) going to help? Of course your natural response to an olive oil acne face wash is going to be “don’t be ridiculous! That’s almost as stoopid (sic) as using chocolate to get rid of acne“.

Yet open your eyes and look around. There are thousands of commercial skin care products that are made from and promoted because they contain the oil of olives. Everything from soaps to creams to facial regiments and they charge an outrageous price to boot. Why olive oil helps particularly with the removal of black heads is beyond me. I heard the theories that like most things in the natural world “like things attract”. When viewed in that light it makes perfect sense. This would also explain why the first time I ever used olive oil; my blackheads were literally drawn to the surface of my skin right before my eyes.

There are many ways to apply olive oil. But the one that has always worked best for me and the one I relayed to my young acne patient was simply this. Pour about a quarter sized portion of olive oil in the palm of one hand. Dip two fingers from the other and apply to the face in a circular motion. Don’t be afraid to use as much oil as you feel is necessary. It’s great at removing dirt, grime and even make up. If your face was fairly clean to start with you can leave it on for a half hour or so and enjoy the benefit of an olive oil acne face mask. Or simply rinse with plenty of warm water and pat dry with a clean towel. If your skin still feels oily repeat the rinse. That’s all there is to it. No need to spend big money on some fancy high priced commercial products. Chances are you have some olive oil in your kitchen right now. If you feel wrong using such an inexpensive acne product, splurge and buy (EVOO) Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It really won’t make a difference when it comes to your acne. But your salads and other dishes will taste better.

That’s pretty much my olive oil acne face wash. And that’s pretty much how I explained it to my teenage acne student.

That night my phone rang and low and behold before I could say hello, it was “Ms. T, Ms. T, that’s the best acne advice anyone has ever given me. When I was applying the olive oil to my forehead it felt gritty as the blackheads started pop n to the surface. Thank you, Thank you and oh yeah I am going to do the other things you told me about too”!

God, life sure is great when enthusiasm comes back at you like that.

Guess there is nothing else to say about that but – Tah-dah another acne problem solved, this time with a whole lot of common sense and the tried and true acne olive oil trick. Next!

10.) Wear loose fitting cloth that allows your skin to breath.

9.) Avoid wearing makeup whenever possible and when you do try to stay away from oil based cosmetics. They are more prone to clogging pores.

8.) Get enough Zinc in your diet. Zinc is an effective antibiotic for preventing acne and a necessary element for the proper functioning of the sebaceous glands of the skin. Low levels of zinc can actually account for acne breakouts.

7.) Have a carrot. Carrots are great for your well being. You can add it to your diet raw, cooked or juiced and even use it as a facial mask for your complexion. They are high in vitamin A which is necessary for your skin but also an excellent antibiotic to help fight off acne.

6.) Use clean towels every day and change your pillow case every other day. Ok you caught me, this is really 2 tips for getting rid of acne in 1. But the point should be fairly obvious. Anything that comes in contact with you face should be clean. Reapplying yesterday’s bacteria by drying you freshly washed face with a soiled towel doesn’t make a lot of sense, nor does resting that face on a pillow case that hasn’t been laundered in days.

5.) Don’t over wash. The point of washing up is to remove the dirt, bacteria and grime of the day off your skin. Using harsh detergents and too much cleansing, does nothing more than dry out your skin, stripping your complexion of necessary oils and moisture which makes your condition worse.

4.) Properly exfoliate. It’s imperative to remove the dead skin cells from your skin so as not to allow a condition where the pores become clogged and bacteria is allowed to fester. But like tip number 5 for getting rid of acne, moderation is the key, once maybe twice a week.

3.) Keep your hair clean.

2.) Drink more water. This liquid is the secret fountain of youth.

And the number one tip for getting rid of acne is?

1.) Don’t pop your pimples. There really isn’t any good that can come from this practice so why indulge. For a little refresher see popping pimples.

Well there you have it kids, my top ten tips for getting rid of acne.

When I was young, if apples and acne were mentioned in the same breath, it would have immediately brought to mind an image of the apple cider vinegar bottle that was the main ingredient in my number one treatment for bacne. Unfortunately, vinegar having the acidic content that it does, made it too harsh for my facial acne. Oh, sure I could have diluted it with water down to a 9 to 1 solution but at that cut it was just ineffective for me.

As I got a bit older and began to understand that my acne is really the result of an imbalance that is taking place within my body. I started to learn what foods to avoid and more importantly those foods that were beneficial in my acne fight. The lowly apple came to my attention for its content of vitamins and minerals and especially the natural antioxidants that are packed in its peel.

Then the other day, I stumble upon an NYT article that professes a new apple acne cure in the form an Apple i Phone app. That’s right, you heard me. No need to continue popping pimples or spending tons of cash for some over the counter acne treatment. For $1.99 you can get rid of your acne while talking on the phone. According to the AcneApp description you can use the antibacterial blue light and or the anti-inflammatory red light to cure your acne. Of course not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, according to Dr. Alexiades-Armenakas “In studies we’ve done, data has shown that both blue and red light have a low efficacy range in acne treatment,” I tend to agree, but as always will keep an open mind and would love to hear your comments on Apple’s AcneApps.

So what makes benzoyl peroxide popular as an acne product? There are a couple of things. First, it is an excellent killer of the P acnes infection. It is this bacteria that is a leading cause of acne. While the bacteria are very common they usually don’t cause a problem. That is until sebum gets backed up in the sebaceous glands. This in turn, creates an ideal host situation for the P acnes to thrive resulting in the pain redness and swelling of pimples, zits, blackheads and cysts. Benzoyl peroxide is an excellent killer of P acnes and works by introducing oxygen into the skin pore. The bacteria are unable to survive in this environment and dead skin cells are simultaneously flushed from the pores. It’s actually a two for one process that is very effective at getting rid of acne.

However, benzoyl peroxide’s ability to kill these bacteria and act as a peeling agent is also one of the chief negative side effects of the product. You see, it can be rather harsh on your skin. Stripping the natural oils and leaving your skin dry, irritated and inflamed and on particularly sensitive skin can actually lead to chemical burning and swelling.

While I no longer have a need for benzoyl peroxide. As a teen it was a staple in my acne arsenal. When I first tried it, I found that it irritated my skin somewhat, but was informed that my body would develop a tolerance for it. The first couple of days there was some stinging and itching but sure enough, 3 day in and it was like using soap and water. I never had a problem with benzoyl peroxide again and had a good bit of success with it treating certain conditions as they arose. Benzoyl peroxide is definitely a product that shouldn’t be over looked as you looks for ways to get rid of your acne but don’t put blinders on either. While benzoyl peroxide acne products can work wonders, they aren’t the only way to get rid of acne.

Rudy Silva is a Natural Nutritionist. He is the author an acne e-book which can be found at: http://www.acne-remedies.for–you.info or for tips and information on skin care go to : http://www.good-skin-care.com