Most of you got a few breakouts of acne as teenagers.  It’s practically a rite of passage into adulthood that you just put up with and dealt with the best you could.  But if you’re over 40 and being plagued by acne breakouts again, you don’t want to suffer it out.  You’d rather get rid of it as fast as possible.  New research shows that a powerful nutrient found in grapes can help.

Resveratrol Helps Win The Battle Against Adult Acne

Like the hormone imbalances of your teenage years, over-40 hormone imbalances can also stir up a mean breakout of acne.  The closer to menopause and andropause that you get, the more likely it is that you’ll be inconvenienced, and embarassed, by an adult acne breakout, usually just before some important social event.  For example, on the day you’re supposed to give an important presentation to your company, you wake up with a mine field of zits across your forehead or 1 or more red dots across your nose or chin.  So, what do you do?

Many people resort to any home remedy they can think of.  Others run to the drugstore and find an acne cream with benzoyl peroxide to help clear it.  Many simply put makeup to cover and hope no one notices and they go away fast.  Treating acne in the U.S.  is a $3 billion  a year struggle with benzoyl peroxide, retinoids and antibiotics being used the most.

Recent dermatology research out of UCLA has shown that adding the powerhouse antioxidant resveratrol can help you both prevent and get rid of those disturbing adult acne breakouts fast.

Resveratrol is found in grapes.  In the last few years, health researchers have hailed it as one of the best anti-aging nutrients out there.  Its strong antioxidant properties help protect your cellular DNA against free radical damage, thereby extending longevity and good health.

Resveratrol also has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties that help fight the fungus rot that attacks grape vines.  Those benefits transfer to you when you drink red wine, or grape juice, or eat concord grapes.  It’s these properties that the UCLA researchers have found so helpful in clearing acne quickly.

Now, benzoyl peroxide, the main ingredient in most OTC acne medicines also kills bacteria effectively.  But, it can also make your skin red, sting, and damage skin cells in the process.  The UCLA researchers found that by adding resveratrol to a benzoyl peroxide preparation, it enhanced its acne clearing capability.  So much so that new products are soon to be launched that contain a compound of resveratrol and benzoyl peroxide.

Adding resveratrol to common OTC acne preparations boosts the bacteria killing properties of benzoyl peroxide to kill bacteria.  Resveratrol slows down bacterial growth for a longer period of time, allowing the benzoyl peroxide to work better.

Combining the 2 agents also takes advantage of another important health benefit of reservatrol– its anti-inflammatory properties.  Using resveratrol with benzoyl peroxide stops the redness, stinging and skin cell damage of using benzoyl peroxide alone, says the UCLA researchers.

The use of benzoyl peroxide alone can produce free radical damage to skin cells, which decreases its healing ability.  Like strong sun exposure, it may also set the stage for developing certain skin cancers.  Adding resveratrol actually counteracts this free radical damage, protects your skin cells and promotes better healing from acne breakouts.  Better healing skin means less scarring.

But do you really need benzoyl peroxide to clear acne? No, you don’t. A separate study out of Oxford University found that resveratrol alone was successful in clearing acne-causing bacteria on its own.

If you’re getting frequent outbreaks of acne, you may want to take advantage of resveratrol containing anti-acne skin products now available like Dermagist and others. You’ll also want to benefit your overall health by adding a resveratrol supplement to your diet everyday, about 100 mg.

Other things you can do to combat developing adult acne breakouts include:

1.  Limit refined sugar and empty carbs in your diet.

2.  Add good fats, Omega-3’s to your diet, 1-2 grams a day.

3.  Do “sweat producing” aerobic activity every day for at least 30 minutes.  This helps clean clogged pores and gets rid of toxins in the body that exit through your skin.

4.  Drink enough water.  Most older people go around in a state of dehydration that worsens all skin conditions.  Drink 1/2 your weight in water every day.  For example, if you weigh 160, you should be drinking about 80 ounces of water a day, and more if you’re sweating alot.

5.  See your doctor to learn if hormonal imbalance is contributing to your acne.  Bioidentical products are available to help normalize them.

6.  Sleep.  Nothing affects your skin more poorly than lack of sleep.  Get at least 6-8 hours per night.

7.  Manage stress.  Combined with hormonal imbalances, stress can aggravate acne breakouts.

Though acne breakouts as an adult are annoying, there’s a lot you can do to prevent them and get rid of them faster when they do occur.  Following the above recommendations and adding resveratrol to your diet may banish those pesty outbreaks for good.

Stay Well,
Jay Brachfeld, M.D.

Antioxidant found in grapes uncorks new targets for acne treatments, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140930132508.htm

Dermagist Resveratrol Cleanser, http://eyebrow-tattoo.com/how-to-treat-acne-with-resveratrol-acne-cream-and-facial-wash/

The Dangers of Benzoyl peroxide, http://www.acnecream.com/benzoyl-peroxide-dangers

Resveratrol Inhibition of Propionibacterium acnes, jac.oxfordjournals.org/content/59/6/1182.full