Freckles – Causes, Symptoms, Types and Treatment

Freckles are flat, circular small spots of melanin on human skin in people of fair complexion. The spots develop randomly on the skin, especially after repeated exposure to sunlight. They may vary in color - they may be red, yellow, tan, light-brown, brown, or black. They are usually more often seen in the summer, especially among lighter-skinned people and people with light or red hair. Both men and women get freckles at an equal rate.

Causes of Freckle

Exposure of skin to sun is one of the main cause of developing freckles. Freckles will fade when sun exposure is reduced or eliminated. The basic cause of freckles are some special cells in the skin that produce a pigment called melanin. If you have melanin in your body, going on accumulating at one place, then it may result in freckles age spots.
Freckles are influenced by genetic factor also. Hormone Abnormalities can cause freckles since estrogen over-stimulates pigment-producing cells, causing them to generate excess color when exposed to sunlight.

Signs and Symptoms of Freckles

In some cases, freckles are sporadic, individual spots and sometimes there are several grouped together, making them appear larger and cover a greater portion of the skin. Freckles, age spots and pregnancy mask have several things in common. They are formed in sun exposed areas: face, hands, chest and back. These unwelcome brown patches are nothing more than accumulation of skin pigment melanin which is always produced by the skin.

Types

Ephelides (singular: ephelis, the Greek word for freckle): This term refers to flat spots that are red or light-brown and typically appear during the sunny months and fade in the winter.
Lentigines (singular: lentigo, from the Latin word for lentil): Children may develop a small tan, brown, or black spot which tends to be darker than an ephelis-type freckle and which does not fade in the winter.

Effective Freckle Treatments

Bleaching Creams - The use of hydroquinone and kojic acid are one of the beneficial treatment for freckles. They may help in lightning freckles if they are applied consistently over a period of months.

Cryosurgery: A light freeze with liquid nitrogen can be used to treat freckles.

Chemical Peels: Chemical peels are used to remove age spots, freckles, discoloration, wrinkles and fine lines. They generally help to make the skin smooth and firm and also help in curing freckles gradually.

Freckle Laser Removal

The most effective freckle removal method is freckle laser removal. There are a number of available laser treatments that are safe. A laser projects an intense light on the area that is affected, causing the light to be absorbed by the oxyhemoglobin and melanin so that the darker cells are destroyed and the healthy cells are left in tact. Your will need to protect your eyes from the intense light by wearing goggles. The light is directed using a very thin piece of equipment.

Intense Pulsed Light Therapy (IPL): IPL is one of the newer forms of facial rejuvenation. IPL delivers energy to both the superficial (epidermis) and deep (dermis) layers of the skin, the epidermis is spared from damage. Thus, there is virtually no recovery time.

Tretinoin: Tretinoin (vitamin A acid, Retin-A) also helps to make freckles lighter when applied over a period of time.

Corwin Brown

Tips To Clear Skin

1. Wash your face at least twice each day, using a pure soap such as Ivory, and clean water. Hot water opens pores, so wash with hot water. Cold water closes pores, so splash your face with cold water after washing to ensure that your pores are protected from the environment. Splash with cold water before applying makeup as well.

2. Reduce the use of cosmetics as much as possible. These clog pores. If you must wear makeup, make sure that you are using hypoallergenic products, or products for sensitive skin. Splash your face with cold water before applying, and make sure you wash all the makeup away before going to bed.

3. Keep you hair and hands off your face. Hair and hands contain oils that can cause acne breakouts. When applying creams or makeup to the face, use applicators - not your hands. Don't lean with your hands on your face either. Keep your hair pulled back off your face.

4. Hydrate the body - and the skin - with water. Hydrated skin is healthy skin. Water helps to detoxify our bodies, and our skin, ridding us of elements that make us ill, as well as elements that can cause acne.

5. Eat a well balanced diet, and make sure that you include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables contain quite a bit of natural vitamin A and vitamin E, which is essential to good skin care.

6. Don't avoid the sun altogether, because that isn't healthy, but limit your time in the sun, and use a good sunscreen. Overexposure to the sun, or ultraviolet rays, can not only cause acne, but it can cause skin to age quickly. It can also cause skin cancer. Make sure you wash the sunscreen off when you come in from the sun to avoid getting clogged pores.

7. Don't squeeze pimples, or pick at any sores. This can cause the spread of acne, and it can leave scars as well. Instead, treat the pimples and sores with topical ointments and creams, keeping your hands off of them. Use cotton balls or q-tips to apply ointments and creams.

8.Stress is bad for the skin. Just as good hormones and chemicals are produced and released when we sleep, bad hormones and chemicals are produced when we are stressed. Avoid stress as much as possible, and learn to do deep breathing exercises, or other stress reducing techniques, for those times when you are stressed

Natural Home Remedies for Brown Spots – Get Age Spots Free Skin

Age spots mostly appear in areas consistently exposed to sunlight (the face and backs of hands, for example), although they also are occasionally found on less exposed areas. Ultraviolet (UV) light accelerates the production of melanin. Melanin is the dark pigment in the epidermis that gives your skin its normal color. The extra melanin is produced to protect the deeper layers of your skin—creates the darker color of a tan.

Age spots are harmless. Age spots range from freckle-size to more than a centimeter across and can group together, making them more prominent. Often, age spots are accompanied by other signs of sun damage. Symptom is a skin lesion that is a painless, flat patch or macule (area of skin color change). Liver spots are the result of a "ceroid" pigment build up in the skin of older people. These latter spots are the outward signs of free radical destruction within the body. There is pre-oxidation of fats—in the cells instead of in the liver. Free radical damage produces waste materials in cells throughout the body, including the brain and liver. Liver spots do not become cancerous.

What causes age spots?

When you are exposed more to the sun your skin produces cells called melanocytes. These cells produce a dark brown pigment called melanin, because of which your skin turns darker. When you are overexposed to sunlight, the melanocytes will be produced in a higher extent. This causes in the appearance of brown, black or gray spots on your skin, which are popular as age spots. These age spots appear on every body area exposed to the skin, and they are more on your face as it is more exposed to sun than any other part.

Home Remedies to Treat Brown Spots:

Keep in mind that these brown spots, thought to be caused by sun damage or a nutrition deficiency, took years to form. A variation of this remedy is to rub on castor oil and take the vitamin E orally.

Lemon juice is a tried and tested remedy for treating freckles. Apply lemon juice with your fingers on the affected area; lemon juice bleaches the dark spots.

To remove freckles. Blanch and grind two almonds, mix it with white of an egg and half teaspoon of lime juice. Spread the mixture on the face and leave it on till the skin feels dry. Then, wash off first with warm water and then with cold water.

Another home remedy for facial brown spots is to make a paste of different plants cobinations and apply it to your face. Grind about 100 grams of dried basil leaf, neem leaf (from the tree the Indians call "Nature's Drugstore) and mint; add some turmeric powder. Put in enough rose water to make a paste. Apply this to the age spots on the face. Also , a paste of saffron and honey can also help remove dark spots.

Buttermilk Dab buttermilk on the spots. The lactic acid and other ingredients in the milk are beneficial to the skin. Buttermilk has been used for generations as a skin cleanser and as a beauty aid.

peterhutch

Why should you remove make up... and how?

Make up doesn’t go away by itself, unless you clean it. You must be aware of the fact that make-ups leave numerous damaging effects on our skin. Do you know our skin breathes and to stay healthy it produces oil and sheds its cells? Just about all the makeups are supposed to last on the facial skin for all day long and that is, of course, not a good thing! Obviously, if your makeup is going to stay on our skin for 24 hours, it will surely make your skin grimed. Make up is going to cause severe acne and wrinkle problems by clogging the tiny excreting pores present on your skin. This will also take away the healthy glow of your skin.
It is recommended that you start with your eyes whenever you plan to remove your make up. Eye makeup removers are normally oily, so if you wear contact lens, do not forget to take them out before starting. It is better to start applying cosmetic products on your eyes first, so that you can make sure to get it off within no time as you take off the make up from the rest of your face. Use gentle hands while removing make up from that area. Isn’t that amazing, although it is the most delicate and sensitive skin of our body, we apply the hardest to remove make up on that skin? Obviously, if you are going to put that resilient make up, you will be requiring special products to make sure it wipes your skin clean. Mineral and baby oils are good enough to take away almost all the make ups... including eyes enhancing mascara, which is a waterproof product. You can soak cotton pads or cotton balls soaked in any of these oils to remove your make up. After cleaning your skin, wash it gently with the help of soap and warm water. You can also use olive oil to slacken off this water proof eye application. Just have a few drops of olive oil on your hand, and apply it gently with the help of your fingertips. Make sure, you don’t rub your eyes too much and that the oil doesn’t get in your eyes. After that, you can wash your eyes thoroughly. Before you start with your face now, I’ll want you to wash your hands first. That’s pretty normal; our hands are usually dirtier than our faces. Cleaning your face with dirty hands is like applying more dirt and germs on the skin. Do you think this is going to be productive? I hope you do not. So, it is recommended that you wash your hands first. Besides, you can also use make up remover wipes to make things easy for you. Washing your facial skin with milk is good... but you need to make sure that your skin is relatively clearer and dry. This will soften your skin and work like a good moisturizer. I’ll not recommend that you wash your skin with milk if you have acne problem. However, if you use it, make sure you clean it good. It’s a good practice to remove your make up every night. I recommend that you use makeup remover wipes so that you can do that with any hassle.
Why should you remove make up... and how? by HDWEB HDWEB