Vishwabharathi Hospital

Monsoon is no doubt a magical season, but with all the fun come several skin problems. The humid and sticky weather snatches the radiance of your otherwise flawless skin. The monsoon downpour act as a curse in your life. You lose the sheen of confidence and are left with ugly marks. Your skin develops a natural tendency of developing clogged pores during monsoons, which leads to pimples or acne later. On top of that, things may take the worst shape with the application of oily make-up products and stress. Your bad habit of picking the breakouts may also aggravate the situation.

But don't lose hope. There's nothing to get disheartened. Every problem has a solution to it. You may get back your flawless and healthy skin, if you follow certain simple tips. A little care and attention at home can bring back the lost beauty. Here are certain home-based remedies to get rid of the breakouts:

1. Neem relief: Acne vanishes with the application of neem paste on the affected areas. Take few neem leaves and grind them to make a smooth paste. Mix multani mitti or fuller's earth, turmeric powder and milk with the paste. Apply this face pack for over 10 minutes on your face and later rinse it off with water. After the pack is washed away, you are left with a soft and clean skin.
2. Steam therapy: Our skin has multiple pores. These pores get clogged due to excess oil secretion during the monsoons. Dust particles and oily secretions leads to the clogging of these pores. This in turn leads to skin breakouts. If you steam your face religiously, these pores open and help you to get rid of the pimples.
3. Sugar-honey pack: Take three teaspoons of brown sugar with one spoon of honey. Make a gentle face pack with this mixture. Put the face pack on your face for over 15 minutes and wash it off with water.
4. Potato help: Not known to many, potatoes can be of great help for the acne victims. Cut thin slices of potatoes. Rub these potato slices over your face.
5. Check your diet: Too much consumption of foods rich in fat can act as triggers for acne. Include green and leafy vegetables and fruits in your diet for sufficient intake of necessary vitamins and minerals.
6. Wash your face and areas affected with acne: Exposure to dust and dirt leads to several skin diseases and acne is no exception. Thus it is important to wash you face and affected areas with water frequently. The moment you return home after staying long hours outdoors, don't hesitate to wash your face immediately. Washing of face is highly recommended even before going off to bed at night.
7. Drink water: It is always advisable to drink plenty of water to keep your skin healthy. 

Following the above mentioned steps to get a flawless and radiant looking skin.

The biggest organ of the body, skin can also be plagued with diseases and problems unheard of apart from common skin conditions.

Here are some of the rare skin conditions that you must know of:

• Argyria: This skin condition is characterized by blue or gray skin and develops due to ingestion or exposure to a large quantity of silver for a long period of time. This is a permanent skin problem without any known cure as of now. Causes for it can range from working in a sliver mine, developing photographs to consumption of silver supplements for curing a range of health problems such as diabetes, arthritis and so on. Apart from the toxicity caused by the exposure or ingestion of the element, a very common side effect of silver is a change in the color of your skin.
• Dermatographia: A rare skin condition, a person suffering from this tends to have skin that is exceedingly sensitive to light scratches and minor injuries. This happens due to the hypersensitivity of the body's immune system, which reveals itself in the skin. As a consequence it brings about the release of huge quantity of histamine, leading to the dilation of capillaries and formation of swellings when the surface of the skin gets scratched. 
• Harlequin Ichthyosis: Affecting newborns the most, the skin condition sees babies being born with hard and thick plates of skin all over their body. The condition renders newborns with the inability to control fluid and water loss, causing instances of severe dehydration. Newborns with this condition also experience trouble breathing, moving, controlling their body temperature as well as warding off infections. Many experts consider it to be a genetic disorder brought on by the mutation of the abca12 gene, leading to the improper development of the epidermis (outer layers of skin cells).
• Xeroderma Pigmentosum: Over here, the individual is said to be sensitive to uv light, which makes him or her avoid sunlight whether direct or indirect and even florescent illumination. In addition to blisters on the skin and sunburn, symptoms of the condition also include dark and light skin patches. It can also cause your skin to become thin, resulting in the appearance of blood vessels and spots. Development of skin cancer is the final outcome of this skin condition.
• Stevens-Johnson Syndrome: This skin condition brings about the shedding and falling off of not only your skin but even the lining of your internal organs. The skin problem is closely associated with another form of skin disease called toxic epidermal necrolysis (ten). It is usually identified through blisters and painful rashes that develop on the skin surface.