Prospect of pimples making you look all pensive?
Picture zombie zits that never go away, ever. Enough to make your skin crawl, yes?
This Walking Dead scenario may become the new normal if you continue downing antibiotics for the most minor of blemishes, warn dermatologists disturbed by the increase in cases of particularly persistent pimples.
What’s the link between acne and antibiotics? As it turns out, our over-reliance on antibiotics may have spawned an army of battle-tested bacteria which have emerged, stronger than ever and better able to survive the next onslaught of meds.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, one Dr Whitney Bowe, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center, says “we used to get more success with oral antibiotics” and that “our ability to treat moderate to severe acne has become compromised.” Sobering stuff.
Dr Bowe’s not the only skin doc sounding the alarm; an Arkansas-based dermatologist Sandra Johnson has even gone so far as to say that this acne-antibiotic bother may boil over into legitimately terrifying territory: “The pit in my stomach grows a little bigger every time I prescribe oral antibiotics to healthy, athletic teenagers for their acne, knowing I am increasing their risk of contracting MRSA from the locker room, classroom or anywhere in the community.” (MRSA is the original hospital “superbug” that’s notoriously difficult to squash.)
Happily, the solution to stomping out these stubborn spots is intuitive enough: Don’t take antibiotics unless absolutely necessary; and explore other gentler options, like slapping on one of Miacare’s protective pus-absorbing “stickers”.
Not sure what else to do? Try these totally safe top tips from yours truly, for starters. Good luck!
Miacare Acne Patches, $4.50 for the Day (12pcs) and Night (12pcs), and $6.20 for the Day & Night (18pcs), are available at selected Guardian stores. For more information, follow Miacare Singapore on Instagram.