Is quarantine giving you acne and dry skin? Dermatologist shares home remedies

For some of us, staying at home during enhanced community quarantine might mean less stress, less pollution, and more beauty sleep.

Unfortunately, it also means no dermatologist appointments, no skin care products, and prolonged exposure to new environments that gives us all sorts of skin problems like acne, dryness and rashes.

Luckily, licensed dermatologist Dr. Winlove Mojica is bringing the treatment for these common skin problems to you.

Dry skin

Keeping your face and your hands clean is strongly encouraged to avoid the transmission of SARS COV 2, the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

However, all that handwashing and hand-sanitizing may have taken a toll on our hands and other parts of the body.

Dr. Winlove say the solution is moisturizer.

“Hand hygiene must be continued but the regular application of moisturizers must be done," he said.

You can try applying some hand cream or a body lotion after washing the hands.

The application of moisturizers every one to two hours may also be necessary to prevent flaking and fissuring.

Then, at night, a liberal coat of petroleum jelly may be applied as a final coat after applying moisturizers to seal in moisture.

Heat rash

According to Dr. Winlove, heat rash or prickly heat is very common since this enhanced community quarantine also coincides with summer.

However, he would advise those who experience this problem to refrain from immediately applying any cream, powder, or ointment on the affected areas as these might aggravate the condition.

Instead, he would recommend staying in a cool place to reduce excessive sweating, which is the cause of heat rash.

Dr. Winlove also suggests wearing loose clothing and making sure the home is properly ventilated.

You can also try placing a damp towel in the refrigerator to cool and apply it on the affected areas to reduce the itching and inflammation.

Acne

As we all know, acne is a skin condition that chooses no season.

For those who’ve been prescribed acne medications by a dermatologist, Dr. Winlove would advise you to continue the regimen and, if you’re breaking out, consider decreasing the application of your medications to once or twice a week only.

“Your skin might still be adapting to the products,” he explains.

But for those who don’t have any medication, it might be best to just stay at home. The enhanced community quarantine currently over Luzon must be taken seriously, and that means no non-essential travels based solely on your fear of getting pimples.

Instead, Dr. Winlove suggests that you try the following:

Getting some sleep before 10 p.m. so you do not stimulate the hormones that will make your skin oily.

“Excessive skin oiliness triggers acne,” he stressed.

Washing your face with a mild unscented soap or facial cleanser twice a day only. Dr. Winlove says, “It may be a knee-jerk reaction to wash your face many times to reduce oiliness, but this will irritate your face and cause more acne.”

Decrease eating high glycemic index food to reduce the inflammation in your skin which is contributing to the development of pimples. According to Dr. Winlove, these include white rice, white bread, oatmeal, potatoes, pineapple, watermelon, and popcorn.

We are now on Week 4 of the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, which is set to be lifted on April 30.

While staying clean and healthy is a must, Dr. Winlove reminds us that we should also keep taking care of our skin as our health facilities are prioritizing life-threatening conditions amid the current COVID-19 situation in the country.

—JCB, GMA News