Spots on upper arms...

[warmsummersday]

Hi. I have always suffered from these little pimples/ spots on my upper arms. Some are full of pus and some are in grown hairs. Does anyone else have these and how can I make them better? I have tried cleaning them with clearisil every night but doesn't make much difference. I also heard on tv to take omega 3 and it should help?

You could try exfoliating to stop the ingrowing hairs.

Or you might want to ask the GP to do a hormone test - high androgen levels can cause spotty skin and also unusual sweating which can make the problem worse.

Thanks, I asked him before and he was pretty useless and said there is nothing he can do! I was thinking maybe a treatment at a beauty salon might help.

You could try using one of those puffy body scrub things with moisturising shower gel or whatever. Works a treat for me at getting rid of all those little bumps and spots and leaves me with smooth upper arms.

Loofahs are good too. The prob with salon treatments is that if the skin is sensitive and if it's getting spotty it prob is, you may make it worse.

Do you drink enough water? My skin goes to pot if I don't have three litres a day.

3 litres a day! Blimey, I have 2 - 3 cups of tea or coffee in morning then maybe 3-4 glasses of squash or water in afternoon and a cup of tea before bed! lol

Right....so basically you are drinking more tea etc than water - so you are flushing out more water than you are taking in (NB three litres is less than six pints). Okay, try this - for two weeks, for every cup of tea or glass of squash, down a glass of water too. Just try it and see what happens - you may well lose weight but I bet your skin clears up too.

When you are underhydrated, your body uses the water in your brain and your major organs and doesn't leave any over to detoxify the skin so all the crud that should be expelled basically festers (nice)

Whereas if you are properly hydrated, your body has enough water to deal with all the toxins and push them out (mostly through your sweat but also in your urea), and so you get less cloggy horrible spotty bits.

if the skin is rough and pimply, then it can be an omega 3 deficiency - take 1-2 tablets of 1000mg daily unless your diabetic. i would definitely increase your water intake and reduce the coffee and tea and exfoliate.

as for the clearasil, it will strip your skin of natural oils, encouraging the body to produce more oil, hence creating more spots. you'd be better off sourcing something more natural like the dead sea salts or REN products and exfoliating every day

I have the same problem - it is probably caused by high androgens as shrinkingmummy said, as i have Polycystic Ovaries and they cause that (i think , i seem to remember this from last time i googled).
Sorry but i haven't managed to solve the problem as i don't like using chemicals on my skin...i just put up with it cos i'm lazy!

Is it this?

exfoliate every day with a body scrub, before you get in the shower, on dry skin.

Mine looks a bit like that but it's not covering the whole of the top of my arm. I am 31 btw, if you read the notes beside it and wondered!

ooh lubyloo I have that on my arms. interesting that it has a name I just always thought that was the way my skin was.

Yes that is what mine is like although not as many. I will try the water drinking thing, thanks! Off to the shops tomorrow to buy a decent loofah.

Hi I have had this for years (never wore sleeveless tops when I was younger) but after much research I think I've sorted it out. It's called Keratosis Pilaris (I think that is the correct spelling, often abbreviated to KP). I have found that by using an unperfumed body scrub, I use a Dead Sea salt scrub, about £10 from health shops, and then follow up with Palmer's cocoa butter formula skin smoothing lotion when you'ed towel dried. Exposure to sunshine will also help to dry it up. There was an article about it in one of the papers about 2 years ago, I would try and find it but my pc is really slow tonight. Hope this helps.

Do you find the Salt Scrub greasy on the skin? I used one fairly recently and it felt quite gross...even after rinsing.

I've got this as well, but now it's spread to my lower arms in the last year so even 3/4 sleeves look terrible now. I also have PCOS too - interesting. Will try out all suggestions gratefully.

I really like the Dead Sea salt scrub product and don't have any problems with it.