Quest4Knowledge

First, of all I would like to offer a heartfelt "thank you" to all of the hundreds of melasma sufferers who offer advice and encouragement on this forum and others. I am quite atypical in that I am not on birth control, never been pregnant, and according to my doctor, do not have a hormonal imbalance. However, I am not entirely convinced of the third one. Although my blood tests keep coming back as balanced, I am going through a series of additional tests to see what I can discover. I am an athlete and a runner. I used to LOVE to take a late afternoon run or rollerblade along the beach in California. I have NEVER been one who enjoyed laying out at the beach. I wish I had some clue as to how I contracted melasma? It would be much easier to plan a strategy to improve it. There are three things that I personally find essential. First of all, a GIANT hat on a daily basis. Solumbra and Coolibar have good hats that are stylish and chic. I also have tinted car windows and ALWAYS wear a hat when driving. For me, the overwhelming majority of damage that I get is from driving in the car. It is very frustrating to me. I am currently researching car models that the front seat is further back from the front windshield. That will be my next car! I have also FINALLY found a sunscreen that does not make me break out, or make the melasma worse. I have had horrible experiences and gave up on sunscreen for awhile because it was making it so much worse from the irritating chemicals. The sunscreen that I use is from a company called BurnOut. I use a natural zinc oxide sunscreen that is eco sensitive and developed for very sensitive skin. It has almost nineteen percent zinc. Their product is approximately twenty dollars a bottle. Give yourself an extra ten minutes to apply it. Zinc takes time to apply it smoothly. The white for the most part disappears but it takes time to massage it into the skin. I have personally found that sunscreens that have ingredients that end in "one" ALWAYS trigger more melasma! Parts of my skin that were once pristine, were consumed with hyperpigmentation after using a sunscreen with those type of blockers. Take a careful look at your ingredients list. It could be a trigger for you as well. I also found some other interesting "quirks" to this horrendous, frustrating, life altering disease. I have worn sunglasses for thirty years. They are a daily part of my life. However, one day I put them on after applying my sunscreen and felt a tingly feeling where the plastic frame touched my skin. Upon further inspection at home, I noticed that the darkest point of pigmentation was where the sunglasses touched my face! Is it possible, since this ailment is very heat sensitive, that the frame of my sunglasses was cooking on my face, thus the darker pigmentation along the frame line? As an experiment, I took my sunglasses off for a week. It was annoying, but the results were remarkable. My melasma lightened along the frame line over fifty percent in one week. As frustrating as it is for me, I am not going to wear sunglasses until I check with an allergist to see what is going on. I am also experimenting with a natural supplement called pycnogenol. There is some strong research to support that it may aid as a natural UV blocker. Some studies have suggested that it may lighten and shrink melasma blotches. I am taking 100 mg. each morning with a touch of food. Another thing that I have recently added to my melasma army is I work with a colonic specialist. Once I month, I have her administer a colonic and ionic food bath. I keep telling myself to work from the inside out. I notice that everytime that I take a colonic, I wake up noticeably lighter and more breaking up of the unsightly melasma patches. I was using Olay Definity as a lightener. Since I began using the Burn Out sunscreen, I have stopped using lighteners although mine consumes a considerable amount of my face. I don't want to mix too many ingredients on my face as I don't want to irritate it and hyperpigment even more. I have never done lasers or peels and don't plan to. I keep reading over and over again that people wish that they had never started with all of that. I am going to give this new sunscreen, pycnogenol, colonics, and drinking tons of water a try until the end of the year. Then, I will evaluate lighteners again. I welcome your thoughts, reflections, strategies, and comments. We suffer everyday with this horrible affliction. I have become in many ways, a creature of the night. I am sad and depressed much of the time about it. I welcome your support and hopefully, my journal will possibly assist other sufferers as well. Blessings.