You wake up to a new, big zit in the middle of your forehead. You are panicking because you have a big event tomorrow that you need to look the absolute best for. What do you do?
Your dermatologist may prescribe you benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid, which all look the same—a white topical cream. You might search furiously through the internet for a cure, compressing your face with ice cubes or putting lemon juice all over the affected area. What worse, your skin now appears even redder than before.
A 2014 study at the University of California, Los Angeles revealed that acne may be treatable with a simple solution: drinking red wine after applying white topical cream with benzoyl peroxide. Usually, the white topical creams include a chemical oxidant that reduces the number of bacteria, Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes), responsible for the acne by promoting the drying of the skin and subsequent peeling. The mechanism involves creating free radicals in our bodies.
Red wine includes resveratrol, which is an antioxidant—it halts the production of free radicals. The initial hypothesis was that the two would cancel each other out. Benzoyl peroxide would create free radicals, though its formation would be inhibited by resveratrol in red wine. However, the results surprised the researches.
When the benzoyl peroxide oxidant was combined with red wine antioxidant, it stopped the P. acnes growth for a longer period of time than oxidant or antioxidant alone. What's more, when the authors tested the toxicity of benzoyl peroxide, resveratrol, and a combination of the two, they found that not only was benzoyl peroxide more toxic than resveratrol but that a combination was beneficial. Together, the two compounds minimized the toxicity to skin cells and maximized the duration of combating P. acnes.
Perhaps red wine has more advantages than just making us feel loose and happy!