Natural acne cures

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by jdub

I have found that the best remedy is sunshine + exercise.

Same here. My acne was at it's worst point from age 8 (yes eight) to 15, when I stopped trying to hide anything and started walking around during the summer without a shirt. In short order 90% of everything had disappeared, though one has to maintain a tan throughout the year for the effects to remain. Of course you can only do this if you're not on acne meds as they produce too much sensitivity to light. Most pills that I tried just made me sick, with no notable improvement. I avoided accutane because depression and heart damage didn't sound appealing. I've since learned that at least some of the side effects may be compensated for by taking vitamin E, though this is still being substantiated. I'd likely take either Unique E or Carlson's E-Gems Elite.

A.C. Grace Company - What Makes UNIQUE E so Unique?

Carlson's E-Gems Elite - 60 softgel caps : Nutrition Products

"Vitamin E is indispensable to your body's antioxidant system, but almost all vitamin E supplements today are synthetic forms that may cause more harm than good."

[Plato]

I had proper severe acne and I think I'd still have it unless I'd taken a course of accutane (isotretinoin). It is the only known Cure to acne. After this you can probably eat concentrated sucrose and dairy products and also smear your face with lard on a daily basis and STILL not get a single spot. Would be strange behaviour though.

Oh, and accutane isn't worth it for mild acne.... in fact if it's mild I'd almost be tempted to say "get over it!" but I know how annoying it is when people say "you don't know how lucky you are".

[Alex Wu]

I've used Accutane (isotretinoin) for a few months, and never noticed much of a difference. On the other hand, Accutane can have harmful side effects (such as damaging your liver), at least according to my doctor, who had me get regular blood tests (1x per month) while using Accutane.

My experience is much like an earlier poster mentioned - eliminating dairy products (going entirely to fortified soy and rice milk) has helped a lot with the acne, as has a drug called "Benzamycin" which is benzoyl peroxide plus an antibiotic.

[Plato]

Took 5 months on accutane before my acne cleared. Went from terrible to gone in a week and have barely seen a spot since... you have to stick with it.

[NotesMaeve]

Folks, I gotta jump on the "no animal products iz good!" train.

Cutting out BGH milk and cheese, mine's getting a lot better, especially the blackheads.

[CoolStuff]

I don't need accutane, not even my back is that bad. I've been off milk for about a year now. Cheese, I try to avoid it for the most part, but I do eat it once in a while. I walk an average of 30 minutes a day ("briskly"). When I'm walking I get my sunshine.

Thanks for all the answers.

[BettyBoo]

I don't understand why should you cut all the dairy products? Isn't yogurt a healthy drink? I know I read it a lot of times that it is....

[NotesMaeve]

Originally Posted by BettyBoo

I don't understand why should you cut all the dairy products? Isn't yogurt a healthy drink? I know I read it a lot of times that it is....

1) Milk with bovine growth hormone (virtually all milk products contain this) contains about 300,000 cells of pus. Milk without it contains 100,000. I am not a doctor, but I would guess eating pus is pretty bad for your skin.

www.milksucks.org

2) Cows' milk is for baby cows, not people. Milk has no fiber. To digest the protein in milk, your body actually leaches some calcium from your bones.

3) Yes, yogurt has some healthy enzymes, and you could probably eat a diet with dairy and be really healthy, but you might be better off with soy yogurt.

[kat]

As yet more proof that things vary, I'll offer my own experience. Despite well over 6 years as a vegan, and longer as a vegetarian, my (always very light) acne has been essentially unchanged over long periods of time, though it fluctuates a bit in the short term. I eat fairly little sugar and oil, though not none.

Exercise and sunlight help, but don't clear me up entirely.

[Jugga J]

Let me just give a brief overview of how acne is actually caused. Everyone seems a little confused.

Heres a little chain.

Androgens->Enlarge sebaceous glands-> more sebum produced->Toxins in your blood that is from your food/diet combine with the sebum and attract bacteria->white blood cells try to combat this but do a terrible job and end up making big red blobs called spots/acne.

So obviously with that information you can do a number of things:

a) You can cut down the toxin intake with diet. Can work. Differs from person to person.
b) You can use chemicals to stop them. Alas, it hardly tackles the root problem.
c) Do exercise so that the circulation causes the toxins to be taken away by the rapid blood flow to your face, plus the hormone stabilization.

So heres a few things:

-Greasy foods are not bad because they have grease in them, but because they are sugary and therefore create toxins.

-Touching your face is bad, not because it blocks your pores but because it attracts more bacteria.

-Animal Protein and Dairy are hard to break down and therefore create more toxins than any other food.

-Food incidentally doesn't cause acne neither do the hormones, its the abnormal reaction thats to blame.

-My opinion is take option (c) if you have a problem.

[maclinda]

My son makes a very effective, water based mist with natural essential oils that's remarkable on acne (oh, and we accidentally found out it clears poison ivy rash too).

It's quite cheap, $5 plus shipping, maybe $2 for that. It's a 2 oz. bottle so lasts a long time. PM me if you want his contact info.

[Addict]

I have noticed recently that my my skin seems a lot clearer since I have cut out dairy for the last three months. I'm thinking about doing an experiment on my blog where I take daily photos of myself while going dairy free for a month, then moderate amounts of dairy for a month, than high amounts for a month to see if there is a remarkable difference.

Does this sound interesting to anyone?

[NotesMaeve]

Addict, I'd like to see this. My skin flared up after consuming a lot of dairy recently, and for me, it's over with milk and cheese. Oh well. :-)

[CoolStuff]

I ate tons of meat and dairy on the weekend and it got worse, then right when I stopped eating, it got much better, it even felt like a whole layer covered up the bumpy acne. Problem is you can still kinda see some of it, but at least it's not still bumpy. Any way to make the "scars" go away faster?

[NotesMaeve]

Sunning will help a little, as will a good multi-vitamin. Also, taking up extreme cardio seems to help me with regenerating new skin.

[Addict]

I have no personal experience with this, but maybe fasting for reducing scars?

A poster in the water fasting thread claimed to have a big scar reduced by 50% over a fast. My guess would be that your body is much better at repairing itself when it is hungry.

[sadavis00]

I notice that when I don't sleep face down for too long I get less skin trouble. Probably because lying in bed irritates the skin.