Read: Acne – Part 1: Introduction, Acne – Part 2: Skincare

After having tried the myriad of products for my skin and not getting the results I wanted – i.e. clear skin – I was told by a friend that she had known someone who had really bad acne and had been prescribed some tablets by the doctor which worked wonders. She didn’t say anything else, probably because she didn’t know anymore, lol!

• Antibiotics

At this point in time, my knowledge on health, nutrition & exercise was next to nothing. So I didn’t realise that what I was actually being advised was antibiotics. Anyway, I booked an appointment with the doctor and told him my problem and how I was told about “some tablet” that can get rid of my acne. He was more than happy to prescribe the antibiotics, maybe he was getting a kickback from the pharmaceutical company, who knows? Imagine, even at this point I still didn’t know I was taking antibiotics, until I actually got the medicine from the pharmacist and even then I didn’t know the harmful effects of antibiotics, especially with long-term use!

So I started taking these tablets, hoping for the best and what did I get? The BEST! My skin returned to how it used to be! I was ecstatic! I was so incredibly happy! Everyone started complimenting me again, telling me how my skin had gone back to normal again and asking me what I was doing etc. At this time I was also using the Clinique skin care range.

I was so happy, back to the days where I didn’t have a care in the world!

And then…WHACK!

I started to put on weight (which is very abnormal for me!), my skin started to slowly deteriorate and I started to lose my clear skin! Ahhhhh!

I was so confused! Though at the time I didn’t know it, this was a blessing in disguise. As a result of this, I started to research and read heavily into acne, diet, nutrition and health! I wanted to know more about the tablets I was taking. I wanted to know what they were doing to combat the acne and whether what I was eating had any effect on my skin.

I was told quite categorically that acne and diet are not linked. Even now, if you go to some well established websites or doctors, they will regurgitate the same information. I’m telling you from first-hand experience that what you eat in most cases, if not all, has an effect on your skin!

What you put in your system has to come out some how, and if your internal processes are not functioning optimally then your skin is the largest organ, what better place to dump the rubbish.

I later learnt that not only do antibiotics kill the bad bacteria in your body, but also the good. That’s why alot of people are advised to take probiotics after a course of antibiotics, to help replenish the good bacteria in the gut.

Continually taking these antibiotics (doxycycline) resulted in my body becoming used to them and therefore it started to become resistant to its effects

• Vitamins

I started taking some multi-vitamins during my acne phase. At first, I had a skin reaction with one of them (Solgar VM-75), so I dropped that one. Than I tried the multi-vitamin by Dr. Murad which was VERY good. It also had some essential fatty acids and aminos as well as cleansing herbs in the formula. It was really good and probably had the most benefit to my skin.

After all my years of reading, researching and testing, I came to the conclusion that getting your nutrients and vitamins from food is the best source. Contrary to what many nutritionists and dieticians and supplement companies would advise. Unless you are severely deficient in a certain nutrient/vitamin, in which case take a supplement, I advise eating healthily. It doesn’t make any sense that every human being NEEDS 100% of every vitamin or nutrient every single day!

I know by making that statement, many will argue this point (i.e. supplemental vs whole food), but that’s their opinion, that’s right…OPINION, not FACT! Imagine, just 1 teeny weeny ounce of broccoli (approx. 28g) has 42% of ones RDI of Vitamin C! And that’s not taking into account the bioavailability and the co-factors of that vitamin C compared to synthetic Vitamin C (i.e. ascorbic acid) which is also very acidic! If you really want to take vitamin C, then take magnesium ascorbate, it is more gentle on the stomach and not acidic like ascorbic acid.

• Herbs

Yes I even tried the legitimate herbs! I went to a Chinese herbalist and after a brief consultation where I had to stick my tongue out so that my lung’s could be seen (JOKE!), I was prescribed several different herbs – all written in Chinese – hence I can’t really tell what they were. Though it is fair to surmise that one of the herbs was dandelion – the only reason I can tell you that is because of its EXTREMELY bitter taste!!! So what was the verdict? Did it work? Well it helped a little, but after spending £25 (approximately $50) per week, it didn’t seem very cost-effective, I’m trying to be very diplomatic in case you hadn’t realised!

I later tried drinking some dandelion tea (with a lot of honey) and it seemed to help my skin! Dandelion is one of the strongest lipotropics known to man. I first learnt about dandelion when I was taking a product called AcnEase, this product really helped my skin but again it was too expensive! As a student, one has to be very careful with expenditure!

Other herbs which cleanse the blood, liver and the kidneys were also very helpful (e.g. artichoke leaf, milk thistle – see below)

I was getting extremely frustrated, some things worked to an extent and some things didn’t work at all!

My cupboard was well on its way to becoming a small pharmacy!

• Other tablets

When I went to Malaysia in 2005, I was taking digestive enzymes (one capsule with each meal, containing protease, amylase, lipase, lactase and some other enzymes) and milk thistle (3x day, each capsule containing 175mg – 80% Silymarin). This combination proved to be amazingly…well…amazing! My skin was 99.9% clear – I guess not 100% clear because I was the only one looking at my skin with a microscope! And I wasn’t eating healthily. I was eating burgers, ice cream, all the bad food (from a health perspective) you can imagine, I was eating it! I first came across digestive enzymes and their incredible benefits to health when I was reading Jon Barron’s ‘Lessons From The Miracle Doctors’ (a free eBook which I advise EVERYONE to download, all you have to do is provide your name and email address, download here!).

Milk thistle is a herb which cleanses the liver and re-builds liver cells. It is an amazing herb with many benefits. If you want to know more about this herb, you know what to do…google it!

I remember reading on the acne.org forum about the benefits some people had with using cruciferous extract supplements, in particular, broccoli and broccoli sprout extracts. I never got round to using these, but the benefits I have gained from eating cruciferous vegetables since has been immeasurable!!! More about this in the ‘Acne & Nutrition’ article.
I remember when I went into the Himalaya Skin care shop in Malaysia and the sales assistant asked me what I was using for my skin, I told her what I was using…which was nothing! Just water. She asked me again, assuming that I hadn’t heard her correctly. I answered the same! She was totally shocked! I felt quite good! Even after that, she tried selling me some products, true sales person!

I guess after hearing this you would think that I had found my solution, right? Well you’re wrong! I wanted the perfect solution, which was to use nothing on my skin, be care-free like most of the other people I used to see everyday (that coupled with being lazy too!). Again, digestive enzymes and milk thistle were not cheap at the time.

• Summary

So what can you learn from this? Beware of what people advise you, always do your research! If something doesn’t work for you, move on and try something else – trial and improvement! Though I don’t take any supplements now, the use of a few of them (e.g. milk thistle, dandelion and digestive enzymes) has benefited me in the long-term by cleansing and rejuvenating my system.

Related posts:

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2. Acne – My Story, Part 2: Skincare   Read: Acne – Part 1, Acne – Part 3...
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Read: Acne – Part 1, Acne – Part 3

When I tell you that I have used just about every skin care brand on planet earth, I just about mean it! Obviously I am exaggerating slightly, but in truth, I have used so many brands that I think I would naturally inherit the status of connoisseur of skin care. Funnily enough, whilst I was working in Sephora (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey Group), I was positioned as a skin care specialist.

Guess what I’m using now on my skin?

That’s right…NOTHING! How does it look? Very healthy!

I never envisaged that a day would come where I would be able to just use water and nothing else on my skin, how thankful I am!

I occasionally use extra virgin olive oil on my skin (before bed) during the winter period, but that is about it. From one extreme to another! Who would’ve thought!

When I first started getting acne at the age of eighteen, my initial reaction was that it had something to do with the face wash I was using or maybe my moisturiser. So what did I do? I decided to try other skin care products. When one has acne, they are usually emotionally unstable and paranoid (especially teens) and are therefore at the mercy of the skin care specialists – who know less than nothing about acne and general skin ailments (not always, but in 99.9% of cases this holds true). That may sound harsh, but over the years, you realise many people are graduates of the blagging school and you sometimes wish they would just SHUT UP!
Was my initial assumption correct (i.e. trying other skin care products)? No! Was this move beneficial? Yes. With all things in life, there is always a positive aspect to things.

For example:

- If your parents divorced, you may have learnt how to NOT treat your spouse as well as many other things that led to your parents divorce.

- If you fail at something, hopefully you would have learnt how not to fail again.

- If you had a bad childhood, you may have learnt how to raise your kids to not experience those negative things you had to endure and experience.

Ok enough with the family examples, don’t worry I’m not implying anything here, just elaborating!

Get my point?

So anyway, at that tender age of eighteen, I was subdued into believing all the rubbish I was fed about the benefits of different products. In life, everything is related to pain or pleasure. If one outweighs the other, then we will follow that direction (e.g. eating chocolate, benefits: makes you feel good, negatives: makes you put on weight, depending on which factor dominates your thoughts, you are more than likely to follow the stronger desire – in this case, usually eating the chocolate). Just a side note, this pain and pleasure theory was taken from Anthony Robbins’ Personal Power Audio CD – I highly recommended it!

So I had a desire to get rid of my acne! Below are some of the products I used along with comments (not in chronological order):

- Clearasil

I had been using Clearasil for nearly four years without any problems (from the age of fourteen up to the age of eighteen). Generally, I found it very good and it kept my skin in good condition. When I started to develop acne, I thought maybe my skin became resistant to the benefits of this product and therefore decided to switch, if only I had looked at my lifestyle habits first!

- Pur:Phuel

After having stopped using Clearasil, the first product I used was Pur:Phuel. One of the specialists had just come from the training for this product and they swore by it, quite surprised they didn’t swear at it after the results I got! I was recommended the face wash, face scrub (DON’T use a face scrub on acne skin!!!) and a moisturiser. As you can guess, my skin got worse!

- Shiseido

I was recommended this product by a colleague who regurgitated just about everything she had learnt at the training event for this product! After trying the products for 2-3 weeks (approximately), I got tired of not reaping any positive results and decided to move on!

- Decleor

This product was right next to the Shiseido products (conveniently). Again I tried these products with little avail!

- Dermalogica

The products in this range that did work dried my skin out so much so, that when I was smiling it hurt. When I was advised other products within this brand, they weren’t as effective. Also, I didn’t see the point of washing my face twice in one go! (apparently the first wash got rid of the dirt and the second got to clean my skin!?)

- Murad

This product range was one of the best I used. The products consisted of: a facewash (i.e. cleanser), exfoliating lotion, a moisturiser and a daily supplement. I liked Murad’s approach to the problem, that is, he attacked it both internally and externally. As a result of using this system, the idea of internal cleansing took root in my brain and I realised that I had to look at other factors, primarily diet. I thought to myself: whatever I put inside me has to come out somehow (unless it has been used for other bodily functions), therefore my system must be performing sub-optimally for acne to occur. Again, being a student and doesn’t help when one has to spend so much on skincare, as a result I didn’t continue using Murad’s system.

- Perricone

The premise behind Perricone’s anti-inflammatory regime seemed quite logical. I have read a few of his books and his work from a nutritional perspective is quite good, though some things could be polished. His products are not cheap and that’s putting it mildly! This system felt to “soft” and artificial, similar to that smell you get when you enter a hospital ward or when having an operation, the smell of the cream they put on your hands just before you are given an anaesthetic. I wasn’t put off by this, but rather the fact that I couldn’t justify the cost of the products with the results! His anti-aging range however seemed to work wonders for the women I used to recommend the products to, however I was and still am relatively young to use these. I felt his range would do well with those who first can afford it and secondly have mild acne. If coupled with his diet, then one will definitely have clear skin. I shall talk more about his diet in the acne nutrition article – though just to let you know that it completely cleared my skin up, but I lost TOO much weight. Simply put, its the low glycaemic index (aka glycemic index, GI) diet with his anti-inflammatory twist.

- Clarins

This range, when I was using it, had too much alcohol in a lot of their products. Most of the people working for Clarins put me off, it was like a porcelain doll trying to sell as much as she could! The skin care specialists at Sephora were not very keen on this brand and advised me not to use it, obviously that is not what they would tell the public, but being a member of staff I was given….erm…the truth so to say!

- Dan’s method on acne.org

In terms of acquiring knowledge in relation to acne & diet and acne & supplements, I learnt a lot from Dan’s forum. I really liked and appreciated his genuine approach to wanting to help others and decided to give his method a try. It involved washing ones face with a perfume free soap or cleanser that he recommended from a list of a few available to try, then to apply lots of benzoyl peroxide (BP) and finally apply moisturiser. It seemed to work, yet I didn’t feel very comfortable using so much benzoyl peroxide cream on my face. I had also read how oxide creams can quicken the aging of skin, though I can’t find the source anymore and am yet to find factual evidence to support this claim. If any of you have any information on this, please feel free to contribute.

- Clinique

One of my friends attested that the Clinique range was amazing. I tried it and it worked wonders!!! But, I had just started taking antibiotics (doxycycline, a derivative on tetracycline) for my skin and therefore could not judge fairly how well the product worked. Also, the CLEVER person working for Clinique (sarcasm intended) recommended that I use a facial scrub every day! All these bad experiences have taught one valuable lesson, don’t take information, especially information about your health at face value, always question and ask! Clinique is also renowned for its overuse of alcohol. After a while of using their products, I decided not to use them because: they had too much alcohol in some of the products I was using and the Clinique lady’s skin was far from clear and that’s with all the makeup she had on her face!

I’ve probably used other products too which I have not mentioned here – though I can’t remember. As much or as little as these products helped, they didn’t hit the source of the problem and therefore didn’t rid me of acne!

Diet and exercise are key factors in combating acne, may sound cliché but trust me it works! If I was to write my whole experience, I’d probably end up writing a large book – no joke – though at this moment I don’t have the time to do so.

Don’t get me wrong, the correct skin care + regime can make your skin look exceptionally great, but, if you don’t have a strong foundation (i.e. healthy lifestyle habits), then you won’t be very successful in the long-term. I don’t like relying on artificial methods if I can help it. Using a cleanser, toner, moisturiser and scrub seems like an added hassle that I personally don’t need and want.

The fourth article shall discuss diet, which is where the main solution lies to combating skin problems (and coincidentally other ailments too).

N.B. This article does contain affiliate links, only because I recommend the products and because I need to make money in order to run the site

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source: flikr

I started writing this blog because I wanted to help people by conveying good, real and valuable health information. I started my “epic” journey towards health approximately six years ago, when I was then struck by acne. I was eighteen years old and quite shocked, upset and confused. I thought acne only happend to people in their teens, I was near the end of my teens and I developed a few spots and got somewhat paranoid…to put mildy!

This introduction is part of a series of articles that I shall be writing about acne and how to get rid of it, yes thats right, get rid of your acne! I wanted to write an e-Book on my experiences (trust me its LONG), but haven’t got round to doing so, I guess you could say the proverb “procrastination is the thief of time” would fit in greatly right about NOW!

Having battled with Mr. Procrastination, I’ve managed to get started with this intro article. The articles in the series will cover how and why I got acne, skincare, diet and exercise and various other ramblings that I think will be of benefit to the reader.

Acne is a condition which is overlooked and sometimes not given the importance it should be given…as a result many people are mentally and physically scarred due to a lack of knowledge on how to combat this prevalant skin problem.

If my advice is followed, I am very sure (how sure you ask? 99.9% sure) that you shall be able to combat this problem too. The information I shall present will be FREE, that’s right, FREE! I’m not going to subdue the readers into paying me something, nor am I going to promise you the world and everything in it, except maybe a solution to your acne problem(s)

Anyways, keep tuned and take care!

Read: Acne – Part 2, Acne – Part 3

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Lipstick manufactured in the United States contains “surprisingly high” levels of lead, according to a new study by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

More than half (61 percent) of 33 name-brand lipsticks tested in September 2007 contained lead levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm). One-third of the lipsticks had more lead than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy.

Although lipstick is ingested directly into your body, the FDA has not set a lead limit for the cosmetic. Among the brands with the highest lead levels were:

• L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” — 0.65 ppm
• L’Oreal Colour Riche “Classic Wine” – 0.58 ppm
• Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” — 0.56 ppm
• Dior Addict “Positive Red” — 0.21 ppm

Lead is a known neurotoxin that can:

• Cause learning, language, and behavioral problems
• Cross the placenta and interfere with normal fetal development
• Possibly cause infertility and miscarriage

The small amounts of lead in personal care products build up over time in your body, and can lead to a significant accumulation.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is calling for cosmetics makers to remove lead from their products, and for the FDA to more strictly regulate personal care products.

Lipsticks can be manufactured without lead, the Campaign pointed out, as 39 percent of lipsticks tested had no detectable levels of lead.

Sources:

• mercola.com
• The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics October 11, 2007
• Continuum Wellness October 22, 2007
• MyProductAlert.com

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