Acne

I received an e-mail today from a customer on behalf of her 16 year old daughter. I know many out there are struggling with acne and the frustration of trying one guaranteed thing after another only to have it not work. Thought my response might help somewhat in understanding the complex problem that Acne can be.

Hello,
I do have a question about dealing with acne. My 16 year old daughter battles severe acne.  We have tried so many things and yet it continues.  It is all over her face, her neck, her chest, and back.  We have tried over the counter treatments; we have tried natural products from the health food store; we have even tried a medical program set up by her pediatrician.  Always it gets better at first, and then comes back just as bad or worse.  The doctor kept prescribing more and more antibiotics to the point that she started breaking out in “ringworms”.  We were not comfortable with his program, and he was never pleased with the results, so we pulled her off of everything.  She is my best eater and consumes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, and drinks lots of water and herbal teas.  I am at my wit’s end!   Can you recommend a course of treatment that we could follow either using your products or other resources or a combination.

—Concerned Mama (Name changed to protect identity of Customer)

Hello,

So sorry to hear about the struggle your daughter is having with acne. It can be difficult to address because like several chronic on-going things it can have multiple underlying causes and or triggers.

1) Hormones: can seriously affect skin. Typically if it is hormonally related it shows up around the time menses begins in girls or puberty sets in with boys. Some have theorized that the flood of hormones going through their bodies is more than their livers can keep up with and some have noticed with this type of Acne that doing extra Liver support and detox can be very helpful.

2) External Triggers: Some people manifest sensitivities to all sorts of things in acne and severe skin out-breaks. This could be sensitivity to detergents and or SLS found in commercial laundry soaps or chemicals in cleaning products or even things in her shampoos or body soaps.

3) Internal Triggers: It could be sensitivities to certain foods. It is important to realize that the skin is the bodies primary means of detoxing. For many people they discover that either when they remove a known toxin from their environment or cut a food that the body percieves as a toxin due to a pre-existing sensitivity to it. A lot of peoples bodies perceive High Fructose Corn Syrup and MSG as toxins. There are other common food preservatives that the body can perceive as a toxin and try to use every means at it’s disposal to “dump” and get rid of it which means pushing it out through the pores of the skin causing out-breaks, knots and infections under the skin. For some people Chocolate and Coffee are common “out-break” triggers or cause extra inflammation to out-breaks that are already there. Artificial sweeteners of all types are also common “toxin” out-break offenders. There are also a handful of people who have very specific food allergy/skin connection issues.

4) Chronic underlying Bacterial Infection or Virus: For some individuals they have found that the cause of their skin problems is some sort of underlying virus or bacterial infection. Something that is systemic and the body ends up waging the obvious and noticeable war with it on the surface of the skin causing the skin to look something like a war-zone. These individuals have found that taking anti-viral immune boosting supplements (and the same goes for anti-bacterial infection supplements, some of these supplements do both things at once) makes a HUGE difference in their skin problems.

A friend recently came up with a really amazing and effective “drawing” and healing protocol for her skin. She wrote up this AMAZING healing mask she invented and described why she thinks it has helped her skin so much. If you have problem skin please take the time to read about it and give it a try!