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Adult Acne Blog - 2003: June 2003
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nurse, nutritionist, herbalist, or otherwise medically trained person.
I am an ordinary person who has suffered from adult acne since 1995 and have found no solution to my acne through conventional medicine.
June 12, 2003
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
4:08 PM (Pacific)
Okay, and another thing. I tried eating regular beef a few meals in a row...which is unusual for me. Got two pimples...and, it took them longer to heal. And my skin overall looked bad; it didn't have any glow to it. Hard to describe, just not clear-looking.
A couple of days without that kind of meat, and now it's back to being next to perfect.
On the positive side, even Albertson's now has several brands of hormone-free beef--the ground beef isn't any more expensive than regular ground beef.
So there is definitely something in the meat! It's possible it's not the meat's "fault." I mean it is possible that something else causes some people to react to regular beef that way (the hormone-free beef does not cause pimples for me). Plenty of people eat it and don't get acne. But whatever is causing my acne, is aggravated by regular beef.
I replaced the TwinLab Daily One with the same, only with iron. It was $25.50 for 90 capsules.
Okay check this out:
Top Vitamins and Minerals for Healthy, Blemish-Free Skin
ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS FOR ACNE
Again you can see how slowly information about adult acne trickles in. I have now read in several places that you can't take more than 5000 IU vitamin A if you might become pregnant. (I have also seen the figure 4000 IU quoted.)
I have read in many places to take a vitamin B complex--the same mentioned B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12.
I have read in a couple of places not to take excess iodine. One place recommended you use non-iodized salt. Good advice? I don't know. I thought too little iodine was bad for you. Anyhow...
I have read to take vitamin C and vitamin E in a few places.
Chromium and zinc are often recommended. Selenium, I saw that somewhere (perhaps the second link).
So the Daily One Caps are working out for me, but don't take them if you might become pregnant. You'll have to find something else...
Try cutting out your consumption of regular beef for a while. Eat something else or replace it with hormone-free beef (I know, it's terrible, my favorite food is the Whopper too).
Try reducing stress in your life as much as you can. Not always easy. But stress will cause acne.
After more than seven years, that's all that's worked for me. My skin still is getting better (after two months of Daily One Caps), so it's possible...dare I say it...that it might return to its former pristine state. I'm not holding my breath, exactly, but it is now possible.
June 9, 2003
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
11:22 AM (Pacific)
This is amazing...my skin is almost...perfect.
I've used up the TwinLab Daily One Caps. In between, I tried out a (much) cheaper Kirkland (Costco) vitamin, the Premium Multivitamin with Herbs. I tried that for about a week and felt my skin was getting worse. Whether that was actually due to switching, I can't say though. I went back to finish off the Daily One's...and now I've run out of the Daily One's so I'm taking the Premium Multi's until I can replace the Daily One's (past couple of days).
That said, I think I can go out on a limb and say that I now feel that adult acne is caused by a combination of stress and under-nutrition. That is already a simplification. It seems to me that I was more stressed, and more undernourished, when I was younger, and I didn't have acne back then. So it has to be more than that. There has to be a reason why some people get acne under those conditions and others don't. My gut tells me it has something to do with birth control pills or long term exposure to hormones in meat...or something else environmental.
So it would be more accurate to say, that the treatment for my acne, is to reduce stress and to take vitamins.
I can say that taking two months of daily vitamins, got me this next to perfect skin. It didn't happen right away although I got some results right away.
You can bet I'm going to replace the Daily One Caps. One of our affiliates, Vitacost.com, sells them for half the price but I'm still buying it off the shelf for now. (By "affiliate" I mean if you bought something through our link, we'd get a small percentage of the sale.)
I found out a little more about Vitamin A. Pure vitamin A (retinol) is what is toxic if you take too much of it. Again I want to stress, the Daily One Caps appear to have too much vitamin A for women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant. Too much vitamin A is associated with birth defects (this is all info I got off the Net; of course you will want to consult your doctor before starting any vitamin regimen).
Beta carotene, on the other hand, is converted to vitamin A by your body as needed. So I think there is less concern about taking too much of that (although I've heard stories of people's skin turning orange from excessive beta carotene!).
Overall I feel more positive than I have for years.
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