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It all started back in June 2007, I had just graduated high school and was preparing to go off to college. All during high school I participated in various sports, clubs, church, etc and thus never had much free time. And that changed during the summer of '07 as I suddenly had tons of free time and wondered how I was going to fill it.
Acne for me was never a huge issue up until then, but nonetheless it was a nagging condition that seemed like no matter what I did I couldn't be 100% clear. After reading very briefly about how vitamins might possibly help acne I begin supplementing daily w/o even knowing or considering any adverse effects they might have. I figured "hey their good, they're vitamins, more of a good thing is a good thing right? wrong."
I started taking a generic multi-vitamin along with 50 mg of zinc and 8,000 iu of vitamin A in retinol form. So after taking all three of these for a little while I started to notice that my face (especially around my goatee and chin) often was dry. I attributed this to perhaps it's just my face wash (not sure why I thought this b/c I had been using the same cleanser for a long period of time washing morning and night). I countered this dryness by dabbing on lotion/moisturizer anytime after a wash which helped a small bit, but the dryness continued.
I continued taking all 3 of these supplements (dealing with the dryness) until around mid-november of last year (2008) in which I finally came to the realization that the vitamins weren't having a positive effect on my skin at all. So I stopped taking any vitamins at all on November 30th of last year after reading about how Iodine causes your pores to become more inflamed and the dangers of reaching toxic storage levels of vitamin a.
Around this time I also latched on to the idea of not using cleansers or washing my face anymore (search these boards for "cavemen regimen", "not washing face for a month", "all-natural regimen"). Doing this led to excessive dead skin buildup, but did in fact clear up my most painful and inflamed acne.
So as the days and weeks went on...into February and March I began to worry. All of the other people doing the "no-wash" regimen said their dead skin had gone away and normalized within 2 months, however, mine had not. I also noticed that in parts of my skin that I had never used topicals on or damaged was covered by the same kind of dry, dead skin (upper neck, mid-chest,scalp, basically anywhere where oil glands where). I also noticed that my lips were dry and chapped, I had hair loss, I was fatigued, and my lower back would get sore from time to time. I was really confused now b/c I had the chapped lips in december and january but just thought it was because of the cold weather around here, but when it hit 70 and 80 degrees and my skin and my lips were still desquamated I begin to research.
What I found was my answer. Over time I had developed chronic hypervitaminosis A in which my body had stored highly toxic levels of vitamin a in the preformed form (retinol, which is 6X more potent than beta-carotene from veggies n such). And since I had been ingesting 400% of my DV in Zinc (which is crucial for the body in making good use of vitamin a) it had undoubtely made things worse. The good news I read was that most people fully recover, the bad news....it takes 200-300 days for the excess levels of vitamin a to clear from your body. The only way to cure it, was/is to wait it out. I look at like this....I have/had a giant pool (storage) of vitamin A sitting in my liver, bloodstream, and other organs, and each day, each week, my body takes a little bit of the excess reserves away. This is somewhere between day 175-200 since I've taken high doses of vitamin a and the symptoms are reducing month-to-month which is great.
If you have read this far, you're probably wondering how this effected my acne. I will now tell you. From my experience and knowledge acne requires three things 1)dead skin, 2)oil, 3)bacteria. When one of those three are missing, the result is clear skin. However, when all 3 are present it leads to acne. I have been keeping a close eye on the appearance of my acne for the last 6 months and have come to staggering conclusions. Since the age of 17 any acne that I have suffered from has been brought on by myself. Yea, that's right. From 17-18 it was because I was using harsh chemicals on my face breaking down the acid mantle, making the bacteria more resistant, making my face more oilier, and thining out the natural layers of my skin. From the time I stopped using chemicals on my face my acne has been caused by this excess buildup of dead skin cells that clog the pores from vitamin a toxicity....period.
I've noticed (and I have written down what I've seen in a journal for each passing week) that as my vitamin a storage levels go down, that my dead, dry skin reduces, and any remaining acne reduces as well. The only parts of my face where I have acne at all is in my oilier places of my body (forehead, mid-chest, mid-back, and chin). Why not anywhere else? Because everywhere else lacks 1 of the 3 key ingredients, oil glands. It was almost amazing to me to see 4 months ago how much dead skin was on parts of my face clogging my pores and yet no acne (sideburns, temple area, jawline, etc.).
I know for a fact that when my skin cell production returns back to normal that I will be acne free! I'll be acne-free not from vitamins, not from cleansers or regimens, not from diet, but because my acne is no longer caused by hormonal fluctations in my body (as it is/was for almost everyone around the ages of 13-17). So my advice to anyone out there listening would be to test different variables yourself and don't listen to mainstream "common sense". If your acne is not caused my hormones that what is it caused by? That's the answer you have to find out on your own. If anyone has any questions or wants to know more about my testimony feel free to message me.
