9 replies to this topic

[gorillajack]

I've used BP for 2 years, dan's regimen, didn't miss a single day. However, i still had hyperpigmentation and traveling abroad and outdoor activities are much harder to prepare for, not to mention time consuming with the BP step and drying and then the moisturizer step. I cycle every day to class, and having to spend half an hour in the changing room applying BP and moisturizer was just ridiculous. I also couldn't take worrying about getting my face wet every time i went out as well. For the last 3 months, I also got antibiotics (doxycycline 100mg a day) which cleared me up well along with BP, but I know antibiotic use for a healthy person with just a few spots is to me unwarranted and can lead to complications with bacterial resistance, especially in the intestines. So many hours of my life were wasted applying BP, and so much money spent on keeping myself clear. My face always felt dry as well, and continuous application of moisturizer was definitely very unnatural and i felt like it defeated the purpose of skin as something that protects us. Most people do grow out of acne, as hormones start to balance out, and only a small percentage continue having acne problems. i used to have moderate acne, but I really exacerbated it with all the chemicals and cleaners i threw at my face. I remember one of the best non-BP related cleansers was this jurlique scrub i used, and it really barely cleaned anything at all. it was just a bunch of nuts in solution i pressed against my face and it barely cleaned my skin at all. I did switch to cetaphil for a while and it did decrease the amount of breakouts, but then BP took over my life and with the new moisturizer I started buying different ones to try and find a substitute again. Now, I'm 1 week into a water only treatment. I quit BP and doxycycline cold turkey together (kinda stupid but to be honest i'm really sick of having something run my life like that) last week, and just had a long journey (two flights, 3 and 11 hours) which was great for making my skin incredibly oily.

Now to the state of my skin: my face was clear for the first 5 days of water only treatment. i use only lukewarm water, cold enough that my body doesn't feel warm but not cold enough that i feel like it shocks my skin. I shower twice a day, and use a soap bar and shampoo for my body and hair, and run lukewarm water over my face for a few seconds.

On day 6, I could see crowds of little bumps on my forehead, cheeks, chin, nose, and in front of my ears. basically, every bit of my face which was previously treated with BP started to break out. 2 actual reddened whiteheads did emerge, and my skin has not looked this bad ever, especially close up. with distance, maybe the bumps are less noticeable, but it still looks like bearded dragon's skin, but it doesn't feel as inflamed or dry anymore.

Day 7:one whitehead that was accidentally popped (painless) with just light pressure. left alone and a little pus came out. still fields of tiny little bumps all over my face. my nose is horrible with bumps that look like they can explode.

Day 8: woke up today at 3 am due to jet lag. Awesome. Huge breakfast again, not a huge change from yesterday. still loads of bumps and refraining from picking require lots of mental fortitude that i'm fueling with hope that i will be clear in time with freedom to go camping and climb mountains if i want. this refraining from not picking must be on the same level as josh harnett refraining from masturbation in 40 days and 40 nights (great middle school film). certainly feels like that to me, (although that prostate cancer prevention study does make it easier to be guilt free when doing one arm training).

strategy: by concentrating on doing other things, such as training for a marathon, i could refrain from picking at it and in general my rule is to never touch my face, even though i can't help it sometimes. if i look in the mirror less often and touch my face only with a tissue or towel between my fingers and skin, i wouldn't feel like hiding from the public as much. my uncle's a dermatologist but his strategy has always been cleansing with the mildest cleanser, and he did supply the antibiotics because i requested that i get some to try out. my dad's a doctor and he's very much against antibiotic use for acne because it's not really a great long term solution.

Diet: no real alterations except a fruit and potato (raw) and carrot (weird i know) smoothie with breakfast

to be continued....

[gorillajack]

ok two weeks in now.

i only have a couple red spots that are inflammed, but the inflammation is confined to a small area around the bump. lots of tiny bumps around my forehead are still there, along with ones on my chin and left cheek. nothing's really happened to them so maybe they'll clear up in a week or two?

one large whitehead erupted on my right cheek near my nose, which was accidentally popped and drained when light pressure was applied. i used a bit of alcohol to stop the bleeding and disinfect the spot.

i have some whiteheads erupted elsewhere, 3 on my forehead and one on my chin. the weird thing is, i have no pain on any part of my face unless i start squeezing whiteheads, and so far my skin feels more relaxed and less tight. my lines are also less noticeable. i'm hoping within 3 weeks some of this stuff will clear up a bit better

i'm refraining from picking and using only lukewarm water. my neck acne is clearer than when i used AHA. i'm still shaving daily with a gilette excel razor.

summary: lots of bumps still there, just trying not to care at all and getting on with my life.

also: marathon training with loads of running, and i shower right afterwards, so one shower in the morning and one usually in the evening

[Vanbelle]

This sounds amazing. Just relax and enjoy. Hope it all works out.

[gorillajack]

thanks,
my skin feels much healthier as in i don't feel it being dry, and the wrinkles on my face that were very well defined are much less noticeable.

unfortunately, my skin is still covered in little whiteheads, mainly on my forehead and a few around my chin area. they're pretty much just painless now, although after this many weeks i'm wondering if they'll die down. i'm hoping they do before i have to go to class looking like i have a minefield on my forehead.

good things: acne on my cheeks are dying down quickly. the new ones elsewhere are still tiny and they're not painful or anything

shaving has been the same except with just a wet razor. my face has been pretty good with shaving, although little nicks that don't even bleed can turn into tiny little whiteheads that come to the top. i'm not sure about classifying these things because it's not red, and all my acne is well contained within the small area it is now. no cysts or nodules so far, and i'm trying as hard as i can not to touch my face.

showering is actually quite drying for me now, even if i only run lukewarm water over my face. i've started showering twice a day only if i have to (eg. after running).

i'm putting myself back on a multivitamin a day. my diet's pretty good with loads of fibre and vegetables anyway but just in case i'm losing out on some minerals that i'm not getting from my diet. probably making my urine more expensive, but oh well.

hope this goes well. no pain no gain. it was sort of my own doing getting my skin used to being almost sterile, and now it has to become resilient again.

[reality]

Congratulations on the switch!

Water is the way-to-go. It might take time for your body to adjust to not having those chemicals on your skin but it eventually will make the adjustment. Stick with it!

Edited by reality, 28 August 2011 - 12:48 AM.

[dieacnedie!]

Keep the updates coming. I am very curious how this turns out because I have considered doing this myself. Ive been on acne treatments for like 10 years now.

[gorillajack]

sorry for the long time between posts.

here's the state of my skin: huge breakout around the nose in the last 2 days, multiple pustules with one isolated pustule on my left cheek. another pustule in around where i shave above my upper lip.

possibly attributed to my lack of sleep, and maybe because i'm in the tropics right now and i didn't shower until hours after i got home all sweaty and gross. I'm still doing the all water thing, every day, except a few days ago i did get some gunk on my face just from dirt and used a cetaphil cleanser. it felt fine at the time, but it may have contributed to the breakout as well.

i'm currently at least 4 to 5 weeks into the water only treatment. it has been extended to my hair as well, and i try not to put anything in my hair except now that it's long i keep it from frizzing up with a small bit of dan's old moisturizer (which if i were still on the benzoyl peroxide regimen, i'd save up like liquid gold).

my "hey these whiteheads will leave or come to surface" hypothesis has become BS. The ones that sort of became inflamed stopped become inflamed but they didn't disappear. i still have tons of whiteheads that i believe aren't that noticeable before showers, and it does seem to me like there are less of them now, but there are still plenty of them on my forehead.

my chin has a couple pustules as well. my left cheek is surprisingly clear except for that one pustule . it might be mainly t zone acne all over.

i'm going to consult a dermatologist tomorrow and see what should be my next course of action. 4 to 5 weeks has done nearly nothing. nearly no improvement in my skin, and my blackheads on my nose are also progressing towards what i had in my teens. i want to continue this water only treatment but i'm seeing nearly no results for me. it's probably still hormonal seeing as i'm 21, but i should be almost done with this now. my brother cleared up around this time with water only treatment as well

plans are: see doctor, get advice, get crappy meds that only work short term/ pain in the ass to keep up, and wait it out and be that person with lots of acne

[crystal_willow]

sorry I dont have time to read your whole thread but I was conserned to read that you are eating raw potato so I thought I would let you know something so you can make the decision with all the information:

i like the concept of the raw diet but people "going raw2 should be aware of the dangerous and toxic elements of some foods which are removed by cooking

http://www.drlam.com/opinion/rawpotato.asp

"The potato plant is toxic. It contains an alkaloid named solanine that appears in all the external parts of the plant. It is also found in the tender buds of the tubers during the germination process. Excessive ingestion of raw potato can produce gastro-intestinal, liver, as well as heart damage."

http://vegpeace.org/rawfoodtoxins.html
Raw potato contains toxic substances and anti nutritional factors:

"Potato contains the glycoalkaloids alpha-solanine and alpha-chaconine (Maya, 1980), concentrated mainly in the flowers and sprouts (200 to 500 mg/100 g). In healthy potato tubers the concentration of the glycoalkaloids is usually less than 10 mg/100 g and this can normally be reduced by peeling (Wood and Young, 1974; Bushway et al., 1983). In bitter varieties the alkaloid concentration can go up to 80 mg/100 g in the tuber as a whole and up to 150220 mg/100 g in the peel. The presence of these glycoalkaloids is not perceptible to the taste buds until they reach a concentration of 20 ma/100 g when they taste bitter. At higher concentrations they cause a burning and persistent irritation similar to hot pepper. At these concentrations solanine and other potato glycoalkaloids are toxic. They are not destroyed during normal cooking because the decomposition temperature of solanine is about 243 C.
Levels of glycoalkaloids may build up in potatoes which are exposed to bright light for long periods. They may also result from wounding during harvest or during post-harvest handling and storage, especially at temperatures below 10°C (Jadhav and Salunkhe, 1975). Glycoalkaloids are inhibitors of choline esterase and cause haemorrhagic damage to the gastrointestinal tract as well as to the retina (Ahmed, 1982). Solanine poisoning has been known to cause severe illness but it is rarely fatal (Jadhav and Salunkhe, 1975).
Potato also contains proteinase inhibitors which act as an effective defense against insects and micro-organisms but are no problem to humans because they are destroyed by heat. Lectins or haemogglutenins are also present in potato. These toxins are capable of agglutinating the erythocytes of several mammalian species including humans (Goldstein and Hayes, 1978), but this is of minimal nutritional significance as haemogglutenins are also destroyed by heat, and potatoes are normally cooked before they are eaten."

Edited by crystal_willow, 02 October 2011 - 07:35 AM.

[gorillajack]

cool, it's been a while since i've come back here. i've stopped the juice with potato thing, not because of that toxin thing (which is scary but harmless). i've merely stopped because i've moved back to the country i study in and i'm too lazy to do all that stuff where my parents are (and too poor, of course).


i'm pretty happy now. i do have an oily face from long days, but even rinsing with warm water for a bit too long makes me too dry, and makes my skin produce even more oil. the dry layer on top feels wrinkly for a while too. i try not to wash my face for more than a quick second each time i step in the shower.

my breakouts have settled mostly. i still get maybe a small unnoticeable one (except by me because i can feel it sometimes when my face unconsciously moves across my face, and i try not to pop it (sometimes i do). my skin's leveling off, and my nests of tiny bumps are disappearing (almost all gone).

right now, awesome things:

no more hour long preps to go out. i throw on something after the shower and walk out.
no more bleached clothing
MUCH cheaper, even saving that money on facial scrubs or whatever
no more dealing with shipping tubs on benzoyl peroxide (another point just to emphasize the difference)
no more getting stains on clothing from the moisturizer either
no more getting self conscious about the lotions on my face if they're not dry yet and i'm hurrying
feels amazing, i don't have that feeling of having a dry tight face anymore after a shower (it only feels a bit dry, not to the extent when i had BP)
BP no longer rules my life anymore



over time my skin adjusted back, and with nothing but water touching my face, and only lightly, my body's own defense slowly became more accustomed to defending itself against natural conditions, and not being soaked in chemicals every 8-12 hours.

i can't say i'm perfectly clear, but it's an enormous improvement to my daily life compared to how i lived with BP: embarassed, hiding, and always fretting about the one little pore

thanks to dan for his solution of BP, and it was my holy grail for a while, but as i was drawn into that routine i forgot what it was like to feel human again. a person that doesn't find me attractive down the street doesn't matter at all. acne doesn't define who i am inside, and whether or not people judge me by the way i look, i don't care. as long as i have people in my life that know who i am.

i hope everyone on these forums remembers that too. it took me a long time to realize that and stop letting a tiny thing rule my life.

[Ghost08]

Sounds great, good luck!