Hi guys,

First post so bare with me, I am 25 years old and have acne since i was 14. During my teenage years my acne was restricted to my cheeks but it was quite severe in that you actually couldnt see the skin on my cheeks due to the excessive amount of acne.. As you can imagine a 14 year old kid at school with severe acne i was bullied by quite a few, called names such as 'pizza face' or 'dot to dot face'...

As i left school and finished college i went to university and my acne changed, it started to become large cysts that would come under the skin with no head and last for up to two weeks, ranging from chin to forehead. Luckily at university there is no dress code so i literally wore a hat to uni every day for 3 years just to cover my forehead although my cheeks and jawline acne were still visible. I have gone through all the emotions of why me? what did i do to deserve this? I have spent well over 1000 on 'acne treatments' each to no avail. As i'm sure most of your families say the same they gave me their support and said things like 'people really don't notice your skin, they are talking to you not your acne' .. Obviously they are trying to encourage me but being an acne sufferer it is the first thing i look for when i see other people.. Anyway enough of the rambling...

My brother who is two years younger was born with dairy, gluten and soy allergies, and had aggressive excema across his neck and arms, my mum had to restrict the foods he could eat obviously then she had him take probiotics for 3 months... miraculously one day his allergies and excema just vanished. If the body can cure somebody of allergies and other skin conditions just by restoring good bacteria to the body then this gives me hope and i hope it can give others hope too. I am not saying that this is a cure for everybody but i just want to say that the body is a crazy crazy thing and we are ALL capable of curing our acne.

Sure i have days when i wake up and see more and more new spots and it makes me sad and angry but similarly it makes me more determined to beat this condition!!