Acne.org Products
Im still breaking out and I dont see how this will help with blackheads though. I have them all over my nose and some on my cheeks, typical t zone problem areas.
mI still juicing, today I had some grain waves chips and two pieces of rolo chocolate, now I feel bad bad bad..........
Hollywood, you're less than 10 days into my regime! Review my many posts (and the FAQ) and you'll see that the timescale for this treatment is 3 months.
The fact that you're following my regime but still eating chocolate indicates that there's a problem with your motivation. That's what you need to work on. But don't feel guilty about it -just recognise that something needs work.
Blackheads, whiteheads, pustules, cysts, nodules ...it's all just acne. The goal is to reduce the incidence of new acne in a tapering manner, so that eventually no new acne occurs. In the meantime, the existing acne heals. Then you have clear skin. Notice that I said 'tapering'. This doesn't mean that new spots won't pop up along the way. They will.
As regarding existing blackheads. I notice you don't use a cleanser. You may wish to consider that. Or gently squeezing them. But there's plenty of info on this site about both of those and I don't really want cover that ground again as this thread is about holistic treatment.
Wingedserpent
I will definitely consider the juicer, I appreciate the feedback. Yes, over the years I've spent so very very much money on products, it's probably a good idea to consider investing in something that may REALLY make a difference. I will definitely take that into consideration....In the meantime, I will look for a natural vegetable juice product, keep on with the "clean diet" and see what happens. Again, it can't possibly hurt anything, and will very likely be the difference for me. At least, I'm hoping!! 
Wing I have squeezed and now have HUGE pores in my nose and holes....the BP made the holes worse, I am trying to give Bp up as its make large pores open up all over my face.... and I have started Differin just on my nose....
The eating healthy is going well. I am trying my best., I ordered the B5 but its not arrived yet.
I found that washing my face with wash made things alot worse.
Squeezing blackheads usually does make them look temporarily worse. And sometimes you have to do it hard which can bruise the skin and it looks terrible. But sometimes it's the only way to get rid of them, so I would try not to stress out about it.
Cleansers do help prevent blackheads. But a lot of the foaming facial washes you get on the high street are very harsh. If you'd like to messsage me I will send you the name of the cleanser that I have used for a long time. It's 25 a bottle (US $40) but you get what you pay for.
In the meantime, hang in there and keep up with the juicing!
Why is a juicer better than eating vegetables???
1. Because 90% of the nutrients are in the juice. It's very difficult to eat as many vegetables as you can juice.
2. The digestion process of breaking down whole food in the stomach destroys some of the nutrients.
3. The absorption rates of nutrients from whole food is slower than juice.
Of course, you need to eat whole vegetables as well, for the fibre. I wouldn't for a moment suggest otherwise. But juicing is a way of taking therapeutic levels of vitamins and minerals that would very difficult to achieve from regular meals.
Just a reminder that this in the FAQ on page 1.
In future, I will refer people to that, rather than re-post common answers.
Thanks Kate.
Using a blender won't, of course, separate the juice from the fibre, so you will be left with a large volume of dense vegetable matter to eat. That's really the benefit of juicing -being able to separate the nutrient rich juice from the volume-dense fibre. I don't know about you, but I'm really not up to eating a mountain of vegetables for breakfast!
But if your current vegetable consumption is low and using a blender means you are going to eat more veggies, then yes, it is worth doing.
Winged spread... I am trying to get off the BP but have started using differin on my nose....
I just wanna TRY and just use the differing and a moisturiser, Dermasil, is this ok.....I dont wanna use a face wash, it makes amess of my face.
For breakky, Hot water with lemon juice, two boiled eggs with pepper, and a juice (carrot cucumber, celery and mint leaves).
I love this post, thankyou.
By golly, what a wonderful and informal post! Thank you for sharing with us how you were able to get clear after so long. I can't imagine all the irritation you must have gone through for so many years. My mother and grandmother still had acne during their 40's and 50's and my brother is as bad as I am now (even worse on the back!), so I know that I have a high possibility of looking forward to a rather uncomfortable acne prone future.
I completely agree with the vegetable juicing because anything that goes in your body must have an astounding effect on a great deal of things including our overall skin heath. But that only leads me to ask once again if what we eat completely effect our acne and probably a few other things we are unaware of. Hmm...
I don't want to think negatively about dermatologist, but I will admit then when I walk in and asking about oil production on my skin or even a chemical in a lotion, they sort of glide over my question and either continue the recent discussion (as if it will answer all my damn questions which they don't) or look perplexed that I am actually passionate about what's going on with my own body. THAT is what really pisses me off, like we don't have minds of our own to think or interest in fully understanding why certain things happen. But with that aside I do believe that they are trying their best to find treatments, just in a more advanced and probably non-necessary strait forward way, which is pretty ironic to me, but I could be wrong since so many factor need to be recorded first. Rather than understand why something works, they sort of pass it over and go back to discovering the ancient mystery of oil production and forget about it. Every dermatologist I've been to says something different and they all had an attitude that slightly looked down at me, but I guess that's something to expect when you walk into their office looking for a 'cure' in the first place.
... Anyway, all that aside, I do have some questions about the vegetable juice you drink.
First of all, how much juice do you drink? I hope I didn't miss it in this discussion board, but I am curious if you make an entire pitcher of vegetable juice or just measure out the vegetables themselves depending on their size/weight (or whatever size the bender is)? Do you only drink it once during the day? If so, would morning be best? What if you forgot and drank it in the afternoon or evening, do you think that could cause an issue? (My reason for those questions is because of the timely matter of actually eating something during the beginning of the day --- eating in the morning is proven to help people focus more and have a more fulfilling day, which I agree with, but do you have cause to believe or suspect that this morning regime (or any morning regime) may also effect your skin and acne?)
And second of all, is it alright to take a multi-vitamin on top of your two supplements of 500mg of B5 and 500mg of L-Carnitine? I suppose it's just general knowledge to take a multi-vitamin of any kind where I live, and mine is no special thing either, just a simple one-a-day women's vitamin that happened to be on sale. But I am concerned if you think a multi-vitamin IS over dosing.
Since you do a lot of research, do you think that yourself, laboratories, or anyone else will EVER come across the reasons why acne is the way it is and if we will ever understand WHY these things are greatly beneficial to us? Just a thought, since there is just so much going on with this issue is many people's lives today 
.
Once again, thank you for your discussion and board in the first place. Definitely got me thinking.
Hey Hollywood, that sounds like a tasty drink! But don't forget to vary the vegetables used. Try to have a wide variety. My personal favourites are sweet potato (which is, I believe, the most nutrient dense of all vegetables, and probably has been the single best one for my skin) and beetroot.
There has been the odd disaster when my recipe was absolutely foul, like the time I tried to juice leeks. Not recommended!
By golly, what a wonderful and informal post! Thank you for sharing with us how you were able to get clear after so long. I can't imagine all the irritation you must have gone through for so many years. My mother and grandmother still had acne during their 40's and 50's and my brother is as bad as I am now (even worse on the back!), so I know that I have a high possibility of looking forward to a rather uncomfortable acne prone future.
I completely agree with the vegetable juicing because anything that goes in your body must have an astounding effect on a great deal of things including our overall skin heath. But that only leads me to ask once again if what we eat completely effect our acne and probably a few other things we are unaware of. Hmm...
I don't want to think negatively about dermatologist, but I will admit then when I walk in and asking about oil production on my skin or even a chemical in a lotion, they sort of glide over my question and either continue the recent discussion (as if it will answer all my damn questions which they don't) or look perplexed that I am actually passionate about what's going on with my own body. THAT is what really pisses me off, like we don't have minds of our own to think or interest in fully understanding why certain things happen. But with that aside I do believe that they are trying their best to find treatments, just in a more advanced and probably non-necessary strait forward way, which is pretty ironic to me, but I could be wrong since so many factor need to be recorded first. Rather than understand why something works, they sort of pass it over and go back to discovering the ancient mystery of oil production and forget about it. Every dermatologist I've been to says something different and they all had an attitude that slightly looked down at me, but I guess that's something to expect when you walk into their office looking for a 'cure' in the first place.
... Anyway, all that aside, I do have some questions about the vegetable juice you drink.
First of all, how much juice do you drink? I hope I didn't miss it in this discussion board, but I am curious if you make an entire pitcher of vegetable juice or just measure out the vegetables themselves depending on their size/weight (or whatever size the bender is)? Do you only drink it once during the day? If so, would morning be best? What if you forgot and drank it in the afternoon or evening, do you think that could cause an issue? (My reason for those questions is because of the timely matter of actually eating something during the beginning of the day --- eating in the morning is proven to help people focus more and have a more fulfilling day, which I agree with, but do you have cause to believe or suspect that this morning regime (or any morning regime) may also effect your skin and acne?)
And second of all, is it alright to take a multi-vitamin on top of your two supplements of 500mg of B5 and 500mg of L-Carnitine? I suppose it's just general knowledge to take a multi-vitamin of any kind where I live, and mine is no special thing either, just a simple one-a-day women's vitamin that happened to be on sale. But I am concerned if you think a multi-vitamin IS over dosing.
Since you do a lot of research, do you think that yourself, laboratories, or anyone else will EVER come across the reasons why acne is the way it is and if we will ever understand WHY these things are greatly beneficial to us? Just a thought, since there is just so much going on with this issue is many people's lives today
Once again, thank you for your discussion and board in the first place. Definitely got me thinking.
Hi Treat
Thanks.
I have covered most of this on Page 1 but I will extend it here.
I drink a pint of juice a day. Preferably it should be on an empty stomach, since it's absorbed much faster and it doesn't have to compete in the stomach with undigested food. Ideally it should be split into two servings -AM and PM. However, because it's often not convenient to do it twice a day, I usually drink a pint first thing in the morning. After a while you can tell by looking at the vegetables how much juice they will make.
I wouldn't really get too hung up on when you drink it, though. All that really matters is that you do drink it, and you drink it every day.
I think a multivitamin pill is pointless with juicing and a decent wholefood diet.
Dermatologists are, in my opinion, an overpaid waste of space. They know nothing about acne that the average person couldn't learn for him/herself after a couple of weeks' diligent reading. I'm a greater believer in personal empowerment, not simply trusting someone else because they chose certain modules at college.
I just wish the blackheads on my face would go,especially on my nose... I have paid hundreds of dollars to go to beauty skin specialists who have prob made my skin look ever worse....especially on my nose. eg microdermabrasion, photo rejuvination.
Whats sweet Potato? Like a potato u eat n mash?
So u do that and beetroot. I had freesh beetroots the other day, the colour is amazing. I dont make a huge amount, if I do I leave some for later on.
FResh iced carrot juice is yummooo too.
Yes, sweet potato is literally a potato that tastes sweet.
It's delicious, and I often have mounds of it with a meal, instead of juicing it. You cook it just like a regular potato; I like to mash it and season gently. There are several varieties: the darker the skin colour, the more nutrient-rich it is.
If I could recommend just one vegetable to anyone to eat or juice to improve their skin it is sweet potato.
Wingedserpent-
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I was going to wait a few more days to post because I don't think many people are going to believe me or think "it's too soon to say," but this is REALLY working well for me! I stumbled on your post last Wednesday because my skin really broke out (in retrospect, it may have been all the sugary holiday junk I was eating), even more than the usual, and I felt I needed to try, YET AGAIN, to find something that might help. I was on this site a few years ago and used Dan's method, and it worked somewhat for me for about a year (although my face was always red and itchy), but then I went on vacation and broke my routine... my skin erupted, and for some reason, the BP no longer worked after that. I've been trying different "treatments" and remembered what a great resource this site is for people to talk about their experiences and hopefully find something that works. Your post stood out to me because you seemed to have the same skin problem I have. I have EXTREMELY oily skin. I mean I am the oiliest person anyone will ever meet! I'm 31 and have had moderate/severe acne since I was about 10 years old. Yes, I started getting acne when I was in elementary school! In middle school, my mom started letting me wear make-up to try to cover my zits, which only made the problem worse, but I became dependent on it. My dad's solution was to squeeze them and that I would eventually grow out of it. I have a memory of overhearing one of my teachers joking with one of my classmates that I needed to go to the bathroom and wash my face. It was horrible. My self esteem was miniscule, as was evident in the home video I later watched that my dad had recorded of me playing in my school band. I saw a 13 year old me trying to play the flute with my hair covering as much of my cheeks as possible and my head tilted down, somehow hoping it would cast a shadow on itself under those bright auditorium lights. To this day, I never wear my hair back because I don't want to expose my cheeks anymore than I have to.
I have tried so many things over the years: dermatologists visits, prescription topicals, antibiotics, birth control pills, accutane (the only thing that ever really worked but don't recommend - face went right back to the way it was once I stopped, and you have to stop because it is SO UNHEALTHY for you), blue light peel (broke out horribly because the top "burned" layer of skin trapped my oil until my skin peeled, leaving a fresh layer of massive amounts of pustules - ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC), smooth beam laser (did nothing at all and cost me nearly $900 for 4 "treatments"), proactiv, alternating different cleansers/toners/scrubs/BP/salicylic acid/moisturizers/etc., etc.
One thing we must remember about dermatologists and doctors is that they are only human. They aren't infallible. Like everyone else, sometimes they make mistakes, and sometimes they don't have the correct answer. I asked my doctor once if there was anything I could do for oily skin... he kind of laughed at me and said so assuredly, "no, there's no cure for oily skin," and wrote me a prescription for a topical antibiotic and recommended microdermabrasion which I told him I had tried both and did not work. I have had a few different doctors over the years, and from my own personal experiences, I just wish they would acknowledge when they don't have the answer.
After reading you post, it made so much sense, I had to try, but I was still skeptical because I feel I eat healthier than most people I know, and I guess I've gotten used to the disappointment. I already had a juicer but only used it one time. Thursday: I started juicing. I made 16 oz. in the morning and drank on my way to work (your recipe) and drank plenty of water throughout the day (but I usually do anyway). I didn't have the pills yet and could have eaten less sugar than I did. Friday: Juiced again in the morning and put a calendar on my fridge to keep track of myself, like you suggested. Again, I ate some sugary things that day but drank more water. Later that night, I went shoping and saw myself in the mirror in a fitting room and felt so horrible... I came straight home, went through my whole kitchen and got rid of anything with sugar. Then I went to the grocery store and bought all new groceries, checking the labels for their sugar content, not buying anything that had sugar listed in the ingredients. This was war! Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: I have followed your regimen completely, except I'm taking 500 mg of acetyl L-carnitine instead of L-carnitine because the lady at the supplement store told me it works better. Also, I haven't weaned from my bottle of proactiv just yet but only use it during the day now, and I took the tomato out of the recipe and added a few more celery stalks, and I actually like it! BTW, juiced vegetables taste nothing like V8 vegetable juice, which I can't stand. This really isn't difficult to do. Reducing the sugar is the most challenging but finding alternatives is the key. I might even start juicing at night. It takes me more than 15 min. though. I bought the cheapest juicer I could find at Sears ($50) a while back. It works fine, but it takes more time to disassemble and rinse off.
Anyway, sorry for so much to read. My most important point... it's working! I noticed from just juicing a few days that my skin was looking better. I don't really know how to describe it. I started with a giant cyst on my chin, probably about 10 large zits and numerous small pimples, along with bacne and chestne and neckne. Contrary to this picture I'm painting of myself, I'm actually kind of attractive. Haha! It's only been 4 days of the complete regimen and 6 days of juicing, and I have only had 1 new pimple appear, a small but painful-to-touch zit on the end of my nose! I'm used to getting new pimples daily! I still can't believe this. My other pimples I started with are disappearing and the giant chin zit is almost completely gone! I saw myself in the mirror a few times today and actually saw some areas on my face that were, dare I say... descent looking! The oil production has decreased to maybe 40% I'm guessing... I'm still a grease monkey.
I will keep you posted on my progress, but I know my skin better than anyone, and things are definitely changing!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to share this knowledge with me and others!
Also, to everyone else - please don't dismiss Wingedserpent's regimen if you haven't FULLY tried this 100%.
Hollywood
B5 hasn't caused me any problems. However, the possible side effects of B5 (mentioned with much larger doses than 500mg I recommend) are related to the fact that it can in theory crowd out other B vitamins. So it is possible in the longer term to suffer deficiency symptoms of other B vitamins. It is therefore very important that you eat a good diet, one rich in B vitamins, and to monitor yourself for any conditions like itching scalp or dry lips. For this reason I sprinkle powdered wheatgerm into my food once a day. The bottom line is that we all have different metabolisms and what may be okay for me, may be too much for you. I only mention this for the sake of completeness -it's always wise to have as much information about the subject as possible.
There are extensive threads on this site about B5 -you may wish to read those. Although those threads tend to be about megadosing (taking several grams per day). I very strongly advise you not to go down that road! There are unknown (and therefore possibly serious) risk factors with taking that much and is outside the remit of my post.
B5 caused no breakouts with me.
Bread -I eat all I want. The only thing I don't eat/drink (outside of sugar items) is coffee, and that's because I can't stand the taste without sugar.
Photo. I'll think about it. I generally don't like putting photos on forums. In any case, all you'll see is a guy with normal skin. But if I think it might encourage people, I may post one.
Greasemonkey (I love that name by the way) -thanks for your comments and I'm so glad you have initially encouraging results. I hope you continue to see improvement over the coming weeks, keep us posted.
Hello Wingedserpent - do you have any thoughts on artificial sweeteners? I don't usually have much of a sweet tooth except for when I am premenstrual - and this is a time when I always flare up and I'm sure indulging in sweets exacerbates the problem. I was thinking of making a chocolate almond flour cake using artificial sweetener just so that I get my sweet fix.
I also heard that by juicing you were not getting all of the benefits of the fiber and that will result in a spike in your blood sugar. I'm paraphrasing here - I don't remember exactly what was said. But if it's working for you and others it's well worth trying. I think I'm going to alternate between smoothies and juicing to see what is more palatable for me.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share what you have learned 
Thank you for your response to my other post earlier .
I came across something that may be interesting to you:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/do-milk-and-sugar-cause-a_b_822163.html
Yes, very interesting. Thanks.
Mainstream acceptance of these principles is clearly growing. The problem with many dermatologists and doctors is that they learned in medical school that diet doesn't affect acne and until peer-reviewed research comes out to show otherwise, that is their opinion, set in stone.
People who actually suffer with acne have suspected for a long time that diet affects the skin. The problem has been that they have focussed on particular trigger foods such as cheese and chocolate, when it is not the particular foods but rather the food groups to which they belong which are causing the problem. That's why there are so many posts on these forums about individual foods causing problems, because a lot of the time they belong to the same groups. Eliminating individual foods is not enough, you have to concentrate on the whole group.
By doing this and by taking on board greatly-elevated nutrient levels (in my regime it's through vegetable juice) you can heal the skin. There is more and more evidence for this.
Interestingly, Hyman states no milk -I don't drink milk either, but this isn't a conscious decision, it's just I don't drink coffee or eat breakfast cereal. Consequently I have not listed this as part of my regime, but I may update the original post to make this clear.
What I really want to see is that this approach becomes the primary, frontline method of treating acne, not something that's just tinkered about with on the sidelines by a handful of people.
My view is that everyone should adopt the dietary approach first and use medication or topicals only if there isn't sufficient improvement.
No problem .
I understand about dermatologists. It's just... sad, that's all. I don't want to believe they are doing anything wrong, I'm just blown away at how callous they are towards their patience when it comes to more medical terms in the conversations. I don't know, maybe my town just sucks.
I completely agree with concentration on the whole food group, yes. It's often difficult to trace every single kind of food, but it's mostly easy to figure out which category it belongs under. And there are SO many brands, so many recipes, so much FOOD out there, gah!
I think the best approach is doing your own kind of research, and especially on this community website. I've opened my mind up to acne in ways I never thought possible.
Too bad for me, I'm a gallon of milk kind of person a day! Only because it's so convenient for me, but I totally missed out on the water intake I suppose. This will probably take a while to fix. I honestly didn't think I was doing anything wrong. I don't even drink alcohol or eat that much junk food, so I have no idea... probably just a lack of proper nutrients I guess.
That's going to be a hard task to achieve, making this dietary approach frontline that is. Not only do companies make money off their acne products, there's insufficient proper research for acne and food, which honestly blows my mind away. I think (as you said in your very first approach) that when people focus on more life threatening things and had B-5 supplements for this and that, they just noticed the acne getting better on their patient but didn't go down that path. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps society has a lot to do with this and how people, overall, learn new things and take care of themselves. Perhaps the thought that "it will go away on it's own in teens eventually" causes a to of laziness, but I really don't like using that word. I'm sure one day this will be done, but wow there is so much ahead.
