Maybe I'm being weird but have lately been fascinated with body pH and alkalinizing diet. I have pH readings of my urine from a recent ER visit. The first one is 5.0 and the reading from another hospital a week later is 5.5. I must be acidic and a breeding ground for bacteria and disease! I am 26 and am breaking out all over my jawline, in front of the ears, and its starting to creep down my neck and up my cheeks. But its 3x worse on the left side than it is the right. ??? The rest of my face is gorgeous because I started oil cleansing a few months ago but this area doesn't seem to be affected. Could one factor be pH? I'm pretty sure I'm so acidic because I'm hardcore addicted to diet soda... the more I'm stressed the more I drink... and smoke and I've been super stressed; some days I chain smoke all day and only have diet soda, no food. The last time this happened to me, I was in a stressful situation and it just got worse and worse over a period of months, then once i got out, it started to clear up right away (i was still drinking lots of diet soda).
And is there anything you can look at from a CBC and say "yep, thats bad, that can cause acne". I do have results from a recent CBC.
Thanks for the help. Oh, I don't have insurance anymore so I cant go to a dermatoligist or a doctor for testing or anything, please don't suggest that.
You know the root cause of your acne so look how to tackle it. As far as alkalizing your body go to the nutrition forum and try changing your diet. A quick solution will be to have a cup of vegetable juice daily. Carrot, cucumber, celery, wheat grass, beet etc. Juicing book website have many recipes. For the stress I would recommend meditation/hardcore yoga including headstand and shoulderstand. Youtube is a good source.
Diet can cause many imbalances to the hormonal axis in the brain - coupled with stress and you have recipe for your body going out of whack! An acidic diet is more likely to affect your skin as, like you say, it's a breeding ground for bacteria and inflammation. Acidic = inflammation. An alkaline diet can reset your pH levels and make your skin less appealing as a breeding ground for bacteria, as well as reducing your skins inflammatory response to infection.
I can't say enough about how clean eating and stress management will go a VERY long way to managing acne. Eating 'live' foods - such as a plant-based diet reduces inflammation astronomically and allows your body to utilise the enzymes and nutrients to repair, replenish and nourish all of you. A great way to start is by cutting out sugar, caffeine, processed foods (basically anything that doesn't look like what it did when it was alive - meat and plants included) and dairy (dairy is a huge one too) and swapping them for honey, herbals teas and a plant-based diet including using almond milk rather than soy. Try having a green, red or orange juice once per day and observe the changes in your body.