Hello Acne.org

I am brand new to this forum but have seen a lot of people give very great advice hence the reason I signed up.

To give you a background story of myself I am a 19 year old male in university and have suffered from acne since I was 14. Between 16-17 I was on antibiotics (Doxy Cycline) and my skin was 100% clear. However I try to avoid pills and antibiotics if I can. I read that acne was caused by diet and that anitbiotics were extremely bad for your health. Now I know this may not be the case for everyone, but for me yes my acne is caused 100% by diet.

I followed a strict diet regimen of

-No breads

-No pasta

-No meats

-No sugars

-Hardly any fruit (due to sugars)

-No spinach due to iodine

-No alcohol

The list goes on. As you can tell what I could eat was pretty much leafy greens. This was due to the fact candida bacteria in my stomach was causing acne (I think thats why antibiotics work so well for me). The 6 months I followed this diet I was 100% clear, however I couldnt take it anymore. I am athletic and work out 5x a week, but due to this diet I was losing weight. Also when I go out I couldnt eat anything and I was making my mom real ticked off as I couldnt eat any of the food she prepared for me. I felt really guilty eating anything but vegetables as I knew it would cause acne. This diet was literally taking over my life.

So I am asking you guys, is antibiotics actually THAT bad? Like causing birth defects in my children, causing cancer, causing tumors (claims by naturopaths) or is were they over exaggerating? I believe in both the natural and medication method of acne as they both work on me, but I want to go with the better choice.