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A message to acne sufferers.

MemberMember
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(@struggleisreal)

Posted : 01/07/2016 1:02 am

First, I want to say that I hope nothing but the best for those going through the tough acne stage. I've been there before, and it's not easy for sure. For those of you who would like to add on or share anything, feel free to do so. I would gladly appreciate it. I want to share my personal experience to you all, hoping that it will be of some help.

Here is my story.
I am a 16 year old maleand I had pretty severe acne as a kid growing up. At the moment I'm still going through puberty,and acne tends to becommon around teen years. I have noticed a couple significant factors that greatly affected my skin over the long years of my acne stage.

My acne flare ups started around the age of 12, so sometime during middle school. My type of lifestyle at this time was sedentary meaning lazy, unhealthy, with bad habits. I never went to the gym, and I was a huge couch potato. I ate junk food everyday and hated vegetables. So as a result, I had the worst skin possible, my forehead would hurt from all the cysts, the back of my neck had cysts and scars from picking at the zits, and my back just looked like fresh pepperoni pizza. My neck acne was so bad, everytime I would stretch my neck just to look at something to the side would hurt sooo badly. I grew hopeless due to the intense severity of my acne. Iresearched a lot online hoping to find natural remedies and solutions that would help fix my problem.I've tried honey for my back, benzoyl peroxide for the face and back, salicylic acid for the face and back, pads for the scars, pretty much most OTC products, but I had no luck with any of them. They dried up and aggravated my skin which caused even more breakouts. I remember that I cut out fish oil from my daily supplements, and that seemed to help a little, so for those who are taking omega 3 fish oil and have consistent acne, try eliminating that out of your system for a couple weeks and see what happens.I'm not promising fast results or clear skin, but I found it to be a cause in acne, from my experience.

So fast forward 3 years later, I would be 15, I moved to another location where the weather was humid but had moisture, unlike the dry and harsh air from my previous home place. I took a visit to a dermatologist for the first time and he prescribed me some antibiotics called minocycline, and I took those everyday after breakfast to avoid the upset stomach side effect. This minocycline pill was a miracle, it worked and my face started clearing up and felt smoother over the course of time. Along with the antibiotics, I had to apply Tretinoin cream to the affected areas to help dry the pimples. This treatment process from week 1 to week 3 made my skin dry, that is the purpose of the medication, is to dry the pimple to eliminate the pus inside. I would apply moisturizer afterwards and it would alleviate the stiff feelings I would have on my neck. I thought this treatment helped me significantly but nothing is more important than a healthy diet when it comes to acne.Think about it. When you consume junk food, the bad toxins build up in your system and those toxins have to release out somewhere, either through your feces, urine, or the skin. This explains why I had so much acne as a kid, it was because I had so much junk in my body. So, I ate less junk, ate dairy once in a while but not much, exercised more often to maintain good health, etc. I also washed my face and skin once or twice a day in the shower; it mainly depends if I worked out in the gym. If you live in a dry area, don't wash often, you will dry out your skin causing more acne. What'sgood about the humid and moistured place that I lived in was that I had no worries about having too dry skin.

So by practicing good habits likeno picking at the pimplesor skin,and going with a junk food free diet, my acne cleared uparound 85% I would say overall in a period of a couple months. In recent day, my back acne is mainly covered withstubborn dark scars, my forehead is completely spotless, my cheeks and chin is 95% clear, and my neck acne is better looking than before but still a bit consistent with acne. Overtime I believe all this will eventually fade away, as I am still going through puberty. I'm still taking the same medications from before and instead of taking minocycline every day, I now take it every two days. I'm still using the tretinoin cream as well, but in small amounts so that I won't have super dry skin.

So a brief summary of what helped treat my acne is: Good Diet, Exercise, Wash 2 times a day or less, moisturize when dry, moving to a moisturized environment (not saying that you should consider moving!), and finally, when in doubt see a dermatologist (trust me, you won't regret it!) . I'll also add that you should wash with Cetaphil (Facial Cleanser), and just lightly scrub your problem areas with clean fingers to avoid irritation. Cetaphil has always been soothing to the skin and has help calm my acne.I also recommend using Eucerin lotion forbody acne and the Olay Face Moisturizer forfaceacneafterwashing,theseareskin calming,non-comedogenicproductsthat youwould want specifically for acne.Also, drink more water. Not only does water help flush out the bad toxins in your body, it helps your skin rejuvenate.

If you're getting really frustrated with acne, I totally understand where you're coming from. WhenI had bad acne,I kept thinking to myself, when is this ever going to end? How am I going to go out in public looking like complete crap? Well honestly, who's going to care about how you look like in the next 5 years? Also just think, there are people that have it worse than you and me both. I'd rather have acne than have cancer, a chronic illness, or a lifelong disability.At least if you have good health and the potential to treat acne, theres really nothing to be worried about! Remember, God has a plan for all of us, and he may not reveal it instantly, but soon things will be better! If you read the whole story, thank you for taking the time to do so. I hopei have helped out in anyway, good luck guys, and have a great New Year!

AhaGuru liked
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(@kjoon)

Posted : 05/29/2017 1:47 pm

Hey I just wanted to know how long it took after stopping the fish oil for ur skin to clear up. I had perfect skin and I started taking 1000mg of omega 3 daily and I got a lot of cystic acne thts not going. I don't know for sure if it's the fish oil but it's the only thing I can think of. I eat really healthy, exercise and never had a problem.

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