Zinc

Zinc is thought to reduce acne because it affects the production and regulation of hormones in the body (including testosterone, which is linked with acne) and helps to regulate cell metabolism. However, a healthy balance is best for your system, so you shouldn't just overload your body with zinc for a quick fix. I get my zinc with a multivitamin (15mg zinc/day which is 100% DV) along. To me, 50mg of zinc alone is excessive, and this way I get the zinc, plus other vitamins necessary for the body (including vitamins A, C, copper and iron which also support healthy skin). Antibiotics and retin-a got rid of most of my acne, but it didn't completely do the trick. I think it is zinc PLUS the other vitamins and the fact that I go out of my way to stay hydrated, that made the final difference to smooth my skin and give me a flawless look that I have been fighting for for almost half my life. I first noticed a real difference in how healthy my skin looked after about 1-2 months of taking the multivitamin.

I have never reviewed anything on here before and just joined, but I had to review this because it's like the greatest miracle discovery ever. I've had acne issues since I was 17, and the first time around, Proactiv fixed it beautifully, for about 4 years. When I was 21, it came back again really bad, and so I went to the dermatologist and nothing from them worked. So I got the Proactiv advanced and it worked again, for about 1.5 years. Then awhile ago it started to come back really bad, the really huge painful kind that took weeks to go away. I tried antibiotics and various skin care systems, including proactiv, suki, befine, and nature's gate, and nothing has worked for over a year. I finally narrowed it down to hormonal acne, and read somewhere about zinc. So I tried it, and within 2 days, my skin was clearing up. It's now been about 2 weeks, and it looks way better. I don't get any more huge painful ones and the red marks are starting to go away. It does dry out my face a little bit I think, but my skin is looking almost normal again. I take it with fish oil with my dinner every night. The combination has worked wonders for my face and the fish oil seems to be balancing out my hormones as far as my moods go too. It apparently is a natural anti-depressant and I feel a lot more emotionally balanced since starting. I definitely recommend anyone to try it.

I read this website before taking zinc & I am so glad I did. I am twenty years old, have combination skin & have hormonal acne on my jawline (androgen caused). I started getting mild acne (small, unpoppable bumps, some whiteheads, and a TON of blackheads) at around 12 years old. My acne used to be in my forehead and nose; then it moved to my temples when I was about 14-15. My doctor put me on the pill (alesse) and prescribed me some benzoyl peroxide, but I still struggled with mild acne until I was about 17. At that time, I moved to Japan and I couldn't take the pill anymore. When I came off my skin became horrific; I remember it being at its worst when my entire face was covered in bumps. I had cysts covering my jawline, I had blackheads all over my nose, forehead and (surprisingly) cheeks. At that moment onward I stopped using any facial product and just let my skin heal itself. Within a few months, my skin healed completely & was as its all-time best. Unfortunately, I had to come back to Canada when I was about 18 and a half, and my acne came back gradually. Before trying zinc, I tried pretty much everything: Clarisonic, expensive skincare products, benzoyl peroxide, natural skin remedies (topical), etc. but nothing worked for me. Because I noticed a dramatic change as soon as I came back to Canada, I decided to change up my diet to something more like what I used to eat back in Japan. No dairy, lots of fish, little to no eggs, and lots of vegetables. I also stopped eating meat and drink LOTS of water daily. So a few months ago, I started taking 50mg of Zinc every morning. After 3 weeks, my skin had cleared up beautifully, but I still broke out around my jaw when my period came. I kept taking zinc and my skin became better and better, but never perfect (& we are all aiming for perfect, so this is where I messed up). So after about 6 weeks of zinc, I decided to add Evening Primrose Oil to my diet. This natural oil is also supposed to be good for androgen excess acne, so I took it morning and night as well as zinc. Within a week my skin started looking gross. It was oily and my jawline was bumbity dumpty. I took EPO for about 2 or 3 weeks before giving up on it. At this point, my skin was simply ugh. I had ruined something great; my forehead was really bumpy with unpoppable red zits, my chin and jaw went haywire, even my temples had some acne, and my cheeks and cheekbones had blackheads on them. So obviously I stopped taking EPO, but the zinc wasn't able to put my skin back. Ok so here comes the weird part. I had a nose job about 3 weeks ago so I had to stop taking supplements for a week. I also couldn't put anything topically to my skin during my 1-week of convalescence. My skin cleared up pretty good on it's own during that week! Since then I started taking zinc 25mg in the morning and 25mg at night (with meals!!!) It's been 3 weeks since I started re-taking zinc and my skin is back to its all-time best. This morning I woke up with only scars on my jawline and some blackheads on my chin, but very minimal. My forehead is for the most part smooth. I look the best I've ever looked in my life. I'll keep taking zinc twice a day from now on, and I strongly recommend it to anyone with hormonal acne. & also, DON'T TAKE EVENING PRIMROSE OIL!! if your skin story is similar to mine!

NO MORE PAINFUL ACNE, makes me grateful when I still get acne that it doesn't hurt.... don't forget to always be grateful that your situation is not the worst. Okay I'm going to try and summarize my experience: -I use optizinc (30mg tablets) because it contains trace amounts of copper so you don't have to worry about being deficient in either! -Don't be scared, I was pretty scared to use zinc at first, but I told myself that after my next new zit, I really had nothing else to lose. -Don't put off zinc after only a few days, you'll surely see a difference in your skin tone (brighter, smoother) and size/frequency of breakouts! -I started with 30mg just so I know I'm starting out safe and not going into this supplement like a crazy person (100mg per day) =p -Although it doesn't rid my acne completely, definitely makes me grateful that my acne is not painful anymore.

I've been suffering from moderate acne since I was around 14. High school had been hell since having acne made me unsociable around people, so yeah it was tough. My mom brought me to a dermatologist and he told me that the root cause was hormonal imbalance. He mentioned something about male hormones which was weird because I'm a female, how could I have traces of male hormones? And so he prescribed me with antibiotics and benzac, which is a topical cream that fights acne bacteria. I was clear for maybe a year and then after i stopped taking the pills, my acne flared up again. It was horrible, with the scars and everything. I just found out about the zinc tablets through online reviews. So i got myself a bottle and i have been taking 1 tabet of 50mg chelated zinc after dinner for a week now. I feel that my acne is healing alot faster and my skin is feeling more healthy and supple. Besides, my skin is also less oily than it used to be. Ive always had greasy skin even if i washed my face 2 times a day and it bugged me! Overall, i think all this while i had zinc deficiency which led to hormonal imbalance. That was most probably the main cause that contributed to my acne. So I highly recommend everyone who is seeking for a remedy to try it out! :)

Zinc is an amazing and effective treatment for acne that is caused by hormonal imbalance. I have run the literal racket concerning various acne treatments ( proactiv, benzoyl peroxide, epiduo, minocycline, coconut oil, salicylic acid, carley's clean and clear, apple cider vinegar, etc, etc, ad nauseum ). Here is the problem with all of the above; they attempt to treat the symptom of a bigger problem ( in most cases ). Topicals don't work for many people because the problem isn't a superficial one, but rather an internal imbalance. I stumbled upon Zinc when I began to realize that to treat my acne, I needed to find the root cause of the problem; and for me, all the signs pointed to a hormonal imbalance, poor diet ( high in sugar ), and a deficiency in Zinc. Every sufferer of acne has some form of Zinc deficiency, some greater or lesser than others. An easy way to tell if you might be Zinc deficient is to check your nails for white spots; this is a hallmark sign that you could be running low on Zinc. I have been on Zinc ( 30 mg a day ) for about two weeks now and the results are rather striking. Gone are the deep, painful nodules. My chin acne has all but completely vanished, and my jawline and neck are improving all the same. Diet ( especially sugar ) has caused havoc with my skin, but with Zinc, even when I give in and have a sugary treat, I don't seem to break out at all, and if I do, it is a small, superficial bump; not a cyst. I have noticed some people complain that they were taking the recommended dose but that they didn't see any results. It is important to note that you have to take 30 mg of ELEMENTAL Zinc. This can get tricky because Zinc Gluconate 50 mg, only contains 7 mg of actual, elemental Zinc. In order to get the effective dosage you need to take 200 mg of Zinc Gluconate to get the 30 mg of elemental Zinc. If you suffer from hormonal acne, or acne connected

So about 6 months back I had pretty bad acne, especially on my cheekbones and cheeks and forehead. I started on a good regiment of cleaning my skin, using lotion, eating less crap and shaving regularly. It helped immensely but my skin would still get very bad if I missed on my regiment even for a day or two. So about 3-4 weeks ago I started taking zinc daily, I'd say about 50-120 mg daily in the form of two 22mg zinc pills and like 35-50mg in my multivitamin. Improvement was quite quick and after a week or so my skin already looked good even without doing my regiment (though I still keep doing it, no one should lose good habits, right?). As far as nausea, I didn't have any although on occasions I think I would've (admittedly, by accident) taken close to 200mg in a day - but I've always had quite a strong stomach so I wouldn't recommend to make such mistakes as I hear it can be quite unpleasant. The bottom-est line: Try it, it obviously won't work for everyone, but for those who it does work for it can do wonders, and even if it doesn't work - well screw it, you only spent like $5-10 on it anyway. Also I should point out that I've tried the zinc mask suggested by other users here and I found it really doesn't make any difference for me, not really sure what is it supposed to even do if you just put it on your skin.

Dont take zinc oxide, try zinc picolinate instead, it has better absorption. I suffered zinc deficiency for a lot of time without knowing. Had problems like oily skin,breakouts, low testosterone, and a very sh*tty life lol So, literally, zinc changed my life :) (Along with omega3 and magnesium) I feel more confident now with more energy and have better skin. By the way, I am a chinese young male who had a zinc deficiency, not sure that is gonna help for everyone... but dont overdose too much.

I have been off the birth control pill Yasmin for a few years. Before the pill I never had acne, and during the pill no acne. However the pill made me feel week and bad overall so I quit taking it. My hair thinned out, and my face broke out insanely. My period has been slightly irregular ever since. I think the pill ruined my life until now. I started taking evening primrose oil, quit all dairy and that made my skin about 50% clearer, then as soon as I found out about zinc taking 50mg per day my skin cleared 95-100%. Now maybe I break out once a month before my period!! WOO HOOO ZINC!! Who would have known. My inclination is that the pill depleted my mineral supply (since it was a potassium sparing diuretic) but increased copper levels. I don't take copper with zinc because when I do I break out.

Guys I am 24 years old male flight attendant. I travel about 4-5 times a month to Europe and the 10 hours long flights destroyed my skin. After each flight I was getting horrible pimples that I couldn't heal for many days. Honestly I used to try everything- the cheapest and the most expensive solutions: sulfur, BP, SA, thousands of face masks ect and nothing helped me until I started to take this stuff. After a few days my face stoped to shine and the inflamed spots just disappeared. I have already two flights to Germany behind me and I didn't get any new pimple. PS zinc realy supports good skin condition as well as it works as an natural aphrodisiac so guys be aware and don't be suprised getting unexpected and really hard erection ;)