Zinc

I tried almost everything except Accutane. I understood from acne.org that Zinc deficiency maybe one of the root cause of the acne. Since it's only a supplement, there's no harm to try. I only take US RDI approved 15mg and I noted differences within one months. I hope the result will sustain!

Didn't do much for me... I will just discontinue the product.

I made an account just to review this. I'll try to be as detailed as possible. I started getting acne when i was about 18. (now 24) I had never had any before that and then over the course of like two months it went from nothing to full fledged cystic acne. I get it all around my mouth, chin, and jawline. Almost nowhere else. At this time, I went vegetarian and then a year later vegan. It never occured to me that could affect anything. My doctor said to make sure to pop a B12 every now and then but never mentioned anything else. Also I went from no BC to Mirena that year. I tried everything except for accutane. Antibiotics (worked but knew this wouldn't be good for me long term), BP, SA (neither did anything), retin-a (took it for almost two years. i bought into that whole "it gets worse before it gets better" but it never did. in fact it destroyed my skin.). Switched facewash from cetephil to extremely diluted dr bronners (helped some, not a ton but helped my face not itch and be as dry), started washing my face with the dr bronners + distilled water (distilled water does help. again not a lot, but whenever i live somewhere with old pipes my face breaks out because i assume the minerals the water picks up through the pipes), OCM (this helped some too, at first it helped a lot, but then my acne kinda picked back up, although not as bad as when i was on retin-a). After trying OCM and realizing that while it wasnt perfect, it helped WAY more then retin-a, I decided to look into more "natural" things. I looked up things that actually had been studied to have an affect and one of the first things that came up was Zinc. At first i started taking it jsut to see what happened, but as i did more research i realized i was probably very deficient since im vegan and have been for years. I didn't have the white spots on my nails but i had hang nails all the time on every single finger. Now for the timeline: Feb 7--started taking 15mg of zinc picolinate (thorne brand) once a day March 7--saw no change. I was willing to be patient because all the studies seemed to be over about three months, but when i looked it up i realized the studies were based off of 30mgs so i thought about uping to that. but then i read that vegans can be highly deficient so...... March 8--started taking 100mg of zinc picolinate (blue bonnet brand) a day--50mg at lunch and 50mg at dinner. make sure you dont take it with any other medicine ( i take my antidepressent in the morning to avoid interference) March 16--started to see a difference--no new ones, current ones seemed to be shrinking March 19--finally at the point i didnt HAVE to wear make up. decided to cut down since it was clearing up and i know that long term, high doses arent good. Cut back to 50mg March 26--doing better. not perfect, but way way way better. got rid of all my blackheads. April 19--great! not perfect, but im okay with that. also i think if im truly deficient it may take my body a long time to catch up. cut back to 15mg just for maintence. So thats pretty much it. Hopefully i covered everything. Id say it cleared my acne by about 70%. My routine is: nothing in the morning, try to avoid face make up if possible. zinc at dinner. Wash face with olive or almond oil every other night (dr bronners unscented the other night, extremely diluted with distilled water) and rinse with distilled water. on occasion (like twice a month) i exfoliate with baking soda and olive oil and rinse, then use ACV after. but really the zinc is the number 1 thing. just wanted to be thorough cause i know how much it helps.

I have been taking a 25mg for 4 weeks. After reading some reviews, think I am using too low of a dose to see any type of improvements. I am only using 25mg - so for those of you wondering, this is probably not enough. I'll try upping my dose to 50mg and see if anything happens then and write another review again.

i have also found that zinc helps considerably, but does not eliminate, my acne. i won't repeat what everyone else has already said, but it's definitely worth a try. also try the picolinate formulation, as this has increased bioavailability. also, an fyi for any white people out there w/ IBS-like symptoms and a suspected zinc deficiency...talk to your doctor about getting tested for celiac disease. it's the most underdiagnosed GI disease (almost exclusively in whites, esp northern european ancestry), and can cause all sorts of malabsorption problems including zinc. symptoms are usually fairly mild, so that vast majority of people who have it don't know it.

For the past 2 weeks I've been using 50mg of Zinc with 400mg of Chronium and I am SIMPLY AMAZED! I am a 34 year old African American woman who has suffered from acne for over 15 years! Plus I've been on everything accept accutane (which I refused to ever try). Now my skin has finally stopped breaking out and has started clearing up. Wish I would have learned about the powerful effects of Zinc and Chronium years ago! Plus Chronium is good for weight loss.

I started taking a 30mg supplement of zinc about a month ago now and I can definately see a difference. My red acne scars have minimalized and my acne is almost gone. Be sure to take your supplement with a meal. I prefer dinner only because that seems to be when I eat my most substantial meal. Also, don't overdue the dosage because too much zinc can mess with your metabolism and other absorption. 50 mg is the max recommended dose, anything over that could be dangerous

I've been using a special regime for about two months, and I saw results, but not quite what I had wanted. I started taking 2 30 MG zing lozenges everyday, along with 2 fish oil capsules, and my skin is SO MUCH BETTER. I get about 1/4 of the zits, but when I get them they heal so much faster! It used to take about 5 days for one of my zits to completely disappear, now it takes 1-2 days. I am so amazed! I love this product. I honestly can't believe something is finally working for me. It's so easy, not messy at all, and I am finally seeing the results I have always wanted. :)

After I switch birth control pills (from Ortho Cyclen to Lo Ovral), I've been broken out for nearly 5 months. I kept thinking it would kick in and help soon so I just left it. It didn't, so I searched online and found this site recommending zinc and picked some up from WalMart. 50mg tablets by the Spring Valley brand.. It started clearing things up right away. There was greatly reduced size and redness just by the next day and almost completely gone by 3 days. Record healing time for me. I also didn't get any new spots. I am a healthy 20 year old woman.. I eat meat regularly. I was pretty skeptical about adding zinc just because I don't see how I could be deficient, but its helped.. And very quickly. My dreams have been very vivid and I am remembering them now. In the past, I had never usually remembered them. Nightmares are also extra-scary, but I'll take them for the clear skin. I've n ever had an issue with getting an upset stomach with zinc, but I've always taken it about 40 minutes after a meal and I chop the 50mg tablet in half and take it at two different times. Overall, I recommend it. I liked it enough to come here and write a review. This is, literally, only the second review I've ever written (the first being for Underwood Horse Medicine, if anyone cares).

- For anyone with PMS or hormonal acne, I highly recommend taking 25g of zinc everyday. - I also recommend NOT taking it simultaneously with a daily vitamin, as many daily vitamins contain copper and can block zinc absorption. Take the daily vitamin a few hours after you take the zinc. - Try washing your face with Dr. Bronner's Castile soap. Zinc + Dr. Bronners has been magic for me! - Finally, be gentle to your skin. Avoid scrubbing at all costs!! Also ONLY touch your skin when applying make up and washing your face. Good luck!! I hope you have wonderful results.