Fighting Acne

A huge part of my life recently (and almost everyday since I was twelve) has been fighting my acne. This is a long, long story, but since it's been so huge in my life, I want to share it.

I've tried many, many products (Neutrogenia, Clearasil, Proactiv, Murad, Clinique, Mary Kay, Arbonne, and MaxClarity), and I've been to see two dermatologists in addition to talking to my regular doctor. Somethings worked for a little while, and some things made it worse. Proactiv worked for a while, but then made it worse later. I saw some results with both Clinique and Arbonne. The best results were from MaxClarity. Murad made it much, much worse. Both of the dermatologists wanted to do two things: antibiotics and a retinol treatment. The first time I tried retinol, it was terribly harsh. The second time I tried it it helped. The first time I was prescribed antibiotics my mom refused and the dermatologist was so disgusted he didn't offer anything else. The second time I was prescribed antibiotics I took them, and they made me sick to my stomach. The second dermatologist also prescribed "acne surgery" which actually helped. They would steam my face, put exfoliants on it, and push gunk out of my pores. This actually helped. I also tried topical antibiotics which dried out my face and only worked for a brief time. I think that's everything I've tried before the last couple of months.

So, here I am half my life later. For the past several months, my grandpa kept suggesting I have a Candida Yeast overgrowth. It's actually hurt me quite a bit that he would see my acne as such a problem. I had gotten to  the point where I was content with having minor breakouts all the time and knowing my friends and family loved me anyway. I felt that his constantly wanting to talk about it was offensive, and I told him so.

FYI: Everyone has Candida in their system. However, things like antibiotics, birth control, poor diet, and even the chlorine in our water can cause good bacteria to die allowing the yeast to over grow and release toxins which can cause all sorts of terrible problems in our bodies. Most of this happens in the intestines. This is sort of an alternative medicine idea, but the more I learn about it, the more I believe it.

Back to the story...after my grandpa hurt my feelings, and I told him not to talk to me about it anymore...

I looked up Candida Yeast and acne anyway. I found a book called, Acne Free in 3 Days. Now, I wasn't going to buy it from the website, but I found it on Amazon for about $6, so I read it and tried it. Much of what the author said made a lot of sense, however, I think for someone with severe acne or a Candida Yeast overgrowth, the three day method will not work. It helped (at first), but did not work for me. I could try the three day thing again, and I probably will later. I read the book in early March. At that point, I had already cut most sugars from my diet which had helped tremendously. I did the three day thing, and it helped, but not drastically. Then, a week later, my whole face became bumpy. ICK! It's stayed bumpy.

It is still bumpy. I think the cause of this was that I tried doing away with my regimin of over the counter salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide face washes. I would have still been using MaxClarity, but they stopped producing for a few months, and I never reordered because with the retinol the over the counter washes were working. However, when Ryan came home I had to do away with using the retinol because it may cause birth defects, and we have been "trying."

I'd been watching what I eat after doing the three day thing as recommended by the book and other websites that I found. That means no sugar, no bread, no mushrooms, no vinegar, no white potatoes, no dairy (except all natural full fat yogurt), no, no, no lots of stuff. What got me through? I could eat natural peanut butter (so I thought). I also, as recommended by the book, started taking garlic pills and acidophilus (probiotic) pills.

I continued to try to diet and do research on Candida. I was having very few large pimples, and I even had some days with no large pimples. The more I researched, the more Candida just made sense as the cause of my breakouts since high school.

Last weekend (and to a lesser degree for two weeks before), I ate foods I shouldn't have eaten. I broke out terribly! This week, even though I've been back on my diet, I haven't really recovered. So, I reordered MaxClarity. It's what's worked the best topically. I also did more research on Candida diets. My wonderful peanut butter that was the only thing I enjoyed eating probably contains molds and is therefore off-limits! Bummer! But, if it answers the question as to why I'm not clearing up, then it's okay.

The more research I do, I am also coming to the conclusion that I need to get a pill that is stronger/has more probiotics. I am not comfortable taking some of the ones like ThreeLac that are recommended to get rid of Candida because they have probiotic not naturally found in the body. I also added olive leaf extract to the garlic pills to kill the yeast.

So, an example of what I'll be eating now: Today, I ate yogurt with fresh blueberries (fruit is mostly off limits, but berries have antifungal properties and, therefore, are okay), scrambled eggs, sunflower seeds, a hard boiled egg, guacamole with garlic (another anitfungal) and pecan crackers (yes, there is such a thing), carrots, celery, tilapia, and spinach with olive oil and lemon juice for dressing. It's not what I'd like to be eating, but I think it's good for me.

The good part about all of this is that the probiotics and diet should be perfectly healthy to continue during a pregnancy if I am blessed with a baby during this process. Hopefully, once I've killed off the overgrowth which could take months, I can eat like a normal person sometimes, but I'll probably always need to be careful.

Hopefully this works, but if it doesn't, I learned a long time ago that my acne is not me, that those who love me best don't see it, and that I won't have it in heaven.

Blessings,
Jordon