This video was supposed to be a discussion about the difference between teenage and adult acne. But I got a little side tracked and started talking about the importance of natural treatments, how long you should be giving natural treatments to work and what holistic treatments are best to do. All good information-
Here are the High on Health articles and videos from the archive about combining natural and conventional acne treatments:
- Conventional vs Natural Acne Treatments
- When To Seek Professional Medical Advice For Your Acne Treatment
- Why I’ve Gone To The Dark Side And Started Using Cosmetic Skin Care Products
- What To Expect When Taking Antibiotics For Acne
- How To Combine Natural Acne Treatments With Oral Medications
As I mentioned in the video, this is a huge topic so please write me a question in the box below or in the forum if you’ve got something to ask. It’s difficult to fit everything I need to say in the ten minutes that YouTube allows me, so I may have just brushed over a point that you may want to hear more about.
Fran Kerr is the founding editor of High on Health. To cure your acne, sign up to Fran's FREE acne cure mini-course or download her latest how to guide, Eat Away Your Acne.
12 responses ↓
Fran…
This weekend I went to the Health Food store near my house. There was a man there talking about the importance of making sure you body is ph balanced. He said that if you are ph balanced the the cells in your body can work better and heal your body on its own. He used the example of trying to get rid of Candida (which my sister has) and he said it is really hard to get rid of Candida by diet alone….however if you are ph balanced you will feel a difference in one week and your candida will leave the body much quicker. He was selling cellpower drops that you put in water and it puts your body into ph balance. You test your ph using strips (which are really cheap) and dip them in your spit. Anyway….I told my sister about it and I think it is worth looking into. The product can be found at cellpowerusa.com. However….I am sure if you google body ph balance there will be “heaps” of info to learn about. (I used “heaps” b/c you do…and I know that is Australian way of talking….so cute! : ) )
When your body is ph balanced your cells can really heal the body and even acne too. I have not tried it…but I am seriously considering it.
Hi Fran,
I asked you about your liver in a previous post and I’m wondering if you’ve tried supplementing with digestive enzymes. I read on this site http://www.natural-acne-solution.com/enzymes-prevent-acne.html that enzymes regulate the liver function. I’ve been suspecting my liver function as the cause of my acne for a while now because my skin does not seem change significantly through my cycle.
I started taking digestive enzymes about 1.5 weeks ago and have noticed a huge difference is my skin -> virtually no new breakouts and my skin is much more even (less oily in the more oil prone areas and less dry in the drier areas). I’m not entirely sure if the improvements can be attributed in part or at all to the digestive enzymes because I’ve been doing many things to improve my digestion and liver function (whole body cleanse in February, followed by a liver cleanse in the first two weeks of March, and now I’m taking digestive enzymes, a fiber supplement and pantothenic acid ->but only in smaller doses ->around 1000 mg/day).
Thanks…
To the person that you reference in the vid-blog Fran that was told to use Accutane AS WELL as anti-biotics, well their derm should be locked-up! That is insane! Good recipe to totally destroy a liver, which is counter-productive to curing acne!
I agree that medication may get the visual result a person is after, but long-term it’s just re-routing the problem to another organ or illness…
I really trust and respect my GP, so when he sent me to a derm I did as the GP said: kept an open mind and try what the derm suggested/prescribed. BIG MISTAKE! I think derms are an absolute joke and wouldn’t waste my time, money or liver seeing one ever again! My GP knows I am very reluctant to ever take medication, especially antibiotics…
So when I took the antibiotics the derm prescribed for some sort of cystic or cosmedic acne, laser caused my skin (the laser was meant to help out my mild rosacea but caused so many other probs instead!), the antibiotics have clogged or damaged my liver.
My excess estrogen wasn’t able to be dealt with by my liver as it was too busy dealing with the antibiotics, so all of the excess estrogen got stored in the form of fibroids in my uterus - I now have a painful fibroid the size of a grapefruit which may require surgery! Thank-you idiot derm!
Time to get back onto my Chinese herbalist…
Hi Aimee- The acid/alkaline thing is huge and it’s been around for ages. A good diet (or eating plan really) takes this into consideration and recommends eating mainly alkaline foods ..which really are just fresh fruit and vegetables (although this is very controversial!)
I will check out the drops too, they sound interesting
Julia- I have purchased some digestive enzymes and will start on them soon. I’ve also been drinking a fermented drink with each grain meal to help my body digest it.
A couple of years ago when my acne was bad I was given some liver support tablets to take ..but at the time they were too strong and I went into a bit of a detox. I was getting 2-3 new painful pimples each day which was frightening! When I stopped the tablets the pimples stopped. So I realized that I needed to take a bit more of a gentle approach. I want to clean about my colon first, and then work on the liver. All interesting stuff though and I’m excited to learn more and get into all of it!
Kitty- Urgh, I totally agree with you about dermatologists. It’s too bad that your story is the same for so many people. Although the fibroid thing sounds awful! My 2 elder sisters have recently had operations to remove endometriomal cysts which was likely from excess estrogen too. I’m staying away from soy!
Oh Fran, your poor sisters! I really feel for them! I so dont want surgery! Since I stopped the antibiotics 1 week ago the lump in pelvis has shrunk from about the size of a rock melon to the size of a grapefruit - so I’m hoping that by avoiding estrogenic foods for a while and replacing them with estrogen blocking foods it may shrink further… I couldn’t understand why my stomach was bulging yet my arms, face and legs were still thin/slim…
Aimee, the easiest way to alkalinize your water is to add the juice of about half a lemon and a few drops of Stevia - both of these things are about the most alkaline foods on the planet!
Hi Fran,
Thanks for the video. It comes at a good time in my life. After a year of treating my adult onset cystic acne holistically (good diet, exercise, de-stressing, and gentle skin care), I was still getting painful cysts every day.
So I went to a holistic doctor who recommend more aerobic exercise, therapy, and meditation. He also wanted to prescribe an oral antibiotic, which I declined, but I did take his prescription for retinol and a bp/antibiotic gel. After a month, it is working and that feels good. But I worry that not only is it NOT addressing the root cause, but it may in the long run make my skin more prone to breaking out.
And what IS the CAUSE anyway? My diet is sound (though I’ve added vitamin D recently when blood work showed I was low). I’m stressed, but I’ve been as stressed before with CLEAR skin. I’m vegan, but I was vegan for three years with CLEAR skin. And I’m not a teen. My acne came on well into my 25th year and I’m 26 now. I’m saturated with hyper pigmentation marks, and if not for the topicals, I’d be getting new, painful cysts all the time.
The main thing for me to remember is that even though I prefer not to have to take topicals to keep me clear, I can still work the holistic plan while on them.
Thanks to all of you for reading! Sorry I’ve written so much!
Hi Estella, it’s good your doctor also recommended natural methods because most of them don’t do that! Sometimes it’s okay to use some topicals to help speed up the healing process of the skin but the natural methods will be helping the root cause as well.
Adult acne in women is often hormonal. Also look at your liver because it may be overloaded. Candida is another thing you could consider.
hi fran.
im trying to find a natural cleanser.
like the ones suggested like miessance.
but there so expensive so i can only get the drug store ones.
so im having a difficult time.
im thinking about OCM but im kind of scared…
so which product do you think will work on oily moderately severe teen acne? (tried neutragena made my skin my oilier..)
btw is kefir a good for your skin? (since theres dairy in there)
I took Accutane and antibiotics last year, From January 08-June08. June/July/August/September were one of the happiest times of my life! People told me I was soo good looking and that i should get into acting! Well, in october, the acne came back really badly…it kind of wasted a year of my life because my skin is scarred and red. Take Frans advice, I really wish I had known about Fran and her site and her insight before I took accutane.
@H20: Fran did a post/video about the OCM, it ended up clogging her pores if Im not mistaken.
Hi fran, I wanted to thank you for doing this video post for me (sks77)! I really appreciate it. However, I think I should set the record straight– My dermatologist didn’t mean take the accutane and antibiotics at the same time. I am pretty sure she was offering me one or the other since I have taken them both in my past (again, not at the same time) and they did work, but only temporary of course. It just bothers me that any doctor I have can never help me or give me advice on actually BEING healthy. How wrong is that?? I know there are holistic doctors and naturopaths but they never seem to be covered by my insurance. I just hate that in order for me to be healthy I have to pay extra for a service that should be covered. Instead, we get covered for visiting people that want to give us drugs and make our health WORSE.
I told my dermatologist I wanted to try clearing my skin naturally and MAYBE use a topical to help along the way. However, she just jumps to the extremes and the oral medications that wreak havoc upon the body. But because I am young, it’s “okay.” And since she is a professional I am suppose to believe and trust her that what she says is accurate even though many people WITH experience say otherwise. But they are not “professionals” so I am not suppose to listen to them. My appointments last all of 10 mins too so it’s not like she really knows my body and my family history. It just feels like she looks at my face and makes whatever decision she wants that she knows will clear my skin and shut me up. Of course, I don’t want that anymore. I want to actually cure this from the inside out, and ironically enough, that is NOT her area of expertise…
haha isn’t life funny? :-/
Hi H2O, the African black soap that I sell in my store is great for oily teenage skin and it’s not super expensive. I can’t recommend too much else because I usually sell what I love!
I love love love your blog, but I rarely have 10min to sit down and watch a youtube video (it’s blocked at my school, and I get home waaay late from work). Maybe there is a way to download your youtube videos to my ipod? Or better yet… please keep considering the idea of having both youtube videos AND mp3s…
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