My experience of curing my acne

I have had acne on my chest & back since I was 15 yrs old. I had learnt to manage them with the use of antibacterial talc powder. However, once I turned 35 yrs old, I started having acne on my face as well. First I thought maybe it was because I have a tendency to scratch my face. Now, I started controlling my hands & stopped touching my face completely but acne on my face didn't stop coming up. It continued for several months and eventually I became used to witnessing 3 new acne on my face every morning. By this time, my face was completely full of acne and its scars.

Then I consulted a dermatologist in a leading hospital in my town. She first gave me an oral antibiotic tablet along with topical acne treatment. That controlled the outbreak. After 2-3 months of that treatment I was recommended chemical peeling to get rid of acne marks, which I went through. However, sooner or later there used to be new outbreaks & again the same treatment was repeated. After 6 months, I realized that the treatment is just skin-deep but the problem is far more deep-rooted.

Next, I reached out to a leading homeopath in the town. He examined my skin, then criticized the western treatment that I had taken so far and use of harsh chemicals on my skin. Then, he said the problem has built up over a period of several years and for a permanent solution, I will have to take his treatment for a long time. I was convinced with his confidence in the treatment and continued his medicine for 3 yrs. Again, my acne used to reduce for some time but followed by another outbreak. The only difference was that this time I took 3 years to understand that this treatment is also not heading anywhere like the previous one.

By that time, I had started researching health related topics as I have shared in the other blog. So, I decided to also research about the acne problem in different medical journals, a few books and ancient ayurveda texts. The answer was simple but almost orthogonal to my treatment so far. While the treatments that I had received so far were focused on fixing the problem on my skin, the root of the problem was in my diet & lifestyle which was increasing inflammation in my body and reducing my immunity to fight the infection. Based on my research, I made the following 2 major changes in my diet:

1. Correct the way you consume milk
2. No refined white sugar

(For explanation of each principle and details on their rationale & references, one should refer to my other article on the acne solution here)

Once I implemented these 2 rules in my diet, within a few months the acne disappeared from the face. Then I became bold enough to check the results on my chest & back as well. So, I stopped daily application of antibacterial talc powder on my chest & back (which I was using to control the acne). The results were as I expected. The acne didn’t appear on my chest & back even after I stopped my maintenance regime.

Initially, I wondered how milk & sugar could be responsible for the acne problem because I have been consuming milk with breakfast since my childhood and sugar intake was also the same since those days. However, if you look from a different perspective, the problem started aggravating after I reached my mid-30s. That was a signal from the body that it cannot contain the ill-effects of my diet any further and once I identified the problem in my diet the acne eruptions on face, chest & back stopped for good.

My confidence in the solution was emboldened when I made a couple of 2 week travels out of the town. My first trip was to the US and I observed that a few acne appeared on my face during the 2 weeks. When I analyzed the difference in my diet, then I realized that it was the variety of milk. In India, I drink Cow’s A2 milk, whereas in the US I was consuming Cow’s A1 milk.

My next trip was after 3 months. It was again to the US for 2 weeks and again during the trip a few acne appeared on my face. After the trip, when I analyzed the difference in my diet, I realized that during the trip I had started to have 2 chocolate chip cookies from the hotel's vending machine once in a while (during hunger pangs). I used to think that having a little bit of sugar-based products once in a while won’t cause any harm.

Anyway, after another 3 months, I had another trip to the US which was again of 2 weeks duration. This time, I made sure that I neither drink A1 milk nor eat any sugar-based products, and as I anticipated, I didn’t get any acne eruption during this trip.

This way, with the 2 changes in my diet, I managed to solve the 8 yrs old problem of face acne and the 30 yrs old problem of acne on chest & back.