For some a herbal or natural acne remedy may be all that’s needed to dramatically improve their skin and clear up their acne. For others, it will take time, persistence and perhaps even some prescription drugs. Unfortunately prescription drugs can be harsh – both on your skin, your body and your psyche. So the preferred method of treating acne is to try natural and less invasive treatments first – usually with good results, before moving to more extreme measures.

Acne can be a tough disease (yes it is a disease) to deal with. The psychological effects of having acne on your face, back, neck or body can be devastating. Not to mention downright annoying as well.Everyone who suffers from acne wants a quick fix – but the truth is there are no quick fixes unless you endure harsh acne drug treatments with potentially serious side effects. We’ve all seen the commercials for class action law suits against Accutane and other brands of Isotretinoin.

Let’s look at some natural acne remedies you can start using today with items from your home (or you can purchase them very inexpensively).

Tea Tree Oil

This wonderful little oil comes from the Melaleuca tree and is awesome at healing pesky pimples faster than they would on their own. It’s a topical oil so you apply it directly to your acne in small doses. It acts as an anti-inflammatory and also as a triple antibiotic. Look for a 5% solution when purchasing tree oil – any higher and may be too strong for your skin.

Baking Soda Masks

Baking soda masks are a great acne remedy that can help your skin look fresher and softer overnight. Baking soda is a mild exfoliator and helps to remove dead skin cells and also soften up pimples that aren’t quite ready to pop. Apply a thin layer of baking soda mixed with warm water to your face and let it sit until it dries. When it’s dry, wash it off gently without rubbing. Voila! You’ll skin will look better and feel better almost instantly. If you had any pimples that weren’t quite ready to pop, take another look – they might be ready now!

Baking soda masks are one of my favorite acne remedies and they cost about 10 cents.

Zinc

Many people with acne have been shown to have a zinc deficiency. Supplementing with zinc has actually completely eliminated acne problems for some. So, if you have acne it’s worth giving zinc a shot as an acne treatment. You have to be patient though – it will be a month or two before you start seeing any results. You must take the zinc regularly and adjust your dosage according to your body weight. You’ll find details on the packaging.

Bentonite Clay

Recently bentonite clay has been found to be effective at extracting hard to get pimples and helping people deal with their acne. It’s not a complete acne remedy on it’s own but it is good for general skin maintenance and preparing your skin for a special occasion to look it’s best.

Fresh Apricot Juice

If you have cystic acne, fresh apricot juice can be a good cystic acne remedy. Simply squeeze the juice from a fresh apricot and apply it to your cystic acne for some relief. Let it stay on the skin for about 5- 10 minutes before washing it off. It will help to extract the cyst and bring it to the surface as well as provide antioxidants to the skin and improve skin elasticity.

These are just a few acne remedies that can truly help you along your way to curing your acne. Remember, acne can’t be fought just on the outside – the problem lies within your body, not on your skin. So while topical treatments can help keep your skin under control they will not cure acne on their own. For that you need a thorough body acne remedy.

But did you know that many people who have acne are actually missing crucial vitamins and minerals in their diet?


And what if I told you that simply taking these vitamins and minerals on a daily basis has even completely cured acne in certain individuals.

If you suffer from acne or have problem skin you know how frustrating it can be waking up every morning to a face full of pimples. It’s disheartening to say the least. Today I’m going to share with you 10 vitamins and minerals that will help you take a big step in the right direction towards getting rid of acne – once and for all. This isn’t a miracle cure and you won’t see results overnight but if you stick with the regime you *will* see improvements and maybe even a complete transformation.

Most quality multi-vitamins will provide you with sufficient quantities of the vitamins listed below – but it’s impossible for one multi vitamin to provide all the essential vitamins and minerals recommended for curing acne. If it says “take separately” in the list below it means that you won’t get the required amount from a multivitamin and you will need to take a separate dosage to see the full effects.

10 Vitamins and Minerals That Help Get Rid of Acne

Probiotics (Acidophilus)
(Take Separately)

• Probiotics help replenish essential bacteria in your digestive system and they help to reduce acne breakouts.
• I recommend the Garden of Life probiotics. They are by far the best on the market and really the only probiotics worth taking. Most formulas don’t contain nearly as many good bacterium as they claim on the packaging. Garden of Life are one of the few formulas that actually live up to their claims.

Collodial Silver (Take Separately)

• Collodial silver helps to fight acne by reducing your chance of skin infections and fighting existing skin infections. Since acne is actually an infection of the skin (on the surface anyways), collodial silver can greatly reduce inflammation and the “ugly” side effects of acne.

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s)

• Essential fatty acids are necessary for your body to repair and maintain skin tissue. Hence they are ultra-important when it comes to having healthy looking skin or healing acne scars.
• EFA’s (essential fatty acids) work best if they are obtained through diet alone, but most people do not get enough EFA’s from their diet alone, hence it is necessary to supplement.
• You can get essential fatty acids from things like Fish, Coconut Oil and some eggs as well. (look for omega-3 and omega-6 on packaging).
• For supplementation I recommend buying yourself a jar of Coconut oil and using it as a replacement for butter when you are cooking meals. It tastes great as well!
• You can also buy EFA’s in capsule or soft chew form – which usually contain horid tasting fish oils.

Potassium

Potassium deficiency has been linked to acne in numerous studies, so it’s important to supplement with potassium if you have acne.

Vitamin A (Take Separately)

Vitamin A is essential for skin emulsion and assimilation. In simple terms, it’s necessary for shedding old skin cells and creating new, healthy skin cells. You can see why supplementing Vitamin A is important for successful acne treatment.

Vitamin B Complex

Vitamin B complex helps to improve your skin tone and it also increases blood flow to your skin, which in turn helps promote healing and healthy skin. Vitamin B deficiencies have also been linked to acne in numerous studies which makes it doubly important to take Vitamin B if you have acne problems.

Vitamin D3

Vitamin D3 helps promote healing in your skin and also helps with soft tissue repair. Both important aspects when treating acne.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a powerful anti-oxidant. It helps to remove toxins from your blood stream and also aids in skin repair and lubrication. Many acne sufferers have seen dramatic improvements after supplementing with Vitamin E.

Zinc

Zinc helps with the healing of soft tissue (skin) and also helps with scar repair and healing acne scars. A Zinc deficiency has also been linked to acne in one notable study.

Garlic

Garlic helps destroy unfriendly bacteria and also help builds immune function and improves immune efficiency. Acne is actually an immune related disease so a strong immune system is important when treating acne.

Selenium

Selenium is a powerful anti-oxidant which also encourages tissue elasticity. Tissue elasticity is important to prevent the “saggy-droopy” look often associated with facial acne.

Fighting acne is all about treating acne from the inside out. Not from the outside as most drug companies would have you believe. If you follow the advice of this guide and supplement with the above-mentioned vitamins you will see results.

–> Tip 1 – Water

Drink plenty of filtered water *every* day. Water is essential for almost every bodily function, including the shedding of skin cells.

If skin cells don’t shed quickly enough, it can lead to blocked pores, a precursor to acne.

–> Tip 2 – Diet

-Avoid processed foods, refined sugars, and hard-to-digest foods.
-Avoid food preservatives and chemicals.
-Consume lots of building/healing, fresh and organic foods instead.
-Cut down or eliminate dairy and red meat.
-Avoid eating starches (eg. potatoes) and meat in the same meal.
-Avoid caffiene.

–> Tip 3 – Reduce Stress

Learn to calm yourself and your nerves through breathing and meditation exercises.

You can also try audio cd’s that help to relieve stress help you to relax. EFT (emotional freedom technique) is also very popular and known to
work well with practice.

–> Tip 4 – Supplements and Probiotics

If you think you may be defficient of any essential  vitamins, you should definitely try to get them through diet. However, many times this is not possible, in that case, be sure to get a vitamin supplement.

Probiotics are “friendly bacteria” that live in your intestines and help to digest food and maintain PH balance (among other things). Many times people have a candida yeast infection, or just a lack of friendly bacteria.

Probiotics will help eliminate a candida yeast infection as well as prevent further infections from occuring.

–> Tip 5 – Detox and Cleanse

Give your body a break and let it get rid of some of  the junk you have put in it over the years. Your body constantly has to deal with food preservatives, chemicals, air pollution, germs, viruses, stress, and hard to digest foods, and usually a lack of essential nutrients to get the job done.

-Colon Cleanse  –> Click Here for a FREE Colon Cleanse Trial
-Kidney Cleanse/Parasite Cleanse
-Liver/Gallbladder Flush
-General Detox

–> Tip 6 – Products and Cleansers

Only use natural products and cleansers, chemicals like benzoyl peroxide and sacylic acid only make the problem worse for most people in the long run. You should also avoid all products that contain any comedegenic (pore-blocking) ingredients.

You can find a list of comedogenic ingredients here:

http://www.zerozits.com/Articles/printable.htm

–> Tip 7 – Create a Plan and Stick to It

Setting goals and planning, or not, can often mean the difference between successfully eliminating your acne.

It is somewhat of a lifestyle change to actually cure your acne. With that said, once you make the changes you will be more than glad that you did.

The truth is, acne isn’t caused by one single factor, there are actually many factors that work together in causing the various forms of acne. We’ll call these the “acne antagonists”. These factors in combination usually end in one result, which is what we know as acne.

The end result I’m speaking of is pores clogged by excess oil, which are perfect festing and breeding grounds for p.acne bacteria. The presence of p.acne bacteria results in inflammation, the ever-so-awful pussy substance that you see when you squeeze a pimple, and if not properly treated, infection.

Many over-the-counter treatments such as benozyl peroxide, or sacilyic acid work to eliminate p.acne bacteria, but the truth of the matter
is, you’ll never get rid of it all, and it will always come back. Remember, p.acne is just the end result, not the cause of acne.

So what are the underlying causes of acne?

Well like I said above there are many different causes – not all need to be present in order to cause acne, but at least 2 are present in any case of acne..

These are:

1) Hormonal Imbalances

It’s no secret that acne prevails around the time of puberty. This is mainly due to hormonal imbalances during the stages of puberty which trigger excess oil growth and divert nutrients essential in the breakdown of fatty acids to other areas of the body (namely reproductive organs).

The reason excess oil is created is because the hormonal imbalance causes your sebaceous glands to produce more oil then is necessary to keep the skin healthy. That is why many teenagers end up with an oily looking face.

Many dermatologists also perscribe birth-control pills to women with acne, the birth control pills tend to balance out the hormones in the womens body. These birth control pills are almost always effective but are not a long term solution – none-the-less they are further proof that our hormones are directly related to acne.

2) Hereditary Inheritances

What I mean by hereditary inheritances is that certain attributes inherited from your father or mother may make you more acne prone then others. These attributes include enlarged pores, fair skin, and enlarged sebaceous glands among other things. While these attributes won’t cause acne on their own, they can play a role in causing acne when mixed with hormonal imbalances, or other acne causing threats.

Unfortunately this is the only one of the 4 factors that you can’t change very easily (with a few exceptions), so your effort to become acne-free should be focused on the other 3 factors listed here.

3) Foods and Diet

You’ve probably heard much debate over whether or not the foods you eat in fact cause acne. Well, there is good reason for this debate, as foods neither cause acne, nor do they not cause acne. The foods you eat will not cause acne on their own, but combined with one of the other factors listed they can be a recipe for an acne-disaster.

Specific foods to avoid include high fat and high cholesterol foods, refined sugar, wheat and wheat derivatives, greasy foods, and any type of junk food. A well balanced diet won’t only help calm your acne, but will keep the rest of your body healthy as well.

While foods alone do have an impact on your acne, there are other factors to consider when looking at food and diet as a cause of acne. Bad eating habits (lots of gluten, hydrogenated oils, MSG, refined sugars etc.) lead to many diseases and conditions in the colon. Everything from parasites in your colon to open bleeding wounds (ulcers) can be linked back to improper eating habits.

When your colon gets backed up, wounded, or ill-repaired, it isn’t able to function at it’s normal capacity. The average person should experience 2-4 bowel movements each and every day. The sad truth is, most people only have 4-6 bowel movements a WEEK! When the colon or digestive system isn’t functioning properly, your blood becomes more toxic, and your bodies ability to break down fatty acids is weakened.

Toxic blood has been linked to many diseases and disorders, acne among them.

In summary, food and diet’s role in causing acne is 2 part – short term and long term. Short term bad eating habits may result in a breakout of acne and pimples. However, long term bad eating habits can lead to a sluggish or wounded digestive system which leads to blood toxicity being raised and acne being even more prevailant. So, remember, eating healthy is a *good* thing when it comes to acne.

Clean up your diet. Your skin is your body’s largest organ. As such, it needs proper nutrition to function properly. Just as your heart can get clogged up with too much fat, your skin can get polluted with too much animal and saturated fats. Healthy skin requires large amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, filled with vitamins C, A and E. Healthy skin means limiting meats, sugars andartificial substances that can toxify your skin and clog pores.

American Medical Publishing, Proven Health Tips Encyclopedia American publishing Company, 1995 Page 164

4) Hygiene

Bad hygeine alone will not cause acne, but it can worsen an already existing acne condition, and good hygeine is important for overall health regardless. Be sure to wash your hands and face at least once a day, but DO NOT scrub your face raw or wash it excessively. Washing your face too often will only make your acne worse as it will aggrevate your skin and strip it of essential oils (resulting in even more oil being produced), especially those of you with sensitive skin.

For best results wash once in the morning and once at night with a very mild cleanser, or even no cleanser at all. Use warm water first to open the pores and get the gunk out, and then rinse with cold water to close your pores back up. A proper hygiene routine will help ensure a healthy lifestyle overall as well as help minimize unnecessary breakouts.

For a cleanser, I recommend Cetaphil, which is very mild and non-comedogenic (won’t clog pores). You can find cetaphil in most pharmacy stores.

There you have it, the 4 underlying causes of acne, now doesn’t that make a little more sense then those infomercials trying to sell you a topical treatment? Acne is actually a pretty logical occurance, however overcoming acne is not always so easy.

Other contributing factors to acne include:

-Stress
-Bad Habits (picking, touching face etc.)
-Acne causing cosmetics and face products (comedegenic ingredients)
-Weak Livers/Kidneys