New to ACNE?

[Glow]

Hey guys,

one by product of raw is I'm suddenly getting a nasty unsightly zit or two!
:eek: Now this just doesn't fit with my image of a raw super sex object. :D

On cooked foods I rarely got, even eating chocolate, etc. Okay, maybe If
I ate a TON of junk.

But Now I'm eating super raw/ healthy. Yes lots of nuts - But I think the SALAD oils are doing it even more than the nuts.

Don't want to cut out the nuts, 'cause don't want to Lose any weight. { yep,
sorry- lol! ] And It's really hard for me to find raw recipes I like - so I can't
water salad dressings down to feeble dweeble level, right?

Help!

[I can just imagine a doctors "help". Here's a prescription for tetracyline!]

:eek:

[VeganVixen]

Don't want to cut out the nuts, 'cause don't want to Lose any weight. { yep,
sorry- lol! ]


your right your sorry :mad: ! UNFAIR!!!!! :p ;)

seaweed does wonders for skin "everything" problems ,also Ive heard that blood sugar highs and lows arent good ,so eat requarly and if you have fruit follow it with fat , protein ,or fiber ......and rp suggested mashed strawberries are a great astringent ,also papaya is a good mask (loaded with enzymes) and ALSO I use turmeric powder (w/a bit of water to a pastey consitentcy) as a "calmer" ,and burts bees has a good "blemish stick" out AND ALSO!!! I LOVE avalon skin products ,the purifying masks is great and the lavendar milk wash is SO skin-calming (sometimes we need to lay off the harsh atringents and soothe our skin instead ,avalon products are at most h.f.s.'s and at http://www.avalonnaturalproducts.com/

[Wendy]

Could be your zits are detox and not related to the diet (directly).

I was hoping raw would clear my skin, but I took an antibiotic and that cleared it. When I didn't finish the antibiotic, it came back.

I know many people are interested in mostly pure, non chemical remedies, but the antibiotic is what worked for me. And I just don't get it on my face either.

[Punky]

Hey Glow!
Sounds like you have a bit of detox coming thru your skin.
It WILL pass. During my 3rd or 4th week raw I started breaking out
and got a *weird* rash on my neck. It was after my period and very unlike
me so I know it was detox. It cleared up and I have glowey raw
skin again. Be patient. Cucumbers are great for the skin (I don't know
about for zits though). I love juicing them with an apple.

As for the antibiotics recommendation-that is a personal choice, but usually for people that always have had skin issues consistantly in the past from what I gather.
My best friend I've known since college (12 years now :eek: )
has always had acne issues with her skin. She was on antibiotics--
tetracycling (sp?) for her skin for a year or so, than decided she didn't want to do that anymore. Sometime last year she
asked me for advice since I know a lot about food allergies(my son)
and healthy foods...I questioned her about her diet, gave my recommendations and we crossed our fingers. I had no idea if this would work
for her, and a couple of months later, her skin was CLEAR...clearest
it has been ever, except for when she was on antibiotics.
Whenever she gets off
these food recommendations she starts breaking out again. She is so interested in RAW now after seeing what diet can do for her. She juices dark
greens & veggies regularly and that has helped her alot, along with cutting dairy, sugar, and junk food out. She rarely eats meat and eats alot of produce now and more whole foods. She use to eat a lot of junkie kid food cereals (her weakness).

But as for you Glow, your diet is already good and you never had issues before so I would ride it out (or hide it out, LOL) for a week or so and see if it improves. If not you might start playing around with your raw diet to see if that helps but it really sounds like detox.
HTH

[Punky]

And It's really hard for me to find raw recipes I like - so I can't
water salad dressings down to feeble dweeble level, right?
:eek:

Glow, On another thread a while back
when a bunch of us was zitsville someone mentioned it could
be too much raw fat in the diet. Since you don't need to lose ANY
weight ( :mad: lucky you! ;) ) I would wait it out still to see if it clears up.
If not, than maybe adjust your oils/nuts. I didn't do anything and it cleared
on it's own. Also how long have you been rawing it? I find my nut
consumption naturally went down the longer I had been raw.
Good luck. Hope it clears up soon.

[Revvell]

Glow,

Only a couple of zits? Hmph. You're quite lucky. ;)

My husband just went through a period where he got a rash under his chin then the whole right side of his face broke out in, not only zits, but huge bumps. These extended down the side of his face to his neck and under his chin. He was NOT happy! But! What to do? He also had a couple of rashes on his stomach and sores ~ one on a leg and one near his shoulder and on his wrists.

I suggested it was detox and that he maintain what he was currently doing which was and is a LOT of orange juice, smoothies and green drinks along with other fruits/veggies/crackers, etc.

During the past two weeks he has learned about various things yet for him what made a difference was clay packs. He made on up, slathered it on and sat in the sun. Instant difference. Did it again 2 days later. Now his skin is almost totally clear and beautiful. Being from Northern Europe he generally has beautiful skin anyway. Now that his system has detoxed, it's even better.

Speaking of which, I've been getting compliments on my skin lately ~ from folk who've known me for quite some time. That, in and of itself tells me I'm doing something good.

Some may not know this yet, the skin serves as a third kidney AND a third lung which means it is made for elimination. Did you know that your sweat is made up of the same (whatevers) as your urine? Once the system is clean though, sweat does not stink! ....or, it can smell like an herb garden. :)

Injoy ~

Revvell

[Wendy]

I agree with the comments here. I have never had bad skin really in my whole life. I don't sweat alot and it takes 5 days or so before I turn smelly (without a bath). Then I started getting cystic acne, large, hard round bumps on my chin, all under my neck, my back, etc. I have NEVER had this before. I've had it for about a year and I finally in January went to the dermatologist and he told me it was bacterial.

Well, then I started getting into raw and thought I'd ride it out with the diet and I stopped taking the anti-biotic. My skin had cleared up and then within two weeks the hard cystic bumps started coming back.

So, it is my personal decision to go back to the antibiotics. I still haven't got raw totally figured out for myself, and I don't feel I can rely upon it at this point to fix the cysts.

I'm not saying I'm right, just saying this is what's going on/working for me.

[JustMe]

HI Glow!

I ordered a book last year on acne and how to CURE it. This book is supposed to guarantee it. So I bought it. The major thing to clear your skin is to have pure blood and lymph fluid. Diet is the first thing that needs to change. OF course raw is an excellent diet, so you are on the right track.

It also has to do with your hormones. you need to keep your hormones balanced. To do that you need to make all of the prostaglandins in your system and to do that you need EFAs in the proper amounts and ratios. The ratio to keep your system balanced is more omega 3s than 6 and 9. So it would be 3:1 (omega 3:6 and 9). Good sources of omega 3s are flax, walnuts, fish oil (don't know if you are vegan).

So you don't have to give up your fats and oils (I'm like you - I DO NOT want to lose any more weight), just make sure you ingest more omega 3s. I talked about this in an other thread...here's the link...

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3411

[Myka]

Hey has anyone tried to use Virgin Coconunt Oil on your face? Yes on your face. The oil is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflamitory and a natural moisterizer. There are some books on the benefits of coconut oil that suggest using it on your face/body for any skin ailments. I have been using it for the last two weeks and its helping. I'm using it on my body in the shower instead of soap. It's great. My skin is softer.

[Revvell]

Myka,

I've not yet, I will. Thanks for the info.

Revvell

[Myka]

Sure. Let me know how it goes. I know when I had a strange rash on my neck from detox it cleared it up and calmed it down.

[blue_sky]

Myka,

I do skin brushing/loofah all over my body including my face, and then moisturize (including face with a gentle loofah) with virgin coconut oil everyday. I was skeptical about this at first but wow!! It's incredible. My skin is literally glowing. Be warned though, if you don't want to tan, this will accelerrate suntanning. I like being tan so i didn't mind that effect at all :)

[blue_sky]

BTW i just want to tell everyone, be really careful with those antibiotics. (I would suggest not taking them at all but that's just MHO).

I suffered many ill effects after taking them for less than a year. i was on minocin for a while and i think another type of tetracycline.

And for YEARS afterward suffered horrendous yeast infections at least once a month. Until I learned about a better diet and probiotics!!!

But I also understand wanting your skin to look good, or at least not have acne... so please understand I am not trying to preach to anyone, just to share my personal experience.

[Universal]

Peace to everyone,

Just to add-on, i made a post a week or two back about acne and i was concerned about my occasional breaking out. I do have some Virgin Coconut Oil, and the only time i tried using it on my face was to experiment with one of my painful zits; Maybe i should learn how to take heed to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, because it did work. But i never thought of using it on my face again. I'm gonna try that out Myka. I'm desparate to do anything to get rid of this crap.


PEACE
Universal

[Smashdeezel]

Going raw had the absolute opposite effect on me: I had really horrible skin and acne, and almost instantly after being on raw my skin cleared up so much I got compliments on my "glowing" skin (which was definitely a FIRST for me). I have even recommended going raw to some of my friends who have bad skin.

But everybody's body is a different machine in need of different fuel. I have found that taking Omega - 3 fish oil pills have really helped, as have multivitamins, Vitamin C, A, and E pills, and eating extra garlic and green veggies. Right now I am on the "master cleanse" fast so I'm breaking out a little more than usual but I think thats due to detox.

Check out this website: http://www.holistic-online.com/Remedies/Acne.htm#HerbalMedicine: Only thing I don't agree with is the Benzoyl Peroxide treatment. I personally use Aveeno's Clear Complexion Foaming cleanser and Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturizing Cleanser and find that combo way more effective.

Anyways, hope this rambling helps!! Good luck! :)

[sweetgoddess]

You can get a blemish stick at any health food store with calendula flower oil, borage seed oil, yarrow oil, parsley seed extract, willow bark extract, lemon oil, fennel oil, water, tea tree leaf oil, juniperus communis fruit oil, eucalyptus globulus leaf oil.
.....it worked wonders for my daughter...got rid of her zits in a day.

Blessings~

[jackierr]

Wendy,
The raw diet and antibiotics don't mix because the antibiotics destroy the beneficial bacteria in the body and provide the breeding ground for candida, which is noooo fun- believe me. Especially with all the sugars we eat on the raw diet. If you are doing antibiotics and raw please try to stay away from fruits and do mostly greens- it will save you, or at least buy a probiotics supplement and use it to replenish your gut with the beneficial bacteria. I never had acne until I came down with severe liver encephalopathy. Many times acne has to do with toxicity of the liver. If you can stick it out, I'm sure you will be able to get rid of the acne- but it will for sure take longer that 2 weeks. I'd say give it a month or two and you'll be home free!!! :)

[VeganVixen]

I think wendy mean topical ones (but im not sure).....

[Punky]

VV
when my friend was on antibiotics for her acne it was pills.
She had to stay out of the sun and had to triple make sure that she
didn't get pregnant because it could cause major problems for a baby.
I'm not sure which kind Wendy was referring too though, internal pills
or topical?!?!?

Myka, thanks for the coconut butter suggestion. I had a weird rash
on my neck from detox too and put that on too, it calmed it down
and helped with the itching & cleared in about a week...my mom kept trying to get me to put on some cream she had with steriods for rashes.
She didn't get it when I said I was detoxing, LOL.
I haven't tried it for blemishes yet. I will.

Wendy, I hope you find what will work for you...it takes a lot of patience, investigation and time to find out what may be triggering this for you. I don't judge you at all for choosing to take antibiotics in the meantime...i would probably too if I was in that situation. I can't stress enough to take probiotics for intestinal health though.
A really good and strong one is Culterelle. http://www.culturelle.com/about.jsp
My son has been taking this for years. It is one of the stongest ones and has helped him tremendously. I would also add cultered foods like saurkraut and kim-chi too.
Has your diet changed at all that might of caused your skin issues or even any new supplements? Another friend of mine started taking some kind of supplement and started breaking out really bad on her back for a while till she made the connection. It could be a food sensitivity, stress, hormonal.....
I hope in time raw really helps you and you find a lot of tips from these forums
that help you with this.

[angelandarose]

I finally stopped and looked up Candida. I keep hearing about it on this board but have not had time to research it. Please if anyone has any good articles I'd love to read them. Anyway I just came upon this article: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/candida.htm
And found it intersting. Since Candida and Virgin Coconut oil was mentioned in this thread I thought others might like to read this.

Love,
Angie

[asil]

Hey has anyone tried to use Virgin Coconunt Oil on your face? Yes on your face. The oil is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflamitory and a natural moisterizer. There are some books on the benefits of coconut oil that suggest using it on your face/body for any skin ailments. I have been using it for the last two weeks and its helping. I'm using it on my body in the shower instead of soap. It's great. My skin is softer.

This is the best stuff I've ever used on my face! And I include many years of derm-prescribed stuff, top of the line, over the top in cost lotions, etc. Acne is cleared up; it clears out pores, soften wrinkles. The Best! Just get extra-virgin, cold pressed. It will smell like the freshest coconuts ever! I also use it all-over body. My sister, who had dandruff, uses it now as a scalp massage. Dandruff gone!

I've recommended this to many people who've solved life-long skin problems with it. Also great for baby rashes.

[Revvell]

Excellent! Thank you for the feedback! I've gotten a really good shea butter as we are considering becoming distributors, so I've been trying that. Sheesh! Only so much room on one body! *looks over at Bo* Hmmmm. :rolleyes:

Revvell

[VeganVixen]

I was perscribed a topical med. for this one HORRIBLE zit (it was infected ) and completely mutiated my forehead (I was UGLY for a while ,lol) its gone now ,and hasnt left a mark -so Im glad

I am allergic to most antibiotics -I cant breathe and break out when I have them,although I think there ARE alot of times better options ,I DO think antibiotics hav there place ,and no one should be agianst using the in SOME drastic situations -of course thats the "wanna be doctor" in me -but still my opinion

Also as S.G. said ,the blemish sticks are good (specially ones with witch hazel) like burts bee blemish stick ~use it and love it!