When I first started secondary school at the age of 11 the girls couldn't stay away from me. Two years later acne appeared on the scene and my label as a hot biscuit quickly evaporated. Unsurprisingly I retreated into the world of sport (football mostly) and videogames- like most young teenage boys do. My acne was very mild and it really didn't bother me much, besides everyone else seemed to be suffering with it to some degree at school so I just took it as something hormonal that would soon disappear. It wasn't until I sat my GCSE's when I was 16 did my acne turn into a monster that would torment me for the next 6 years. Perhaps the stress of the exams triggered this, yet the relaxation of a beach holiday (with good marks confirmed from the GCSEs) in the summer after didn't stop the spots.
My success with the ladies at this point was at an all time low, I didn't think I was ever going to kiss a girl again to be frank. My confidence was shot, and now there was the problem of college coming up. This I felt was an exceptional opportunity to meet some new hot biscuits but my acne would most definitely count against me. So I went to see Mr Dr. He seemed unamused at my visit for something as 'unimportant' as having a few spots on my face. He showed me pictures of people with horrible acne- much worse than mine- and was basically telling me to stop whining and be thankful I didn't have sever acne.. To me that seemed like someone with a chronic cough being told to be thankful he didn't have lung cancer. Anyway I pleaded with this miserable old sod by telling him about my plight of starting college soon. He gave me the damn antibiotics (tetracycline) scornfully and told me to get the fu*k out his office, (that may be a lie.)
College. Success. My skin cleared up after about a month of antibiotics and about 2 weeks into my first term of college. Girls were queuing up to talk to me, or at least not looking at me in disgust. My confidence and happiness were high at this point and I was back to my old extroverted self.
Alas this period of acne free skin did not last and after a month the antibiotics were starting to wear off. By Xmas my skin was definitely worse than ever and I was starting to get pissed off- it was my first attempt at curing acne and it hadn't worked. I stormed into my doctors office and asked him why he hadn't told me that antibiotics were only a temporary solution. He said he had. Oh. He begrudgingly gave me a course of different antibiotics, but warned me that the results weren't likely to be as good or long lasting as the first course. I was starting to get worried at this point. He was right, the new antibiotics (minocycline) were not working that well and after 2 months stopped altogether. Back at the doctors office he prescribed me a white gel called BP. It burned and peeled my skin. Spots were forming all the time on my face and this stupid gel was like dropping an atom bomb on them. Suffice to say the gel was stopped after the first couple of tubes (two different potencies). I was also prescribed a zinc topical which smelt awful and made my skin worse.
So I was now 17 and acne had well and truly camped on my face like eastern European squatters in an inner city derelict house in the UK. I would show you some photos of this period of my life if they existed. I started to severely dislike people with cameras at that point.
Sick of seeing me the doctor sent me to a skin specialist called a dermatologist. The appointment was in 5 months time though. During this time I made my first forays into more alternative therapies; things tried were zinc, tea tree oil, milk thistle and bunch of other stuff I couldn't care to mention. The appointment with the dermatologist was unproductive- she put me on more antibiotics (eurymicin), then 4 months later accutane.
Oh accutane was fun!
It made my face look like goose flesh, meant I couldn't drink alcohol and made me feel irritable and achy. But my skin cleared up after just finishing the 5 month course. It stayed clear (ish) for about 3 months. I never had another appointment with the dermatologist. What's more, she (or is this the system?) never wanted to see me after accutane to see the results, they never checked up with me at any point after I finished the course. Very scientific...
So at 18 years old I had gone down the conventional western medicine route and found from experience that they had nothing to help me.
So between 18 and 21 I tried these things without any positive results:
Acupuncture
Homoeopathy
Many herbal remedies
Chinese herbal medicine (tea and pills)
Detoxes & Fasts
Cleansing diet
Mucus free diet
Blood Purifying Diet
Liver Flush
Low Glycemic Diet
Non-Inflammatory Diet
Some methods from some popular Acne E-books
Certain herbal concoctions and topicals found on the Internet...
I was starting to spend money now to solve my problem not too mention many unusual diets.
At university I tried to maintain the diet explorations but this became increasing difficult due to alcohol and partying... Besides these diet were not helping my acne and they were difficult to maintain. It was at this point that I experimented with some vegetable smoothies, being non-invasive and or time consuming.
So by the time I was 21 I had tried a whole range of acne treatments and hadn't seen any consistent results from them. I decided from that point on to only try treatments that were workable for me. I stopped eating potatoes and chips as I knew these definitely broke me, usually within an hour or two of eating them. I then tried to cure my acne with supplements having had some partial success with them in the past, i.e. I had noticed some benefit to taking vitamin c.
Between the age of 21 and 22 I tried these supplements individually and in certain combinations and various types and brands:
Vitamins A
Beta Carotene
B-Vitamins
Bee Pollen
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Zinc
Selenium
Potassium
Chromium
Other Minerals
Spirulina
Soya Isoflavanoids
Alpha Lipoic Acid
Astaxanthin
Neem
Saw Palmetto
Enzymes
to be continued...Im still thinking about which other ones I have taken....and I will be adding detail of what happened between 18 and 21.
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