What do you do for removal? They say a towel but wouldn't that take almost an hour?

I rub it in my face pretty damn hard for a good 20 minutes, then when my fingers are too sore to continue I let it sit for a minute or two and start heating some water on the stove and steam my face that way for about five minutes. Acceptable or no good? The washcloth method was really slow and inconvenient as I was dripping water everywhere and couldn't see/do anything.

Website supercedes(I don't know what that word means) my attention span.
Cliff notes: Eat only raw food and water?

I'll try that for a few weeks.

These things work great for deep-rooted blackheads that Biore nose strips can't remove.

http://www.tweezerman.com/scripts/it...nu=1&submenu=3

I'm no derm, but it has been my experience that adult acne can be controlled almost exclusively by diet. I would suggest anyone suffering from acne learn about restoring their PH balance.

dont smear crap on your face. it doesnt work.

Minocycline works miracles. Of course you do need a prescription and its not the cheapest thing, but its the best thing to ever happen to my face!

worked for me and i had zero side effects...

now i just have an occasional zit or two which happens to be right now i've had a big one on the side of my nose for the past few days and its really pissing me off

@Sunny Mehta

Really interesting links. Just spent a few hours reading through most of that. Very educational especially seeing as how I barely even eat fruit at all, although I do try to eat relatively healthy anyway. And yeah to sum it up they basically say don't ever cook anything because it ruins the proteins or whatever? Ah I forget exactly. But basically eat a ****load of fruit and nuts and some specific raw fish, and lots of water. Don't ever heat or freeze any of it either.

FWIW I have mild acne and would like to get rid of it completely. Some quotes I thought were interesting and that might help me with this:

"Cleaning your skin in any way can never remove (or prevent) the effects of acne."

"Because all foods contain protein, all cooked foods can cause acne, and salt / spices can also cause acne."

Also some stuff about how bad sleeping habits cause plenty health problems including acne. Same with stress

Morrek,

Yeah I didn't used to eat a lot of fruit either. Now I eat a good amount of it every day. It hasn't been hard because I actually really like fruit. I'm not sure why I never ate it.

I think the raw diet has a lot of potential in terms of undiscovered health benefits. A few years ago my mom had a heart attack - turns out she had diabetes and didn't even know it. After a few weeks of going on insulin, she decided to drop all her meds and go on a completely raw diet. Within a year she had totally reversed her diabetes.

-S

I wouldn't say undiscovered, just unmarketed. Do you realize how ridiculously large sums of money would be "lost" (by the big companies that is, I guess the money would go elsewhere) if people would start eating raw diet?

Fortunately even though people are really stupid most of them are smart enough to laugh at raw foodies.

If my acne came back id much rather just go on accutane again than try to eat a "raw diet".

Even if I didnt want to do raw foods, what other foods help/hurt? Seems like a lot of the suggestions are urban legends or mumbo jumbo.

I never really had severe acne, but really stubborn mild to moderate. I actually did 2 courses of accutane, and while I was on it (and the few months afterwards) my skin was perfect. However, it kept coming back.

I started researching natural methods to remedy it, and came across Pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5) supplementation. Basically, you take high doses of this vitamin (I took 3g a day) and you should see improvement after a few weeks. I did so, and it worked like a miracle for me. Absolutely no side effects, and my skin cleared up completely. After taking it for a couple of months, I stopped..and the acne hasn't returned. That was 6-7 years ago. I still get the occasional small zit but its nothing like before.

I would recommend that everyone who has issues with acne also use the Proactive-esque routine (dont actually buy Proactive, just use whats in the system), which is just a mild cleanser, then a cleanser with a mild amount of Benzoyl Peroxide in it, and then a good moisturizer. When my face was bad I did this, and I saw improvement.

Also I echo what Sunny mentioned about more raw foods in your diet.

Off the top of my head, some herbal supplements could help a lot as well, including fish oils, borage oil (contains gamma-linolenic acid which is great for skin and hair health...as a bonus it is a DHT inhibitor so it will help prevent male pattern baldness) and strong antioxidants like green tea, grape seed extract, etc.

Courtesy,

Which brand of B5 did you use?

Where did you find B5? Ive been looking all over and no luck.

I used accutane without having severe acne...just moderate...and it worked well for me with no side effects. You have to realize the more severe your acne is, the higher dosage your dermatologist is going to recommend ==> potentially more side effects. For example, my friend who had severe acne was taking 3x the amount I was, and he experienced nose bleeds, extremely dry skin/lips, aching joints, etc. Also, when I was prescribed accutane, I was also prescribed clindamyacin lotion which kept my face from drying out at all. I went from moderate acne to perfectly clear in 3-4 months and it has never come back (with the exception of a few here at there).

Speaking more generally, I find that usually people with better skin are overall more hygienic and eat healthier/exercise. If you drink lots of pop, eat lots of candy/sugary foods, stop. Drink lots of water. Wash your face in the morning in the shower and at night before bed with nuetrogena oil free face wash (they even have some with salicyclic acid). Also, make sure to wash your hands regularly, the oil/dirt that gets on your hands can be easily transferred to your face, clogging pores and creating acne.

I didn't think I would be able to answer this, but I just started rooting around and found a bottle. I used Swiss Natural Sources - 90 tablets of 1000mg. I took about 3 of those a day.

I don't think the brand will really matter much though...every brand should be offering the pure vitamin without anything else added.

I had to get it from a health food/supplement store. You typically won't find it in a drug store. You might have to call around a bit...I don't know if you'll even find it in every health food store.

As someone who has gone through multiple courses of Accutane, I would advise against using it if possible. I had pretty serious side effects - very dry skin, dry/sore/irritated eyes (which I don't think have recovered 100%), and chapped, cracking lips. It is extremely strong stuff...its almost like you're doing mild chemotherapy or something.

For those who are having issues, try everything else first. I would definitely dry a run of B5 before even thinking about Accutane. I know how tough it can be dealing with problem skin, and you just want to use the sledge hammer approach to take care of it asap...but you'll be better off in the long run to take a more natural approach.

I just bought the Evolution X system (now called Vilantae I guess)...2 bottles, $91 bucks, for a 40 day supply. If this stuff works it'll totally be worth it. FWIW I don't see any change that I can tell from Taurine.

Of course, at the same time as I would expect it to start kicking in, I'm going to be prescribed a higher dosage of tretinoin, so I hope to have the (welcome) problem of not knowing what is doing the most good.

I'm 20 years old and I've had some pretty seious acne on my shoulders/upper back for about four years which has also scared the skin. I've tried various products and even some treatments without much succes though. If I'm looking for the absoulte best special treatment there is, where do I go? Am I to see a dermatologist or a kosmotologist? Is there even a big difference?

On a diffrent note how important is the stuff you consume? Too much milk, greasy food and stuff like that? Getting enough water? Vitamins? Alcohol?

I'm pretty sure alcohol affects me. Most would say that water helps. I'm drinking a cup of decaf green tea right now, for no other reason than hoping it helps.

Guys there are 3 types of acne treatments, all fall into these categories:

1) topical application, 95% of the time is a chemical designed to remove the top layer of skin (over and over with reapplications - this is effectively what alkaline treatments like toothpaste/other remedies placed on the skin also do, but better). Can have topical antibiotics but they dont work effectively.

2) antibiotics (and these vary significantly in strength, but also of the demand on your liver) - starting with the cyclines (oxy, tetra) and then onto minocin or something that is very strong (but u cant take the later for more than 6 months safely at a time)

3) accutane


Basically start at (1) and work down if it doesnt work

I didn't get my Evolution X (B5 megadose) yet.

Skipped 3-4 days worth of taurine and I went from "omg I think the tretinoin might be starting to work!" to "omg i can't believe i have to put a hat on today because my forehead is looking worse than it has since i was 16 years old"

i also ate TERRIBLY in the last week so i really can't say if it was the taurine or the diet. i'm fixing both, starting now. of course the b5 ought to be here tomorrow. soon i'll be swallowing taurine/fish oil/b5/minicycline pills and rubbing stuff on my face; can't wait :/