Recently, I see more people are troubled by acne and face inflammation issues during this covid period so I decided to share my personal experiences in this blog post hoping it will also benefit you if you are troubled by acne.
I used to have acne problem even when I was in my 20+ when I was working after my graduation.
My acne that time got so bad that I decided to seek for medical attention.
The medical doctor prescribes anti-biotics for my condition and I was amazed by the results that the anti-biotics really works for me at that time.
After consuming anti-biotics for a while, I found that actually anti-biotics is not good for our health in long term because it will affect our immune system..
Furthermore, whenever I stopped the anti-biotics, it seems that my acne problem got worsen.. so I have no choice at that time but to keep taking anti-biotics.
I reached a point where I am sick of taking anti-biotics because I can’t imagine taking it for life and end up with a worsen acne situation if I were to stop someday!
Thus, I went onto a journey to learn what can I do to cure my acne. I read lots of books about skin and diet.
Eventually I got to find out about this term ‘integrative medicine’ and Dr Andrew Weil. From there, I learn a lot about holistic healing and started to look at what are the areas in my lifestyle that causes my acne back then.
It was enlightening that I found out that it was the dairy products (milk and cheese) and the spicy stuff that I was eating that is causing my acne!
If there is one thing that you can take away from this post, I hope let this be the point – to cure any acne problem, there must be a source causing it, and most of the time, it is the food that you are eating!
Avoid Eating These Foods:
I highly suggest to avoid eating the following foods if you are having acne or face redness inflammation all the time:
- Dairy products like milk, cheese (this is the cause for me!)
- Beverage that contains milk (you will be surprised that there are lots of them!).
- Biscuits that contains milk (check the biscuits ingredients too, there are lots of them around).
- Oil fried foods.
- Spicy foods (If you can’t avoid them, then reduce the times you are eat them).
Just by reducing the above food products, you will sure notice improvements to your skin and acne starts to fade away after a few weeks.
Now, You May Have These Main Concerns:
Now, you may think that if you stop drinking milk and taking dairy products, then where does your source of protein and calcium comes from, right?
The answer is start to take soya bean drink (also known as soy milk), nowadays, there are a lot of choices of soya bean drink in the market. You can even buy those powdered types which are organic too!
Soya bean is a good source of protein and also helps to improve immune system, so it is a good replacement for milk.
As for calcium, some soya bean drink comes with enriched calcium too.
Besides soya bean drink, you can eat black sesame seeds spread with bread. In traditional chinese medicine, black sesame seeds contains good source of calcium.
Special note: Yoghurt is also high in protein and calcium but some people will still develop acne after eating yoghurt. But I think it is the type of yoghurt you choose. Once your acne has became better with the above tips, you can try taking yoghurt and see if it will cause acne again on you.
Some Tips For Face Washing
When it comes to face washing, pay no or little attention to TV commercials because most commercial face washing products are too harsh for acne prone face. You will realise that the more you use it, the more irritated your face will be..
For acne prone face, you should use gentle cleaning agents. One of the best face cleaning product that is both gentle and affordable is the African black soap, it is recommended to me and I have been using it for many years already! It contains shea butter and aloe vera. You can check out the details here.
One last thing that I would like you to know is about sleeping habits.
Turn In Earlier
If you are a teenager or young adult, you will not be happy to hear this – yes, sleeping earlier can help to improve your acne condition.
Ideally, you want to sleep before 11pm because that is when your body starts to detox and help to make your skin looks good.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, sleeping late will cause your body inner heat to rise and hurt your liver too.
So if you really care about your body and skin, start to think about sleeping earlier.
Ending Note
Acne is triggered because we have done something wrong in our lifestyle and mostly it is due to the food we eat.
You do not need to spend a lot of money seeking treatment. Just look very closely at your lifestyle (starting from eating, sleeping habits) and slowly making adjustments.
I am sure you will be able to cure your acne problem after adjusting your eating and sleeping habits.
It will definitely take some time, but never give up because our body has also been damaged for quite some time due to wrong diet and habits – thus, it will take some time too to help your body recovers.
Best wishes to your health and may you have the wisdom to identify the cause of acne.