If you have acne, you probably feel like you’ve tried everything under the sun to get rid of it with no luck. You’re probably wondering “Why is acne so hard to treat? Why won’t it just go away? What am I doing wrong?” I wondered the same thing for so many years, and it turns out many people do not know that there are holistic acne treatment options that get to the root cause of acne.
Acne is the most challenging skin condition to treat in my opinion. I have struggled with acne since I was twelve and over the years I have tried a lot (more like a ton) of different things to help my acne go away. But none of them got to the root cause.
Is Acne a Topical Issue?
There is so much misconception when it comes to acne and how to treat it. So many people think acne is a topical issue.
Acne is almost never a topical issue.
Acne is the body’s way of letting you know something is wrong internally. Some people are fortunate and never get a pimple in their life. Their body may not use acne as an alert system. Their bodies have other ways of letting them know something is off.
Other people, like me and many others, get acne because something is off within the body. There is an imbalance and our bodies use acne to let us know something is wrong and needs to be addressed.
Listen to Your Body
Our bodies are always speaking to us and people usually respond in 3 different ways:
- They either listen and try to fix what their bodies are trying to tell them,
- Fight with their bodies (a battle that can never be won),
- Or blatantly ignore their bodies.
Can you guess which approach works?
For years I fought with my body. I fought against my acne. It took me years to understand that my acne would never go away if I kept fighting it because I was not addressing any of my internal issues. I was just slapping on topical creams and prescriptions with no regard for what was going on inside my body.
It’s not like I was purposely sabotaging myself. I simply just didn’t know any better. No one ever told me that acne was an internal issue. No one ever gave me a real solution. I was only given band-aid fixes from dermatologists and other health professionals. So I took matters into my own hands.
Over the years I figured out that acne was my body’s way of crying out for help.
But how do I help? This was yet another mystery I would have to learn to solve.
The Many Factors of Acne
Acne is a very complex skin condition. There are so many factors that go into why a person develops acne. I’m going to list all of the factors I’ve learned about and you’re going to see why acne is such a struggle to treat:
- Digestive issues
- Neck and shoulder tension
- Hormone imbalances
- Poor nutrition
- Using the wrong topical products
- Emotional imbalances
- Lack of movement in the skin–> not enough oxygen, blood, or lymph flow
- Over-exfoliating the skin
- Bathing in unfiltered water
- Silent infection(s) in the body
- Food sensitivities/intolerances/allergies
- Stress
- Lack of Vitamin D (aka sunshine)
- Medications/Prescriptions
- Exposure to toxins
- Inflammation in the body
- Consuming refined sugars and processed foods
- Negative thoughts and feelings about one’s self
If you’re like me and you’re highly sensitive, you might be affected by most, if not all, of these factors. This can make treating your acne seem impossible.
I’m here to tell you that it’s not easy, but it’s also not impossible.
You can heal your acne!
How Can You Treat Acne?
The best thing you can do to treat acne in my experience is to educate yourself and seek professional help. For so long I did my own research and never sought outside help because of the bad experiences I had with health professionals in the past. I want you to know that there are good health professionals out there who actually want to help you and get to the root issue.
What I Do to Treat My Acne
I currently see an acupuncturist and herbalist to treat all of my internal issues that I cannot treat on my own. My inflammation has dramatically improved, my cystic acne has decreased, my head is clearer, I am more energized during the day, and just overall have felt and seen great improvements in my body and skin. It is a journey, so it takes time, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
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I’m constantly learning about skincare to stay up-to-date and try things that I find interesting. I will list my 15 habits here in case some of them resonate with you:
- I use non-toxic cleaning products like Branch Basics and Molly Suds
- I rotate between gua sha, facial yoga, and facial massage every day to bring movement to my face and neck
- I oil cleanse morning and night
- I take a probiotic and multivitamin
- I get outside every morning to receive vitamin D
- I eat whole foods as much as possible
- I never consume inflammatory oils such as canola, vegetable, and corn oil
- I drink spring water
- I gently exfoliate my skin every 1-2 weeks
- I use only organic, all-natural, botanical products on my hair and skin
- I exercise every day even if it is doing a 10-minute yoga session. Moving the body every day in some form is critical.
- I do facial reflexology and face taping
- I dry brush my face and body once a week
- I rarely eat out
- I switch up my skincare routine constantly because the skin loves change
As you can see I do a lot for my skin and overall health. Keep in mind that I did not wake up one day and decide to do all of this. These habits were formed from years of research and finding what works for me.
My routine may not work for you AND THATS OKAY. This is mainly to show you that are are many different ways to nourish your skin and body holistically.
Someone may look at this routine and say “This is crazy. I can’t do all of this. This is too much.” So start slow! Implement one healthy habit that works for you and go from there. Slow is the way to go.
When we start to practice healthy habits, we feel better, look better, and act better.
Anyone can do these things. I encourage you to stop making excuses for yourself. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way to do it. I’ve wanted clear skin for 12 years, and the practices I’ve implemented over those years get me closer to that goal every day.
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