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Diaryland
Skin problems 2003-10-26 @ 12:18 p.m.
"DIRECTIONS (adults/children) dissolve 5 pellets in the mouth 3 times a day until relieved * or as directed by doctor"
Shoot... does this mean I should take 5 pellets in one day spread over 3 sessions, or am I supposed to take 15 pellets a day in 3 sessions of 5 each? Oh dear...
Ah, the lengths I'm going to get rid of acne once and for all. This latest attempt of mine is a homeopathic medication called Calcarea Suphurica which I picked up at Oliver's groceries in their really cool and extensive alternative medicine section. Homeopathic medicine has been around for a couple of centuries now I believe. The basic philosophy is that like cures like - you take a very small amount of a substance that in a healthy person would provoke particular symptoms. In this case though, you're already suffering those symptoms, and by taking the homeopathic remedy you are boosting your body's immune defences. Sound a little strange? Think of it this way - the guy who came up with it did so based on his observations of how people were treating malaria with quinine. He wondered what exactly was so great about quinine, so he gave it to normal people. They all came down with malaria-like symptoms. It seems to me like the same kind of principle involved in immunizations - you give a little bit of a pathogen to your body so it can have target practice and develop antibodies, although in homeopathy the body reacts in many more ways than just antibodies.
The main reason I'm trying it out for acne is because its an internal medication, while all the other stuff I've been using is just external acids designed to dry your skin out. If you look at the vast majority of the marketed acne treatments out there, you'll find one of 2 active ingredients: Benzoyl peroxide or Salicylic Acid. I've been using fairly strong concentrations of these acids in my efforts - my neutrogena acne face wash is 2% salicylic acid, which doesn't sound like that much until you realize that the typical treatment is 0.5% and that 5% would probably chemically burn me. My friend Nick is very concerned about me using that stuff because over a long period; he thinks it could damage my face. I've heard reputably also that the body adapts to the acid immersion by simply producing more oil, which would make my acne worse. The main reason this stuff isn't working for me though is because the kind of acne problem I have isn't the same as when I was a teenager. I don't have pimples anymore so much as I have scarred and red tissue, and acne infection below the top layers of skin, where the acids don't reach I believe. Yeah, I know it sounds gross - it is. Its been a royal pain in the ass for years. Its only started to get better since I figure out that trying to pick the acne out myself was only making it worse. Yeah, that's the number one thing I want to tell teenagers dealing with acne - DON'T PICK AT IT! I might have gotten over this a long time ago if I hadn't.
Also on that note, while its constantly being debated, I do believe diet plays a role. One of the ways our bodies try to get rid of gunk is by excreting it through the skin. I always used to ask my mom when she'd nag me about my skin, "What did they do for the thousands of years before modern medicine when people went through puberty?"
"They all got horrible acne and couldn't do anything about it!" was basically her reply, but I disagree. If you look at simpler cultures with less pollution and much more natural and healthy diets, you just don't see the health problems, including acne, that are such a pain in our society.
A massage therapist told me that skin problems often are related to too much acid in the body. American diet is highly acidic - why do you think you see heartburn and acid reflux medications marketed so aggresively? The drug companies would have us believe we're born with these problems, and that we need their drugs to cure them. I think that these problems come about as a result of what we eat, and that their drugs don't cure anything - they just mask the damage by using temporary reliefs and pain inteferons that don't deal with the underlying cause of the acidity. I think it comes from eating too many carbohydrates and dairy products - its all that lactic acid that our body can't use.
So I've partially changed my diet, cleaned my face regularly with both soap and acids, and now started on this 30 dilution Calcerea Sulfurica. If this doesn't work, I might look into going back on prescriptions, which I tried a long time ago but became frustrated with because I had to take too many things too often. I'm also wary of that, because the wonder drug for acne that everyone has talking about apparently causes birth defects in pregnant woman. Now granted, I am a guy, but anything that fucks up your system that much makes me very nervous. I'll do my research of course, but if I can overcome this problem without having to resort to the drug culture, I think I and my body will be much better off.
"Details in the Fabric" - May 31, 2009
Not So Quick Questions - April 6, 2009
The Morning Stars - Lords of the 15 - April 9, 2009
Sincerity and Faith in Magic - April 10, 2009
Not So Quick Questions (2) - April 14, 2009
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