I have always had skin prone to small break-outs now and then. It was nothing more than an occasional annoyance that I was able to control with over the counter acne creams and soaps. But a few months ago something changed and wow – all the sudden I had acne worse than a 15 year old boy. Obviously something had changed in my body or my life to have caused this and I needed to find out what it was. I also need to find something to help clear the acne and that turned out to be a much harder than I thought.
I’ll be honest; I am still not sure what caused the flare up of acne. I have speculated a few things. One was hormones. I’m in my forties and my hormones at times seem to have an agenda not quite in sync with the rest of my body. Maybe I had some sort of surge of androgens and the result was this really bad acne for months. Then I thought maybe it was my diet. I‘ve always been a healthy eater but began a transition to a raw food diet on January 1st. Maybe the food was causing my body to detox and acne was one result. A few weeks before the flare up I started drinking wheat grass juice so the thought crossed my mind that maybe I was having a reaction to wheat-grass or if not the wheat-grass maybe an allergic reaction to something else. I swim in a public pool maybe I picked up a bacteria or fungus from the pool water. And there was the thought that about a week before my face broke out I was in yoga class and a lady stepped on my mat about three times and in that class, as in almost any class, I had my face on my mat during certain poses………….you get the idea. I did lots of journaling when the acne started, trying to correlate one thing to another but never could come up with a clear picture of the cause.
Here I was with this really bad acne /rash all over my face that would not go away with my regular “face washing routine”. So I did what most of us do now days, I spent hours and hours on the internet (and in my case in the library) researching solutions to acne and rashes. I was determined to find a natural solution to this problem. I did not go to the dermatologist because I was pretty sure s/he would prescribe an antibiotic and I did not want to go that route if it could be avoided. It was frustrating wading through all the information out there especially since most of the acne information out there is geared to teens and young adults. As I did the research I tried almost everything that seems plausible. I detoxed my liver, changed my diet, tried apple cider vinegar, baking soda, tea tree oil, fungus/bacteria shampoos, drinking lots of water, zinc, MSM and many of the acne treatment out there.
Finally I found something that worked. One day I sprayed Colloidal Silver on my face after washing it because I thought why not (a bit cynically)! Nothing else is working and this stuff is supposed to kill bacteria and I know people who have used it for all sorts of stuff and swear by it. To my great surprise my face actually started looking better and clearer. Over the next few days I actually figured out it was the Colloidal Silver in combination with the 2% beta hydroxy acid liquid that would work the very best. Once I discovered this I washed my face about 4 times a day and applied the two products and I am happy to say that within a week my face was pretty clear. It has taken another 3 or 4 weeks to get my face back to almost normal.
The routine was after I washed my face (Paula’s Choice Normalizing Cleanser) I would use a 2% beta hydroxy acid liquid (Paula’s Choice) all over my face and then right after I’d spray on Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver 10ppm on my face. And that was it. Occasionally I used benzoyl peroxide but nothing else. The 2% beta hydroxyl acid has properties that pull the liquid silver way deep into the pores where the Colloidal Silver bacterial and fungal killing properties really help clear up the acne or rash. As my face has finally cleared I use the liquid silver much more sparingly but any time I have a break-out the above combo clears it up almost immediately.
You may ask what yoga has got to do with all of this. Well, I also increased my inverted yoga poses and forward bends during this time. I really worked on stimulating, messaging and balancing my endocrine system hoping to reduce the effects of any hormonal changes my body might be experiencing. In looking back I am sure the effects of the yoga on not only my hormones but on helping me stay calm and clear headed was a tremendous help in solving the problem – and who know maybe it played a bigger role that I think.
This is the brand of colloidal silver I used and I found the best price here on Amazon Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver 10ppm
I used this spray bottle to spray the colloidal silver on my face and then refilled it with colloidal silver from a larger bottle which brought the cost down. Again I found Amazon to have the least expensive price SPRAY Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver 10ppm
Once we understand that life comes from the inside out, and that it is in becoming something new that we achieve something new, then we decide to take full responsibility for our lives. The success philosopher Earl Nightingale expressed this understanding when he said: “All of us are self-made, but only the successful will admit it.”
It hit me today. I think I’m becoming a yoga junkie. If today’s decision making on my next week’s schedule is any indication – then I finally need to admit it – I’m addicted to yoga.
