Last post, I discussed some of the major imbalances that can contribute to your skin problems. I promised you that in this post, I would give you some clues that you can use to figure out which ones may be the major players in your acne.
So here we go!
General Poor Health; Nutrient Deficiencies; Poor Circulation
- Do you eat a really poor diet (full of processed foods, refined foods, fried foods, sugar, hardly any vegetables) and you know it’s really bad?
- Do you never exercise, or just aren’t very active?
- Have you never given your diet or lifestyle a second thought before now?
- Is your skin really pale and hair and nails quite dry and brittle?
- Do your hands and feet get cold easily?
- Do you lack much energy?
- Do you find that you get colds and other illnesses often and easily?
- Do your eyes look dull and the whites of your eyes not very bright, or sort of yellowish?
Hormomes
- Are you a teenager?
- If you’re a girl, did your acne begin after you stopped hormonal birth control?
- If you’re a girl, do you experience intense PMS symptoms or irregular periods and experience most of your acne just prior to your period?
- Are you an adult woman with persistant acne and get most of your acne on your chin and jaw line?
- Do you eat lots of conventional dairy and meat?
- Do you rarely get a good night’s sleep?
- If you’re a girl, do you have excess body or facial hair? Do you have kind of a masculine personality?
- Are you really into intense body building and perhaps use performance enhancing drugs?
Food Allergies
- Do you eat lots and lots of wheat, dairy, or soy?
- Do you feel tired or bloated after eating certain foods?
- Are you an adult who has always had an acne problem? (ie, it didn’t just start suddenly)
- Do you feel that you already eat and live quite healthfully and can’t figure out why you may still be getting acne?
Blood Sugar Problems
- Do you crave sugary foods, caffeine, cigarettes, or drugs?
- Do you find that your energy levels go up and down throughout the day? (ie. getting high after eating and then crashing hard)
- Do you find that your moods go up and down throughout the day?
- Do you find that you get cranky, jittery, dizzy, or weak if you are hungry?
- Do you find that you’re always very thirsty?
- Do you eat predominantly carbohydrates (particularly refined ones)?
Poor Digestion; Candida
- Do you often have bowel movements that are either too loose, or too hard?
- Do you only poo once every couple of days, and have to strain (ie. you’re constipated)?
- Do you get stomach aches, a bloated stomach, or gas quite often?
- If you’re a girl, do you get yeast infections frequently?
- Have you taken long rounds or multiple short rounds of antibiotics in the past?
- Do you get a lot of acne on your forehead?
- Do you crave sugar, bread, or alcohol?
Stress; Poor Emotional Health; Poor Self Esteem
- Did your acne start or get a lot worse fairly soon after a traumatic event in your life?
- Do you notice that your acne gets worse when you are stressed out?
- Do you feel like no one will love you unless you’re perfect?
- Do you think lowly of yourself and don’t have much confidence, even before your acne problem started?
- Do you live a really busy, go go go kind of lifestyle or have a stressful job?
- Do you have friends or family members who don’t support you or make you feel ashamed or unworthy?
- Are you doing the things in your life that you want to and being the person that you want to be? Or are you not being true to yourself and trying to be something that you’re not?
Physical Irritation; Skin picking; Really Harsh Skin Care Routine
- Do you wash your face with skin care products with harsh chemicals or comedogenic ingredients?
- Do you exfoliate your skin often with harsh particles or wash clothes?
- Do you use conventional acne topicals that are very drying?
- Do you wash your face more than twice a day?
- Do you pop all your pimples?
- Do you pick at your blemishes?
- Do you change your skin care routine all the time?
- Do you get acne in an area that you are always touching? (ie. acne on your cheeks which you are always resting on your hands or pressing your cell phone into)
Okay! Now that you may have an idea about the imbalances you’re dealing with, the big question is…. what can you do about it? Find out in the next post!
Primal Toad says
July 18, 2011 at 3:04 pmThat’s a long list of questions! Did you think of all these on your own? It seems like one might be overwhelmed by all of that. I wish I could talk to every individual who has acne and give them simple advice that would push them on the right path, ya know?
Tracy says
July 19, 2011 at 4:10 pmYep, it’s a little long. I did come up with them on my own, yes. Hahah I don’t know… often simple advice sometimes works great, but sometimes you do need a little more individual tweaking to really get to the bottom of the problem, you know? I hope this isn’t overwhelming :/
Owen says
July 22, 2011 at 3:51 amPrimal Toad, I didn’t realise you visit thelovevitamin! I see you over at MDA all the time, though I never actually post.
It took one step at a time to get rid of my acne. The interrelation between the aforementioned aspects is amazing. I noticed if I was doing one thing “right” that another area would incidentally be affected in positive ways. It just takes time to craft the balance and become accustomed.
Tracy says
July 23, 2011 at 8:55 amYep, Primal Toad is my biggest fan 😉
magda says
July 19, 2011 at 3:20 amcant wait for your next post!!!
Tyler says
July 19, 2011 at 2:21 pmI will probably get my myself tested further down the line. “getyourhealthtested.com” is a leading functional medicine/metabolic lab that works to find the varying aspects of your health that need improvement. Seems legit to cover all the bases
Tracy says
July 19, 2011 at 4:11 pmInteresting… I tried to sign up so I could look at the pricing page, but I guess it’s just an American site so I couldn’t :/
Kay says
July 20, 2011 at 12:19 amWhat happens if your acne is a combination of multiple categories?
Tracy says
July 20, 2011 at 6:23 pmWork on both categories!… really you should be working on all your areas of health in order to get the best results
Tyler says
July 20, 2011 at 11:33 amhttp://getyourhealthtested.com/index.php/pricing.html
see if that helps tracy
Tracy says
July 20, 2011 at 6:22 pmThanks! The prices seem a lot more reasonable than I expected!
Tyler says
July 20, 2011 at 9:12 pmno doc visits so that’s probably why. :DDDDD
individual distributor rocks
stealth says
July 28, 2011 at 10:12 amGreat website and interesting article(not to change the subject)…….I’m drinking a “green drink”/superfood almost daily, taking low dose zinc,fish oil and trying to eat more healthy. It seems like I’m the only adult male with active acne (late 20s) I’ve seen them with with scars but very rarely active spots. Strange thing is neither of my parents had significant acne. I have tried to gradually come off bp, got a nasty breakout and went back on.
Tracy says
July 28, 2011 at 12:42 pmAre your superfoods and supplements helping your skin at all?
stealth says
July 29, 2011 at 3:21 pmI’ve been taking the fish oil for a year, hasn’t really made a difference. I started the green drink (probiotics included)and zinc 1 month ago. My face seems to be getting worse lately although it usually does during the summer.
shuhan says
September 13, 2011 at 2:41 amthis is so useful, i’m bookmarking this and sending this out to my sister and friends!
Tracy says
September 13, 2011 at 1:26 pmCool! Thanks! 🙂
Beth says
April 11, 2012 at 9:14 pmFirst off, I want to thank you a lot Tracy. I was literally about to make an appointment to get some hardcore drugs for my acne when I found one of your videos on youtube. I knew that these are really dangerous and don’t even work all the time, but I was getting desperate. Since I found this website I’m determined to treat holistically. Thank you for putting your story on the internet. You saved me from all those side effects.
Secondly, what if I answered yes to almost all of those? Which area would be the best to work on first? I got an allergy test this week so now I’m now cutting out wheat and sugar to start, but what would you suggest as the most critical thing to start on other than that?
Tracy says
April 12, 2012 at 7:32 amHi Beth – that’s great to hear 😀 I’m really happy you’ve decided to give this route a try first.
So are you saying you said yes to almost all of them on every list there?
Beth says
April 12, 2012 at 10:17 amOh sorry that wasn’t clear. Yeah I seem to have a problem in every area up there and choosing where to start is a bit overwhelming. So which area is the best starting place?
Tracy says
April 12, 2012 at 6:21 pmWell I would primarily just try to improve your lifestyle a bit in every area then – work to improve your diet, exercise a bit more, examine any emotional problems you’re having. Doing a candida cleanse is also a good place to start if you have those symptoms
Beth says
April 15, 2012 at 8:29 pmThanks Tracy! I know you probably get a lot of questions, so I appreciate it.
Well, I’d appreciate it even if I was the only one, but you get what I mean. It probably takes a lot of time to answer all the questions.
Tzvetlin says
May 13, 2012 at 9:53 pmI have been following a very healthy diet for the past 6 months with cyclical acne about every two weeks. The Stress; Poor Emotional Health; Poor Self Esteem is basically my exact lifestyle/personality. Gotta change that
Adel-Alexander says
November 11, 2012 at 11:49 pmHey Tracy, I was wondering.. About the super intense bodybuilder part.
I am working out in a gym 3 times in a week, give or take. I’m not using any performance enhance drugs, erm.. The workout that I’m doing, I can’t say it’s super intense. It does involve a bit of heavy lifting but it’s not usually something that makes my head go all red as a tomato.
Bottom line is: I’m following a workout plan right now and.. It does say I have to focus on eating foods containing certain amounts of carbs/protein/fat on certain days. (nothing processed or anything) I’m still going to eat healthy and follow the foods you recommended. But is there a chance that this will break me out?
Tracy says
November 12, 2012 at 12:20 pmWell, it depends.. for some guys it seems that the body may produce more androgens in order to repair muscle tissue, which could cause acne. I can’t say whether or not you would be sensitive to this hormonal change and it would break you out… everyone’s different. I imagine going to the gym three times a week without going super crazy probably is fine, but honestly, I don’t know.
Nishan says
May 18, 2015 at 2:16 ami think my problem is related with hormones n poor digestion as i am a teen ager and i have more acne on my forehead.
what to do??
Sarah says
April 3, 2016 at 10:12 amHi Tracy , I’m 22 years old, female. Just lately in the past 4 weeks I have got acne all over my face and back and I’m giving myself a headache as to what has caused this, I don’t know whether it’s a make up product , diet I’m just so confused 🙁
Sting. says
June 3, 2018 at 5:42 pmI am 15 years old , I don’t use any face wash on my face , i use only water, i exercise regularly , i have some dark sebacues filaments on my nose , many small acne on forehead and some on cheeks , but I can’t figure out what is causing me acne , pls help me !
Francesca says
January 25, 2019 at 7:48 pmI am an adult woman with persistant chin/jawline acne. That question stood out to me the most. What is causing this?