This is a reader story by Love Vitamin reader Elina (submit your own reader story here)

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Here is my acne story and I’m eager to share it with you!

As a teenager, I always had the most perfect skin. It wasn’t until I was 21 that I started getting acne. I’m a 39 year old woman now.

I developed acne on my face and on my body, especially on my back and chest.

I remember it was my sister’s graduation party from the high school, and I had bought a pretty dress. But then I just couldn’t bring myself to wear it… the skin on my décolleté just looked far too embarrassing 🙁

I tried antibiotics for six months and they cleared my skin, but after that time they stopped working and my acne returned.

Over the years, I tried pretty much “everything”. Even emotional freedom technique, homeopathy, hypnosis, ayurveda, zinc, Diane nova, benxoyl peroxide…you name it. All that was always just a temporary fix.

I Realized the Acne Was Hormonal…

When I was 30+ years old, my PMS also started to become much worse, and I realized that the acne on my face was mostly hormonal.

The rest of the month I would have a flawless face, but with PMS….suddenly my face was full of these awful, inflamed spots and totally clogged.

I thought, I really can’t continue living like this, wasting 1/3 of my life every month!! 🙁

I already had started to become little bit depressed, fearing that I would live the rest of my life as a “half life”.

It was especially anxiety inducing when it came to men…

Every time a man would say to me “you look beautiful”, I panicked and thought, yeah, but you haven’t seen me without clothes and make-up! Pimples also covered most of the skin of my breasts!! 🙁

The Turning Point: What Worked For Me

Well, I found Tracy this year and bought her book and read every article on her website. Tracy, you are such a guardian angel and a genius! Heaven sent, I would say!

With Tracy’s help, my skin has healed and the hormonal acne has become, I would say 80-90% less with the following things I have done for the last four months:

• I eat daily Omega 3, vitamin C, B-vitamins, occasionally probiotics too, and sauerkraut. I believe it is especially B-vitamins that really help to ease PMS, mood swings, bloating. I feel Omega 3 really helps to prevent PMS-inflamed big pimples.
• I use far fewer facial products and I have a much simpler routine. I realized I was using waaay too much of everything. For example, I no longer use scrubs, masks, toners. (Nice to save money too!)
• I’ve used Estroblock for one month and will continue… I think it has helped my skin very much. People have commented that my face looks so much better and clearer… I think it is because of the Estroblock?!
• I eat 2-3 raw carrots daily. I confess, I also eat sugar and chocolate daily… hey, I’m not perfect! 🙂

I also used to use s BB-cream/foundation every day for years…I didn’t realize it was probably clogging my pores very badly! I just used more and more make-up, because I thought I had “bad skin”…what a vicious cycle!

Now I use powder makeup, and it has cleared almost all the clogged pores!

Now when I think about it, it makes perfect sense: Make-up creams and foundations are massaged in and absorbed into the skin… but mineral make-up powders and make-up powders are “dry” and just sit on the surface of the skin and do not penetrate.

I’m not sure if I am right about this but it seems to work for me!

A Warning! Make Sure You’re Actually Dealing with Acne

Before I go though, I want to share with you a very important message from my own journey.

Going back a bit here: long before I found Tracy, my body acne for some reason just cleared up on its own, while my facial acne continued to persist.

However, two years ago, the body acne came back.

It was so itchy on my chest, I couldn’t even concentrate watching TV! I felt like dying, the itch was so bad!

It seemed to get much worse in summer, and when I sweat.

It’s a long story… but finally I realized it wasn’t actually acne but something called folliculitis, caused by yeast.

I visited a doctor who gave me internal and external medication (ketoconazol) and just within 3 days my skin was like 90% healed. And now it just keeps on clearing and healing. Wow!

Such a relief, I feel so much more lighter, beautiful, free, ME again! 🙂

So just a warning: Tracy’s advice is very good and very correct, if what you have is acne. If you are unsure, it is always best to visit a doctor for a diagnosis.

For example, the caveman regimen can be very good for treating acne… but with folliculitis, it probably just makes it worse. The yeast loves to “eat” the sweat and oil in the skin and therefore reproduce and multiply.

Sounds disgusting, I know! 😀 (and where/why did I get folliculitis anyway? No idea!)

But believe me, it’s a handy thing to know so that you can treat it the right way.

Thanks for Letting Me Share My Story!

Anyway – that’s my story about healing my skin!

I love this idea of holistic healing… and to really evaluate what is the “weakest link“. I still have many things to improve, but getting better, living and learning every day… 🙂

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About Elina:

Elina loves her dogs, riding horses, going to the gym, eating vegetarian food, listening to Spanish pop music, and traveling. She considers herself an eternal optimist, friendly, and a strong person 🙂