ACNE & I: The Long Story

When I was 14, in true teenage style, I developed acne. Big deal, you say? It was, actually. From the age of 14 to 19, I suffered severe acne attacks on my face and body, and the experience has left enough of an impact for me to want to share the story with all of you out there who may be going through a similar experience.

Gosh, that was rather a somber introduction, n’est-ce pas? Ok, let’s see if I can make this easier, as Julie Andrews said in Sound of Music. I’m John Dale, and I come from Israel. Today, at the age of 27, I can look back on that traumatic phase of my life and say with certainty that my acne attacks may have scarred me physically but they helped strengthen my character and helped me cope with a problem that is so widely felt but not adequately discussed. And that is why I am here.

The thing about acne is that you can never be sure that a remedy that works for someone will work for you as well. In other words, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Trust me, I tried almost everything there was to be tried, including, of course, medical options. I beseeched my friends around the world to help me find ways to combat acne. And they came up with some really bizarre solutions, some of them straight out of Harry Potter.

So for days on end, I would go around the house (but not out, obviously) with slices of potato taped to my cheeks and other parts of my body. You think that strange? What would you say to a cow dung poultice? I NEVER TOUCHED that one but spent sleepless nights wondering whether I should have. I tried the cucumber and tomato juice ‘cure’ too. You know about that one? Tomato is supposed to be a rich source of antioxidants, thus minimizing skin cell damage. And cucumber and tomato together are supposed to tighten skin pores or something.

Zilch.

A friend from India recommended that I try a paste of neem leaves. I knew that the neem tree possesses antibacterial properties and is a natural insecticide – the reason why you will never see pests around a neem tree – but the effect of the paste on my acne was…zilch, you guessed it. However, I can say that the paste smells good and would otherwise probably be quite good for the skin, because my friend sent me a carton of neem oil-based soap that I thought was quite decent, but in a case of advanced acne such as mine, it had no effect.

So to cut a long story short, I had reached a stage where I was ready to try ANYTHING (other than cow dung) to get rid of my acne. My social life was going for a toss, there were literally days when I could not step out of the house, and I frequently avoided looking at myself in the mirror. And the worst thing was that I could not find a single person among my friends and acquaintances who seemed to have got this bad a case of acne.

Okay, acne sort of runs in my family, though my parents never suffered from it. And since heredity is a major cause of acne, I knew that I was vulnerable, but the intensity of the attack took me by surprise, because nobody in the family has severe acne. I tried to work out whether I was being specially punished for being lazy and not washing frequently enough (negative, I washed at least twice a day), or for eating the wrong stuff.

As it happens, no particular food causes acne. I know, because I read enough about acne and diets to fill three volumes of an encyclopedia. At the end of it all, I was sure of one thing: science has not established a direct link between food and acne. The Journal of the American Medical Association (yes, that’s how far I went) says, “Diet plays no role in acne treatment in most patients…even large amounts of certain foods have not clinically exacerbated acne.”

But yes, people who eat more meat could be more prone to acne, because acne is caused by excess sebum production brought about by the male hormone testosterone. And meat contains certain substances that can affect the body’s hormonal balance. QED. The same applies to high-fat and dairy-rich foods. Therefore, those communities that live on high-starch, low-fat diets (think Chinese) are less likely to develop acne.

So I ate all the fruits and vegetables and high-fiber cereals that I could lay hands on, drank gallons of water (flush out the toxins), and developed a regular exercise regimen that has continued to this day. I acquired a healthy physique (even if I say so myself) and had absolutely no digestion problems. However, the acne persisted, and my nightmare seemed without end.

And then I laid hands on Accutane, which a friend casually mentioned one day. Accutane is basically a form of Vitamin A, and it works to reduce the amount of oil released by the oil glands in the skin. And it is the last resort for acne sufferers when all medications have failed. Yes, there are certain groups of people who must absolutely NEVER take Accutane (like pregnant women), but I was free to do so, and the effect was miraculous.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not here to sell Accutane. But I have to give credit where it is due. Today, I look like a normal human again, but for all those who have felt my pain, this blog is dedicated to you.