Well, I think I've found it... I think
it's finally over! it's been about 2 months, and *no new breakouts*. Absolutely
none. I'm... shocked! After all this time, I think I finally found the acne
cause and solution, for me.



Two months ago, I started taking vitamin D supplements, about 1000IU per day.
Nothing else changed: work has been no more or less stressful, my diet hasn't
changed, nothing significant in personal life. I just noticed that my skin is
always better after getting a little bit of sunshine, so decided to try taking
vitamin D... and, voila! My skin has *never* looked better... It actually looks
kind of pretty!



It's hard to believe it could be so simple, yet it kind of makes sense: I never
had acne until moving from Arizona to Seattle, and, it always got worse in the
winter. The only other time I had acne in my life was while still living in
Arizona, I tried a brief stint of eating a very, very low-fat diet (yes, I was
young and foolish), and wearing sunscreen religiously; perhaps since vitamin D
is fat-soluble, and I was avoiding the sun, I was just unable to synthesize or
absorb it. And, sure enough, once I abandoned the low-fat foolishness, the acne
disappeared as well. Until I moved to Seattle, that is, when it returned with a
vengeance.



The only heavy-duty medications I tried were retin-A for a year, and
orthotricyclen for four months. Both were ineffective, unfortunately: the
retin-A had absolutely no effect (after a frickin year!!) and on orthotricyclen
I still had reliably regular monthly breakouts, plus some in between. I tried
eliminating various foods from the diet: chocolate, dairy, peanuts, and citrus,
all to no effect.



Also, I absolutely don't eat processed foods, and very little sugar; mostly
whole foods, lots of veggies, low sugar, lots of fish oils, only grass-fed
organic meat when I do eat meat, blah, blah, blah, etc etc, all the usual
recommendations. I got extremely sick of claims that acne is punishment for
dietary transgressions -- I *don't* eat crap, at all, yet still had acne.



Anyway! All this is to say that after 3 years of trial and error, I've been
pretty much stumped! Until now... taking vitamin D. It's very weird. It's
possible that this one simple thing, vitamin D deficiency, has been the problem
the entire time. Wow.



It's been about 2 months, so I'm hoping this keeps up. If anything changes,
I'll let you guys know, but... so far, so good!



If anyone is still trying the litany of various dietary/medical/vitamin tricks,
well, don't forget to give this one a try. Not the cause for everybody,

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/Vitamin-D-I-m-finally-t224285.html