As soon as you notice your first spot or pimple you are drawn into the multi-dollar world of the acne "industry". It's not really surprising, acne mainly appears on the face where it is obvious to the world, so people want something that will act quickly to restore a perfect complexion. The acne industry then offers a huge range of products all claiming to cure acne. Unfortunately what most of the products do is treat the symptoms. They may bring temporary relief but you need to continually use more and more product to keep the acne away. Great for the industries profits but probably not too great for your skin. It's not really the fault of the pharmaceutical industry. Western medicine has been focussed on treating symptoms for many decades.

Acne is a much bigger problem than it first appears. Often teenagers are told they will grow out of it or that it will do no harm. Unfortunately it appears just at the time when teenagers are struggling to develop their own identity. Severe acne can lead to bullying, damage to self esteem. Statistics indicate that sufferers will be less happy, earn less money and have worse social skills. It sounds very shallow but society judges people on appearance. So, finding a long term effective cure is more important than it initially appears. Of course this is just as important to sufferers in adulthood.

One of the main ingredients in many acne creams is Benzoyl Peroxide. It is very effective at drying out spots and killing bacteria. In fact the group of chemicals that Benzoyl Peroxide belongs to are often used to kill bacteria. It is bleach! Maybe not the same bleach that you use to kill bacteria in your toilet but bleach non the less. Is it any wonder that it can leave the skin dried out, red and irritated. My face sometimes would look better with spots than with the results of the cream I used to treat it. Even some of the gentler creams can irritate the skin with long term use. Acne is really a symptom of what is happening inside your body. So we need to start the healing from within not with the surface symptoms

For many years the medical profession treated acne with antibiotics, but even doctors now recognise that antibiotics should really only be used as a last resort as they are damaging to our immune system. Unfortunately antibiotics are unable to discriminate. So while they kill the bacteria that causes spots or infection - they also kill all the good bacteria that promote healthy internal function. It's rather like a general ordering a huge bomb that will wipe out an entire battlefield - including his own men.

Instead of using antibiotics to kill all the bacteria we need to be using probiotics to boost our internal defences. You have probably heard about the importance of probiotics for our digestive systems. Well, they also help our skin problems and our acne.

Probiotics will get to the root of the problem, restoring balance to our digestion, within our immune system and to our hormones. You see as the levels of good bacteria increase they begin to eliminate the bad bacteria. The bad bacteria just get overwhelmed which means it is not present within our system to create acne.

One of the first things you can do is increase the amounts of "green foods that you eat. Basil, celery, cucumber, oregano and spinach are all great at detoxing the system. All these green foods contain antiseptics. They also cool the system which is recognised in chinese medicine as being an important part of healing. It is interesting that as western medicine started to treat symptoms, Chinese medicine remained holistic. Western scientists are unable to identify why much of chinese medicine works, but they are acknowledging that it is effective.

Green foods are also good prebiotics, that is foods that support the reproduction of probiotics. So eating a healthy diet and adding probiotics in the form of live yogurt will quickly rebalance your system. Support the detox by increasing the amount of water you drink. This will flush toxins from your system.

Acne is a really unpleasant condition which can cause a range of psychological damage. Improving your internal functions will start a process of natural healing. There are also many natural treatments that will tackle the external symptoms quickly. The natural treatment is kinder to your body and will probably result in a more satisfactory long term solution.