I'm fascinated with food! And I'm not speaking in that "Oh my God this is so good" kind of way. No my fascination is more about the various different choices we have for food and how it affects the body.
I've always been an active person. I wouldn't call myself a "foodie." Sure, I loved food but until moving to LA, food didn't move me. Four years ago I landed on Planet Hollywood and began to gorge! Maybe because LA is not a walking town or maybe I simply threw in the towel. Something happened when I moved here that didn't happen anywhere else. I stopped caring about what I put in my body.
LA is very social. In fact, the most social place I've ever lived. When I moved here I became a food loving feign and a drinker. I spent so much time spending money and drinking my little toosh off that I quickly lost site of myself. My body was not only affected from a weight perspective but my skin also suffered.
I have been acne prone since I can remember and in 2006, while living in London, I paid for the drug that was meant to "cure" acne: Accutane (In Britain it's called RoAccutane). Accutane is an oral antibiotic that derives from Vitamin A. It is marketed as the only cure for acne and at the time, I drank the Kool-Aid and persuaded (or paid) a doctor to write a prescription. Its side effects are extreme...I had to promise not to get pregnant while on the medication for risk of birth defects, I was sure to experience joint pain- of which I did and would often be in so much pain that I couldn't get out of bed. I would have to forever live with dry lip syndrome-YUP! And worse of all...my acne would have to get worse before it got better. Oh, did it!
Six months into the medication I had the clearest face that I'd ever experienced! Although I had to go through torture- I was a believer. Growing up with acne all your life and finally getting to a point where you could actually leave the house sans make-up was life changing!
People on various forums would suggest that 5-7 years later, their acne returned but I wasn't thinking that far. Jump to this last year of my life and it reared its gnarly little head. However I am confident that lifestyle adjustments can combat this little disease.
Acne is a disease. It may not be life threatening but it is embarrassing and can take a toll on the psyche. At 37 I firmly believe that I can gain the clear skin I had after my initial Accutane adventure by changing my diet and removing stressors.
I'd always believed that acne was related to what you ate but Dermatologist would constantly refute this. I was prescribed every medication there is which lead to Accutane. I now refuse to go to another dermatologist and have been fortunate to find a book that supports what I (and many other sufferers) knew long ago: what goes in your body eventually shows up on your face. Enter The Clear Skin Diet by Dermatologist Valori Treloar and Alan C. Logan a board-certified naturopathic physician (Practitioners of naturopathic medicine prefer to use natural remedies such as medicinal herbs and foods rather than synthetic drugs.) The book is a home-run and was recently published (2007). The two doctors debunk the notions that acne and food are unrelated and they use factual evidence and tests to support their claims.
The book is confirmation of something that I've known forever. I've decided to document my acne flare ups and I journey to a land of clear skin for life...the natural way! Stay tuned for more...photos and everything.
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