Supplements that help: HCl, probiotics, high quality prebiotics, zinc, fish oils, vitamin E, GLA. Highest quality multi- vitamin, Vitamin A.
Briefly why these supplements help. HCl is the cornerstone of digestion. Yes, the best form of nutrition comes from our food – but without sufficient HCl levels, then we can’t break that food down, so the good bits pass through unavailable for uptake and undigested parts can enter the body prematurely, which causes havoc with the immune system. Also, as explained in Acne 2, a lack of stomach acid leads to the whole intestinal tract becoming too alkaline which encourages the bad bacteria and fungal overgrowth which leads to more spots.
Pro and pre biotics feed the good bacteria, keeping the guts and us healthy.
Zinc is worthy of a blog all of its own. However, it is excellent for skin ((Göransson K, Lidén S, Odsell L. Oral zinc in acne vulgaris: a clinical and methodological study. Act Derm Venereol 1978: 58(5): 443-8. Pub Med Abstract PMID:82356)), hair and nails and a vital component in HCl production.
Fish oils help everything. Here they improve immune function, lower the impact of sugars in the diet and reduce inflammation, so will help skin calm down.
Vitamin E is a strong antioxidant and keeps the fish oils from going rancid in the body. If applied to the skin, it will help healing. HOWEVER it is vital that natural Vitamin E is used for this purpose. Studies do find that Vitamin E does not help skin healing – but if you go to the linked pub med page you will see mention of these studies using d-alpha tocopherol – man made and unstable.
Vitamin A is important in correct skin functioning. It is best taken from the diet in the form of cod-liver oil (Nordic Naturals is a reliable brand) or from clarified butter. Man made Vitamin A is best avoided.
Vitamin D is up there with fish oils for helping absolutely everything. It is present in every cell in the body.
A very high quality multi-vitamin will help supply nutrients that aid everything to work. An excellent description of the human body is that we are big hairy bags of chemical reactions – and those chemical reactions need the right ingredients to work. A high quality multi will supply those. Incidentally, it is pointless looking for quality supplements in supermarkets.
Other supplements help too – B vitamins in particular and quite possibly GLA.
Comfrey. A herb reputed to help.
Finally if nothing else is working, you have to start to think about liver detoxification. This is very complex since it depends what it is we can’t detoxify on an individual basis. Do not just embark upon a liver detoxification diet since these frequently do not have enough protein in them – used in the second stage of liver detoxification – so you can end up worse than when you started.
So it is going to take a while to sort out acne with much trial and error. But acne can be cured and as a result, your healthy skin is a true reflection of a healthy body.