Acne Home Remedies

Acne home remedies can be just as effective at treating problem acne and spots as the harsh chemicals and prescription drugs doctors usually prescribe, but without the side effects. In fact, home remedies are often more effective, less expensive and will always leave your skin looking better than any chemicals might.

But natural skin care remedies abound. So here is a list of some of the more prevalent cures and details about why they work and how to use them. You can make your own decision as to which ones you like best.

• Aloe Vera – Simply apply fresh aloe to the affected area. Aloe Vera is a great anti-inflammatory so will help to reduce the redness and soothe the skin and if used consistently will shorten the duration of a pimple and the severity of the discoloration that follows.

• Colloidal Silver – Dab colloidal silver on to the affected area after washing morning and night. Colloidal silver is a natural antibiotic and will help to keep down infection. Colloidal silver can be taken internally if you have an infection, but you want to limit your intake. (Consequences of too much colloidal silver taken internally.)
• Cucumber – There are several ‘remedies’ out there, but no serious results reported. Here are the two of the most prevalent. 1) Put a peeled cucumber in the blender, liquify, and apply the juice to the area prone to breakouts. Let dry and then wash off. (It probably feels good.) 2) The other variation has you making a drink of cucumber juice every day for a week to detoxify yourself. (See the water cure below.)
• Holy Basil – After washing the face, apply Holy Basil to the pimple. (You can purchase Holy Basil at your health food store.) Holy Basil is suppose to increase the circulation to the area where it is applied and is suppose to shorten healing time.
• Honey – has, in laboratory studies, been shown to have antimicrobial properties against a broad spectrum of bacteria and fungi and releases low levels of hydrogen peroxide. As a cure for acne, with continued use will help to kill the microbial present so pimples have fewer impurities available to cause infection.
• Garlic – Rub your pimples with fresh crushed garlic. You can also eat garlic several times a week to help boost your immune system. Garlic has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties which will help to reduce any infection . . . but quite frankly if you’re going rub it on your face, you may smell so bad it won’t matter if your skin looks great because nobody will want to be near you.
• Lemon Juice or Organic Apple Cider Vinegar – Dab either lemon juice or vinegar on to the affected area after washing morning and night. The acidity of the lemon juice or vinegar will help clean the pores, kill infection and restore your skins natural pH balance.
• Rosemary and Lemon/Lime juice – The lemon or lime juice is high in vitamin C and will help to return your skin to the correct pH balance. This alone will help clear up your skin. Lemon juice will also help to even out your skin tone. So if you have scars from old acne, the lemon juice will help to fade those discolorations. The Rosemary has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties which will help hold pimple infection at bay.

• Steam – The steam treatment has been around the last century. It’s simple, you boil some water and then sit the pan off the heat, sit yourself in front of it, hold your head over the pan and let the steam come up to your face to sort of steam clean your skin. If you put a towel over your head and the pan you will have your own sauna. (Be careful, the steam from the water will be quite hot and it’s easy to get burned.
• Sulfur Food – I believe the reason for this remedy is because of the roll sulfur plays in skin formation and detoxification. So in that respect, sulfur would be great. It’s also great for your hair and every other major organ. Foods high in sulfur would be your proteins (meats, eggs, beans and nuts) and some vegetables (Bok-Choy, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Garlic, and Onions.)
• Tea Tree Oil – is a natural anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory. To make this tea tree oil acne treatment, put one tablespoon of pure tea tree oil in a measuring cup and then fill the remainder of the cup with distilled water. Mix well and store in a clean seal-able container. This mixture should last for some time and may be used on other skin tears and abrasions. You should use a clean cloth or cotton ball to apply. This remedy will help to kill the bacteria and fungus on the skin. (Works great when you add a glycolic acid gel after see the Tea Tree Oil Acne Treatment .)
• Tomato Pulp – There are a number of tomato remedies, where you mix various different foods with tomato or tomato juice and spread on your face. The simplest is to mash a tomato up and spread it all over face. Leave it on for an hour and then wash off. The reason the tomato is effective is the same reason lemon or vinegar is effective and that’s because the acidity of the tomato helps clean out the pores, kills bacteria, and improve the pH of your skin and tomatoes are high in vitamin C which is a great anti-oxidant. The other items you mix with it (in the other remedies) are either to help hold the tomato on your face or simply to sooth the skin.
• Toothpaste – Can’t tell you how many people I know who put toothpaste on their zits at night. Some swear it has to be a paste, equal numbers probably believe it must be the gel.
• Turmeric and Mint – This treatment consists of turmeric powder and mint juice. Now I”ll have to admit I haven’t tried this so I’m not sure where you get the mint juice but I’d assume you’ll need to get some mint leaves and juice your own. You form a paste and put this paste on each spot. Now the mint probably feels good :-) because of its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.
• Vitamin D3 – The further away you live from the equator and the darker your complexion, the more likely you are to be vitamin D deficient. The average American adult needs to supplement with about 5 to 6000 units of D3 every day just to maintain. (The only way to be certain is to be tested, as for me, I live in mid-America, have a medium skin tone, and work indoors most of the time so it’s pretty much a given. I take 5000 units of Vitamin D3 every day. D3 helps every part of your body, including your skin. One of the reasons it helps with acne probably has something to do with Vitamin D3 being necessary in order for you to maintain zinc levels. Chronic acne sufferers very often have low serum zinc levels. You probably want to make sure you maintain adequate levels of both vitamin D3 and Zinc.
• Water – Both in and on the body. You need to keep yourself clean inside and out. And there is no better way to do that than to increase your water intake.
• Zinc - If you have chronic acne, chances are good you have low serum zinc levels. You probably want to make sure you maintain adequate level of Zinc. A safe dose would be 50 mg of elemental zinc daily.

As you may be able to tell, I’m rather partial to the tea tree oil acne treatment in conjunction with the recommendations for more water, Zinc and Vitamin D3 supplementation and Aloe Vera to help reduce the discoloration of pimples of the past. But there are a number of natural treatments that have merit. I hope you find one or more that will work for you.