Acne

What you need to know:

Dietary changes that may be beneficial:

• Dark green and orange fruit and vegetables - for their beta-carotene
• Citrus fruits - for their vitamin C
• Nuts and seeds - for their vitamin E
• Cabbage - because it helps to regulate hormone levels
• Complex carbohydrates - potatoes (but not as chips), brown rice, pasta, wholemeal bread and beans
• Tropical fruits like pineapples, mangoes, paw paws, kiwi fruit - for their healing enzymes

• High-sugar convenience foods, like some breakfast cereals, apple turnovers, Danish pastries
• Chocolate
• Ice cream
• Salt
• Burgers
• Hot dogs
• All processed meat products, like pork pies, pasties, salami, sausages

Other useful advice:

• Tea tree or bergamot oil patted gently on the spots or used in a face steamer. An easy DIY face steamer is to get a bowl of boiling water, add the oils, cover your head with a towel and put your face over the bowl. You can also put these oils in the bath, soak a flannel in the water and use it as a compress on the affected area.
• Massaging the skin with a mixture made up of one small carton of yoghurt mixed with a tablespoon of salt. You need to do this very gently and not when the spots look like - apologies about this - custard pies. If you nick the top off them they’re likely to get infected and you’ll be in an even worse state.
  
• If you’re a woman, it’s obviously tempting to try to cover up the zits with heavy make-up. That’s not a good idea, as the additional oil will just add to the problem. And it almost goes without saying that having a good pick while you’re watching your favourite television programme or poring over your homework is . . . well, silly.
  
• The homeopathic remedies Kali bromatum, Calcarea sulphuricum and Sulphur may also help. So will sitting in moderate sunlight for half an hour or so a day. You need to be careful, however, that infected skin doesn’t get burned - that’s another recipe for infection, discomfort and disaster.

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