40 years ago the hospital treated my acne with ultra-violet light but all I did was cook. Now a UK company called Lumie Innovations is about to offer a new at home light treatment using LED lights.

Seems the old hospital may have had the right idea but they got the frequency wrong. Apparently a combination of red and blue light of certain frequencies will kill the acne bacteria.

There is a Nov 14th article from Reuters that goes into some detail but as of Nov 16 the Lumie website doesn’t have any info.

We’ll be monitoring this story for new developments so be sure to sign up for our occasional emails and we’ll let you know when something is available.

A report in the Los Angeles Times on Nov 7th makes it very clear why it is best to treat acne the natural way. The report talks about why Swiss-based Roche Holding quietly pulled the drug Accutane off the market in June.

The drug, also known as isotretinoin, is apparently still available in generic form but is known to cause serious birth defects if taken during pregnancy and to possibly increase the risk of depression, including suicidal behavior. Latest reports say it may also be linked to inflammatory bowel disease.

Apparently with inflammatory bowel disease your intestines get chronically red and swollen, you suffer pain, cramping, weight loss and bleeding. Sometimes you have to have surgery to remove all or part of your colon.

I had severe acne, it was a miserable time of my life but it went away and now life is great. This stuff is touted as the most effective acne treatment ever but to me it sounds far worse than the acne itself.

Looking back over my experience with acne, I really wish there had been the information and resources available to me that we have now. Things might have been a bit different.

The acne age

As with a lot of people, my acne made its first appearance around puberty. It showed up and then simply refused to leave! I continued to have breakouts until I was almost 40! And, I didn’t just get the odd pimple now and then. No, I was one of those that had very bad acne on my face, back and chest. Many of the eruptions were puss-filled. You can imagine what that did to the self-esteem of a teenager looking to start dating. Of course being quite a bit overweight didn’t help either, but that’s another story.

While the treatments and technology were not available then to save me from some permanent acne scars, it is most certainly available now, and we will certainly be looking into this area.

Your acne treatment options

I’ve spent a lot of time researching what’s available now for acne treatment. Different levels of acne are, of course, treated differently. I’ve been amazed to find a wide array of both informational products and physical treatment products.

For example, there are some very good ebooks available to help with mild acne cases that give in depth information about how to properly cleanse and moisturize your face and how small lifestyle changes, like diet and exercise, can make a big difference.

There’s various natural soap and acne cleanser treatments for mild to medium acne that are available to you now that I wish I had know about. Even if you can’t actually cure acne, you can at least give it a damn good fight.

Self-esteem

As I said before, I really wish all of this had been available to me. I’m sure it have made my teen years a whole lot easier. I talk more about my problems with acne on my “About” page and I’m sure I’ll share more in subsequent posts. I plan to bring real information about acne treatment to this blog, so you don’t have to suffer as I did. There’s a lot of myths out there, but there’s a lot of genuine help, too.