★★★★★
Potato
★★★★★
Fungus Remedies
★★★★★
This is where the "saga" starts to get interesting. After my adolescent acne should have cleared up 35 years ago, it got slowly worse. All over the bearded part of my face, what appeared to be sacs of hardened oil under the surface of the skin had been forming nodules. These didn't get infected, each just grew larger. Over the years I've seen dermatologists who said, because of my otherwise great health, "you're just a middle aged adolescent," blaming it on high testosterone, etc. The apparent acne problem continued and worsened.
I've seen doctors, dermatologists, pharmacists, herbalists, laser specialists, and spiritual healers. I've bought every acne ointment known to man. I took pills, vitamins, and herbs. I changed diet. I get plenty of exercise. Nothing worked. I had extensive surgery to correct the problem three years ago, and within 18 months it looked just as bad as before. As a public speaker and author in my profession, the skin condition was emotionally upsetting and stressful.
Having conquered toe nails, I started researching down the path that maybe the acne was caused by a fungus (although the symptoms didn't look like my feet). Was I surprised when I found:
" Tinea barbae is a superficial dermatophyte infection that is limited to the bearded areas of the face and neck and occurs almost exclusively in older adolescent and adult males. Symptoms include inflammatory, deep, kerion-like plaques and noninflammatory superficial patches and lumps resembling bacterial folliculitis. The hair breaks off below the skin surface. It is caused by several dermatophytes. Trichophyton species are most common. Infection of bearded skin may be the result of autoinoculation from tinea pedis or onychomycosis."
In other words, the mess on my face that had caused me so much grief and been misdiagnosed for decades was caused by the same fungus that gave my feet a problem. Apparently the dermatophytes enter the hair follicle (nails and hair are similar biological structures), then attack the sebaceous gland, feeding off the body oil; then the body's immune system reacts with scaring and hardening the facial oil, leaving an oil nodule. The dermatophytes then migrate to the next follicle, and eventually dozens of affected follicles link as a nodule the size of a pea.
Now it became obvious what had happened: The athlete's foot I got as a teenager went to my toe nails, and, because I was ignorant of the relationship of using a towel on my face that might have been used on my feet or crotch, the fungus got transferred.
Not a single dermatologist who examined my face ever bothered to ask the question: "Do you have toe nail fungus or athlete's foot!"
Using the same solution on my facial outbreaks as on my toe nails (the revised formula with coconut oil), the facial condition is clearing up. Just like with my feet, skin is sloughing off and the nodules are beginning to eject. This is the best result I've seen in years. I expect it will take a few months for the problem to be cured, as the fungus is down below the level of the base of the hair follicle in the sebaceous gland.
EC: Read Robert's entire email on the Nail Fungus Remedies page.
★★★★★
I've always had lousy facial skin. Being of South Asian descent, in addition to acne and the scars left over from teenage pimples and acne, I've also had one huge dark circle around my mouth. I've been trying to lighten this for years with lemon juice, over the counter skin lightening creams, you name it to no avail. I generally just ended up wearing heavy makeup around that area (you can imagine how disgusting that looks, it looked worse without it!)
Fast forward to just yesterday (Sun, Feb 3rd '08). I'd been suffering from some adult acne on my cheeks and decided to try something I had been very wary of - an aspirin face mask. Yes, thats right, aspirin. I took 5 aspirin, crushed them, mixed them with about 1/2 a spoon of honey, applied it to my face (like a mask) for 15 minutes and washed it off.
WOW! The results were PHENOMENAL. I truly wish I had taken some before and after pictures for this site because the pimples had reduced by HALF THEIR SIZE. HALF! On top of that, that ever persistent dark circle had ACTUALLY lightened. On top of that, my skin was literally glowing! I STILL can't believe it. Today I had to wear hardly any make up at all. Guys, this remedy truly works for me, and I highly suggest everyone give it a shot at least once - if not for acne, then for GLOWING and BEAUTIFULLY SOFT SKIN.
Some Notes:
1. Try to buy uncoated or lightly coated aspirin.
2. Once crushed, it will be very grainy, don't worry about this. If you like, you can sprinkle a few drops of water on the pills beforehand, let it sit and then add the honey. You won't need to crush them and look like a drug addict in the process.
3. Play around with the number of aspirin you use. 5 may be too much for people with sensitive skin.
4. Aspirin dries out your skin, so use PLENTY of moisturizer after and don't plan on doing this more than once a week if your skin is dry to begin with. (I'll be doing it about 3x a week)
5. I used witch hazel as a toner after I washed the mask off. Feel free to use ACV or tomato juice *thanks Earthclinic =)*
Please try this mask and let me know what you think!
Baking Soda
★★★★★
