Healing Waters

If you have had acne problems and can't figure out how to deal with them, you should definitely read this.

I have finally solved the mystery of my skin problems. I'm guessing you didn't know that I even had skin problems, because well, it was pretty terrible and I if I talked about them without light at the end of the tunnel, this blog would get really depressing really quickly.

So here's the dealio. In the beginning of October I started having facial skin problems, of the pretty serious acne variety. Now, I've always had skin problems, and have pretty significant scarring, but it's always been relatively manageable, especially might my awesome make-up skills. But this... this was different. This was like my skin declared an all out nuclear war on my face. I mean, I couldn't believe it. It was painful. It hurt to touch my face, it hurt to change clothes, and sometimes it hurt when I talked. My Prescription for Nutritional Healing book tells me that acne ends at 24. Well, folks, I'm 25, and I had never had anything like this.

So what did I do? Well, first things first, I tried a new face wash. That didn't work. So I tried a hair, skin, and nails vitamin. That didn't work either. So I got microdermabrasion done. I bought skin masks. By the way, while I'm trying all of these things, my skin is getting progressively worse. My mom suggested perhaps it was stress - you know, recent pneumonia, new house puchase, opera busyness, etc - I was stressed. But I didn't feel stressed now. And my face was still getting worse. I switched to an acne skin care set - nothing happened. Then I thought, maybe I'm gluten intolerant. So I tried a gluten free diet for a couple of weeks. Nothing.

The acne was spreading all over my face and so I thought, what in the WORLD could be causing this? So I talked with Mark and I was like, okay, this started right after a haircut I got at the end of September (weird that I know that, but I know) and I was like, what else happened then? Hmm... we moved into our new house! And so I thought, "What if I'm allergic to something in the house?"

So I got on the trusty 'ole world wide web and looked to see if environmental allergies could cause acne. Crickets. (Not the insect, like the www was completely silent.) Then I typed in "I just moved and now I have acne" and tons of stuff came up. I wasn't the only one. So I was very intrigued. It was people just like me. People in their 20's and 30's who had only ever had slight acne had terrible acne since they moved to a new place. What was the common denominator?

The water.

Yes, folks. H2O. The stuff you WASH YOUR FACE with. The stuff you SHOWER with. The stuff that contacts your face a lot. The water.

So after some further research, I bought three water filters, one for each of our shower heads and one for a sink faucet. And I started washing my face out of the sink facuet and showering with the new filters.

And lo and behold, my face started getting better. Every day it improved. It was miraculous.

I took before pictures, but the problem is that even though my skin is now WAY clearer, I have some pretty significant new scarring all over my face and so from a picture you probably wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference. But there is such a difference. It's not perfect yet, but it never was, and it is definitely SO MUCH BETTER. We eventually plan on installing a whole house water filtration system, because I don't want to have to be replacing external shower head and sink filters every three months!

So that's my story. The story of my skin problems and the mystery behind it. I just got the new filters a couple weeks ago, so I'm really hoping it keeps improving. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and I totally worked out tonight. (-: I think I'm going to be way sore tomorrow. (-:

~Kathryn