A Journey Through Acne Management

Embark on an enlightening adventure as we tackle the complexities of acne, a condition that plagues many but remains shrouded in mystery and misconceptions. We'll take you through the ins and outs of various treatments and discuss why a one-size-fits-all approach falls short. Sharing candid stories, including Bri's own brush with a heavy-duty medication for a minor issue, we aim to empower you with knowledge to navigate the tricky terrain of acne solutions.

Hormones are powerful players in the acne saga, and in this episode, we confront the intricate relationship between birth control and skin health. Most have to wade through side effects of the pill that ripple out to their relationships and self-esteem. We also consider alternatives like homeopathy and liver support remedies—because sometimes the path less traveled, though longer, can lead to a more harmonious destination.

Our exploration doesn't stop at treatments; it's a holistic journey that examines every facet of acne. From the Banerji Protocols to the impact of diet and lifestyle, we approach acne as a puzzle unique to each individual. For those dedicated to natural healing, we stress patience and the reality of a one to two-year commitment. Whether you're a teenager seeking quick results or an adult managing prolonged skin issues, our insights will guide you through the journey.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding and Treating Acne
• 10:39 Birth Control's Impact on Acne+Relationships
• 25:17 Treating Acne With Homeopathy and Remedies
• 43:21 Considerations for Treating Acne With Homeopathy
• 50:16 Remedies and Patience for Acne

Transcript

Bri Hurlburt  0:00  

Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa. Hey, Melissa.

Melissa Crenshaw  0:03  

Hey Bri. Great to see you tonight.

Bri Hurlburt  0:07  

Really happy to be here. Tonight we're going to talk about acne. Dun dun dun. I probably shouldn’t start that way. I only do that because acne is one of the more difficult things to work with. 

Melissa Crenshaw 0:24

It is.

Bri Hurlburt 0:25

We're going to cover what is acne? All kinds of different stuff tonight. We'll talk about remedies. As we do, I’m sure we'll get off on tangents along the way and hopefully give you guys a lot of help, a lot of encouragement, somewhere to start at home.

Kick it off, Melissa. 

Melissa Crenshaw  0:49  

Okay.  Let's first just define acne.  Acne affects up to 90% of teenagers. It can continue into adulthood, but also it can start in adulthood. Mine … I never had acne until I was an adult. And it didn't last too long but I didn't have it as a teenager. Most people who develop acne have mild acne, but one in five people have it severely. Men are more likely to have severe acne. 

Acne developed after the teenage acne is referred to as adult acne, obviously. 45% of women aged 21 to 30 have some degree of acne. 16% of women aged 31 to 40 had acne and 12% of women aged 41 to 50 had adult acne. Acne can come and look like different forms, right? Pus is the dead skin cells and the sebum and bacteria; pimples are clogged pores, blackheads and whiteheads; pustules are raised lesions and pus; and then cystic acne is ruptured cells around the hair follicles, so usually it's a hard deep spot that's very difficult to get it to come to a head, so it can be painful sometimes. 

Acne forms … Pores get clogged with a mixture of dead skin cells and sebum. For most of us, that's not an issue. But when oil collects behind the clogged pores, then there's this excess of oil production and the bacteria naturally present on the skin multiplies. The body recognizes this as an infection and sends red and white blood cells to fight the infection, which causes swelling, redness, inflammation, because your body's trying to fight.

Bri Hurlburt  3:00  

That whole description just made me imagine the Magic School Bus. How it's created in there, you know what I mean? How it just made it a very basic description of acne.

Melissa Crenshaw  3:13  

Yeah, that's a really good one.

There are certain kinds of bacteria that can cause acne and staphylococcus is one.  Propionibacterium. Cutibacterium.  And then there are some resistant strains of bacteria that have been shown to be increasing because bacteria are able to change, perpetuate, or adapt to abnormal oil production and inflammation of acne pores. They're able to change and perpetuate and adapt to antibiotics. 

Medical treatment for acne usually includes the very basic treatment of benzoyl peroxide.  That’s a topical antibacterial lotion or gel. There are side effects:  sometimes your skin can peel, there can be redness of the skin, sensitivity. While there can be some reduction in the spots, it's something that has to be applied continuously and the skin just looks awful when you use benzoyl peroxide.  It also damages that skin layer. 

Another topical is salicylic acid. This is a deep cleansing lotion or mask.  Side effects are redness, soreness and sensitivity.  It also damages that skin layer. 

Another topical is retinol.  It's a topical treatment to increase skin cell renewal. The side effects are redness, burning and sensitivity and it damages the skin layer. 

Some doctors will prescribe antibiotics, like tetracyclines, to kill the bacteria, often a three, six or nine month course. The side effects of tetracyclines are nausea, upper GI issues.  It can cause antibiotic resistance. 50% of acne cases have resistant strains of bacteria. This works while you're using it but when you come off of them, the acne comes back. 

Usually a last resort for people, although I'm hearing it a lot more often recently as a first line of action, is Accutane. For 70% of people, “it works,” right? For those who listen to the podcast, I have air quotes.  It works and the acne never comes back. But in 30%, of the cases where it doesn't work, meaning it makes it disappear, it suppresses it, then acne returns as severely as prior to the treatment. Some people will have to have a second or third round. This is an oral medication derived from vitamin A to reduce the oil, inflammation and bacteria. The side effects are very well known and they are depression, very dry and cracked skin. This is completely amazing to me. The patient on Accutane, they have to have liver function tests while they're taking it because it's well known to damage the liver.

Bri Hurlburt  6:53  

I wonder how many people are actually told to do that, too, because I have a story about Accutane. I went in.  I had a weird spot on my skin.  I've never been to the dermatologist before. This was a little over a year ago. I went in to the dermatologist, and it was a younger woman, probably close to my age or younger, so newer out of school. This isn't an older doctor.  She came in and looked, whatever.  There were a couple spots on my face; they're like bumps, maybe hormonal is what she said. And she said, “I can prescribe you Accutane and you can just try that first.” And I literally was like, “I mean, I don't have the best skin in the world but I don't have acne. I didn't come here for acne. I just came to make sure I don't have skin cancer.” And she prescribed me Accutane. I did not use it, obviously, but I remember being like, “You don't know me at all. I don't have acne.” And I wasn't told anything about a liver test or anything like that. I just think that's interesting, and so sad.  It should be a last resort, even in the medical world, and she was about to hand it to me right there.

Melissa Crenshaw  8:18  

We're going to talk about how long this could take with homeopathy. After some time, their mom will say, “He really wants to be on Accutane.” And I'm like, “Why is that the first?  Why are we jumping straight to Accutane?” I mean, I don't ask that to the parents because they don't know because they're just doing whatever the dermatologist tells them to. But why are they going straight to Accutane now?

Bri Hurlburt  8:49  

I think it's just because it is so intense that it does work, or it can look like it works right away and they don't want to wait. 

Melissa Crenshaw 8:59

Right? Yep.

Bri Hurlburt 9:00

They don't want to go through all of the other ones that might not work if you are like I know this heavy duty, heavy hitter one will work. 

Melissa Crenshaw  9:07  

Yup.  We'll talk about that. Okay.

Then another idea thing your doctor might tell you to do is the pill. So, the combined pill is the best form of birth control to control acne, the combined pill to suppress estrogen and androgen. The progesterone only pill is not suitable for controlling acne. The side effects of the combined pill are bloating, breast tenderness, spotting, fluid retention. Some people also feel really low mood and get depressed. It can absolutely affect libido, not only while you're on it, but for years to come. Years later, it can affect your libido. It can affect relationships. Some people feel fine on the pill, so you get people who have been taking the combined pill for 10-15 years or more. Even if you feel fine, you're not nauseous or bloating or weight gain, then it's still obviously affecting your hormones on a really deep level. And it interferes with relationships. In the marital relationship, it can be really hard because it has altered your hormones, and you don't have the normal female acting hormones that you should have with and towards your husband. No matter why you get on birth control, it can affect your relationships really negatively.

Bri Hurlburt  10:52  

I also wanted to add to that, in some experiences, maybe you have the desire, but physically your body does not respond to arousal and that can be really detrimental, as well. Even if maybe you have a libido but you don't have a physical response is also really frustrating. I bet we could probably do a whole podcast on how we feel about birth control. But listen, don't do it.

Melissa Crenshaw  11:18  

Really. Don't do it. It's hard with teenagers, teenage girls we're talking about for the birth control option, because they're in a hurry. They don't want to deal with this. They don't want to look like that. And it's embarrassing. So it's hard to get teenagers to say, “Yeah, I'll wait a year to get my acne cleared up and use homeopathy so that I can be healthier in the future.” They're not thinking about their health. 

So mamas, we see you.  I know exactly how you feel.  I really do.  I see it all the time in my clinic.  I have it with my own children.  They want fast results and it's hard to know what you know, but then have your teenager maybe getting made fun of, or depressed, because of the way they look. It's a hard place to be. If you decide to do something like one of these medicines, then we can clean it up later with homeopathy. I'm not saying that I'm in a willy-nilly way, like, “Oh, just do whatever you want now and clean it up later.” I just mean sometimes you just have to do it and we'll figure it out, we'll just do what we have to do later. 

Another oral medication is Spironolactone.  I hear this one a lot. It's not prescribed for men or boys. It's a hormone blocker. It blocks androgens and reduces sebum. The side effects of Spironolactone are irregular periods, breast enlargement and pain, and increased urinary frequency. Despite the side effects, a lot of these people will try these because, again, they really want to clear up their skin and they're just hoping that one of these medicines will just help them to get over this hump of this acne.

Bri Hurlburt  13:16  

Let's talk about teenage acne. We'll start there. 

Teenage acne presents during the hormonal change in puberty, which leads to increased estrogen in girls and androgens, including testosterone, in both boys and girls. That increases oil production in the skin, as well as hair growth and all the other puberty things that we know of.  Underlying issues with poor elimination and hormone metabolism, which can be because of acetaminophen and antibiotics, overusing them during childhood, those can lead to excess estrogen and androgen causing that acne. If you didn't need a lot of those things in childhood, so let's say you weren't taking a ton of acetaminophen or antibiotics, then you may get some pimples during puberty, that's very common, but we're talking acne here. We see a lot of people who maybe have not had a lot of those things, but their parents had it or their parents had acne. You still may get acne as a teenager. 

The reason we're seeing so much more now is there is poor elimination or detox systems and not good hormone metabolism. There is that genetic predisposition that has been studied. It is typically worse in teenagers whose parents have had acne, maybe oily skin, a tendency to sweat more, perspire more easily. In homeopathy, we call those miasms. Just real quick. Melissa does have a whole course on miasms so you could look into something like that and dig really deep if you're more interested in that genetic predisposition. 

That also can be why acne is worse from stress. If we're looking back at that predisposition, oily skin, easily sweaty, that increase in perspiration and oil production can be caused by stress. We all know, if you've been in the natural world at all, or I wouldn't even say you have to be in the crunchy world to realize the impact that stress can have on the body. High school, especially academics these days, too. I do feel like that has to play a big part in the skin conditions we see so much more often now. 

Post-pill acne, so acne following birth control pills, can affect a lot of women, myself included. I never had acne at all, any kind of severe acne, until after I came off of birth control and I had only taken it for six months. My whole back … That's actually what made me realize how detrimental it was to me, when I came off and my back and my chest were broke out for months. That's when I realized the big shift in my hormones that had happened from being on the pill. In the pill, when the anti-estrogen and anti-androgen effects of the birth control are no longer in place, the body then responds by an overproduction of those hormones. That is what happened to me. It can take several months for synthetic hormones to be metabolized and excreted from the body. And at that time, I was not living a lifestyle that was helping my body metabolize hormones at all, so it took a long time. Depending on the lifestyle, antibiotic use, reliance on painkillers like acetaminophen, the synthetic hormones can be really, really difficult to metabolize and be excreted from your body. 

Some lifestyle factors that contribute to acne: we have body weight, lack of sleep, diet.  Those all contribute to acne, but they're not the direct cause. Cow’s dairy is a major underlying issue. It can really trigger ear, throat, chest infections in early childhood, which leads to frequent use of antibiotics and painkillers, and that really affects the gut. Some people genetically are not able to process cow's dairy, so that can play a factor. The body can't deal with it and it causes inflammation and infection, that overproduction of mucus. 

Another factor is antibiotics and painkillers like we've mentioned.  Those lead to recurring tonsillitis, recurring UTIs.  We see lots of little kids with ear infections being on rounds and rounds and rounds of antibiotics and painkillers overtime.  Sugar, fried food, processed food.  All of these are lifestyle factors that contribute to acne. 

Your liver is also hugely important. This is something newer to me actually.  Even in all the things I've learned, I did not realize the huge part that our liver plays in things which really should make sense, right? When we know how the body works, the liver is such an important organ.  All of them are important, but pharmaceutical drugs, petrochemical based beauty products, and party drugs and alcohol are major, major reasons for liver congestion, which means your liver cannot properly detox and clear your body out. Even if you didn't have antibiotics or all those other things, sometimes you're helping someone and they haven't had all those things that we typically look for, you might have to dig a little bit and find out what other things are contributing to this acne.  When the liver is sluggish, the body can't move toxins to the intestinal tract so then you can't eliminate them effectively. That leads to toxins moving back up into the lymphatic system, and then reverting back into the bloodstream. Then the body will try to eliminate through the bloodstream into the kidneys and out through the urine, but toxins very often find their way to the skin through the bloodstream and they get stuck there, causing flare ups and breakouts. When the liver is working well, then your toxins are eliminated through your small intestine and colon. All that wrapped up together leads to really good gut health.  Really good gut health helps the elimination process to work properly. I think we see that a lot, right? We know people are very aware of gut health, but I feel like we have that missing piece of the liver not functioning properly to support proper elimination.

Melissa Crenshaw  21:15  

You know what? Okay. Every time you see anything about gut health online, you see this picture of the digestive tract from, I don't know where it starts, maybe here or here and down to … It shows the esophagus, that pipe, and then your stomach, and then maybe some colon, and then the elimination, the exit, right? You never see a picture of the liver or the gallbladder.  And that’s where it's at.  I think we see these pictures, and we think, “Oh, my stomach, so gut health is all about my stomach and it's about the food that I put in.” Yes, it is. It's about what foods you put in your body. It's also about what you put on your skin because your skin is your biggest organ and it absorbs all the things you put on it. But the liver health is really where we need a bigger focus. And I think it is.  People are starting to get it, but for a long time it was all about the stomach. 

Bri Hurlburt  22:21  

Well, I think they have to be both, right? So even if your liver is functioning really well, but you have a really messed up gut, then that's not going to work well either, because then it leaks out and goes back into your bloodstream anyway. 

Melissa Crenshaw 22:32

Right. 

Bri Hurlburt 22:33

At least for me, I did not hear people talk about the liver that much. I also don't know that I paid as much attention because mainstream crunchy, even crunchy media, was heavily gut focused, from my experience. People recognize gut issues when they're bloated, have a lot of gas, they have loose stools, or they're constipated. They don't always link it to the liver. And the liver is heavily linked to hormones.

Melissa Crenshaw  23:13  

But I think what I'm starting to connect in my brain is gut health is the liver and the gallbladder and the stomach and the esophagus and the colon.  It’s everything, where for so many years, when I heard gut health, I just thought stomach. 

Bri Hurlburt  23:34  

Right.  That's true.  That is very true. 

And I even wonder if we started focusing more on …  not just focusing on the liver, but adding in additional liver supports, like we're going to talk about today, in some of these skin conditions, could make a big difference. 

This is where we're gonna get into some of the homeopathy part of it, but depending on the severity of the acne, this is going to take time.  It can take months.  It will not take weeks, for sure.  It will take months, or a year, maybe more to completely improve. You'll typically see improvement before then. And you can learn how to do this and manage a case. Melissa, you have so many resources for this.  She does Bridge the Gap calls.  You have your mentorship program. There's so many ways that you could, if you want to start taking cases for people in your life really well, you can learn about how to do that. But we won't go into as much detail with that today. 

Melissa, you’re going to get into specific liver support.

Melissa Crenshaw  24:48  

Yeah, so just to piggyback off of what you just said.  You can learn how to take and manage acne cases in one of my coaching programs.  I have several different coaching programs. You can find those on my website. Like Bri just said, we're not going to teach case taking and case management today. This is just a podcast.  We’re going to give you some remedies that you can look into.  When we give you remedies on these podcasts, go read them in the Materia Medica and see if they fit your picture. 

Liver support, specifically Berberis aquifolium, is very useful. Chelidonium, one of my favorites. Really one of my favorite liver support remedies. We did two whole podcast episodes on liver support. One was Chelidonium and one was Carduus mar.  You can go and listen to that or watch that.  Those are two liver supports, especially for acne. 

I also want to talk about some nosodes.  Carcinosin is useful … So remember.  Bri already talked about what points to a miasm. If you don't know much about miasms and you want to learn more, go take my miasms course, but I'm just going to tell you about the miasmatic nosodes and when you might consider them in an acne case. If I see cancer in the family history, especially in the parents, then I would consider Carcinosin sooner rather than later. If it's in the parents, then Carcinogen is even more highly useful.  In Carcinosin, it says acne and boils in the skin section.

Tuberculinum.  Acne, particularly when you see a history of allergies, immune issues, sweating on the back or the chest.  Acne on the back or the chest, as well as acne on the face. 

Medorrhinum is useful when there are boils, inflammation, sinus issues, heart disease in the family history, and excessive lifestyle, meaning all that partying, everything that you mentioned earlier Bri about the party lifestyle that can affect the liver.  The Medorrhinum picture is like a wild party animal. 

Syphilinum when there's foul pus.  There might be a medical history of accidents, like broken bones, living on the edge. The person who lives on the edge can also be a little bit obsessive, and potentially something destructive about their lifestyle. The main keynote of Syphilinum is destruction.  If they lead a destructive lifestyle, or have a history of that, and they have acne, you might consider Syphilinum.  

Bri Hurlburt  28:11  

So those are remedies.  If you're kind of new here, nosodes are a class of remedy, they're just a very specific class of remedy and we've talked about them before. If you want to know more about those, you discuss those in your classes, or you can look those up. 

These remedies that we're going to talk about now are probably more commonly used.  This might be a better place for you to start if you're doing this on your own. 

We just talked about this one: Chelidonium. This is one of the ones most often prescribed when you're dealing with acne. It is one of two main organ support remedies for acne. When we're talking about the liver, it's not just the liver.  Remedies don't work in just one thing, but this is great for somebody with a history of antibiotics, birth control, painkillers, Accutane, or maybe the other medications we talked about, which makes sense when you're talking about flushing the liver and liver congestion. These people probably prefer warm drinks and food. They're cold. If they're feeling cold often, where they want to be warm, it can be a sign of liver remedies being needed. They often have red pimples on different parts of the face, maybe inflamed pimples from the chin to the cheeks. They may feel despondent, anxious, really worried that they've just ruined their health. You can start with Chelidonium 3x or 6x daily for two to three months. You could get a four gram bottle, which is probably smaller than two dram, and just keep going until it's done. That may be a good place to start.  With the lower potency, it’s probably going to be pretty gentle and easy to try yourself.

Melissa Crenshaw  30:23  

The next remedy is Berberis aquifolium, which I mentioned earlier.

Bri Hurlburt  30:32  

Not vulgaris, right?  We use Berberis vulgaris, I think, we talk about more often.

Melissa Crenshaw  30:39  

That's right.  What we're talking about tonight is Berberis aquifolium. Yes. 

This is one of two main organ support remedies for acne, just like Brie just said, so with Chelidonium.  This acne is blotches and pimples. In Murphy's Materia Medica it says that Berberis clears the complexion.  We can often see pimples with dry, rough, scaly skin, and can see eruptions on the scalp which extends to the face and the neck. You could start with Berberis instead of Chelidonium if you feel it's better indicated.  You just need to go read the remedies in the Materia Medica.  Emotional signs of Berberis are unhappy, depressed and tearful. You can also do that in a 3 or 6x daily for a few months. 

Bri Hurlburt  31:33  

The next one is Thuja.  I would not typically think Thuja right away for acne until I was reading it tonight, but it actually is the number one remedy for acne, primarily for cystic acne. The Thuja person may like or dislike onions and garlic. Thuja tends to be worse on the left. Worse for cold, damp.  Worse at night. Worse after breakfast. Better for drawing up the limbs or lying on the affected side. They may be really confused during or before the appointment or they may email later because they're confused. Just confusion. I know, Melissa, you’ve told me this before: whenever there's something really confusing, just consider Thuja.  

It's good for cystic acne.  They may have really oily skin.  They will have spots that leave livid marks and foul pustules.  Their period may be light, if they’re girls obviously, light, short, and early. You may see a history of things like warts, ovarian cysts, pelvic infections, UTI.  If they're really young, they may not have enough history for you to know.  Sometimes this is prescribed in puberty, but a lot more often in young adults, maybe in their early 20s. These people might be spaced out, or like I said before, confused, indecisive. They may feel shame or disgust with their skin and feel it's dirty or unclean. They may have nightmares, dreams of death or dead people, or falling from a height. 

To start with Thuja, you could do 6c daily for two or three weeks, but most often do 30 or 200c maybe once or twice a week. That may be a safer place to start. High potencies of Thuja or too frequent can make people not feel great. If you're doing this at home by yourself, just make sure either you're working with a homeopath who knows what to look for, or only go up in potency if you use a lower one and you notice it's working, they're tolerating it okay, but maybe start with a 6 or a 30 rather than a 200 or higher. 

Melissa Crenshaw  34:14  

Next up is Sepia. This can be acne that comes on after hormonal birth control pills, like what happened in my case.  I said I didn't have acne as a teenager and then I had acne in my early 20s, and that was after birth control. This is hormonal adult acne, acne before the period, acne after coming off the pill, acne after pregnancy. That was all my case. This can calm excess androgen hormones.  They tend to have a liking for salty, pickled flavors. They really like cake. Usually worse in the afternoons and before the period. Better for exercise and dancing.  Acne that's worse before the period. Periods can be irregular, having a bearing down pain extending to the back and legs, and PMS might include acne, headache, constipation, being really cold, tired, irritable, intense dislike of loved ones, so your family.  You're suddenly like, “I cannot stand you. Get away from me.”

These women are ambitious, intellectual, especially those who have not yet become a mother. After they've been a mother, they're often exhausted, drained by work and family, brain fog, low libido, weepy and unhappy.  May feel something dreadful is going to happen. Despair.  May have bottled up anger and resentment that leads to sarcasm. I like to do Sepia 6c twice per day to start.  You might just do once per day.  Maybe you just do Sepia 6c once per day to see how you do. Now I know if you've listened to past podcasts of mine, you may have heard Sepia Sunday where we did 200c once per week.  That’s still fine. It's not that that's wrong. It's just that I'm seeing more benefit with a 6c once or twice per day to start, and then we can go up to 30 if we need, and then we can go up to 200 if we need.  

Bri Hurlburt  36:26  

Nux vomica is the next remedy we're going to talk about.  It may not be one that you immediately think of for acne, but it is used a lot for acne in young adults, especially with unhealthy lifestyles: too much alcohol, too much fatty junk food, too much cheese, which is hilarious because I feel like all of us … I mean, who doesn't love cheese? 

Melissa Crenshaw 36:50

Who can get enough cheese? 

Bri Hurlburt 36:54

Nux vomica is a good overindulgence remedy, so maybe college years where you're a little crazy. If they're not in that stage of life, they still may have a history of overuse of alcohol, medication, drugs, etc. The Nux vomica person may like savory, spicy or stimulating food. They're much worse for being chilly. They don't like being cold or drafts, so much better for warmth and warm drinks. Nux vomica acne can include boils and abscesses. 

The Nux vomica girl may have periods that are irregular, too early, too long, prolonged periods, painful periods. They often have a history of constipation, acidity, hemorrhoids, IBS, allergies. A Nux vomica person can be really emotional, so very impatient, very overactive mind, very irritable, oversensitive to noises, smells and light. They can be fault finding and easily angered.  They also can be ambitious and competitive. A very fastidious people. 

You can often use Nux vomica 6c daily as a detox to start, maybe three to four weeks. It is a good liver support remedy.  If you listen to our liver podcasts, we did talk about Nux vomica.  If you do Nux vomica 6c daily, we don't recommend giving Chelidonium or Berberis alongside that. Just choose one and try it. Like the other ones, maybe start there and you can move up.  You can move to a 30 or 200 later. 

Nosodes that may fit well with the Nux vomica person or fit this picture well are Medorrhinum, Carcinocin, just like Melissa said up at the top. If that's the case, make sure you go look at the Materia Medica and make sure it fits really well.

Melissa Crenshaw  39:05  

Awesome. Next up is Pulsatilla. This is acne from puberty. It can calm excess estrogen. The Pulsatilla person likes salty, sweet pastries and biscuits. They may like to snack instead of eat meals. Often not very thirsty. Worse for rich, fatty foods.  Worse for heat.  Worse for getting wet.  Worse for emotions.  Better for fresh air and consolation.  Their acne symptoms are often at puberty or since puberty and have pustular spots rather than cystic. Their periods may be early, late or absent and they're PMS may look like sore breasts, headaches, and very tearful and sad. They can also have a history of anemia. Worse for hormonal changes. Worse if the period is late.  

They can be clingy or shy. Mood changes easily, which may be sad and depressed from a breakup or a friendship issue and then they need company and they need closeness and they need to touch you and love you and hug you and sit on your lap and sit close to you. They may be a little codependent with the mother, sister, friend, partner. But listen, that's not always the case. Often we teach Pulsatilla in a way that is weepy, whiny, clingy. You might not be any of those things and still need Pulsatilla. We have to remember that when we give these keynotes, you don't have to match 100%, so just keep that in mind. I really do like to start with a 30c or a 6c.  In fact, Bri, what are you on? 

Bri Hurlburt  40:59  

I'm actually 200 once a day but I had a much bigger mental picture, much bigger Pulsatilla mental picture. I also do know I'm not sensitive to remedies. 

Melissa Crenshaw  41:13  

Yeah, and I'm more sensitive, and mine was more physical and I’m on a 6c daily.

Bri Hurlburt  41:18  

And neither of us … I think both of us were surprised that we have done so well with Pulsatilla.

Melissa Crenshaw  41:26  

Yeah. And you know what I did for both of us was I repertorized.  I used the repertorization process.  I was so surprised to see Pulsatilla for myself and that was amazing because I'm not weepy, whiny, clingy. Don't touch me.

Bri Hurlburt  41:43  

I like physical affection, but I'm not clingy, weepy and whiny. I don't want to be held.  When I'm upset, I usually want to … Okay, I'm going to go be by myself. So I did think that was funny. And the repertorization is interesting, too, because that means you're including other factors, not just one thing, so that's something to consider.  If you're looking at this and acne is the only thing you have going on, you're just going for acne, you're going to look for different things than we did probably.

Melissa Crenshaw  42:19  

Right. Yeah. Good.

Some other things to consider are Hepar sulph, Arsenicum album, Silica, and Sulphur.  Those are just some big acne remedies. 

I wanted to read to you from the Banerji Protocols book. This is the Banerji Protocols, by Drs. Pratip and Prasanta Banerji.  This is acne vulgaris, or acne rosacea, and the first line medicine is Hepar sulph 200c one dose every other day and Arsenicum album 200c one dose every day. That's acne vulgaris. And then acne rosacea is Bovista 200c one dose every third day, and Antimonium crudum 6c twice per day. I like the Banerji Protocols.  That's a nice, easy place to start, if you want to start there and you didn't know it. And you can grab this book.

Bri Hurlburt  43:15  

The only thing I want to say, if it's okay, with any skin thing with a Banerji Protocol, they're great to start with, and they're a good, safe place to start with. There will come a time where you'll have to get more specific to that person. Even if you start with a Banerji protocol, I would really encourage everyone to take a full case, take really good notes and pictures and all the things about where that person started so that when it comes time you see the protocol work.  I don't know. Do you see that when you're doing acne?  It shifts as it heals?  That doesn't work to totally clear the picture?

Melissa Crenshaw  44:01  

I don't have anybody that gives homeopathy enough time to clear acne unfortunately.

Bri Hurlburt  44:10  

That is the honest truth.  Acne is so hard to stick with.

Melissa Crenshaw  44:17  

Because, like we said earlier, it could take a year. And by the time people come to us, they've already tried everything. They're at their wit's end. I have women come to me and say I'm getting married in two months.

Bri Hurlburt  44:30  

Yeah. I thought about this earlier.  With any skin stuff, too, I think something to think about, or encourage people with, is what are you using on your skin? We very often are supporting the body internally and then homeopathy is going to push it out while we're using face wash that has salicylic acid in it, or all of those things that are opposing forces.  We're suppressing while we're pushing out. I have started to see when people really are willing to make the shift to oil cleansing, using cleansers and not wearing all kinds of makeup. I have seen a couple that their progress does move a little more, but it takes a serious commitment, I think. 

Melissa Crenshaw  45:24  

I can think of right now one woman who is very much better. And I believe we started working on it a year and a half or two years ago. And she's not 100%, but way better where she's not worried about it anymore at all. She was an adult woman who was like, “I'm going to stick with this.” She had already tried everything.  But these teenagers that come. They don't give it enough time. 

I have heard, especially recently, beef tallow, I think especially mixed with olive oil, can do amazing things for this skin. And it's not suppressive. So yeah, thinking about what you're going to put on your skin. There's some skin thing that's been so greenwashed and everybody's like, “Hey, it’s good.”

Bri Hurlburt  46:24  

There’s CeraVe. A lot of people think that's like a cleaner one and it's not. It has a bunch of stuff in it that shouldn't be used. There's cleanser and moisturizer, so you have to consider both.  If you're putting moisturizer on too, even if you're cleansing with a good soap, and then you put CeraVe moisturizer on your face. So there's that.  Depends on what you're using.  A lot of people are using a lot of Melaleuca, or a tea tree, on their skin, which I don't think it's all bad but also be really careful because topically those oils, especially tea tree, they're antibacterial and you don't want on any of your skin to be antibacterial.  You don't want to totally cleanse everything. Maybe really diluted is fine, but just be careful of that because you are trying to bring a balance to your skin and when you're flooding it with all kinds of anti things to clean it too much. Anyway, I think CeraVe is the one I hear the most often.  There may be some other ones.

Melissa Crenshaw  47:36  

I love that you brought that up.  I'm so thankful because yes, when you're using homeopathy to uproot the acne and then you're using topical things that are suppressing, they're just working against each other.  Push and pull and push and pull.  Homeopathy is trying to bring it out to get rid of it and the topical or whatever acne is pushing it back in.  

When people come to me and say, “We're going to go to the dermatologist and we're going to use Accutane or whatever, can we still use homeopathy?” I say you're wasting your time and your money honestly. Let's use homeopathy for other aspects of your health, your gut. Let's be addressing the liver. I'm not saying you're wasting your time and money to use homeopathy at all, but I'm saying for acne, for the skin, finish your Accutane but while we're doing that, let's support the liver and let's try to get the diet as clean as we can and then we'll see what we have to deal with after you're done with that. 

Bri Hurlburt  48:50  

Okay. 

Melissa Crenshaw  48:51  

This was great. Thanks for being here with me Bri. Listen y’all.  If you're dealing with acne, try some of these remedies. Read them in the Materia Medica. If you need help, let us do a chronic consultation but come into it with patience. You need to set yourself up for a year. Okay?  All right, so a year from now I expect to be very much better. But even if you're not, some people can take two years. It depends on how much suppression you've had in your life. It really does. If you're an adult with acne and you've had a lifetime of suppression, it’s going to take longer. And then you also want to clean up your diet. So let us know if you need help. We're here to help. Thanks for being here Bri.  

Bri Hurlburt 49:44

Thank you.