Many people feel that it is better to fight acne with alternative medicines rather than with prescribed medicines or with over the counter creams, lotions or gels as the former is far more effective in the long term, and because of its natural ingredients, probably safer too.
However, keep in mind that although alternative treatments are generally cheaper and are easily obtainable, not all of them are of the same high quality.
So, if you are an acne sufferer who wants to give the alternative approach a try because you are apprehensive of the side effects of prescription medication, review all factors before you choose the treatment that you will use on your acne.
The first thing you have to consider is that, although it appears on the surface, acne is really the outward manifestation of a problem which you have deep inside.
So unless you are able to cure this internal problem, your acne will remain, however hard you try to cure it by applying alternative treatments .
Alternative medicines could help you with your acne by temporarily relieving the inflammation, pain, the redness and the pus and there are certainly a wide variety of such natural medications - such as tinctures, soaps, gels, lotions and remedial oils such as lavender oil or tea tree oil - but they are useless in the long term.
Why? Because they do not attempt to cure the root cause of the malady that causes acne.
And unless the internal condition is cured, you can never get rid of your acne permanently.
It is doubtless true that herbal remedies such as dong quai, wild yam, chaste berry, black cohosh, red clover and evening primrose do help to an extent in balancing hormonal levels.
But whatever herbalists may reckon, it takes more than ingesting herbal medicines to balance androgen production.
And also, don't forget that hormonal imbalance, which causes the extra production of sebum leading to the formation of acne, is not really the only root cause of this condition.
So remedying this will not cure your acne permanently.
There are also herbs which help in bringing down the swelling and reducing the infection.
Others possess powerful antifungal properties and combat bacteria.
For instance, burdock, Echinacea, dandelion root and tea tree possess anti-bacterial elements that may lessen the symptoms of acne and they also buttress the healing capability of the skin, but none of them can claim to be the ultimate way out of acne.
I have been trying to find alternative cures for acne and, to this end, my last 7 years have been spent in trying out diverse treatments such as Ayurveda, acupuncture, homeopathy and Chinese medicine.
I have to admit that these remedies did, in fact, lessen the impact of acne but the improvements were always temporary and the acne struck once again.
There are also some alternative medicines which expressly combat mental stress and sleeplessness which are two conditions that intensify existent acne.
By reducing stress and overcoming the lack of sleep syndrome, these medicines diminish the swelling caused by acne, stabilize hormone production and increase immunity in an acne sufferer.
However, routines which trouble you such as stress and lack of sleep form only a part of the lifestyle factors which bring on acne.
The conclusion I have finally come to is that the holistic approach is the most helpful treatment for acne.
It tackles both the internal and external factors most effectively so that all different aspects of acne formation are effectively combated.
The holistic approach is a tried and proven method of alternative healing that succeeds unfailingly.