Dear Andreas,
Namaste! I am a 29 yr old male, vegetarian from India, now living in the US. Since last 2-3 years I have been troubled by cystic adult acne. And these appear in the same spots - areas around the temple and the jawlines. I have tried various fasts - fruit fasts, no grain fast, cucumber-tomato salad fast, 3 liver flushes, enemas at home, clarkia parasite cleane, colonix, erythromycin antibiotic topical treatment - but without much improvement in my acne. And all this fasting has caused weight loss. I am 5'7", but my weight is only 110 lbs. I want to get rid of the acne and put on some weight. Currently I apply a poultice of boiled neem leaves everynight and wash off in the morning. It seems to heal the acne slowly, but new ones keep coming up. I dont see progress towards improvement. I went and saw an ayurvedic practitioner and he recommended a few things. First of all he said no raw foods, more sleep - atleast 10 hours a day and 12 hours on weekends ( sleep helps increase weight like in babies), told me consume only dried fruits and not fresh fruits - so only dried black raisins, prunes, dates, apricots. Also, drink only warm water -no tea, no herbs, no coffee, no cold drinks, no ice creams. I have good bowel movements - 2 or 3 everyday. And I think that has to do with the raisins and other dried fruits. I also stopped going to the gym and stopped yoga and pranayam as per the Ayurved's advise. Though the weight hasnt increased yet in the 10 days since I started this, my cheeks seem to be less gaunt than before. Typically I eat boiled rolled oats (made very watery) with raisins in the morning, then lunch consists of rice or barley with daal and vegetables ( like brussels sprouts, okra, green beans, green, red, yellow, orange bell peppers, cabbage, asparagus) and rotis. I also have a similar dinner. In the afternoon I also snack on prunes, dates and apricots. Sometimes I have hot tomato soup with toasted slices of cinnamon raisin bread. I dont consume any meat, egg, fish, sugar or milk. Sometimes I do consume fat free yogurt. I do consume about 3 heaped teaspoons of ghee everyday and about 2 table spoons of sesame or olive oil in my cooking. I eat moong, toor and masoor daal. The rice is aged Basmati rice from India.
I dont take any herbs and I also dont take any laxative or vitamin supplements.
My first concern is the acne - is there any thing other than the neem leaf poultice that I can do for the acne, or any dietary changes? I am meeting my Ayurved again this Saturday and would also like to hear if you have any suggestions. Thanks for reading thus far!