What is the Best Way to Treat Acne?

Dr. Mike Evans is founder of the Health Design Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a staff physician at St. Michael's Hospital.

Written and Narrated by Dr. Mike Evans
Executive Producer, Dr. Mike Evans
Illustrations by Liisa Sorsa
Produced, Directed, and Photographed by Nick De Pencier
Editor, David Schmidt
Story/Graphic Facilitator, Disa Kauk
Whiteboard Construction, James Vanderkleyn
Production Assistant, Chris Niesing
Script Consultant, Hilary Cousins

©2013 Michael Evans and Mercury Films Inc.

[Simplicity]

I forgot what life was like before the spots -.-

[SuperLead]

I'm 55 and experienced terrible acne in my youth and still had trouble the rest of my life. I still struggle a bit. I don't have the perfect cure, but I can tell you what helped.
Number one was surfing. The sun and saltwater did wonders for my skin. 
2. Bleach! Bleaching my clothes and changing clothes often helped a lot. I wore 2 or 3 fresh T-Shirts a day. A fresh T-Shirt to bed as well. Add some Dawn Dishwashing soap to your clothes washer as well. It helps to remove the oil from your clothes. 
3. When drying off from a shower, I never rubbed my skin with the towel. I only patted my skin dry. The rubbing smears the oil and bacteria around and creates more pimples. 
4. A fresh pillow case before bed. I tried to use more than one pillow through the night as well.
5. Lots and lots of water! Rest and vitamins as well. A strong immune system helps! 
6. Try to never touch a pimple, or even your skin. Fingers are just terrible bacteria spreaders. Wash your hands with antibacterial soap several times a day.
7. Use a good scrub brush in the shower. One that hurts a bit, and use a lot of antibacterial soap with it.
8. Keep your hair off your skin. Hair just spreads that bacteria around.
9. When I began to shave my face my acne problem got much better. I believe the hot water and shaving cream helped to lift the bacteria from my pores. 
10. I'm using a facial scrub now that is doing miracles. It's called Pre Shave Nivea For Men Revitalizing Face Scrub. I use it just once a week and it's amazing. Benzoyl Peroxide never helped me at all. 
Lastly I want to warn against using Accutane. My girlfriend used it and she now has Crohn’s disease. It's destroyed her life permanently.   

[Meefy]

at the age of 13 I started to get acne. and now im 19 and it still haunts me :(

[Majeed.]

Thank you very much.. may god cure my acne cuz it's really making me feel really sad .

[missncaron]

Great videos!!!! I'm an NP student and even though I already have a lot of medical knowledge your videos definitely help fill in the blanks!!! I will be referring my patients to your youtube channel! You're a great teacher!

[michaelphillipoff]

Isotretinoin works I took it 4 months before prom and all my acne went away. Just have to take a month to month blood test to see how your doing. I recommend it for those who have horrible acne.

[Marleynmyles]

I used to have mild breakouts during the menstrual cycle period, but I used 2% Salicylic acid and 2% benzoyl peroxide products from Neutrogena and they work really well on removing as well as preventing my acne. Now I rarely get acne even with makeup, perhaps this is because of my routine facial-care: I use sunblock, hydrating gels, acne face wash etc and my eating habits: low cholesterol and non-greasy food. I love the video, thank you!

[catchersmomu]

Wonderful video! I wish teachers could educate this way!! I can only imagine the success rate of an academic system in which visual learning is used. Everyone would benefit from being shown what to do as well as being told what to do.

[clearupacne]

It agree it takes a bit of experimenting as what works for one person might not work for another. What I found worked for me was altering my diet to eat more healthily and not eat too much sweets, keeping my face clean and using BP minimally when I did have a breakout.

[rhondaduncan]

*For scarring there are alot of different ways to go. But first you have to make sure your acne is under control, or you will end up having to pay for more treatments. There are natural treatments like püre argan oil . You can rub the oil directly on the scars .My choice is argan rain pure argan oil*.

[acneclear]

You speak about exactly what I did as a teenager! I thought that my skin was greasy so I would keep washing it several times a day. This just made my face red and it didnt help clear up the acne. Luckily I found several methods that worked for me after experimenting for a while.

[bendre]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Salicylic Acid as it's exceedingly common these days.

[penelopelamb]

This was an amazing and informative very informative video. Thank you. You've changed my perspective and helped educate me on my acne. Reduce plugging reduce inflammation got it :)

[myfirstperiodkit]

Great video! We will definitely refer our clients and young teens to this video!

[MrBrotmafia]

There is a studies involving 2 groups, one who only ate low GI foods and one who ate normally. The first group significantly improved their skin over the second. I would not say there is no link between food and your skin (like was thought at first as people looked at some old chocolate studies). Might very well help, you could simply try it out for two months and report back. Might also be that its other food that is causing it, but there is not much research on the topic.

[extraordinary]

The best remedy: let cat thoroughly lick my face, it takes all the oil thing off and then wash your face with soap and hot water. The next day I see improvements.

[maximum]

In my experience, the only things that really work are benzoyl peroxide and Accutane. Benzoyl peroxide will severely stain all of your clothes if you're not careful, though. I spent years avoiding Accutane because I was afraid of the side effects, but eventually went on it. In retrospect, I probably should have just gone on Accutane earlier. 

[AcneBestTreatments]

Very communicate video and great information here. Thanks!

[jacksmith]

Good To see an Amazing method to cure acne.

[CelineCoiYunLam]

Funny you should mention that. Every single time I eat chocolate, my skin breaks out in spots in my t-zone. It is an obvious pattern and not a coincidence.