Acne Treatments - Internal Cleansing
Internal cleansing to clear your skin and whether it works |
If you've ever searched online for acne treatments, a lot of times, internal cleansing will be brought up as a method to help clear your skin. You can read more about internal cleansing for acne on Cure Zone, Ask Shelley, or acne.org forums.
How does internal cleansing work?
The gist behind internal cleansing is that you clean out certain organs (through liver flushing, colon cleansing, etc.) to flush out all the toxins that are backed up in them. If there are toxins backed up in your system, they erupt as pimples and acne on your skin. If you have no toxins in your system, then you wouldn't breakout. With internal cleansing, you "clean" out these toxins and thereby clear your skin.
There are various methods for different types of internal cleansing that you can check out at the above websites. Some are as simple as drinking a certain kind of herbal tea, while others are as complicated as self-administered coffee enemas. If you are going to give yourself a cleanse of any sort, make sure you do it with professional medical guidance because there may be unknown risks and dangers associated with those methods. However, through personal experience, I believe internal cleansing doesn't work for acne.
My Internal Cleansing Experience
I had to do a colon cleanse before getting a colonoscopy (for medical reasons) and my skin was the exactly same before and after the colon cleanse. I thought and hoped my skin would clear up after the colon cleanse but that didn't happen. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. I wasn't expecting to clear up right away or anything, but I really was expecting there to be at least be some kind of improvement to back up all of the internal cleansing hype.
Even though I had always wondered whether colon cleansing would "cure" acne, I never had the guts to do it on my own. Diets and topical acne treatments I could do, but forcing fluids up my rear was a task beyond my means. To be honest, I was too scared that something would go wrong (and I don't recommend you do cleanses without medical supervision because something can go wrong). However, when I was forced to do it for medical reasons and saw zero skin results from the cleanse, I now do not believe that colon cleansing can clear your skin whatsoever. Your body "cleanses" itself just fine.
Also, this is a bit off topic and slightly gross, but if you've ever looked stuff up about colon cleanses on the internet, there will be bits and pieces about mucoid plaque. If you don't want to hear any more about this subject, stop reading now and go back to acne treatments!
Mucoid Plaque Attack
Apparently, mucoid plaque is some nasty stuff you've got stuck inside of you that your body can't get rid of by itself. It kind of looks like Slimer, from the old Ghostbuster movies, but Slimer mixed with chunky brown bits *gag*. (If you are strong, google image "mucoid plaque" for some visual stimulation.)
Most people will take colon cleansing pills or something of that nature and then poo out all this gooey, what-the-F-just-came-out-of-me mucoid plaque. However, I am living proof that mucoid plaque is fake and indeed is a myth, if not a marketing hoax.
When I had to drink a colon cleanse solution, I never ever saw anything like mucoid plaque come out of me. You actually have to go on a liquid or soft food diet for two days and fast for another before the day you drink the cleansing solution. And even before that, you have to take laxatives for a couple of days to help "push out" the more solid fecal matter. Essentially, after taking laxatives and eating nothing but soup for a few days, everything that comes out of you during the cleanse is pretty much just butt-pee. (Excuse me for being graphic and sorry if I ruined your appetite.)
I am convinced that the people who do see mucoid plaque after internal cleanses, only see it because whatever cleanse they took has some kind of added ingredient that makes things bind together like that in your colon. So it's not that you have mucoid plaque inside of you, it's that the cleanses you take create mucoid plaque and trick you into thinking you are some kind of freak-of-nature for being able to store all of that crap inside of you for so long.
The same goes for parasite cleanses that claim you poo out little squiggly dead parasites. I believe that the "mucoid plaque" and "dead parasite" effects are things packaged into the cleansing pill you're supposed to take so you see those results and think that the cleanses actually work.
Just my two cents though.
In the future, I will only go through another cleanse if it is deemed medically necessary. Otherwise, the process is not worth it and certainly is not fun. In my experience, internal cleansing for acne simply does not work and it not worth the hassle.
Last updated: October 8, 2012
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