Starting when I was about 15 I always had bad acne. I remember going to my GP who tried all sorts of different antibiotics and creams, and none of them would clear up my acne. So I was referred to Dr. Rademaker at Tristram Clinic who I got to know quite well over the few years after that. He prescribed me Roaccutane, which he warned was quite a severe drug but would clear up my skin.
It sure did clear up my skin, but there was a huge list of side-effects, and I experienced just about every single one of them. Conjunctivitis, fragile skin, dry and cracked lips, dry mouth, dry nose, itching, joint pains, nosebleed, delay in wound healing, depression, fatigue, headache, nausea, peeling palms or soles, sunburn-sensitive skin, thinning hair. But ultimately, I decided, it was worth it.
The best bit was the cost, the dermatologist appointment was about NZ$120 but the tablets themselves were of negligible cost (perhaps $10-15). Thing is, every time I finished the course of tablets, the acne would be back again a few months down the line.
So I kept taking them on and off until I was 25 and moved to England. Over here in England, this medicine is not subsidised for private clients, and a three month course of the stuff was £2,000. You could get it free on the NHS, but you had to be quite a severe case for that.
So I thought I’d give it time and see what happened. In 2007 my skin was spotty on and off, it was particularly bad after a big night of drinking but never as bad as when I was a teenager. In 2008, my GP put me on a course of Trimethoprim, a general antibiotic. I was on it for 12 months and I convinced myself that it was working, even though I wasn’t sure it was. Trimethoprim wasn’t generally presecribed for acne and when other doctors found out that I was on it they would look at me quizzically.
When Mum came to visit me in June 2009, she suggested that all the chocolate and junk food I was eating probably wasn’t helping. I said that when I was 15, I tried eating healthy and it didn’t help (but when I thought longer about it, I was 15 back in 1995!). So I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try it again.
I cut all chocolate, crisps, sweets and cakes out of my diet. And that wasn’t easy – I can eat a lot of chocolate – a lot. In a chocolate eating contest, I would always win.
The point of this story is… that cutting all this rubbish out of my diet cleared my skin up in just over a week… it was incredible. I’ve eaten almost no chocolate and sweets now for nearly 5 weeks and I feel so much better for it. My skin is clearer, and I even lost 2.5kg.
So I’d just like to preach about the wonders of healthy eating and exercise. It’s amazing what it can do for you. Having clear skin and feeling healthy is almost (note… almost) worth never eating chocolate again.
I think the Sweet Chariot in Liverpool Street Station may have suffered a big drop in their sales since 
I’m starting the Velocity Diet on Sunday, I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me after that.
Yay, it’s official. Where I live – The London Borough of Tower Hamlets – is the UK’s swine flu capital.