Have you ever been prescribed antibiotics for your pimples?

No matter how bad things seem to be, never ever take antibiotics for pimples.

I know that sometimes pimples can overtake your face and life! I have seen young people and sometimes even older adults with many pimples, to the point that I felt strange and sad for them.

However, no matter how bad the case, antibiotics are not the answer.

We live in very difficult times. Many children are being made aware of economic uncertainty in their very early years. There are many other pressures and aggressors: pollution, bad food and all the social issues young people experience as they step put into the world.

Stress rubs onto children and manifests in many different ways, one of them being pimples.

So, to cure pimples, or any other outward manifestation of stress and imbalance in your body, we have to address the core issue.

I used to have them during my teens and remember my mother taking me to a skin specialist who prescribed me antibiotics.

Later, while in my early thirties, I used to have big cystic pimples, not the small, pus filled ones like in the early years. And they would stay for a long time, and then they would come up again . Of course, I wasn’t happy about them, but I didn’t mind them much.

Somehow, even at that age, my mother cared more about my pimples than me!

She brought me the latest antibiotic. I remember starting to feel uncomfortable in my tummy soon after starting to eat any meal. Every time. She said it was a known symptom, in a very matter of fact way.

I did finish the course, but my pimples didn’t go away.

Fast-forward another two to three years - I was at the TCM practitioner, getting treatment for my tennis elbow (link). I asked him about my pimples - and was immediately embarrassed at having asked about such a shallow, childish issue, being in my forties. He said that it was not something to be embarrassed about. It was a genuine issue and was related to my hormonal cycle.

He gave me herbal medicine - a mix of herbs ground together and packaged in front of my eyes. It took about four months for the pimples stop showing up.

It has been more than 6 years now that I had any pimples at all.

So there are two lessons to be learnt here: Having pimples is not a shallow issue. It reveals that something is out of balance in your body that must be addressed. Antibiotics are not the solution.

Do your own research. Find out how food and lifestyle choices affect pimples. Read about your hormonal cycles and bring them into balance.

Consult an Ayurvedic physician or a Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner.

Topical remedies: Remember, these will work on the symptoms or outer manifestations of the imbalances in your body, but will not ‘cure’ the root cause of your pimples.

Here are some simple home remedies that have stood the test of time across cultures: A face pack with chickpea flour (besan) or fuller’s earth (multani mitti), turmeric powder (haldi) and milk. You can put patches of honey on your pimples. Coconut and castor oils are also antibacterial and can be put generously on the face before going to bed. Lavender and tea tree oils also work very well, mixed with coconut or any other carrier oil.

If you have had antibiotics for your pimples, reflect and think of how your body reacted. Did the pimples actually go away never to come back?