The Acne Prescription by Nicholas Perricone (2004, Paperback, Reprint)

Dr Perricone is an excellent reference for anyone with acne or troubled skin. The diet in this book works! He explains why people get acne and how to cure it. My teenage daughter wouldn't listen to me, but after she read the book she started following his advice and her skin is beautifully clear now. Now that is priceless!! The only thing I don't like is he is selling his products, but you can go to any high quality health food store and buy the supplements he recommends. Actually, the diet is more key anyway. Avoid inflammatory foods and see your skin problems dissappear. It isn't easy, takes discipline, but it does work.

I think the clear skin prescription has some good information especicially for those who do not alot about nutrition. Alot of it I already knew with eating lots of vegetables and fruits and drinking water etc. The advantages of this book is I think that he says that fats (good fats) are important as opposed to other diets which cut out fats and are very hard to maintain. Also the importance of fish and salmon in the diet is important although too much may be dangerous with the dangers of mercury for example. Now I have fish or salmon and vegetables often for breakfast. The diet is practical to follow and he recommends even eating chocolate (dark bitter healthy chocolate). He also prescribes alot of supplements to go with the diet. There are so many supplements which he recommends (vitamin A,B complex,C,E, ALA, DMAE, Omega 3 and 6, Zinc, selenium)etc. This can be very expensive and impractical to have all these supplements as you get all of these in the foods you eat. For example oysters are so high in Zinc that you wouldn`t need to take a Zinc supplement. Now I live in Japan where it is a fish crazy nation so I don`t need to take omega 3 supplements. But the reality is in today`s society sometimes we don`t eat what we should. If you are lacking in a particular nutrient then a supplement would be good. Depending on how severe your acne is, some supplements could be beneficial. I had bad acne when I was a teenager for many years even though I ate alot of friut and vegetables. So maybe it was something I wasn`t eating. It may have been good to take a Vitamin A, Zinc and omega 3 supplements at that stage. If your acne is not that bad I think you can just change your diet and add in these important foods. If your acne is bad and stubborn I would recommend trying some of these supplements. It may take a while to see the benefits of the supplements. I don`t follow the diet strictly to the letter of the law because I still want to enjoy life and most people would be the same, but you can add alot of these foods to your diet and try to decrease your sugar intake and see what happens. Lastly he prescribes these very expensive topicals. I agree with taking the topicals to help your skin but his prices are way over the top. I use other ones such as ancient chinese herbal soap called shang cheng and a natural healing oil (skin derma pro) which has worked well. I have just started on Microdermx cream which looking very promising. I wouldn`t recommend his topicals but if you are prepared to pay the money then go for it. Alot of scientists critique his claims but I think it is good basis to clear up your skin. My skin is clearer. I eat alot of fish especially salmon, eat foods high in Zinc, cut down sugar I take a supplement - ALA, and a multivitamin plus use my own topicals. Everybody is different so tailor the program to your needs.