The Chronic Consumer

I have been battling adult acne for a long time now, and am always looking for and testing out new products to help in the fight. My acne isn’t horrific or anything like that. It’s mild to moderate, but it’s persistent as hell — and is of course embarrassing since I’m in my mid-30s.

I’d only tried supplements once before, when I briefly experimented with Nature’s Way DIM-Plus, which didn’t prevent pimples, but helped a bit with redness and irritation. However, I stopped taking DIM out of sheer laziness — and didn’t notice much difference after I went off it.

Then I read that Zinc Picolinate has been helping some adults get their acne under control, so I decided to order some for myself. Bear in mind that I only read acne-related forums and message boards when I’m in the midst of a full-blown breakout and therefore really desperate to try something new!

Anyway, I purchased the NOW Foods brand of Zinc Picolinate, a bottle of which contains 120 capsules of 50mg each. Apparently, zinc picolinate is supposed to “support enzyme function” and help restore balance so that your hormones don’t go crazy and produce pimples.

I started taking 2 capsules a day at first, but as that represents 660% of the recommended daily allowance and since getting too much zinc can be bad for you, I scaled back to one capsule a day after about a week. Nothing much happened either way, as I didn’t notice a reduction in acne after taking the pills. It’s hard to say, of course, whether or not the zinc helped prevent new acne, but I highly doubt it. My acne just wasn’t noticeably affected at all.

One bottle of zinc picolinate only cost something like $6.99, so if you’re desperate, by all means go out and try it. Just don’t put all your hopes into this being the miracle cure you’ve been searching for, because it simply doesn’t work. At least not for me.