White zinc cream – from ICU to Cricket and Acne

My mother was a nurse. In fact she nursed in the first ICU to be set up in Australia, at St Vincent’s hospital in 1961. Given this, she must have had extraordinary nursing knowledge and expertise, and yet the most effective health intervention I picked up from her and continue to recommend to my own patients, is her recommendation of white zinc cream for acne! Acne has various causes and drivers, however it’s rare that applying white zinc cream directly to acne spots doesn’t help.

When I say white zinc cream, I really do mean the stuff the cricketer’s use as sunscreen on their face (Cameron Bancroft had a good smearing of it showing on his face during the recent ball tampering incident). In the case of cricket, white zinc is used for its effectiveness as a sunscreen. I don’t recommend smearing it all over the face every day, as it can be quite drying, however rubbing it into your acne spots (and sometimes leaving it to sit a bit more thickly on the acne overnight) is definitely worth a try.

Ongoing, it’s worth seeing a naturopath to sort out the cause of your acne. Acne can indicate an overall zinc deficiency in the body, a hormonal imbalance, chronic low grade inflammation, an allergy, weak digestion or microbiome issues. Any of these will be having an impact on other systems in your body, without you even knowing about it. Addressing these underlying issues will reduce your risk of many more serious conditions than acne, as well as eliminating your need for my mother’s simple but effective bent for white zinc cream.