Q. I volunteer at a local high school in the theater department. Acne is a constant issue for the kids.
I suggested that the students try the MoM (milk of magnesia) treatment and it worked!
One parent even told me it was a life-saver for his son. They had spent a small fortune on treatments with a dermatologist. When the father told the dermatologist that MoM worked better than prescribed medications, the physician was not happy.
MoM even cleared up my rosacea. Thanks for helping so many young adults.
A. Thank you for sharing your success stories. We suspect the physician was unhappy because there isn’t any good research to show how (or even whether) applying milk of magnesia to the skin affects acne-causing bacteria or the body’s reaction to them. We were able to find one letter published in a medical journal decades ago: it was a patient reporting success with topically applied MoM (Archives of Dermatology, Jan. 1975).
In addition to acne, readers of this column have also reported success with topical applications of milk of magnesia to control underarm odor. Other topical uses include drying up a poison ivy rash and easing seborrheic dermatitis.
