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Is Dairy linked to acne?

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Replies

  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    I have been dairy free for 9 months now and still break out the same as before.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    If you just switched birth control I would assume that's what caused your breakouts.
  • gratiansin
    gratiansin Posts: 28 Member
    Dairy is not ment for humans. 67% of population is intolerant so you may be and you don't know. Yes it damages your skin too.
  • bsteves06
    bsteves06 Posts: 66 Member
    I eat ice cream or yogurt and get a huge pimple on my chin the next day. i had the worst skin of my life around my jaw when i was eating multiple servings of dairy every day. i had food intolerance testing done and dairy, why casein were my top 3. so yes i do believe it. for me anyway.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    In the last 4 years or so the ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel pill (birth control) I've been on for the last 20 years (off and on) seemed to be causing wicked acne. So I switched to a norgestimate and ethinyl estradiol type pill and the acne has dropped down to the usual "once in a blue moon" experience it used to be.

    I'm relieved that dairy is not the hill I have to die on, because *somethingsomething-cold, dead hands." (I love yogurt and cheese.)
  • Suruhhhhhh10
    Suruhhhhhh10 Posts: 2 Member
    Considering most acne is caused by a hormone imbalance, I believe that dairy products do cause it because MOST dairy products are from animals that have been given hormones to grow larger (larger=more $). These hormones put into the animals (which end up as milk, cheese, or eggs) cause an imbalance of hormones in people; causing acne, irregular periods, mood swings, etc... Therefore, dairy=acne + a lot more problems no one realizes.

  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    Suruhhhhhh10 wrote: »
    Considering most acne is caused by a hormone imbalance, I believe that dairy products do cause it because MOST dairy products are from animals that have been given hormones to grow larger (larger=more $). These hormones put into the animals (which end up as milk, cheese, or eggs) cause an imbalance of hormones in people; causing acne, irregular periods, mood swings, etc... Therefore, dairy=acne + a lot more problems no one realizes.

    That's not how it works.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    https://instagram.com/p/B40kF_EpTaj/embed/


    Not exactly relevant to acne but overall benefits of dairy
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    edited November 2019
    It's probably due not to hormone *levels* but the fact they changed because you changed your bcp.

    Some people get acne related to their wheat consumption. It's thought to be sensitivity to a byproduct of bacterial metabolism in people's gut. Easiest approach is to cut out wheat and see if it makes you feel better or not. Some people will try to change their biome using yogurt, probiotics, etc but this probably doesn't work. This is a separate thing from celiac disease which is an autoimmune attack of the gut triggered by eating gliadin, a co-component in wheat gluten (its the gliadin that actually causes the problem).
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    There is no one cause or solution.

    Having a lactose intolerance causes stomach and bowel issues, pain, and stress.
    (65% of humans have a lactose intolerance. (It varies from region to region.)
    https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lactose-intolerance

    The left and right vagus nerves, main conduits for our parasympathetic nervous system to our body, affect our hormones (e.g. cortisol, adrenaline, dopamine, seratonin) and in turn, our nervous system is affected by our hormones, and connects our brain, the sides of our stomachs, and extremities etc.

    Female or male puberty, and hormone fluctuations in life can cause acne or lack thereof, and hormone fluctuations can cause stress, and stress can cause digestive issues, and food intolerances can affect all of these.

    I find it helpful to look for interacting systems, not use cause-and-effect "final solution" tunnel-vision.
  • sunfastrose
    sunfastrose Posts: 543 Member
    neugebauer52 wrote: »
    Cows don't have them, cats don't get them.... :)

    Cats do get acne. Not saying it is because of dairy, and cats shouldn’t drink milk anyway. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_acne
  • bsteves06
    bsteves06 Posts: 66 Member
    yes but I'm talking about myself. I don't speak for the whole population of course. no one does.
  • healthluver_123
    healthluver_123 Posts: 1 Member
    I just took a microbiology course and it said diet has nothing to do with diet, despite what people think.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    healthluver_123 wrote: »
    I just took a microbiology course and it said diet has nothing to do with diet, despite what people think.

    The American Academy of Dermatology disagrees with you -- some studies have shown there is a potential connection between dairy and acne.

    https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/acne/causes/diet
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Interesting piece:

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4884775/

    On the iodine theory (which is not particularly supported), I recall learning in school about iodized salt as a societal way to prevent iodine deficiency/goiter, and was surprised to find when I checked our salt that it was non iodized. My mom said she'd always understood iodized salt to cause acne (my impression was since she was a teen, and I did find a study focusing on that theory from '61, although why my mom would have heard of it, who knows, maybe it was in teen mags of the day). I said I thought we should get iodized, and she bought it, and I actually did break out after (I did not have much acne as a teen) and so I decided her theory was right (although it was likely a coincidence). Most of my adulthood I have used non iodized kosher salt at home (not really because of the breakout thing, but because I only use salt when cooking and prefer kosher because it's coarser), but to the extent I have had (back in my 20s) breakouts related to food it seemed to follow eating greasy fast food, which is usually also salty. The article cited above has an alternative theory for fast food, of course, but I'm not sure I buy it in my personal case in that there are other things I used to eat during the same period that would have caused a blood sugar spike that didn't seem to have an effect.

    I drank milk daily from childhood into my 20s, and for me at least it had no effect, but certainly it might for some. The article I linked indicates that it does in some cases.

    And to be clear, I don't really think there is necessarily a connection between excess iodine and acne, despite my own n=1. Absent real controls, it is really easy to see confirmation of personal beliefs or suspicions from what is basically a coincidence (or to note the confirming instances and disregard or forget about those that do not support the theory).
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    This is new!! I always linked acne to the adolescent stage growing up.
  • ExistingFish
    ExistingFish Posts: 1,259 Member
    edited May 2020
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    This is new!! I always linked acne to the adolescent stage growing up.

    I'm not an adolescent, and I have acne.

    I consume dairy, but not an abundance of dairy. I don't drink milk, I do eat cheese and yogurt. I have never been able to shake this adult acne, it sucks. I'm currently using Differin on my face, in the hope of for once in my adult life not have acne. It got worse when I first started exercising and losing weight but got better. I was hoping maintaining healthy weight would help my hormones be in balance and make it finally go away, but no.

    I don't think I consume enough dairy to say that dairy causes acne. I am lactose intolerant, but that is in the small intestine, and yogurt and hard cheese don't have lactose.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,002 Member
    Is dairy linked to acne?

    Sadly we don't know...
  • fernhume
    fernhume Posts: 2 Member
    I eat plenty of dairy, milk in tea, greek yogurt, full fat milk, cheese. However my breakouts reoccur when I have cream.
  • lyneareiner1
    lyneareiner1 Posts: 7 Member
    neugebauer52 wrote: »
    Cows don't have them, cats don't get them.... :)

    I'm sorry but I loved at your comment
  • lyneareiner1
    lyneareiner1 Posts: 7 Member
    loled
  • Hollis100
    Hollis100 Posts: 1,408 Member
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    This is new!! I always linked acne to the adolescent stage growing up.

    I'm 66 years old and still get acne (wonderfully lucky, I guess). I started getting it when I was 9 years old.

    I once went through dermatology treatments with the drug accutane. That helped for a while, but the acne just came back.

    For me (and this just means me, not everybody else in the world -- just me) the acne is directly linked to what I eat and drink. Some things, including dairy, make my skin break out. When I stop consuming them, the acne goes away.

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