Diet, exercise and acne!

_SpeshK_

I have never heard that diet had "nothing" to do with acne, but that it was PRIMARILY genetics, but a diet can help it along. Water is a HUGE key in clear, healthy skin, so make sure you are getting plenty of water. Although I haven't really had acne problems since I was around 14/15 (St. Ives Apricot Scrub saved my life!), I always find that I am more prone to breakouts when eating poorly and not taking in water. When I add veggies and at least 2 liters of water a day to my diet, the tendency backs away and my skin stops looking so dull. Also, EXERCISE is a big factor. The sweat you produce during exercise is healing and rejuvenating to your skin.

luhluhlaura

You could try going on birth control--I started at 18 and that cleared my skin up so well. I recently went off of it and thought that my acne would come back, and it did slightly, but it's doing okay now. Not perfect, but manageable. I feel comfortable going out of the house without any makeup on like 70% of the time.
I think that my change in diet, exercise and water intake has helped significantly.
Also, I noticed that once I started treating my skin gently, it healed and calmed down SO much.
I used to use between 2.5-5% BP, all over my face, and I would exfoliate the *kitten* out of it. I think that just aggravated it, increased redness and dryness, leading to more breakouts!
Now, I was with Cetaphil facial cleanser and apply a lotion with retinol in it (Neutrogena Anti-Aging Night Cream, though I use it both day and night), and exfoliate once or twice a week with baking soda. Also, I occasionally use Biore strips.
If there was one product/ingredient I would recommend, it's RETINOL. That Neutrogena lotion is honestly the best moisturizer I have ever used. Retinol is a derivative of Vitamin A, which is important for healthy skin.
Try increasing your vitamin A intake as well.
Another thing--I rarely use sunscreen on my face. I HATE not protecting it from the rays, but I always break out from sunscreen. That might be a problem for you too if you wear it.

Good luck, wishing you the best!!

Mellie13

I am 36 and have had pretty bad acne since my teens. I have hormonal acne due to PCOS and have tried all the "gimmicks" and the only thing that has helped is having a very consistent skin care regimen and avoiding gluten, dairy and refined sugar (due to food allergies). Drinking lots of water helps too! This will likely be a topic soon on my blog http://foodallergiesandrestrictions.blogspot.com/ but for now, I would read this article! http://drhyman.com/blog/conditions/do-milk-and-sugar-cause-acne/

ahubacek

Drinking lots of water (10+ glasses a day) and working out more (without makeup on, of course) has seemed to make some real improvements in my skin.

AmyLRed

I also struggle with this. Initially when i changed my eating habits and hugely increased my water intake, i saw a big shift, but not anymore. They are back.

Thank you to the posters who suggested spirolactone, i will ask my doc about it. Mine are mostly on my jaw line, and like one other poster said, i am also getting more on my upper back now I am 32!

GreenTeaForDays

Wow, so many great answers. Thank you all for your input!

I'm thinking about doing some sort of elimination diet. First cut out everything suspicious (dairy, gluten, excess sugars, processed foods etc.) and seeing how I do and then slowly incorporate (the healthy) things back in to see if I have any obvious reactions to anything.

As for PCOS, I really want to get retested. I never developed a cyst but was always irregular. My Dr. put me on birth control to help regulate my hormones and I haven't really thought about it since then. I have started to learn a lot more about PCOS lately though and now I'm curious about things like Insulin Resistance which most PCOS sufferers also have. I have HUGE sugar cravings and get midday headaches if I don't have my "fix" so I think getting my blood sugars in order may help a lot.

I had no idea Spironolactone could help though! It seems like a few of you had significant success with it so I may have to check that out as well.

sheri02r

I had clear skin (even as a teenager) until about a year ago. I started getting acne all over my face, and honestly it was horrifying. For the first time in my life I had to buy acne face washes, and I'm sure the fact that I was stressing about the acne didn't help either. Anyway I read this book called "Clear Skin Diet" and the book mentioned that diary could be a cause of acne. I had been drinking milk, cheese, and other diary products all my life so I was skeptical at first. However, at that point I was desperate to try anything so I gave it a try. I stopped drinking milk and switched to almond milk, and I avoided other diary based foods too. After about two months my skin actually started clearing up. Honestly, I was sad and happy at the same time! Sad because I love diary and happy because I finally had clear skin again. My skin has been clear for 5 months now.
I don't know what changed in my body that made me break out all of a sudden. I am hoping that I can go back to eating diary again. I like almond milk and soy milk so I don't miss drinking milk too much, I've also found that soy yogurt isn't that bad! I do miss eating cheese though, and I LOVE to bake so I've had to look for non-diary recipes (I've found some amazing vegan baking books through all of this!). Other things that I think might help: Drinking a lot of water, green tea, and omega-3's. Good luck and I hope you find what works for you!

GreenTeaForDays

I am 36 and have had pretty bad acne since my teens. I have hormonal acne due to PCOS and have tried all the "gimmicks" and the only thing that has helped is having a very consistent skin care regimen and avoiding gluten, dairy and refined sugar (due to food allergies). Drinking lots of water helps too! This will likely be a topic soon on my blog http://foodallergiesandrestrictions.blogspot.com/ but for now, I would read this article! http://drhyman.com/blog/conditions/do-milk-and-sugar-cause-acne/

Awesome article. I like a lot of what Dr. Hyman has to say. I look forward to your blog post too!

jcpmoore

Diet can absolutely affect acne. In most cases, unless you're actually allergic or strongly sensitive, it takes LOT of something to cause acne. Common culprits are nuts, chocolate, dairy, that I know of.

Another issue can be stress. Stress can totally cause acne. Different kinds of stress can cause issues, including emotional stress, environmental stress (pollution, smoky air, etc.), or physical stress (lots of sweating, or physical strain).

The most common culprit, however, is mistreating your skin. The worse acne gets, the tougher we tend to get on acne. This is the wrong approach. If you use treatments that strip the oils out of your skin, then your skin will believe it's not producing enough. It responds by producing more oil. Then you get more acne. Vicious cycles ensue. The right answer is to use gentle treatments on your skin whenever possible and also analyze other issues that are affecting your skin.

If something brags about stripping out the oil, don't use it. Try something more natural that uses essential oils-lemon oil in particular is very good. Or add some lemon essential oil to aloe vera gel and use that.

Be wary of your make-up, too. Pore-clogging foundations are not your friend!

HTH

shapland1

I suffered from acne from my preteen years until mid thirties.....severe, cystic type. I finally found out accidently that I apparently have sensitive skin and all those harsh cleansers and treatments were actually making it worse! I switched to Neutrogena's extra sensitive face cleanser and the matching lotion. It took about 2 weeks to notice a difference, and then it continually improved over time.
Also, I bought a couple extra pillow cases so I can change them out every couple of days instead of only when I wash the entire sheet set. That helped reduce flareups too.
I don't wash my face after every workout, necessarily, but I do rinse thoroughly. Proper hydration makes a huge difference....so very many things are affected negatively when we don't get enough water regularly!
Now, I only wash my face at night and rinse with clean water in the mornings (sometimes even just water irritates my skin). I see minor flareups only when I wax, don't drink enough water and/or at "that" time of the month.
So, some acne needs harsh treatments, some does not - I'd give some TLC a try for a few weeks before subjecting yourself to Acutane - it has SO many scary side effects in addition to being known to cause Krohn's disease later in life.
I have never dieted severely, I just drop off extra snacks and junk and add in exercise until I get where I want to be, so I can't say what extreme dieting might do to your skin, but overall if you are eating a healthy diet providing enough nutrition for your body's needs, then your skin should not be adversely affected.....vice versa, if you are on an extreme diet (aka unhealthy), you might find your skin breaks out more due to the stress.
Last point: if you are sensitive to certain foods, such as dairy, eggs, wheat, etc, even if you are not all-out allergic to them, then it would make sense that they could stress your body into an acne flareup if you eat them a lot.

saxmaniac

Thank you to the posters who suggested spirolactone, i will ask my doc about it. Mine are mostly on my jaw line, and like one other poster said, i am also getting more on my upper back now I am 32!

I hope it works for you. It was like night and day for my wife.

Also, I had acne into my early 20's. One day, a general practitioner (not dermatologist) asked me a few question, and said that it probably was due to the hair spray/gel I used. (Yeah, long story. Ages ago I used to use hairspray. I know.) He said cover my face and shoulders when spraying, and brush it all out before going to sleep, if not wash it out. That solved it in a few months, and I haven't had it since.

chinalouyuen

I never suffered with acne as a teen and have always had pretty good skin but I have noticed since I have changed my diet and been exercising more I have been having pretty bad break outs, mainly around my chin and forehead! As this hasnt really been a problem for me before, usually only get a few spots around the time of my period, I do think it must have something to do with the diet and exercise. I dont know whether its the sweating or what but its getting me on a bit of a downer and I have only just started and dont want anything to start putting me off my goal!

gamehen2

I have rosacea (at 38,ugh) and while chocolate and PMS seem to make it worse, clean diet doesn't seem to help; neither has birth control. I saw a dermatologist who prescribed both an oral and topical antibiotic which really seemed to do the trick.

BUT... For best results I had to take it 2 times a day 12 hours apart and couldn't eat two hours before and one hour after. Since I'm trying to lose weight and need to eat at regular intervals, there was no time that I could fit this in unless I woke up in the middle of night to take it (no way!). I figure I'll just address the issue when I've reached my goal weight.

Bailey543

I've had acne since I was in the 5th grade! I have tried about everything out there. The past few months I have not eaten carbs and my face is perfectly clear! Cannot believe it! I use cetaphil face wash and use moisturizer too. Moisturizer used to make my face go nuts!

Eleisabelle

Wheat gluten and casein (the protein in dairy) are difficult for humans to digest properly and can cause systemic problems of many kinds, including increasing problems with acne. I'm sure it also doesn't help that much dairy has hormones in it.

Sweating from exercise can be a double edged sword--it can help clear toxins from your system, but it can also leave them sitting on your skin if you don't wash your face (and body) after you work out. And sweating into makeup isn't a great idea, either.

I've begun cleansing my face with honey and avoiding all moisturizers and other topical skin products, other than a mineral makeup that has no nanoparticles (I'm an actress, so need to be able to wear makeup). Raw, unfiltered honey with some jojoba oil in it makes my skin very soft and seems to be calming the redness and irritation. I've read that manuka honey is even more helpful. The reason for this is that honey is naturally antibacterial.

I've only just started, so we'll see what happens, but so far it's pretty nice.

rahrahrita

I'm 18 and I've had moderate/occasional cystic acne my whole pre-teen/teenage life up until early March. I've always taken really good care of my skin and I've tried every topical cream/face wash/lotion out there, prescription and over the counter, and nothing worked!! My skin was horrible from the stress of my first round of finals in university so my mom took me to an esthetician for the first time (in late January) That was also around the time where I started eating better, drinking a lot more water, and eating less dairy. My esthetician did extractions and she gave me some products by a brand called Image and I use a Clairisonic. Now the only dairy I eat regularly is Fage 0% Greek yogurt. I also stopped eating soy because of the estrogen content and I switched to almond milk.

So basically I don't know if it was my diet/cutting out dairy or my new skincare regimen that cleared up my skin or a combination of the two, but I'm happy either way!! Now I only wear a tinted moisturizer instead of full coverage liquid foundation

And when I exercise I wear Aveeno Tinted Moisturizer and it hasn't caused any problems for me.

GreenTeaForDays

I never suffered with acne as a teen and have always had pretty good skin but I have noticed since I have changed my diet and been exercising more I have been having pretty bad break outs, mainly around my chin and forehead! As this hasnt really been a problem for me before, usually only get a few spots around the time of my period, I do think it must have something to do with the diet and exercise. I dont know whether its the sweating or what but its getting me on a bit of a downer and I have only just started and dont want anything to start putting me off my goal!

If you are not already, I suggest immediately rinsing if not washing your skin after a workout. I often use some natural tea tree oil cleansing pads (Desert Essence brand) when I workout at the gym so I do not have to wait until i get home to clean my face.

I agree with what Eleisabelle said. It seems like exercise is a double edge sword. Exercise increases circulation, releases good endorphins into the blood stream and the sweat can detox your skin which all seems good to me!

sl1ngsh0t

I'm 36 and still have acne. I have no idea when it will end, but hey! look on the bright side; those with oily skin take longer to wrinkle

nnylee

Me me me!! My acne was terrible most of my life!! I started eating better and working out last year (I am and started at 26) and it's definitely cleared up.

wikiderm

Hello, MFPers.
This site came to me on a Google alert because my major interest is diet and acne. Full disclosure - I'm a dermatologist.
So I thought I'd explain a few things to set you on the right track.
Acne is indeed turned on by stress, even controlled stress and healthy stress like sports. Hard to do anything about that.
The problem with menses and PCO is a challenge. Both can be helped with BCPills and spironolactone. But try to avoid the BCPills that contain androgenic (male) progestins. The best are the ones with drospirenone, but they do slightly increase risk of blood clots if you are susceptible. To get around that, choose a second best BCP, one with norgestimate, and consider adding spironolactone to that after you've been on the BCP for a couple of months. Start with 50 mg/day for a couple of months and move up to 100 mg/day if you are over 150 lbs. It takes a few months to work fully.
The diet connection runs through the male hormone (androgen) receptors in all the hormone-responsive cells in your body. Normally 'closed', they are opened by insulin and a relative called insulin-like growth factor - 1 (IGF-1). Casein raises IGF-1 and whey raises insulin so that is why dairy is a problem. Sugar and high glycemic load foods raise insulin.
Once the androgen receptors are open, ANY male hormone can reach them and turn on acne. These hormones come from ovaries, testicles, adrenal glands, birth control pills and are in ALL cow or animal milk plus other cow dairy products.
To understand what happens in the pore, take a look at the animation at http://www.acnemilk.com/acne_animation The site is non-commercial.