Acne and Diet

2»

Replies

  • fevrale
    fevrale Posts: 170 Member
    The medical research is really shaky on establishing a link between diet and acne. So, there's no hardline rule about what contributes to acne in a diet. I recently had a bad flare up unlike any acne I've ever had (I've usually just had the hormonal chin acne from time to time). I had around 60 lesions overall from my chin to my hairline! I went to my doctor and I did ask about diet. She said that some things work for some people (like cutting dairy, keeping blood sugar level stable, balancing fats) and it could be worth a try to do something like that if I thought it'd help. For me, I saw no improvement.

    After waiting 8 weeks to see if it'd clear up with dietary or OTC topical medication, she prescribed me a week of antibiotics and tretinoin cream that I mix with CeraVe moisturizing cream. The antibiotics cleared it for the most part so it seems my cause for that breakout was bacterial. I use the creams still for the occasional break out.

    If you think the reasons for clearer skin is because of something you've done recently, you can try to figure out what it is. It's so hard to isolate what helps but if you're seeing an improvement, keep going for a long time like 6-8 weeks. Then people seem to reintroduce small amounts of what they've limited to see if there's a reaction.

  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    edited April 2015
    I think it's trial and error and personalized to what you have going on in your body. I had always had very clear skin, even as a teenager, but in the past 5-6 or so years (I'm 34 now) I've developed very frustrating hormonal acne on my chin/jaw. It could be due to just general changes in my body since having kids (I have a 5.5 year old and a 3.5 year old), or general changes due to age, or the fact that up until we started trying to get pregnant I was pretty consistently on hormonal BC and now I'm not anymore since my husband got the big V after our 2nd was born, or some combo of the 3, or something else entirely, who knows. It's further annoying for me because I am very pale and scar extremely easily, so even if I NEVER pick or pop or anything I end up with red marks on my face for months and months after the acne is gone, so even though I tend to only get one or two decent sized cysts at any given time, the effects linger for a long time and the overall effect is pretty ugly.

    I have to say that I have noticed that it improves (for ME) when I control my refined carbs by overall keeping a closer rein on my total carb consumption, and trying to limit it to fruits/veggies, nuts, legumes, and relatively small amounts of whole grains. Doesn't completely eliminate it, but it tends to trend better. Also, the combo of using retinol and VERY gentle exfoliation regularly helps quite a bit. I try to use a retinol cream 3 nights per week (just regular OTC anti-aging stuff), alternating with a Clarisonic with the delicate brush 3 nights a week and a clarifying mud mask the 7th night (admittedly, I rarely will make this happen all 7 nights in a week, because I'm more-than-occasionally too damn lazy/tired to wash my face at night). In the mornings I typically use a gentle moisturizer with just an extremely thin layer of a salicylic acid acne treatment underneath. I have to be really careful about what I use, since aside from the cystic hormonal acne, my skin is quite dry and sensitive.

    Putting all of that together has helped me a lot. I don't know which piece or how much is coincidence, since (1) when I'm doing better with my food choices, I also tend to be doing better with my skin care, and vice versa (just an overall motivational mindset), so who knows which is actually helping more, and (2) sometimes I still get a cyst even doing everything right, and sometimes I fall off the wagon and do everything wrong and my skin stays looking good.
  • HardcoreP0rk
    HardcoreP0rk Posts: 936 Member
    emmydoodles83 wrote: »
    HardcoreP0rk wrote: »
    My hormonal acne isnt touched by changes in anything..but hormones. So my doctor put me on spironolactone to address the excess testosterone. Worked like a charm. Hardly any perceptible side effects. Cannot use if pregnant or may become pregnant.

    Yeah I am wondering if my hormones were a bit imbalanced and something I did helped balance them back out. I don't even get a pimple near that time of the month anymore. I figured they would fix themselves after a while off of going off of BC but it's been like 3 or 4 years.

    Hormones can change for all sorts of reasons, but I doubt "little changes" in diet would make the difference. Maybe going from a VERY high fat diet to a low fat diet... I could be wrong though, since hormone effects are notoriously sensitive.

  • alicafernandez
    alicafernandez Posts: 4 Member
    Its important to have a good diet and along with this, its even more important to have essential skincare for acne. Hormonal problems will come but its our responsibility to ensure our skincare regime.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    My acne was surprisingly caused by sugars. I was shocked when it cleared up.

    I developed acne along my chin, on my scalp, and on my upper back in my thirties after having kids. I thought it was related to that. I always had 3-8 zits around my mouth, few on my scalp and half a dozen or so on my back. It was wasn't horrible so I let it go.

    Eventually I was given a medicinal cream called finacea, which helped a bit. Instead of 6 zits on my chin I would have 1 or 2. I stopped it and they came back.

    Then I switched to a very LCHF ketogenic diet and my skin was clear within a couple of weeks. I now get one or two pimples per month, including on my back and scalp, rather than dozens. It is so much better.

    In my case, that old myth about sugars casing pimples was completely true! Even the jaw line ones which are supposedly hormone caused. All food caused.

    I have been eating higher calorie and higher carb over the last few weeks (40-50g carbs and 1800-2200 kcal) and I am getting a pimple here or there. I have no doubt it is all carb related for me. None.

Categories