Diet, exercise and acne!

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!

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!

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.

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

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.

I had terrible acne when I was a bit younger. Nothing helped I ended up doing six months of Accutane. I didn't have any bad side effects minus everything (lips, skin, eyes, nose) being super dry! That was the worst of it. Haven't really had a problem since.

When my acne started to flare up a touch last year my doctor put me on Diane 35 which is a BC but worked really well!

my skin has cleared up a lot since I became a vegetarian and also right after you work out your suppose to wash your face right after you work out and before you go to bed

Got my first acne at 13. I'm almost 63 and still have it. the only thing that helps me is benzoil peroxide, but it only helps. skin vitamins helped, but only helped. No diet helped. So now I am still battling acne along with wrinkles and sagging.

The cause of people's acne outbreaks is rooted in their diet and lifestyle choices, which causes an imbalance of hormones that stimulates the sebaceous glands to produce excess oil. Stress can also play a part. That's why facial skin care products fail in the long run for so many people. Even if they do get some initial success (and usually only people with mild acne do), the acne usually comes back if they stop using the products, because they were only treating the symptoms of the problem.

If you are an acne sufferer, you have to target the root cause to get your skin clear for good. I used to have bad acne, and i used almost every skin care product out there, believe me. But none of them worked.

I got rid of it in the end, but what you have to do is change your diet and lifestyle, because that's what's causing it. It took me a couple of months, but i've never had any problems since. The free guide on this site http://bestacneproductsx.org can show you the right way to start getting rid of it.

This is what has helped me (I think):
1. Washing with a gentle cleanser (as many said, I did the harsh acne washes in the past). I use Purpose face wash and try to only wash 2 times a day
2. Witch Hazel toner! Made a huge difference, 1time a day and Alpha hydroxy acid every other night ( I got it from Acne.org), helps with darks spots too.
3. bc pill
4. drinking more water
5. tea
6. eating more fruit and veggies (high vitamin a)
7. exercise (relieve stress)
8. less coffee, no smoking,
9. not over drying or over moisturizing (I use Clinque dramatically different moisturizing GEL)
10. Praying!

I am going to also try avoiding dairy, and avoid my whey protein shakes this month to see if that makes even more of a difference because I have been pretty clear for about 3 months, but I am attending quite a few weddings in the upcoming months so I want to try to avoid even the occasional monthly flare up.

i tried everything, or so it seemed, as well.
the only thing that worked for me was to quit drinking soda and drink loads more water. i used to drink 5 litres or more of coke a day :-| i stopped, my skin cleared up. i still have sweets sometimes, and it doesnt affect my skin, but if i have a soda or two, the following week my skin starts to resemble what it used to.