Blue/red light treatments (and phototherapy)

Blue/red and light treatment stuff usually works (~80% of patients: british-journal.pdf), but information is hard to find in the forum.

Also the home-use equipment and treatment can seem relatively expensive, so it isn't much used; but it can often be cheaper than antibiotics or BP for long term problems. (If you add up Dan's checklist of items it can come to more than $300 over 2 years, but the home use lightboxes cost that and last 3 years and the studies say they are atleast as effective).

The derm office treatments tend to be much more expensive; and not necessarily any better (although blue light can be taken with Levulan - ALA Aminolevulinic Acid which allegedly can shrink sebaceous glands and might give longer term clearance.)

Add your experiences/product reports/links here.

Red/blue cheatsheet

Blue/red light acne treatment

Biochembabe's Zeno review (handheld heat treatment- she did better on the blue/red light treatments but it does do something)

Biochembabe's acne progress using Sci/Art blue/red lamps

Biggest mistake mankind ever made

This seems like a pretty awesome explanation of why modern diet is probably pretty marginal:

http://www.agron.iastate.edu/courses/agron...ondmistake.html

It's not at all inconceivable that acne correlates to deficiencies, such as omega-3/6 imbalances and/or too many carbs.

Vitamin D

There's an interesting article here:

http://www.mercola.com/2003/dec/27/vitamin_d_quiz.htm

I suggest you take the test. It's really kinda interesting.

Basically their position is that death by vitamin D overdose is literally unheard of, a very, very large number of people in NA and europe simply don't get enough (as in about 40-50% of the population). Even multivitamin tablets only typically contain about 400 IU, whereas going out in the sun at midday can make about 50,000 IU(!!!!). Toxicity at up to a supplement of 1000 IU, even longterm, apparently isn't found anywhere in the literature. And they say that not going out in the sun (presumably at midday), will mean you *will* get vitamin D deficiency even if you take *twice* the RDA. I rarely go out in the sun at midday...

There has been a suggestion that atherosclerosis might be promoted by high vitamin D intake, but then again, heart attacks are more common in the winter... when vitamin D levels are depleted. And the logic they gave that it might trigger atherosclerosis seemed suspect to me- they said that muscles migrate to the blood vessels wall. Isn't extra muscle a good thing? It's the sclerosis that kills you- the oxidised fat.

And there's an intriguing link with the skin- apparently vitamin D suppresses hyperkeratinitis; one of the key things that happens with acne. (I think that's what they said, I can't find the link now)

And vitamin D deficiency seems to play a big part of Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which is a cause of acne in women. See: http://www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/news15-pcos-acne.html. And they mention that vitamin D deficiency is linked to insulin resistance (presumably in men too), which if you buy the insulin-resistant skin theory could imply a relationship.

And the sunlight thing is interesting too. To get vitamin D you have to go out in the midday sun- it's produced by UV-B which is *only* present around that time. I personally don't go out in the midday sun much at all. YMMV.

I've also noticed that my acne tends to be worse at about this time of year, when presumably my skin hasn't seen too much sun for many months (I live in the UK, it rains a *lot*, hasn't this year though). Wondering whether there's a link. And there was that milk study- full cream milk gave almost no increase in acne, but skimmed milk did. But vitamin D is fat soluble so isn't present in skimmed milk... but is in full cream milk. But the levels aren't particularly high. And my skin seems to improve if I have a lot of tuna... which has a high level.

Hmmm.

Any thoughts? Could vitamin D deficiency be a problem for some people with acne? Could it even essentially cause it in some people?