Help :(

I've been stuck at 194 pounds for more than a year. I used to be 254lbs back in mid-2006, but I still have a belly full of flub. Anyways, I always try to watch what I eat. I've been trying to write food I eat down in a journal, but still I get lazy throughout the day and overeat.

I think for me, sugary foods (like ice cream an 10+ tablespoons of oreo crumbs) I eat a few times a week at lunch on campus causes some of my acne. Right now, there are a ton, like 40 tiny inflamed spots appearing on my forehead alone!!! And I am scared this will erupt into a massive severe breakout like I had in freshman year of high school.

But I just get these cravings for food, and I really do NOT care about overeating, and when I am finished I regret it immensely. Happens over and over. Bah. How do you deal with food cravings or telling yourself to control and somehow relinquish those strong urges to eat even if you know it's bad for your acne/weight?

3 of my college roommates are taking about acne

It's kind of funny. Two of them are pre-med, and all three are like:

"I was so desperate before accutane I tried...blah blah"
or
"my derm recommended this...it has no fragrance so it's good" (referring to Cetaphil)
or
"UVA UVB protection!!! zomg"
or
"wow that has salicylic acid...it helps so much"
or
"I first tried topicals, and then moved to minocycline"


My door is closed now, and I am just listening and laughing. But at the same time, all these people's skin is clear except for maybe 1-2 spots and a little almost invisible redness.

I wish I could just go out there and be like, "sit-down kiddos and let 2 years of acne.org experience enlighten ya."

But it ticks me off that one of my roomies eats horrible. My school's food is ranked in the top 3 for best college food, so it's easy to overindulge. At the buffet place (which is friggin heaven) they have awesome desserts, and what my roommate eats...I can't even begin to describe it. Last time we were there it was:

3 brownies, a bowl of chocolate and vanilla ice cream (the creamy kind) covered completely in oreo crumbs AND another whole, completely filled bowl of straight up oreo crumbs...it must have totalled over 200grams of sugar easily, and he is thin as a stick!!! I kind of hope some of them get bad acne again, ahah, but I don't wish that.

Supplementing w/ Inositol

After reading about success with people taking the inositol hexanicotinate form to get their niacin, I wondered the possibility if getting the inositol helped with their acne. I decided to read on this for a little bit, and from what I have read, I think it is definitely worth a shot.

This is the background from http://www.anyvitamins.com/inositol-info.htm

About: Inositol plays an important part in the health of cell membranes especially the specialized cells in the brain, bone marrow, eyes and intestines. The function of the cell membranes is to regulate the contents of the cells, which makes effective functioning possible. [apparently people with eczema have reported success]

Inositol is said to promote healthy hair, hair growth, and helps in controlling estrogen levels and may assist in preventing breast lumps.

It may also be of benefit in reducing blood cholesterol levels. [Sounds just like niacin]

Deficiency:

If your intake is not sufficient, you may experience symptoms such as eczema, hair loss, constipation, and abnormalities of the eyes and raised cholesterol. [Sometimes I do get constipated, and I often get those eye-streaks with the bright lines flying everywhere]

Dosage: 100mg to prevent deficiency symptoms

Toxicity: No toxic effects known, but diarrhea has been noted with the intake of very high dosage of inositol.
(From wikipedia: A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of depressed patients showed that a high dose of inositol [12 grams daily] resulted in significant improvement of symptoms, with no changes noted in liver, kidney, or hematological function.[6])

Best used with: Choline should be taken in the same amount as inositol and the best is to take the entire B group vitamins with it, Vitamin E, vitamin C as well as folic acid and linoleic acid is thought to increase the functioning of inositol.

When more may be required: Taking of long term antibiotics may increase your need for inositol, as well as if you consume a lot of coffee.
Enemy of Inositol: Coffee kills this nutrient.

Well, that is interesting. By the way, when I developed acne back in freshman year in high school in early 2005, it occured about 3 months after I indulged in the Monster Energy drink in late 2004, which is chock-full of caffeine. I continued drinking those energy drinks until november of 2006. Point is caffeine consumption really messes up my acne. March of 2005, my face was severe in acne...it was horrible. But since 06, it's just been mild, sometimes moderate. And I have taken antibiotics, but not really prolonged use. It's still interesting though, which is why I am willing to test this supplement out.

I posted in the niacin thread this link, http://www.acne.org/messageboard/Inositol-t23105.html, the OP stated that "one guy cured his acne by taking 6 500mg caps of inositol a day. (a substance which looks a lot like vit B, but works very different)."
________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

This brings me to my question? Is anyone willing to try this out for a few weeks? I'm not banking on a cure, but maybe improvement?

Logically, in my situation I can relate to: the caffeine problem, constipation, the eye problems, how my diet doesn't include many of the best-sources of inositol, and my one session of taking minocycline the summer of 2005. But despite this being a very possible false correlation, the lack of any significant negative side-effects is what is motivating me to try this out.

Now there are different forms of this stuff to take...but more research is needed on that.


Check this out also for another intro to inositol:


http://www.vitamins-supplements.org/inositol.php

I also read that Inositol and Choline along with unsat. fatty acids combine to make lecithin. People on this site have used lecithin to help their acne if I remember correctly.

The guy I am working with acted like such a pompous dbag

Here is the story, I am spending my summer helping a guy working on his PhD by assisting his research. The guy is ~30 years old, he is homosexual (very), and can sometime act immature, but he is VERY smart...just sometimes unbelievable immature.

So anyways, yesterday night we were done with going out in the field and as we were driving back he just randomly poked my face and said "zit". Then "zit, zit, zit..." while pointing to other parts.

I didn't want to lash out on him, because I wonder if he was testing my anger reaction, but I just brushed it off and kind of looked at him, but deep inside I was thinking "you think that is funny you piece of ignorant ****?" I was very upset about it because my face is extremely clear to what it has been, and here he just tries to fuck with me when I have like a few inflamed spots.

So later that night I was thinking what I should have said and I thought:

"Let me guess you never had had acne before right?"

And if he said:

"Yes I used to have it"- I would have said "then you would never...ever...make someone else feel like that...you're acting like a douche.

"No I've never had it" - and I would have said something probably even worse. I don't know.


Ok so today we drove almost an hour to meet with a specialist to identify some things, and in the office he was doing his little immature bickering with me, and I said something he couldn't come back to and in front of the specialist he does the poking thing again and said "zit" out loud!!!

I just didn't even respond, nor look at him, and the whole ride back I was pretty quiet to him, because frankly that is unbelievably rude. He was even condescending to the specialist guy too...it was embarrassing.

The Omega-3:6 ratio?

Apparently, little did I remember, that the peanut butter I have been indulging on for the past week has a chock-full amount of omega-6 that I sprinted to Kroger and got two bottles of fish-oil. (the closest store with legit cod liver oil is 22 miles away...so hah no way).

Anyways, how iffy is this Omega-6 balance? Does too much omega-6 REALLY contribute to acne in a significant way? I have virtually had no omega-3 in the past week either.

Also, say I consumed I don't know...6 grams of omega 6. Is it viable to consumer 6+ grams of omega-3 to balance that out? Peanut butter is so damn tasty. What are yall's opinion then about how much fish oil tabs to consume? 2 caps = 780mg omega 3.