Just finished reading this thread. Unfortunately I found out on my own about how gluten and dairy cause acne for me...wish i had explored these forums a little better instead when I first ran into this site years ago!
Anyway, for me, the acne gradually increased over time. I would always have one to three pimples during my teenage years, sometimes it would clear up though for a while and even though my diet remained steady (bread, junk, spices, sugars, all of it). Then in college it steadily got worse, went to the doc and seemed to have tried everything under the sun over a 12-18mo period, nothing ever worked.....finally, went to Accutane, which worked like a wonder drug.
As some of you may know Accutane works a little like an anti-inflammatory and also reduces the size of the sebacious glands which results in lower sebum production...at the same time it clears up the pores which enables the sebum to flow out to the skin without being "blocked" and causing acne.
So anyway, that worked, but within 6mos out of that, I had my acne again....light and slowly increasing again. I tried eating healthier and healthier (raw fruits and veggies, little red meat, fish, breast meat chicken, little to no snacks/junk)....but the key was I kept up loads of whole wheat/grains and fat-free dairy....thinking it was "healthy" too. Acne just kept on, 1 to 3 pimples per week, sometimes even more. It seemed that my acne now was worse than when I was younger. My wheat intake was also a LOT higher now than when i was younger. I had no other problems except acne (well I had few other problems but I don't think they are related and they were solved w/ other solutions).
I thought milk was the culprit, and my acne would decrease a bit (I still continued w/ my wheat, even eating Total Whole Wheat cereal raw....w/ no milk), but that wasn't it. So I reduced wheat and then eliminated it, it helped greatly, I thought I had found my cure....but then I had small sebum (white-heads) popping up like never before....very small, but still, more numerous than before. Then i found out that it was the milk that was causing that. Once I stopped both wheat and dairy, my acne finally cleared up and I had maybe one pimple every 2wks, and even that was because my diet wasn't as strict as it should've been.
It's totally amazing how this cured it, but it's sad too because I LOVE bread (and dairy...cheese). But it definitely has other benefits as well. For example, even though I still eat junk and maybe more so now than before (chocolate, chips, etc.)....I have actually LOST weight during this gluten-free dairy-free experiment. I am by no measure considered over-weight nor under-weight, neither before or after my gluten-free dairy-free experiment, but I have always wanted to lose some of my fat and reduce my body fat percentage, and i was able to do this while I INCREASED my junk just because I eliminated gluten and dairy (and I practically eliminated white rice as well, replacing it with brown rice). Which shows how much those two were contributing to my weight.
But, with more research I also found something else that may be related to my acne. The GI index. Some studies show that eating high-glycemic foods such as breads, sugars, etc can cause acne....so you should eat low-glycemic foods such as brown rice (instead of white).
Overall with me I am finding that I am mildy-resistant to gluten in terms of acne, I might be able to eat two slices of bread per week without any acne and that I am mildy-resistant to milk (I can eat some chocolate, some "cheesy" chips such as cheetos, etc.). But I am also trying to stick to a low-GI diet....which would mean elimination of junk as well (I now eat junk about 5 days a week instead of everyday).
Other changes I have made are eating a bit more fish and nuts (for DHA, also both are very low GI), I have always drank a lot of water and continue to do so, little red meat, maybe 10oz per week.
But after reading all this I am a bit worried about the possibility of me having celiac disease. My cousin was recently diagnosed with it, but we aren't caucasian I would say (central asian). He is on a elimination diet, extremely strict.
I am worried especially because I just finished reading an Wall Street Journal article dated Sept 28th, 2010, about Celiac disease propping up even in the 20s-30s-40s and later. Has anybody finally figured out what is the BEST test for it?
By the way, thankfully I have never had any digestive problems...except bloating which stopped instantly as I switched to lactose-free milk...now of course I am dairy-free totally because of the acne thing. And sometimes when I eat too many fruits and veggies w/ very little "stool hardening" foods, my stool is very fluid, though not diarrhea at all.
Edited by nanotech, 02 October 2010 - 05:47 PM.
Home
1
