5 replies to this topic

[morgoe]

I've had a mix of acne and rosacaea for around 5 years now.. the acne has come and gone, but the rosacaea has always stayed. In fact it wasn't until recently that I self-diagnosed myself with rosacaea... frankly I'm appalled at the doctorS I went to, and the dermatologist who put me on accutane when my acne was not bad at all, it was almost entirely my rosacaea that was visible.

I've tried almost everything in these years, accutane for a short period (went off cos of side effects), various antibiotics and topicals. A lot of the Benzol Peroxides I thought were 'causing redness', but it was in fact aggravating my rosacaea while clearing my acne.. not an ideal solution.


So, for the last.. month and a bit now, I've been going a different way, and it seems to be working. This is what I'm doing.

DIET:
-zero dairy. No cheese, no milk, no butter, nothing. I had a ton of milk one day to test if this made a difference, the next day I had 3 or 4 new whiteheads. So no dairy.
-Minimal processed carbs. This means no white bread, no white pasta/rice. Only wholegrain bread, brown rice and wholemeal pasta, and sugar is a DEFINITE nono, but I end up breaking this 2 or 3 times a week with a piece of chocolate or a cupcake or something - always very small.
-I'm currently eating a ton and working out, so this probably isn't helping (increase in testosterone and increase in calories is apparently bad for acne).

I don't find my diet hard to keep to at all, I can still have a ton of delicious food - 3-4 eggs every day, bacon, chicken, peanut butter+toast, any meal as long as it has no dairy and you replace the white carbs with brown carbs. It only gets difficult when you go out and realise that there are ZERO takeout places with brown carbs (not even Subway, unless I'm mistaken). Fish is really the only option then.

SUPPLEMENTS:
-fish oil.. currently taking 4 a day. Could increase this but I haven't noticed a difference at higher doses.
-zinc, I don't think this makes a difference TBH, but I'm just going to keep on with everything, then once (if? ) my skin is clear, I'll start taking things off slowly.
-lysine, for the rosacaea.. only for the last week or so. I'm taking so many things its hard to say if this is working or not, but it DOES seem to make my skin significantly less oily, but perhaps thats just a coincedence.

Finally, Sapoderm twice a day, and a moisturiser at night. No antibiotics and no BP.


In the last month and a bit, my acne has gone down a bit (very slowly, and I'm still getting breakouts every now and then. They are significantly less red and pussy and bumpy though) and my rosacaea has also improved, especially around my chin. I'm praying this is going to work, otherwise I'm pretty much out of ideas. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera when I started, so I only started taking photos last week. I'm taking photos every 2 weeks, just after shaving, I'll upload these later.

[Toni Lavigne]

Thanks for sharing your diet! I'm only eating fruit, fish, chicken and vegetables now... but I drank milk just 2 minutes ago

[morgoe]

Thanks for sharing your diet! I'm only eating fruit, fish, chicken and vegetables now... but I drank milk just 2 minutes ago

Np. I tried a similar diet to yours, but coupled with no dairy I just found it impossible.

[alternativista]

Good Luck. My diet keeps my rosacea and acne at bay.

[morgoe]

Ok, took some update photos a couple days ago.. and there's no more improvement (if anything it was a little worse, but I did have a lot of nasty breakouts that were just healing).

I'm going to continue with what I'm doing, as its not getting in the way of other treatment, and the healthy diet I'm pretty much used to now.

I'm going to look into a food allergen test (read up VERY briefly on this) to see if I can reintroduce dairy into my diet, or if anything else could be harming me.

Also, I've read up a lot on Demodex mites, which can sometimes be responsible for rosacaea (in particular the pustular kind that I have), so I've bought some permethrin and I'll be trying that. I've got photos and I'll upload them later on.

[morgoe]

I've read that increased exercise doesn't really raise testosterone levels. I was looking this up to see if my increased working out was worsening my blemishes, but I've come up with no concrete evidence that states working out increases testosterone. If you find you break out more when working out, it could be the environment, especially if you go to a gym (the spray that is used to clean the mats, if I get it on my skin I break out. I notice that if I wipe away sweat on my neck while working out with a hand that has touched the cleaning rag, I'll get little bumps).

Have you considered just removing food groups or individual items that cause stomach upset? I'm removing gluten from my diet, as I'm wondering if it's behind my years of digestive issues, facial redness (I ate spaghetti twice yesterday along with a roll - both brown - and when I went to bed, my face was beet red and felt a tad swollen) and perhaps behind my slow acne healing. I haven't eaten gluten all day so far, and no gas, bloating or irritation. I also reintroduced milk, which I had omitted as I thought it might be causing digestive issues, but I drank some last night before going to bed and some today, and my skin isn't any worse and my stomach isn't bothering me. The only other thing I'm still keeping out of my diet is eggs, as I am mildly allergic. Other than that, I'll be including more salt in my diet, as I had almost completely cut it out but after finding different articles, it seems as though salt intake throughout the day IS important, and I'll continue not eating take out. Removing gluten from your diet isn't that hard. If you want a sandwich, use lettuce as your means of keeping everything together. If you want a pasta dish, use brown rice instead, or buy gluten-free pasta.

I'm also going to be doing an allergy test, but that was more so to see if anything is affecting my body and breathing. I used to eat a lot of dairy, and never remembered breaking out more so after eating it.

Demodex mites... what kind of symptoms are you feeling on your skin that would make you think of this? I also have pustules, which is something I normally don't have, and I get a lot of facial redness. My chin tends to feel itchy or kind of tingly throughout the day, not at all times. Does your face react in this manner?

General cardio exercise won't raise your testosterone, but weight lifting and eating extra calories definitely will.

I don't get any stomach upsets, with any foods really. Removing dairy, gluten and processed carbs is nearly impossible while eating enough calories of real, healthy food each day to gain weight (at least 2.5k cals). It simply restricts any calorie-dense foods to.. meat and eggs and nuts and brown rice. I need my bread/pasta!

As for the demodex mites, I don't feel anything crawling across my skin or anything, I've just done a bit of research and it seems, particularly for my type of rosacea (pustular, acne-like one), they often seem to be related, and using permethrin and/or an oral to get rid of the mites can result in total clearance in some cases. And there's no real side-effects, its just an insecticide, so why not try it?
I put it on last night, just washed my face.. I can't see any difference yet but my skin feels more 'exposed', like an outer layer has just come off. No idea if this is good or intended, or what, but I'll keep updating.