8 replies to this topic

[FSAS]

Some people say the liver is the problem others say its your gut/digestion. If you dont have allergies etc and spent a great deal of time and effort on your liver and gut etc why do we still have acne? I mean if you look at the extremes some people go to the very healthy diet, appropriate supplements, lifestyle etc etc. I know why there are people who have tired literally everything to great extremes and still have acne. It doesnt make sense and is often my source of little hope for myself. if it is all in the gut then how come eating appropriately and taking very strong probiotics and healing the gut in a few ways doesnt get us onto the level that the people that eat whatever they want are on that dont have acne ? i know it helps for some people a little but im not sure why not everyone. i know everyone is different but it seems people say the cause of acne is gonna be the gut/liver/diet/lifestyle.
for example my acne started like 13 months ago, no real explanation really as im nearly 20 and i didnt change anything from birth control to my life in general, i never ever ate horrible foods when i was younger and always got enough sun etc, only ever drank water and i have never ever been on antibiotics. i never even took painkillers.
just bam all of a sudden my life has been ruined with acne. The opinions going round is it could be my gut or liver giving way (despite all tests saying they were incredibly healthy) although noting again i was a decent alcohol drinker the past few years that was my only fault.
So just say my hormones are all messed up (because spiro cleared be 100% yet the pill didnt oddly) how come we cant just repair what was broken and get back to the way we were before the 'something' finally snapped in the body? people are trying everything , just everything and acne just wont budge.
I have friends that get drunk evvery single night. They eat crap dont sleep etc etc etc. yet they dont have acne. people will say its genes or because they have a good gut flora working body etc.
i wasnt born naturally, i was never breast fed and i was born 3 months premature.
if my problem is my gut flora, ive been taking good amount of strong probiotics and now kefir many times a day (the probiotics for about 5 months now) and i havent seen a change in my acne. when really by taking all that i should be one up on the people that dont take all that and those are the people that dont have acne, so really, i shouldnt have acne? but i do :/

seems like once you get acne youre in the battle forever and you'll never be able to live how you used to. It's odd how it seems a never ending battle to get rid of acne when something had to happen in the body for it to all of a sudden start occurring. i cant understand why its so hard to actually rid acne when we were not like this all our life. i for example never had acne when i hit teens, im 20 in 2 months, this makes no sense to me why i'd get it now and it so be so related to my period (again, spiro cleared me but i havent taken it for months and my face went mental).
im not even moody and my face isnt oily..its just full of pimples and bumps.
hormones seem so so easy to get out of balance but incredibly hard to get back in balance, considering how wonderful the body is and how repairing etc it is i cant understand why its not, in fact, EASIER to heal guts/livers/hormone balance if youre doing everything under the sun to aid it for many months even years.
people say genes have a lot to do with it, but what gene? is it a gene for example a crappy liver or digestion? no one in my family has acne, my twin sparingly at 16, im not sure where i got this 'gene' from if i do have it :/ my parents didnt even have acne.

im just frustrated at the moment, theres so much contradicting info, and im really glad we have access to so much info and smart brains but i wish it was easier because the body should be able to use everything good youre giving it to rid of acne. again taking note i didnt damage my body for years, with my life situation and state i didnt even have access to things like soda.
so my guess is the alcohol for the past 2-3 years did something. but then again, why would all my liver tests come up healthy and ive been taking liver supporting herbs for months now and nothing has changed :/

sorry that was a rant and a ramble. little lost again and my opinions and concerns and questions wont be quiet
ty in advance for any input though

[Omnivium]

I have been attacking acne from the same angle. I tried things for my liver that did nothing, and now I'm focusing on digestion. I recently started taking betaine HCL, which is supposed to solve a lot of digestion problems, but now I seem to be getting acid reflux, and if I am, then my stomach acid levels are fine and I have acne for another reason. It is kind of discouraging...

Have you considered insulin resistance? There's an interesting thread on cinnamon and how it prevents spikes in blood sugar. http://www.acne.org/...__fromsearch__1 It worked very well for the OP, and a few others have started to try it.

Do you have oily skin? Because I do, and no matter how good or bad my acne is, my oil always remains at a constant, huge amout. I think oil is even more persistent than acne for me. Sme things I have tried have helped my acne, but nothing I have ever done has improved my oily skin.

[corgisoulpower]

I started only bathing in epsom salt at night the past week. I think minimal washing (with salty water, at the most) of my face is doing my skin good, also not focusing on every little detail of my skin (okay, I still do. I still do extractions and stuff if I'm at liberty...) but rather not lamenting over it. Exercising (I'm starting to bike 3 miles to work) and learning to be more accepting of situations instead of mentally fighting them every step of the way has been extremely helpful.

[FSAS]

Omnivium, on 19 January 2012 - 12:17 AM, said:

I have been attacking acne from the same angle. I tried things for my liver that did nothing, and now I'm focusing on digestion. I recently started taking betaine HCL, which is supposed to solve a lot of digestion problems, but now I seem to be getting acid reflux, and if I am, then my stomach acid levels are fine and I have acne for another reason. It is kind of discouraging...

Have you considered insulin resistance? There's an interesting thread on cinnamon and how it prevents spikes in blood sugar. http://www.acne.org/...__fromsearch__1 It worked very well for the OP, and a few others have started to try it.

Do you have oily skin? Because I do, and no matter how good or bad my acne is, my oil always remains at a constant, huge amout. I think oil is even more persistent than acne for me. Sme things I have tried have helped my acne, but nothing I have ever done has improved my oily skin.

I have considered insulin resistance and im sure i am at some point but if i do eat sugar it really makes no difference in my acne. honestly the only thing that alters my acne is my period. I wouldnt consider my skin oily no. I mean if its shiny its because i have tea tree oil on it or something but for example if i where makeup (which often i must just to live life) my face doesnt look oily etc.
with the cinnamon, i use cinnamon everyday but i think theres a certain type aka the real cinnamon and im sure i dont have that in my area lol. i tried the cinnamon sticks but that didnt make a difference. i know you can buy pills with it in but im not sure if thats the 'real' cinnamon and theyre like $35 :/

i suppose im confused how, if i do have insulin resistance, how i ever got it if i wasnt born with it type thing.
have you tried zinc for oil?

[alternativista]

All of those things are factors and you should eat well to help all of those things. And fortunately, the same basic diet helps everything since it's how humans should eat. Real, whole nutrient dense foods, more anti-inflammatory than inflammatory, in blood sugar stabilizing meals, that don't include anything you have an intolerance for.

Then some people need to give extra attention to some issues that affect them more--food intolerances, their thyroid, adrenals, various digestion issues, body fat, etc.

[dejaclairevoyant]

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seems like once you get acne youre in the battle forever and you'll never be able to live how you used to

I disagree with the first bolded part--but strongly agree with the second. I don't think you will have to "be in battle" forever. Just thinking that way is putting you in a very stressful mindset, which is bad for your body. You may need to accept some changes, and you may need to keep trying things until you find what works for you, but you won't have to be in battle forever. It took me approximately 5 years from the time my acne became severe until I found the path that led to my remission. 5 years of "battle" as you put it (trying things that didn't work, being sooo stressed etc). But for me there was a light at the end of the tunnel. However, I absolutely couldn't go on living how I used to, not even close. I had to accept that I was sick and things needed to change or I was going to lose my life. But I was very sick... and I am not a usual case. So if it took me that long I'd imagine it would take most people even less time to figure it out. And most people would probably have to live less strict than me.

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hormones seem so so easy to get out of balance but incredibly hard to get back in balance, considering how wonderful the body is and how repairing etc it is i cant understand why its not, in fact, EASIER to heal guts/livers/hormone balance if youre doing everything under the sun to aid it for many months even years.

Because our bodies are toxic. Do you have any idea how many endocrine disruptors and other toxins the average american or person from a modern country ingests everyday? Most mainstream skin products are toxic. The air is toxic. Most processed food and candies are toxic. It goes on and on and on. We all have a lot stacked against us these days which is why its more important than ever to live as clean as possible. Just because a lot of people don't show this toxicity on their skin doesn't mean they are not rotting and developing disease underneath.

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people say genes have a lot to do with it, but what gene? is it a gene for example a crappy liver or digestion? no one in my family has acne, my twin sparingly at 16, im not sure where i got this 'gene' from if i do have it :/ my parents didnt even have acne.

You can get your genetics from other members of your family beyond your immediate family. And a lot of problems and diseases were not as prevalant back in the day (parents, grandparents generations) because people ate more pure back then. My grandma grew up poor on a farm and they had to grow most of their own stuff, so she ate really pure. All whole foods. Then comes my parents generation and so much changed. Along comes processed foods, margarines, trans fats... I don't even want to imagine the sort of stuff my mom was eating when she was pregnant with me... I know her bad nutrition probably had something do with my less than perfect (ha, understatement) health that I came into this life with.

The last thing I wanted to tell you is that it takes a long, long time to heal. I'm still healing and I've been working on my problem (from the correct angle) for about three years or more now...and I've done multiple week juice fasts to aid my healing (plus a lot of other stuff)... people need to understand how much it can take.

[chunkylard]

Here's the thing about humans. The small genetic differences that we all have are often times enough to cause our bodies to function in a different way than others (not necessarily in a worse way.) Because of this difference, we have to life a lifestyle that works for our personal genetics.

There are people on this board that find dairy breaks them out horribly.
I can eat as much cheese and milk as I want and it won't break me out. Do I? No because most dairy products are horrible for you.

This alone should tell you that everyone's body is different and everyone reacts differently to different stimuli.

[Omnivium]

FSAS, on 19 January 2012 - 01:45 AM, said:

I have considered insulin resistance and im sure i am at some point but if i do eat sugar it really makes no difference in my acne. honestly the only thing that alters my acne is my period. I wouldnt consider my skin oily no. I mean if its shiny its because i have tea tree oil on it or something but for example if i where makeup (which often i must just to live life) my face doesnt look oily etc.
with the cinnamon, i use cinnamon everyday but i think theres a certain type aka the real cinnamon and im sure i dont have that in my area lol. i tried the cinnamon sticks but that didnt make a difference. i know you can buy pills with it in but im not sure if thats the 'real' cinnamon and theyre like $35 :/

i suppose im confused how, if i do have insulin resistance, how i ever got it if i wasnt born with it type thing.
have you tried zinc for oil?

I haven't done any research on insulin resistance, but I guess you get it by eating too much sugar and making your blood sugar go up and down too much. And cassia cinnamon is the best kind, according to the thread in the link I posted. Cassia cinnamon is actually fake cinnamon, but it's supposed to be better than real cinnamon. Not all of them are expensive. Swanson sells it for $2.89.

Well I have been using zinc gluconate for like 6 months for acne, but it doesn't help my oil. I'm using 45mg right now, but at one point I was using 100mg.

[alternativista]

Omnivium, on 19 January 2012 - 02:19 PM, said:

FSAS, on 19 January 2012 - 01:45 AM, said:

I have considered insulin resistance and im sure i am at some point but if i do eat sugar it really makes no difference in my acne. honestly the only thing that alters my acne is my period. I wouldnt consider my skin oily no. I mean if its shiny its because i have tea tree oil on it or something but for example if i where makeup (which often i must just to live life) my face doesnt look oily etc.
with the cinnamon, i use cinnamon everyday but i think theres a certain type aka the real cinnamon and im sure i dont have that in my area lol. i tried the cinnamon sticks but that didnt make a difference. i know you can buy pills with it in but im not sure if thats the 'real' cinnamon and theyre like $35 :/

i suppose im confused how, if i do have insulin resistance, how i ever got it if i wasnt born with it type thing.
have you tried zinc for oil?

I haven't done any research on insulin resistance, but I guess you get it by eating too much sugar and making your blood sugar go up and down too much.

You do not have to be at the point of insulin resistance for blood sugar and insulin to be a problem. In fact, it is a problem for absolutely everyone, clear skin or not. Everyone. It's inflammatory and screws up hormones. That inflammation as the root cause of most degenerative health conditions. We just are not meant to eat/drink the kind of sugar and refined, high GI 'foods' that make up so many diets to day.

Everyone one should try to keep blood sugar stable. Everyone.