521 replies to this topic

[wheezle]

It has nothing to do with your eyes. It's the equivalent of blue-light therapy. When I used to get tanned 15 mins twice a week, I was acne free. The tanning light is a powerful blue light, and you wear goggles while getting tanned. So it's light's effect on your skin, which is all exposed to light when tanning, hence works even better than if you just stood outside fully clothed I'd guess.

I'm guessing the kind thing here is going to bed at regular hours, eating at regular hours, and being exposed to light a lot. Not much else.

My acne always cleared when I was spending all my days outside.

It may very well be the case that blue light has an effect on the skin as well. In fact, it seems more reasonable to assume that it does rather than does not.

But... as databased has reiterated again, and again, and again, he was not necessarily getting direct sun exposure when he was doing these tests. His eyes were open to the sky in order to "collect" the light, but he often just sat in the shade. He still noticed results, especially as related to digestion and carb malabsorption.

[Chocobot]

Maybe it is a fluke, who knows.

[FutureScarless]

This may sound like a dumb question but whatever. So if we happen to be taking zinc, would it be best in the morning or afternoon?

Edited by FutureScarless, 20 May 2011 - 08:08 PM.

[databased]

This may sound like a dumb question but whatever. So if we happen to be taking zinc, would it be best in the morning or afternoon?

IIRC, the most recent zinc study required taking zinc 3 times per day, and did not show (statistical, group) improvements until multiple months had elapsed.

The dumb answer is, it probably won't matter which you choose, but it's easy to experiment and see if you see any difference.

[The Economist]

Hi all,

Just wanted to note that I recently moved into a new office space with about 200 degrees of 8 feet high windows. My skin has been remarkably clear since I began working from this well-lit office. On two different week-long occasions I worked from a windowless conference room, I broke out fairly dramatically.

Also eating an anti-candida diet, sleeping 8.5+ hours, avoiding alcohol, and taking boron/zinc/vitamin b complex, multivitamin, etc, but the sun continues to be a powerful factor, seemingly.

[Prekktonn]

Databased, I was curious if you ever experimented with supplementing SOD into your diet? I only ask this because I bumped into it the other day at the store. As I take it from reading your thread it is the precursor to ZSOD.

[databased]

Databased, I was curious if you ever experimented with supplementing SOD into your diet? I only ask this because I bumped into it the other day at the store. As I take it from reading your thread it is the precursor to ZSOD.

Went through 2 bottles of the stuff. Couldn't see that it had
any effect. I doubt it can get where/when it's needed in any quantity
by taking it orally. Pineal melatonin, OTOH, goes to the skin cells and
stimulates each cell to ramp up production of SOD. If you don't have
the SOD right there in the cell that got touched by P. Acnes and
started spewing superoxide anions, lots of SOD elsewhere will
be no help. IMHO.

[DC-girl]

Databased, Ok, so I know tanning is bad but do you think the powerful blue lights from tanning beds would have a good effect on malabsorption from the light to the eyes?

[CoolGuy68]

After doing many "vitamin experiments" on myself for the past 3 1/2 months, I decided to revisit zinc one more time. I started on July 22nd @ 1X 25 mg of Zinc Picolinate daily. After each subsequent week, I added 1 more pill. I will say that my skin did, in fact feel less oily, but did it the acne ever really calm down? A big resounding...N-O!!! By the time I got up to the 4th week this past Friday, I'm sorry, but I had to throw the towel in on zinc one more time! This concludes the zinc portion of my experiment. I do wonder why calcium is added into most Zinc Picolinate supplements I'm not sure what my next "vitamin experiment" will be yet.

[databased]

Databased, Ok, so I know tanning is bad but do you think the powerful blue lights from tanning beds would have a good effect on malabsorption from the light to the eyes?

Anything's possible, but I doubt it. And the tanning booth operator should be pretty upset if they find you not wearing the blocking glasses; they don't want to get sued if you get cataracts.

A big resounding...N-O!!!

I too can take zinc and still have acne. And not take any zinc and be clear.

[river333]

Hi Databased,

Just finished reading all 26 pages of this fascinating thread, which ironically I've allowed to mess up my sleep schedule a bit lol. First, thank you for sharing your theory and research. I wish there were more people like you, scientifically minded and dedicated to figuring out this hell called acne. Second, bravo on the patience you've consistently shown as posters ask the same exact questions again and again. I'd have given up long ago

I want to eventually start your regimen, but unfortunately I just started the fiber-probiotic one to see if it works. I'll give it 6 weeks or so and then try yours. Couple questions - someone else mentioned hearing horror stories about taking b-complex pills. Acne.org's reviews section is filled with them, so obviously it worsens acne for some people, probably b/c of B6. If that ends up being true for me, could I take folate and B5 separately, and whatever other B vitamins you think are important to your theory, instead of B-complex?

Also, I've been looking into getting a SAD lightbox for a long time, because I've always been aware of how sensitive my mood is to how much light i get, and I'm moving back to dreary NYC soon as winter approaches. Seeing as these boxes affect the seratonin/melatonin levels, they should theoretically for work acne too. You said that intensity is the main thing, so if the box is 10,000 lux and concentrated on the blue part of the spectrum, as long as I keep my head within the right distance for x hours everyday, it should work, right? I know they're overpriced compared to your setup and a lot smaller, but I like that they're portable between home and office. I'm trying to imagine how I would position mine to somewhat mimic your setup. I'm thinking partially raised on a shelf that is a few inches above eye level as I work, how does that sound?

Thanks so much again!

[river333]

Sorry another question - have you come across in your research any understanding of why acne is so heavily concentrated on the face? is there simply more bacteria there, or is there maybe a psychological dimension to the problem? this is what I find so frustrating. i would think that your theory would apply to all skin cells, not just the ones on your face, yet mainly people suffer from facial acne, though of course many suffer from chest and back acne too. but why not the arms, legs, stomach, feet, etc?

[JB the First]

As a long-time lurker on here and someone who has tried just about everything I've read about on Acne.com, I can confidently say that the principles that databased puts forth here work.

When adjusting my actual sleep time from 7 to hours, and getting just 2-3 hours of sunlight in the eyes per day, I notice a dramatic difference. After 3 weeks of the change, I am almost entirely clear (which I attribute to a few slip ups).

I realized that the times when my skin was at its best were times when I was outside all day and able to sleep however much my body needed to. Also, after a few long road trips with my eyes constantly on the blue sky, I noticed a few drastic improvements.

A few things I've noticed that will hopefully help everyone:
-Making sure you sleep in as dark a room as possible is key. I've noticed that if I have to get up in the middle of the night, being exposed to light seems to make all the difference in how my skin looks the next morning.

-Going to sleep earlier seems to work better, for whatever reason

-Stick to your schedule religiously for a few weeks. Once you notice dramatic improvement, a day here and there of slipping up will make much less difference.

A big thank you to databased for all the work. His theories here have had a big effect on my life. Hopefully my endorsement will encourage everyone to try it out and live a little more healthfully.

[alternativista]

Thought you might want to see this study on the effects of lighting on school children:

http://www.longnatur...ibrary2.asp?A=5

[Valtsu]

Hmm... Databased, what do you think about Wikipedia's light therapy article:

Acne vulgaris

Sunlight was long known to improve acne, and this was thought to be due to antibacterial and other effects of the ultraviolet spectrum which cannot be used as a long-term treatment due to the likelihood of skin damage.^[3]

It was found that some of the visible violet light present in sunlight (in the range 415–430 nm) activates a porphyrin (Coproporphyrin III) in Propionibacterium acnes which damages and ultimately kills the bacteria by releasing singlet oxygen. A total of 320 J/cm² of light within this range renders the bacteria non-viable.^[4]

Since there are few porphyrins naturally found in the skin, the treatment is believed safe except in patients with porphyria;^[5] although eye protection is used due to light-sensitive chemicals in the retina. The light is usually created by superluminous LEDs. This form of treatment has been approved by the FDA for some lightwave systems .^{[citation needed]} Overall improvements of on average 76% for 80% of patients occurs over three months; most studies show that it performs better than benzoyl peroxide and the treatment is far better tolerated. However, approximately 10% of users see no improvement.^[4]

Recently, I also bought blue blocker glasses. That's one possible way to get more melatonin in the evening even while using computer.

Edited by Valtsu, 17 November 2011 - 10:01 AM.

[Ichance23]

ok so just take zinc and ill be acne free?

[Prisoner]

What are the side effects associated with mega-dosing Zinc? I have never had a clear day in the past 6/7 years and would be willing to give anything a try, from searching online the only side effect i have come across is that mega dosing zinc may interfere with the abortion of copper, however i have found a zinc supplement on the market that contains copper for that exact reason.

[Drth]

Wow this is really impressive research

[austra]

This is definitely something every acne sufferer should read! It's an interesting theory and does make a lot of sense to me.

 

Now then, to my personal practical issues: I remember having some success with this a few years ago when I was mostly studying for exams from home or on holiday, so I could spend my days out and work on my balcony. But, now it's winter (zero degrees celsius or colder ) and I am mostly indoors studying at school or at home. How do you go about getting all the light exposure you need??! Whenever I'm home I try to stay close to my light box, but it's not enough. I'm still breaking out a bit and sleeping poorly (stress also being involved). I guess the only real option is to spend more money and get more light boxes, although it does cost so much. This is really inconvenient, I have to say. And most of the time I'm at school right during midday and can't really control the light environment, which sucks.

 

I've considered trying to compensate the lack of light by taking extra melatonin in the evenings, but I'm not sure if this would be effective (still going to try it though).

I wouldn't want to mega-dose on zinc, but I'm trying to get a lot from my diet. Other than that I don't really have any ideas on how to improve. Can't wait for summer and warmer days.

I forgot to say, I've tried the blue-blocking goggles in the evenings back when I had more insomnia problems, but they broke pretty soon and were expensive, so I never got new ones. But I may consider getting them and using them again though.

[Oner]

Zinc ascorbate has superoxide dismutase-like activity and in vitro antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/23055762