14 replies to this topic

[NewBrigade]

OK.

So I'm starting a holistic log, but I need to start by saying that I have been virtually grain, lectin, and dairy free for almost two months and I still have pimples. In fact, my skin is every bit as bad (maybe worse?) as it was when I was on topical BP following the regimen, which isn't that bad but I have lots of hyperpigmentation and several ugly pimples on my face. Always. My chest usually has one or two pustules on it and tons of blackheads but it mostly looks bad because I have intense scarring there from when I was 17.

I am 23 and have been on Accutane, other antibiotics, and, for the past year, only topicals. Since I was 17, I have only been totally clear in the 9 months after Accutane, which had to be pushed to its maximum safe dose for three months to "cure me". After Accutane, I spent years on Benzaclin, Epiduo, and antibiotics (Solydyn) before stopping. Then I started breaking out a year ago and almost cleared w/ in 3-4 months using the regimen. But I got tired of the regimen, tired of doing that every ***** day for what seemed at the time likemediocre results. I was also tired of looking bad. Well, after about 2 months of no grains/no dairy, I am tired of still looking bad. I don't get results this month, I'm not sure what I'll do.

In the end of February, I gave up wheat and dairy and haven't missed it---though I have reintroduced some organic butter into my diet recently--I try to clarify it to avoid casein.

For the months of March-April (until now) I ate NO fruits (citrus gives me acne, I believe from personal experience), coconut oil (I am taking a "pause" on that to see what happens), sweet potatoes every day, carrots, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower. And protein from fish.

The diet right now is primarily and elimination diet and an experiment to see if weeks without sweet potatoes do me well. But maybe I'm screwed because I'm adding back eggs and clarified butter, but I have to eat something, right?

Salmon 300g a day, farmed (no wild catch where I'm from).
(I would go for grass-fed beef but it is unavailable in my situation).
Eggs

Vegetables:
Lettuce
Carrots
Spinach

Clarified Butter (dairy but I skim the casein in the clarifying process).
Olive Oil

Fermented foods: Sauerkraut

This is not a very diverse diet but I honestly don't know what to say--I'm not a person of means and I want to determine if foods are safe, so it seems like eating too diversely would make me unable to draw conclusions (I'm already frequently unable to draw them). I can't afford to get a sensitivity test though I will try to have one done in May.
I am really at a loss as I know that I need more nutrients but have discarded starches (bananas and sweet potatoes) recently (they give me indigestion, and bloating). The past three days I have been eating a lot of organic apples but my tongue is very sore (food allergy) and painful and I suspect they may be the culprit of my last breakout.

Supplements:
Zinc: I took 150mg of Zinc Gluconate (15mg elemental Zinc) every day twice for one month. I now take 90 mg elemental zinc from 450 mg Zinc methionine daily in three doses.
A Multivitamin w/ 1000iu Vitamin D--not much sun round here. Started recently.
Chromium Picolinate 400micrograms daily. It has been almost a month.
Vitamin E 134mg x2 daily. It has been almost a month.
Nicotinamide 550mg daily (it has been almost a month).

Let's go.

[NewBrigade]

Since my last post, I have developed cysts around my mouth (gross). It has been about one week since I started eating apples, eggs, and some clarified butter but my digestion has really calmed down during this period--everything seemed to digest easier after I cut out sweet potatoes. So, I won't be going back to sweet potatoes, but I am wondering if the new foods are the culprit.
I haven't had cysts near my mouth like this for a long time (6 months) and it's kind of distressing. If anyone could offer any guidance on this, it would be appreciated. My major problem is that I'm lost: I don't know how to determine what my food sensitivies are and so I can't get clear, but I believe that once I figure out my food sensitivities I will clear up.
So...I am going to try a five day water fast. After five days, I will slowly (slowly) start adding foods back in: if it goes badly, I'll stop on Monday.

[NewBrigade]

It's been almost two days of water but I have to admit that I technically broke the fast after 24 hours by munching on some fermented cabbage...I was concerned that the fast could aggravate my gut and I wanted to keep replacing good bacteria, and well, as far as I'm concerned I believe my acne stems from a) food sensitivities or b) gut dysbiosis. Or both (food sensitivities may well stem from malabsorption in the gut). The water fast is to see if it stems from food sensitivities since you can't have an allergic reaction to water (I am drinking high quality water anyway).

Since gut microflora are surprisingly hardy, I no longer believe the 7-day fast will change my gut microflora profile. Below is a link to a study that said that fasting patients of fibromyalgia did not have microflora change. This seems counterintuitive but it is the only deal I have to go on.
http://www.biomedcen...1472-6882/5/22/

The state of my skin: as I mentioned above, I had a serious breakout (the worst in months) on both corners of my mouth just prior to my fast. I have developed whiteheads on my cheek and more around my mouth since beginning the fast (I believe these have been a while coming), though I would say that the two cysts around my mouth are dried out and healing...they are going to leave hyperpigmentation for sure though = (. I can see that some new whiteheads are forming under the skin around my mouth. I also have a deep and painful pimple forming on my jaw on the left side. My jaw has always been a problem area but in my opinion, it is often food sensitivities that break me out there. My current thinking is still that eggs or apples are to blame and I'm leaning on apples because they are new, similar enough to citrus fruits, and I have been binging a bit (I have been eating eggs for a long time without terrible breakouts like this).

Anyway, my real question that I aim to address by doing this fast is whether by temporarily eliminating foods (and thus, food allergens), I can clear my skin. I.e., will I continue to break out on the fifth day of my fast?

Edited by NewBrigade, 29 April 2012 - 09:09 AM.

[NewBrigade]

Fasting is difficult because of the brain fog...and the boredom. I am still going to try to keep it up until Wednesday but I am going to have to modify a bit and add some food. OK, so it's not a fast w/out food but I'll add something that I seriously doubt will aggravate my condition and keep it minimal.

[NewBrigade]

I started eating some carrots and raw egg yolk last night...

and today I had a brand spanking new pimple = (
This one was maybe a slight, insignificant spot before but grew into a gross, big pustule in the space of 8 hours from 1AM to 9AM. It's a big discouraging and I have a real temptation to pop but I'm not gonna. I don't know what to blame as it was maybe in the works for awhile...egg yolk is highly digestible and I had no stomach troubles w/ the small amount of food I ate...however, I did have something going on in my stomach after I swigged some apple cider vinegar (why did I do that? I get these compulsions sometimes...) One other noteworthy deal: I did not fall asleep easily last night.

I'm going to continue eating very little and mostly drinking water for a few days probably, and see how it goes.

I spent a lot of time in the sun today but did not expose my acne problem areas to very much sunlight. Strangely enough, after hours in the sun I haven't got any sunburns...could be the vitamin A.

[NewBrigade]

Woke up in the morning w/ a small new pimple...I'm not that concerned about it, it's gross but one of those that typically heal in a day. So nbd.

I'm much more concerned about the big red lesions I described that are also around my mouth. Three of guys have been around for about a week without healing in a linear fashion. Even now, I have a very old one (it must be a month old, I swear) that just broke out in a new pimple. This is very unusual and frightening to me because these lesions don't heal in a normal or quick way and I have no idea what to call them. It's not even like a normal cyst--I have gotten those before and those may leave hyperpigmentation, but they /heal/ up quickly. These deals keep breaking out. And nothing seems to kill off the redness...I'd appreciate some guidance here.

Yesterday I drank apple juice and ate some apples without digestive problems. I'm wondering if the apple theory was wrong...of course I have a new pimple today but that one is not a big deal. Very hard for me to decide what breaks me out...I keep second-guessing myself.

There's been another new development: I decided that it was foolish of me to swear off all topicals and facewashing, as my acne has notably gotten worse. Since diet alone is not curing me (not yet anyway), I am going back on topicals. However, I'm concerned about the long term effects of BP on my skin so I am going it "au naturel": aloe vera gel + a few drops of tea tree oil as my wash. I got some jojoba oil for a moisturizer. I believe this was a good decision. Feeling good!

The gel I am using has a few other ingredients but is 98% pure aloe vera gel. The other ingredients are propanediol (based on a study I found, not very irritating and not very comedogenic) and a benzyl alcohol (a bit irritating but not comedogenic). I checked them out and looks good!

Edited by NewBrigade, 02 May 2012 - 04:34 AM.

[NewBrigade]

I have been eating chicken bone broths w/ chicken and some vegetables (celery, leeks, carrots), apples, and other vegetables, and using olive oil and (this is new) flax oil. I never heat the oils since I know they are unstable. My "wounds" (the real bad acne around my mouth) are healing up and scabbing over, huzzah. But I am also breaking out in that general area: small, often not very inflamed, but nonetheless troubling pimples. Kind of a drag, but none of them has become serious enough to make me unhappy. I am kind of wondering what gives though.

I have been using the aloe vera gel and the tea tree oil, less so the jojoba. But it's possible I have been overdoing it on the tea tree (o.k., I definitely have gone through more than a few drops a day). Could that cause pimples maybe? Or maybe binging on the sugary apples?--I will limit my apple consumption today although again, it's been golden delicious apples so low-ish in salicylates.

Otherwise, my mood is good, I'm getting sun as we speak, and the rest of my face looks fairly...nice. But the area around my mouth? Not so much. That's all for now.

[NewBrigade]

OK, so I am still breaking out a bit around my mouth. But I can't shake the conviction that I am so, so close. I have maybe 3 pimples on the rest of my face and all are very small. No new pimples along my jaw, where I often break out. One on my cheek. And I know it could get worse again and I don't want to get my hopes up, but I feel like I am going to clear soon. That's all. If I can get clear, I'll start working on stuff like hyperpigmentation.

Yesterday, I ate: apple juice, eggs w/ well-clarified butter, spinach, carrots (a LOT of carrots), bone broth soup, salmon, and some leftover chicken. I have come to feel that this last breakout may have been because of some chocolate that I ate. If it gets bad again, I'll consider eggs a potential culprit. I hope it doesn't.

Something to add: my stomach has been CALM.

[NewBrigade]

Stomach: a bit more activity since I added a bit of fermented sauerkraut. Otherwise, nothing has changed.

Skin: So close.

Food: Lots of carrots and apples lately, eggs, salad, some fish (salmon). Nothing is giving me noticeable digestive problems--those have basically stopped since I stopped sweet potatoes.

[NewBrigade]

Stomach: no upset stomach whatsoever.

Skin: My condition seems stagnant. My tea tree oil/aloe vera/jojoba oil regime continues. A few new pimples around my jaw which is a regression, but not that bad. Mostly the stuff around my mouth just will not clear up...seriously..

Food: Lots of carrots, some apples, eggs, clarified butter. I have been eating canned cod liver lately: although I'm a bit afraid of the chemicals in the cans (bisphénol phosphate), I couldn't resist when I saw how much retinol and omega 3 is in there...100 grams gets you 14 grams of omega 3. Yeah.

[NewBrigade]

Kind of discouraging...I found a picture of myself from last October when I was on nothing but a topical (Benzaclin) regimen and eating mostly carbs, not organic, and plenty of milk...and I had no acne. A few pimples maybe, but not /acne/ like I have now. It's frustrating to feel like the diet approach is not working that well. I don't want to totally discredit it, it may yet work for me and might work for some, and I will continue it awhile, alongside my new TTO regimen. But neither my daily supplements nor my clean (if now kind of austere) diet has me anywhere near the results that I had in October. And that is frustrating. Then I found pictures of myself from December...I was basically clear on topicals.

I feel like I made a mistake stopping topicals...eating more healthily was a great idea but the holistic approach as I have practiced it has not given me the results I want. And it has been worse than just eating what I want and topicals...something that I wish I had checked up on earlier. I do remember it getting worse in January...so I refilled Benzaclin. It wasn't until I ran out of topicals a few weeks after the end of February that it started getting much worse...but in the meantime, I had convinced myself that I was clearing w/ diet. In fact, this did not happen, and my condition got worse.

So, I am going to keep eating healthy, but topicals are going to have to constitute a crucial part of my regimen from now on. I will do the TTO/ aloe vera gel/jojoba oil regimen for three weeks though. In the meantime, I hope that the zinc supplement I'm taking can start to be effective...I have been taking plenty of it.

A few other remarks: I was on zinc all throughout the summer until last September. My acne did get some worse in December, so I wonder if I went back to having a zinc deficiency...And the final remark: I stopped exercising in mid-December. I'm sure that this part is important.

Edited by NewBrigade, 09 May 2012 - 04:12 AM.

[NewBrigade]

So the multi I have been taking for about 3 weeks has 150mg of Potassium Iodide in it and I'm wondering if the breakout I've been having around my mouth is acne from bromide detox...so I am going to stop taking the multivitamin for awhile and see what's up. I didn't stop the multi while I was doing my water fast either...and the rest of my face was/is clear clear clear.

Edited by NewBrigade, 10 May 2012 - 10:06 AM.

[NewBrigade]

I am clearing up around my mouth...however, lately, I have been getting cysts around my cheeks and three large, inflammed ones on my chest. This has happened in the past two weeks--I didn't have any cysts when I was fasting although I had some trouble spots. I am going to see a naturopath tomorrow but I've decided to be proactive and adopt an elimination diet. Basically, no butter (so difficult, but hey) and no eggs as these are the two culprits I am homing in on right now.

The diet is something I found online from Whole Life Nutritionhttp://www.wholelife...iles/phase1.pdf

Edited by NewBrigade, 16 May 2012 - 04:39 PM.

[HollyDallas]

excellent info

[NewBrigade]

Oh, I went to a naturopath for the first time today. And I have to say I really really liked him. His demeanor appealed to me in a way that that of normal doctors often does not. His take is that my problem is basically bacterial overgrowth in my stomach of bad bacteria. He believes that these bad bacteria are creating toxins that my liver is unable to deal with, and this is impacting my skin. The ingenious part is that he believes that the source of this bad bacteria is lowered hydrochloric acid in my stomach. Because hydrochloric acid can decrease w/ chronic stress, and my acne causes that chronic stress, it is a negative feedback loop: my acne reinforces my poor digestion, and that reinforces my acne. It's actually an ingenious theory. During his diagnosis he pushed and prodded various parts of my stomach and he remarked tenderness that is definitely real and that I just had never really thought about.

So, I will be taking hydrochloric acid w meals to aid my digestion and balance the ph. I am also taking a supp that is mostly fiber to take pressure off of my liver. And I will be using their in-house azelaic acid directly on my skin for p. acnes and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. I will post the whole regimen later for your convenience. And I'll be sure to track my progress too.

We did not talk about nutrition much though I'll be taking cod liver oil and he checked for vitamin A deficiency---according to him one characteristic sign is acne on the arms. I don't have that, probably thanks to the retinol from eggs and butter. I am going to try to follow the diet I laid out yesterday though.

Edited by NewBrigade, 17 May 2012 - 02:55 PM.