paigems

My skin is usually incredibly oily. Like the excessive oiliness where you can see visible oil on my skin within 30 minutes of washing it. My scalp, shoulders, chest, back, and neck also get very oily by the end of the day; not to the point where you can see the oil, but I can definitely feel it. So the past 2 weeks I have been drinking a green smoothie every morning, and I'd say my oil production has been reduced by about 50%. My skin goes much longer without getting oily, my shoulders, chest and neck don't even feel oily anymore, and I can now go two days between washing my hair. This has been a huge relief for me. After my oily skin survived accutane I didn't think I'd get relief like this from anything. Here's my recipe:

 

1/2 banana

4-6 frozen pineapple cubes

1 handful frozen strawberries

2-3 handfuls frozen spinach

1 cup of water (or more or less depending on what consistency you like your smoothies)

1 packet of splenda

 

Next I plan to try a low glycemic load diet to see if that helps even more

yes...but do you know how, exactly? What foods to eat and what not to eat? Most of us dont which is where the frustration comes in. lol

 

OP- I agree with you. Diets can work for some, but not everybody is the same. Different people react differently to acne. I've been dairy-free/gluten-free for a few months and at first I thought my acne was improving, but it made no difference. Everyone has different triggers for their acne (diet, stress, hormones, etc) I suspect that my acne is hormone-related; I'll have to take a blood test and find out.

But diet does affect hormones so altering your diet can affect hormonal acne.

If you eat meals with a low glycemic load your blood sugar should become stabilized after a period of time which should also regulate your hormones. Currently I take metformin after meals to stabilize my blood sugar and it has regulated my hormones and acne to an extent. If I was to follow a low gl diet my blood sugar would be even more stable which I assume would help my acne even more than the metformin. Hopefully soon I'll get the chance to try it out.

 

edit: I also want to add that my acne IS hormonal. I have PCOS and my male hormones are high. Spiro worked great for me but also made half my hair fall out. Metformin doesn't work quiet as well as spiro, but I'm not really getting inflamed acne anymore. I'm also on a low dose of metformin and I'm not really helping the situation by not eating like I should.

A lot of animals have stress too. Like the stress of being eaten by a predator, or freezing, or overheating, or dehydrating.

Thank you guys for all the comments. I wish I liked salmon because I know it's really good for you, but it's one of the only meats (along with lamb) that I really dislike. I much prefer the milder fish like tilapia, flounder, and catfish. Looks like I'll be eating them a lot more often

 

Are you in the U.S.?  Idaho farmed trout are supposed to be good choices health, environment and sustainability-wise according to the Monteray Bay aquarium.  I'm pretty sure they have to feed them fish, but it must be a lot less than goes into farming salmon. 

I am from the U.S. From the Houston, Texas area to be exact.  I think you're from the same area? Where do you get your fish?

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond so far. Although I have PCOS I am actually very thin (5'6" 120lbs). I don't have cysts either, just acne, oily skin, and a tiny bit extra hair than most people. Like I said in my first post it's not the self control thing that scares me. I'm very disciplined, and I know I'll be able to stick to a diet. I guess it's just that I'm nervous about doing it wrong, not being strict enough, or not knowing what to cook. I like the idea of cooking homemade vietnamese food though It's also really encouraging to hear that you knew someone who saw improvements with diet sweetstyle! I hope I will be able to do the same.

A thread discussing a research article is so different when compared to a thread where someone is talking about some acne they have from that time of the month. I don't see how those can be put together under general acne. I agree that the new structure is way too general. Oily skin and acne research were two of my favorite forums and now they're gone.

I agree with green gables. I'm also going to miss the research and oily skin being separate. Now the posts particular to those will be more difficult to find. Research also doesn't seem to fit into the "general" board. Oily skin doesn't either. I always got the impression the people on the oily skin board were not those with typical oily skin.

Where did the oily skin and acne research boards go? I can't seem to find them anymore...

Hey guys,

Since puberty I've had hormonal issues, specifically problems with excess androgens. I have tried so many different hormonal treatments to help with my acne and oily skin, and I thought it might be helpful to share my experiences.

Yasmin & Yaz- Both cleared up my acne and got rid of my oily skin in 6 months. Unfortunately, they also gave me side effects like excessive hair loss, tiredness, and dry mouth so I had to stop them. Stopping them seemed to have some sort of rebound affect which gave me worse acne than I had ever had in my life.

Mircette- No side effects, but only helped my skin slightly.

Loestrin- Made my skin worse!

Othro Tri Cyclen- Made my skin worse and also caused my whole body to become more oily.

Apri (Desogen)- Had the same effect as the Ortho Tri Cyclen.

Zovia (Demulen)- This is my absolute favorite bcp. It clears up my skin more than any other pill (though not completely) and after being on it for a few months I notice it helps to slow my oil production a bit. Also, it seems to help my hair grow in thicker too.

Spironolactone and Aldactone- I've tried both of these and I really did notice a difference when taking the brand name aldactone as opposed to spironolatone. The aldactone seemed to work better and more quickly. Both caused initial breakouts and took close to 6 months to clear me completely (aldactone took slightly less). Out of all the hormonal treatments I've tried spiro and aldactone were the only things that completely cleared my skin. Unfortunately I got the same unbearable side effects I did from yaz and yasmin and had to stop taking spiro. The hair loss was especially bad. I'd say I lost about 1/3 to 1/2 of my hair. My dose of spiro and aldactone was 25mg.

Saw Palmetto- I took this for a while and honestly noticed no difference at all. At some point I would like to try it again though.

Spearmint tea- This is great for oily skin and other symptoms of excess androgens. I only drink one cup a day and it makes my acne and oily skin slightly better. I'm sure if I drank more it would be even more helpful, but I haven't tried.

Metformin- After I got off spiro my skin was having a lot of issues. My doctor prescribed me metformin, and so far it is helping decently, but no where near the level spiro ever did. It takes my skin from uncomfortably oily to manageably oily. It also helps decrease the amount of acne I get by quite a bit. I'm afraid that this too might be causing me hair loss, but I'm going to wait it out and see if it's just my body adjusting to a hormonal change. My dose of metformin is 1000mg.

Flutamide- Haven't tried this yet, but this might be my next option if the metformin doesn't work out.

So, like I said, I've tried a lot. I hope my experiences aren't too depressing since the majority of them have been unsuccessful in treating my acne. I definitely envy those of you that can take spiro with little to no side effects. Anyway, I hope this was helpful, and if you guys have any questions about any of the things I've tried feel free to ask me. Also, if you have any suggestions for me since I'm still not free of acne, I would love to hear