Eat squashes, sweet potatoes, lentils and other beans. Buckwheat, quinoa are good subs for grains. Use them in foods that would normally be made with bulgur or couscous.
Hummus, but use vegetable slices as dips. I like raw eggplant which is kind of bread like, and love raw sweet peppers with hummus. However, these two are nightshades and it's very common to be intolerant to them.
DAY 9
- Acne Status = No new acne. That huge cyst I got last week on my chin disappeared in a matter of 3 days! Did NOT expect that. Rest of the old acne are clearing up. They barely last a couple of days compared to lasting for weeks before.
- Fasted for 19 hours - Energy Level = 40%| Hunger = 60%|
- Was at work all day. Skin seemed really calm surprisingly since 2 days ago it had been pretty inflamed.
- Meal 1-(1020pm) Broke fast with 2 small dates and water. 25min later had chicken stir fry, hummus, 2whole wheat (WW) pita breads - lots of veggies and water and a medium banana. Replaced 500mg blackseed oil capsule with a teaspoon of liquid black seed oil
100mg Minocycline.
Meal 2 - (1 30 am) - 2 boiled eggs
Meal 3-(2 45 am) - Fried ground beef, 2 WW pita breads and a banana. Teaspoon of black seed oil.
Will start fasting 3 15 am - 10 20pm till next day.
My skin was pretty calm all day which is strange. I have started applying apple cider vinegar as spot treatment and I don't know yet but I have a feeling its working somehow. I applied it to that huge cyst I got the other day and I think maybe ACV is why it went away so quickly. I read something about it restoring the skins acidic layer's pH, like balancing it out or something. I am kinda scared of applying it all over my face since I have heard people say it gave them more acne.
DAY 10
- Acne Status = 1 whitehead on my lower lip( looks kinda like a cold sore but pretty sure it's not) and a whitehead on my cheek next to my nose. Rest of my acne seems to be clearing up..old spots and stuff.
- Fasted for 19 hours - Energy Level = 40%| Hunger = 60%|
- Was at work all day.
- Meal 1-(1020pm) Broke fast with 2 small dates and water. 25min later ate beef strips, 2whole wheat (WW) pita breads - lots of veggies and water. Back to 500mg black seed oil capsule.
100mg Minocycline.
Meal 2 - (1 30 am) - 2 boiled eggs
Meal 3-(2 45 am) - Fried ground beef, 2 WW pita breads and a banana. Teaspoon of black seed oil.
Will start fasting 3 15 am - 10 20pm till next day.
So I got those couple of whiteheads but I can handle a few spots here and there. What I hate are those inflamed regions on the sides of my chin which have like clusters of whiteheads/pustules on them and takes weeks to go away and when you pick on them they turn yellowish or something later on (I know, gross). I only seem to get those if I have something like chocolate or anything with refined sugar. I'm pretty sure this is perioral dermatitis since cinammon seems to have made it worse last week. Before there would be 4-5 days I would be clear and then I would get a small breakout. But after taking cinn. supplements for like a week, I have been getting break outs every other day. It seems to have triggered something! However, my acne condition is not as bad as it used to be. I can say I have cleared up 65-70% after learning how to control my diet and stuff. However, I'm always stressed out that what if I get one of those breakouts like I used on the sides of my chin once I am completely off antibiotics (again I think they don't work anymore on me but I am still weaning off). Hmm, lets see.
I always feel I'm just a Bactrim prescription away from eating whatever I want to eat and not worrying about acne for next few months..but I don't want to go that way again. I want to find a natural cure.
I suspect I have candida overgrowth due to pro longed use of antibiotics. I will soon purchase a high quality probiotic and once I am off antibiotics completely, I will start consuming probiotics + ACV + black seed oil; the latter 2 known for killing candida overgrowth. I hope I don't experience a candida die off symptom but lets see. I havent started this right now because I am still on antibiotics and dont want to try killing candida when the antibiotics will just make it grow again. Just waiting to be completely off antibiotics!
Eat squashes, sweet potatoes, lentils and other beans. Buckwheat, quinoa are good subs for grains. Use them in foods that would normally be made with bulgur or couscous.
Hummus, but use vegetable slices as dips. I like raw eggplant which is kind of bread like, and love raw sweet peppers with hummus. However, this'd two are nightshades and it's very common to be intolerant to them.
Really tempted to go on another antibiotic and get cleared up and eat whatever I want to. Fasting is not showing much improvement probably because of my sleep cycle.
I'm trying to stay away from antibiotics in order to find a natural cure and to see if my diet really has had an impact on my acne. Once I wean off it by the end of this month, I'm giving myself another 2 months to try every natural cure possible and to see what works. Have a few listed in my mind already
1)apple cider vinegar topical application and ingestion
2)jojoba oil+oil of oregano topical
3)refrigerated probiotics
4)juicing
Reason I don't want to do these treatments right now is because I am on antibiotics and I am aiming to kill candida but unless I'm totally off these meds I don't want to try them and lose hope.
So far acv topical application has worked pretty nicely. I have a feeling it stops acne/perioral dermatitis from forming in my case.
Hey guys,
Sorry I have not been updating the thread like I used to. Got really busy with other stuff and was not seeing much improvement, mostly due to the fact that my sleep cycle was not proper so I thought maybe doing this is pointless. I decided that I will only update this if I see significant improvements with my skin. Also, because most of my diet and everything was pretty much the same so I thought it was getting a bit pointless.
However..now that I look back I realized why I might have been getting a lot more acne that I did before fasting. I am not sure if this is what it is but I think it has some link. So, before I started fasting, I would always fill up my 2L water bottle at work and drink it throughout the day. They have a nice cooler with filter and stuff attached and the water is distilled water. So I would have that all day. However, once I started fasting, I would just drink tap water at home all day. I think the chlorine/fluoride content might have contributed to the exacerbation of my acne over these 2 weeks since my face was doing pretty good before fasting when I was drinking distilled water.
Another thing is that I stopped working out or going to the gym. Also, I stopped taking multivitamins everyday. All these combined could have had an effect on my acne along with the fact that my sleeping cycle has been messed up.
However, whenever I start seeing a pustule forming, I apply my 10% sulfur cream on to it and it is gone in 2 days. To be honest guys, my face is doing really really well compared to last year! I used to have atleast 20 small pustule all around my mouth and now its usually 3 or 4 at max and I am really happy with this. I just hope I can find a permanent cure so I can go back to eating like I used to or even afford to cheat a bit on my diet and not experience severe breakouts.
Alright guys so this obviously did not work out for me as I have been breaking out constantly over the past couple of weeks. I can attribute this to messed up sleep cycles, not working out, immense stress over the past 3 weeks and weaning off antibiotics after almost 2 years. I have at least 2 new pustules forming every single and they are gone in about 2 or 3 days. I just apply my Sulfur 10% ointment on to it which helps to bring it to head and heal faster.
Maybe if someone tries fasting with normal sleep cycle, they will be much better off. Also, I started taking blackseed oil when I started to fasting (heard great things about it) but it did not give me great results. One of things I have noticed in past is when I have too much avocadoes and olive oil, I start breaking out. So maybe black seed oil has been breaking me out all along? I don't know. I am not giving up on it yet.
But yea..that's that. Still, my acne is not as bad as it used to be. I have like around 4 - 5 pustule on my face usually compared to the 20-25 I used to have last year. I have been on antibiotics for so long that I forgot what it was like to have acne again lol. I'm this close to going for either Bactrim or Keflex. Let's see..
Some of the things I will try before that next month -
1) Apple Cider Vinegar (drink 2tsp with water)
2) ACV and Lemon topical application (read somewhere it cured some people's acne)
3) Epiduo/Tactuo - Although i had bad experience with BP when I was 15, I was using a 5-10% strength at that time. Epiduo is only 2.5% BP and some retinoid I think and it also cured someone who had the exact same acne as me so .. it is worth a shot.
Have you tried probiotics? If you were on antibiotics for so long, your gut flora is probably messed up.
I did. But I was on antibiotics at the same time. And the ones I got were from a store kept on a shelf. Had 30billion bacteria. I don't want to try the refrigerated ones yet till I'm completely off antibiotics. I'm currently taking 100mg minocycline every other day and have been breaking out since.
Also, I'm scared of going on those really good quality probiotics because I'm kinda certain I have candida due to prolonged antibiotic use and think I'll get a die off reaction as soon as I start with those good probiotics. I could be wrong but I'm scared of taking that step. What do you think?
Have you tried probiotics? If you were on antibiotics for so long, your gut flora is probably messed up.
I did. But I was on antibiotics at the same time. And the ones I got were from a store kept on a shelf. Had 30billion bacteria. I don't want to try the refrigerated ones yet till I'm completely off antibiotics. I'm currently taking 100mg minocycline every other day and have been breaking out since.
Also, I'm scared of going on those really good quality probiotics because I'm kinda certain I have candida due to prolonged antibiotic use and think I'll get a die off reaction as soon as I start with those good probiotics. I could be wrong but I'm scared of taking that step. What do you think?
The safest way to introduce probiotics would be to take plain acidophilus probiotics.
You are supposed to take probiotics WITH antibiotics to minimize the dying off of good bacteria in your gut. Otherwise, when the antibiotics kill beneficial bacteria that help with digestion, then you have to recolonize your gut with good bacteria and it would take stronger probiotics to do so.
If you have candida, you should try the candida diet first of all...but you do need probiotics, even mild ones to begin with. I take vegetarian PB8..it's cheap and decent quality (no dairy, no gluten, etc).
Have you tried probiotics? If you were on antibiotics for so long, your gut flora is probably messed up.
I did. But I was on antibiotics at the same time. And the ones I got were from a store kept on a shelf. Had 30billion bacteria. I don't want to try the refrigerated ones yet till I'm completely off antibiotics. I'm currently taking 100mg minocycline every other day and have been breaking out since.
Also, I'm scared of going on those really good quality probiotics because I'm kinda certain I have candida due to prolonged antibiotic use and think I'll get a die off reaction as soon as I start with those good probiotics. I could be wrong but I'm scared of taking that step. What do you think?
The safest way to introduce probiotics would be to take plain acidophilus probiotics.
You are supposed to take probiotics WITH antibiotics to minimize the dying off of good bacteria in your gut. Otherwise, when the antibiotics kill beneficial bacteria that help with digestion, then you have to recolonize your gut with good bacteria and it would take stronger probiotics to do so.
If you have candida, you should try the candida diet first of all...but you do need probiotics, even mild ones to begin with. I take vegetarian PB8..it's cheap and decent quality (no dairy, no gluten, etc).
And are the ones that you get off the shelf useful? People say those don't work or something. I read somewhere the refrigerated ones tend to break you out sometimes.
I have given up on trying to find out what is causing my acne. I though it was diet but I had my worst breakout a yesterday and I am pretty lost now (glad it's weekend). I am so so close to just going to the derm and getting a new antibiotic like Keflex, Erythomycin or Bactrim. But I am stopping myself from doing that. I have a feeling this new product that I got, Alba Facial Cleanser with Pineapple Extract irritated my skin a lot. I ended up getting pustules on my face, body and a painful one between my legs (nasty, i know). Or it could be the fact that I tried to get off antibiotics. Or something else and I have no idea what. Could be Candida, but that's an assumption.
So yeah.. very close to going on antibiotics again..especially since I am about to start school in a month, leaving my internship and stuff, the stress will be too much to handle along with these nasty pustules on my face.
Meh, it sucks having to work and trying new treatments and being scared to death that new treatment might break you out and you'll have to show up to work just like that.
So my last update on this post. Ramadan is over! And guess what? I am 90% clear.
Last week, around Monday, I decided to try a new cleanser. It had some pineapple enzyme in it and is called Alba Botanica. 3 days later I broke out around my chin and on my cheek. I assumed this is one of those regular breakouts that I get. However, I was wrong! On Friday, I got around 5 more pustules around my chin! I posted some pics so you can check them out but they are kinda nasty so you are better off not checking them out. I got really depressed and thought "this is it, this is when minocycline totally stopped working and weaning off it broke me out".. however! I realized I broke out between my legs, chest and back too and this had never happened before. I recalled that I had ran out of my body wash and had used the same facial cleaner for my body! So I put my sulfur ointment on my 8 pustules on my chin and by this Monday they faded away!
And now I am 90% clear. And this has not happened ever since I started fasting. I have a strong feeling that the messed up sleeping pattern and eating so many meals in such a small time span was causing me to break out regularly over Ramadan. This Monday, I decided to eat outside and gave it 4 days and did not break out! On Wednesday I ate a huge burger and have not broken out today. Things I eliminated from my diet are bananas and eggs. Maybe that has helped? I don't know. I know they are common allergens. But before Ramadan, they were not causing a break out (2 bananas and 4 eggs everyday).
I will slowly add back banana into my diet. And then eggs too. For now I am happy to have a clear skin.
Pb8 and solgar are 2 different brands. I listed them as separate options, just to clarify.
I don't fully buy into the claim that refrigerated brands of probiotics are always better quality. For me, the cheap PB8 seems to work well enough, especially after I had some cheat meals.
Pb8 and solgar are 2 different brands. I listed them as separate options, just to clarify.
I don't fully buy into the claim that refrigerated brands of probiotics are always better quality. For me, the cheap PB8 seems to work well enough, especially after I had some cheat meals.
Probiotics help after cheat meals? Didn't know that. I breakout if I have the tiniest amount of sugar. J don't know if this is candida or insulin sensitivity.
Pb8 and solgar are 2 different brands. I listed them as separate options, just to clarify.
I don't fully buy into the claim that refrigerated brands of probiotics are always better quality. For me, the cheap PB8 seems to work well enough, especially after I had some cheat meals.
Probiotics help after cheat meals? Didn't know that. I breakout if I have the tiniest amount of sugar. J don't know if this is candida or insulin sensitivity.
Well, there could be other factors besides candida and insulin resistance...histamines is just one more possibility.
Pb8 and solgar are 2 different brands. I listed them as separate options, just to clarify.
I don't fully buy into the claim that refrigerated brands of probiotics are always better quality. For me, the cheap PB8 seems to work well enough, especially after I had some cheat meals.
Probiotics help after cheat meals? Didn't know that. I breakout if I have the tiniest amount of sugar. J don't know if this is candida or insulin sensitivity.
You should have something before/with the high glycemic meal. A fiber capsule, Vinegar/salad with vinaigrette/oil. etc.
Pb8 and solgar are 2 different brands. I listed them as separate options, just to clarify.
I don't fully buy into the claim that refrigerated brands of probiotics are always better quality. For me, the cheap PB8 seems to work well enough, especially after I had some cheat meals.
Probiotics help after cheat meals? Didn't know that. I breakout if I have the tiniest amount of sugar. J don't know if this is candida or insulin sensitivity.
Well, there could be other factors besides candida and insulin resistance...histamines is just one more possibility.
How can I find out if I need antihistamines or not? I get acne from food sensitivities so will antihistamines help with that? Can I get them OTC or do they have to be RX? Do u recommend any specific brands? I think I remb someone telling me to try antihistamines because I even break out by eating spicy food.