For the last few months, I have been trying to clear my skin through dietary changes. Many of the things I try result in short term relief (1-3 weeks) but my skin eventually returns to it's terrible state.
Examples:
1. I give up gluten. After 1 week, I stop getting new pimples. I go 2.5 weeks without any new acne (aside from a few very small pimples), and then my acne returns to full despite my continued and careful avoidance of gluten.
Weeks go by...
2. I give up things that have added sugar. After a few days, I stop getting new pimples. This lasts for a week, and my skin returns to normal state, despite continued avoidance of .sugar.
More weeks go by,,,
3. I start a low glycemic load diet. I have 1.5 weeks of very few new pimples, before my skin returns to normal state.
More weeks go by..
4. I give up dairy, experience a week of good skin, and now it's returning back to normal.
What the heck is up? Is there an explanation for this?
Some side notes:
1. My weight has stayed fairly constant. I lost a few pounds when I initally gave up gluten, but since then, I have been monitoring my weight very carefully to make sure I do not lose any more (I'm already a little underweight).
2. I have not introduced any new foods to my diet to compensate for the ones I am eliminating. I know this would skew results. I am merely increasing the quantities of food I already eat.
For the last few months, I have been trying to clear my skin through dietary changes. Many of the things I try result in short term relief (1-3 weeks) but my skin eventually returns to it's terrible state.
Examples:
1. I give up gluten. After 1 week, I stop getting new pimples. I go 2.5 weeks without any new acne (aside from a few very small pimples), and then my acne returns to full despite my continued and careful avoidance of gluten.
Weeks go by...
2. I give up things that have added sugar. After a few days, I stop getting new pimples. This lasts for a week, and my skin returns to normal state, despite continued avoidance of .sugar.
More weeks go by,,,
3. I start a low glycemic load diet. I have 1.5 weeks of very few new pimples, before my skin returns to normal state.
More weeks go by..
4. I give up dairy, experience a week of good skin, and now it's returning back to normal.
What the heck is up? Is there an explanation for this?
Some side notes:
1. My weight has stayed fairly constant. I lost a few pounds when I initally gave up gluten, but since then, I have been monitoring my weight very carefully to make sure I do not lose any more (I'm already a little underweight).
2. I have not introduced any new foods to my diet to compensate for the ones I am eliminating. I know this would skew results. I am merely increasing the quantities of food I already eat.
Yes, there's an explanation, it's called placebo effect. The placebo effect lasts about a week until you realize that none of those things have nothing to do with acne.
Yes, there's an explanation, it's called placebo effect. The placebo effect lasts about a week until you realize that none of those things have nothing to do with acne.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but I kind of don't agree.
The placebo effect refers to one of two phenomena:
1. You expect your skin to get better so it does get better. I don't understand how that could be the case. If acne could be controlled by thoughts, I think I would have figured a way around it by now. Second, why would it stop? After being almost acne-free for two weeks, I naively believed gluten was the answer. I thought I was free, I thought I was done. I believed my acne wouldn't come back, but it did.
2. You expect your skin to get better, so you perceive that it looks better. As a scientist and mathematician, I am very aware of this phenomena, so I left nothing up to subjective evaluation. I have an excel spreadsheet where I keep track to of the number of new pimples and cysts I get every single day. Clearance definitely happened in the week-long occurrences I mentioned.
Unrelated, I thought it was worth mentioning that these diet changes are cumulative. I am gluten-free, dairy-free, added-sugar-free, and on a low GL diet and my skin looks terrible.
Yes, there's an explanation, it's called placebo effect. The placebo effect lasts about a week until you realize that none of those things have nothing to do with acne.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but I kind of don't agree.
The placebo effect refers to one of two phenomena:
1. You expect your skin to get better so it does get better. I don't understand how that could be the case. If acne could be controlled by thoughts, I think I would have figured a way around it by now. Second, why would it stop? After being almost acne-free for two weeks, I naively believed gluten was the answer. I thought I was free, I thought I was done. I believed my acne wouldn't come back, but it did.
2. You expect your skin to get better, so you perceive that it looks better. As a scientist and mathematician, I am very aware of this phenomena, so I left nothing up to subjective evaluation. I have an excel spreadsheet where I keep track to of the number of new pimples and cysts I get every single day. Clearance definitely happened in the week-long occurrences I mentioned.
Unrelated, I thought it was worth mentioning that these diet changes are cumulative. I am gluten-free, dairy-free, added-sugar-free, and on a low GL diet and my skin looks terrible.
Like I said, none of those things matter. If you want to be acne free you have to change your bodys fatty acid profile. Take every day high quality fish oil 3 grams of EPA and DHA combined, evening primrose oil as much so that you get GLA aqbout 360mg every day and 1 tbsp of grapeseed oil every day. And reduce your oleic acid intake to absolute minimum! After ten weeks of this your acne has reduced for at least by 50%, at least! And as time goes by you will eventually be clear. Essential fatty acids takes care of all the things that lead to acne, inflammation, sebum quality etc. This is the last time I'm gonna give this cure for free, it seems that people don't appreciate it if they get it for free.
Just follow my plan and keep doing that excel spreadsheet and after 10 weeks come back and thank me, I guarantee that after 10 weeks of strictly following that plan your acne lesions has reduced by 50-80%.
Adding Betaine HCL with Pepsin to each meal helped calm things down. If you aren't producing enough hydrochloric acid then you are going to have problems every time you eat, even if your diet is perfect.
There have been studies linking low stomach acid to acne.
More info on this page: http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Hypochlorhydria_-_lack_of_stomach_acid_-_can_cause_lots_of_problems