All I know is that the oily layer of my skin appears to have vannished, and along with this has come a host of problems related to dry skin on my face especially.

I use a cream to mosturise, however this is a necesity because without it my skin is very uncomfortable and dry.

Prior to taking (what was probably too much omega3, I dont know) the fish oil supplement I never experienced this problem. I suspect omega 3 simply becasue it is something related to the oil glands on my skin. Nothing else in my diet had really changed. Like I said I never took Accutance, and I dont suffer from acne.

Just an idea, and probable a little wild, but might it be possible that too much oil can cause dry skin too?

Sebum's main role is to waterproof the skin, keep the moisture in and environment factors out.

Nah. Sebum doesn't even HAVE any real purpose anymore. Besides the excerpt I provided in the post above, read this one:

"Sebum Secretion and Sebaceous Lipids", Stewart et al, Dermatologic Clinics -- Vol. 1, No. 3, July 1983 (BTW, the "Kligman" they refer to in the text below is Dr. Albert M. Kligman, MD, PhD, one of the most famous names in the history of dermatology):

"Sebum is an oily substance that is secreted onto the skin surface from glands located in the dermis. Although a number of useful functions have been proposed for sebum, proof that sebum performs any of them is lacking. In furred mammals an essential function of sebum is to supply 7-dehydrocholesterol, which is converted to vitamin D by the action of sunlight and then ingested by the animal as it grooms itself. In man, however, the location of 7-dehydrocholesterol has been shown to be the epidermis rather than sebum. Sebum may act as a waterproofing agent for fur, but humans obviously have little need for this function. Kligman has specifically disproved the notions that sebum improves the barrier function of skin, that sebum helps to regulate the water content of the horny layer by forming emulsions with sweat, or that sebum on the skin surface is fungistatic or antibacterial.(21) Kligman regards the human sebaceous glands as 'living fossils' that lost their usefulness to our species as we lost our fur.(21)

(21) Kligman, A. M.: The uses of sebum? In Montagna, W., Ellis, R. A., and Silver, A. F. (eds.): Advances in the Biology of Skin. Volume 4. Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1963."

All I know is that the oily layer of my skin appears to have vannished, and along with this has come a host of problems related to dry skin on my face especially.

Did you have a host of problems related to dry skin on your face when you were a child?

Did you have a host of problems related to dry skin on your face when you were a child?

Nope, I had pretty good skin as a kid.

Nope, I had pretty good skin as a kid.

There ya go. Stop thinking that the lack of sebum is causing you problems today.

Perhaps its not the quantity of sebum, but rather the quality of it?

I was megadosing b5 for an whole year up until march this year (2009) i stopped taking them as it dried my skin up so badly to the point that it keeps constanly flaking which is really bothering me.I have been off b5 for 3 and a half months and still no oil has returned which is why am guessing ive still not had any spots return.I really do want my sebum back.I really hope and pray that this isnt a permanent thing and that in time my skin will normailise.As jake says in his post from a view years ago that his oil still hadnt returned after months and months,i just really hope that isnt the case with me as ive never took accutane and id never intend to.I just wish i stopped b5 as soon as i got clear but instead i carried on and now am paying the price

hi

seems like there's nothing to do to really get our sebum production level back.

I took accutane for 10 month 30mg daily which is huge given that i'm only 140 pounds. That was 4 years ago. The worst decision of my life, I regret it so bad. I want to sue my deramtologist in justice for being neglectful toward me. bitch!

Oh by the way Bryan you are totally wrong with your theory, that so called scientist that you mention doesn't understand biology at all, otherwise He'd know how obvious it is that sebum protects the skin. I mean ,every MDs and bilogists who read his article must have thought He was extremely stupid.

Besides it's proven sebum protects the skin, this is elementary physics : sebum lubrificates the skin (whiwh mechanically prostects it) and has many other properties.

My theory is people who have acne have a sebum that's too thick, not liquid enough, and pores too thin that block sebum flow.

I just found that : it says nutrition plays a role on sebum secretion

and says how complex it is to anlyse those effects and the role of sebum

I can't post the link to that site don't know why. anyway the researcher is :

Robert W. Dunstan, DVM, MS

Department of Veterinary Pathobiology

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

and you can find the research on a site called [Removed site name] and I just notice it's a veterinary research but it's interesting anyway. hope u can find the article

Oh by the way Bryan you are totally wrong with your theory, that so called scientist that you mention doesn't understand biology at all, otherwise He'd know how obvious it is that sebum protects the skin. I mean ,every MDs and bilogists who read his article must have thought He was extremely stupid.

Yeah, and I bet every physicist who read Albert Einstein's silly 1905 paper must have thought he was extremely stupid, too.

Besides it's proven sebum protects the skin, this is elementary physics : sebum lubrificates the skin (whiwh mechanically prostects it) and has many other properties.

Yeah, everybody knows that sebum "lubrificates" the skin.

I am quite jealous of the TS. I cannot get my sebaceous glands on my nose to stop producing massive quantities of oil. I tried everything, accutane as well, but topical, not oral. Accutane dried out my face, except my nose. The sebaceous glands on my nose obviously cannot tell accutane from pigfat. I drench a blotting sheet every 30 minutes.

It's come to a point where I am embarrassed to face anyone after an hour of a face wash because i have drops of oil on my face.

Let's trade places please! I'd rather have dry skin so that I can drench it with moisturizers.

BTW, sebum is not needed for a healthy skin. Just look at a baby's skin. It does not produce any sebum. Try putting a blotting sheet on a baby's facial skin. No blotting yet the baby's skin is healthy as can be.

BTW, sebum is not needed for a healthy skin. Just look at a baby's skin. It does not produce any sebum. Try putting a blotting sheet on a baby's facial skin. No blotting yet the baby's skin is healthy as can be.

EXACTLY. And it's not just babies, it's also pre-puberty boys and girls. They produce little or no sebum, yet manage to go the entire day without having or worrying about dry or flaky skin, lack of moisture in their skin, lack of lubrication on their skin, lack of protection from environmental assaults, etc. These silly and fanciful reasons that posters here dream-up for the supposed "purposes" of sebum are ridiculous.

so if your saying sebum doesnt keep the skin moist and healthy then why is it that when i had oily skin it looked so much healthier and didnt flake or look dry at all but now im not producing any oil and my skin just looks horrid and dead.Sebum must play a part in keeping skin looking healthy.If i could turn back time i really would cos the truth is id rather have spots than what im going thru now if anyone knows of anyway to get rid of dry flakey skin permanently then please let me know cos im going thru hell right now.I thought having spots was bad enough but if i had the choice now id rather have spots.I look so ill cos my skin is so dry.I really hope b5 hasnt permanently stopped my body producing oil,surely that cant be if they're water soluble can it?? but if not then whys it taking so long,its bin 4 months.Ive bin eating so much fatty foods but still it seems to be doing nothing.Surely b5 cant still be in my body.Ive drank so much in these past few months,surely it'd of all bin flushed out by now

so if your saying sebum doesnt keep the skin moist and healthy then why is it that when i had oily skin it looked so much healthier and didnt flake or look dry at all but now im not producing any oil and my skin just looks horrid and dead.Sebum must play a part in keeping skin looking healthy.If i could turn back time i really would cos the truth is id rather have spots than what im going thru now 🙁 if anyone knows of anyway to get rid of dry flakey skin permanently then please let me know cos im going thru hell right now.I thought having spots was bad enough but if i had the choice now id rather have spots.I look so ill cos my skin is so dry.I really hope b5 hasnt permanently stopped my body producing oil,surely that cant be if they're water soluble can it?? but if not then whys it taking so long,its bin 4 months.Ive bin eating so much fatty foods but still it seems to be doing nothing.Surely b5 cant still be in my body.Ive drank so much in these past few months,surely it'd of all bin flushed out by now

Pam, both of us (i'm the guy with sebum overload) need to fix our problems by fixing it at the source, and not trying to correct the symptoms. You putting on moisturizers on your face, and me putting stuff on my face to get rid of oil, are both just treating the symptoms. We need to fix the imbalance in our body. Once we do that, the symptoms will disappear.

I'm not going to lie, this is easier said than done. But there seems to be a whole bunch of articles on line of people who somehow managed this. It seems to involve drastic change of lifestyle, mostly diet. Might involve some detoxing. I hope you do the research, as I will, and perhaps both of us can fix our bodies from the inside.

Hi oiler i know i need to fix the problem internally and i have bin trying to in the past 4 months but nothing is working.Im not gonna take anymore pills cos i dont wanna unbalance things anymore,i just want my body to adjust naturally by eating the right foods etc.I have bin doing alot of reserch about b5 but i cant seem to come up with anything to my problem.Could we just swap sebaceous glands and that'd solve it,hehe.

No seriously its really getting me down and i just cant believe that its bin 4 months and my bodies still not producing any oil which means ive had not 1 spot return but i really wish atleast 1 bloody spot would cos then id know my bodies getting back to normal.

I have bin reading up about fasting and that is apparently supposed to be good for detoxing the body and apparently it gives our bodies the ability to heal itself,whether this is true i really dont know but id give anything a go if it meant me having my oil back but ofcourse id only wanna go natural from now on.I really wouldnt advise you to take the route that i did by overloading on b5,trust me its not good and if i could i really would turn back time and have a facefull of spots

so if your saying sebum doesnt keep the skin moist and healthy then why is it that when i had oily skin it looked so much healthier and didnt flake or look dry at all but now im not producing any oil and my skin just looks horrid and dead.

I have no idea why your skin is dry and flaky, but it clearly has nothing to do with a lack of sebum.

The palms of your hands have never had sebaceous glands at all, and never produced sebum even back in the days when the rest of your skin looked fine; were the palms of your hands "dry and flaky" back in those days? Have the palms of your hands EVER been dry and flaky? :think:

Sebum must play a part in keeping skin looking healthy.

Nah. Doesn't the skin of young boys and girls look healthy? They don't make sebum at all! 🙂

So why is it i never had dry/flakey skin before i started overloading on b5 and b5 is meant to stop sebum production which it has done for me but has left me with dry skin so it must have something to do with sebum.B5 is supposed to break food down into energy instead of it being excreted through the skin.The only thing i think of is that because i was megadosin so long that everything ive et has just been turned into energy instead of being used to keep my skin looking healthy etc.I know 100% that b5 has played a big part in the dryness im suffering with.My face used to have a fair amount of oil before that id never ever in my life suffered with dry/flakey skin and i do also believe that sebum keeps you looking younger cos now im not producing any i look alot older then i used to.I dont know about childrens skin,maybe they are producing some but its just not visible whereas us who suffer from acne are producing alot more then we should.Food must play a part in keeping skin moist and healthy cos like i say since ive bin megadosing b5 its obviously bin breaking food down into energy which has stopped it from having any effect on my skin.All am saying is i know for a fact that b5 has played a huge part in my skin being dry and the thing about it is i quit dosing 4 months ago yet my skins still bone dry.i hope this isnt permanent

this is my opinion only so please don't flame me. I've taken accutane for 2 and half years and i can tell from experience for me is that I NEED sebum. Accutane reduces sebum upto 90% and during my course when my sebum was reduced my skin felt horrible and i was on a low dose (40mg) which means my glands were still active but not producing enough.

I had very dry skin WITH sebum production so what would happen if I don't have any? I'd assume I'd be 10times as worse so please don't try and argue that sebum production does jack all, as it does keep the skin moist. We may not need as much of it but we DEFINETELY NEED it.

Hi uncut i totally agree what your saying that sebum keeps skin moist as i know from my own experience.I have completely none right now and my skin just doesnt look healthy at all.I did seem to have some when i was on b5 but now ive stopped taking them(4 months ago) it seems to have completely stopped it and has made my skin dryer.I dont even need to blot whereas when i was on b5 i was still blotting a few times a day.How the heck that can be i really dont know.All am hoping is this isnt permanent.I do believe accutanes stronger then b5 so hopefully i might escape it being permanent.You still havent had any oil back after 2 years?? that is scary.

this is my opinion only so please don't flame me. I've taken accutane for 2 and half years and i can tell from experience for me is that I NEED sebum.

I think you're misreading your own experience.

Accutane reduces sebum upto 90% and during my course when my sebum was reduced my skin felt horrible and i was on a low dose (40mg) which means my glands were still active but not producing enough.

I believe you when you say that your skin felt horrible, but what I DON'T believe is that it was from a lack of sebum. Accutane does more things to your skin than just reduce sebum production.

I had very dry skin WITH sebum production so what would happen if I don't have any?

Probably nothing at all.

I'd assume I'd be 10times as worse so please don't try and argue that sebum production does jack all, as it does keep the skin moist. We may not need as much of it but we DEFINETELY NEED it.

The problem is with that word ASSUME. You're assuming waaaay too much. Listen to what doctors and scientists tell you about the way your skin works, and stop making these groundless assumptions that lay people so often make.

obviously YOU have never experienced how it feels without sebum. Maybe you have a bad case of sebum over production and you feel it's the cause of all your pain and suffering but you so called doctors and scientist aren't as credible as YOU think. If you go and ask 99% of all derms do we need sebum they would tell you YES we do so it's not groundless assumptions. I think you are the one who is making assumptions here.

You believe so much that sebum is not needed that you go and search for a finding or two to prove your theory. Doctors and scientist get it wrong all the time, accutane has proven in some findings to cause depression and in some don't. At this piont I choose to believe my own experiece along with other experience plus what 99% of dems knowledge as opposed to a few findings.

I have some pretty stubborn sebaceous glands. I was taking 10mg accutane, 3 times a week. THAT'S a low dosage. Yours isn't (wasn't) so low. Of course you'll end up dried up if you don't use any moisturizers. I really didn't even use any moisturizers, but the dosage was enough to clear all my whiteheads and oily skin look... just leaving my rosacea (which I knew accutane wouldn't take care of). But eventually I had to give up accutane (don't wanna be taking it my whole life)... and my skin was finding a way to counterattack it.

It's funny how ppl always want stuff that other ppl want to rid themselves off. I got tons of sebum to share, if you like... my face produces a good amount every 6-7 hours, I've clocked it. Just joking. I didn't read the whole thread, so I don't know if it's been brought up in the discussion, but what I'd look into is a regimen that would put your sebaceous glands back to work again. Good luck, mate.

Hi. I just happened to read the post you made in 2005 about your dry skin and effects from B5. I have been in the same boat or probably even worse for two years now. I didn't use any supplements though. I packed on, and I mean PACKED ON, benzoyl peroxide from age 13 to 18 for acne and it destroyed my face. I know I somehow shrunk or damaged my sebaceous glands. I haven't had to wash my face in years. I just gently rinse it once a day. Its super dry, raw, sensitiveyou name it. It feels like a sunburn... atleast that is the best way I can describe it to people when they ask about it. It's very hard to help people understand how I feel because it not only makes my face feel bad, it makes my whole body feel bad because the pain just wears on me. Its not genetic because my parents and all my siblings are oily people and the problem is only on my face specifically where I used the benzoyl peroxide, not anywhere on my body. I've seen two dermatologists about it and one of them acted like I was crazy and didn't even let me talk hardly. He just told me I had seborrheic dermatitis and kicked me out the door. The other one just told me with dry skin, the only thing to do is just test many different products until you find what you like. Both told me there was nothing you could take internally that would help... which is WRONG. I have read literally thousands of hours on the internet about anything and everything I could to find some kind of relief. I have also spent a LOT of money on products and have pretty much tried everything. Honestly, I think I know more than any dermatologist.... maybe not about the biology of the skin (although I know a lot) but about the best things to use (both internally and externally) to nourish it. Anyways, I could go on forever about what I have learned and done to help fix my face but I'll just finish up, hoping that somebody who knows something about this or is in the same situation will see it and reply.

obviously YOU have never experienced how it feels without sebum.

Ahhh.....but I _have_ experienced how it feels without sebum! The palms of your hands (and mine) don't even HAVE any sebaceous glands, and produce no sebum at all. So the obvious point to make is this: are the palms of your hands dry and red and flaky because there's no sebum on them?? You need to be LOGICAL about this! 🙂

If you go and ask 99% of all derms do we need sebum they would tell you YES we do so it's not groundless assumptions.

Really?? Have you actually done that? Speak for yourself, dude, not what you only THINK 99% of all derms would say.

You believe so much that sebum is not needed that you go and search for a finding or two to prove your theory. Doctors and scientist get it wrong all the time, accutane has proven in some findings to cause depression and in some don't.

So do you think the lack of sebum is what's causing depression? Isn't THAT the same type of logic you're using with everything else? 🙂

At this piont I choose to believe my own experiece along with other experience plus what 99% of dems knowledge as opposed to a few findings.

I don't think you even know what your own experience is. You're grossly misinterpreting it.

Bryan, sebum is most certainly necessary if you want HEALTHY skin. You can replace it with using other natural oils like coconut oil and sea buckthorn oil which more closely resemble sebum to get the same kind of benefits but when your bodies sebaceous glands dry up and completely shut off production you will have to work a lot harder to keep your skin moisturized than you ever did when you had normal sebum levels. Drugs like accutane work by causing the sebaceous glands to dry up and that's why a lot of people that take it can end up with dry skin and other skin conditions afterwards. Sebum is what your body uses to help heal itself and that's why you notice when your skin is oily your skin also heals much faster than when it's dry. Lotions and moisturizers do not replace what sebum offers in the maintenance process of your skin.