Acne.org Products
$160 million deal centered on the development of a boron-based acne product.
Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday it will receive a $7 million upfront payment and future milestones of up to $153 million as part of a research and development deal with Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp.
Palo Alto-based Anacor and Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Medicis (NYSE:MRX) will be working together on boron-based small molecule compounds directed against a target for the potential treatment of acne.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/20...-acne-deal.html
As I've understood you, you believe that not digesting food properly can lead to acne. If we agree here, I think you should broaden your spectrum, because there is many factors that lead to a good breakdown of food.However, when the cause of not digesting food properly is an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine (which should contain hardly any), then one has to think about whether a particular technique aids digestion, or just aids the bacteria in digesting more of the nutrients you yourself need.
f.ex do not drink while having a meal:AFAICT, most medical experts discount this advice; water shoots through the system so much faster than solid food it's hard to see how it can interfere.
From this "reference":
Animals and so-called primitive peoples do not drink with their meals and there is every reason to consider this instinctive practice to be best.In addition to not being expert on digestion, I would suggest this author has also never owned (or seen?) a dog. Every dog I've ever owned or watched tanks up on water immediately after eating if fresh water is available.
"Rule-3-Never-Eat-During-Or-Immediately-Before-Or-After-Work.html"
This is more complex and, of course, this "reference" cites no actual studies of digestion. The latest information I can find is that, contrary to common belief, exercise slows motility. Whether or not that's a plus for what's going on in the case of acne is anybody's guess, but it is at least a knob that can be turned to see what happens.
When you drink the water just after or while eating, you dilute enzymes which clearly can be unbeneficial.
when referring this dog, i dont think you can take knock-down on his argument, because i think he referred to wild animals, a dog might drink the water when he gets it, but if the dog had water available all the time, he might not drink it right after eating.
anyway, i believe there are many factors in referring to digestion, and i hope you will try to broaden your spectrum, - if u have time, because ur certainly into something
for example its easier to digest something raw than cooked, just search for it, - if this is true, then i think we can agree on that eating more raw, might be better for digestion and therefore also acne
The RDA for iodine is intended to be enough to keep you from getting brain damage and goiters. 225mcg/day (if you actually took 3 of those pills per day) is not a lot of iodine, unless you're getting a lot somewhere else in your diet as well (ton o' iodized salt?). Note that traditional Japanese/Korean diets (generally associated with lower rates of cancer, among other things) can contain relatively massive amounts of iodine.If I found that my acne was immediately worsened by adding 225mcg/day of iodine, I would be concerned that I had other underlying health problems. Of course, there are many other things in that pill, and it's hard to tie an outbreak to any one factor unless you can successfully repeat the experience a number of times without fail.
I have not been taking my Vitamin D3 pills so much recently... over the course of the last two months though I have usually taken 1/2000IU a day. I would not be surprised if there was an underlying health problem to be honest... heart palpitations - weak muscles, struggle to gain weight - watery eyes in cold... ahh who knows.
The whole Iodine aspect is a rather complex one... you have people failing to see how it could have any affect on skin quality and then you have others who swear by it causing them big problems... many topics about sudden painful breakouts after taking Multivitamins with 'Kelp' Iodine in it's ingredients. It's just a link I have put together that the two biggest break outs of my life have come from the first being a foray into doing weights and consuming milk and oats by the bucket load - milk which supposedly has 88mcg per cup in some tested sources. My skin got progressively worse... and then all of a sudden over the period of two days just exploded. It's like a build up effect that suddenly reacts.
Then for a fair few weeks I was eating Mackerel everyday (on some days twice) and one of those is said to be 250 odd mcg per serving. On top of the high amounts of Turkey I was eating and packets of crisps and it all adds up - add a Kelp supplement of 150mcg (Calcium Blend is 75mcg per 2 tablets) and you go well over the RDA.
There is a theory that Supplementing with Iodine is only aggravating to acne, because it is purging out the Bromide and other Halide's... perhaps some other contents in your body. That would be why it is so common for some people to struggle with even the slightest amount of it going in your body and then if you sustain the high Iodine content - you will eventually reap the rewards of it flowing through your body in high amounts, rather than the idea it's excess irritates the pores of your skin getting out. My oh my if only Dermatology were simple... I just wish there could be more controlled studies that really push for answers with such therapies.
There is always this response that people in Asia have great quality skin through diet especially and of course that is sealife to the extreme - often in raw quality. So is infusing their bodies with excess Iodine their secret whilst it flushes out these bad things constantly? I would like to know what peoples skin condition is like if they spent an entire month eating thousands of mg's worth of the stuff like your link suggests... who knows its long term effects though. Maybe I just wrote a whole load of nonsense of a theory.
Anyone who as the slightest fear about any supplement should, of course, not take that supplement. However, I would like to read "all the horror stories" to see what dosages they were using, if you have links!
I cannot really refer any links sadly... it was just a common theme upon reading in B5 and Pantethine related topics across multiple forums I think... the suggestion that it is things like B5/B2/B3 and perhaps some others that are actually doing good for your skin rather than things that has been shown to cause skin problems in people such as Biotin, B12 and B6... the latter in my B complex come in at 2500 and 5000% recommended daily value respectively. Many who cited success with B5 suggested that supplementation with a complex was undesirable... whilst others still did.
Anyway I am still searching for my winning combination... having a steadier sleeping cycle and doing miles worth of walking in powerful sunlight is without doubt a winning combination for me - but nothing seems to be consistently working in these long drawn out cold months in British weather.
After 7 of the clearest topical-free days I've had in years (thanks to databased's vitamin regimen), I began experimenting with adding gluten to my diet. Over the past 3 days, I ate two boxes of wheat thins, a huge box of some type of tortilla chip, and some other random carbs. I now have 5 pimples on my face. They popped pretty easily compared to my average zit and did not become nearly as inflamed, but nevertheless, it's hard to deny the connection between what I ate and the outbreak.
Tomorrow I will return to my paleo diet + virtually no fruit diet and hope the acne goes away.
After 7 of the clearest topical-free days I've had in years (thanks to databased's vitamin regimen), I began experimenting with adding gluten to my diet. Over the past 3 days, I ate two boxes of wheat thins, a huge box of some type of tortilla chip, and some other random carbs. I now have 5 pimples on my face. They popped pretty easily compared to my average zit and did not become nearly as inflamed, but nevertheless, it's hard to deny the connection between what I ate and the outbreak.Tomorrow I will return to my paleo diet + virtually no fruit diet and hope the acne goes away.
I am also going down this route myself... although I eat somewhat healthily I still have far too many slip ups with dairy products, what, gluten and artificial sweeteners. I feel like my body has been getting slowly poisoned over these last few years and so I really have to buckle down and eliminate that ingredient which is doing it and causing me to look so unhealthy.
You should really try keeping that diet of your free of any form of that stuff for at least 3 weeks and tell once and for all if it is the cause of some of your problems.
After 7 of the clearest topical-free days I've had in years (thanks to databased's vitamin regimen), I began experimenting with adding gluten to my diet. Over the past 3 days, I ate two boxes of wheat thins, a huge box of some type of tortilla chip, and some other random carbs. I now have 5 pimples on my face. They popped pretty easily compared to my average zit and did not become nearly as inflamed, but nevertheless, it's hard to deny the connection between what I ate and the outbreak.Tomorrow I will return to my paleo diet + virtually no fruit diet and hope the acne goes away.
At least you enjoyed your time with those wheat thins and tortialla chip, yummmmmi!
Don't worry, when returning again to the paleo diet expect of sugars, and trying to make it raw(even meat) as possible, your pimples will leave!
This board got me thinking about the relationship between masturbation and acne. There's definitely a connection for me, whenever I do it my acne gets waaaay worse. I've read that in men the body losses a significant amount of zinc. This would even further reduce the bodies zinc stores and thus more acne? Just a theory, perhaps I'm groping in the dark...pun completely intended.
This board got me thinking about the relationship between masturbation and acne. There's definitely a connection for me, whenever I do it my acne gets waaaay worse. I've read that in men the body losses a significant amount of zinc. This would even further reduce the bodies zinc stores and thus more acne? Just a theory, perhaps I'm groping in the dark...pun completely intended.
I don't discount the theory. I fully believe that there is a link for some.
However, I doubt zinc loss is the culprit. Have you tried supplementing zinc? It seems to me that if you supplemented whileergroping in the dark, you wouldn't see a relationship between acne and your nocturnal habits. If zinc loss were the problem, that is.
But I suppose that all rests on the effectiveness of supplementation, as do many other things. Quite a difficult thing to troubleshoot, innit?
This board got me thinking about the relationship between masturbation and acne. There's definitely a connection for me, whenever I do it my acne gets waaaay worse. I've read that in men the body losses a significant amount of zinc. This would even further reduce the bodies zinc stores and thus more acne? Just a theory, perhaps I'm groping in the dark...pun completely intended.
perhaps it's a shot in the dark instead? 😉 lol
I've been thinking about Databased's proposal , and I believe that there really could be something to it. There definitely is some research backing it up, and personally my acne always use to get better in the summer, when I'm outdoors 8-9 plus hours. The only question I have and I'm too lazy to go back to the original post and quote it is: if we need to be outside so our EYES can tell our body and our bowels its morning time and they should prepare to digest food, shouldn't all blind people have serious acne? Now I haven't really met a lot of blind people but I don't really associate being blind with acne.
Anyway, perhaps blind people have adapted and can use their other senses to tell their body that its morning? If thats the case why can't non-blind people do that? Or maybe its not the eyes at all that tell the body that its morning, perhaps just being in the sunlight stimulates something in our skin?
What I would like to see, Databased, if you're still here, is what would happen if you wore seriously blackout sunglasses, or even those tanning goggles for a couple of days, would your acne come back?
When you disregard the whole "eyes are the key" thing it kind of sounds like, and this is just what my mind immediately went to when anybody says go outside, Vitamin D.
Now I know people have taken vitamin D supplements with very little success and some people aren't even vitamin D deficient (although most are), but then again how well do supplements really work? I'd like to think that you cant really beat being outside with taking a pill every morning. Then again, maybe it isn't vitamin D, its something with the UV rays from the sun.
I don't know, now Im just rambling, just thought I'd mention this (maybe someone already has), I'm a big believer in the connection between bowels and acne. I cleared up the bad bacteria in my gut and now im working on the candida and WOW no more acne (knock on wood, its been just about a month and the closest thing to a miracle I've witnessed), still avoid dairy, and gluten and nuts to an extent, still take my daily vitamin and fishoils and calcium with vitamin D and probiotics, but I'd been doing that for ages.
Hello all,
I've recently seen an improvement in my acne (28y, mild acne) after taking vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) 500 mg/d. Today I learned that melatonin is made from Coenzyme A (which is made from B5) and I thought of this thread. Leung (PMID 7476595) suggested B5 deficiency might be involved in the pathogenesis of acne (certainly seems to be in my case) and that the deficiency might be caused by increased production of sex hormones in puberty (which are made from CoA thus depleting B5).
So maybe the production of melatonin (the amount of it or the timing of production) has something to do with CoA/B5 and thus acne?
Databased,
Thanks for your painstaking research. I enjoyed reading all your responses and your explanations seem to make sense to me. I noticed in many other success threads that your ideas were inadvertently applied often without the person realizing what cleared their skin.
My history is the usual sob story of ineffective prescriptions and over the counter medications. I recently turned 40 and have been suffering since puberty.
Owing to a recent breakout while on antibiotics I returned to this forum and found your thread. I gave up my antibiotics and have switched to a once-a-day vitamin cocktail right after breakfast:
1x Super Nutrition Calcium Blend Iron Free
1x B-50 complex
1x Vitamin D 5000IU
1x Alpha Lipoic Acid
1x Zinc 50mg
3x Fish Oil capsules
It's usually extremely rare for me to have a completely clear face for more than a couple of days. The norm is old zits healing and new ones forming pretty much all the time. I will post status updates weekly but for now am happy to report that all my lesions are drying up and nothing new has sprouted. Feeling good so far.
mep8
@mep8: glad to hear you're seeing improvement; hope it continues.
So maybe the production of melatonin (the amount of it or the timing of production) has something to do with CoA/B5 and thus acne?
There are multiple ways that Vitamin B can affect melatonin specifically and acne in general. For example, the pineal gland burns folate to make melatonin. I have read Leung's study and find it completely uncompelling. Few subjects, no controls, no objective measures, almost all of an age where acne often "goes away" on its own, etc. IMHO, it is just another example of how megadosing one of the many nutrients related to acne can produce statistical improvement (and a few "miracles") in any group of patients. Given my own hypothesis, obviously I believe it's not getting at the root cause, which is a failure to digest this collection of nutrients, combined with common abnormal sleeping habits.
If thats the case why can't non-blind people do that?
I believe it's been established that blind people usually still have the special retinal ganglion cells that tell the brain whether or not the eye is being exposed to intense (e.g., outdoor) light. Still, many of them have sleep difficulties, and it would be interesting to know if acne incidence is greater than the general population; nobody has looked AFAIK.
Pfft. I have a life and still post here.
Touche! 
Databased,
You are frequently hyperlinking studies, and I am rarely reading them, so if you've linked these before, I apologize. It's just a nice [potential] correlation, given your theory.
Wikipedia on fructose malabsorption:
"Some effects of fructose malabsorption are decreased tryptophan, folic acid[5] and zinc in the blood.[6]"
Tryptophan: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11336160
"High intestinal fructose concentration seems to interfere with L-tryptophan metabolism, and it may reduce availability of tryptophan for the biosynthesis of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine)."
Folic Acid: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/45/11/2013
"Fructose malabsorption is known to accelerate gastrointestinal transit when patients are exposed to fructose, thus reducing the contact time that is necessary for the absorption of (micro)nutrients."
Zinc: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/47/4/745
"Patients with chronic diarrhea are known to exhibit signs of zinc deficiency (13). Fructose malabsorption is one of the most common causes for chronic diarrhea (4)."
All three of these players seem necessary but not sufficient for your version of acne prevention, and it ties in nicely with your opinion of carb malabsorption, daylight, melatonin production, and ZSOD. Even micronutrient absorption (boron or what-have-you) makes its appearance. What I'd like to understand more clearly is the mechanism by which "dim-light exposure during the daytime suppresses the digestion of the evening meal, resulting in malabsorption of dietary carbohydrates in it" (from this one).
Fascinating, though. Thank you for your work.
Databased,You are frequently hyperlinking studies, and I am rarely reading them, so if you've linked these before, I apologize. It's just a nice [potential] correlation, given your theory.
Wikipedia on fructose malabsorption:
"Some effects of fructose malabsorption are decreased tryptophan, folic acid[5] and zinc in the blood.[6]"
Tryptophan: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11336160
"High intestinal fructose concentration seems to interfere with L-tryptophan metabolism, and it may reduce availability of tryptophan for the biosynthesis of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine)."
Folic Acid: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/45/11/2013
"Fructose malabsorption is known to accelerate gastrointestinal transit when patients are exposed to fructose, thus reducing the contact time that is necessary for the absorption of (micro)nutrients."
Zinc: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/47/4/745
"Patients with chronic diarrhea are known to exhibit signs of zinc deficiency (13). Fructose malabsorption is one of the most common causes for chronic diarrhea (4)."
All three of these players seem necessary but not sufficient for your version of acne prevention, and it ties in nicely with your opinion of carb malabsorption, daylight, melatonin production, and ZSOD. Even micronutrient absorption (boron or what-have-you) makes its appearance. What I'd like to understand more clearly is the mechanism by which "dim-light exposure during the daytime suppresses the digestion of the evening meal, resulting in malabsorption of dietary carbohydrates in it" (from this one).
Fascinating, though. Thank you for your work.
I wonder if skipping the evening meal or minimizing it would help in cases of carb malabsorption. Often I have had big meals for breakfast and lunch and have largely skipped dinner, however I never thought of correlating my acne breakouts to such behavior. I will test this on myself and see how it goes.
Good articles, wheezle. Thx for posting them.
It's been about a week so here's my first update.
My face is quite clear and healthy looking. Only red marks remain from prior breakouts. I had a small breakout during the week which I attribute to eating an orange but it went away quickly. The orange was the only deviation from my regular diet as I've been recording my meals in order to minimize unknown variables.
Seeing as my face is clear I have no reason to try the "minimize evening meals" idea from my prior post.
I'll keep with the weekly updates. I realize I'm only doing half of what databased recommends in that being outdoors for extended periods of time is not part of my lifestyle however I am happy to be off antibiotics with positive results.
mep8
Folic Acid: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/45/11/2013"Fructose malabsorption is known to accelerate gastrointestinal transit when patients are exposed to fructose, thus reducing the contact time that is necessary for the absorption of (micro)nutrients."
That one I hadn't read before. Although it appeared to contain no new facts, it did contain the speculation that a significant amount of folate (folic acid) arrives via the large intestine. This continues to be just speculation, though this 2005 study provides evidence that, in pigs at least, 1/5th of their folate requirements might be coming across the large intestine wall, including folate being synthesized by bacteria.
That's the first time I've seen a mechanism by which I could believe that probiotics could possibly help acne (though it also argues that they could hurt -- trying to influence who is winning the bacteria wars in the large intestine by just taking supplements seems an iffy venture overall).
Of course, if bacteria have infested the small intestine, one could speculate that probiotics has the potential to make acne worse. I don't see why what's "good" bacteria for the large intestine is necessarily so for the small intestine, where we want the gut getting all the nutrients, not any bacteria.
What I'd like to understand more clearly is the mechanism by which "dim-light exposure during the daytime suppresses the digestion of the evening meal, resulting in malabsorption of dietary carbohydrates in it" (from this one).
I wonder if skipping the evening meal or minimizing it would help in cases of carb malabsorption.
The Japanese research is two-fold: it's better to eat carbs while you're being exposed to light if you're melatonin levels are at their bottom; it's better to eat carbs in dim light if your melatonin levels have started to rise (the answer to "but some cultures eat late at night", since historically those cultures didn't really have bright electric lights to eat by at night).
Here is their speculation:
What physiological mechanisms are responsible for these findings? Previous studiesshowed that exposure to a bright light in comparison to dim light condition during the
daytime enhanced the nocturnal: decline of core temperature, increase in leg skin
temperature (Kim and Tokura, 1998), rise of salivary melatonin secretion (Park and
Tokura, 1999), and decrease in urinary noradrenaline concentration (Kanikowska et al.,
2001). Those findings strongly suggest that the human physiology is more relaxed and
parasympathetic nervous activity more enhanced by daytime bright-light exposure.
Actually, exposure to daytime bright-light exposure has been shown to activate the
parasympathetic nervous system during the following evening and nighttime period
(Nishimura et al., 2002). In this regard, exposure to bright light during the daytime seems
to alleviate the symptoms of diarrhea and constipation (Rutkowska et al., 1999).
Enhancement of the cholinergic tone of the parasympathetic nervous system under the
influence of the daytime bright-light exposure can increase the secretion of digestive juices
and the activity of gastrointestinal muscle (Ganong, 1999). This is beneficial for the
digestion and absorption of the evening meal. Recently, Kanikowska et al. (2002) found
that the salivary secretion rate was significantly higher under the influence of forenoon
bright light compared to dim-light exposure. Increased saliva secretion is favorable for
digestion of dietary starch resulting in less hydrogen production by the microorganisms in
the colon.
Bright light exposure for several hours during the daytime can advance the circadian
phase of the melatonin rhythm in humans (Dijk et al., 1989; Hashimoto et al., 1997; Park
and Tokura, 1999). However, close observation of the individual breath gas curve showed
that the circadian phase of the breath gas excretion rhythm did not seem to differ between
bright and dim-light conditions during the daytime. We need to collect the breath gas over
24 h before we are able to conclude whether the circadian phase of the breath gas excretion
rhythm is different between the bright and dim-light condition.
Note that this still does not say exactly what the mechanism is for light inducing all these changes, but notes that there is collective evidence that bright light significantly affects digestion.
Regarding probiotics, agreed. It seems like bacterial Russian roulette, especially when it could potentially change the absorption capacity of the small intestine. That would be a tad too confusing for me and my control factors right about now.
Here is their speculation:...Note that this still does not say exactly what the mechanism is for light inducing all these changes, but notes that there is collective evidence that bright light significantly affects digestion.
Alas, the sunny season approaches. I will be testing this correlation myself very soon.
So has anyone else had results with this?
ps. Might be interesting study, but does someone understand this O.o. (has something to do with p acnes, IGF-1, zinc and some other stuff...:
http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v131/n1/...id2010281a.html
" "Your body doesn't really recognise what time of day it is. It is a little bit of a myth. "