if no new pimples/cysts have appeared since paleo, wouldn't you say that is a huge improvement? I used to get new active spots daily, like tons and now i dont at all.
things are doing good here. im not cured or clear 100% though. I have cheated a few times and have not seen huge breakouts like i would before paleo. If i ate ice cream before i got baddd acne, but now i dont.
if no new pimples/cysts have appeared since paleo, wouldn't you say that is a huge improvement? I used to get new active spots daily, like tons and now i dont at all.
things are doing good here. im not cured or clear 100% though. I have cheated a few times and have not seen huge breakouts like i would before paleo. If i ate ice cream before i got baddd acne, but now i dont.
Congrats - you may be on the right track then. Do you have before pictures. Many of us on the board find it helpful when people post their pictures so that we can match severity of acne to treatments....maybe there's a pattern ya know.
If you're not comfortable with that, can you at least describe your acne.
honestly i dont have any pictures when my acne was severe, because like most people here i avoided cameras like they were the devil. And i dont have a camera now. my acne is looking great. I used to have cysts all over my back. the skin on my back was so rough it was disgusting. i had bumps all over my chest that i could squeeze and white stuff would easily come out of each pore. my face hurt when i smiled or raised my eyebrows and i avoided looking in the mirror. i had cysts under my jaw line blackheads on my nose and forehead and chin and upper cheek area. Basically i had the typical case of severe acne, but now after this paleo diet (which i cheat by having sweet potatoes, and rice occasionaly, and then with friends i might have a frozen yogurt or something with sugar) i feel so good. my back is smooth, my chest only has like 2 small red spots that are hardly noticeable. i dont know if its the sugar-free aspect of the diet, or it may be the high amounts of fish and sweet potatoes, or it could be the chromium and zinc! its hard to say, but i am going to stick with it and report back
as of now i will be posting what i am generally eating rather than every single meal
Diet:
Sweet Potatoes
Canned Salmon
Salads
Cucumbers
Celery
Coconut milk
Black tea
Green tea
Beef
Salsa fresca
Guacamole
Quinoa/rice dishes occasionally
i had a few sugar free oreos. no big deal.
Bacon
eggs
Asparagus
Brussel Sprouts
i keep expecting breakouts, even after cheating on this diet, and then i look in the mirror and feel my face and......nothing. It's a godsend. I feel so good.
Something is happening. I'm breaking out pretty bad and getting majorly depressed. My skin was on its way to perfection but now it has degraded a lot. I have been inconsistent with my cinnamon supplement because i am traveling right now. Also because I am traveling I have cheated on the diet twice but that was 5 days ago! I have no idea what is happening. It is going to take a lot of evaluation and research until I can figure out why i have digressed. Possibly cinnamon was the main contributing factor here? and i need to continue it? But that seems unlikely because of how strict/healthy my diet has been overall. Hmmmmm....Today is friday and on Sunday I had a went out for a fancy meal of Tapas and basically ate whatever. Maybe I have candida and the "cheating" fed the candida and allowed it thrive again and now i have to start all over to kill if off? The paleo diet is very similar to the anti-candida diet so this could be possible. I'm becoming very frustrated. I hate how we all have to self-medicate ourselves and be our own doctors. Its like a whole other load plus the acne. I think I'm screwing up my thinking/logic too.
OR it could be that I am consuming soy from hidden sources since I am traveling. Soy always breaks me out. I can count on that, but never can I count on something to prevent me from breaking out.
except the peculiar thing about all this is that my back acne is miraculously very clear as opposed to its worst state of 10 cysts and incredibly painful where I couldn't even put lean against a chair. Now it is relatively smooth with a few bumps and staying clear. It is so frustrating how complex acne is!
Update on my current regiment:
still paleo and trying to be 100% to clear from this random breakout.
Chromium & Zinc still daily
Cinnamon twice daily with food.
And then I am going to keep using my hemp oil which I have only ever used to speed up healing. I am now going to apply it morning and night indefinitely to see if there is any huge improvement because after reading this thread by alterntavist (who has an amazing wealth of nutritional information)
I had been using hemp oil for a bout a month or two before this but never consistently.
after reviewing my log, i now realize that i ate a ton of raw broccoli which caused my breakout. I have a new thread on this here:
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/321893-broccoli-broke-me-out/
I have confirmed this because recently i ate only broccoli for two days and suffered.
It has been rather difficult to keep up a paleo diet on a college campus. I have limited my grain and sugar intake but its not nearly as perfect as before. My face isnt doing very well at all. I ended my zinc, chromium, and cinnamon supplementation early in september because i didnt think it was a contributer. But i think now i will restart those supplements after rereading peoples posts here and here"
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/294782-chromium-is-amazing/page__hl__chromium
also,
i will give it a week to notice results from this. 400mg chromium and 30mg zinc with breakfast and repeat for dinner. also I have been using Betaine HCL with my meals since sunday and haven't noticed any improvements. I drank alot this past weekend so the only improvement i have are just the natural fading of my alcohol breakout. I ALWAYS breakout from alcohol yet I still drink. So my skin conditiion I believe is returning to its normal state, and normal to me means moderate/severe acne. I'm not sure why my acne has regressed so much in college. I haven't masturbated in 2 weeks, I try to eat paleo as much as possible except for rice and maybe once every couple of days I eat something sweet. I limit my fruit intake as well.
I have been supplementing with borage oil inconsistently. That seemed to help alot when a friend came and visited me but now my acne has regressed. I hope to be more consistent with that. 5 borage oil pills with a raw egg yolk and some hemp oil. This is GLA + Lecithin + ALA.
so one egg yolk has about 26 mcg of chromium. I have been eating two a day so 50mcg of chromium a day. maybe that has been helping
http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data5m.html#fig54
as of yesterday I added in my cinnamon. it is vietnamese cinnamon which is the closest cinnamon type i could find to cassia at whole foods. I decided not to get ceylon.
I have also been reducing my Betaine HCL supplementation to about 4-5 pills per meal as opposed to 7-9 pills. (its random)
I'm praying that by thanksgiving i will have much clearer skin.
another factor to note: I took adderall on saturday and found out online that some people get massive breakouts from it. hmmmmmm
i know for certain that androgens worsen my acne because when i stopped masturbating everyday, it helped my acne alot, but obviously its still there. I went about 2 weeks without masturbating but yesterday I broke that. I plan on only masturbating once every 2 weeks. seems reasonable to me.
right now my regimen is this:
mastubate only once every 2 weeks.
try to be as paleo as possible, rice is okay. no gluten.
only have one sweet thing every couple of days.
1 teaspoon vietnamese cinnamon with all my meals.
4 pills of Betaine HCL with all my meals (I'm not sure if this one is really helping)
Still taking 10 pills Borage oil plus two egg yolks and some hemp oil. split this up in two doses.
60mg zinc split up to 2 doses
800mcg Chromium split up to 2 doses.
Avoid soy, flax, goitrogenic foods when possible.
Try to avoid alcohol (it is very difficult in college).
so i've been looking more insulin resistance as a cause of acne: The following are PROVEN:
Puberty is a period of temporary insulin resistance
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/72/2/277.short
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12364479
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/43/7/908.short
Insulin resistance raises androgens in the body
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/67.full.pdf
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/86/10/4881.short
androgens cause acne in me becuase i did the masturbation test.
also i know that my acne is a puberty change because it started to get it when I was 15 and it hit hard when i turned 16. I am 18 now and still have it. My dad and grandpa both had it bad until they were juniors in college.
It has only been two days since i revamped my chromium/zinc supplements and I already see a bit of improvement. Its hard to tell with all the red marks, but i won't be able to tell for sure for another couple of days. I tried chromium/zinc before and i didn't see the improvements for about 7 days. I am basing this off previous posts.
Definitely on the right track.
Thanks. Is there any more information that you could provide me about the root causes of acne? I have looked into Candida, Leaky Gut, Hypothyroidism, Estrogen Dominance, etc. But this is the first time I have tried to treat acne from an insulin perspective.
Update: Dammit I masturbated again yesterday. So that is twice in a row. Okay. I will abstain now for 2 weeks at least. Also, I woke up this morning and I have less active spots. Hmmmmm.... I definetly see an improvement although it may not look that way because of the redness, scars, and old acne thats on its way out.
However, if I continue this regimen and clear up, I will have no way of knowing which one is the greatest contributing factor. Could it be the HCL that I started last Sunday, 6 days ago? Or the Chromium/Zinc/Cinnamon that I start 3 days ago? Or is it the Borage/Yolk/Hemp that I always have done but became more strict and increased my dosage 3 days ago? It could be all those things combined but I would rather not take this many supplements because it is expensive and time consuming.
I stopped taking Betaine HCL completley yesterday and before that I started to use less and less. I didn't think it was contributing because I saw no improvement in 5 days. I know that is a short amount of time but I will try HCL again later when my skin is more consistent. Okay today is monday and I have seen alot of improvement. There is far less active spots just some redness that needs to heal. I feel great. Last week I felt extremely depressed. I'm taking the zinc, chromium, GLA+lecithin+ALA, and taking cinnamon with every meal.
I drank alcohol yesterday and have been bad with my diet, lets see if my face breaks out because so far its doing alot better.
My acne is doing so good. Like amazing. I am still getting active spots but my appearance is much healthier and radiant. I stopped taking Betaine HCL on Nov. 19th. And I stopped taking my Egg yolk + borage oil + hemp oil on Nov. 22nd. So far, taking both of those away has not increased my acne alot. Also I have been eating rather unhealthy lately. No doubt I have consumed soy in high volumes. I also drank on the 19th, 20th, 22th, and 23th. This was thanksgiving break when I went to New York. I guess the reason for my acne is insulin resistance. All I am doing is taking 800mcg chromium a day and cinnamon with all my meals. Though I have skipped a few meals with cinnamon.
I also mastrubated once on the 24th. and twice yesterday, the 25th. I will try to go another week without masturbating...
Ok so my skin got increasingly better until today, i noticed some new spots. I think I can attribute this to either the magnesium that I started yesterday or my excessive masturbation. The magnesium is Magnesium Glycinate which is two 200mg pills a day, one in the morning, one at night always with food. I have not seen alot of evidence on acne.org concerning magnesium and acne. One post i saw that they reduced their acne 80% with it, and two others I saw broke out from it in cysts. I will give magnesium at least 3 days to see improvement or worsening. Also I have been masturbating way too much recently which definetly will cause acne for me but im still not relatively sure when I can expect breakouts form masturbating. I have seen that testosterone spikes 7 days after abstaining from masturbation but one time when I abstained my acne just slowly got better without a worsening. Another time it definetly got worse on the 7th day. So its hard to pinpoint what happens. I could have been trying other methods at the time that interfered. But I do know for certain that if I abstain from masturbating for at least a week, (2 weeks is a better measure) my acne is noticeably better but never 100% clear, not at all. So masturbated once on the 24th, twice on the 25th, once on the 26th and once today on the 28th. Damn that is alot for me. I will try to abstain for another 2 weeks. It sucks because whenever I start to do really well with my skin, I get reckless. I masturbate more, I drink more, and I eat more unhealthy. A strange thing, during thanksgiving, my sking stayed relatively clear despite drinking alot and eating unhealthy. So because of these two things I thought I could get away with masturbating more which I did right after thanksgiving break. But now my acne is not improving anymore but getting a bit worse. BUT my gut feeling says its the magnesium for some odd reason, even though magnesium supplementation reduces insulin resistance in non-diabetic patients! (thats me!)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1463-1326.2010.01332.x/abstract
Hopefully in the next couple of days my acne will improve again because of the magnesium. If it does improve that shows that the magnesium is another helper in my insulin resistance. Though I am not 100% positive I have insulin resistance. But im pretty sure I do because chromium & cinnamon have helped so much. But then again, I did the low stomach acid test with baking soda and I thought i had low stomach acid, yet my acne did not improve with Betaine HCL. If my acne gets worse in the next couple of days, then I won't know if it is causes by the magnesium or by masturbation. (or maybe both?) So what I will do is abstain to masturbating for at least a week and completley stop magnesium. I say masturbating once a week is a realistic goal. Then I will try magnesium again once I have not masturbated for a while.
This morning my skin is a bit worse but still plenty manageable compared to my outbreak 2 weeks ago. I'm dropping the magnesium for now as I have found studies showing that it increases both free and total testosterone. Also I am not going to masturbate for a week at least. Will update then.
So my acne is a little worse today. The last time I took magnesium was the night before last. I am praying that this recent worsening is caused by magnesium so that I can clear in the next coming days as I have a presentation. I started on Bitter melon noon yesterday the 29th. This is my alternative to fenugreek and magnesium. Both are supposed to increase insulin sensitivity and aid with insulin resistance but have down sides. Fenugreek is a phytoestrogen (soy, flax break me out) and magnesium increases free testosterone. I'm not sure how that relates to dht though I think it would be best to keep overall testosterone down. So I am taking two pills of bitter melon with each meal. Today is my second day. I'm praying.
Though bittermelon has only been proven to help insulin resistance in rats. hmmm...
anecdotes here:
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/253856-can-magnesium-clear-acne/
"Not trying to scare you, but I was taking a Calcium/Magnesium, D3 pill and eventually I started getting the craziest acne around my neck (and back), where I never usually get any acne let alone deep ones. They were weird looking ones, kind of like a red splotch with a knot underneath. I don't know if it wa the calium, D mag, or capsule fillers, but I haven't had them anymore since I stopped (they were vitamin shoppe brand)."
and
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/251401-zma-great-supplement-for-acne/
"he first time I had ZMA I broke out shortly after. If I was to make a guess, I'd attribute the breakout to the fact that ZMA has been shown to increase testosterone production. IMHO I would take zinc by itself."
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=11110&page=1
"Im in the same boat you are. ZMA made my face break out terribly bad. Are there any alternatives to ZMA that would work as well or nearly as well??"
and
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/207321-just-added-magnesium-im-breaking-out/
"I added 250mg magnesium in the last week and I am suddenly breaking out more than I have been. Is my body just going through "crisis" mode?"
Today is the 4th day since I last masturbated. Sunday from Wednesday. AUGH could this go any slower?! I am breaking out even worse so I guess I can attribute it to the masturbation rather than the magnesium. Or possibly the magnesium worsened my acne a bit and now the effects of over masturbating have kicked in. I think I undersestimated how under control my acne was because of the cinnamon and chromium. I guess I will have avoid masturbating for some time again. I will report to see if I have a spike of testosterone on the 7th day which would be next wednesday the 5th of december. I hate how long it takes to clear when abstaining from masturbation. I am not sure about the 7th day testosterone spike. Does that mean every time you masturbate there will be a spike 7 days later. If so, that would make sense right now because my breakout worsened yesterday, a week after I first started masturbating.
Today is the 8th day and I am doing alot better. I didn't masturbate for a while and then I masturbated everyday for 5 days and then suddenly stopped again. The 3rd day of abstaining it got worse until the 6th day. On the 7th day it was still bad but a bit less. I am on the 8th day and I feel good. Just waiting for the old acne to heal. I give it three more days. I am also takinb b5 and carnitine once again!