So yesterday I ate very healthy - veggie omelette for breakfast, carrot sticks, cheese, almonds as snacks and then baked vegetables for dinner. I'm trying to eat as close to a paleo diet as I can and limit carbohydrates but it's hard trying to get out of being a vegetarian for the past 11 years.. my body doesn't digest meat well. I know I need to increase my stomach acid and go through this transition slowly.
Today I ate a veggie omelette for breakfast, rice cereal with almond milk, almonds, carrot sticks and rice crackers and cheese again with another veggie omelette for dinner. My diet definitely lacks variety.
I've also been drinking apple cider vinegar for the past few days to help my skin and stomach acid. It is helping my forehead but I can tell it is detoxing me because I've had a migraine every day as well as little tiny clogged pores randomly scattered on my face. I stopped drinking it today to end the migraine but will start again in a few days and also take this slowly.
I tried the caveman regimen out for a few days just splashing water on my face and experienced the flakey mask of skin and overproduction of oil I have read about. I washed my face with cleanser last night, I just can't stand the though of never using it. I have to say though, my breakouts are healing faster than normal. I've also really put a hold on my picking habit which makes me happy.
Me today... probably won't post pictures everyday but I really like seeing progress right now even if it is just a little.
Your skin is looking better already. And you are EXCEPTIONAL at makeup application. your skin looks flawless with makeup on!
Things are going great for me thanks. Gluten is the enemy for me. I havent had any in 5 months now and in that time I've probably had about 10 zits and just regular ones, not inflamed or cystic.
I still take saw P but much less. down to 160mg (1 pill) a day but I will go down to one every other day and then none and see how that goes. I also still use BP on my chin at night but not alot at all.
I am VERY happy. I still have alot of red marks from where the inflamed or cystic acne was, especially in the spots that kept occurring over and over. I am going to wait til I get to 6 months of being happy with my skin before I start to mess with any new products. I got a facial and the woman mentioned pure lavender oil as a spot treatment for red marks because its very healing, so might try that.
Aw so glad to hear that Chelslaw! Gluten is such a crapy thing to eat for health anyway, and there are so many alternatives these days. That sounds great though, it's amazing when you find the answer to why your skin is actually breaking out and learn to stop it without relying on medications or topicals. I've heard good things about lavender oil but haven't tried it myself. I think essentials oils in general are really good for the skin and also when taken internally depending on what kind of oil. I've been taking peppermint oil, oil of oregano, clove oil.. etc. They detox the whole body which in turn helps your skin.
My skin has been healing really fast ever since I stopped doing anything to it other than washing. So far everything is becoming less red and I can only report a few small whiteheads on my forehead which I think are from eating rice cereal/stress. I'm also avoiding sugar really well but my weakness is high GI food and I keep using potatoes to fill my meals instead of eating meat. I'm going to go to the organic butcher tomorrow and buy some meat. No idea how to cook it being vegetarian for the past 11 years, but I'm going to do my best. My body needs fat to become healthy, I have been living far too low fat for a while.
Going to also start apple cider vinegar again, it gives me migraines from the detox but I'm hoping that will stop soon and it will also help clear my skin.
I'll post a pic tomorrow too!
Grrrrr so angry at myself.
I was clearing up beautifully but I messed it up by eating thai food. I'm not intolerant to it, but it was sweet and greasy and high carbohydrate and now I am breaking out all over my forehead again. Battling this forehead acne is not fun, I never had this kind of acne up until 6 months ago after I was food poisoned. I think it wiped out all of my flora and then I went way overboard with probiotic yogurt and since then I have been battling SIBO.
I've been doing ACV internally and it has stopped giving me migraines so I'm going to up my dosage of that. Out of frustration I also took a peppermint oil capsule and an oil of oregano capsule. I've been drinking both straight in water the last month or so but I think I need an actual capsule that will reach my small intestine and make a dent in this. I'm going to have to be extremely strict on my eating for at least the next month to try and get this under control.
Stupid stupid stupid. I knew I shouldn't go out for food but my boyfriend and I were lazy. We were originally going for Persian food which is way healthier but it was really cold outside so we opted for thai right around the corner from our apartment. I also ate the food at work tonight - mashed potatoes and mixed vegetable. All were high starch so I'm expecting more breakouts from that too.
So, essentially if I stick to my super restrictive diet I'm fine, and if I stray from it I break out like mad on my forehead. I'm going to have to up my self control and also start taking more capsules before every meal. I'll post a pic tomorrow of the damage. So far they are all raised flesh coloured bumps, but I'm trying to leave them alone as much as possible so they don't become red marks. I've probably got about 10 in the past 24hrs. Lame lame lame.
Nothing topical has ever made a difference, if anything it has always made it worse for me.
Benzoyl peroxide dosen't do anything to my skin anymore other than dry it out and irritate it... I prefer the no topicals route because then I'm not depending on anything other than what is going on internally.
I figured some things out last night! I was doing some reading and it seems that some natural antibiotics/antifungals only target bad bacteria and yeast and leave good bacteria alone. This would be great if I didn't cause SIBO myself from probiotics, but all of the bacteria in my small intestine are good bacteria that aren't supposed to be there.
So things that don't touch good bacteria are: oil of oregano and grapefruit seed extract
Things that eradicate 50% of good bacteria are: peppermint oil
Things that kill all bacteria: garlic, caprylic acid, digestive enzymes, goldenseal.
I'm just taking this information from another forum, someone did a test on these with a culture of yogurt and documented the results. It's interesting though because oil of oregano hasn't been touching my problem and only peppermint oil a little... so I'm going to be eating a lot of garlic in the next few weeks as well as taking caprylic acid thats enteric coated to reach the small intestine. Hopefully this works for my forehead. I'm thinking it will.
Well unfortunately I keep messing things up. Treating this is really and trial and error game, just like it was trying to find my food intolerances. I'm extremely confident that when I do get rid of this small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and I learn to stop picking, that my skin will be clear for the most part.
Things that I have come to realize break me out: peanut butter and rice cereal. I also cheated and had natural potatoe chips - not very smart as the oils always cause breakouts.
I'm trying to stay extremely low carb to get rid of this imbalance. It is easier said than done because my diet before this was essentially carbs, fruit and veggies.
I'm rotating quite a few different anti-bacterials at the moment and take one before a meal. At my disposal: oil of oregano capsules, peppermint oil capsules, clove oil, olive leaf extract, apple cider vinegar, goldenseal/burdock, garlic oil capsules, coconut oil and garlic itself. Apparently ginger keeps the bacteria from sticking to the walls of the small intestine so I'm going to start ginger tea as well... it is so yummy. My stomach is definitely going through some changes, if I eat anything high in carbs it swells up and feels extremely uncomfortable. I just want to beat this thing. Digestive enzymes kill the bacteria and starve it so I'm going to get some of those today. I need to also start taking my L-glutamine because it will aid in the healing.
One thing that is good is that I always get really bad cramps that time of the month... and this time I got NONE. That is unheard of for me so positive changes are taking place in my body.
I've been doing more reading online and there are quite a few people out there in the same situation. A lot of people have had success going on the antibiotic rifaximin because it only acts on the small intestine - but unfortunately you can't get it here in Canada. I'm hesitant to take any other antibiotics other than natural ones, but if I'm not seeing improvement within a month of being really strict on my diet then I might go to my doctor and see what we can do.
When I avoid what I'm supposed to my skin really does start healing but I'm starving myself because I don't know what to eat and everything I'm used to upsets my stomach. So today is bone broth soup day! No matter what is going on this is full of nutrients, healing for the intestines and easy on the stomach. I'm going to live off that for the next few days as well as veggies. Here is a recent pic.. my forehead is still crappy but it's not breaking out everyday anymore.
I'm not taking all of those things right now, just listing them to know what I can take to help with this. Right now I'm taking peppermint oil once a day, caprylic acid once a day and sometimes a goldenseal tincture. I think most of them are okay together since they are all natural extracts though - I'm taking them as a herbal antibiotic so I can hopefully get rid of the bacteria in my small intestine where it doesn't belong. I've seen herbal cleanse formulas with all of them in one pill so I think it should be fine. But I also don't want to overwhelm my body with too many things so I'm just sticking to a few right now.
I also tried some L-glutamine powder today and after an hour I looked in the mirror and my skin tone looked much better! It is supposed to re-build the intestinal lining from damage so I'll keep taking that and hopefully it will help. I've taken it in a fibre supplement before and it never gave me any problems.
After voicing my frustrations about my skin with my boyfriend today he suggested I go into an all out elimination diet again since my stomach and food reactions have changed. I think he is right. My elimination diet in the past helped me discover that corn and wheat were my intolerances and if I avoided them my skin stayed clear. But now a year and half later after this food poisoning incident my body has changed and there is a lot more inflammation and bacterial issues going on. He is in the same boat since he also got the food poisoning but his body's way of showing the issues is breaking out in hives every two weeks. If he takes an antihistamine it stays away for two weeks but it always comes back. This started right after we were food poisoned too. The doctors have run tests and can't figure it out either. If he eats yogurt it stays away for longer (probiotics) but it is just masking the issue because as soon as he stops it comes back. (Same thing I noticed with my forehead but I stopped yogurt all together to get to the root of the problem.)
Getting your body in balance is a tricky thing! But I think diet has the most impact on the actual changes. Instead of breaking out every day it is more like every three days now but I have to find the little things that are causing it. If I'm intolerant to something (like wheat and corn) I break out around my nose and sometimes on my forehead. If it is something to do with my new issue (which I believe to be SIBO) I break out on my forehead only. If my body isn't eliminating properly (mostly constipation) my chin breaks out. I can control my chin and nose easily but it's this forehead issue that I've never dealt with before. They are all small raised bumps, sometimes with a whitehead sometimes not. I tend to go crazy trying to reduce them and then then flatten and turn into big red marks. Not the best way to deal with them but at least I can cover them with makeup then.
Anyways, picture tomorrow. Starting elimination diet tomorrow too. I'll stick to eggs, cheese, butter, veggies, herbs, rice and potatoes. I know these foods are safe. Maybe try a little bit of meat here and there but it's affect is unknown.
Just a quick update but my skin is doing really well!
I stayed on my natural anti-bacterials for one week and then stopped taking all of them. I am drinking apple cider vinegar every few days but for more benefit than just my skin. I've been trying to follow a low FODMAPS diet - which is what I've read is suggested for people with SIBO. So far it is working out great. My stomach is getting back to normal and I'm documenting foods that give me a stomach reaction. Usually a stomach reaction = acne for me. Also, taking L-glutamine must have really helped my gut because any whiteheads I do get a usually very tiny now. I plan to take L-glutamine once a week to keep repairing it.
One thing I realized is that I have been totally avoiding is dairy - other than butter. Cheese never bothered my stomach or skin in the past but I'm wondering what will happen when I eat it. It might be one of the reasons my skin is healing up. I'll have to try some in a few days as a test and see what happens.
Overall things are good! I got glutened somehow the past few days so I look haggard with huge bags under my eyes and did get some new spots pop up, but nothing serious and everything is healing. Topically I have been using a mist of rosewater and non-alcohol witch hazel at night and once a week I put a drop of clove oil in water and then splash the water on my face. It is anti-fungal/anti-bacterial so it definitely helps.
Well my skin was getting better...
I think I need to deal with my emotional problems just as much as my diet. My skin looks horrible because I can't stop squeezing and picking. Maybe 1/10th of the acne I get has a whitehead, the others are just stupid little tiny bumps which I should leave alone. Instead and pop them and squeeze them and damage my skin which results in red marks all over and makes me look horrible. The irony is that when I had really bad acne when I was younger and actual pustules I would never even pop them even when they were ready! It probably prevented a lot of scaring which I am now creating!!!
My boyfriend and Mom have made me aware that most of my problem is self inflicted and that if I didn't pick or pop I would barely have acne at all. I can see in my own pictures when I leave my skin alone it starts getting better and when I start messing with it trying to obtain "perfection" it gets 10 times worse.
I had some jojoba oil sitting around and my skin felt dry so for two days I put some on at night. BIG MISTAKE. I woke up this morning with 10 new small bumps which I then proceeded to make into red marks. Fml. I started freaking out and this is how my boyfriend and I got to talking about my skin. He is 100% convinced I do most of it to myself and is getting frustrated that I don't just leave it alone because he hates seeing me upset. I also took some chances with my diet (soy milk, deep-friend chips, gluten free banana bread etc.) which also could have contributed to this problem.
So back to square one again. Not touching or doing anything to my face other than washing it once a day at night and I will eat strictly again and not try any new foods. It seems when things start to get better I try a bunch of new things at once and end up fucking myself over. I kind of feel like an idiot right now.
The first picture is when I was completely leaving my skin alone, the second is what it looks likes today.
Well I realize I may sound crazy in this log, which I am fine with...
But I have another hypothesis.
I no doubt have SIBO resulting from food poisoning, low stomach acid etc. but I guess a big part of me ignored that this problem I am facing on my forehead could be a topical issue. Since fixing all my skin problems in the past through diet I failed to see that I was dealing with now is something vastly different. While diet changes obviously help my skin (and especially the lower half of my face) I think what I have going on with my forehead is folliculitis!
Here's why:
When I applied diluted oil or oregano it seemed to really help my skin. The problem was that oil of oregano always has a carrier oil (like olive oil) and folliculitis thrives in oily conditions. The oil is what it feeds on. So I still broke our a bit. Lately (every second or third day) I have been putting clove oil in water and applying the water to my face. Lately my face was really clearing up too! It was dry and flaking so I tried the jojoba oil. The rest of my face loved it while my forehead went nuts! The first day after applying it was okay, but the second day.. wow. I haven't seen my skin go from great to horrible that fast, really ever. I have at least 15-20 new spots crop up on my forehead! I decided to leave it alone and see what would happen but woke up today with a bunch more.
Enough is enough I said to myself and if the clove oil helped I would go with it. So I applied some this morning. When I came home from work I was shocked but the new spots went down at least 50%!!! I just applied some more clove oil tonight and most of the spots are almost gone. I'm actually quite amazed!!!
So clearly this is a topical issue, which is far from what I had guessed when I started this log. The topical issue stems from an internal imbalance no doubt, but fixing that imbalance isn't going to fix the problem itself. It also explains why I could eat like a saint (which under normal circumstances clears my face right up) yet it wouldn't make a huge difference to my skin on my forehead.
So I will continue the clove oil. I'm still unsure if the folliculitis is fungal or bacterial... as clove oil combats both. In a weeks time I will see how my skin is doing after applying this twice a day. If it continues working there are also loads of other essential oils that are both anti fungal and antibacterial so I will rotate to something like lemongrass or thyme so whatever this is can't build up a resistance. If this works (which I pray it does! because it really seems like it is..) then I will gradually taper off the applications and only do them for maintenance going down to once a day, once every two days etc..
I'm also going to be very careful about not touching my skin, not using towels on it, cleaning my pillow cases etc. as to not keep reinfecting myself.
I really hope this is the answer because if it is I can reintroduce yogurt into my diet and once I have reintroduced yogurt I can start reintroducing other foods that have been giving my stomach problems, because yogurt solves all those problems! I'm wondering if stoping yogurt actually exasperated my symptoms of this, where I thought it was helping my skin by staying away from it.
In any case, I'll post pictures tomorrow and of the coming week to note any improvements. So far they have been substantial in just a day!
I also have benonite clay I can use to keep my forehead bone dry of any oil so I can really get rid of this thing!
Heres hoping...
Wow that was a horrible breakout from the jojoba oil! I used to put oil on my skin everyday!
It is so hard to tell if what I am currently dealing with is external or internal. Surely it is a combination but to what extent? I've had staph folliculitis on my chin before so it isn't entirely impossible that it is what I am dealing with on my forehead. My digestive issues do correlate to my skin though, so I'm having a really hard time understanding what is happening.
I know all of my face other than my forehead only breaks out when I eat foods I'm intolerant to. But my forehead? It can clear up and then explode out of nowhere. I do know that the clove oil I have been using is REALLY helping, so a big part of me thinks it is some kind of folliculitus. That, and the lesions aren't inflammatory, they never hurt and don't seem deep in my skin at all. I will keep using clove oil and continue to post my results. I also bought thyme oil which is also antibacterial/anti fungal.
Internally I drink oregon grape root tea every few days to help my internal balance. It is a natural antibiotic because it contains berberine. I also started taking a small amount of vitamin b5 because if whatever is going on with my forehead is aggravated by oil, I can use the b5 to further decrease my oil production. I've used it in the past to control oily skin, but it never did anything for my acne because it was caused by wheat and corn which I was consuming regularly.
Anyways, blah blah blah, I'm getting tired of theorizing and just going to focus on what is working and hope that it keeps working!
Pictures..... the first pic is in the midst of the bad breakout, the second pic is of me today. Clove oil darkens the red marks before they fade, but none of the marks are active acne. The marks on the lower half of my face and nose were caused by eating bacon. Happens every time but every once and a while I feel like I need to eat a greasy breakfast for my body.
Ugh I am yet again an idiot. I was only taking 100mg of B5 for 3 days and it has broken my skin out like crazy! Actual painful pimples everywhere which I never get. 100mg... most people take like 10 grams!!! My system must be extremely sensitive! So I have obviously stopped taking it. Everyone talks about an initial breakout with it as it pushes all of the crap inside your pores out. I did not think I was taking enough for it to do that. It also affects your adrenal and lowers testosterone.. maybe one of those factors as well?
This should be the don't-try-too-many-things-to-fix-your-acne-because-you-end-up-making-it-worse-thread. Doing nothing other than washing and applying the tinniest bit of clove oil diluted in water was completely working. I know I can get clear with just that if I stop fucking everything up.
Note to self: STOP TRYING DIFFERENT THINGS THEY ONLY MAKE IT WORSE.
Will update in a bit once this breakout subsides...
Closing this log down. I went to the doctor today and I don't have acne I have folliculitus!!! He says it is bacterial and I will need to go on minocycline.
So obviously no amount of diet changes are going to fix that. I ate one cookie and my face flared with 100 pimples on my forehead! Acne does not act like that.
I will be making sure to take probiotics with the antibiotics to minimize affects to my system.
Starting out on a high dose and lowering down but I will need to be on it for a few months.
So yeah.. if your acne doesn't respond to anything, consider folliculitus.
Thanks for posting - I was always following along 
Best of luck!!!
Last week I ate an insane amount of candy, chocolate and baked goods- tons of easter dinners etc. Now I have my first big bump happening on my chin since going gluten free 6 months ago.
Drinking tons and tons of water, continuing on with my skin regime and cutting back tremendously with the sugar and hoping it goes away before it gets ugly!
Hey chelslaw,
thank you for your continued support
I'm so glad going gluten free had such great affects for you! I'm sure the one bump is just a warning sign to get back into your regular pattern and then it will vanish. I do get regular acne if I eat anything with wheat as well. I think it's your body's way of telling you not to eat what you are eating hehe.
Absolutely. I havent had any wheat, its just a super duper increase in sugar!
I had 3 Easter dinners and I did lots of baking. I decided to switch my exercise routine and workout in the mornings and then my evenings were free, so I baked and I ate sweets. It wasnt good. I decided for me that its best if I do my errands and exercise in the evenings to keep me busy
The bump luckily came to a head ( a few times) so its not a true cyst/nodule.
I will take it as a warning sign to get back into a better eating pattern!! Its been my first big bump since arround Xmas and same thing then, tons of gluten free baked goods, candies, chocolates, sugary cocktails etc.