if u take d3 vitamins u dont need 1hr of sun exposure and being in the sun for atleast 15min is fine since sun is bad for your skin

if u take d3 vitamins u dont need 1hr of sun exposure and being in the sun for atleast 15min is fine since sun is bad for your skin

from my experience sun usually helps to a certain degree, usually within 2-3days of sun exposure. this didn't happen with vit. D3. problem with the sun, again from my experience, is if u stop it acne comes back with a little revenge. i'm optimistic about this treatment so i'll try to help it in any (naturistic) way.

i have a friend who finished medical school, he is a bit clueless about acne, but on one little reflection told me that the sun thru melanin, may change the skin down at DNA level.(not sure this was his exact expression)

anyway, for me sun helps, and fast.

I would love to get some more sun but am cautious for one reason only, left over hyper pigmentation that is slowly fading. Everyone I come across says not to get any sun exposure if your looking for the fading to accelerate. Thoughts? Also, I cleaned up my diet quite awhile back and was drinking TONS of green tea daily, after about four months I was complete clear then relapsed with junk food and once again have acne. I highly believe my acne is caused by food, I just can feel it deep down.

I would love to get some more sun but am cautious for one reason only, left over hyper pigmentation that is slowly fading. Everyone I come across says not to get any sun exposure if your looking for the fading to accelerate. Thoughts? Also, I cleaned up my diet quite awhile back and was drinking TONS of green tea daily, after about four months I was complete clear then relapsed with junk food and once again have acne. I highly believe my acne is caused by food, I just can feel it deep down.

i know that with this sun thing i'm "against the wave" on this forum. i never had hyperpigmentation and i live by the Danube, with a healthy salt lake around the city, and the black sea easy in reach, so i had plenty of sun exposure since i was little. i know i had a gf who was very white and the sun only made her red no matter what, i never get red, although i know some common sense rules about the sun. the irony here is i bet sun exposure did most of the work these past few days (unfortunately). btw i never used bp, salicylic acid, etc, only green tea and v salty water mainly.

thanks for the (drinking) green tea tip, i'd expected caffeine to mess with acne.

i haven't eaten junk food in 3,5 years and it did help but not cured acne 100% just up to 50%max.

ok, so end of week3:

steady linear progress all according to plan, with no surprises. if it will go this way i'll get into more details of my regime (like whenever i drink water i always squeeze a bit of lemon, or the teas or important herb i take 30min before the meals, or teas during the night. or that my saw palmetto pills are 25%fatty acids and i take them 3x/day (~1000mg in total/day) 30min before meals, or my worries about the hormones injected chicken, and how good beef is - almost a medicine -, the relation i see with acne and scrotum behaviour (hormonal searches and tests i'm doing), etc details..) but even now i'm still suspicious about this natural treatment reaching 100% healing. i expect it to stop at max 85%, but even right now i quite please with the results, i can live careless like this.. ok so let's analize:

progress: 45% on face skin (all redness that might indicate acne is almost unnoticible. whiteheads are still appearing twice a day, but max 2 white spots and it takes them at least 3hr to form and get noticed, which is very satisfieing to me). 50% improvement on back.

notes: the sun is tricky indeed, completely unreliable, but i know some risks (like drying the skin and the reveange after) and i still use it (even if not focused on acne, but other parts in some degree)

i came home yesterday with a full bag of herbs/teas mostly dht inhibitors (again search wikipedia on 5 alfa reductase inhibitors) like angelica, tuia, pine, ganoderma, etc a big list.

i didn't started this log at the begining because i didn't have pictures, and i still didn't have because it's hard to take some (..), and i always thought that if this regime works i'll have some pics when it's already too late, so being *scared* that this might happen i desperatly took some now. lousy, but here we go.

(to the face i didn't do anything, i have only 1 whitehead around the nose. this is how i woke up:)

the back, a few days ago people told me it's almost 80% healed, but they exagerated (in my opinion). anyways it's looking nice and sexy lol..

again i don't have "now & before" images but to give you an idea:

now:

before:

[Edited image out]

week4 report: (the cursed week)

i had the biggest brakeout at the starting of the week, within 3h ~7 big whiteheads appeared, the next day i was getting cysts on my face, around 6, acne on some unusual areas for me, big whiteheads on the forehead hairline (i never got those) and ~30 on my back. i'll list culprit factors (things/situations that changed):

1. i ate that hormones soup (chicken soup) that i've been curseing thru the week (ironically a derm on tv said foods don't influece acne except chicken/turkey <probabl hormone injected, and also chocholate)

1bis. i ws about to catch the flu/sore throat (i avoided it eventually, in 1-2days it was over)

2. i stoped the sun exposure (a week earlier actually)

3. i took a small break from all those teas (i'm still on the break lol 'cause i'm lazy to always make them)

4. possibly ate a little more honey (not sure)

so, no. 4 falls 'cause i "abused" honey at other times, even after the breakout day(2days to be precise). this also applies to no.3.

for no.2 i was expecting a backfire from the sun exposure, but much later, but why so bursty? and why did it stop that fast? to me this also falls.

Now, the 2 remaining are to me heaven and hell. let's take heaven first: no.1 i'd be soo lucky to find the biggest acne trigger (for me).

now the helly situation:

a. if getting a little flu has shut down my imune system defending me from acne, this means i have at least moderate acne..

b. the saw palmetto doesn't do anything (atleast yet), it was suppose to command my sebaceous glands to stop provokeing acne

c. a backup for b. i noticed that those little glasses dents/wounds on my nose are reddish on acne days (are doing bad), and are almost not reddish at all on good acne days. that means on good acne days i'm just super heathy. sh.t! hope the theory is wrong.

ayways, progress: 28% on face (i was on 45% remember?, i counted the whiteheads this morning -> 13 small ones); 38% on back (such a shame, the visible pimples are mostly from that breakout)

one more mention: after this 2days breakeout i constantly progressed, angain in linear mode, like usual. over all i can't complain, it's all good comparing to how it was preparing to become (cysts all over, huh)

end of week5: no pregress, no regress. stagnation.

i'm genneraly more heathy these days, i can look at my glasses marks and their not so red, and of course that's how my acne is. but being generally heathy has nothing to do with acne, so i can get 10 whiteheads whithin 2-3hours. that makes me non-functional from my perspective, it's embarrasing to always get the small mirror out for checking and then to the bathroom..

i have to write now or i'll lose track of this log completely

end of week6:

started really bad, with no obvious reason, then 3-4 days later recovery came.. so there goes my linear progress.. a pity.

i started taking magnesium with calcium + D3

also no wheat (bread), and no high glicemic foods.

end of week7:

steady progress somewhat, but i remembered my rule for diet<>acne progress CHECK YOUR WEIGHT! ..and i've been losing ~3kg. so... there's where that progress came.

last few days seem even better (whiteheads taking much longer to appear, and much smaller), for 2weeks now i'm using a different brand of saw palmetto which i trust more.

all-in-all i can't complain, i'm almost at half of acne healing (since i started). the saw palmetto says stop after 2-3months, so i have another month to see progress and then i'm f**ked. running out of ideas, well actually today i was searching on adrenal glands, they seem to be quite important in acne. maybe aldosterone could be the cause (i have quite a few of the hyperaldosteronism symptomes, but they're to general).. i'm stuck at informations atm.

so, end of month2: stagnation

note: magnesium, no bread (no gluten), low glicemic foods, don't do anything to acne.. but i'll stick to them for at least one more week, just to give them a little more chance.. we're so stupid giving in to these kinds of crap, i almost feel like watching the horoscope (that dumb)

anyway, i took a hq photo last week but i can't post it.. it makes me throw up, so i started the brevoxyl regimen a couple of days ago, and it seems to work.

this shouldn't affect the hormonal "treatment" i'm trying, but these results will only show on my back (i use bp only on my chin).

good luck to me.

i'll only post on this log, and more like with a 2 weeks rate, if i can remember lol .. so goodby.

Have you ever tried a saliva test to see if your hormones are balanced?

Have you ever tried a saliva test to see if your hormones are balanced?

no, i'll look into it, thanks. i always wanted to try the saliva test for candida but i always forget.

but i don't expect to find anything anormal.

Yeah! Maybe not even just for candida but for testosterone? I will check my hormones in a few months, just to see if there's is anything besides birth control to do about it.

Yeah! Maybe not even just for candida but for testosterone? I will check my hormones in a few months, just to see if there's is anything besides birth control to do about it.

"wait"

something seems to be working here. i started taking vit A + B complex(for the B-2) 3 days ago, also keeping the as little GI as possible regimen and the rest of my regimen of course, and my back seems to be clearing up nicely. although i can't explain the few new "reds" on my back this morning, but it could be that it needs more time.

one thing that i have to mention at the GI regimen, or ask, is that i think there's a big difference between which part of the day you're consuming high glicemic foods (in our case medium, because high - never), i assume that in the morning you can get away with a little bread or sweet fruits, but i don't want to test this so i don't ruin everything.

and of course the further into the day - after 4pm, (no eating after 8pm or even 6pm if conditions alow), is the trickiest meal, where no touch of oil, sweets of course, as little of complex carbs, etc should be encountered.

but i have a feeling that the vitamins combo are making the biggest difference.

i'll do my weekly updates.

So you stick to low GI but most fruits are low GI as well right? I will never stop eating my whole grain breads. I'm planning to swtich for my whole grains for whole spelt, which is much better for you I heared. I mean, if paleo is working for me I should've at least see some difference. Now I eat 'bad' stuff on my bread like ham, salami, etc. But when I will do my regimen it will me salmon, tuna, humus, avacoda, egg, etc.

Vitamin D is breaking me out.... I don't know why! I have all tiny clogged pores on my forehead and chin... So I will lower my dosage (from 8000 IU to 2000 IU per day) and see how that goes. Every slighty change in hormones is breaking me out...weird though, because the sun is making me look and feel nice and not giving me clogged pores. this kind of scares me for the post pill breakout.

Testosterone is probably your enemy too, since you're good on low GI. Will you post photos? Have you lost any weight over this regimen? I really should be careful on that.

What kind of DHT-block teas are you drinking? Think I'll pick some up as well...

So you stick to low GI but most fruits are low GI as well right? I will never stop eating my whole grain breads. I'm planning to swtich for my whole grains for whole spelt, which is much better for you I heared. I mean, if paleo is working for me I should've at least see some difference. Now I eat 'bad' stuff on my bread like ham, salami, etc. But when I will do my regimen it will me salmon, tuna, humus, avacoda, egg, etc.

Vitamin D is breaking me out.... I don't know why! I have all tiny clogged pores on my forehead and chin... So I will lower my dosage (from 8000 IU to 2000 IU per day) and see how that goes. Every slighty change in hormones is breaking me out...weird though, because the sun is making me look and feel nice and not giving me clogged pores. this kind of scares me for the post pill breakout.

Testosterone is probably your enemy too, since you're good on low GI. Will you post photos? Have you lost any weight over this regimen? I really should be careful on that.

not all fruits are equal, (i wouldn't eat a banana or raisins in the evening), you really should get aquainted with detailed glicemic index charts, the first that pops out is: http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_100_foods.htm

my suggestion is also to make friends with buckwheat, this is the meal of choise for the last meal, or other alternatives like lentils (but ckeck this chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_index ) or chickpeas. but buckwheat has a bit of inositol, so it's also a medicine for acne & hormonal imbalances. also my daily cabbage has a bit of DIM/i3c, so it's also like a medicine, not only healthy food.

eating low carbs will make you lose fat(weight), indeed i lost weight, but you can prevent this by eating more food, like at least 4-6 meals instead of the usual 3meals/day. and also i found out that for me beef is almost like a medicine.(also cow liver is v good), and like i said in the morning you can get away with eating a littler higher GI foods. also fats in the morning i assume will keep the weight on.

on the hormonal side, even if there's a macro imbalance like "too much testosterone", although i suspect i have to little, since i have extremely little facial hair and no balding issues. no, hormones are more complex than that, like too much Dihydrotestosterone sensitivity in my skin for example. BUT even if i find out what exact hormone i have a problem with, then what?

ultimately my weapons of choice will still be: vitamins+diet+exercices+sleep, one quick mention: we should not push our body too much in the evening, this means no food/no stress/no activity phisical or mental.

like i said, i used an anti-androgen-tea-herbs-combination which temporarely even stopped my production of semen, so i it's powerfull if you aim for less androgens (BUT, it had very little impact on my acne!)

i made tea using these herbs: minth(spearmint)+fennel+liqurice+stinging nettle+coriander+ there are others more specific to dht, like angelica,pine, etc, check the herbs section on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-alpha-reductase_inhibitor

also check wiki for antiandrogens/testosterone.

my back seems to continue to clear-up but i think it's more the merrit of vit.A+B, it's still too early to take photos, i doubt the cammera can catch all the subtle changes. as for my face, i'm using brevoxyl so i'm almost acneless. plus i hate whiteheads so much i wouldn't post photos with those. i still have some cysts on my jawline, but few, some redness under my nose, and my chin, also some small whiteheads there, and v few on my neck. my back is the real deal, it's always been full of red pimples. i'll post my weekly update.

good luck.

ps. be carefull to not drink water from warm or sunlit plastic, eat chicken if you know it's hormone injected, or soy if it's heavily pesticide treated(like GMO version is), also carefully wash all fruits& etc that might have pesticides. (all this screws your hormone system really bad)

Thanks for your very informative post!!

You're right... maybe for a man you'll always take the same route, no matter what your imbalance is. I do think that it is for woman slightly different, since there's so much to do about their hormones and they seem to imbalance in different life stages (puberty, post pill, pregnancy, menopause). Sooo maybe there's more you could do about it whenever using specific herbs. But yeah, overall I think just eating really well and no stress is a must!

So you take most carbs in the morning? Hmm.. I was actually planning on making a vedges egg in the morning for breakfast, than for snack gojo berries + pumpkin seed (plus a buckwheat cookie!) and in the afternoon I will have 4 slices of organic spelt bread with avocado/humus/tuna/salmon with vedges on the side and a fruit smoothie (something berry-ish). At 4 pm snack fruit/buckwheat cookie/raisins/nuts/seeds. At dinner vedges, meat/fish quinoa/brown rice. At night a green smoothie + fruit/buckwheat cookie/whatever. What do you think of this? I'm a 1.65 m and 49 kg woman, so losing ANY weight at all is not an option...

I also have no hair loss or unwanted hair growth issues. What does this say about me? I just have acne...

I will look out for the teas, thank you so much! Btw, can you combina this diet'/lifestyle easily with work? I can't exercise on day time cause of my job

Thanks for your very informative post!!

You're right... maybe for a man you'll always take the same route, no matter what your imbalance is. I do think that it is for woman slightly different, since there's so much to do about their hormones and they seem to imbalance in different life stages (puberty, post pill, pregnancy, menopause). Sooo maybe there's more you could do about it whenever using specific herbs. But yeah, overall I think just eating really well and no stress is a must!

So you take most carbs in the morning? Hmm.. I was actually planning on making a vedges egg in the morning for breakfast, than for snack gojo berries + pumpkin seed (plus a buckwheat cookie!) and in the afternoon I will have 4 slices of organic spelt bread with avocado/humus/tuna/salmon with vedges on the side and a fruit smoothie (something berry-ish). At 4 pm snack fruit/buckwheat cookie/raisins/nuts/seeds. At dinner vedges, meat/fish quinoa/brown rice. At night a green smoothie + fruit/buckwheat cookie/whatever. What do you think of this? I'm a 1.65 m and 49 kg woman, so losing ANY weight at all is not an option...

I also have no hair loss or unwanted hair growth issues. What does this say about me? I just have acne...

I will look out for the teas, thank you so much! Btw, can you combina this diet'/lifestyle easily with work? I can't exercise on day time cause of my job

this whole diet thing is very consuming in many ways(it could get you into depression lol), so i would be sure it brings steady results, or else ..back to allopathy. in my case, i'm still experimenting and results are not very clear, but there's a girl here dscully which says diet got her rid of acne,(+some topicals like retinol hehe): http://www.acne.org/messageboard/user/367483-dscully/?tab=posts

from my point of view about your diet, i would say this: would be great to exercise in the morning (at leat minor stretches and a few squats, it's so vital for the blood flow to the outside, especially skin), the earlier in the day the better. it would be great to put an extra meal in the first part of the day, i have a hunch meals should not be too big (glicemic load, like alternativista says, you may want to copy this diet you mentioned and show it to her, she's the "nutrition guru" around here lol), but i can tell you now that for the night you're not allowed anything sweet, so no cookies and no fruits. i would recomend only buckwheat, boiled, and with as little oil as you can. the next morning you should notice all the redness of acne, and even whiteheads rapidly fading. if it doesn't, then.. it's a shame, and you can drop it. again check the glicemic/insulinic stuff of whatever you eat.

btw, that 4pm snack is too sweat, raisins are a glicemic bomb, you can't put that with fruit and cookies, not even in the morning.. the 4 pm, should be a real meal, the last serious meal of the day (meat/lentils/peas/beans/anything, the nuts and seeds are ok).

Yeah... it sounds very demanding! How can you even combine this with a social life/work? I really DO feel like diet plays a role in acne, but I don't believe that it can just solve it all. It could make it better for most people and maybe cure for others, but I just don't know. For what price, right?

I could definitely exercise in the morning, but I have problems with the not-eating-after-4-pm thing. I am working at that time.. I can't take 5 meals to work... that's just crazy.

I would love to try this diet, but I'm very sure I won't stick with it anyway. Seppo from acneeinstein said that you have to do a diet you can stick with, and avoid your personal triggers. As a person, I already eat pretty healthy, but I can always add in more vedges. I just don't want to go crazy on the diet thing, it would make me depressed for sure. I will just do it my way I think and add in more vedges and the right supplements (inositol and a multivitamin). I do not need the refined sugars, but I really feel like I'm allowed to eat my home made buckwheat cookies sweetened with raisins/honey/whatever.

And I think I'm naturally high in testosterone. I just think so because my skin is such an oil slick all the time, even when being on the pill (and I had ovarian cysts; pcos). So even eating extremely healthy won't get rid of those amounts of testosterone. But we'll see! I obviously have to quit birth control soon (in august) and we'll see what happens next! I just bought my spearmint tea, but I'm just not sure it's the right type of mint... it's the mint that is always served when you order mint tea! Is that right?

Yeah... it sounds very demanding! How can you even combine this with a social life/work? I really DO feel like diet plays a role in acne, but I don't believe that it can just solve it all. It could make it better for most people and maybe cure for others, but I just don't know. For what price, right?

I could definitely exercise in the morning, but I have problems with the not-eating-after-4-pm thing. I am working at that time.. I can't take 5 meals to work... that's just crazy.

I would love to try this diet, but I'm very sure I won't stick with it anyway. Seppo from acneeinstein said that you have to do a diet you can stick with, and avoid your personal triggers. As a person, I already eat pretty healthy, but I can always add in more vedges. I just don't want to go crazy on the diet thing, it would make me depressed for sure. I will just do it my way I think and add in more vedges and the right supplements (inositol and a multivitamin). I do not need the refined sugars, but I really feel like I'm allowed to eat my home made buckwheat cookies sweetened with raisins/honey/whatever.

 

And I think I'm naturally high in testosterone. I just think so because my skin is such an oil slick all the time, even when being on the pill (and I had ovarian cysts; pcos). So even eating extremely healthy won't get rid of those amounts of testosterone. But we'll see! I obviously have to quit birth control soon (in august) and we'll see what happens next! I just bought my spearmint tea, but I'm just not sure it's the right type of mint... it's the mint that is always served when you order mint tea! Is that right?

i wouldn't know the name of the minth because i picked it up myself from a field but the teas combo can make a real difference.

and yes the diet is almost not worth even trying.

personally for 3years i've been on this diet:

1.absolutely no sugar(no cakes,cookies, nothing)

2.nothing canned/tinned/prepared (no salami,sausages, etc, no mustard,ketchup,etc. no bought bread > just homemade whole bread)

3.no potatoes/rice or anything like this type of big carb

4.as less heated oil as possible

5.others, i can't remember them now, garlic almost daily like i mentioned, propolis daily, you get the idea, i had probably the most healthy diet in my city lol

oh, and with almost no exceptions (maybe on my birthday some alcohol. did i mention no alcohol, no coffe, etc?)

and with almost NO SIGNIFICANT RESULTS. (only temporary, especially when i lost a lot of weight)

so now hopefully people will understand why i argued against alternativista or others that claim a healthy diet is the cure for acne.

I have the same experience as you, diet hasn't affected my acne ever. I just recently started to take saw palmetto in hopes that it will reduce my sebum production. Luckily I have never got any pimples on my back, haven't even used any cleanser on my back or body ever. it stays perfect always. I only get acne on my cheeks and sides of jaw and I have oily face. You don't seem to suffer from oily skin, lucky bastard..

I have very oily skin too... even on birth control!!

I know you're right. I mean, she def. says good things about diet, but it's not the cure to all and that is kind of what she seems to promote... I must admit that I feel amazing (fysically) now I'm drinking green smoothies and more vedges, so only for that matter I will keep it up. But nothing in my skin changed...

I am a lot less strict than you! I mean.. we only live once. I don't go crazy on anything, but I like to go out sometimes and have some wine or eat something I love (I was never a sugar fan anyways...).

I think I will open a topic about this, but I read that some natural DHT blockers only focus on blocking type 2, which is the DHT form that is causing hair loss etc. That's not my problem, I need a type 1 inhibitor that inhibits the oil glands. Do you know anything about that? Or shall I open a topic about it?

I think this acne story is so confusing... no wait, the hormonal topic is difficult.

I have the same experience as you, diet hasn't affected my acne ever. I just recently started to take saw palmetto in hopes that it will reduce my sebum production. Luckily I have never got any pimples on my back, haven't even used any cleanser on my back or body ever. it stays perfect always. I only get acne on my cheeks and sides of jaw and I have oily face. You don't seem to suffer from oily skin, lucky bastard..

my skin type so to speak is quite oily, sometimes i put a finger on my forehead/cheek and it gets full of oil BUT since i started this regimen (you may want to read some parts of my log) i hadn't had oily skin anymore. (i think saw palmetto is the main saviour here, but not sure)

BUT2 since i started using brevoxyl (bp) on my chin&jawline (where my acne currently is) i started having oily skin again(on my cheeks&nose&forehead).

..just a curious notice.

ps. probably because bp dries the skin, althogh i use moisturise a lot, and this sends messages to the glands to produce more oil.

but experiment with vitamin A, that should dry the skin quite a lot.

I think I will open a topic about this, but I read that some natural DHT blockers only focus on blocking type 2, which is the DHT form that is causing hair loss etc. That's not my problem, I need a type 1 inhibitor that inhibits the oil glands. Do you know anything about that? Or shall I open a topic about it?

please do. not sure anyone knows much, not even greengables or jlcampi maybe idk.

I did it! I don't know anything about that either but I read it online! I had definitely more hair loss this week, maybe cause I ran out of spearmint and that was a side effect from stopping? Of course, I also went crazy on the spearmint xD

Very curious if anyone knows about it! I really believe that testosterone (which form? really don't know... I guess DHT) is causing my acne. How else would you explain an increase of acne when I took D3, DIM and maca... that are all supplements that also play with your T..