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For those unfamiliar, databased was a member here a few years back. Over the course of a few months, he developed a pretty interesting method of keeping his skin clear. Basic outline, as I understand it:
- Spend most of your day outside, getting light from the sky into your naked eyes (no glasses / contacts of any kind, no sitting behind window glass, no blocking UVA). Note that this isn't about getting sunlight on your skin, but rather about getting skylight into your retinas, in order to keep the pineal gland from releasing melatonin during the daytime, thus saving it for nighttime release. He spent most of his time outside in the shade, but with the sky nonetheless taking up most of his field of vision.
- Go to sleep at the same time every night, get 9+ uninterrupted hours, and don't let any light whatsoever hit your eyes. Black out your windows, turn off / hide all the little electronic lights in your bedroom, cover the bottom of your door, or wear a heavy sleep mask. Stick to your sleep schedule religiously.
- To help make pineal melatonin, make sure you're getting enough zinc and tryptophan, either in your diet or through supplements. It's possible you need a few supplements to metabolize zinc better (selenium, B6), and need to have a good vitamin D3 level (50+), which can take months to achieve.
- The goal of all the above is to achieve a strong surge of melatonin release overnight. More melatonin means more zinc super-oxide dismutase (ZSOD), which is an anti-oxidant that fights the superoxide anion radicals in the epidermis of acne-prone people. Superoxide anions have supposedly been shown to be the cause for p. acnes-induced inflammation. (Regardless of whether the mechanics of this are accurate, databased's method helped him.)
He has a much better explanation in his long and super-interesting thread:
He also went through a couple earlier drafts of his method before he got to the critical sky-light component. These earlier ones involved taking zinc supplements, which he dropped after he started sitting outside all day. Here's the zinc draft right before his final method:
So, I'm curious: has anyone tried this? It's not trivial to do for most of the working population, and very hard to follow correctly.
Also, anyone know what happened to databased? Is he still clear? Any modifications of his method over the years?
Why did he opt for the insane "sit outside all day" method when supplementing w/ zinc and sticking to a good sleep schedule was working for him? Has anyone tried that method instead w/ any success?
I'm still unsure as to why the person didn't just supplement with melatonin lol. Believe me I'm all for getting as much sun as I can but it seems like Liquid Melatonin in the supplement form is exactly the same as the melatonin produced within your body. And you wouldn't have to spend your day looking at the sun xD
I'm still unsure as to why the person didn't just supplement with melatonin lol.
Maybe because databased is going off this meta-analysis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1370968/ and what the Wikipedia page states.
I remember reading his ideas a few years back. It was interesting, but I never pursued it. Recently though, I have been applying chronotherapy, not for my acne, but for my circadian clock, which has been deranged at least since high school (I am 32 now). In the process of working with the chronotherapy I was reminded of his thoughts on acne, so I googled it and came upon your message.
Currently I work in a library, from 7 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon. So I am indoors most of the time. I wake up at 5:30 and sit under a bright-light therapy lamp (10000 lux) for about 20-30 min. There has been extensive research on the efficacy of bright light therapy to fix circadian sleep disorders, seasonal affective disorder, and depression. I know of no research that has been performed on its efficacy in relationship to acne. After I get home, I eventually wear blue-light blocking amber sunglasses (around 6:00pm to 7:00pm). I then go to bed between 8:00 and 10:00. I started doing this because I got the new job and it was necessary for me to dramatically alter my circadian clock so I wasnt sleepy throughout the day, but I have been trying unsuccessfully for years to change my circadian clock. Only recently though have I made any progress, particularly when I added the bright light therapy and blue light blockers. You can get both the bright light and the glasses on amazon and such places (there are many different lamps, but some probably arent reliable).
In about a month I'll have summer break, so Ill have almost 2 months to experiment with being in more extended periods of outdoor daylight and not rely on bright artificial light. Until then Ill continue to work on my clock with the lamps and the sun glasses. Ill probably add some melatonin in soon and I also plan on setting up dawn simulation in my bedroom.
On a theoretical level, one flaw I see with his theory is that pre-modern humans did have access to artificial light, particularly fire light. Not only that, firelight may have been an element in the evolution of homo sapiens. Furthermore, acne has existed at least since the earliest written medical records that we have. There are descriptions of acne in the writings of the Greeks, including Aristotle, and the Greeks did not to my knowledge stay indoors most of the day or use electrical light at night. Regardless, I hope that my new light exposure in the morning, avoidance at night and my regular sleep will help with my skin.