I was finally able to clear my persistent adult acne in September with a combination of Tazorac and Dan's BP. From early September until yesterday morning, I have not had 1 pimple. Before this, I always had at least 5 pimples on my face at a time. Many of these were painful papules that appeared on my forehead and cheeks but I would not say any were cystic. I was left with scars though. During this time that I got clear, I ate whatever I wanted and had no restrictions.
About a month ago, I started an anti-inflammatory diet as I had always read about it here and saw that it is great for overall health. Plus it would protect me from breaking out if Tazorac and BP stopped working. I followed this diet 100% for a month and did not cheat once. I basically only ate vegetables, fruits, quinona, gluten free oats, brown rice, sweet potatoes, lean and non antibiotic fed chicken and beef, Alaskan Salmon, etc. I also did not eat any gluten, dairy, or citrus.
Thursday night, I decided to have a cheat night and went to the bar with some friends. I had about 6 beers, a cheeseburger and fries, and later in the night an italian sub. I regularly ate like this before I started this diet and remained clear. Yesterday morning, I woke up with my first chin zit in years. To make matters worse, it is an underground nodule or cyst about the size of a nickel. It is extremely painful every time I move my mouth to talk or eat. I have never had a pimple like this in the 14 years that I have had acne.
I want to get a cortisone shot but no dermatologists are open until Wednesday with Christmas on Tuesday. I was wondering if anyone has any idea if this could be an allergic reaction as opposed to a regular pimple? Did I shock my system by consuming a ton of gluten, wheat, diary, etc that it caused this reaction after not having it for a month? I went to bed at around 4 in the morning and nothing was there. When I woke up at 10, my chin was extremely painful and inflamed so I don't think its a coincidence. I took a picture but it literally shows nothing as the whole thing is underground
I really want to avoid a huge scar but I feel like there is not much I can do at this point. I am back on the strict diet and am taking extra zinc, vitamin c, and fish oil. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.
Yes, you shocked your system, and it's also more than likely that you're gluten sensitive. That's the exact type of reaction you get when you're gluten intolerant and you eat it again after a period of cleaning it out of your system. Try going gluten-free (100%) again for another month or two and then test it by eating gluten again.
Things like gluten and beer aren't good for anybody so you'll be doing yourself a service by staying away from them.
As far as the cyst, your best bet is just leaving it the hell alone. I suffer from the same type of acne (I'm also gluten intolerant) and it sucks. It may take a while, but it will go away in time.
Eek- yep you shocked your system. Your body likely felt as if it had toxin overload. Think about it- you hadn't fed your body crap like that in so long, that when you basically binged on it your body was like "nooo get this out" and the indatory signal was very increased resulting in the cyst- which is basically the lymph and other systems pushing toxins out. Be well, don't fret, and eat well!!! Get a shot if you must- but otherwise just dose up on natural anti inflammatories and drink water and tea.
Updating. I ended up going to the hospital a few hours after I made that post as it started spreading rapidly and I developed more boils that were extremely painful on my chin. Turns out it wasn't related to my diet. It was cellulitis and was lucky to have went when I did as I also developed a fever and swollen lymph nodes. I spent 2 days there on IV antibiotics. Now I have to take doxycycline for 14 days.
The next few days and weeks are going to be crucial for me preventing as much scarring as possible. I realize that I can't avoid it completely, as these boils are deep and are going to leave some form of scarring. I am taking high amounts of vitamin c, zinc, fish oil, and a strong multi vitamin now. I also am eating a very clean and anti-inflammatory diet with tons of veggies and fruits. For my skin, I have stopped all topicals and am using aquaphor on it multiple times a day to keep it as moist as possible.
I was wondering if anyone had any further suggestions on foods or supplements that I can use to increase my healing ability as much as possible? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
wow... sounds very simliar to my last experience that resulted me into meats/vegetables diet. I had the munchies and binged on 3 big mexican tacos and mexican chips. I quickly developed a cyst that I had the previous year to the right of my bellow button which is still there.. but i also had terrible pain in abdomen, weakness, bloated, diarrhea, constipation and more the full next week.
I never heard of toxic shock but it makes sense if you leave something alone for a long time and then go hard with it.. i had slowly started getting more comfortable eating wheat , non dairy breads, beer, etc.. then after that night i cut it all back out....
smh definitely sucks that you cant live a normal life, you dont "have" to drink but at the same time by eliminating alot of these things it takes the fun and social aspect out of everything from going out having a few drinks with friends to family dinners etc
Updating. I ended up going to the hospital a few hours after I made that post as it started spreading rapidly and I developed more boils that were extremely painful on my chin. Turns out it wasn't related to my diet. It was cellulitis and was lucky to have went when I did as I also developed a fever and swollen lymph nodes. I spent 2 days there on IV antibiotics. Now I have to take doxycycline for 14 days.
The next few days and weeks are going to be crucial for me preventing as much scarring as possible. I realize that I can't avoid it completely, as these boils are deep and are going to leave some form of scarring. I am taking high amounts of vitamin c, zinc, fish oil, and a strong multi vitamin now. I also am eating a very clean and anti-inflammatory diet with tons of veggies and fruits. For my skin, I have stopped all topicals and am using aquaphor on it multiple times a day to keep it as moist as possible.
I was wondering if anyone had any further suggestions on foods or supplements that I can use to increase my healing ability as much as possible? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Things like that can definitely be caused by shocking your system with gluten. I think you could be wrong to say it wasn't diet related. Be careful with eating any large amounts of gluten again. If you want to test some to see how you react, go slowly to prevent dumping a ton of poisons into your system at once.