I've read some interesting information about how the sabaceous glands produce oil.
From here: http://www.jlr.org/content/49/2/271.long
"The majority of the body receives its lipids through the uptake of circulating lipids. Sebaceous glands express at least two different receptors involved in the uptake of circulating lipid, FATP4 and LDL receptor. FATP4 is a fatty acid transporter that has been shown to be expressed in sebaceous glands (22). It has also been shown that sebaceous glands and the human sebocyte cell line SEB-1 express the LDL receptor (22, 23). The uptake of circulating lipids is also suggested by the observation that upon beginning a fast, the incorporation of free fatty acids into sebum is reduced by 20% (24, 25). Also of note is that transgenic mice overexpressing apolipoprotein C-I have sebaceous gland atrophy (26). All of these results indicate that the uptake of circulating lipids is an important step in the production of sebaceous lipids."
"A long held opinion that sebaceous glands produced their own fluids and did not draw anything from the bloodstream was proved wrong by Pappas et al. They convincingly showed that sebaceous glands can and do use fatty acids from the bloodstream for the production of sebum. However, these studies do not conclusively prove that diet affects sebum composition and secretion."
It seems that the sebaceous glands don't produce oil, they just take it from bloodstream and oil gets to it from what you eat. So, I've been testing this theory by reducing my consumption of oil (omega 3-6-9) to (almost) zero to see what happens. The results so far have been amazing, I don't have droplets of oil on my skin anymore as I used to. Of course, everybody is different, so I wonder if you could give this theory a try and post your results. I think one week should be enough.
Remember to avoid any kind of oil, even the not so obvious sources like nuts, avocados, bread. etc.
I have noticed that when I take omega 3 supplements and eat egss with added omega 3 my skin becomes out of control oily. While this is interesting I've never really considered cutting out all omega 3/ fats because that's not healthy at all. Deficiency in omega 3 can cause a ton of health problems, so I don't really think cutting it out completely is sustainable. What's interesting is my dad can take omega 3 supplements all he wants and he never gets oily skin (I inherited my oily skin from my mom). So I don't really think it's the omega 3 that is causing the problem, it's something else. I have no idea what though.
I have noticed that when I take omega 3 supplements and eat egss with added omega 3 my skin becomes out of control oily. While this is interesting I've never really considered cutting out all omega 3/ fats because that's not healthy at all. Deficiency in omega 3 can cause a ton of health problems, so I don't really think cutting it out completely is sustainable. What's interesting is my dad can take omega 3 supplements all he wants and he never gets oily skin (I inherited my oily skin from my mom). So I don't really think it's the omega 3 that is causing the problem, it's something else. I have no idea what though.
The same thing happens to me, but I've done this just for the experiment, I'm not saying that you should never consume oil, I'm just trying to figure out what should be the right amount. Maybe we are all wrong here and human beings don't need so much oil to function properly, some people excrete these excess through the skin, and other people are able to somehow use it, store it or excrete it in other ways, I really don't know, just a theory.
Take into account that we have these huge glands that work like a great factory, and as such, can deal with all the oil you put into them; on the other hand, people with normal skin don't have this capacity to absorb oil because their 'factories' are tiny, so their skins will never get oily simply because they don't have the capacity to do it.
So what exactly do you eat? Almost all healthy foods (minus veggies fruits) contain oils.
Salmon, beef (grass fed), pasture raised eggs... Do you just eat lean parts of meat and veggies?
I tried to avoid everything that could contain oil (for one week or so) so I ate almost all veggies and fruits, potatoes, whole grains, legumes (cooked with no oil) , extra vitamins and minerals. Then I'm trying to maintain a skin as normal as possible by eating eggs, fish, chicken, or something that could contain oil, but only once a week.
The sebaceous glands do get oil from the bloodstream, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is too much oil in the bloodstream. The problem could be with the sebaceous glands themselves, not the raw materials that the glands use to make sebum.
A no fat diet doesn't sound very healthy. Does your sebum decrease when you eat a low fat diet, or does it have to be no fat? I tried low fat for a few days, but the my oily skin didn't decrease at all, so I stopped.
The sebaceous glands do get oil from the bloodstream, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is too much oil in the bloodstream. The problem could be with the sebaceous glands themselves, not the raw materials that the glands use to make sebum.
But these raw materials are the input for these glands, therefore, if we could reduce them specifically, there will be less output. It's a simple equation. Sebaceous glands cannot make sebum out of thin air.
On 1/2/2013 at 7:49 AM, Omnivium said:A no fat diet doesn't sound very healthy. Does your sebum decrease when you eat a low fat diet, or does it have to be no fat? I tried low fat for a few days, but the my oily skin didn't decrease at all, so I stopped.
Yes, there is a noticeable reduction. I don't have drops on my skin.
I must say though, that I've been on a low glycemic and low fat diet for many years. It just ocurred to me to try a non-fat diet for one week or so and I noticed this important reduction, then if I eat anything fried, a couple of eggs, avocados, olive oil, etc. my skin returned to its oiliness (that doesn't mean that I never eat those foods). I've tried this several times and the results are always the same. My question at this point is to know how much of these omegas I really need or you really need, unfortunately I have no idea. The only thing I know is that my skin is telling me, somehow, how much is necessary.
However, this story doesn't end in terms of just oil. I read this info that talks about leucines:
"The Western diet, enriched in meat and dairy proteins, provides high and persitantly increasing amounts of leucine. From 1950 to 2010, the annual per capita intake of leucine by consumption of animal-derived proteins has triplicated in Germany. Leucine not only contributes to the synthesis of muscle proteins but most importantly can be converted into lipids (fatty acids and cholesterol) and stored in adipose tissue.73 Adipose tissue efficiently converts BCAAs carbon skeletons into newly synthesized fatty acids, a process that is stimulated by insulin.73 Remarkably, sebaceous glands like adipocytes are able to take up and convert leucine into their major sebum lipid classes.74,75 In this regard, the leucine-enriched Western diet may have two major effects on sebaceous lipogenesis: (1) to increase leucine-stimulated mTORC1/SREBP signaling thus driving the genetic program of sebogenesis and (2) to provide leucine as a structural lipid precursor for de novo sebaceous lipid synthesis."
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If you read the article you will see that leucines are present even in veggies. That could be the reason why I haven't been able to get a normal skin altogether, I don't know.