nope but maybe i wasnt patient enough to endure cleansing/detox/something periods. you have to be very patient and dedicated to your diet at some cases. imo if it doesnt work in 1 week-1month its no use, but maybe thats just me. i do consider tane, i just havent time to go to derm to ask yet...topicals have been working for me, but i have to change them oftenly. same thing doesnt work forever unfortunately

nice post man.

You've addressed the 'biggies' for sure.

I fit your criteria and have 'cured' my acne (22 y/o male, cystic acne on face and body, no accutane, have done antibiotics in past)

What I'm doing now (90% clear):

balance omega 3/6 (avoid high omega 6 sources like peanuts, take a bunch of fish oil caps ever day)

zinc (~60 mg a day), also just added d3 recently (6000 IU a day right now). multivitamin and saw palmetto (don't think it does anything)

did probiotics for a while (definitely recommend if you have been on antibiotics, idk if it helped my acne but digestion is much better)

gluten free

no eggs

no milk except with cereal

no fastfood/fastfood/processed food. only exception is gluten free rice chex with some whole milk in the morning

no drinking sugar (i'll have some personal size candy bars as dessert because i have a big sweet tooth lol)

~hour of strength training every morning

so i sorta did a cluster bomb approach and it has finally worked. The only cause of my acne that i am certain of is sugar. I was 95% clear last weekend and followed my regime completely except for having like 2 cups of jungle juice at a party. broke out the next day. I'm back to my normal routine now and i'm almost back to being clear. Once I'm perfect i'll start trying to take some things out. I don't think dairy is a problem. Pretty sure high omega 6 is a cause of mine from greasy/oily foods (mcdonalds gave me a obvious huge breakout then i stopped fastfood completely). gluten might be a cause, but i think the insulin thing is bigger, so i'll try whole wheat stuff. I had a little breakout last week from eggs i think. ok i'm rambling now, if you have any questions let me know! you're definitely taking the right approach to this.

ps. regime: spot treat with BP+neosporin+sudocreme morning and night, moisturize with cetaphil+jojoba oil in morning if needed. only wash face in morning in shower with just water (this really helped, I'd recommend it). dry shave with electric foil shaver or stubble trimmer. I do not change my towel or pillow cover often.

Hi all,

At 32 years old, I've now suffered with moderate acne for around 15 years. I've gone through every treatment except accutane, but wanted to give myself just one last attempt to heal it naturally.

Please post here IF:

- You cured or almost completely cured your acne using non-prescription methods

- Had at least moderate cystic acne to start (I don't care if you cured a few tiny pimples that came every 3 months)

- Cured your acne after you were through puberty and into adulthood (I want to eliminate standard acne from puberty based on the insulin levels as a variable).

- You have never been on accutane. It bothers me to see people on the regimen/etc that claim it cured their acne, but then also mention they were on accutane in the past

- Are preferably not on other medication that might help acne (birth control, for example)

Ok.. But you know we do have a pinned thread full of people that cleared there acne going back years. Not that it's complete.

But anyway, yes, I was over 30 when my skin cleared via diet changes, had severe cystic acne plus grotesquely oily skin and all kinds of other acne that was constant since I was 10.

Possible culprit #1: Nutrition

- ran a food allergen panel with my doctor. Results:

High reaction: wheat

Medium reaction: dairy, egg whites

Low reaction: peanuts, soy, egg yolks

- I eliminated wheat, dairy, and egg whites from my diet as best I could based on this. Some restaurant prepped food probably still included some, but it would be minimal

- went on a largely paleo diet about 80% of the time - grass fed beef when available.

- added for micronutrients: sockeye salmon (to increase omega3's), vitamin D, and lots of green veggies (spinach, kale, etc)

Could I be missing some critical nutritional element/vitamin/etc? Something like magnesium? Are there affordable tests to identify nutrients that I might be low in?

Yes. It doesn't take much of the citrus I'm intolerant to cause cysts to form.

Possible culprit #2: Insulin

I've read that the acne curve almost correlates perfectly with the elevated insulin curve in puberty. I personally have higher blood glucose than normal and some insulin sensitivity issues, so I suspected this could be a possibliity.

A1C: 5.5 , Fasting: 103, Post-prandial numbers average between 110 and 145 depending on how high carb of a meal I eat.

Possible culprit #3: Hormonal issues

I had a testosterone test run, but my numbers were within the normal range. Maybe only slightly low. However, I did not have an estrogen panel or T3/T4 tests run. Should I bother?

Don't know if you should bother with the tests. But hormones are almost always involved in everyone's acne. Exceptions being food or topical intolerances or pores clogged topically. But there's a correlation between histamine and androgen levels so even then hormones are involved. Besides Insulin is a hormone. As is IGF1, a culprit in acne. What helps hormone levels is nutrients, avoiding high glycemic impacting meals, limiting dairy especially milk as opposed to fermented dairy, proper sleep, etc.

Possible culprit #4: Periodontal disease

There are lots of papers linking periodontal disease to system wide inflammation. Acne bacteria has even shown up in cultures of gum tissue. I have some receding gum issues (started at age 28), and currently have pocket depths of 3-4mm. Could these possibly be linked?

Yes. Inflammation like this affects everything.

Possible culprit #5: Grooming

I wash my face 2x a day with Cerave and follow it up with moisturizer. I also change my pillow cases every night. Finally, when I shave, I always clean my razor with 90% rubbing alcohol.

You should probably do less. The surface of your skin should be slightly acidic which protects it from microbes including the bacteria involved in acne. In addition, there are substances in sebum that protect skin. You are washing it away. I use no cleansers other than for hand washing. I apply a quality high linoleic acid oil such as grapeseed. Linoleic acid is a vital component of sebum that functions as it should. And acne sufferers have been found to be deficient. In fact mammals with all kinds of skin problems have been found to be deficient.

Possible culprit #6: "Leaky Gut"/IBS

From other series on the web, it seems gut permeability me be correlated with acne. I've had IBS issues in the past, but since adding in weight lifting and going lower carb/cutting out wheat, my IBS is nearly gone. However, my face does not seem to have improved.

At this point, I feel like I've run out of possible ways to tackle this problem. What next steps would you take?

Probiotics. Healing foods like mucilaginous plants foods and bone broths. How do you feel now?

What about sleep and circadian cycle habits? How much weight lifting do you do?

From

alternativista

Thank you so much for the reply! I just found the pinned thread and will take a look through it. Here are some answers to your questions/comments:

- I agree that small amounts could probably trigger a lot of problems. I'm just finding it near impossible to avoid some dairy when eating out.

- RE: Insulin - I'm working hard to keep my glycemic load down, but it seems to have made almost no difference. I went VERY low carb for around 3-6 months without any difference.

- RE: hormones - agree that these are probably a secondary effect of other habits.

- RE: Grooming - Interesting on doing less. I actually tried completely stopping face washing and benzoyl peroxide for a while, but my face ended up breaking out terribly. Then again, my skin is always really clear on vacation when I don't use anything. Any other good sources of linoleic acid?

- RE: Leaky gut - Currently my IBS is pretty good - hardly noticeable. I have some probiotics here but haven't been using them too much since I didn't notice much difference.

- RE: Sleep - I suspect this is a big problem. I've always had difficulty sleeping, mostly I think because I can never find a good position for my arms to be in without falling alseep or feeling uncomfortable

Hi all,

At 32 years old, I've now suffered with moderate acne for around 15 years. I've gone through every treatment except accutane, but wanted to give myself just one last attempt to heal it naturally.

Please post here IF:

- You cured or almost completely cured your acne using non-prescription methods

- Had at least moderate cystic acne to start (I don't care if you cured a few tiny pimples that came every 3 months)

- Cured your acne after you were through puberty and into adulthood (I want to eliminate standard acne from puberty based on the insulin levels as a variable).

- You have never been on accutane. It bothers me to see people on the regimen/etc that claim it cured their acne, but then also mention they were on accutane in the past

- Are preferably not on other medication that might help acne (birth control, for example)

Ok.. But you know we do have a pinned thread full of people that cleared there acne going back years. Not that it's complete.

But anyway, yes, I was over 30 when my skin cleared via diet changes, had severe cystic acne plus grotesquely oily skin and all kinds of other acne that was constant since I was 10.

>Possible culprit #1: Nutrition

- ran a food allergen panel with my doctor. Results:

High reaction: wheat

Medium reaction: dairy, egg whites

Low reaction: peanuts, soy, egg yolks

- I eliminated wheat, dairy, and egg whites from my diet as best I could based on this. Some restaurant prepped food probably still included some, but it would be minimal

- went on a largely paleo diet about 80% of the time - grass fed beef when available.

- added for micronutrients: sockeye salmon (to increase omega3's), vitamin D, and lots of green veggies (spinach, kale, etc)

Could I be missing some critical nutritional element/vitamin/etc? Something like magnesium? Are there affordable tests to identify nutrients that I might be low in?

Yes. It doesn't take much of the citrus I'm intolerant to cause cysts to form.

Possible culprit #2: Insulin

I've read that the acne curve almost correlates perfectly with the elevated insulin curve in puberty. I personally have higher blood glucose than normal and some insulin sensitivity issues, so I suspected this could be a possibliity.

A1C: 5.5 , Fasting: 103, Post-prandial numbers average between 110 and 145 depending on how high carb of a meal I eat.

Possible culprit #3: Hormonal issues

I had a testosterone test run, but my numbers were within the normal range. Maybe only slightly low. However, I did not have an estrogen panel or T3/T4 tests run. Should I bother?

Don't know if you should bother with the tests. But hormones are almost always involved in everyone's acne. Exceptions being food or topical intolerances or pores clogged topically. But there's a correlation between histamine and androgen levels so even then hormones are involved. Besides Insulin is a hormone. As is IGF1, a culprit in acne. What helps hormone levels is nutrients, avoiding high glycemic impacting meals, limiting dairy especially milk as opposed to fermented dairy, proper sleep, etc.

Possible culprit #4: Periodontal disease

There are lots of papers linking periodontal disease to system wide inflammation. Acne bacteria has even shown up in cultures of gum tissue. I have some receding gum issues (started at age 28), and currently have pocket depths of 3-4mm. Could these possibly be linked?

Yes. Inflammation like this affects everything.

Possible culprit #5: Grooming

I wash my face 2x a day with Cerave and follow it up with moisturizer. I also change my pillow cases every night. Finally, when I shave, I always clean my razor with 90% rubbing alcohol.

You should probably do less. The surface of your skin should be slightly acidic which protects it from microbes including the bacteria involved in acne. In addition, there are substances in sebum that protect skin. You are washing it away. I use no cleansers other than for hand washing. I apply a quality high linoleic acid oil such as grapeseed. Linoleic acid is a vital component of sebum that functions as it should. And acne sufferers have been found to be deficient. In fact mammals with all kinds of skin problems have been found to be deficient.

Possible culprit #6: "Leaky Gut"/IBS

From other series on the web, it seems gut permeability me be correlated with acne. I've had IBS issues in the past, but since adding in weight lifting and going lower carb/cutting out wheat, my IBS is nearly gone. However, my face does not seem to have improved.

At this point, I feel like I've run out of possible ways to tackle this problem. What next steps would you take?

Probiotics. Healing foods like mucilaginous plants foods and bone broths. How do you feel now?

What about sleep and circadian cycle habits? How much weight lifting do you do?

hmm, would only applying linoleic acid topically work or can you eat food with more linoleic acid?

I think that if you take a lot of antibiotics, your chances of becoming clear reduces

Acne can be cured naturally through fresh fruits and vegetables diet.

Raw fruits and vegetables help a lot to improve the skin health and get rid of various skin diseases.

Water diet in shape of fresh fruits juices and green tea is also good for the skin health.

I'm 95% clear now, and I'm at that magical time of the month in my cycle. Usually, this is the time I break out the most!

This is the diet I follow. It's not necessarily all great for acne, nor will it work for everyone. But after three years of trying to clear my acne through nutrition, I've found this to work best:

5-6AM:

-7oz cold-pressed black coffee. Cold pressed coffee is the best, in my opinion. It doesn't give me caffeine jitters, donesn't stain my teeth like conventional coffee (although drinking from a straw helps this), and is just so smooth and delicious black prepared in this manner. I tried forgoing coffee, but working full time, taking 17 credit hours, and preparing for nursing licensing exam, I really can't imagine not consuming coffee (I am fully aware of all cons of coffee)

-32oz of water with fresh lemon, pomegranate (seasonal) and four teaspoons of chia seeds.

-16oz carrot and ginger juice. (220 calories) or green/blueberry protein smoothie (300 calories)

Pint of blueberries or dried mangos (200+calories)

9-10AM: Large raw kale salad with varying vegetables (500 calories), 16oz+ of green juice (Generally beets, kale, collards, spinach, lemon and ginger-(250 calories) 24oz of water with apple cider vinegar

2PM: Quoina with brussel sprouts, parsley, mint, and apple cidar vinegar (450 calories)

5PM: Large raw salad (varying veggies) (500 calories), fresh coconut milk (180 calories) and Dr Morse Heal-All Tea with manuka honey.

This diet works for me. I eat an 80-90% raw diet, but I also consume quoina, steamed veggies, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, prepared only with coconut oil or apple cider vinegar. I avoid gluten, soy, dairy, meat, processed sugars, and eat fresh, nutrient dense, 99% organic foods.

Might

Acne can be cured naturally through fresh fruits and vegetables diet.

Raw fruits and vegetables help a lot to improve the skin health and get rid of various skin diseases.

Water diet in shape of fresh fruits juices and green tea is also good for the skin health.

I agree, we can cure acne naturally and inded fruits and vegetables are the thing we must always consider. We should not immediately apply any skin products as it might worsen our problem. What I usually do is to keep my skin clean and as much as possible, not dry. I should rehydrate myself by drinking water and avoid alcohols.

I learned that there are certain shampoo that can cause acne, I think it would be best for us to choose the right shampoo to use.

oh and i'll be starting IF at a caloric deficit after spring break, i'll let you know how that goes. I've done it in the past and don't remember seeing much of a difference in acne, but my diet was junk so who knows...

Here's what has worked for me>

Btw In my view culprit #2 is the strongest. Hence acne is also called diabetes of the skin

I have not cured my acne using natural methods, although i'd like to and get off these damn antibiotics once and for all. But I had to post to tell you to stop shaving.

Only use a beard trimmer. Shaving irritates the hell out of my skin and I was once told by a dermatologist that acne prone men should only use a beard trimmer, never shave against the skin directly.

As to your current predicament. You seem to be knowledgeable about the diet-lifestyle-acne connection. Perhaps you have not pinpointed a certain allergic reaction to food, stress, etc? OR diet simply only goes so far with you. Maybe its more lifestyle (shaving, stress, sunshine). Or it could be a vitamin deficiency or maybe you need to take more Zinc, Niacinamide, etc Keep trying anything and everything and don't beat yourself up if you have not figured it out. I am probably highly sensitive to gluten and all this other crap but to be honest it has been very hard for me to give up fast food, junk food, etc so I pat myself on the back when I go a week without it. You seemed to go without a lot of good old American junk for a long time so props my friend, I envy you.

Have you had your hormones checked?

Have you tried supplements/vitamin variations?

Have you kept a food diary?

Try to seek out a naturopathic physician or a holistic minded MD. I know this is difficult. I have severe cystic acne and I have been trying a lot of lifestyle/diet changes as well and it is discouraging when we don't see results. All I can say is if you never stop looking for a way to cure it, you will eventually find it.

I'm managing, it seems that you can't cure if you are acne prone, you can only keep it under control with a strict regimen of things, here's my recent thread:

One you get on the right track for 2-3 months, it's easy to pin point what makes you break out if you slip once e.g. prawns (high doses of iodine) for me.

It works only if you have a strong enough will to keep going (and enough money) and to not eat/drink stuff that messes up your system.