Hi everyone, this is my first topic here but I've been a long time reader of the forums Many of you seem so experienced and knowledgeable, so I wanted to make a post and see if anyone could help me figure out what's causing my persistent forehead acne.
Some background info: I'm a 22 year old female who had perfect skin all throughout my teens. Once I hit 19-20, I started to get the occasional pimple on my forehead/chin. As someone who prided herself on having great skin, it was bothersome, but it was never that bad. However, in the past year, I started to break out regularly on my forehead. At times I would have 10-15 active pimples at once. I've tried pretty much every product under the sun, including the ones my dermatologist prescribed (epiduo, differin) as well as antibiotics and birth control, but nothing worked. In the past few months, I've managed to somewhat get my breakouts under control by completely cleaning up my diet. I've stopped eating dairy and almost all gluten and soy. My diet consists of veggies, fruit, a daily green juice, brown rice, eggs, and chicken/fish. Now, I usually have less than 5 active pimples at any one point, but I still have lots of PIH and clogged pores (or comedonal acne, I suppose).
Around the same time I began breaking out on my forehead, my skin also started getting really oily. Before, I never had a problem with oily skin. Now my T-zone gets super oily. The texture of my skin on my forehead is also not smooth, and even where there's no pustules/papules, I usually have little bumps. They aren't too noticeable from far away, but you can see them when you look closely, and sometimes they turn into active pimples before going away. I've also completely cut down on all topical products. The only things that touch my face now are hemp seed oil or jojoba oil, apple cider vinegar toner, and manuka honey as an overnight spot treatment. I wear makeup maybe once every 1-2 weeks.
Again, I break out ONLY on my forehead and sometimes on my chin (but only right under the center of my bottom lip, not along the jaw and lower chin at all.) My cheeks are as smooth as a baby's butt haha. I must also mention that around the time I began to break out, I was an egg donor, and had been taking hormone injections. But the hormones I was taking were designed to up my estrogen levels, which is usually linked with improving skin, not making it worse. I thought my acne must be linked to a hormone imbalance, however, I show none of the other symptoms associated with that. I also probably don't exercise as much as I should. I live in New York City so I do walk a lot, but other than that, I don't exercise because I don't have the time.
Anyway, if anyone has any tips for me, I would GREATLY appreciate it. What I can't stand is that the lack of control I feel when it comes to this. I've cut out soooo many foods that I love eating, and it's only helped a little bit. I'm a real foodie, and my friends and I love going out to eat, so it has been really painful for me to follow such a restricted diet. I'm constantly worried about what I'm putting in my mouth, and maybe the stress of that has been making my acne worse? I'm not sure. I'm just out of ideas, and really really hope that people here might have some insight, or comfort
EStrogen makes some people worse. Usually males, but not necessarily. It's about the ratio to progesterone. Also, the estrogens are synthetic.
I have heard that. Do you know of any natural ways to balance out my estrogen levels? I wanted to get my hormones tested, but I'm not sure where and also it's so expensive 
If you are done with the hormones, DIM supplements can help flush them out. Anything that's good for liver function, bile to help the liver remove excess hormones.
Like estroblock? I've read up on estroblock, and considered taking it, but most people say it's only for hormonal acne (around the chin, mouth, and jawline). I kind of ruled out my acne as not being hormonal, but taking DIM will help balance out my hormone levels if they are indeed out of whack?
Also will hormone levels ever balance out on their own over time, or do I have to take a specific supplement to do so?
If you are done with the hormones, DIM supplements can help flush them out. Anything that's good for liver function, bile to help the liver remove excess hormones.
Like estroblock? I've read up on estroblock, and considered taking it, but most people say it's only for hormonal acne (around the chin, mouth, and jawline). I kind of ruled out my acne as not being hormonal, but taking DIM will help balance out my hormone levels if they are indeed out of whack?
Also will hormone levels ever balance out on their own over time, or do I have to take a specific supplement to do so?
Eat, sleep, manage stress, etc right and they should balance out.
my acne is worse on my forehead.. interestingly, chinese medicine states that forehead acne is a result of digestion/liver issues... something i am currently addressing
I have read that as well, which is why I cleaned up my diet and also stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol...what have you been doing to address those issues? I'm thinking about trying a liver cleanse, but not sure where to start...
my acne is worse on my forehead.. interestingly, chinese medicine states that forehead acne is a result of digestion/liver issues... something i am currently addressing
I have read that as well, which is why I cleaned up my diet and also stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol...what have you been doing to address those issues? I'm thinking about trying a liver cleanse, but not sure where to start...
I have been eating the anti candida/leaky gut diet, which is what i'm putting my digestive issues down too but i have also started using a type of psyillium husk before each meal, it is called lepicol and i have some probiotic, prebiotic, psyillium husk and degistive enzyme in too... great source of fiber aswel! In terms of the liver i have been taking 2 milk thistle capsules a day, one morning and one evening... I haven't had a cyst form for around 4 days now which is great! I have had some small spots form but i just put this down to purging of the liver/digestive system etc... Oh, i have also added the amino glutamine to treat the leaky gut.. 5 grams twice daily.. The lepicol, glutamine and milk thistle i have only been using for a week so it is early days but BM are once or often twice a day since adding these.. before these i would normally go once every two or three days!!
my acne is worse on my forehead.. interestingly, chinese medicine states that forehead acne is a result of digestion/liver issues... something i am currently addressing
I have read that as well, which is why I cleaned up my diet and also stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol...what have you been doing to address those issues? I'm thinking about trying a liver cleanse, but not sure where to start...
I have been eating the anti candida/leaky gut diet, which is what i'm putting my digestive issues down too but i have also started using a type of psyillium husk before each meal, it is called lepicol and i have some probiotic, prebiotic, psyillium husk and degistive enzyme in too... great source of fiber aswel! In terms of the liver i have been taking 2 milk thistle capsules a day, one morning and one evening... I haven't had a cyst form for around 4 days now which is great! I have had some small spots form but i just put this down to purging of the liver/digestive system etc... Oh, i have also added the amino glutamine to treat the leaky gut.. 5 grams twice daily.. The lepicol, glutamine and milk thistle i have only been using for a week so it is early days but BM are once or often twice a day since adding these.. before these i would normally go once every two or three days!!
Wow that's so many supplements! Just curious, what made you decide that candida/leaky gut was your problem? I'm hesitant to start taking all of those things if candida isn't even my problem.
my acne is worse on my forehead.. interestingly, chinese medicine states that forehead acne is a result of digestion/liver issues... something i am currently addressing
I have read that as well, which is why I cleaned up my diet and also stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol...what have you been doing to address those issues? I'm thinking about trying a liver cleanse, but not sure where to start...
I have been eating the anti candida/leaky gut diet, which is what i'm putting my digestive issues down too but i have also started using a type of psyillium husk before each meal, it is called lepicol and i have some probiotic, prebiotic, psyillium husk and degistive enzyme in too... great source of fiber aswel! In terms of the liver i have been taking 2 milk thistle capsules a day, one morning and one evening... I haven't had a cyst form for around 4 days now which is great! I have had some small spots form but i just put this down to purging of the liver/digestive system etc... Oh, i have also added the amino glutamine to treat the leaky gut.. 5 grams twice daily.. The lepicol, glutamine and milk thistle i have only been using for a week so it is early days but BM are once or often twice a day since adding these.. before these i would normally go once every two or three days!!
Wow that's so many supplements! Just curious, what made you decide that candida/leaky gut was your problem? I'm hesitant to start taking all of those things if candida isn't even my problem.
I've had acne for roughly 9 years so far and obviously i've been through the medical route of various different antibiotics to treat the skin and none of them were effective.. however, i was always convinced that whenever i drank alcohol, fizzy pop or ate sweets my skin would break out massively the following week, i asked my doctor about this and he constantly told me i was being paranoid and no link exists between diet and acne. I then by chance come across somebody with candida who told me how there skin used to be and how it got worse whenever they ate sugar and it all made perfect sense.. My poor diet and years of antibiotic use had killed alot of the good bacteria in my gut and allowed the yeast to grow. Even now during my diet etc if i eat out or have something that has a little sugar in my skin breaks out even worse
Just get some milk thistle or artichoke extract (for liver detoxification). I would try that first. I used to get forehead acne and it seemed to be a liver issue. Artichoke extract helped.
my acne is worse on my forehead.. interestingly, chinese medicine states that forehead acne is a result of digestion/liver issues... something i am currently addressing
I have read that as well, which is why I cleaned up my diet and also stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol...what have you been doing to address those issues? I'm thinking about trying a liver cleanse, but not sure where to start...
my acne is worse on my forehead.. interestingly, chinese medicine states that forehead acne is a result of digestion/liver issues... something i am currently addressing
I have read that as well, which is why I cleaned up my diet and also stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol...what have you been doing to address those issues? I'm thinking about trying a liver cleanse, but not sure where to start...
I have been eating the anti candida/leaky gut diet, which is what i'm putting my digestive issues down too but i have also started using a type of psyillium husk before each meal, it is called lepicol and i have some probiotic, prebiotic, psyillium husk and degistive enzyme in too... great source of fiber aswel! In terms of the liver i have been taking 2 milk thistle capsules a day, one morning and one evening... I haven't had a cyst form for around 4 days now which is great! I have had some small spots form but i just put this down to purging of the liver/digestive system etc... Oh, i have also added the amino glutamine to treat the leaky gut.. 5 grams twice daily.. The lepicol, glutamine and milk thistle i have only been using for a week so it is early days but BM are once or often twice a day since adding these.. before these i would normally go once every two or three days!!
Wow that's so many supplements! Just curious, what made you decide that candida/leaky gut was your problem? I'm hesitant to start taking all of those things if candida isn't even my problem.
I've had acne for roughly 9 years so far and obviously i've been through the medical route of various different antibiotics to treat the skin and none of them were effective.. however, i was always convinced that whenever i drank alcohol, fizzy pop or ate sweets my skin would break out massively the following week, i asked my doctor about this and he constantly told me i was being paranoid and no link exists between diet and acne. I then by chance come across somebody with candida who told me how there skin used to be and how it got worse whenever they ate sugar and it all made perfect sense.. My poor diet and years of antibiotic use had killed alot of the good bacteria in my gut and allowed the yeast to grow. Even now during my diet etc if i eat out or have something that has a little sugar in my skin breaks out even worse
Candida isn't the only reason fizzy drinks & alcohol lead to acne and even worse health conditions. Do not drink sugar and avoid high glycemic impacting meals/drinks/snacks, always.