My skin was clear for years and years but in the past month it has gotten worse and worse. This morning I woke up with red inflamed pustules on my cheeks and chin. Looks horrid. Looks like I'm a teenager. I'm really very sad and depressed.
I made some small changes with diet. About 6 weeks ago my doctor recommended I eat 2 brazil nuts/day and iodized salt because of borderline low thyroid. About 3 weeks ago my skin started breaking out more and more.
I thought it was nerves because I was going on a cruise. My skin went bonkers while on the cruise (about 10 days ago) so I stopped eating the nuts. My skin got a little bit better. However, I thought the flare-up was due to stress from traveling so last week I started eating the brazil nuts again (because I want to help my thyroid issue). Each day I've gotten a few more breakouts. I stopped eating the nuts yesterday but woke up this morning with red inflamed pustules all over my cheeks and chin. I look terrible!
Could the addition of 2 brazil nuts a day, really cause such a sudden reaction? I thought brazil nuts were supposed to be good for skin.
I'm so worried this is not due to the brazil nuts but instead because my skin is returning to how it was years ago. Back then nothing worked but full strength antibiotics and I couldn't do that all the time so in-between I had horrid cystic acne. I'm too old for this (64). I've battled acne my whole adult life. I've watched my own kids outgrow acne (in their 30's) and watched my nieces and nephews go from acne to clear skin in their 20's. But I've never gotten over acne...except recently with a very strict diet and treatment regime.
And now I am facing this breakout and not handling it well at all. My son is getting married in a couple of months and I can not look like this. It is too embarrassing. What am I going to do?
I am hoping and praying this is just because of the brazil nuts...but it's very hard to imagine 2 small nuts a day causing such havoc.
Thanks! Yes, I have a derm appt this week and am discussing this with him. Still recovering from flare-up. Everything is fading which is good. I'm following a strict rosacea and acne diet which is definitely helping. The other thing I'd been eating too much of was avocado. A little is okay but I was eating almost a whole avocado everyday. The rosacea diet recommends avoiding avocado. My best diet is a combo rosacea-acne diet.
Hey it may be related to your thyroid issue? Maybe read up on low thyroid and acne and see if there is any relation, in the meantime I'd say cutting out the nuts for a few weeks is a good idea in case they were a trigger. It might also be hormonal, maybe cause by your thyroid? or stress. My skin just suddenly flared up for no real reason when I was 27. Try your best to not worry too much as it might make you even more stressed and make things worse, lots of people have adult acne, a search on youtube brings up some great videos on what others do to cover this up. I'm sure it will settle down soon xx
Thanks - skin is clear again! Avoiding brazil nuts did the trick. It's just crazy to me how food can cause a flare-up. For me, flare-ups from food are different than how I used to get acne. Food reactions look like acne but more inflamed, come up suddenly and itch!!! Hormonal acne was a slower process and deeper in the skin. The flare-up I got recently was very superficial but with large red spots, some of which had whiteheads. It went away within a couple of days of stopping the brazil nuts. I should have paid more attention when I first started eating the brazil nuts and got one or two of these breakouts...I thought it was just stress or something and ignored it. But within a few days I was getting 5-6 of these bright red spots on my cheeks each day.