I'm testing something new and while too soon to say for certain, it does seem to help. Doing nothing.. specifically, avoiding soil based bacteria by cooking or thoroughly washing all vegetables, and also not taking probiotics. Here's my long journey...
Nearly 40 y/o m, I've been able to clear my skin completely via diet changes stemming from IgE skin prick testing. (The IgG blood testing had tons of false results) All of the most common food allergens and about 10 others were +. So no diary, corn, soy, eggs, spices, preservatives etc etc etc.. wheat was not + but gives me probz. Provided i don't eat those foods, and others i discover to be +, but that weren't tested, i don't break out.
Wanting to get to the root cause of my cystic acne, i've tried numerous remedies, some of which worked, but cause problems. The only things that work without diet restriction are accutane/vit a, high dose b5 and high dose green tea (these work individually, not combined) and would clear me 100%. But i now believe accutane & b5 messed with me negatively and permanently. I didn't stay on EGCG very long.
Here's what i've tried that doesn't work, many in combination - Diatomaceous earth, zinc, vit D3, low dose ALCAR/Pantetheine, low dose vit A, probiotics, fermented foods, quercetin, digestive enzymes, chelation for heavy metals, amalgam removal (although definitely have a mercury burden, although much removed through ALA chelation mother had many fillings and i had several), candida cleansing (another issue likely from metals, new tests show low fungal metabolites), everything topical, liver cleansing, milk thistle, burdock root, dandelion, fish oil, tanning. I'm sure i'm missing a few...
Another problem i have is even now when testing Vit A, b5, etc, even low dose, it makes my kidneys hurt. For example, the ALCAR/Pantetheine even at 330mg pantethine daily, my kidneys will start to hurt in the morning, and my urine will be foamy, indicating i'm excreting either protein or candida, and i strongly believe it to be candida. Vit A will make my joints and kidneys hurt.
About 1.5 years ago i took a test indicating i still had dysbiosis i.e., bad gut bacteria.. so this would lead to a leaky gut. I had already been trying to cure leaky gut for 3 years +. Early on a stool test showed 2+ candida, and i went on Nystatin and a future test showed 0 candida. Then, after that the blood/urine test showed low fungus..
About 4 years I thought that if i completely detoxify my body and get good bacteria in, and bad out and seal up my gut, i could eat whatever i wanted. I tried all sorts of probiotics and homemade brews, chelation. Nothing was ever able to cure me and in fact i began becoming senstitive to even more foods. Sometimes i was able to get those foods back, sometimes not.
Prior to my mid-twenties, i had taken a large amount of all sorts of antibiotics, some for a few months at a time, for acne, and some 10-day courses for sinusitis that i now know was from a standard American diet. Once i ate healthy and removed intolerances, my sinus probs disappeared completely.. and i also rarely get colds, which i used to ALWAYS get. I believe that, along with the metal, abx is where my issue came from, in addition to genetics. I think my acne is hormonal and possibly gut related as well.Perhaps good bacteria is causing inflammation in the gut by fighting with other bacteria in my gut, and actually making things worse, causing me to lose new foods. So I'm going to kill off any bacteria on my foods and see if that makes a difference, and allows me to eat offending foods again.
I post this on here to all those looking for THE cure from a pill or treatment. It's very possible that it just doesn't exist for your type of acne (other than megadosing which causes problems in the long term). Eating healthy/paleo may not be enough. If you have an IgE or IgG type of response, you may also need to remove healthy foods (nuts, seeds, some healthy oils, spices, etc). So far i've never found a way to tolerate the majority of my intolerances.. a few yes.. but not most.. and while losing others. Hopefully instead of putting bacteria in, the reverse will work and give me some foods back.
If anyone has suggestions or comments, i'd love to hear them. I would be happy to answer questions as well, although please bear with possible delayed responses as i have a busy December.
best of luck,
fkBIGpharma
