No milk/No Dairy : Dairy Free Diet

Hi guys! I have now been on the dairy diet for 3 days now... and I just wanted to ask how long do you think it actually takes to see the differene? I know it's only been a few days but I'm getting impatient, because at the moment I'm not seeing much of a difference right now, or maybe only a little bit. I know I'm being a little bit stupid, but just let me know guys what you think!

So I'm 18 and after a couple of years of on-off bad acne I finally gave in and decided to cut dairy out of my diet. I decided to do it at a particular flare up in my skin at the beginning of 2017 when i was just feeling awful and felt like I had tried everything else. It took a week of dairy free for me to really see a difference... and there was a good difference! For the first week i saw no change though and was close to giving it up but decided to stick it out for 2 weeks because it would make sense to take time to see effects. After 1 week exactly my skin drastically changed. Its difficult to explain but it generally took away the oily greasiness of my skin, and when i looked in the mirror it didnt look as angry, red and inflamed and wet with grease. But the main thing is that I wasnt getting my usual new 3-4 spots a day!!! my skin was calm, no longer angrily, producing spot after spot. HOWEVER and this is a big however, I'm not entirely sure of the effect of dairy free alone. One week after going dairy free was when I started taking saw palmetto supplement, probiotics and evening primrose oil.... and it was around that time that i saw the difference. So its difficult for me to isolate the effect of dairy free alone. About 1 month later, I stopped taking those supplements temporarily for 1 week (because i ran out) but did continue dairy free. I had been dairy free for about 1 month at this point and i thought i had it all sorted. HOWEVER my skin went back to its normal self, oily red inflamed.. 3 spots a day etc... I was confused and it shows that it wasnt the dairy free which was having an effect it was the supplments!!! Dairy free didnt work alone..... But then last week i accidentally ate some toffee popcorn compleltey forgetting that it had milk in the ingredients. i was taking supplements at this point, but because i had broken my dairy free, i did have 4 more spots on my face over two days and the oilyness retuned for 1 day. SO this shows that dairy free does work and have a difference... i think the moral of this tale is that, for me anyway, i need to combine dairy free diet with other supplements for the desired effect. In terms of the pain of not having dairy in the UK there are plenty of substitutes... you can get dairy free butter (its not actually butter though obvs) spread, chocolate, biscuits, chocolate puddings, milk obviously, cheese, pizza and theres plenty of nice food which is not dairy; namely crisps, some popcorn, sweets..... *note that i have PCOS hormone imbalance related acne and that dairy free might work differently for that

I'm 44. I have had acnes and cysts since 11. I read about diary causing acne online. I stopped taking in any diary products for 5 weeks. My skin now is so clear. I had my facial treatment last week, my beautician was so surprised how clear my skin is. I had had my facial treatment in February. My face was full of white spots and several cysts. I wish I had known the magic of diary free diet, I didn't have to suffer from acnes for 33 years.

I came online to share my experience with pimples and a dairy free diet. I started getting pimples in 7th grade because I guess that's what happens when you first hit puberty. My forehead and nose were always covered in whiteheads, blood, and scars up until the start of 8th grade. My hair which covered my forehead at the time contributed to the amount of pimples I had. So that was puberty, when my hormones were going crazy. During my years in high school I would get pimples here and there. Sometimes it got pretty bad, sometimes I got lucky and no pimples appeared on my face. My parents brought me to a dermatologist and he prescribed me a cream, forgot the name. I used the cream for about a month, but the only difference was my face would become super dry and I would still get pimples. Sure, the cream does dry out the pimples and it would go away, but it's very uncomfortable, hurts when making certain facial expressions, etc. I stopped using it since then. Once I started college, I was subjected to "college food". There is a A LOT of cheese, A LOT of cheese. Now I love cheese and other dairy products, which is why I ate so much of it. I started breaking out on my nose, chin, and around my jawline, and I had no freaking idea why. I washed my face twice a day using Cerave, a facial cleanser that moisturizes your face, and I tried my best not to touch my face. Despite my efforts, I still kept getting pimples. At this point I'm pretty annoyed, so I look up possible causes of my pimples and I came across the dairy free diet. Apparently dairy products contain growth hormones that cause pimples. During winter break of 2016-2017 I went back home from college and I strictly avoided dairy products. Guess what happened? NO MORE PIMPLES, except for one or two every week. I kept track of this and I wish I had pictures to prove it. In January I returned to college, still strictly avoiding dairy. I go to the gym regularly during the semester, but when I am home for the breaks I don't go to the gym, which means I do not take whey protein either. Once I was taking whey protein again since I'm back at college, I started breaking out along my chin, nose and jawline about the same way I did before I stopped eating dairy. Whey protein is derived from milk and contains growth hormones too, based on the research I did. I cut out whey protein and ever since then I have been nearly acne free with the exception of 1-2 small pimples a week. It's been about 3 months since I went dairy free and cut out whey protein from my diet. My friends, girlfriend and family, even those who have not seen me in a long time, have told me that my skin looks a lot clearer. I am also much more confident about how I look. My acne scars are slowly going away so I just have to wait a couple more months for them to go away. It's easy to go dairy free because we don't really need dairy in our diets. We can get more nutritional value from other sources, such as soymilk. Hope this review helps people. I was excited to share my experience because I am going through the dairy free diet right now. It's probably the best decision I've made so far and easy to incorporate into my lifestyle. Because of my findings I am more skeptical of people who prescribe medications. I'm pretty sure they keep things from their patients/clients for more money. Anyway, good luck!

35 year old female. Started suffering with acne at 15 years old. "Cured" by the pill from age 17 to 29. Been suffering to varying degrees since coming off the pill 7 years ago. I cut dairy completely out of my diet a month ago; milk, cheese, butter and all milk by products. At the same time I stopped using the topical treatment Clearogen that I had been using once a day, and use a natural wash & moisturiser instead. I also started taking a probiotic, Omega 3 fish oils and zinc. I added Agnus Castus too, but I admit I haven't been taking it everyday as I don't like the taste. I started drinking at least 1 cup of green tea per day. I have mild to moderate acne. I usually have about 2-3 active spots at any time. Up until day 10 my skin got a lot worse, with approximately 9 active spots. This then started to taper off. By day 21, I had no active spots. But at day 30, I'm now back to having 2-3 active spots, which is pretty much where I started. It is my time of month though, so maybe this is why, but I can't say for sure. I also have a lot of new red marks on my face from when my skin purged up until day 10. These will take a long time to fade. I am unsure or not whether to continue. I told myself I'd give it a month and see if it improved. I put a lot of effort in and I feel very disappointed that I don't have the results I was hoping for. Do I need to try it for longer? Are there any other vitamin supplements I should add? I just don't know whether to continue or not.

I had terrible nodular and pustular acne all through my late teens and twenties and my dermatologist prescribed everything from antibiotics to creams to lotions. I eventually went on Accutane and it went away only to come back 6 months later. My doc put me on another course. Same result. The Accutane cleared the acne up but after it was discontinued the acne came back. I went on Accutane several more times. This is extremely rare as I have come to find out. My derms at the time said that diet was not the cause of my acne and that studies showed no link. The one diet factor that was consistent through all this was high consumption of milk. I was consuming up to 1/2 gallon on an almost daily basis unknowingly driving the acne problem. In my late thirties I was reading online some people cutting out milk to help their acne. At the time I was getting by on antibiotics to keep the acne under control and drinking less milk because I was drinking other things like Gatorade and orange juice. I decided to experiment and cut out milk from my diet and anything containing it. Against doctor's orders, I stopped the antibiotics. Low and behold, the acne became almost non existent except for some stray whiteheads every now and again. I kept this milk free diet for several months with great results. Over the years, I have consumed milk to see what happens and within 48 hours I am breaking out in pimples only to be cleared again by stopping the milk. I have no doubt now that in certain people milk can really aggravate and drive acne. I have a huge regret though in knowing how many dollars I could have saved in doc visits and medications not to mention the months of chapped lips and side effects on Accutane if my derm had suggested a diet connection. I despise derms now who swear up and down that diet never plays a role in anybody's acne.

I always had clear skin until I hit my late 20s a few years ago. For the past three years or so I suffered from moderate acne. People around me said it's not that bad but when you hardly had any problem with skin your whole life having 3 to 4 cystic acne plus PIH from previous ones on your face at all times is a major concern. I tried everything - all kinds of skincare products, different makeup, antibiotics, extraction at dermatologists' office, etc. Nothing was permanent and some made it worse. Two weeks ago I went dairy-free thinking there's nothing to lose! I can't say my skin cleared up right away because I tried new moisturizer during the first week, which was disastrous. It took about a week for that disaster to fade away. However, I am very happy to say that I have no active acne since then! I still have PIH that is quite noticeable but I am sure it will go away in a few weeks of time. My skin is the best that it has been in three years. I intend to maintain dairy-free diet for a few more months and start experimenting with small amount of dairy products here and there to see how my skin reacts. I understand there is no guarantee that this will work for everybody but it is surely worth trying.

I'm moderately lactose intolerant but I was eating the "healthy" dairy products: Greek yogurt, butter, cheeses, etc. I was also getting about 3 or 4 new cysts on my cheeks a day and my back and chest were a disaster. In January 2016 I cut out all dairy products. My back and chest acne cleared within *days* - like three days at the most - and I haven't had any cystic acne there since. My cheeks improved a TON but not to 100%. I avoid all "significant" forms of dairy. If I eat a dairy product, I get a new cyst within 12 hours within a very narrow zone of my cheeks, so I know they are related. Even my dermatologist tells men with stubborn acne to avoid dairy because of the hormones. Yes, it means cutting out pizza and ice cream but my clear skin is worth it! This got me started on the road toward solving the root cause of acne.

I started drinking a lot of milk when I tried to gain muscle. It worsened my acne by a lot so cutting dairy is a way to go. But recently I have found out that I am gluten intolerant and when you eat gluten but your body fights it your ability to digest lactose decreases too. So if not eating dairy improves your acne I'd recommend avoiding gluten too as not eating it cleared my acne completely. It is said that once your gastrointestinal tract heals you can start eating dairy again but I don't think I am there yet.