The Healthy Thread

Out of context: Reply #588

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  • mg3313

    Going to bare my soul here in the hopes that it’s helpful to any adults I know, or parents with children of any age, who deal with acne. My biggest frustration in life is being a grown adult in my 40’s who still deals with this. It sucks, plain and simple.

    Over the years I’ve learned that a few things are major causes of acne and have avoided them religiously: whey protein, and dairy. I still included dairy in occasional non-dairy ice cream, or cheese, but haven’t had regular milk in about 15 years. But still the problem persisted and came and went.

    Yeah, I’ve seen dermatologists, and yes, they prescribe things that help. But modern dermatology has a major problem in how their goal is to help treat people from the outside in - topical creams, face-washing regimens, etc. It works for some people, but it doesn’t work for those who have deeper causes.

    I got curious earlier this year about additional food sensitivities and started digging into gut health and microbiome factors. Took a food sensitivity test (note: not an allergy test, these exist too, but they’re meant for people with legitimate allergic reactions to foods, and regular breakouts aren’t exactly that) and the results were rather revealing. The conventional wisdom is that food sensitivities = inflammation = acne if you’re prone to those issues.

    Besides the test confirming that whey protein and all forms of dairy were high sensitivity foods for me, the results also included these foods as high sensitivity:

    - All forms of grains and bread (wheat, white bread) except oats, barely, and 100% rye bread
    - Chickpeas, garbanzo flour (goodbye hummus)
    - Brown and white rice (I ate brown rice regularly)
    - All apples and apple juice, and apple cider vinegar
    - Cider
    - Hot chocolate
    - Rice milk
    - Black beans (I ate these with every other meal)
    - Wheatgrass
    - Dried beef (I regularly ate jerky)
    - Milk chocolate
    - Sesame seeds and sesame oil
    - Cod liver oil
    - Cod, shrimp
    - All mushrooms
    - Vegan foods: falafel, Seitan

    Surprisingly, caffeine and coffee had no sensitivity, but the impact of caffeine > cortisol > acne was something I was already familiar with, and have avoided regular coffee most of the time for that reason.

    Since doing the test I’ve done an elimination diet and phased certain things in and out that were regularly consumed foods - namely wheat-related foods that were hard to avoid: hamburger buns, cookies, bakery products, cake at birthday parties, etc. By eliminating those foods and bringing them back in over the past five months, I’ve finally gotten a hold of wheat, black beans, rice and hummus as things I definitely need to avoid. They’re gone and I don’t miss them. Wheat will be the one hard thing to avoid - yes, there will be the occasional birthday party with cake that is unavoidable, because I’m still human and it’s pretty hard to turn down cake, right? Everything in moderation. I’m at a point now where I’ve 100% cut all the high-sensitivity foods, and what do you know... skin cleared up in a week.

    So, if you deal with acne as an adult, or if your children deal with it and nothing seems to work, DO A FOOD SENSITIVITY TEST. I did one by submitting hair follicles to https://checkmybodyhealth.com and the report they provided revealed all the things in the list above. All this knowledge gained and if I continued to go the route of seeing a dermatologist, none of them would have suggested this or believed in it, which will always be bizarre to me. I can’t begin to imagine how great it would have been to have had this knowledge 10, 15, 20 years ago.

    Some people have absolutely no issues with foods, and for that I envy them! But for others who deal with acne and continue to be prescribed topical medications and antibiotics, that stuff is only going to go so far. Get your gut health right, figure out what triggers inflammation, and get those foods out of your diet.

    mg33 13Permalink
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    • interesting, thanks for sharingBennn
    • You're welcome :)mg33
    • uhm why is not public knowledge by now that acne is a gut problem not a dermatologic one?!grafician
    • nice! just checked this out and they are having a sale right now. $59 for 2 tests. I also found 3 codes that saved another $28!capn_ron
    • STRONGERTOGETHER
      extra10
      GIVEME5      capn_ron
    • I just sent my sample! Thanks mg33 and capn_ron!Bennn
    • and they make analysis right here in MontrealBennn
    • I'd die w/out my shroomies, chickpeas and rice :(
      I need to get one of these tests going too... but I fear losing even MORE foods I love this year :(      PonyBoy
    • Getcher FODMAPs in order son.

      I dis one and was surprised to learn i am not allergic to oysters as I previously thought, but I am allergic to apples.      cannonball1978
    • This is a great post. I’m currently trying to deal with psoriasis and think there’s a strong link with my gut health too. Definitely going to look into a testIanbolton
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