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You can prevent, clear up, or eliminate acne by reducing high glycemic load foods from your diet and keeping your insulin levels low. This may sound difficult, but it's really just a complicated way of saying, "eat fewer processed and refined foods and your pimples will go away."
This Instructable will share why this works and show you how to determine what foods are potentially pimple causing.
This Instructable will share why this works and show you how to determine what foods are potentially pimple causing.
- original image by slopjop available here shared under a CC license.
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Signing UpStep 1Why should I care, won't pimples just go away once I'm 20?
Common thinking seems to be that acne is simply a hardship of adolescence. Once you've established your independence, realized your parents are probably good people, and stopped listening to music too loud, they're supposed to go away. Perhaps pimples are just some sort of physical marking to help society isolate members during their most awkward phase of development?
Studies of various human cultures across the globe and my own experience indicate this is simply false. I'm 10 years past being a teenager, and will occasionally still get a pimple. More convincing perhaps, studies of non-westernized cultures that follow a traditional diet low in refined sugars and starches show a complete lack of acne in all age groups. Here's once such study found here. Similar reports can be found in the journals of pioneers and explorers who were among the first Europeans to contact indigenous peoples: no pimples, no acne.
Studies of various human cultures across the globe and my own experience indicate this is simply false. I'm 10 years past being a teenager, and will occasionally still get a pimple. More convincing perhaps, studies of non-westernized cultures that follow a traditional diet low in refined sugars and starches show a complete lack of acne in all age groups. Here's once such study found here. Similar reports can be found in the journals of pioneers and explorers who were among the first Europeans to contact indigenous peoples: no pimples, no acne.
- original image by gemsling available here shared under a CC license.
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However, I will refine my statement. There is no evidence in the medical literature that there is a link between diet and acne. There are few studies, but the ones that have been done don't prove an effect. I did a quick search and limited it to pubmed articles available for free.
Here is a review article:
http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/22/1/62
Here is another article. Even though this study is flawed and very small, it shows no link between diet and acne (but it does show a link between weight and acne):
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/86/1/107
Considering insulin's role in acne is interesting, but it is only a hypothesis, and not a very well supported one. The authors of one article cite polycystic ovary syndrome as an example of a disease with high insulin and acne. However, there are other diseases with high insulin which are not associated with acne. I seriously doubt insulin elevation causes acne, it is probably something else. PCOS patients for example are usually obese.
I respect your enthusiasm and intellect, but you are on the wrong track with this article. Please be careful when you give people medical advice unless you are a trained and licensed physician.
I've had bad acne my whole life, and when I eliminated grains (pastas, cereals, breads, etc.) and refined sugars out of my diet, my face began to clear up drastically.
It completely makes sense. Grains cause your insulin to rise, which promotes testosterone, which then produces sebum on the face, allowing bacteria to multiply. The result is acne.
It may not work for some people, but it definitely works for me. I've also seen it work with many other people.
To add on this further: I decided to test if I ate grains for a few days, would my face break out? It did.
It's RIDICULOUS that you think it's okay to go to a physician for this. They're just going to pump you full of harmful antibiotics or even worse, Accutane. Diet plays a HUGE role in how your skin looks, especially regarding acne.
But, perhaps, of more immediate practical significance, is the fact that the therapeutic institution of such a non-western diet is unlikely to be acceptable to adolescents with acne. The dietary restrictions which Western adolescents with acne employ in managing their condition are trivial compared to the differences between their diets and those of hunter-gatherers.
Further, there have been more recent studies that show a link between acne and diet:
- Adebamowo CA,Spiegelman D,Danby FW,et al.,“High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne”,J Am Acad Dermatol (2005);52(2):pp.207–214.
- Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Berkey CS, et al.,“Milk consumption and acne in adolescent girls”, Dermatol Online J (2006);12(4):p.1.
- Smith R,Mann N,Braue A,Varigos G,“Low glycemic load,high protein diet lessens facial acne severity”,Asia Pac J Clin Nutr (2005);14 Suppl:p.S97.
- Smith R,Mann N,Braue A,Varigos G,“The effect of a low glycemic load,high protein diet on hormonal markers of acne”,Asia Pac J Clin Nutr(2005);14 Suppl:p.S43.
Try to remember "do no harm." The choice should be obvious between broad spectrum antibiotics and skin-drying medications with known (and potentially unknown) side-effects vs. reducing one's intake of refined and processed foods.
If you want me to read those articles you posted, you are going to have to post the links to the entire article, I don't have access to those journals.
There is certainly no evidence that "refined and processed foods" have anything to do with acne.
"The choice should be obvious between broad spectrum antibiotics and skin-drying medications with known (and potentially unknown) side-effects vs. reducing one's intake of refined and processed foods."
I agree with you there, the obvious choice is antibiotics.
So, how many people have you effectively treated for acne?
There's lots of... needless hostility here.
The bottom line is that with certain foods, your body produces different hormones. Some of these hormones have been proven to be linked to Acne. Thus, an adjustment in diet will obviously alter these hormones, possibly helping Acne.
Whether or not antibiotics work better or worse is of no circumstance in this instructable, as it is simply Eric Wilhelm (Founder and most-important guy on instructables) trying to help people that have Acne trouble by offering them what is, if not an alternative, a supplement.
While he may not have directly treated anyones skin (that comment was not necessary), he did put in the time and effort to impart his knowledge and experience with acne to those who are looking for it.
Now, I'm pretty sure neither of you meant for that squabble to happen, and I don't by any means want to continue it. So please, just think about what happened, and re-join us as another awesome member of instructables. K?
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however when i do get a pimple, i use this natural stuff from the health store. my favorite stuff was this clay stuff that dried it out and it would dissapear the next day. only makeup thing i use to rid of pimples is almay. i swear by it. put it on and its gone next day!
what i realized was that while i had a few little pimples, just touching them irritates them, and then they get all red and stand out even MORE. So, along with washing my face daily, etc... i put HAND LOTION on my face every day before school. It soothes the skin and heals it. The pimples don't go away from this alone, but they are a LOT less noticeable.
And lastly, a big part of it is confidence. I thought I looked SO horrible that I was very shy and avoided eye contact, kept my head down, etc. But just look at everyone at school. I DARE YOU! I will guarentee that there are at least 20 people who have acne but act like it's not even there, and so nobody knows it even there. Weird, right? But if you look for it, you'll find it. So just down make a big deal about it, and down be too down on yourself. All my friends treat me the same on both good days AND bad days.
http://www.treatmentsforacne.net/skincarebytype/Acne-Scar-Treatments/index.htm
This is interseting, and on the whole correct, your diet is the main problem when it comes to acne. Although this is something that many doctors dont mention. Maybe this is because theres more money in medications that mainly dont work at all.