The Acne Thread

[Whitelinen]

Once again, milk does not have an effect on your acne. It is a myth. It would harm your skin if you would drink litres of milk per day, but I think I am safe to say no one here does that. Stopping drinking milk doesn't cure your acne, nor does drinking it/consuming products with it (cheese, yoghurt) make it worse. It's just an urban myth, there are no confirmed information or studies from doctors about that.

While no kind of diet causes acne, it is definetily true that eating healthy helps and thus eating unhealthy does not. Isn't it logic? Compare an apple from a tree or a Big Mac. Which one you think benefits you skin?

I have consulted on these things from a dermatologist, and this is what she has said.

Personally, I believe in this treatment for acne:

1. Visiting a dermatologist. This is important, as your skin is unique and no article in Allure will be able to give you help. Don't trust on your friends (unless they are dermatologists) in what treatment you shoudl receive or what kind of acne you have. Always visit a dermatologist if you think you want to do something about your acne.

2. Eat wisely and healthily. Whole grains, good fats, vegetables and fruit, fish etc. Drink water and take care that your diet is balanced. Cutting out milk or carbohydrates is not the answer, but cutting out junk food and excessive processed sugar (like in candy) helps. Do indulge in a ice cream cone once in a while, but remember, have a balanced diet.

3. Take care of your skin with the daily care of cleansing and moisturizing. Don't use too harsh lotions etc. Ask the dermatologist what she/he suggests. Be gentle with your skin and remember to do this routine twice daily, in the morning and in the evening.

4. Take care of what you put to your face/area where you have acne. Take care that, if you use make-up, all your make-up and the brushes/sponges you apply it with are clean, not ridden with bacteria. Change the sheets (especially the pillow sheet) before they are dirty. Don't use dirty, sweaty clothing (for example if you have acne in the area of your back/chest). Take care of your hygiene.

I guess also being stress-free, getting enough sleep and exercising regularly helps.

Don't believe in myths or hear-say (or even this post, as I am not a dermatologist, this is only advice I have gotten from my dermatologist). Trust your dermatologist, confirm your treatment through him/her first before believing anything.

I think I know why my acne is not getting completely away now. It is due to these reasons; eating unhealthily, not exercising, not taking care of the hygiene of the skin and not exercising, being under a stress and sleeping ireegularly. Thus I know what I need to do to get rid of the last bits of my acne.

 

[Alexandra8715]

Spot the culprit: How milk can trigger acne

For decades scientists have searched for the causes of acne. Now a study has identified one of the key triggers: milk. Sanjida O'Connell finds out how a pinta causes pimples

Published: 08 May 2007



Julianne never suffered from spots as a teenager, but by the time she was 28 she had terrible cystic acne along her jawline and across her neck. An American, she had travelled to Europe to learn to become a cook and a sommelier.
She decided to open a deli as well as a restaurant back in the States, so before she returned home she toured Europe, sampling every cheese she could find. As she recounted her story to the dermatologist Bill Danby, something clicked: "Oh my God, it's the cheese," she said. For six months, she cut out all dairy products. During that time she became 85 per cent free of acne, and her skin has continued to improve.
Milk has been anecdotally linked to acne for almost a century but, so far, few scientists have agreed on the real cause of acne and even fewer believe that diet plays a major role. Danby, who runs a private practice in Manchester, New Hampshire, and also works at Dartmouth Medical School, believes that milk does indeed cause acne - and that he knows what the mechanism could be.
Acne can affect anyone at any age, but it usually peaks at between 16 and 18, when up to 98 per cent of the population of Western countries is affected. A link between diet and acne has been suggested because acne is less common in other countries but increases when a Western diet is adopted. As well as being socially excruciating, acne is costly - £2bn is spent each year treating it.
Danby, who has long held that there is a link between diet and acne, persuaded Dr Walter Willett and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston to look into the matter. The team studied more than 47,000 women who are part of a research project called the Nurses Health Study II.
The women were asked to complete questionnaires relating to their diet as teenagers and to say whether they had ever been diagnosed with severe acne. The study found no link between food such as chocolate and chips and acne, but found one between women who had acne and those who had drunk a lot of milk.
But why should milk, such an essential bone-building nutrient, be bad for our skin? Willett believes it's because of the hormones in the milk, and Danby has taken this argument a step further. What most dermatologists usually agree on is that the male hormone testosterone (also found in women), changes to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the sebaceous glands, the oil-producing glands in the skin. Acne is produced when the hormone causes too many of the cells that line the duct of the gland to be produced too quickly. Unable to separate from each other, they stick together and form a plug in the pore - the first visible sign of acne.
Of course, everyone will respond differently to hormones. As Danby says: "The ability to develop acne is partly genetic and partly the result of hormone exposure. I tell my female patients that genetics are the key to the fact that Paris Hilton has lots of money and no zits and my patients have lots of zits and no money. It is all genetics."
The milk most of us drink is produced by cows for their calves. To ensure maximum milk yields cows are inseminated days after giving birth to their calves, which are taken away. A dairy cow will spend most of its life being milked and being pregnant at the same time.
So milk is full of hormones: not only ones intended to help the calf grow, but also those produced by the placenta to aid the cow's pregnancy. They include DHT, and other hormones that are the pre-cursors to DHT. In other words, the hormones teenagers naturally produce are plentiful in milk. It of course contains other growth-enhancing hormones too - as Danby says: "Milk is, after all, specifically designed to make things grow."
Another worrying hormone, as far as acne is concerned, is IGF-1. This "growth factor" peaks at age 15 in girls and 18 in boys, coinciding with peak acne levels. IGF-1 is thought to works with testosterone and DHT to cause acne. IGF-1 is present in cows' milk anyway, but levels rise by 10 per cent when cows are given injections of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to increase milk yield. Drinking organic milk is not a solution because the cows are still pregnant while lactating, so they have the same hormones in their milk as non-organic cows.
Danby's solution is to eliminate dairy from the diet - after all, he says, the Perricone diet is practically dairy-free. Nicholas Perricone, an American dermatologist who has launched a range of skin products, has also developed a skin-food diet based on eating large amounts of wild salmon.
However, Perricone's London-based nutritionist, Christopher Lee, disagrees with Danby: "A diet high in sugars and saturated fats is rich in free-radical-causing agents, which will exacerbate acne. But acne is triggered by hormones and is not caused by diet."
Saturated fats may play a role, but the Harvard Nurses study found that acne was most closely linked to skimmed milk. The researchers hypothesise that it is not the fat that is the problem, but the hormones, which may be altered. For instance, to give skimmed milk a creamier texture, whey is often added, and the protein in whey can make other hormones more reactive.
The Dairy Council isn't convinced, saying the study is flawed because, first, it asked participants to remember what they ate a decade ago and, second, it shows a link between milk and acne, which is not the same as proving that milk causes acne.
Dr Judith Bryans, the director of the Dairy Council, says: "Science does not support links between acne and dairy foods," and argues that, "unnecessary exclusion of dairy from the diet can compromise nutrient intakes. This is especially important for teenagers who are most likely to suffer with acne, and for whom the bone-building nutrients found naturally in dairy foods are so important."
To address this, another long-term study is about to be published, looking at the Harvard Nurses' teenage children, who should have no problem remembering what they're eating and how many spots they have.
Danby agrees with the Dairy Council that the link between acne and milk is unproven: "My dermatological colleagues insist, with justification, on a full double-blind randomised controlled trial. But so far it has been impossible to arrange such a trial. Double-blinding dairy intake is essentially impossible because we have no hormone-free dairy we could feed people as a 'placebo'."
However, in defence of his dairy-free stance, he adds: "Objectively, human consumption of large volumes of another species' milk, especially when that milk comes mainly from pregnant cows during the human's normally post-weaned years, is essentially unnatural."
www.acnemilk.com

Article from independent.co.uk



This is the article I read in the independent about a week or 2 ago.

 

[Whitelinen]

^ And do you know a dermatologist who agrees with it?

 

[Alexandra8715]

I haven't spoken to a derm about it (don't have one) but I think that we should be open minded about the causes of acne. It's not my belief that drinking excessive amounts of milk alone causes acne (obviously) but it states in the article that the theory is medically credible so I think it is possible that there might be a link. My friend stopped drinking milk and though it took a while she said her skin cleared up. I am a big milk drinker too and my skin is rubbish.

 

[spierce]

I'm going to the dermatologist! I really hope she'll give me something that helps and not just give me something that's no use.

 

[Whitelinen]

I haven't spoken to a derm about it (don't have one) but I think that we should be open minded about the causes of acne. It's not my belief that drinking excessive amounts of milk alone causes acne (obviously) but it states in the article that the theory is medically credible so I think it is possible that there might be a link. My friend stopped drinking milk and though it took a while she said her skin cleared up. I am a big milk drinker too and my skin is rubbish.

Well, I have to disagree. This article was from the Independent. I rather trust the people who really work on the field.

 

[Alexandra8715]

I just put the article on here becasue it's relevent to what we were talking about.

 

[Whitelinen]

^ Yes, I understand. I just simply say that I agree to disagree about what the article says

 

[Deleted member 49693]

It was also in the UK Daily Mail. I have been told by my derm. that in some people, cow's milk can cause an allergic reaction of acne.

 

[modelbehavior228]

Last week, my dad said he would FINALLY take me to the dermatologist. FINALLY, after YEARS of severe acne, finally. I am so happy

 

[keroppi]

^ Yay good luck with that

 

[songbirdsel]

i have to agree with that milk and cheese article. I know there are a lot of people who disagree and dermatogolosits too. But as someone who has has mild acne for a while now from my own expirience i think that it makes a difference. I dont eat a lot of dairy, but when i do my skin breaks out more. I have a been from one determatologist to another, one told me i was being silly and not to worry about my skin, another said diet or products you use has nothing to do with it and just to use the stuff he gave me. I then read an article about sensetive skin, i will actually find it for you guys to read and although it wont apply to everyone, hopefully it will help some people out. But these were the main tips
- take a zinc suppliment at the recommended daily allowence, this acts as an anti inflammatory agent against the skin.
- avoid alchol and spicy foods
- stay out of the sun at all times unless wearing an SPF20 containing titanium or zinc dioxide , the two mineral suncreens that can be used on sensetive skin
- avoid all anti ageing, exfoliating and resurfacing products until your skin calms down
- wear a daily mousturiser rich in lipids to combant winter weather, air conditioning and dehydrated climates
- take a gamma linoleic acid (GLA) sumppliment such as flaxeed, borage, starflower or fish oils, or even primrose oil. GLA acts as an anti inflammatory agent in the skin.

i found this stuff really helped me, i know it wont help everyone on this thread and its not 100% but some people do react more to the environmental changes, chemically enduced products or even some foods and for them it does make a difference. As i said ill look for the rest of the article for you guys to see.

 

[heaven]

i don't know about the whole "milk theory" but i have to admit that all throughout my teen years, my skin was gorgeous, and now, i'm plagued with cystic acne, and i drink tea every morning with loads of cream, that's the only thing i do differently now...

so i guess it's worth a shot....i'm going to just drink it without for a while, and report back...

 

[Whitelinen]

Well, if you use "unhealthy" dairy products, ie ice cream or a lot of cream, no wonder if it has an effect. But natural yoghurt, milk etc, shouldn't have an effect.

 

[justlooking]

Everyone's body/skin reacts differently to different foods etc.
Perhaps experimenting by taking out things like milk (dairy) and slowly bringing them back and tracking any changes.

 

[Womanolo]

^ I totally agree. The human body is so weird and wonderful, and everyone is different, that one thing may bring someone out with acne and possibly even be the cure for someone else. The only thing with diet is to try things out, but slowly over a course of months and not all at once.

I know it's not completely linked, but my mum suffered from migraines a lot until she sussed out it was drinking cold milk that could trigger some of them off. Weird, as warm milk didn't trigger them at all, nor milk in tea / coffee.

 

[laurette]

this is the best anti-blemish cream ever, honestly, it's even better than the ones my dermatologist prescribed me (and I've tried many)

It costs about 13€ (~20$).
I used to get sometimes really big spots that were invisible but bumpy and huge (+ they hurt!) and now this cream makes them vanish within 1-2 days! It's amazing

 

[Micaela]

^that's wonderful! Do you happen to know what the active ingredient is for that?

 

[laurette]

^ 0,1 % Retinaldehyde and 6 % Acide Glycolique ( I don't know the English word for the last one, sorry)

 

[Micaela]

lol no problem. Thank you!