Dear Mark: Noticably slower hair and nail growth, increased acne...?

Mark,
My wife and I have been primal (me to a greater extent than she) since the beginning of the year. We've both noticed a marked difference in the rate of nail growth, and to a lessor extent hair growth. She's also noticed an increase in acne formation. We both supplement with fish oil and your DCMF (usually half doses). As far as I can tell, nail strength isn't a problem. I think it's safe to say that mine feel stronger than they were before. Any thoughts as to why they might grow more slowly, or what might cause the acne to spike?

ADDED: It also seems like minor cuts and abrasions are slower to heal, but that may just be us overthinking things.

Grok on!

Seth

Hi BONZ,

I'm not Mark, but I just wanted to mention that going primal actually cured my severe, cystic acne and RADICALLY increased nail growth. I should say that I eat a primal diet HEAVY in animal foods with almost no plants at all, and it wasn't until I started cutting out the green stuff (fruits in particular) that my acne began to disappear RAPIDLY. I know of other people who've had the same experience after going semi-carnivorous. I actually decided to give it a try because another guy in my area had cured his severe acne this way. Going super low-glycemic seems to be key for some of us.

I eat salmon every day and so never take fish oil.

Hope this helps.

good response meatloaf. if your eating a lot of plant matter your prolly just exposing yourself to high amounts of toxins. I too eat heavily meat based, there just isn't really any need for veggies. the real paleo diet has heavily meat based, sometimes 100% and our fruits and veggies are far from anything like what they had if they had them and they certainly didn't have them all the time. you cant just say primal does this to you, take a look at the actual composition of your diet

Yes, I feel like most plants do more harm than good here, both to my body and my wallet. And I'm not some fundamentalist carnivore -- I've actually tried everything from vegan to fruitarian to normal paleo to this, and this is by far the most acne-friendly diet I've ever eaten.

I do use coconut oil for cooking every day, and sometimes I snack on nuts. I still drink coffee in the morning.

After giving up most plants my digestion is perfect, I have great dental health, my energy levels are even throughout the day, I NEVER crave carbs, and I'm not hungry in between meals. I do some light lifting and my muscles are getting definition FAST.

BONZ, a lot of people report acne breakouts after taking fish oil supplements. I know Mark's a big fan but in my opinion people with acne should avoid them and spend their money on actual fish instead.

[QUOTE=meatloaf;965151]Yes, I feel like most plants do more harm than good here, both to my body and my wallet. And I'm not some fundamentalist carnivore -- I've actually tried everything from vegan to fruitarian to normal paleo to this, and this is by far the most acne-friendly diet I've ever eaten.

I do use coconut oil for cooking every day, and sometimes I snack on nuts. I still drink coffee in the morning.

After giving up most plants my digestion is perfect, I have great dental health, my energy levels are even throughout the day, I NEVER crave carbs, and I'm not hungry in between meals. I do some light lifting and my muscles are getting definition FAST.

BONZ, a lot of people report acne breakouts after taking fish oil supplements. I know Mark's a big fan but in my opinion people with acne should avoid them and spend their money on actual fish instead.[/QUOTE]

I with you man, I use coconut oil sometimes as well as eat nuts on the occasion. the only place my carbs come from is raw milk. lactose doesn't affect me in a bad way at all, ive been off it for an extended period of time and that did more harm than good. I completely agree with your argument against fish oil. There is a lot of research out there that shows fish oil is going to cause a lot of health problems and an overabundance of omega 3 does a lot more harm than good. They argue omega 6 will take care of any deficiency and omega 3 will not. There just no need for fish oil and Mark IS NOT a doctor. He recommends this based on the fact that everyone recommends fish oil. The whole theory came about because the Eskimo were free of heart disease because of all the fish they ate. I read the book from the artic explorer Stefansson, The Fat of the Land" and they didn't always eat fish. In fact sometimes they ate nothing but caribou for an extended period of time and sometimes and they ate nothing but eggs during April and May. They didn't have any implications of any kind of disease at all anyways and neither did the other pre-agriculture civilizations.