Did grok have acne? page

[tommyho1]

so i was thinking about this today - as a mild acne sufferer, i have spent the last 10 years of my life trying to work out what causes it. nobody seems to know. i eat a really good diet, i get plenty of sunshine and i am active, strong and healthy.

for the last 6 months i have started taking regular antibiotics and i am afraid to say that they are the ONLY thing that has got the acne beat. i now very rarely have any outbreaks of any kind. which is great, but i know all of the downsides of taking regular antibiotics. but to be honest, i am willing to deal with those, for a blemish free face!

my question though is, do you think grok could have had acne? or is this a modern "phenomonen" that has developed through our genes through an unhealthy lifestyle since modernisation? people tell me it is genetic - that our diet has no real effect on the acne. thoughts?

[jfreaksho]

I notice a difference. Really bad toxins in my body sometimes come out my back in rashes or acne. It's an evolutionarily-grown mechanism to deal with something that Grok encountered, but I doubt he suffered from it to the same extent that we do now.
Make sure you're getting plenty of yogurt and other healthy probiotics to keep your system healthy.

You say you eat healthily- what are you eating? There could be something triggering it that you haven't made the connection. How long have you been eating PB?

[tommyho1]

only been eating primal for a few months - so i guess the acne could have been brought on by a previously carb/processed food heavy diet. but i have never eaten too badly. now im about 90% paleo - typical day - 4-6 eggs, a shake with nut butter, protein powder and a banana, a tuna salad or something similar, then some meat with vegetables for tea. im pretty protein heavy as im trying to make significant lean gains. i dont eat much dairy, if at all, as it seems to wreak havoc with my digestive system. also, i currently live in south korea where unfortunately it is difficult to get high quality dairy - any yogurt products are full of sugar.

im thinking im going to stick with the anitbiotics for another few months until the pb diet has really kicked in and then stop taking them and see if there is any difference.

[tarek]

Take the protein powder out. I always had breakouts when I ate protein powder. It's processed garbage IMO. Cut back on the nut butter, and cut back on any stimulants you may be using, such as coffee or cacao. Tea is okay. Add coconut into your diet. Low quality meat might also trigger your breakouts, especially if you eat the fat along with it. When you are done taking the antibiotics, find a high quality probiotic supplement, or, better yet, incorporate fermented foods into your diet, especially raw kombucha and raw kefir.

[Buttercup]

No, no acne in hunter-gatherer societies. See what Cordain has to say about it at dietaryacnecure.com:

In the U.S., between 79-95% of all teenagers between 16 and 18 years of age have acne. Acne is present in children as young as 4 and about half of young men and women over age 25 experience some form of acne.

Despite the nearly universal presence of acne in westernized countries like the U.S., there is intriguing evidence from frontier physicians, explorers and anthropologists that the prevalence of acne is incredibly lower in native people when living and eating in their traditional ways. These observations had not been formalized in the medical literature until 2002 when Dr. Cordain and his colleagues published a landmark study in The Archives of Dermatology. In this study, they examined a group of people living on the remote Kitavan Islands off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Out of the 300 young people examined on the Kitavan Islands, there was not a single pimple to be found.

In the second part of the study, they examined a group of South American Indians called the Ache, living in a remote jungle in eastern Paraguay. Over a two year period with these people, not a single case of acne was observed by Dr. Cordain’s research team.

[ozbuckley]

Dude, whatever you do STOP TAKING THE ANTIBIOTICS. They are not curing your acne, they are simply suppressing it... and in the meantime doing huge damage to your gut flora. So when you stop taking the antibiotics I guarantee your acne will be worse... so youll reach for the antibiotics and on goes the cycle of doom!

Take a look at your diet and make some changes. If you're eating dairy - cut it out. If you're eating nuts -cut them out. Experiment and give it some time before you decide because it could take time to see the changes.

Also, look into Candida overgrowth. Especially now you're taking antibiotics you've probably increased yeast population down there in your gut and the level of toxicity is increasing and acne is one of the ways your body uses to get rid of toxicity. It's one of the ways my body uses too. But recently my acne has greatly reduced!!! And its only getting better.

The anti-candida is pretty intense but it may be the best thing you could ever do for yourself. check out Healing Naturally by Bee - Home Page and check out the candida section.

all the best!

[Ryokumuji]

I've learned in my research to get my cystic acne under control, that anti-biotics are one of the most DANGEROUS ways to treat acne. Like ozbuckley said, they suppress acne and do damage to all the good bacteria that's in your gut.

For me, I have only been on the Primal diet for a couple of weeks but I found that just cutting out grains has made my skin look a lot clearer. Not completely, but it's a lot better. No more horrible cystic acne.

I've read that acne is just a form of inflammation and your body is trying to signal to you, "Hey something is wrong! FIX IT!" and it COULD be a food you're currently eating. It could be the protein powder. A lot of them have junk in them unfortunately (soy and artificial sweetners too). Dairy and nuts COULD be a problem but I'd cut the protein powder first, personally.

[tommyho1]

a sh** load of really intersting points - thankyou!!

i guess i need to stick with the hope that a good diet and healthy lifestyle can really prevent acne. its just taking the plunge and going for it without worrying about getting more outbreaks.

my problem diet wise is two-fold. first, i live in south korea and second, i am a skinny guy trying to build some lean muscle. south korea offers very little in the way of good decent sources of protein and decent healthy fats. the meat here sucks, the quality of eggs are pretty terrible and the dairy is pretty much non-existent in any form that we know in the west. this is why im trying to eat nut butter and some protein powder to try add up the protein side a bit. one good thing is that i can eat loads of kimchi - i hear that fermented stuff is pretty good for us.

deep down i know ireally shouldnt be taking these antibiotics, but they have stopped my acne (for now) and i feel so much more confident. i know its not a permanent fix though. maybe i should wait until i get back to england and the options to eat PROPER food.

[siouxie84]

I'm going throught the exact same thing. I had constant severe cystic acne and out of desperation started taking antibiotics again after visits to the naturopath didnt work.

What I did find out from the naturopath was my hormones were unbalanced (estrogen dominance I think) so I stopped taking hormonal birth control and started eating primal at the same time I started on the antibiotics.

Like you I am going to give it six months for the PB diet to kick in and for my skin to repair itself, then I'm going to wean myself off the antibiotics.

Whatever you do, do not stop the antibiotics cold turkey! You need to gradually reduce your dose (i.e from 2 per day to 1, or cut a tablet in half and take half a day for a month, then reduce further etc). I'd also recommend starting to taking a probiotic now. I take a probiotic in the morning and my antibiotic at night.

[Risto]

I don't have much else to add to the thread, but I have to mention that when I used antibiotics, I lost my acne completely. I looked like a new person. And then...a few months later my face was close to similar as it was before. Luckily it didn't get worse, but it might have been due to improving my diet as well. (I'm not too sure about that.)

These smart people definitely gave you lots of ideas -- ditch protein powder, for instance. I'm not sure how to help you on the protein issue, but I would say that don't worry about getting too much protein. I think it's fairly overrated how much protein you need for gaining muscle. Just makes sure you get at least 3 nice strength training sessions per week and I'm sure that you are able to provide enough protein to rebuild stronger and bigger muscle mass. Meanwhile, look around and try to find good places to buy eggs, fish, and meat.