Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002)

Re:Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002) by Tycho on Monday December 17, 2018 @04:03AM (#18697751)

I used to get bad acne as a teenager. I remember thinking it was some kind of cruel joke that I’d look in the mirror on Sunday night and see a fresh spot emerging, just as the others had cleared up, just as the school week was about to begin. Looking back, I think I understand what was happening. On Fridays I’d always eat a lot of sweets. They were banned in the household except for Fridays, and so we’d gorge on confectionary and fizzy drinks. Then, like clockwork, I’d break out in spots a couple of days later. So the culprit would seem to be refined sugar or some other common ingredient, taken in high concentration.

I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out at the time.

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Re:Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002) by audunw on Monday December 17, 2018 @04:20AM (#18697806)

Sugar and dairy products may be one of the problems. Lack of exercise could be one as well. There's some research on this, although some reviews seems to indicate that the evidence isn't 100% clear.

I think the other piece of puzzle, where there's a dire need of research, is on the microbiome of the skin. Having a healthy culture of good bacteria on your skin may be important. That's why washing with soap can cause as much damage as it helps -- if you overdo it, you don't just kill the bad bacterias, you kill the good ones too.

I've experimented a bit with Mother Dirt.. I can't say it's a cure for anything, but it does seem to help.

https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/29601613 https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/21916275 https://academic.oup.com/fampra/article/22/1/62/440463

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Re:Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002) by wallace_f on Monday December 17, 2018 @04:41AM (#18697892)

That's a really interesting idea. Come to think of it, I've spent a lot of time on extended camping and hiking trips and cant come up with a memory or picture when my skin wasn't at its best then.

Also: that microbiome could be include yeasts, which also naturally live on the skin.

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Re:Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002) by lustysocietyorg on Monday December 17, 2018 @04:56AM (#18697950)

What do you mean by "Mother Dirt" ?

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Re:Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002) by AtticHacker on Monday December 17, 2018 @04:20AM (#18697802)

It's interesting since I read a lot that food consumption doesn't affect acne. I used to have relatively bad acne as a teenager as well, but I don't think I consumed a lot of sugars.

As a grown up I grew out of it, but for some strange reason it came back (age 26-27) and I couldn't get rid of it for a year. I ate healthy foods, used face scrub every day, also did weight lifting exercises, but none of those things seemed to help. However at one point I picked up jumping rope, which I did almost daily for 20-30 minutes. After that I stopped having acne. I assume sweating is the core reason that cured (or I should say, prevent) my acne as an adult. Funnily enough I stopped jumping rope for a week or two and I already see some pimples coming back, guess I'm not allowed to stop anymore!

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Re:Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002) by jacobush on Monday December 17, 2018 @04:15AM (#18697783)

Don't beat yourself up over it. There's a lot of shit going on at that age to correlate, even with a level head, which you are not generally possessing at that period of life.

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Re:Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization (2002) by lustysocietyorg on Monday December 17, 2018 @04:52AM (#18697933)

Eating sugar increases the sugar level in your body for some time.

Sugar is also food for bacteria and that leads to pus and inflammation and caries (the sugar in the saliva is converted to acid by bacteria).

There are also other bio-chemically active substances like certain fats and oils. Notably oils containing much Omega-6 acids (inflammation) like in sunflower seeds or sunflower oil.

Chocolate is bad not only because of the sugar.

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