Treating Acne without Side effectsPosted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010 There are many acne treatments available either over the counter or by prescription. Potentially there is a risk of side effects from all of these. The worst being those of isotretinoin based products which include the risk of birth defects, depression and suicide. Most worrying is recent reports that the side effects may continue after the treatment has stopped. However, many people could treat their acne without taking these risks. Treating and Preventing Acne Holistically Mild and Moderate Acne Diet and Acne There are people who refute the link, but they cite studies that have involved diets only maintained for seven days. Few acne treatments, conventional or otherwise, would be entirely successful in that short period of time. Indeed research*1 with people suffering from acne has shown that a diet needs to be maintained for six weeks before the body shows the required increase in vitamins levels to help acne. Further research shows the blood analysed from patients with severe acne has considerably worse levels of vitamins A and E than blood analysed from patients with mild acne*3. This seems to suggest a clear link between deficiency in those vitamins and acne. Thus eating foods high in those nutrients would be beneficial. Minerals are also very important, research has shown both Zinc*5, and selenium*6 are beneficial in helping to reduce acne. The best method of increasing intake of these vitamins and minerals is via a diet high in vegetables and fruit which lasts at least 6 weeks. A good way to ensure a high intake of these vitamins is to include combinations of freshly juiced blackberries, kiwi fruit, watercress, Swiss chard, cranberries, mango, apricots for vitamin E: If there is evidence concerning the foods we should be eating, what evidence is there concerning the foods we should avoid? There is evidence linking milk consumption and acne*2 so removing or at least reducing milk from your diet would be wise. There also seems to be evidence, although only empirical, that links refined carbohydrates, sugars and acne. Although scientists and doctors have yet to establish the exact nature of the link, it is believed be due to the body requiring more chromium to deal with the high blood sugar caused by these food types. This is based on studies that found people with unstable blood sugar levels suffered a high incidence of acne, but when chromium supplements were given the acne rapidly improved *7. We do know and accept that there are some countries whose populations have diets consisting of fresh fruit, vegetables, lean meats and fish, and are generally free of acne*4. We also know that when these people move to a country whose diet is high in processed foods, dairy and refined sugars, many begin to suffer from acne. Many people dismiss this as only empirical evidence but if you want to effectively treat acne the correlation would be an important point to note and incorporate into your daily diet. Conclusion
*1 D. LABADARIOS, J. CILLIERS, L. VISSER, M. E. VAN STUIJVENBERG, G. S. SHEPHARD, D. WIUM, R. WALKER (1987) *2 Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Berkey CS, Danby FW, Rockett HH, Colditz GA, Willett WC, Holmes MD. *3 Z. El-akawi, N. Abdel-Latif, K. Abdul-Razzak (2006) * 4Cordain L, Lindeberg S, Hurtado M, et al: Acne vulgaris: a disease of *5 Michaelsson G, Juhlin L, Vahlquist A. *6 Michaelsson G, Edqvist LE. *7 McCarty M. * 8 http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/ *9 P. Papageorgiou, A. Katsambas and A. Chu (2000). Phototherapy with blue (415nm) and red (660nm) light in the treatment of acne vulgaris. British Journal of Dermatology, 142: 5. Pp 973-978. *10 M. Elman et al (2003). The effective treatment of acne vulgaris by a high-intensity, narrow band 405-420nm light source. Journal of Cosmetic & Laser Therapy; 5: 111-116. Like it? Share it!More by this author |