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Acne

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Linda 60609 Newbie
Linda 60609
Posted

I went gluten-free first and then casein free later. My skin cleared up when I went CF. This was quite a surprise to me (don't you love good surprises?) because I've done two strong courses of accutane in my adult life that made my skin beautiful while on the drug but the effects didn't last. I've been through every medical and alternative acne treatment on the planet and the only two that have worked well are accutane and casein-free. Wow, I wish I had known about casein-free before the expensive poisonous accutane....

Thank you so very much for mentioning this. I found your post by searching for "cystic acne celiac," because my cystic acne (which I have had for 30 years) defied most treatments (I did 2 courses of accutane) but I am now left me with huge boxcar and icepick scars on my cheeks. The former cysts still fill up with pus all the time and nothing including antibiotics every gets rid of it. I am finally getting some answers from a doctor who thinks I have celiac, so I am searching to see if maybe celiac was the cause of the cystic acne. I will look into going casein free too.

  • 4 months later...
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Lud Newbie
Lud
Posted

Hi my name is Ludwig and I want to tell you my quick story about my acne connection with gluten.

I had acne during the end of college and I thought it was one of those things that everybody goes through. I always assume that my face was going to clear up sooner or later but it didn't. Although my acne was consider minor I always had troubles with my nose, from time to time I would get pimples and sometimes it would turn red. At the first time it happened I knew acne was caused by my diet because I felt that after I ate certain food I would feel the adverse effects after. So I stopped eating everything and start from square one and one of the foods I came across was quaker oatmeal. I ate this several times because oatmeal to which I thought was healthy but my nose didn't get any better. So I searched "oatmeal acne" and came across acne dot org and one of those topics mentioned that quaker oatmeal contains gluten and it can cause acne. I then searched "gluten acne" on google and sure enough there were many results that came up. Then the rest is history. I ordered several non gluten products such as NOW protein whey, bobs red mill no gluten oatmeal and pancake mix. I will have these by next week and I will give these a try to confirm that I have this gluten intolerance problem. I will report back.

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

Hi my name is Ludwig and I want to tell you my quick story about my acne connection with gluten.

I had acne during the end of college and I thought it was one of those things that everybody goes through. I always assume that my face was going to clear up sooner or later but it didn't. Although my acne was consider minor I always had troubles with my nose, from time to time I would get pimples and sometimes it would turn red. At the first time it happened I knew acne was caused by my diet because I felt that after I ate certain food I would feel the adverse effects after. So I stopped eating everything and start from square one and one of the foods I came across was quaker oatmeal. I ate this several times because oatmeal to which I thought was healthy but my nose didn't get any better. So I searched "oatmeal acne" and came across acne dot org and one of those topics mentioned that quaker oatmeal contains gluten and it can cause acne. I then searched "gluten acne" on google and sure enough there were many results that came up. Then the rest is history. I ordered several non gluten products such as NOW protein whey, bobs red mill no gluten oatmeal and pancake mix. I will have these by next week and I will give these a try to confirm that I have this gluten intolerance problem. I will report back.

I would hold off on the oatmeal for a bit. Some of us react to even the gluten free oats.

Lud Newbie
Lud
Posted

I would hold off on the oatmeal for a bit. Some of us react to even the gluten free oats.

That is quite interesting, can you tell me why is that?

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

That is quite interesting, can you tell me why is that?

the protein in oatmeal is similiar to the protein in the gluten grains. There are quite a few of us who do react to all oats, even the certified gluten free ones. If you are one of them it could make things confusing. If you avoid them for now you can add them back in after you have healed to see if you are someone who tolerates them.

curlyfries Contributor
curlyfries
Posted

I think it depends on what kind of acne you have, and what has been causing your acne. I have cystic acne (it seems to be largely genetic in my case). It has not gone away (I've been gluten-free for about 4 years now). Soy does make my acne much worse though.

Thank you so very much for mentioning this. I found your post by searching for "cystic acne celiac," because my cystic acne (which I have had for 30 years) defied most treatments (I did 2 courses of accutane) but I am now left me with huge boxcar and icepick scars on my cheeks. The former cysts still fill up with pus all the time and nothing including antibiotics every gets rid of it. I am finally getting some answers from a doctor who thinks I have celiac, so I am searching to see if maybe celiac was the cause of the cystic acne. I will look into going casein free too.

Most of my acne issues have been cystic. I saw some improvement after going gluten-free, but then got worse again. Now that I am totally sugar free, my face is acne free :D

munchkinette Collaborator
munchkinette
Posted

My acne was crazy before I went gluten free. I mainly had the really deep painful ones, and they took weeks to heal. It took me 20 minutes to put on concealer every morning. It almost totally cleared up after being on the diet for a few months, and stayed that way for a few years.

Then it came back. I then realized I had to eliminate dairy, and later soy. It turned out that my flaky skin patches were from the dairy as well. Now that I've gotten rid of all three, my skin is almost always clear. The main reason I avoid dairy and soy now is because of the crazy acne (deep painful, or the blistery kind) that I get when I eat either one, although I'm sure that equally bad things are happening to my insides. If I get glutened I get all that acne plus little red dots all over my stomach.

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Chakra2 Contributor
Chakra2
Posted

Dropping gluten definitely improved my complexion, but it took dropping dairy and soy to get it 100% clear. Even soy oil in vitamins makes me break out (i stopped taking some of my favorite supplements, including fish oil, for that reason). I also switched to using baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and Calfornia Baby products on my face and that seemed to help too. I discovered that all of my other face soap and cream had either gluten or soy in them.

  • 1 year later...
kafree Newbie
kafree
Posted

I realise this is an old post but thought I'd reply anyway.

For people going gluten free for the first time, I'd advise you to hang in there. After having stubborn acne for 20 years (I'm now 35) and trying all sorts of regimes/antibiotics/contraceptive pills, I became convinced it was the result of my body reacting to certain food through an inflammatory response. I also had really bad dandruff that refused to respond to anything I tried.

After trying elimination diets on and off (and not very restrictively), and becoming so paranoid about everything I ate, I had IgG blood testing for 370 different foods. THe results came back as being reactive to gluten and eggs (among other more obscure foods). I eliminated these from my diet and had some really big breakouts before I finally became clear after about 6 weeks for the first time in years. Dandruff and itchy skin disappeared too! It seemed that my body went through a detox process in clearing out my skin and it took a while. I've also noticed, differently to other people on these forums, that my body reacts very slowly to gluten and eggs, as it may take 2 weeks or longer before the effects of ingestion show in my skin. Which made it very hard when I was undertaking an elimination diet to determining what was causing my symptoms. Interestingly too (as opposed to other contributers) my main symptoms of intolerance are skin problems. I experience some digestion and mood issues from these foods, but not to the extremes that others seem to. Nowadays I can have sml bits of gluten and egg on occasion without any adverse effects but if I have them regularly for a couple of weeks, I get a reaction. Different to allergies, my body seems to cope with small amounts of the intolerant food, until a threshold level is reached and a reaction occurs through an inflammatory response in my skin. ITs difficult being gluten-free combined with being egg-free as normally gluten-free foods in restaurants come in the form of frittata or other egg dish. Be careful you're not replacing gluten with something else that is causing a reaction.

Another suggestion - when trying out elimination diets to tackle acne, lay off the suppliments until you have established that certain foods aren't(or are) the cause. I was taking fish oil for months before I realised it was causing me to break in cysts really badly. Its always promoted as a treatment for acne/inflammation so it took me a while to figure out. I moved house, lost my suppliments and my skin cleared up!

Good luck and hope this helps.

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    • JudyLou
      Seeking advice on potential gluten challenge

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      Seeking advice on potential gluten challenge

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      Thank you so much @knitty kitty! My feet aren’t dry or ashy and I don’t have a rash that gets scaly. It’s like very itchy/burning vesicles that are symmetrical - on both arms, both legs, etc. They actually feel better in direct sunlight as long as it isn’t really hot or I’m not exercising outside, but gets worse if I sweat (especially if the area is covered up). It’s not usually on the outside of my elbows and knees which seems more typical of dermatitis herpetiformis (unless it spreads there). It tends to first hit the inside of those areas. Interestingly, twice the rash broke out soon after eating an unhealthy meal and having an alcoholic drink (I only drink a few times a year, no more alcohol content than a glass of wine).  So I wonder if there is a connection. I’m halfway considering doing a gluten challenge for a few months to see what happens, knowing I can stop if I have any symptoms, and asking for a full celiac disease panel at the end. I really appreciate your thoughts! 
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