Acne - Sebum Reduction

[Orion]

I hope this is ok, I responded to a thread, viewtopic.php?f=109&t=1171, but would like to open in new post, to create discussion in hopes that is will help others.

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My background: Male, acne for 30yrs, grew up in a home where PUFA was staple, long story, been trying everything all through those years, accutane 2X, B5, paleo, high starch, zero carb, creams, NDT, pregnenolone, liver, mega oral vitA/vitD, zinc, candida protocols, lactoferrtin, magnesium, vitD, low calcium, high calcium... same s*** every one tries, nothing works. Always extremely oily skin with new breakouts everyday. Following Matt Stone, Danny last 4-5yrs, and now the Haidut podcasts.

Ok so in last week tried a new Peat approach, here is what finally controls my skin oiliness, not sure of the mechanism but when I take a tablespoon of *WHITE SUGAR* every 30mins, my hands and feet stay warm, and the oiliness stops. Cortisol, adrenline reduced? I wake up now in the mornings, and instead of being slick with oil everywhere, my skin feels dry. I cannot describe how awesome that feels, 30yrs of acne(tummy, chest, arms, back, neck, face, scalp) is healing. Also my nightly stress wakeups, after every 3hr sleep cycle are gone, 1 week, and I can sleep normally again (after about 7yrs of s****y sleep, since low-carbing).... this is sooo nice. waking at 2am then 5am before the alarm clock = tired rage.

Peating for me, sit in 250W heat lamp 20mins per day, only starch is about 2 to 3 potatoes per day, all other carb is juice, milk, white sugar. Every day small amounts of calf frozen liver(maybe 1/2 ounce), 2 eggs, some ground beef, mangos, banana, melon, dates, orange, apple, 6tbsp collagen, coffee, 50mg niacinamide few times by day, and I currently still take 2 NDT greater pharma thyriod, I'm guessing at least 80g protein. Been trying 2 drops of pansterone in the last week, too much seems to cause hypoglycemia symptoms.

When I try to include, vitA, vitK, vitE, too much caffiene (more the 50mg), cypro, methylene blue, pregnenolone, I get oily. So it seems at this early time, if I rev up metabolism to fast I get hypoglycemia symptoms and cortisol/adrenaline up blood sugar, causing sebum production. Can anyone further explain this, sebum relating to stress hormones?? So I use small amounts for vitA every other day 2500iu nutrisorb, and 1 drop K2 Thorne, 200mg vitE.

So I feel like I solved acne for me, still getting sebum, but greatly reduced. Will take time to get glucose burning and liver health back to optimal. 30yrs damage! And I am hoping that this will continue to progress, it has only been a week, but the change is dramatic. I know the forum is full of RP stating vitA and thyroid, helping dandruff and acne, but it seems for me getting off stress hormones is what starting things rolling for me.

Also should note, that I store fat in my tummy area and chest, not over weight, im 6'2 at 195lbs. I do 5x5 and hypertrophy lifting 5xweek.

Also been doing hair mineral analysis, and my minerals are started to normalize. I take magnesium, potassium, zinc, supposed to avoid calcium for now, but not sure, since calcium is supposed to be important. But past mega vitD could potentially locked up a lot of calcium in the body. On my last hair test, I was doing ultra low calcium intake, but my calcium numbers went up, so not sure if releasing stored calcium or PTH is high and bringing it up. I don't have access to blood work testing...


Anyway short story for other acne suffers, try WHITE SUGAR (or eat small amounts all all day long), keep your finger tips warm, my thoughts were if my finger tips are cold, im running on stress hormones. Took only 2 days and oiliness/sebum reduction was extremely noticeable. I am dumbfounded by how simple this is. All the other approaches did nothing, I know that hair analysis probably helps, but following for 6 months and 2 test, have not given what 1 WEEK on SUGAR has done.

I will update in coming weeks, hoping others will try this and let me know how it goes. I have not found a similar approach in the forums yet, not sure how long this will take until no more hypo-sugar symptoms. All up to my liver getting optimal...

Please comment and any other advice would be appreciated.

 

[Giraffe]

, Orion!

post 109546 I hope this is ok, I responded to a thread, viewtopic.php?f=109&t=1171, but would like to open in new post, to create discussion in hopes that is will help others.

Can you try to edit your post in that other thread? To edit it click on the pencil in the upper right corner.

 

[Ulla]

Interesting. Would love to see if you come back and report

 

[Orion]

I will do some regular updates, these quick preliminary results are freaking me out, and hoping this is not just another dead end.

Few other points I forgot to mention, I wake with 98.2 oral temp, my temps are above 98 during the day, but fingers and toes could still be ice cold after meals before the sugar intervals. My heartrate seems to be 80bpm consist during the day and after meals.


I do the raw carrot everyday. Milk I drink is skim or 1% and lactose free, regular milk with lactose, causes lots of distress.

Since low carb days back before 2010, hair has been shedding, so far the shedding is still occuring, will keep an eye on that too. Be nice to reverse, but stopping would be good as well. See how that goes.

 

[EIRE24]

I've only starting suffering from acne in the last 5 months and that's when I started incorporating more fruit in my diet and other RP reccomendations. I reverted back to my old diet but the acne doesn't seem to be shifting. I'm wondering wether or not my gut bacteria has altered and this is causing the acne or is it hormonal? I've tried vit A and zinc and other reccomendations but nothing works for it? I'm at wits end and have just got an anti biotic of tetracycline from the doctor but I'm hesitant to take it in case the bacteria becomes resistant and comes back worse or I get an unbalanced bacteria count in my gut.

 

[Nicholas]

post 109570 I've only starting suffering from acne in the last 5 months and that's when I started incorporating more fruit in my diet and other RP reccomendations. I reverted back to my old diet but the acne doesn't seem to be shifting. I'm wondering wether or not my gut bacteria has altered and this is causing the acne or is it hormonal? I've tried vit A and zinc and other reccomendations but nothing works for it? I'm at wits end and have just got an anti biotic of tetracycline from the doctor but I'm hesitant to take it in case the bacteria becomes resistant and comes back worse or I get an unbalanced bacteria count in my gut.

acne can be hormonal and digestive-related at the same time. digestive issues can cause hormonal issues and hormonal issues can cause digestive issues. nutrient deficiencies can cause hormonal issues as well as digestive issues. stress can cause both hormonal issues and digestive issues. acne is not exactly something which can be diagnosed/treated in isolation. especially if you have other manifestations of energy disorder concurrently.

 

[Orion]

post 109570 I've only starting suffering from acne in the last 5 months and that's when I started incorporating more fruit in my diet and other RP reccomendations. I reverted back to my old diet but the acne doesn't seem to be shifting. I'm wondering wether or not my gut bacteria has altered and this is causing the acne or is it hormonal? I've tried vit A and zinc and other reccomendations but nothing works for it? I'm at wits end and have just got an anti biotic of tetracycline from the doctor but I'm hesitant to take it in case the bacteria becomes resistant and comes back worse or I get an unbalanced bacteria count in my gut.

How is your sleep? Are you fingers and feet always warm? what is your temp and pulse after a meal(2hrs). Have you tried the daily raw carrot?

I think reduced stress hormones ties in with reducing estrogen. I am not really sure what the mechanism is for me, but getting my body off stress hormones with ingesting sugar every 30mins, seems to have greatly reduced sebum for me, and done so within days. Nothing else has done this. Acne is starting to go into remission, I will try to update this thread weekly, with what is happening. I can only hope this will be long term control, and will be slowly able to wean off needing sugar every 30mins. Seems that sebum is tied into estrogen (calcium), cortisol, adrenaline...

Blood sugar levels affect hormones, insulin storage, stress hormones to keep it up from hypoglycemia, sugar is required for youth hormones.

 

[EIRE24]

post 109572

post 109570 I've only starting suffering from acne in the last 5 months and that's when I started incorporating more fruit in my diet and other RP reccomendations. I reverted back to my old diet but the acne doesn't seem to be shifting. I'm wondering wether or not my gut bacteria has altered and this is causing the acne or is it hormonal? I've tried vit A and zinc and other reccomendations but nothing works for it? I'm at wits end and have just got an anti biotic of tetracycline from the doctor but I'm hesitant to take it in case the bacteria becomes resistant and comes back worse or I get an unbalanced bacteria count in my gut.

I'm not sure I have never tried straight sugar besides in coffee but it doesn't seem to work for me as well as starch did. Before I got the acne I did a lot of white flour, oats, rice, potatoes and had no problem at all with acne. Now, like I said since doing the fruit thing my acne is awful. I probably have started washing my face too much due to this as well and thus the balance of my body producing oil has altered and now it is producing too much. I'm not sure how to sort this out?

How is your sleep? Are you fingers and feet always warm? what is your temp and pulse after a meal(2hrs). Have you tried the daily raw carrot?

I think reduced stress hormones ties in with reducing estrogen. I am not really sure what the mechanism is for me, but getting my body off stress hormones with ingesting sugar every 30mins, seems to have greatly reduced sebum for me, and done so within days. Nothing else has done this. Acne is starting to go into remission, I will try to update this thread weekly, with what is happening. I can only hope this will be long term control, and will be slowly able to wean off needing sugar every 30mins. Seems that sebum is tied into estrogen (calcium), cortisol, adrenaline...

Blood sugar levels affect hormones, insulin storage, stress hormones to keep it up from hypoglycemia, sugar is required for youth hormones.

 

[Orion]

Started theanine and caffeine this week, suggested by some forum members and by reading through posts to help with hypoglycemia/sluggish liver.

Seems to have a quick positive affect on keeping stress hormones lowered. Warm hands/feet and sebum reduction during the day.

Dosage: 100mg theanine after meal with cup of coffee and 25mg caffeine pill. Will start increasing the caffeine day by day.

Caffeine without theanine, hands/feet get ice cold quickly after sugary or starchy meals, and sebum production goes way up.

 

[docall18]

Started theanine and caffeine this week, suggested by some forum members and by reading through posts to help with hypoglycemia/sluggish liver.

Seems to have a quick positive affect on keeping stress hormones lowered. Warm hands/feet and sebum reduction during the day.

Dosage: 100mg theanine after meal with cup of coffee and 25mg caffeine pill. Will start increasing the caffeine day by day.

Caffeine without theanine, hands/feet get ice cold quickly after sugary or starchy meals, and sebum production goes way up.

I found caffine, 600mg+, reduced sebum production and made my skin better overall. I think a lot of skin issues are liver related and caffeine (Plus K2, taurine, aspirin, glycine, B1 etc) helps improve liver function.

 

[Peata]

Caffeine has helped my skin a lot, I figure by improving liver function and increasing progesterone/lowering estrogen. The difference is amazing.

 

[Orion]

post 111655 Caffeine has helped my skin a lot, I figure by improving liver function and increasing progesterone/lowering estrogen. The difference is amazing.

post 111581

Started theanine and caffeine this week, suggested by some forum members and by reading through posts to help with hypoglycemia/sluggish liver.

Seems to have a quick positive affect on keeping stress hormones lowered. Warm hands/feet and sebum reduction during the day.

Dosage: 100mg theanine after meal with cup of coffee and 25mg caffeine pill. Will start increasing the caffeine day by day.

Caffeine without theanine, hands/feet get ice cold quickly after sugary or starchy meals, and sebum production goes way up.

I found caffine, 600mg+, reduced sebum production and made my skin better overall. I think a lot of skin issues are liver related and caffeine (Plus K2, taurine, aspirin, glycine, B1 etc) helps improve liver function.

Thanks Both!

Theanine allowed me to get up to 250mg of caffeine today with no stress response. Going to add in 1mg of cypro tonight before bed.

The sebum reduction in just days is remarkable. Will keep up'ing the caffeine over the next several days and report back.

Once my stress response is under better control, I will add back in some k2 and aspirin. I do take lots of collagen for taurine, and eat very small amount of liver every day for B vitamins.

 

[Matty D]

What an inspiring post! Sugar is where it's at. 1 tbsp every 30 mins? amazing...

 

[Orion]

post 112618 What an inspiring post! Sugar is where it's at. 1 tbsp every 30 mins? amazing...

I have stopped theanine and cypro, for whatever reason them seem to cause breakouts.

Caffeine seems to be working well, with sucrose at 30mins to offset any stress response. I am doing about 150mg, 3 times per day, acne is still decreasing even though sebum production is ongoing (but lowering ever so slowly).

I believe caffeine is what is helping the most, by helping the liver and metabolism. Going to keep up'ing the caffeine, and will update post.

 

[Orion]

Update time.

I have managed to reduce sebum production greatly during the night (sleeping). Sebum production during the day is down but still enough to cause some breakouts. I think this points to cortisol reduction over night as part of the puzzle. The sebum reduction has reduce redness, pore are shrinking.

Things that if I push up the dosage to fast increase sebum:
Caffeine - Currently doing one strong cup of coffee in the morning, and 25mg caffeine at lunch and dinner
Niacinamide - Blocking ffa's seem to produce a stress reaction in me, I guess that I am still not great at oxidizing sugar, trying 250mg broken up during the day for currently (50mg X 5).
Aspirin - Same as niacinamide and causing tinnitus, so I try to take 325mg once every other day.
B vitamins - B1 B2 B6 - I try to take them couple times per week, very small amounts B1 - 12.5mg B2 - 6.25mg B6 - 3mg
vitamin A - Never seems to help me at all, but I will try adding some back in the future

Things that seemed to help greatly:
White sugar all the time, very minimal starch (bread, potatoes, rice are staples, but small amounts)
Lots of canning salt, I try for about 10g/day
1 grain NDT
12.5mg/day pregnenolone under the tongue
10mg Thorne K2 twice per day
4g Taurine per day
Carrot salad before bed
Liver - .5 ounces twice per week
Magnesium chloride spray - 40 per day
Magnesium Glycinate - 180mg X 2 per day
Zinc pico - 25mg per day
Vitamin E every other day
Very low fat, small amounts of butter/tallow/coconut

Things tried:
Cypro - it really knocks me out at low doses, functioning the next day is very hard
Theanine - no help with caffeine stress response
High dose B1 - no help with caffeine stress response

So I have definitely been seeing great progress, well best I have ever experienced after decades of every other approach. So will still continue to get caffeine amounts up to flush liver fat, up niacinamide/aspirin to help sugar oxidation. I hope to ween off NDT and preg at some point, but for now, NDT should help with sugar burning and I believe the preg helps with lowering cortisol.

My morning basal temps are at 98.0C and pulse from wakeup to bedtime stays around 78-80. Still getting icy cold hands and feet after 2.5hrs meals, fight this with take sips milk/oj when home, and using salt/sugar mix under tongue when working.

Two things that have not improved yet, hair shedding and dandruff. Getting vitamin A is supposed help, will work on this.

 

[hang loose]

Hey Orion,
Do you have some new updates?
I'm curious

 

[Orion]

Was going to wait a bit longer to update, things are improving.

Sugar is working great at reducing stress but not putting acne in full remission, was still getting stress response from large amounts of caffeine (liver/glycogen storage).

Seems the key for me was doing mega vitamin A as RP suggests. I went 500K IU retinyl palmitate for two weeks and down to 150K IU this week. Plan to stay in the 100K range for quite some time, the results are fantastic so far, consist daily improvements in dandruff and acne.

With this addition, I have managed to stop taking NDT, pregnenolone, and taurine. Pulse is good, temps are good, sleep is still improving, got caffeine up to 400mg/day without stress response.

Still taking K2, B1/2/6, E, Mag, Zn. Will continue to experiment with aspirin and niacinamide.

 

[tyler]

Was going to wait a bit longer to update, things are improving.

Sugar is working great at reducing stress but not putting acne in full remission, was still getting stress response from large amounts of caffeine (liver/glycogen storage).

Seems the key for me was doing mega vitamin A as RP suggests. I went 500K IU retinyl palmitate for two weeks and down to 150K IU this week. Plan to stay in the 100K range for quite some time, the results are fantastic so far, consist daily improvements in dandruff and acne.

With this addition, I have managed to stop taking NDT, pregnenolone, and taurine. Pulse is good, temps are good, sleep is still improving, got caffeine up to 400mg/day without stress response.

Still taking K2, B1/2/6, E, Mag, Zn. Will continue to experiment with aspirin and niacinamide.

Hey man, that is great news. I'm stoked you've been able to find an approach that is working. I'm currently at 60,000u and experiencing some great results. But not complete remission of skin symptoms. I plan on bumping up to 100,000u very soon.
I was wondering, what brand of A are you using? With such a high dose, I would imagine that it would be costly if you use supps such as Nutrisorb.

 

[Orion]

Hey man, that is great news. I'm stoked you've been able to find an approach that is working. I'm currently at 60,000u and experiencing some great results. But not complete remission of skin symptoms. I plan on bumping up to 100,000u very soon.
I was wondering, what brand of A are you using? With such a high dose, I would imagine that it would be costly if you use supps such as Nutrisorb.

A-mulsion: A-Mulsion - All Products - Products
Gives 10K IU retinyl palmitate per drop. Has some excipients, but seems to be ok with me.

I use Nutrisorb directly on the skin where breakouts occur as well. It is 2500IU per drop.

From what I have read and doing rough math, 100K IU retinyls equates to about ~2.5mg of retinoic acid (conversion in body). Accutane is a mirrored version (not real vitamin A), and safely used at 20mg to 80mg daily for months. That said there are studies posted in this forum showing the up to 500K IU retinyls for males is safe for months. Anyway getting 1mg to 5mg daily of real retinoic acid seems to be extremely helpful, RP is right on again. I will keep reporting back.

 

[hang loose]

Awesome thanks for the update.
How are your palms - do you get orange calluses from too much vitamin A? I suppose you still have your daily liver, right?

How is the thyriod supplement affecting you in general (especially in terms of acne)?