Long Standing Bacne

Lightbringer

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I've had bacne (back acne) for as long as I can remember. Even when I was a healthy young buck with a raging metabolism. Now, with everything slowing down, the darn bacne seems to get worse. No facial acne. I was reading about a soap which contains salicylic acid and sulphur. Does anyoe have experience with it or any tips on reducing bacne ?

I try and always wear 100% cotton shirts and undershirts. Is it better to avoid undershirts and just wear loose shirts instead ?
 

RedLightMan

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I've got the same problem as you man. Constant bacne since age 12.

I've tried the sulphur soap, with no improvement. I've sat in methylene blue, flowers of sulphur, aspirin powder baths with no improvement. Niacinamide, carrot salads, you name it. I've tried red and infrared light therapy with no improvement. I could go on...

At this point I've just accepted I'll never have fully clear skin on my back. Probably a genetic/epigenetic thing? Interested to hear other's experiences though.
 

jyb

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Have you tried simply to supplement retinol regularly? Having acne all on the back seems almost common. Usually the route given by doctors is roaccutane, which works but has infamous side effects (I know one person in your situation who went through it - very painful but it cleared the acne). Is there any advantage over retinol (which has little side effects in comparison)?
 

YuraCZ

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Acne is not about what you put ON yourself, but what you put IN yourself and I know what I'm talking about. Since I had really bad acne for maybe 7 years. Nothing but diet(without garbage) is what really works.. :hattip
 
OP
Lightbringer

Lightbringer

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bigjoe said:
post 115621
At this point I've just accepted I'll never have fully clear skin on my back. Probably a genetic/epigenetic thing? Interested to hear other's experiences though.
Thanks for crushing hope :twisted: But, I hear you. I've already downgraded my expectations to reducing versus removing the darn thing.

jyb said:
post 115624 Have you tried simply to supplement retinol regularly?
Hmm, not regularly as a supplement. But I'm wondering how the acne on the face differs from the back. I used to get it on my face but now that is all cleared up auto-magically but the back remains.

YuraCZ said:
post 115625 Acne is not about what you put ON yourself, but what you put IN yourself ..
Thanks Obi-wan. Are you saying I need to eat the soap instead of applying it on the skin ? :evil:
 
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DrJ

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Kaspar_Hauser said:
post 115627 jyb wrote:
Source of the post Have you tried simply to supplement retinol regularly?

Hmm, not regularly as a supplement. But I'm wondering how the acne on the face differs from the back. I used to get it on my face but now that is all cleared up auto-magically but the back remains.

Yeah, you need to hit the vitamin A hard. Also would suggest not soaping the area since that's going to add a bunch of chemicals topically in which you don't know what they are doing and make it more confusing for you to find a solution (which is probably Vit. A). Just rinse with water.
 
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jaguar43

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I think back acne is associated with estrogen induced by bacterial endotoxin in the gut. I have used cascara sagrada for back acne and it worked.
 

RedLightMan

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Have also tried cascara but with no effect on bacne. Tried consistent vitamin A too, not to mention years of regular calves/ox/lamb's liver. Vitamin A actually seemed to make it worse.
All I can think is the vitamin A leads to increased androgen levels which maybe increases sebum (and thus acne) in certain people?
 

RedLightMan

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The only time my bacne was almost gone was when I (foolishly) did daily <1500 calorie intermittent fasting for weeks on end.
Cortisol, oestrogen, endotoxin, etc., must have been sky high... Yet bacne at all time low.

I've heard some theories that oestrogen actually kills/shrinks the sebum producing cells, thus preventing acne.
Not sure what to think. It seems androgen related / epigenetic to me.
 

Orion

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I have tried everything like most, all the the things that seems to increase metabolism make it worse for me (vitA, methyleneB, B3, caffeine... etc), this would appear to be related to elevated cortisol/adrenaline keeping blood sugar stable, due to liver issues with glycogen storage. And mixed up in that is estrogen/serotonin.

This is what has helped in the past month, taking some sugar/salt/collagen every 2hrs in between meals. The only other supplement that has helped is 10mg pregnenolone every day (does this counter estrogen?). Daily shredded carrot with salt and some drops of ACV.

My sebum production is reduced a little bit, but acne has reduced alot (not in remission yet).

accutane and mega doses of B5 work to stop sebum, but are bandaid treatments that some how mess with adrenals or estrogen, they don't fix the underlying issues. Deciphering the things that work for me point to sluggish/fatty liver and being estrogen dominate. I am slowly increasing my caffeine intake, small doses to start, trying to avoid sugar crashes, to *defat* my liver. Preg and carrot to counter estrogen (with progesterone and lowered serotonin?).

Get yourself a healthy liver to store glycogen and detox estrogen, should make the bacne go away. I hope to say sometime in the new year that this works for remission, still testing!

Want to test your liver; take 250-500mgs of caffeine or drink bunch of cups of strong coffee, then watch your temp, pulse and whether you get cold hands/feet and nervous jittery feeling at the 2hr mark.
 

HLP

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My son aged 23 had serious facial and back acne until I shared my thyroid glandular with him. It has cleared completely and not returned as long as he continues with the glandular at quite a low dose.
 

RedLightMan

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Orion said:
post 115653 Deciphering the things that work for me point to sluggish/fatty liver and being estrogen dominate
jag2594 said:
post 115645 I think back acne is associated with estrogen induced by bacterial endotoxin in the gut
I'd accept that reducing stress hormones helps acne somewhat, by lowering inflammation.
However, the idea that oestrogen is the root cause of acne though, is bogus.

When I first met my girlfriend, she was on oral contraceptives specifically to treat acne. At the time I thought this was insane. Researching later, I found that it actually works:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18338653
"OCs (oral contraceptives) reduce acne lesions by increasing estrogen levels"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/145268
"the rate [of acne] in women taking a more oestrogenic pill was significantly reduced"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16092798
"Numerous combination oral contraceptive pills have been evaluated in the treatment of acne vulgaris and have been found to be effective"

I'm not suggesting people try to raise oestrogen levels. However, oestrogen is NOT responsible for acne - it actually treats it (by killing the skin's sebum producing cells).
 
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jaguar43

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bigjoe said:
post 115693
Orion said:
post 115653 Deciphering the things that work for me point to sluggish/fatty liver and being estrogen dominate
jag2594 said:
post 115645 I think back acne is associated with estrogen induced by bacterial endotoxin in the gut
I'd accept that reducing stress hormones helps acne somewhat, by lowering inflammation.
However, the idea that oestrogen is the root cause of acne though, is bogus.

When I first met my girlfriend, she was on oral contraceptives specifically to treat acne. At the time I thought this was insane. Researching later, I found that it actually works:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18338653
"OCs (oral contraceptives) reduce acne lesions by increasing estrogen levels"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/145268
"the rate [of acne] in women taking a more oestrogenic pill was significantly reduced"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16092798
"Numerous combination oral contraceptive pills have been evaluated in the treatment of acne vulgaris and have been found to be effective"

I'm not suggesting people try to raise oestrogen levels. However, oestrogen is NOT responsible for acne - it actually treats it (by killing the skin's sebum producing cells).

But you are suggesting people to raise Oestrogen. By saying that it does cure acne.

But the question is, Does it really cure acne ? Does cutting off your foot because of gangrene cure gangrene ? Just because the symptoms disappeared doesn't mean the causes disappeared.

Does chemotherapy really cure cancer, does insulin really cure diabetes, and in the case does contraceptive pills actually reduce acne ?

One of the symptoms of oral contraceptive is acne. It would depend on the dose, but it's mechanism for reducing acne is lowering metabolic rate. So yes it does reduce acne at the expense of cancer, shock, psychosis, suicide permanent sterility.

I highly doubt people are so vain that they are willing to risk those side effects just to reduce acne. At that point, its a matter of misinformation and deliberate falsification of information by the medical establishment.
 
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Peata

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BCP may also work on acne by keeping hormone levels at a more even constant level, even the progesterone (which is synthetic in the pill though). Whereas some women get an imbalance of the two hormones they make on their own and can get acne as a result.
 

RedLightMan

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jag2594 said:
post 115764 But you are suggesting people to raise Oestrogen. By saying that it does cure acne.
But the question is, Does it really cure acne ? Does cutting off your foot because of gangrene cure gangrene ? Just because the symptoms disappeared doesn't mean the causes disappeared.
I agree with everything you said (except the bit on vanity - many people definitely are willing to sacrifice health for looks). Increasing oestrogen to cure acne is as silly as using x-rays to cure acne.

I really wasn't suggesting to raise oestrogen, I said it kills the skin - which is obviously bad. I was just arguing the point that oestrogen isn't the cause of acne, at least not in all cases. That seems like the main theory here, along with vitamin A deficiency - which again, supplementing VitA can actually make things worse for some.

It seems like a complex issue with perhaps many different causes and modifiers. One of the more significant ones seems to be genetics/epigenetics (much like hair loss).
 
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jaguar43

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bigjoe said:
post 115790
jag2594 said:
post 115764 But you are suggesting people to raise Oestrogen. By saying that it does cure acne.
But the question is, Does it really cure acne ? Does cutting off your foot because of gangrene cure gangrene ? Just because the symptoms disappeared doesn't mean the causes disappeared.
I agree with everything you said (except the bit on vanity - many people definitely are willing to sacrifice health for looks). Increasing oestrogen to cure acne is as silly as using x-rays to cure acne.

I really wasn't suggesting to raise oestrogen, I said it kills the skin - which is obviously bad. I was just arguing the point that oestrogen isn't the cause of acne, at least not in all cases. That seems like the main theory here, along with vitamin A deficiency - which again, supplementing VitA can actually make things worse for some.

It seems like a complex issue with perhaps many different causes and modifiers. One of the more significant ones seems to be genetics/epigenetics (much like hair loss).


Minocycline has been used to treat acne. Ray Peat's theory is that it lowers intestinal toxins which will lower estrogen. I haven't seen any studies on that on pubmed. But it is also well known that antibiotics can interfere with the contraceptive effects of the pill. I heard stories that women who were on the pill, were prescribe an antibiotic for strep or infection got pregnant because the antibiotic lower the effects of the pill. Which I would assume to have anti-estrogenic effects.

Minocycline has also been used for mental illnesses for which seems bizarre to the medical establishment.
 
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Orion

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Anecdotal, but lots of skin care forums filled with females using Estroblock.com to eliminate acne.

I have read some males have used arimidex to lower estrogen and have cleared skin.

Acne; very confusing stuff...
 

ilovethesea

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Ray talked about the reason estrogen fixes acne.

" Estrogen causes the oil glands to atrophy, so the skin doesn't support bacterial growth so well."

This is from the Peatarian.com quote page.
 

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