Mostly PMS-related skin issue

[sassabrassa]

Hi!

So I'm pretty new to this Ray Peat thing and so far my result have been really good. My skin is a more clear tone, I no longer have acne on my buttocks, I'm warm, I sleep well, and I'm regular.

I know that I'm lucky since I don't have any major issues and overall I feel pretty good, however there are some small things I'd love to get help with.

My skin is one issue. It's thin, a little dry, I have cellulite, I get acne (it's gotten better though), my elbows are really dry, and the soles of my feet are orange.

My other issue is PMS. I get moody (really moody like a depression), my sleep gets disturbed, and I get acne on my face, neck, and chest (not a lot but still visible). I would say 80% of the acne I have is PMS related.

Please help! I would assume a lot if not all of these issues have to do with my liver? I assume this since my soles are orange, my eyes are dull (eye whites are a little yellow), and I get cellulite. When I was vegan my skin was less dry and I didn't have that much PMS acne. So my liver is possibly struggling with detoxing all that estrogen?

This is what I eat: Meat, white fish, eggs (2 a day), chicken (maybe once a month), whole fat milk products (cheese, milk, cream), cooked greens and some vegetables, butter, refined coconut oil (2 tbsp a day), gelatin (2 tbsp a day), raw carrot (1 a day), honey, white sugar, salt, coffee, juice, potatoes, fruit.

Supplements I take daily: 10 mg pregnenolone, 390 mg raw thyroid glandular concentrate, 2 000 IU vitamin D, 162 mg aspirin, 45 mcg vitamin K2, 22 mg zinc piccolinate, 2160 mg desiccated liver powder.

I'm sorry for my english and thank you in advance for your help!

 

[tara]

sassabrassa

Glad you are getting improvements.

Orange soles can be unmetabolised carotene accumulating in skin. Low metabolism or low B12 can make it hard to convert beta-carotene to usable vit-A. You could rinse your grated carrot to remove some of the beta carotene - it's the fibre Peat favours in carrot salad, not the the carotene. If this is the cause, then once you've stopped overloading with more carotene, it still takes a while for old orange callouses to wear off and be replaced by pinker ones.

post 103966 My other issue is PMS. I get moody (really moody like a depression), my sleep gets disturbed, and I get acne on my face, neck, and chest (not a lot but still visible). I would say 80% of the acne I have is PMS related.

Could be high estrogen issues. Some of the things you are doing may help - eg carrot salad, plenty of carbs, coffee. I often get the munchies when I'm premenstural, and if I don't follow the appetite, I can get get more stressed/irritable/hangry etc than usual. Being generous with salt sometimes helps.
Are you getting some regular sunshine?
At some stage, you may want to consider trying progesterone to counter excess estrogen - quite a few of us here use progest-E.

 

[tara]

I think some of the things that can contribute to thin skin are:
- protein deficiency are you getting at least 80-100g protein/day?
- low carbs/calories so that the protein gets turned into sugars instead of maintaining skin - some studies show normal calories for adult premenopausal women are around 2500/day. If eating a long way below that, the body may sacrifice some skin protein to help compensate for energy deficiency
- chronically high cortisol for whatever reason, doing it's thing turning proteins to sugar
Peat and others have said that thymus and skin are amongst the earlier tissues to be sacrificed under stress conditions.
An accumulation of these factors over a lifetime may be why elders often have thinner skin.

Don't know if any of these apply to you, but they are fairly common. I don't know to what extent the skin recovers if we can improve the conditions, but I would expect that at least it should slow down the deterioration, and maybe improve somewhat.
Fat soluble vitamins, incl, vit A, aso seem to be important for skin health. Liver is a good source of vit-A and several other nutrients.

For me, hunger seems to be the key factor that interferes with sleep - as long as I eat enough, I usually sleep well. There are other threads with reports on what people have found helpful.

 

[sassabrassa]

Hi tara, and thank you for your suggestions.

About the thin skin thing - I've lived under stressful conditions for a long time, so that might be why my skin is still a little thin. I'm trying to improve my situation though. I guess it will take time. I eat enough as far as I know, about 2500 - 3000 kcal a day.

About the orange soles - I will start rinsing my carrot salad and see if that helps. I honestly don't know if my metabolism is high or low, I still get cold hands/feet sometimes but I'm quick to counteract that by eating.

About the PMS - I tried to order Progest E from longnaturalhealth . com but I can't seem to order it for some reason? Do they not ship outside of the US?

Anyhow thank you for your answer!

 

[tara]

Yeah, long term high stress can promote chronically high stress hormones, and that tends to hasten break-down of tissues rather than repair and rebuilding.
You can get some idea about your overall metabolism/thyroid function by recording your body temps and pulse over a week or two. At least once a day in the afternoon, but better if you can get some more, eg at waking, ~half hour after breakfast.
I've had cold hands and feet a lot. Can be an indicator of low thyroid and/or high adrenaline. If eating helps, that might be because it lowers the adrenaline.

I'm not in US either. I had success ordering from long natural health. But I got my progest-e from electricalbody.

 

[sassabrassa]

I will order a temp and see if my metabolism is ok. Thank you for the suggestion.

I was able to order progest-e from electricalbody and I will see if that helps my hormonal acne

I mentioned that maybe 80 percent of my acne is hormonal, but the rest 20 percent is closed comedones (they're like skin coloured small bumps on my forehead). Do you have any idea how to fix those?