Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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So I started paleo to get rid of chronic folliculitis on my face. Previous to havng that I ha acne throughout my teens and used all the standard topical medications, as well as took Accutane. My folliculitis improved with plaeo but went away 100% when I stopped putting anything on my skin... no soap, no lotion, no cleansers etc etc. Well, since then, my skin has either begun an awful shedding process that does not seem to end or can;t seem to heal/repair itself. This is only the skin on my face as well, everywhere else is perfect. It is either very dry with flakes and redness, but sometimes nice and moist and oily. If I don't manually exfoliate after about maybe a week or two, it gets irritated by it's own dead skin and sweat and I get alot of redness... but then the exfloliationg causes more redness and irritation. I am using a microfiber cloth for the exfoliation.

Vitamin D level is good. Thyroid is fine. I started taking Iosol a month ago to help because I read anectodally that it helps with flaky, red skin. It does a bit. Have been taking FLCO about 2-4ml daily since January to help this... I actually think this is not doing me any favors with the Vitamin A... but the problem was there before FLCO. Switching to FIsh oil and borage oil to see if this helps.

I realize acne topicals + accutane probably damaged my face... but I am stumped as to why it doesn't really seem to heal itself. I am drinking LOADS of bone broth with extra gelatin and Vit C as well. Eating enough for sure. Diet ratios dont seem to change it either.

ANd as I said... all topicals flare the folliculitis very badly. Especially now that my skin gets so flaky, the flakes clog the pores and the flare up is unbelievable. Tried emu oil 4 months ago and the flare up was so bad I can't imagine using anything on my face ever again.

ANy ideas as to whats going on here? My skin barrier is obviously damaged and not properly moisturizing itself. My forehead can be very oily one minute then a bit flaky the next. WHy has this not healed 4+ months no soap, barely any water contact and minimal manual exfoliation?

Derms never seem to have a clue, they just throw topicals at me.

EDIT:

I do seem do have a flaky, but not dry scalp too. I have been "Paleo" for over a year. On and off raw dairy consumption but cut it out 4-5 weeks ago. Did VLC, LC, now trying moderate-higher carb paleo. Lots of beef, beef heart, sometimes liver (2 a month maybe) yams, white potatoes. No fruit, lots of greens. Probiotics.

edited May 26 2011 at 22:44

asked May 26 2011 at 22:38

Bill
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It seems like you have the exact same skin problems as me. I have yet to find a solution. I think, maybe, that I ruined my skins natural barrier because of all the topicals I applied. – ROB May 27 2011 at 1:53

have you tried buttermilk or yogurt masques? honey and/or egg yolks, too. – being May 27 2011 at 4:12

Honey nicely exfoliates and provides moisture.. but will break me out a bit too. – Bill May 27 2011 at 5:02

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It doesnt make sense that the skin barrier would be so damaged by topicals considering burn victims fully recover their skin function most of the time. – Bill May 27 2011 at 5:02

How is your dental health ? Do you have dandruff ? – Ikco May 27 2011 at 7:57

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tartare · Answer 1 · 2011-05-26 22:50:45Z UTC

i have an idea. My husband found out through a family member that his nephew had a similar problem as he did with only the skin on his face. His nephew started using toothpaste without mint and it helped him, did the same thing for my husband. Got rid of the flaky face skin around his beard area.

My husband was substitute teaching and mentioned the mint toothpaste thing on the downlow to a girl in his class who was having the same problem (hiding her face with her hair). Very recently she came up to him and high fived him. He didn't recognize her until she said thanks and that the mint thing had totally worked. She had a lot more confidence and her face looked great. (i thought that was a cool story, i was proud of him).

So 3 out of 3 people - maybe try getting rid of mint toothpaste/mouthwash. It's really in just about every toothpaste out there. Weleda Calendula is good w/o mint but my husband doesn't like it so much. I do though.

Uggla · Answer 2 · 2011-05-29 16:57:08Z UTC

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I had/have Seborrheic Dermatitis on my face and sometimes on my arms, together with acne on my face.

2 things have totally removed my once horrid condition and when using them it NEVER comes back. These two wonderfully awesome things are 100% organic witchhazel as a toner and 100% organic extra virgin coconut oil as a moisturizer.

This works well for me and as you can see below my skin is pretty clean now:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/135/40780536.jpg

and

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/25177349.jpg

I also have flakey scalp issues but not when I use Dr.bronner's tea tree.

edited May 29 2011 at 16:57

answered May 27 2011 at 9:59

Uggla
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I would also like to add that I gently exfoliate every day this is very important. And do not dry your face on a towel this will add unwanted bacteria to a clean face. I wash my face with organic black soap (awesome stuff) and when I can not find that I use Cetaphil which is not natural but works well none the less. – Uggla May 27 2011 at 10:10

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Upping 'cause I love the mystiqueish-ish look of your eyes and it's contrast to the skin ! – Ikco May 27 2011 at 10:53

Oh well thank you. Although I do not post pictures of myself often on the internet I thought in this case it was worth it. I do feel for people who have troubled skin because I did for a very long time. I really am passionate about this method of skin care. It has helped me reach nearly flawless skin and is very simple. – Uggla May 27 2011 at 11:04

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Thank you for your answer. I'm going to try the witch hazel and coconut oil. I am so embarrassed by my skin and my scalp. How long did it take you to notice a difference? My friend gave me black soap a while back, I should use it! BTW- you are a beautiful lady, thanks for sharing your pics :) – LastingOne May 27 2011 at 18:04

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LastingOne, I can understand very well what you are going through. I had a really bad case. I hated to walk out the door. The pictures I have posted are from last summer. This summer my skin is even better thanks to this system. And I hardly wear make-up anymore because of it. For once I am proud of my natural skin and can step out the door without feeling ashamed and the best part of it is that I cured it naturally after years of doctor prescribed treatments it was something pure natural and simple that helped me. – Uggla May 28 2011 at 7:37

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g. · Answer 3 · 2011-05-27 06:47:20Z UTC

I'd be willing to bet it's a yeast/fungal thing. All that topical stuff probably eliminated all the normal beneficial microbiota on your skin, making it easy for some other less pleasant business to take over. You might experiment (topically) with: diluted ACV, as previously mentioned, or verrry dilute tea-tree oil, or very very VERY dilute GSE. I'd give it at least four days, as long as there is no exacerbation- this isn't a gets-worse-before-it-gets-better thing. Hell, if you're desperate, (i know i would be) it might even behoove you to skip the 'natural' route - esp if you don't already have that stuff on hand - and cautiously try some regular drugstore OTC anti-fungal preparations..

Sounds like your diet is pretty solid, i'd for sure continue to vigilantly avoid sugar and fruit until you're all cleared up. Good Luck!

Vrimj · Answer 4 · 2011-05-26 23:12:53Z UTC

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Have you tried the oil cleansing method? Pure water might be a little too drying for your skin. I know that oil helps me a lot when I am either too dry, too oily or having breakouts.

answered May 26 2011 at 23:12

Vrimj
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Yeah. Any kind of oil seems to be hell for my skin. – Bill May 26 2011 at 23:59

Oil cleansing method irritates my skin a lot. – ROB May 27 2011 at 2:17

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the idea is that the oil applied topically dissolves excess oil and takes the dirt with it. like dissolves like and so forth. osing oil removes the bad without stripping the good. it works for many people, but different skin responds differently to different oil. there are a few i cant tolerate, and have pretty tough skin. if your skin is already inflamed and irritated, i would not put ANYTHING on it. i make a blend for myself with olive oil, rose hip seed, sweet almond oil, and EOs of vetiver, rosewood, rose geranium, sweet orange, frankincense, and lavender. – being May 27 2011 at 4:09

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@Nick A I guess it seem natural to me because I often add oil to wax to lower the melting point or make the wax less dense and more pliable @akd I use an adhoc mix of almond and castor with some E around my eyes and lips most of the time, but I bet yours smells much nicer! – Vrimj May 27 2011 at 15:47

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I recommended OCM to a friend of mine that was going through a bad acne/eczema bout, and a couple months later, she's almost completely clear and the flakiness is all gone. It's a really great thing for cleaning gently, and vegetable oils, like herbs, carry specific healing properties. I used hazelnut oil (very light, slightly astringent), tamanu and neem oil (aids in skin regeneration). Jojoba oil is said to be most like our own produced sebum, but I haven't tried that yet. – Mei-ling May 27 2011 at 21:24

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PaleoMouth · Answer 5 · 2011-05-27 04:59:25Z UTC

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I think it mainly comes down to accutane - which has been known to cause ongoing dryness due to its semi--longterm-permanent effects on the sebaceous glands.

Cold showers will do amazing things for you. I find even just having a comfortable warm stream of water will strip off far more oil than a cold shower. I believe the cold shower has therapeutic benefits as well.

answered May 27 2011 at 4:59

PaleoMouth
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	My skin will produce oil. Sometimes it is quite oily... just still flaky. – Bill May 27 2011 at 5:03
	I see, well I still think a cold shower might be beneficial - my skin typically gets quite oily throughout the day (getting better with paleo) and dry and irritated after normal showering and in the morning well its just a flaky monster (id have to rub off all the flakes with cloth and moisturize again). Cold shower has stopped me from waking up with flakey irritated skin. – PaleoMouth May 27 2011 at 6:22
	Agreedd on the cold showers. Perhaps I will try them more frequenty and colder. – Bill May 27 2011 at 7:06
	accutane is suspected to cause permanent epigenetic changes. – TheOriginalKaz Nov 27 2011 at 23:00

Joshua · Answer 6 · 2011-05-27 12:25:42Z UTC

I had the same thing, it always seemed to be around my face/mouth, scalp, and behind my ears. I was forced to shave off my beautiful man-fur (beard) because of it, I had facial dandruff, scalp dandruff, and I would scratch my beard until I bled while sleeping.

I discovered it was fungal, after (on a whim) I washed my scalp and beard with apple cider vinegar. Besides stinging like the dickens, it completely cured my itchy scalp and face, no more dandruff, no more itching.

So now I wash my scalp, face, and any other affected area (elbows and behind the ears) with ACV once a week or so, and it works great.

rook · Answer 7 · 2011-05-27 00:08:31Z UTC

I recently received a diagnosis of seborrheic dermatitis from my dermatologist after many years of dry, flaky red skin that seemed to need an endless supply of moisturizers being switched every month or so. Worst, it is apparently exacerbated by "too much" saturated fat in the diet. Anyway, it is apparently a matter of the skin's reaction to the yeasts commonly living on it, and so it's not a matter of being able to heal with time since the yeast never goes away. Hopefully this is not your issue, but if you haven't ruled this out then it might be something you'd want to look into.

Melissa · Answer 8 · 2011-05-27 04:01:07Z UTC

You might want to try putting some high quality raw honey on a small area, leaving it for 5 minutes, and washing it off. My son has dry, flakey skin (not sure if it is exactly the same as what you have) and it made a surprising difference.

Jake · Answer 9 · 2011-05-27 06:59:39Z UTC

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. 5 bzillion different creams and nothing fixes it. Visits to the dermatologists, naturopaths, etc.

I cleared up all of my skin issues on my face with a light application of coconut oil right before bed. I tried it once because I was reading something on a paleo site about going no shampoo, and they had another post about what they did for their skin. Started talking about coconut oil, and since I had some in the cabinet for cooking, I figured I would try it.

I was quite surprised, I've always had a couple issues with flaking, and a lot of redness, especially around my beard. 2 days after I started it I lost all of the redness. My doctor asked me what I did, because she had never seen such a difference.

ROB · Answer 10 · 2011-05-27 18:04:52Z UTC

I have been having skin issues since I was 12 and my skin issues are one of the main reasons I got into healthy dieting, but I have yet to find a solution and a diagnosis to my problems. Every single area on my face is affected, except around the eyes (like a racoon), with small red bumps, clogged pores, dryness/greasiness(?), sensitivity and redness. Manuel exfoliation seems to help with the clogged pores, but it makes my face extremely red and irritated. My face is also very sensitive to temperature changes. I have tried almost everything but nothing seems to work.

cyto19 · Answer 11 · 2011-05-27 06:37:27Z UTC

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you can build up your skin barrier slowly by using products like CeraVe AM / PM line along with an extremely gentle cleanser like Toleriane Dermo Cleanser. additionally, you can try a strong ROS inhibitor like PyratineXR Lotion and/or some green tea serum with 90% ECGC with Hyaluronic Acid like the Replenix brand. if that doesn't work, i'd recommend you get a Red 660nm / Infrared 880nm LED array for everyday use which promotes soothing and accelerates healing.

answered May 27 2011 at 6:37

cyto19
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	I found Cerave to cause a bit of pimples, not nearly as much as oils though. IS there AM/PM line better than the standar stuff? – Bill May 27 2011 at 7:10
	it has some added niacinamide, but is basically the same formulation...if it breaks you out, try the new La Roche-Posay Toleriane Ultra Intense Soothing Moisturizer which has zero preservatives and is formulated for intolerant skin with the minimal ingredients. also IPL should work very well for folliculitis and will help build up your skin barrier, just make sure you go to a skilled doctor who used the Lumenis One like Dr. Nicholas Soldo in Arizona. – cyto19 May 27 2011 at 18:51

Steve · Answer 12 · 2011-11-27 20:26:43Z UTC

skin is the largest organ of the body. It makes no sense to 'love' it by slathering potions all day if you eat badly. Skin reflects your INTERNAL and overall health...primarily of the liver, kidneys and digestive functions. if you have breakouts and psoriasis type inflammation it is DEFINITELY something you are eating. Toxins build up over a long period of time and them the body can take no more. This surfaces eventually through skin inflammation and joint pain. Big culprits are potatos, nightshade vegies, and ALL grains. Eat load of fruit and less fat and protein which cause toxins. Dr Steve

Daniel · Answer 13 · 2012-01-16 13:57:46Z UTC

Thank you for the suggestion on this post. I almost killed myself, seriously, because the redness and cracking had taken over my face and neck. I could not go in public. Doctors were worthless. PREDNISolone helped for a couple days and then it came back. I tried limiting most foods, but did not help. I tried so many things and none worked. tea tree, honey, clay mask, anti-dandruff shampoo, etc

I was really lost before I found this site. I started using organic black soap with an exfoliator pad and deluted ACV in shower. and witchhazel toner after. It worked! I am grateful for the people, especially Uggla for sharing their ideas. I also use Aquaphor on any redness which seems to help.

Drew Caetano · Answer 14 · 2012-07-09 01:28:56Z UTC

Hi I am actually in the same boat as you. My brother supposedly was too. And honestly my brother has had gorgeous skin for years now. And he does drugs and shit and I have no idea how his skin was clear and mine wasn't. Well he told me he used xolegel. It is an anti fungal used to treat skin in our condition. Supposedly there is a bacteria that is constantly on our skin making it dry and flaky, red and irritated. I am gonna visit my derm and discuss this option I will let you know how it goes.

Dry, flaky, irritated skin that won’t heal.. any thoughts?

14 Answers