UPDATE: Something strange happened tonight. For some reason I was really craving coconut milk. I had some coconut milk with coconut flakes, along with the suggestions of vitamin C... and the inflammation disappeared. I mean, it was night and day. The puffiness around my eyes, general bloated look, redness in the face which had persisted all week: all gone within the hour. I looked like a completely different person from even earlier that night. I would suspect it was the vitamin C (anti-histamine) but I recall this happening before with coconut milk about a week ago. I had come home from work feeling horribly flushed/bloated and after having coconut milk I felt like someone had flipped a pressure valve.

I know this is a typical acne hack, but if I don't get some answers this paranoid whodunnit with food is going to get out of hand into orthorexia territory. I've been eating paleo for roughly 5 months in an attempt to cure my acne. I did notice a change in skin texture (much smoother) within a few weeks, but have still been having the inflamed pimple here or there, plus a new strange symptom of facial flushing, or rather, what looked like a sunburn across my nose most days. There were simply too many variables to start identifying culprits, so I started wittling down my diet just to be safe:

Paleo + no dairy/nuts of course, from the get-go. Over the next few months these met the chopping block: pork, chicken, avocados, eggs, nightshades, starchy vegetables, corn-fed meat, fruit. For the past two weeks, I essentially eat beef/lamb/goat, offal, fish, coconut oil, grass-fed tallow, preservative-free coconut milk and various low-carb vegetables. Is this not an airtight diet? The only supplement I take is zinc, 30 mg/day. I toyed around with other supps but really didn't want to confuse myself with more variables, as something is causing systemic inflamation with or without them.

I'm still experiencing flushing, faux sunburn, digestive issues (constipation followed by loose BMs), and in the morning i feel very bloated, headachy, with bloodshot eyes. My skin texture has recently gone from improved to tons of tiny non-inflamed clogged pores all over my forehead. I have a good sleep schedule, not a lot of stress...

Am I missing something? Do I just need more time on the stricter diet? Perhaps this is a gut flora problem? Probiotics? Anything I should just add back in without worrying about it?

UPDATE: Something strange happened tonight. For some reason I was really craving coconut milk. I had some coconut milk with coconut flakes, along with the suggestions of vitamin C... and the inflammation disappeared. I mean, it was night and day. The puffiness around my eyes, general bloated look, redness in the face which had persisted all week: all gone within the hour. I looked like a completely different person from even earlier that night. I would suspect it was the vitamin C (anti-histamine) but I recall this happening before with coconut milk about a week ago. I had come home from work feeling horribly flushed/bloated and after having coconut milk I felt like someone had flipped a pressure valve.

Update: I was way too stressed out when I first wrote this months ago! Part of my problem was that I was trying to address about a dozen different things at the same time, with a dozen different overlapping diets. I was scared of everything. A few things:

1) I definitely needed more carbs; that was one of the most helpful answers here, just as far as mood and my relationship to food. No idea why I was so fixated on low-carb. It never ever felt intuitive to me, my body didn't want it. Felt like my cortisol was spinning out of control.

2 All digestive issues were resolves by adding some starch (and thus lowering my meat/fat intake), limiting brassicas like cabbage, and a probiotic.

3) I still haven't figured out the flushing/puffiness. It comes and goes. I'm getting some autoimmunity and thyroid blood tests for that. Still snooping around the idea of salicylate sensitivity or histamine intolerance, but it doesn't seem to correlate to specific foods. I either react a lot that week or I'm totally asymptomatic.

4) As far as acne, I'm eating pretty standard paleo while supplementing fat soluble vitamins with FCLO/HVBO, a strong probiotic, selenium, occasional zinc. It's doable, but not miraculous.

UPDATE: Something strange happened tonight. For some reason I was really craving coconut milk. I had some coconut milk with coconut flakes, along with the suggestions of vitamin C... and the inflammation disappeared. I mean, it was night and day. The puffiness around my eyes, general bloated look, redness in the face which had persisted all week: all gone within the hour. I looked like a completely different person from even earlier that night. I would suspect it was the vitamin C (even Dr. Ayers suggests vit C for inflammation) anti-histamine) but I recall this happening before with coconut milk about a week ago. I had come home from work feeling horribly flushed/bloated and after having coconut milk I felt like someone had flipped a pressure valve. Hmm.

UPDATE Tried both vit C and coconut milk separately to see what

Update: I was going onway too stressed out when I first wrote this months ago! Part of my problem was that I was trying to address about a dozen different things at the same time, neither had effectwith a dozen different diets. Still looking puffyI was scared of everything. I definitely needed more carbs; that was one of the most helpful answers here. I still haven't figured out the flushing/puffiness. It comes and goes. I'm getting some autoimmunity and thyroid blood tests for that. As far as acne, face flushedI'm eating pretty standard paleo while supplementing fat soluble vitamins with FCLO/HVBO, clogged poresa strong probiotic, selenium, occasional zinc. Can't figure it outIt's doable, but not miraculous.

I know this is a typical acne hack, but if I don't get some answers this paranoid whodunnit with food is going to get out of hand into orthorexia territory. I've been eating paleo for roughly 5 months in an attempt to cure my acne. I did notice a change in skin texture (much smoother) within a few weeks, but have still been having the inflamed pimple here or there, plus a new strange symptom of facial flushing, or rather, what looked like a sunburn across my nose most days. There were simply too many variables to start identifying culprits, so I started wittling down my diet just to be safe:

Paleo + no dairy/nuts of course, from the get-go. Over the next few months these met the chopping block: pork, chicken, avocados, eggs, nightshades, starchy vegetables, corn-fed meat, fruit. For the past two weeks, I essentially eat beef/lamb/goat, offal, fish, coconut oil, grass-fed tallow, preservative-free coconut milk and various low-carb vegetables. Is this not an airtight diet? The only supplement I take is zinc, 30 mg/day. I toyed around with other supps but really didn't want to confuse myself with more variables, as something is causing systemic inflamation with or without them.

I'm still experiencing flushing, faux sunburn, digestive issues (constipation followed by loose BMs), and in the morning i feel very bloated, headachy, with bloodshot eyes. My skin texture has recently gone from improved to tons of tiny non-inflamed clogged pores all over my forehead. I have a good sleep schedule, not a lot of stress...

Am I missing something? Do I just need more time on the stricter diet? Perhaps this is a gut flora problem? Probiotics? Anything I should just add back in without worrying about it?

UPDATE: Something strange happened tonight. For some reason I was really craving coconut milk. I had some coconut milk with coconut flakes, along with the suggestions of vitamin C... and the inflammation disappeared. I mean, it was night and day. The puffiness around my eyes, general bloated look, redness in the face which had persisted all week: all gone within the hour. I looked like a completely different person from even earlier that night. I would suspect it was the vitamin C (even Dr. Ayers suggests vit C for inflammation) but I recall this happening before with coconut milk about a week ago. I had come home from work feeling horribly flushed/bloated and after having coconut milk I felt like someone had flipped a pressure valve. Hmm.

Also, this really does seem ultimately

UPDATE Tried both vit C and coconut milk separately to be a gut flora problem if I look at it through Dr. Ayer's lense. Generalized inflamation corresponding with digestive issues since starting paleo...it fits perfectly. He notes constipation correlating with rosacea-type symptoms (exactly see what I've was going on, neither had ) indicating inadequate gut flora. This would certainly explain the digestive issues and the ineffectiveness of increasingly rigid elimination dieteffect. I already follow most of his protocol, but vegetable-wise he essentially reccomends a high FODMAPS diet of pre-biotics (onions, garlicStill looking puffy, chicoryface flushed, cabbage) in order to help repopulateclogged pores. Very interestingCan't figure it out.

Paleo + no dairy/nuts of course, from the get-go. Over the next few months these met the chopping block: pork, chicken, avocados, eggs, nightshades, starchy vegetables, corn-fed meat, fruit. For the past two weeks, I essentially eat beef/lamb/goat, offal, fish, coconut oil, grass-fed tallow, preservative-free coconut milk and various low-carb vegetablessuch as collard greens, mustard greens, onions, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower. Is this not an airtight diet? The only supplement I take is zinc, 30 mg/day. I toyed around with quality cod liver oil, fish oil, vit C & D, other supps but really didn't want to confuse myself with more variables, as something is causing systemic inflamation with or without them. I generally don't want to go down the road of juggling a million supplements.

I'm still experiencing the flushing, faux sunburn, digestive issues (constipation followed by loose BMs), and in the morning i feel very bloated, headachy, with bloodshot eyes. My skin texture has recently gone from improved to tons of tiny non-inflamed clogged pores all over my forehead. I've only been strictly adhering to the diet above for about two weeks, but things like eggs, fruit , and nightshades have been out for months. And if I have to direct my paranoid gaze at what I've left myself to eat, then this is just too much. I tried for things like histamine intolerance by eating a lot of sauerkraut in one sittings, no dice. I wouldn't think FODMAP foods, the mild amounts of oinon and cabbage I eat, would have this drastic of an effect, either. I have a good sleep schedule, not a lot of stress...

UPDATE: Something strange happened tonight. For some reason I was really craving coconut milk. I had some coconut milk with coconut flakes, along with the suggestions of vitamin C... and the inflammation disappeared. I mean, it was night and day. The puffiness around my eyes, general bloated look, redness in the face which had persisted all week: all gone within the hour. I looked like a completely different person from the preceding dayeven earlier that night. I would suspect it was the vitamin C (even Dr. Ayers suggests vit C for inflammation) but I recall this happening before with coconut milk about a week ago. I had come home from work feeling horribly flushed/bloated and after having coconut milk I felt like someone had flipped a pressure valve. Hmm.

I know this is a typical acne hack, but if I don't get some answers this paranoid whodunnit with food is going to get out of hand into orthorexia territory. I've been eating paleo for roughly 5 months in an attempt to cure my acne. I did notice a change in skin texture (much smoother) within a few weeks, but have still been having the inflamed pimple here or there, plus a new strange symptom of facial flushing, or rather, what looked like a sunburn across my nose most days. There were simply too many variables to start identifying culprits, so I started wittling down my diet just to be safe:

No grains/legumes/seed oils/sugar/dairy/nuts

Paleo + no dairy/nuts of course, from the get-go. Over the next few months these met the chopping block: pork, chicken, avocados, eggs, nightshades, starchy vegetables, corn-fed meat, fruit. I essentially eat beef/lamb/goat, offal,fishoffal, fish, coconut oil, grass-fed tallow, preservative-free coconut milk and various low-carb vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, onions, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower. Is this not an airtight diet? The only supplement I take is zinc, 30 mg/day. I toyed around with quality cod liver oil, fish oil, vit C & D, but really didn't want to confuse myself with more variables, as something is causing systemic inflamation with or without them. I generally don't want to go down the road of juggling a million supplements.

I'm still experiencing the flushing, faux sunburn, digestive issues (constipation followed by loose BMs), and in the morning i feel very bloated, headachy, with bloodshot eyes. My skin texture has recently gone from improved to tons of tiny non-inflamed clogged pores all over my forehead. I've only been strictly adhering to the diet above for about two weeks, but things like eggs, fruit , and nightshades have been out for months. And if I have to direct my paranoid gaze at what I've left myself to eat, then this is just too much. I tried for things like histamine intolerance by eating a lot of sauerkraut in one sittings, no dice. I wouldn't think FODMAP foods, the mild amounts of oinon and cabbage I eat, would have this drastic of an effect, either. I have a good sleep schedule, not a lot of stress...

Am I missing something? Do I just need more time on the stricter diet? Perhaps this is a gut flora problem? Probiotics? Anything I should just add back in without worrying about it?

UPDATE: Something strange happened tonight. For some reason I was really craving coconut milk. I had some coconut milk with coconut flakes, along with the suggestions of vitamin C... and the inflammation was remarkably gonedisappeared. I mean, it was night and day. The puffiness around my eyes, general bloated look, redness in the face which had persisted all week: all gone within the hour. I looked like a completely different person from the preceding day. I would suspect it was the vitamin C (even Dr. Ayers suggests vit C for inflammation) but I recall this happening before with coconut milk about a week ago. I had come home from work feeling horribly flushed/bloated and after having coconut milk I felt like someone had flipped a pressure valve. Hmm.

Also, this really does seem ultimately to be a gut flora problem if I look at it through Dr. Ayer's lense. Generalized inflamation corresponding with digestive issues since starting paleo...it fits perfectly. He notes constipation correlating with rosacea type rosacea-type symptoms , (exactly what I've had, ) indicating inadequate gut flora. This would certainly explain the digestive issues and the ineffectiveness of increasingly rigid elimination diet, as I'm starving bacterial populations rather than feeding them. I already follow most of his protocol, but vegetable-wise he essentially reccomends a high FODMAPS diet of pre-biotics (onions, garlic, chicory, cabbage) in order to help repopulate. Very interesting.

UPDATE: Something strange happened tonight. For some reason I was really craving coconut milk. I had some coconut milk with coconut flakes, along with the suggestions of vitamin C... and the inflammation was remarkably gone. I mean, it was night and day. The puffiness around my eyes, general bloated look, redness in the face which had persisted all week: all gone within the hour I looked like a completely different person from the preceding day. I would suspect it was the vitamin C (even Dr. Ayers suggests vit C for inflammation) but I recall this happening before with coconut milk about a week ago. I had come home from work feeling horribly flushed/bloated and after having coconut milk I felt like someone had flipped a pressure valve. Hmm.

Also, this really does seem to be a gut flora problem if I look at it through Dr. Ayer's lense. Generalized inflamation corresponding with digestive issues since starting paleo...it fits perfectly. He notes constipation correlating with rosacea type symptoms, exactly what I've had, indicating inadequate gut flora. This would certainly explain the digestive issues and the ineffectiveness of increasingly rigid elimination diet, as I'm starving bacterial populations rather than feeding them. I already follow most of his protocol, but vegetable-wise he essentially reccomends a high FODMAPS diet of pre-biotics (onions, garlic, chicory, cabbage) in order to help repopulate. Very interesting.

I know this is a typical acne hack, but if I don't get some answers this paranoid whodunnit with food is going to get out of hand into orthorexia territory. I've been eating paleo for roughly 5 months in an attempt to cure my acne. I did notice a change in skin texture (much smoother) within a few weeks, but have still been having the inflamed pimple here or there, plus a new disturbing strange symptom of facial flushing, or rather, what looked like a sunburn across my nose most days. There were simply too many variables to start identifying culpritsfor intolerances/high GL/fructose problems etc, so I started wittling down my diet just to be safe:

No grains/legumes/seed oils/sugar/dairy/nuts of course, from the get-go. Over the next few months these met the chopping block: pork, chicken, avocados, eggs, nightshades, starchy vegetables, corn-fed meat, fruit. I was also eating godawful amounts of preservative-free coconut milk and coconut flakes, so that went too. I essentially eat beef/lamb/goat, offal,fish, coconut oil, grass-fed tallow, preservative-free coconut milk and various low-carb vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, onions, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower. Is this not an airtight diet? The only supplement I take is zinc, 30 mg/day. I toyed around with quality cod liver oil, fish oil, vit C & D, but really didn't want to confuse myself with more variables, as something is causing systemic inflamation with or without them. I generally don't want to go down the road of juggling a million supplements.

I'm still experiencing the flushing, faux sunburn, digestive issues (constipation followed by loose BMs), and in the morning i feel very bloated, headachy, with bloodshot eyes. My skin texture has recently gone from improved to tons of tiny non-inflamed clogged pores all over my forehead. I've only been strictly adhering to the diet above for about two weeks, but things like eggs, fruit , and nightshades have been out for months. And if I have to direct my paranoid gaze at what I've left myself to eat, then this is just too much. I tried for things like histamine intolerance by eating a lot of sauerkraut in one sittings, no dice. I wouldn't think FODMAP foods, the mild amounts of oinon and cabbage I eat, would have this drastic of an effect, either. I have great a good sleep schedule, not a lot of stress...

Am I missing something? Do I just need more time on the stricter diet? Perhaps this is a gut flora problem? Probiotics? Anything I should just add back in without worrying about it?

I know this is a typical acne hack, but if I don't get some answers this paranoid whodunnit with food is going to get out of hand into orthorexia territory. I've been eating paleo for roughly 5 months in an attempt to cure my acne. I did notice a change in skin texture (much smoother) within a few weeks, but have still been having the inflamed pimple here or there, plus a new disturbing symptom of facial flushing, or rather, what looked like a sunburn across my nose most days. There were simply too many variables to start identifying culprits for intolerances/high GL/fructose problems etc, so I started wittling down my diet just to be safe:

No grains/legumes/seed oils/sugar/dairy/nuts of course, from the get-go. Over the next few months these met the chopping block: pork, chicken, avocados, eggs, nightshades, starchy vegetables, corn-fed meat, fruit. I was also eating godawful amounts of preservative-free coconut milk and coconut flakes, so that went too. I essentially eat beef/lamb/goat, offaloffal,fish, coconut oil, grass-fed tallow, and various low-carb vegetables such as collard greens, spinach mustard greens, onions, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower. Is this not an airtight diet? The only supplement I take is zinc, 30 mg/day. I toyed around with quality cod liver oil, fish oil, vit C & D, but really didn't want to confuse myself with more variables, as something is causing systemic inflamation with or without them. I generally don't want to go down the road of juggling a million supplements.

I'm still experiencing the flushing, faux sunburn, digestive issues (constipation followed by loose BMs), and in the morning i feel very bloated, headachy, with bloodshot eyes. My skin texture has recently gone from improved to tons of tiny non-inflamed clogged pores all over my forehead. I've only been strictly adhering to the diet above for about two weeks, but things like eggs, fruit , and nightshades have been out for months. And if I have to direct my paranoid gaze at what I've left myself to eat, then this is just too much. I tried for things like histamine intolerance by eating a lot of sauerkraut in one sittings, no dice. I wouldn't think FODMAP foods, the mild amounts of oinon and cabbage I eat, would have this drastic of an effect, either. I have great sleep schedule.

Am I missing something? Do I just need more time on the stricter diet? Perhaps this is a gut flora problem? Probiotics? Anything I should just add back in without worrying about it?

I know this is a typical acne hack, but if I don't get some answers this paranoid whodunnit with food is going to get out of hand into orthorexia territory. I've been eating paleo for roughly 5 months in an attempt to cure my acne. I did notice a change in skin texture (much smoother) within a few weeks, but have still been having the inflamed pimple here or there, plus a new disturbing symptom of facial flushing, or rather, what looked like a sunburn across my nose most days. There were simply too many variables to start identifying culprits for intolerances/high GL/fructose problems etc, so I started wittling down my diet just to be safe:

No grains/legumes/seed oils/sugar/dairy/nuts of course, from the get-go. Over the next few months these met the chopping block: pork, chicken, avocados, eggs, nightshades, starchy vegetables, corn-fed meat, fruit. I was also eating godawful amounts of preservative-free coconut milk and coconut flakes, so that went too. I essentially eat beef/lamb/goat, offal, coconut oil, grass-fed tallow, and various low-carb vegetables such as collard greens, spinach greens, onions, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower. Is this not an airtight diet? The only supplement I take is zinc, 30 mg/day. I toyed around with quality cod liver oil, fish oil, vit C & D, but really didn't want to confuse myself with more variables, as something is causing systemic inflamation with or without them. I generally don't want to go down the road of juggling a million supplements.

I'm still experiencing the flushing, faux sunburn, digestive issues (constipation followed by loose BMs), and in the morning i feel very bloated, headachy, with bloodshot eyes. My skin texture has recently gone from improved to tons of tiny non-inflamed clogged pores all over my forehead. I've only been strictly adhering to the diet above for about two weeks, but things like eggs, fruit , and nightshades have been out for months. And if I have to direct my paranoid gaze at what I've left myself to eat, then this is just too much. I tried for things like histamine intolerance by eating a lot of sauerkraut in one sittings, no dice. I wouldn't think FODMAP foods, the mild amounts of oinon and cabbage I eat, would have this drastic of an effect, either. I have great sleep schedule.

Am I missing something? Do I just need more time on the stricter diet? Perhaps this is a gut flora problem? Probiotics? Anything I should just add back in without worrying about it?