Does Food Aggravate Acne? Part 1 – The Controversy
Posted By online pharmacy on August 13, 2011
Does Food Aggravate Acne? Part 1 – The Controversy
Acne is one of the commonest diseases of the skin and about billion is spent on medicine yearly. There are also vital social and emotional costs. Although acne affects all ages, prevalence starts to growth from the age of 8 years, and peaks at 16 to 18 years when 75% to 98% of the habitancy is affected.
An association in the middle of diet and acne has long been postulated but remains unproven and hence controversial. Most dermatology text books state that there is no role and majority of dermatologists toe the beaten path.
My perceive and observations with acne patients, however, tell a dissimilar story. Many of my patients who have been on remission(without clinical lesions of acne) after medicine and on a “no milk, no chocolate, no ice cream, no cola, no fried fast food’ regimen have come back experiencing severe outbreaks after they restarted their junk food habits! More than two decades of such consistent observations have convinced me that unavoidable food items do stimulate the tell-tale facial eruptions. After all, medicine and human disease administration is not an exact science, and we cannot all the time abide by evidence based therapeutics(though preferable), as all medical practitioners would comprehend sooner or later in their career.
A scan of the medical literature shows that I am not alone in these convictions. There have been dozens of studies, mostly in favor, of a unavoidable acne-diet relationship. Let us peruse a few of these now:
1. Role of iodide in causation of acne
It has long been known that iodine and its salt iodide stimulate the sebaceous glands and cause acne eruptions. Many natural and cooked foods contain iodide and iodine in varying amounts. It stands to infer then to infer that such food when taken commonly and in excess could induce or aggravate acne lesions in predisposed individuals.
Following is a list of iodide containing items on our gastronomical shelf with the whole of iodide in each. Only a premium few with high article and, for comparison, a few with low article are mentioned here. Iodide article measured as ppm (part per million) is shown in brackets:
Seafood
Squid (39); Crab(33); Shrimp(17)
Meat & Poultry
Beef liver(325); Turkey(132); Chicken(67)
Vegetables
Asparagus(169); Broccoli(90); Onions(82); Corn(45)
Diary Products
Butter(26) ; Cheddar cheese(27); cottage cheese(5); Milk(11); Yogurt(3)
Miscellaneous
Drinking water (8); Iodized Salt(54); Potato chips(40); Tortilla chips(80); White bread(8)
Now, with a list like that, who would deny that food is an aggravating factor for acne?
2. Acne inducing medications.
In expanding to iodides, the following drugs can either cause or exacerbate acne(list not complete):
Corticosteroids (both systemic and local)
Bromides
Phenytoin (anti-epileptic)
Lithium (anti-psychotic)
Isoniazid (anti-tuberculous)
Some oral contraceptive pills like Ovral, Loestrin, Norlestrin, and Norinyl etc growth acne formation, while some, like diane 35 are used to treat unavoidable types of hormone induced acne.
So how do these preserve the “acne-food” theory?
The fact that there are many medications which sway acne can be linked to the food-acne scenario thus:
1. Ingested food is absorbed and utilized by our body exactly in the same way it metabolizes oral medications. In other words, food is no dissimilar from any other drugs (treats hunger?) which can have both unavoidable and negative effects on the body and its organs together with skin! Now, my interrogate is this, if unavoidable medications can sway acne by worsening or improving it, why can food not sway acne? Is there any rationale or proof to counter this deduction derived from pure coarse sense?
2. Many medications used to treat diseases in the cattle are found in varying amounts in their yields: the milk and the meat. If such medications can worsen acne, it follows that milk/meat consumption could sway acne adversely!
3. Anabolic steroids are used(as injectables and in feeds) to growth the mass and bulk of meat and poultry. Simply varying levels of these hormones are found in the final diary and butchery/poultry products. Steroids, both anabolic and corticosteroids, are known to induce and exacerbate acneiform eruptions, not only on the face, but also on the back and front of the trunk. So would not such diary, meat and poultry trigger acne eruption? Unless of course, we can prove that all such medications are wholly destroyed while the pasteurization(milk) and cooking processes, which is highly unlikely!
3. Acne, Vitamins and Minerals.
A whole of studies have proven the beneficial effects of some vitamins and minerals on acne. These are Vitamin A, Zinc, Magnesium, Selenium and vital Fatty Acids(Omega 3). There are many food items which contain these vitamins and trace elements. Though the whole of these molecules to yield any clinical changes may be high, who can refute the possibility that even the wee amount(s) gift do not sway acne?
There are conflicting reports on B complicated Vitamins and Vitamin E , some studies looking a unavoidable follow on acne while others noting that high amounts of these vitamins no ifs ands or buts worsen the acne eruptions.
Part 2: The Journal Scan
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