3 HIDDEN HORMONES IN FOOD THAT CAN CAUSE ACNE~BEST NATURAL ACNE TREATMENT
There are various types of hormones that aggravate acne. Some of those are seen with your own cycle if you are a female and with puberty if you are a male. There are also hormones in the food that can disturb your hormone metabolism and aggravate the acne and cause it to be worse. Those include the hormones present in milk and dairy products because cows are usually pregnant when they give milk, as well as hormones injected into cows to produce bigger cows or more milk such as bovine growth hormone. That type of hormone can also be in meat if you are eating beef that has been injected in that way.
Sometimes, hormones are injected into other animals like the necks of chickens, to fatten them up. Finally, there are hormones which are much weaker, but are present in other kinds of foods because of the nature of the kinds of food itself or because they are added in as preservatives. For instance, soy has some hormone-like activity.
So too, do various types of preservatives that are used in foods and creams and topical products. Now those are fairly weak, but when you use them on a repeated basis, day after day, you do get some significant hormones that can also aggravate your acne and disrupt normal cycles.
Looking for natural skincare support? Gluten has a number of different activities including as a lectin punching holes in cell membranes and enabling things to get into cells or enabling things to escape from the intestinal track that shouldn’t be escaping. Since it’s so high on the list of likely allergens, it is one of the things that can make a difference in people’s health or having various kinds of manifestations of allergic or unknown conditions.
On the other hand, going gluten-free makes it very difficult to eat in restaurants or to eat anything that you don’t prepare yourself from scratch. If you truly have a gluten sensitivity or you truly are celiac, which is a gluten sensitivity plus certain genetic markers. Then it may also be worth identifying that before you go gluten free because it’s easier to do so while you’re still eating gluten and if you really are a celiac, even a tiny, tiny bit of gluten can set you back significantly and it’s good to know that. So going gluten free is a reasonable experiment to do.
Going gluten-free may be helpful, but it may not be sufficient. Furthermore, there are a number of people who have multiple allergies. Just stopping one thing is not going to make them all better any more than if you’re sitting on three thumbtacks, removing one of them is going to solve all the pain you’re having in your bottom.
Garlic is a wonderful food although some people around you may not appreciate that it is as wonderful as it is for you if they haven’t eaten it, you probably noticed that. Garlic has some tremendous properties, it’s been known to lower your cholesterol, it may have some blood pressure lowering effects, it may also have affects killing variety of different organisms that bother the body simply be very protective in that way it can be used for anything from colds to deeper infections. It’s a spice that blends a lot of flavor to foods and it can be used to prepare foods in order to cure organisms, like let’s say fish or meat is just beginning to turn, because it’s powerful antimicrobial. I highly recommend using garlic, but sharing it with your friends and people who are close to you because they may not appreciate it if you’re the only one around eating it.
“What can you tell me about the effective wheatgrass juice?”
“Well wheatgrass juices has a lot of anti-oxidants in it. It’s reported to have a lot of beneficial effects even in conditions such as diabetes and in cancer. I had the privilege of meeting Ann Wigmore in Cambridge in around 1970. She was still alive and there were a lot of very devoted people who were coming to her for help. I didn’t have a chance to really go through a lot of case histories in ascertain exactly what was going on but I had a very strong sense that people were getting better from the stories that were told to me.”
“Now do they apply wheat grass topically or is it mainly internal?”
“People were using it internally and it was part of a very rigorous program that was vegetarian in yet still had methods for obtaining important nutrients like B-12 with the Rejuvelac. She had a very extensive program so it wasn’t just that you took some wheat grass you were used they were eating watermelon rinds for Diuretic and watermelon. It was they had many different steps that were put together in order to be vegetarian and yet still do cleansing and yet still be healthy having the essential nutrients.”
Treating food allergy, Candida overgrowth and sensitivity, and leaky gut, has been a cornerstone of my holistic dermatology practice. I’m sure that there are a lot of my patients out there who struggled with those diets, who will chuckle to hear that I recently got a “dose of my own medicine”. I want to share my experience in a short series of ongoing emails and blogs, in hope of inspiring others to make progress, and tell their own stories of success.
A few years ago, my own doctor heard about my own digestive issues, ordered some tests, and found our that I had antibodies in my blood diagnostic of a gluten sensitivity. Since that time, I have been on a fairly strict gluten-free diet, never eating wheat, barley oats or rye, but perhaps getting small amounts of gluten from Chinese restaurant soy sauce, hidden flour, or a crumb here or there that sticks to the bottom of an occasional desert. I have been well, except for a slightly active digestive system at times, and a little arthritis in two finger joints.
Recently, a repeat food test for allergy was done in thanks for giving blood to use to evaluate new testing methods for wheat sensitivity, by a lab that tested me before. The list had enlarged considerably from the first test, taking away some 50 of my favorite foods. Still reasonably cheerful, I went to the produce store in New Rochelle and bought the vegetables and foods which were still permitted on my list, and found out that I could put together some delicious but simple meals.
I also found out that I could use what was allowed to make some really tasty snacks with allowed ingredients I had never put together in those ways before. I used orange juice instead of lemon, ginger where I would have used garlic, and sesame paste to make my salad dressing.
The problem came with going to a big celebration, and then ordering food the next day. I did not notice any immediate change from all of the foods I ate out, but did get very tired after eating food with my problem soy sauce. The day after, I ate one piece of the dish, permitted by my food test (but interestingly, not by my tribe), and immediately felt a kind of heaviness and faint fogginess overtake my head.
When I bothered to check my chart, two out of three of the vegetables were not permitted, along with the soy sauce (which has traces of wheat and possibly corn starch to thicken it). So much for easy ordering and eating. I will have to prepare food from scratch.
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
While I generally deal with holistic dermatology, I have lots of experience with integrative medicine as it relates to the immune system. During cold and flu season, I tend to avoid flu vaccine. So, over many years of working long hours in my practice, I have perfected my method for cold and flu prevention and care.
The moment I become aware of a lowered resistence–a sneeze, a tired feeling, an ache in my head or neck–is the moment a cold or flu can be prevented with a regimen of natural remedies. If I wait a bit and don’t catch the symptoms until several hours or a day after that moment, I may not be able to prevent the illness, but I can lessen its severity and duration.
Steps to take at the pivotal moment:
stop whatever you’re doing. Take a nap if possible. If not, rest your eyes for a few minutes.
take a very hot bath, and when you emerge from the tub, bundle yourself up, climb into bed, and let the body “sweat out the cold.” (Be sure not to do this alone, as hot water can increase chance of fainting)
take healthy, regular doses of vitamins A, C, and E
take some echinacea or oregon graperoot
drink hot tea and keep the body full of fluids
Several hours of focused self-care at the right moment can prevent several days of illness, discomfort, and lost work–and it can keep you from spreading a cold or flu to loved ones.
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
I recently read an article in the Science Section of the New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope entitled “Telling food allergies from false alarms”. The article focuses on the efficacy of food allergy antibody tests (only one of many kinds of allergy tests there are.) It suggests that people avoiding a number of foods face malnutrition and inconvenience.
The article overlooks the great value in helping patients eliminate foods which trigger a wide variety of conditions, most of which have an inflammatory etiology. Any blood test, be it of antibody reactivity, neutrophil change, or lymphocyte response, may be helpful to point out foods to test for potential clinical improvement by elimination and challenge.
I have seen numerous conditions including acne, eczema, irritable bowel, hidradenitis, migraines, and fatigue improve with food elimination. A physician experienced in multiple forms of food testing can help associate symptoms with exposures, choose appropriate tests, and interpret results. This kind of natural acne treatment is a lot cheaper than prescription drugs.
One things I do agree on is that allergy tests can give a wide variety of food and allergen sensitivities which may or may not indicate the cause of a patient’s presenting condition.
The absolute best way to learn what foods are causing skin or any other problems is to eliminate all possible trigger foods, check to see if the problem clears, and then every few days, add a food back to the diet to find out which is the culprit. The value of trials of food elimination to improve disease should not be overlooked for lack of definitive testing in major centers.
To your health,
-Dr. Alan M Dattner, MD
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
In my holistic dermatology practice, I often help patients whose skin suffers in winter. It is possible to both help your skin and save money doing it. I emphasize this because it requires doing something very simple and at the same time very challenging: changing your habits.
Even more, it requires changing the beliefs behind those habits, so I will try to give some additional information beyond what was in my last blog, to help you make these changes.
If you have ever done dishes or wet work, with your hands in and out of water repeatedly for a while, you know how your skin becomes dry and chapped. This is because you are washing away the oils and the salts which hold water in our skin. In the winter when the air is dry (low humidity), bathing washes out the oils from the skin. The belief that we need a shower, especially a long, hot one, to be clean, to wake up, or to feel alive in the morning, needs a second look if your skin becomes dry and scaly in winter. A washcloth under the arm and in the folds does a very nice job between showers, and does not dry out parts of your skin which do not need washing.
The result is that you:
save hot water,
save on lotion
save oils in your skin,
save money on heat,
save fresh water,
safe electricity
Once you have the routine down, you will save time as well.Of course there will be times and situations where you need a shower or bath. Bathing less often, faster, and soaping less areas which do not need heavy cleansing, will keep the moisture in your skin and save you money as well. I repeat the essence of my last message because I have found,
in my 30 yeasr of practice, that people often have to hear it more than once in order to reduce their bathing. Did you?
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
Having an acne outbreak? Bacne bugging you? As a holistic dermatologist, I always
advocate for the simplest, natural solutions to a skin problem.
While acne can have many causes, which should be addressed systematically, here is a great natural solution for relief of pimple pain, redness, and soreness:
Put some hot water in a bowl
Add enough salt so the water is about as salty as tears
Soak the pimple with a clean washcloth for about five minutes, refreshing the cloth with water every so often
Repeat two to three times per day
The hot water draws the acne to the surface, opens the pores, dries the skin out, and keeps the pimple free of possible infection. Remember not to prod or poke the pimple, as this can aggravate is and introduce germs. Also, make it a habit to take note of anything different you did preceding your outbreak; did you
alter your diet? the kind of soap you use? etc. As always, the natural approach is to examine the root cause of a disorder that arises.
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to
treat or diagnose an illness; please see your physician for care.
What is Holistic Dermatology or Integrative Dermatology?
I have been incorporating principles of holistic practices into Dermatology for the past three decades.
INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE FOR THE SKIN
A variety of names have been given to this approach, including functional medicine, because it addresses the function of the underlying organs involved; complementary medicine, because it often includes methods which add to or compliment conventional medical techniques; alternative medicine, because it’s an alternative to some of the currently employed conventional techniques, and finally, integrative medicine, because when done well, it integrates the best aspects of conventional medicine with techniques which lie outside of those routinely practiced by MD physicians.
I have also called it Nutritional Dermatology, because much of my work involves dietary elimination, additions, and nutritional supplements. However it is called, I blend conventional and alternative techniques, I address other systems, besides the skin, and I evaluate the whole person.
BOARD-CERTIFIED DERMATOLOGY
As a board-certified dermatologist, I begin by seeking and making a conventional dermatologic and medical diagnosis. I then go on to find out, for the individual involved, what exactly was specific to their situation that caused them to develop the illness.
Most important in this quest is a carefully recalled story history from the patient about the events that preceded the onset of the illness. Knowing how hard this is to do on the spot, I recommend that anyone seeking good holistic care with me, or anyone else, should sit down with a calendar and try to identify when their problem began and what infections, exposures, stresses, new medications, vaccinations, or other foreign materials entering the body could have preceded the event in a matter of days, weeks, or months before the onset.
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
