Update 11/22/11: Long story short, the BCAAs may well have been contributing to my issues, but that was certainly not the whole story. Since writing this post, rosacea/acne issues have flared up again and I’m discussing this with a Naturopath (ND). I have been taking Flora Balance and acidophilus probiotics which have been helping. To be continued.
Update 12/12/11: See this newer post going into detail about all this.
I’ve been dealing with some acne issues for the last six months or so that have ranged from mild to briefly severe, and I could not for the life of me figure out where they were coming from. I’m now nearly positive I’ve got it worked out and I’m feeling kind of stupid.
To get this post to be brief in length and not overly self-involved is proving impossible, so bear with me while I just let fly.
I think ultimately it was my hubris in thinking that I could take as many supplements as I was and still be able to keep track of what each one was doing and which could be a problem or not. I had been taking a silly number of them for someone who is 35 years-old, healthy, minimizes processed food, and is not a competitive bodybuilder or something.
I’ve since cut many of them out now in the last week or so, most notably branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), that I’ve now figured from a bit of research and process of elimination were the root of my skin issues these last several months. I’m actually working on another post about my “problem” with supplements and also discussing blood work I’ve had done recently, which may also be long, but hopefully will be useful to someone in the process. I wanted to roll it into this post originially, but it was becoming a monster.
Dermatologists Don’t Officially Know Where Acne Comes From
So before figuring it out, I threw what I consider to be a Hail Mary pass by going to see a dermatologist in hopes that maybe in the past few years one of them might have found a vague notion of what is actually causing the problem, and that perhaps there had been a shift from the “we don’t know where it comes from, let’s just nuke it from orbit with antibiotics and super-drying benzoyl peroxide or some such prescription creams.”
No, no they have not moved an inch from this position. Diet continues “not to have any effect” on acne, and any other lifestyle factor they’re kind of dodgy and agnostic about. Mine said, quote, “we don’t know where it comes from.” Super. I guess yesterday’s trepanning is just today’s accutane.
Now, do I expect the dermatogist to go over what supplements I take and everything I eat? Of course not. But just the fact that asking the question “why?” elicits a dismissive response as if I asked “is there a God?”, and we proceed to overbearing treatment of the symptomes immediately, is infuriating. I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore, though.
So I took none of the dermo’s advice for creams, creams, creams, and antibiotics. At first. I tried some dietary and supplement tweaks, including going way low-carb and taking more fish oil, and then less, and with not much change either way.
Then in a moment of desperation in August, I filled the prescription for a 30-day course of Doxycycline and then regretted it within days, knowing that I was mowing through my gut flora and setting myself up for all of the potential complications that go along. I had to stick it out, though, since stopping short on a course can actually strengthen “bad” bacteria and help evolve ever more resistant super strains.
I tried to buy back my soul by somewhat aggressively taking probiotics and drinking lots of kombucha, but of course this isn’t a barrier against the killing off of a lot of floral diversity. After a month, there was improvement but I was getting some spots still regardless.
So Just What The Hell Is Going On Here?
My fuzzy math evaluation of the branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplement I was taking, in relation to acne, was “in effect, it’s supplementing protein” and so really couldn’t have anything to do with acne issues. I thought my problem had to do with something like omega 6/3 balance, therefore perhaps systemic inflammation, or the type/quantity of carbs I was taking in, meaning insulin levels and blood glucose. Even when I had tried eliminating each supplement one at a time as a test, I somehow inexplicably continued to take this one that now seems to have been the culprit.
You may know that BCAAs are taken pre- and/or post-workout to keep muscles in an anabolic (building) state to help recovery and therefore help with muscle growth. I casually started taking a relatively low dose for a while to see if they’d give me any kind of boost with strength and muscle growth, and they did seem to. BCAAs of course occur naturally in many types of meat and fish, bound to other amino acids in the form of protein, but since they have a particularly anabolic effect above other amino acids, they’re isolated and taken as a bodybuilding supplement. There really weren’t any bad side effects that I could turn up beforehand with internet research.
I can’t put a finger on exactly what the mechanism would be for BCAAs to cause cystic acne. Based on the fact (assertion?) that they are insulinogenic, and having read Loren Cordain’s The Dietary Cure For Acne which details the moderately complex process in which chronically high insulin levels cause breakouts, I’m postulating that this is the process that was at work and giving me problems. In addition, I was reading in a bodybuilding forum about a guy in his 30s who started taking roughly the same dose of BCAAs and started getting cystic acne out of nowhere. I’m generally skeptical of broscience coming from a forum, to say the least, but the situation in this case kind of nailed it.
So it’s now been about ten days since I’ve taken the supplement and things have calmed down almost completely, although not 100%. Just in the last 24 hours there have been a couple of spots, and I may know why. Again, possibly supplement related (do I ever learn?).
Another thing I suspected recently was thyroid dysfunction, which has been known to contribute to acne issues. The possible symptoms can be kind of a Rorschach test where you see what you want to see (“I have cold hands sometimes!”), but I did check off a few of them. Blood work came back clinically normal, although the numbers were definitely in the low range. I started taking 200mcg of kelp (iodine) and 100 mcg of selenium, but I’m going to lay off the iodine for now to be sure that’s not an issue.
Sigh. This is the tangled web you weave when relying too heavily on supplements for different issues. As I said, this very subject (supplements) is what I’m going to elaborate on in what will probably be my next post.
In the meantime, if you’ve had experiences with these types of self-experimentation shenanigans, I’d love to hear about it.
Update 11/22/11: Long story short, the BCAAs may well have been contributing to my issues, but that was certainly not the whole story. Since writing this post, rosacea/acne issues have flared up again and I’m discussing this with a Naturopath (ND). I have been taking Flora Balance and acidophilus probiotics which have been helping. To be continued.
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Thanks so much for your post; I’m female and 42 and have been experiencing cystic acne, as well, but chalked it up to hormones. I, too, am on a host of supplements, hoping to find the right combination for optimum health. I also have been taking BCAAs in powder form, dosing my smoothie in the morning which has changed from mostly protein and fat (fish oil, protein powder, spiriuina, raw eggs) to a some carbs (like blueberries and bananas) – I thought Whey protein powder was contributing to the acne, so, I changed to Spirutein, which I really like and have seen some success in controlling flare-ups. Howver, I’m looking at staving off breast cancer and am not a candidate for birth control to help control flare-ups nor any of the traditional oral treatments drs dole out.
I would like to discuss at length, but, have to go for now – just wanted to ask how your latest treatments with the Naturopath are going and thank you for delving into this issue yours is the ONLY post I’ve read whose story seems really similar to my line of reasoning – made me laugh there was someone else out there who seems intent on trial by fire. lol.
Thanks – please post when u have time.
Please forgive the typos and spelling errors.
Hi Nancy. I’m sorry and glad that you could identify with my situation, if you know what I mean. Trial by fire was exactly right. Then it became quicksand, where any move you make only makes the situation worse. Fun stuff for sure.
Your situation sure does sound like gut dysbiosis. It sounds really familiar – suspecting things and cutting them out, it helps some but not much, having to think to the point of paralysis about every meal and what could be the problem. Food intolerances too? Occasional strong cravings? Obviously I’m not trying to diagnose, but that’s what was going on with me and now being treated for leaky gut and possible SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), I’m doing much better. For a while I was eating a lot and still always hungry and having to stop myself from shoving whole sweet potatoes and sticks of butter in my face. I’m only laying this all out there in case any of it sounds remotely familiar.
Good news is that I seem to be out that period, since what I’ve been doing for three weeks as prescribed by my ND has been helping. I don’t know if you saw the most recent post, but mainly that involves drinking bone broth 2-3 times daily, usually morning and night, a strong (20 billion) probiotic twice daily, staying with the GAPS diet (which wasn’t a big deal since it’s basically more restrictive paleo), and avoiding FODMAPs, which sadly include onions and garlic.
The cravings are gone, digestion is much better, and rosacea is improving. I suspect this is because of the gut healing protocol. I don’t think I had been absorbing nutrients very well before. Also, waiting to hear results about a stool test and a breath test for SIBO. Ironically, this seems to mostly have been brought on by antibiotics I took in August.
I really hope you figure it out soon and get some peace of mind.
Interesting Blog.
Found your site after Googling BCCA and Acne. I recently eliminated Muscle Milk after determining through process of elimination that it was sending my sebaceous glands into Sebum a production overtime orgy. All my pores swelled it was great. I’ve battled Acne from my 30′s and now 40′s (I thought it was a Teen thing)… Then one day I realized its my damn diet. How could it take me so long to realize this? The Dermatologists really don’t know anything except to throw pills and creams. Just picked up another Protein powder brand to see if its gonna flare up my face again has BCCA’s in it (Thus my google search). If the results are similar i’m going to try an ISOPURE brand and then go organic or stop the protein powders all together. I’d like to start my own blog to track everything, just not sure i’m disiplined enough.
Anyway 1 small piece in a very large puzzle.
Hi, Ed, glad I could shed some sort of light on the subject. Good luck and hopefully you won’t see the same issues with BCAAs that I did.
Yeah, the idea that diet is unrelated to acne and other skin issues is complete horseshit. If the AMA hasn’t decreed that something is so, then no doctor will ever assert such a thing (perhaps under their breath). My faith in the medical establishment is at an all-time low. They’ve failed me repeatedly and I’ve gone on to fix problems myself with things they dismiss out of hand. Guess I’m lucky it’s never been anything really serious. So if I need a broken leg reset or an organ repaired by surgery, I’ll see a doctor. Short of that, for chronic conditions, no thanks. /Rant off
What do you do for a diet outside of the supplements? I know dairy and gluten were major problem triggers for me.
Just wanted to report on some significant improvement in cystic acne flare-ups since my last post. Although, I can count on acne flare-ups like clockwork each Thanksgiving through New Year’s, and nothing changed this year – I had a black-tie event to attend and my skin was, thank goodness, in the process of healing from two rather intense acne lesions on my chin – I have 86′d some culprits, I believe and would love to share my latest diet changes and skin-care regimen.
Take Care!
Changes to diet – think PH – I am drinking 4 tbs of organic apple cider vinegar daily- 2 tbs in the morning in a mug of hot water before anything else and 2 tbs in the evening added to hot water or hot tea just before bed. It is important to dilute and rinse or brush teeth directly following to prevent staining your teeth. And, it is Bragg’s – bought a gallon with “the mother” and it really does the trick. I had some rather nasty cystic lesions on my chin around Christmas and had just begun the ACV treatment, but, I noticed the inflammation went down considerably overnight after only drinking 2 tbs before bed, but, the scabs where I had picked, were of course more difficult to deal with, but, have healed nicely. Also, no b.s. – I have had blackheads on my nose for years and just from drinking the ACV overnight I woke up with a VERY CLEAR nose the next morning – upon seeing this, I was hooked on the ACV and the skin on my nose remains clear. I did do a cleanse (Garden of Life Raw 7-day cleanse b/c it fit into my schedule nicely, if you get my drift) and I believe that contributed to the rate at which my scabs were able to heal so well.
I have also cut out all dairy, plus, most of the spirulina and BCAAs, although my morning smoothie includes Spirutein (chocolate and peanut butter swirl) which contains some BCAAs and I also take Garden of Life’s Perfect Food at night which contains spirulina. To my smoothie, I mix ice, unsweetened coconut milk, organic blueberries, almonds, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds and pistachios plus Carlson’s fish oil, 1/4 of an avocado, 1 tbs Brewer’s Yeast (I actullay crave this stuff), organic cinnamon and nutmeg and organic vanilla. I also will eat a small serving of an omega-3 rich fish like salmon with breakfast and also at dinner most days. I’ve added more veggies and consume hardly any sugar, save the Spirutein, blueberries and the occassional clementine. I did cheat and consumed a healthy serving of my aunt’s chocolate, peanut butter and marshmallow cake during Christmas and this, I’m convinced, is responsible for my nasty cystic flare-up. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
My skin-care regimen includes some pricey items, but, they are well worth the price-tag and LAST a very long time. I use a Clarisonic with a deep-pore cleansing brush with a mixture of Skinceuticals LHA cleansing gel and baking soda- the cleanser last forever. Then I will alternate daily between ACV as a toner and Skinceutical’s LHA Toner. I use the ACV full-strength, leave on about 2 minutes then rinse with water. You will notice when you rinse if you have any lesions or scabs that these areas will have a white film and may think, “great, this just made it worse,” but apply some all-natual aloe vera or calendula (I use Califlora Calendula gel) immediately and let it dry. The white film will go away. Then, I apply Biomedic’s LHA serum (Skincueticals quit making their LHA serum, but, you can buy the Biomedic from Amazon) only to clearer areas with no scabs (if you apply to scabs, you will take longer to heal), then use Skinceuticals Physical Fusion SPF 50 sunscreen which is tinted and doubles as a nice foundation. They make others that are not tinted which are also great. In the evening, I follow the same regimen but skip the serums and SPF and use LaRoche-Posay Effaclar Duo which is 5.5% benzoyl peroxide and 0.4% LHA – I also can use this under makeup – does not dry your skin out – it is AWESOME. When I feel I need a little more punch, I use the presciption lotion Clindamycin plus the Effaclar Duo overnight. The BP will bleach your pillowcases, so, beware. I also have a microdermabrasion tool from DDF that I only use when I have no scabs and it really helps with pore size, gunk, etc.
Trust me, begin the ACV, add the baking soda to your cleansing regimen and you will see an immediate improvement. I’ll post more later. Let me know what you think whenyou have time – I have another mammo next month – will let you know results – to clarify – I only have calcifications and no breast cancer but do have a precursor to BC. So, this means two mammos a year for now and of course, good, clean living
Just wanted to clarify – I do place one level scoop of the Spirutein into my smoothie. Also, I usually wait at least 30 minutes before brushing my teeth after ingesting the ACV, but, will rinse with water immediately following consuming. And, of course, I’m in no way affiliated with any of the aforementioned companies.lol. If any info helps someone else, I’m all for it.
Thanks,
Nancy
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