Can Cutting Out Dairy Cure Your Acne?

Alpro Hazelnut Milk and Coffee

My Acne Story
I've suffered with what I would consider moderate acne my full adult life. In my younger teenage years I had pretty good skin but when I did get a spot it was always a bad one and it would take a lifetime to clear up. As the years passed my skin got worse and although I know lots of people are affected much more severely than myself it still knocks my confidence and I've tried an abundance of 'solutions' that have never worked. Over the years I've used multiple products targeted at clearing spots and acne (Proactive was one that I used for a while) sometimes they helped but they never fully cleared my acne and they always dried out my skin terribly making it more difficult to cover my spots. More recently I was given antibiotics from my doctor, now these really did help, I took one tablet a day and within 8 weeks I started to see results, my skin looked better than it had in years. The problem is this isn't a permanent solution, you can't take antibiotics forever (doctors wouldn't allow this, your body would build up a resistance and who wants to be taking drugs they don't need to) so the time came and my doctor recommended a break from the tablets and sure enough my spots returned. I had experienced the dream of clear skin and returning to the nightmare of acne motivated me to search for an alternative solution. After doing some research online I came across some information that suggested acne could be caused by the consumption of dairy, below I've included some of this information and links to articles if you want to have a read.

Information

  • There is an abundance of a hormone called IGF-1 in milk, which is really good for baby cows, but not for you. IGF-1 is a growth hormone. It makes baby cows grow up big and strong, but in humans, it tends to make your acne grow big instead. IGF-1 is one of the several factors that cause inflammation in humans, and which eventually lead to acne (and the ugly redness and swelling that makes acne so annoying).
  • Milk and dairy products cause an insulin spike in humans that cause the liver to produce even more IGF-1, leading to even more acne. 
  • Dairy causes your skin to produce excess sebum (oil), leading to – you guessed it! – more clogged pores, more acne. 
  • Dairy glues together dead skin cells inside your pores, so they can’t exit naturally, leading to clogged pores (and thus more acne).
Click here for more information, you can also do a google search and find loads of info.

After this revelation, I decided hey why not give it a try, now the thought of giving up cheese (is life even worth it without pizza) is daunting but I had to give it a try! So I decided to cut out as much dairy as possible which is extremely difficult as you just don't notice how much is in foods you wouldn't expect so I've done the best I can for two weeks, read on to see my results.
(I have included before and after pictures of my chin and mouth area as this where my acne is worst)

Day 1
Acne Before Image

During the first week I did have a few slip ups but nothing major, by day four I could start to see some results even though they were very minimal.

Day 15
Acne After Image

Okay so these are my results, during week two I had an occasional cheat but overall I avoided most dairy products and I can really see results. Currently, I have no major spots, I do still have lots of redness as my skin does scar but it's the best I've seen it in quite some time. Now my skin isn't all of a sudden perfect but it looks much better and I think if I had managed to be super strict I would have seen even bigger changes, I will continue to keep my dairy consumption to a minimum and give updates on how my skin looks and if this method continues to work.

If you have enjoyed this post and would like to see more like this in the future let me know!

(This method has improved the look of my skin but I can't guarantee this would work for anyone else, everyone is different and the causes of your acne could be very different to my own, so always be cautious, do your research and if in doubt consult your doctor before making any major changes to your diet and lifestyle)

4 comments

  1. This was so informative.. Till now I was very confused about dairy as being harmful for acne or not.. thank you so much 💕💕💕

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    1. You are very welcome, I just happened to stumble upon the information and I'm so glad i did!

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  2. this is such an interesting post! I NEVER KNEW THERE WAS A LINK AT ALL!

    So amazing to see you write about it.

    x

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! It really makes you look at things differently and I'm glad to see positive results even if it means I don't really get to eat cheese!

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