Dairy Products and Acne?

Introduction

I am writing about the article Adolescent Acne: A Stepwise Approach to Management.^[1]

I am 58 years old and as a teenager and young adult suffered with the embarrassment of acne. Today, I still have all the scarring from those years. When I was 35 years old, in l978, I became one of the first victims in this country with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). I was nonfunctioning for 5 years. I thought my life had ended as I once knew it.

In my quest to get well, I became aware of the connection between diet, allergies, and CFS. My life was saved by physicians who followed the writings of authors like William Crook, who wrote The Yeast Connection.^[2]

It was in the early 1980s that I was told that a dairy allergy would cause acne, as well as contribute to CFS. When I stopped all dairy foods, I never had another acne break-out. I also discovered that dairy was the cause of my puffy eyes that I had since early childhood. Today, when I eat dairy foods, I will get an isolated pimple that takes a long time to go away -- and my eyes get puffy as well.

In Crook's book, he addresses the contributing factors of CFS. One factor is antibiotics for acne use. I used tetracycline as a teenager in an unsuccessful attempt to control my acne. My son also developed acne in his teenage years. He stopped eating dairy products and no longer had a problem.

I frequently recommend eliminating dairy from the diet to people who have acne. They report successful results. I am disappointed to read that dairy elimination is not a consideration in this article.

Topics in Advanced Practice Nursing eJournal. 2002;2(2) © 2002 Medscape

Cite this: Dairy Products and Acne? - Medscape - May 24, 2002.