Using topical antibiotics on my skin

[TigerseyeMum]

Due to coming off the pill my skin has gone haywire until I finally went to my GP to get help. She has prescribed me topical antibiotics, but they (like spot treatments and anything harsh) are drying my skin out.

I have Spiezia cleanser and Dr Organic Manuka Honey cream which helps but I don't want to clog the pores otherwise it will be an endless round of ABs/cream/ABs/cream...

Anyone got any tips? I have nasty flaky patches (and so far, still spots)

[TheFarSide]

Neat tea tree oil seems to halt single spots in their tracks. It does say on the bottle not to apply it directly to skin, which I ignore.

[TheFarSide]

It's oily too, but in a good, spot-killing way - it won't dry your skin.

[Ishani]

You have to give topical treatments two months to work, drying out period is part of that, my advice is stick to one thing and let it get to work, don't keep swapping and changing.

[TattyDevine]

Yes. The one thing that I found truly balanced hormones from within and made a major difference to skin was keeping blood sugar levels stable.

That basically means lowish carb (I'm not talking eating pounds of bacon and cheese but reduced carbs) - if most your carbs are vegetables and a bit of fruit, not full on heavy carbs, and you are eating good lean protein and good fats, high fibre, etc, your blood sugar will be very even and balanced. Low GI/GL as opposed to low carb, I suppose.

I found when I adopted this kind of approach that my skin was as good as if I was on the pill. This was back in my late 20's too so my skin was still quite flarey in those days.

Consider also supplementing your diet with evening primrose oil, borage oil, starflower oil, which is Gamma Linoleic acid, very good for production of prostiglandins which are the kinds of hormones that regulate this kind of thing. If your diet isn't up to scratch that is - if you are having nuts, seeds, good oils like flax or hemp, oily fish, etc then you probably don't need to.

[TigerseyeMum]

I have to use them for 2 months? It has only been 3 days and my skin is falling off!

Blimey.

Tea tree oil is OK is very small amounts for me (I used the Dr Organic wet wipes) but neat makes my skin quite bad. Anything does, really.

My diet isn't great, I tend to crave sugar and carbs, though I work all hours and am lucky to get time to eat, so eating the right thing is a challenge. I must make more effort though.

[TattyDevine]

You will find that if you go cold turkey on the heavy carbs like white bread/any bread for that matter, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, refined white sugar etc etc yes you will feel a bit shit for a few days, maybe even have a headache, but once you come into balance, you will feel a lot better and wont have those same cravings.

Try and have some alternatives to snack on at your desk like nuts and get yourself some strawberries and greek yogurt to have for desert at night, also diet jelly if you like it enough (some people hate artificial sweetners but they do serve a purpose) with raspberries set into it is a nice low carb pudding. You can even have a drizzle of cream because you are not necessarily trying to lose weight here, just balance your blood sugar.

If you have fruit, make sure its berries, or if you have an apple then have some cheese with it to "slow down" the carbs. Hummus and oatcakes are an okay snack, celery and penut butter, Multigrain ryvita in moderation for your lunch if you can't get away from the sandwich style thing - but keep the heavy carbs to a bare minimum and try and just get them in the from of veg.

You will stop craving them so much, you might lose weight or fat without quite meaning to and without feeling terribly hungry (bonus!) and your skin should start to clear up - it really does make a difference.

[TattyDevine]

In fact, to back up the whole lowish carb/ balanced blood sugar argument a lot of women with PCOS and fertility problems are advised to adopt this approach, so its well backed up by reasearch the hormone balancing aspect...

[TigerseyeMum]

Well, I get a lot of cysts on my ovaries due to endo, and I also have CFS so it is worth a try. I eat a lot of what you suggest and I am getting into soups as a lunchtime snack so it's just the white carbs and sugar I need to crack

[TigerseyeMum]

Is quinoa and millet a low carb option? I am having those for lunch with veg soup and lentils. OK or not?

[TattyDevine]

Yes, keep them up, they are such a slow form of carb, Quinoa is high (for a grain) in a very valuable form of protein, they are fine. Watch your serving size or balance it with protein - if you aren't a veggie then chuck some chicken in as well, something like that, to slow it down but to be honest the fibre content is so high it will be a slow carb source anyway.

[TigerseyeMum]

Thanks. It was a tad on the bland side today and I was force-fed some chocolate cake at the office so that didn't go well

Thursday is cake day. Sigh.

I ate fruit though

[TattyDevine]

If you must have cake, have it after "proper" food not on an empty stomach, have the smallest piece you can fathom, and don't do it every day. You'll be fine!

[TigerseyeMum]

I had it after my soup and it was small so maybe I got away with it