Allergies and acne?

[McVities24]

Hello,

My 15DD has really bad acne, we have spent so much money on products, GP has prescribed creams and antibiotics but nothing seems to help.

She has been away on a school trip for the past week and came back yesterday, acne looked so much better. No redness or inflammation. She has been sailing, so not if being at sea helped.

Anyway, wakes up this morning and it’s all red and inflamed again. So only things really that have been different.. we put some savlon cream on the acne last night and she had some pop tarts when she got home.

Everything else is the same as what she used on the school trip - hair and face products, washing powder.

I am wondering if she might have an allergy or food intolerance that is causing the acne? Or at least making it worse.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Thank you.

Giving up Dairy cured my eczema and with that the spots went also.

Dairy is pumped full of hormones which can really affect skin

It might be the blue light. The ocean absorbs the red part of the light spectrum and then reflects blue light (why the ocean is the colour blue). Your DD would have had all day natural blue light therapy on her face while out sailing.

As it happens, one really good therapy for stubborn acne is blue light therapy which can be done by a dermatologist.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/blue-light-therapy-for-the-skin-what-can-it-do

It isn’t harmful like UV lights or anything, and is used to treat some skin cancers

”Blue light can also spell lights out for some types of acne. Many cases of common acne are caused by a bacterium called Propionibacterium acnes, or P. acnes, which lives on your skin. And P. acnes just so happens to emit its own photosensitizer, which makes it sensitive to blue wavelengths of light.
Shining blue light onto acne-prone skin can kill the bacteria and clear up blemishes. But it’s not magic.
Blue light therapy doesn’t work for everyone, and it might take several sessions to find out if your acne is sensitive to blue light. If it is, you might still need to use other acne treatments, like prescription creams. But for some people, the treatment can light the way to clearer skin.”

I popped over to NHS page and it appears it can be offered on the NHS as a non-pharmaceutical treatment?

“You may be recommended to have photodynamic therapy, where light is applied to the skin in an attempt to improve symptoms of acne.”

It says “not routinely recommended” but given your GP seems to have tried everything else and your sailing connection, they might be willing to do a referral ?
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/acne/treatment/

I do think gut health can have an impact I.e. balance of bad vs good bacteria and hormone health. The best thing I used on my skin was a brand called clarol by skin shop. They have a silver serum that inhibits bad skin bacteria. The problem with antibiotics is that they can create more bacterial imbalance in your gut and on skin so sometimes if you stop using them the acne comes right back. You can replace bacterial diversity with fermented foods.

www.skinshop.co.uk/silver-serum?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=614519419&utm_term=clarol%20silver&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADRsyDZTGwtEuAVt7iq7Oy6JVF4GM&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrt2ckO-2iQMVFpVQBh34fBr3EAAYASAAEgKcavD_BwE