In doing research for the new website, I ended up at the American Academy of Dermatology’s Acne website. Right on their home page, this article caught my eye:

“Food Does NOT Cause Acne”

(They did the “NOT” just like that.)

So I read it.

It baffles my mind that a group of dermatologists can take a negative stance on positive research.
If they must say that more research needs to be done to prove anything, they could at least highlight the positive aspects of the research, (because there were no negative aspects of the research) and encourage a healthy diet, since it was found to reduce acne by 50%. If there is a chance of reducing your or your child’s acne by 50% without drugs of any kind, shouldn’t they be happy to say so?
Shouldn’t they?

Probably.

“Over three out of every four Americans now have vitamin D levels below what we believe is necessary for optimal health. African-Americans and Hispanics are at particularly high risk — nearly all have suboptimal levels.”

Dr. Adit Ginde, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. Read article.

You could be vitamin D deficient if you:

1. Rarely go out in the sun
2. Always wear makeup and/or sunscreen on all exposed areas when outdoors
3. Do not take a multivitamin
4. Do not take a vitamin D supplement
5. Do not eat a vitamin d-rich diet (oily fish, fish, liver, egg yolks, and so forth)
6. Have dark skin and do not live near the equator
7. Are older than 60 and live in a high latitude or deliberately avoid the sun

Risk Factors for Vitamin D Deficiency

1. Age. The older you are, the harder it is for your body to make vitamin D from sunlight.
2. Lifestyle. the more time you spend indoors during the daylight hours, the less opportunity you have to make vitamin D.
3. Geographical location. If you live in a place with relatively long wingers, you get less sun over the course of the year because the sunlight isn’t strong enough to make vitamin D in the winter.
4. Race. People with very dark skin, especially those of African descent, find it difficult to make vitamin D from limited sunlight (their ancestors evolved in a part of the world where sunshine was available year round).
5. Culture. Certain cultures require that their women cover themselves entirely in heavy clothing that blocks out the sun.

Taken from: The UV Advantage: The Medical Breakthrough that Shows How to Harness the Power of the Sun for Your Health

Here’s three easy ways to get yourself and your family tested for vitamin d deficiency >

The following is an update on Katelyn & Zoe Bachman, whose lives are sustained by daily blue light treatments.

Dear Friends & Family,

We want to give you an update on Katelyn and Zoe.  For those of you who haven’t heard, we just returned from a week in Pittsburgh.  Katelyn and Zoe had their 4 day hospital evaluations and are now on the National Transplant List.  Katelyn will hopefully receive her liver transplant within 6 to 8 months.  Zoe will wait until she is 2 or 3 years old.

The Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh is the leader in liver transplants with a 98% survival rate.  Nation-wide the survival rate is 91%.  They have a wonderful team of doctors and nurses who have experience with Criggler-Najjar patients.  Since the girls are the only Texans with this condition, we have had to become experts on our own.  It was nice to be able to say the name of the condition and not have to explain it.  Over the past 6 years we have dealt with countless doctors who have never heard of this condition.  What a blessing to be in good hands and NOT be the experts!

When a liver becomes available we will only have a matter of hours to get Katelyn to Pittsburgh.  We are in the process of looking for corporations who could possibly provide a private jet when the time comes.  We were told that 95% of the time a commercial flight will not work.  We plan to have some bags already packed so that we are prepared.

After the transplant Katelyn will be in the hospital for about 2 weeks.  She will then be released to the Pittsburgh area.  She will have blood work and appointments almost daily to watch her progress.  In total, we will end up living in Pittsburgh for 2 to 3 months before coming home.

For now we are glad to be back in sunny South Texas where it’s nice and warm!  We want to thank you for your prayers and support.  We will keep you updated as we continue this process.  If you would like to see pictures of our trip you can go to www.KatelynsLight.com and click on the “Update” tab.

Love,
Jeff & Tammy

The Bachman Family

Jeff Tammy Shannon Katelyn Caleb Zoe

www.KatelynsLight.com

In doing more research on acne and diet, I came across another article last night on WebMD. It’s title: “Is Acne Fed by the Western Diet?”

The article focused on the research done by Dr. Loren Cordain, PhD, at Colorado State University. Her study, “Acne Vulgaris -A Disease of Western Civilization”, publsied in the December 2002 Archives of Dermatology, nailed the diet > insulin > androgen > oil production > acne link that I was talking about in previous posts. (Yes, Acne IS related to Diet and Acne Cause, Acne Cure.)

Here’s what blew me away: The date on the article was 2002. To me, these people have isolated the cause of acne, and the cure. They published it for the world to know. Seven years ago. And doctors and dermatologists today are still telling their clients the cause is really unclear and there is no cure for acne? I was astonished. I kept asking myself things like, “Why were more studies not done immediately?” “Why does not every dermatologist know this and tell their patients?” “Why is this not common knowledge and common practice 7 years later??”

Then it dawned on me, and I hate to sound cynical, but I quit asking myself questions when I realized this:

There is no profit in selling someone a healthy diet and daylight. You can’t sell it and make a killing. You can’t sell a monthly subscription to it. You can’t charge an insurance company for it. You can’t keep them coming back. There is no money in it.

Certainly no one who profits from selling an acne treatment of any kind is going to tell you the cure. I will. Here it is: change what you eat and drink and spend more time outside.   If its your child who is suffering from the condition, change what the whole family eats and drinks. You can start right now.

How?  Here are some links to get you started:

The Teenage Anti-Acne Diet Booklet. The doctors who did the most recent study created this booklet to help parents implement a high protein, low GL diet for their teenagers.   It is an excellent publication, and it’s free.

The Schwarzbein Principle: The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy, and Feeling Younger

by Diana Schwarzbein, M.D and Nancy Deville.  This book explains food in relation to your hormone balance and provides practical ways to make the simple changes in diet and lifestyle.

The Easy GL Diet Handbook: Lose Weight with the Revolutionary Glycemic Load Program – A great little ‘quick-start’ guide to eating well.

There has been no formal research into the link between Vitamin D3 deficiency and acne vulgaris, but when they find it, I doubt it will be widely publicized, because Vitamin D3 is dirt cheap, too.  Please get your family’s Vitamin D3 levels tested, and start supplementing with 2000 IU Vitamin D3 daily unless you get regular sun exposure without sunscreen.

I am not a doctor or dermatologist or anything like that. I sell blue light therapy products to dermatologists, estheticians, and, more importantly, normal people like you. I’ve heard story after story of people who have had acne for years, “tried everything,” and blue light was their last hope. The most painful of these stories to me were those of parents trying anything to help their teenager or preteen. Gratefully, blue light was successful for most of them. But there were those with severe cases for whom it did not work. I wondered why blue light did not work in every case, and I wondered what else could be done to help these people.

Here’s the questions I asked myself, and the answers I found. (These are generally accepted answers. Again, I am not a doctor.)

What causes acne vulgaris?

Clogged pores lead to infection and inflammation (inflammatory acne, or acne vulgaris.).

What causes clogged pores?

Too frequent and/or over production of oil in the oil glands of the skin.

What causes over production of oil?

Increased activity of the androgen hormone, a male sex hormone present in both women and men.

When I learned that the androgen hormone was responsible for oil production in the skin, I was struck by the idea that the cause of acne was hormonal.

I personally have had problems relating to my hormone balance. I’ve heard doctors tell me “there is nothing you can do to balance your hormones.” But as I turned to natural health alternatives, I learned there certainly are things you can do to balance your hormones, but they are just not as easy as popping a pill. (Too bad for all of us.) I learned that a key to hormone balance in the body is to get the insulin hormone under control. Insulin is directly related to what you eat, specifically sugar, and anything that turns right to sugar in your system, like processed grains. So I wondered,

Is there a connection between androgen, the hormone directly related to the cause of acne, and insulin, the hormone directly related to what you eat?

I found that there was. Here it is explained by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein:

“Acne results from the clogging and subsequent inflammation of oil glands. When androgen activity increases, the number and secretion of the oil glands of the body also increase. The higher the secretion of oil, the more likely it is that oil glands will become clogged, resulting in acne. Puberty and perimenopause are the two time periods when androgen activity increases. It used to be these times when women would complain of acne. Men generally experience acne only during puberty. But both women and men of all ages now complain of acne. The reason is that women and men are eating low-fat diets that are high in carbohydrates while also consuming stimulants. High carbohydrate consumption stimulates insulin production, and when insulin rises, androgens are increased beyond “normal” ranges. Stimulants exacerbate this while increasing insulin and adrenaline.”

The Schwarzbein Principle: The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy, and Feeling Younger
pp. 168, by Diana Schwarzbein, M.D and Nancy Deville.

A recent 2007 Australian study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has made the connection between acne vulgaris, androgen production, insulin levels, and diet. In the study, Professor Mann, along with Robyn Smith, PhD and Royal Melbourne Hospital, divided forty-three males, between the ages of 15 and 25, into two groups. One group was given foods with a low glycemic load, and the other group was fed a more “typical” teenage American diet, high in sugar and processed foods.

After 12 weeks, the boys in the high protein-low glycemic load group showed significantly reduced free androgen levels, and a 50% reduction of acne.

In non-westernized societies, acne does not exist. Although heredity and some other factors may play a part, acne is in most cases a result of the severe hormone imbalance brought about by our diet and lifestyle. After a year of research into the cause of acne, I am convinced that acne can in fact be ‘cured,’ and that a healthy diet and correcting any Vitamin D Deficiency are the two major keys to the “cure.”

I will still sell blue light as a 100% natural, effective acne treatment, but our new website (look for launch around April 2009), will highlight all the above information, and every order will include it. I hope it helps you eliminate the need for any acne ‘treatment’ at all.

Links for more info, book recommendations, etc.

Yes, Acne IS related to Diet

Is Acne a Symptom of Vitamin D Deficiency?

Three Easy Ways to Test for Vitamin D Deficiency

It appears that researchers in Utah have been studying the effect of blue light to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) also known as the ‘Winter Blues’. We’ve been reading a lot lately about research into using blue light to regulate the body’s internal time clock, or its circadian rhythm, so this actually makes a lot of sense. If blue light can help keep people awake by tricking the body into thinking its still daytime, it doesn’t come as a shock that the body would respond in kind by producing the chemicals it needs to stay in balance. We look forward to seeing if this is indeed the case as research continues.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1153354/Health-news-How-blue-light-helps-SAD-eating-sausages-good-you.html