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Acne, Dairy and Soy: The Killer the Culprit and the Cure?
For those who haven’t heard my story, a huge part of how I ended up opening Butterfly Effect and getting into this business in general was that I had constant skin problems starting from my early teens. From oily skin to hormonal breakouts to funny little patches of eczema, it was always something, and despite spending plenty of my money (starting with my earnings from working at a bead store from ages 14-17) and buying everything from high-end skincare to special makeup that was recommended to me by countless department store ladies/makeup counters/infomercials/health food stores, nothing ever seemed to make an improvement. I was on and off birth control which (while I was on it for the fourth time) did seem to help, but overall it just made me a crazy person- many of my friends will vouch for this, bless them. I also started eating organic and using natural products.
At this point, I realized that you can’t take anything at face value, not what the sales people tell you and certainly not what a product’s packaging says- they want you to buy their product when you read its label. Then I found mineral makeup. When I started wearing i.d. bareMinerals (I now custom blend my own mineral makeup) around my junior year of college, my skin saw a HUGE improvement, and I knew there was something to this whole “natural thing”, that there was benefit in putting less on your skin rather than more, and certainly in putting less chemicals on your skin in general. I hate to say it, but other than my introduction to mineral makeup, the biggest improvements I’ve ever seen in my skin have come from my own research and using deduction to rule out triggers, NOT from salespeople or physicians. That’s why when I recommend skin care products to customers, I always ask lots of questions and encourage them to pay close attention to things like their diet, activity level, chemical/product exposure, and daily lifestyle when trying to determine the cause of a skin issue (very different from the approach of too many MDs: “Treat the symptoms. If they go away, what does it matter what the cause was?” Sorry if it seems harsh, but this has been my experience.) I’ve seen people with breakouts caused by cell phones, shampoo, skin cream, natural extracts, wheat, dairy, soy, chemicals, mineral oil, etc…all who went to the dermatologist, who simply wrote them a prescription. Breakouts aren’t always caused by what you think.
Part of my journey in dealing with breakout prone skin and switching to a more natural, organic diet has been cutting back on dairy, which in turn has resulted in my eating more soy (thank goodness for Purely Decadent soy ice cream- See? All my posts really do go together!). I noticed a significant difference in both the oiliness, and in the amount, size and severity of my breakouts when I cut back my dairy. I went from consuming probably 3-5 servings a day to 1-3. As I started eating more soy, the breakouts seemed to improve even further. When I went online to see if other people had had similar experiences, I was surprised to find lots of people on opposite sides- either switching from dairy to soy made their skin worse, or it improved it. There was little in between and I was having trouble finding a source to bridge the gap.
In his abstract “Pathogenesis of Acne”, Dr. Toyoda M. Morohashi (Japan) explains that “Acne results from hyperkeratinization and obstruction of the pilosebaceous follicles secondary to androgen-stimulated failure of normal desquamation of the follicular epithelium, androgen-stimulated sebum production, subsequent colonization of the follicles by Propionibacterium acnes and other organisms, and variably, inflammation.” Basically androgenic (male) hormones stimulate sebum production (the mix of oils and dead skin cells our skin produces), which prevents the normal process of the natural shedding of the outer layers of the skin and leads to hardening of those cells and blocking of the sebaceous follicles, leaving them prone to acne-causing bacteria and inflammation. This explains why traditional, over the counter acne remedies rely on exfoliation (salicylic acid) and anti-bacterial (benzoyl peroxide) action, or else hampering oil production all together (accutane). The key word in Dr. Morohashi’s explaination is ANDROGENS: a group of “steroid hormones that stimulate or control the development and maintenance of male characteristics”.
If androgens are a culprit behind acne, how are so many women (over 75% of girls age 16-18 experience acne) being exposed to them? It seems highly unlikely that such a substantial portion of the population would all suffer from an overproduction of the same hormone. More and more studies are pointing to milk and dairy.
In a talk at Harvard University, Ganmaa Davaasambee, “a Mongolia-trained medical doctor, a Japan-trained Ph.D in environmental health, a fellow [in 2006] at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and a working scientist in the Harvard School of Public Health,” discussed the link between cancer and dietary hormones, in particular the estrogenic hormones found in milk and dairy. “Among the routes of human exposure to estrogens, we are mostly concerned about cow’s milk, which contains considerable amounts of female sex hormones,” Ganmaa said. She also noted that dairy accounts for 60-80 percent of estrogens consumed. Where do all these hormones come from? In order for commercially bred cows to be most productive (for the nearly 300 days a year that they are milked!), they need to be kept pregnant. Those hormones that the cows produce are also in their milk, so when we drink that milk or eat dairy made from it, we are ingesting those hormones. While the high levels of estrogens in modern dairy may have a connection with cancer rates (the focus of Ganmaa’s study- which you can read about here), the same milk also contains androgens, progesterone (which breaks down into androgens), and androgen precursors. It’s the androgens (testosterone producing hormones) that are a trigger for acne, especially in women who are already biologically sensitive to male hormones.
Photo by Marijn van Braak
The level of hormones present in milk depends on how far along in the pregnancy the cow is. “Milk from the late stage of pregnancy contains up to 33 times more signature estrogen compound (estrone sulfate) than milk from a non-pregnant cow…” making “the milk we drink today quite unlike the milk our ancestors were drinking without apparent harm for 2,000 years.” Ganmaa isn’t declaring dairy itself a bad food, but she is questioning its safety when it’s produced using our modern techniques. “Milk is a food of great complexity, and contains high levels of beneficial nutrients, including calcium and vitamin D.” Even cows not treated with BGHs (bovine growth hormones) contain these hormones, because they’re still kept pregnant.
This would explain why many women experience improvement in their acne with the use of birth control- the estrogen hormones helps counterbalance the excess of testosterone/androgenic hormones. Unfortunately, this isn’t a cure, it’s just a band-aid.
In the experiences that people were sharing online, some people who tried switching from dairy to soy in an effort to improve their breakouts found that they were allergic to soy and that it actually made their breakouts much worse. Others found that switching to soy delivered an improvement- indicating not only that they may have been experiencing a dairy intolerance, but that the estrogenic compounds in the soy itself might be beneficial. Sheesh! The conclusion? While there may not be a definite answer, it’s relatively easy to use trial and error to find out if dairy and/or soy are behind your acne woes.
This would be my recommendation: If you currently consume dairy and soy, try cutting out only dairy for two weeks. You don’t even have to cut it all, just a significant amount; I just don’t want to give up my morning latte, but I’ve cut out all ice cream and yogurt, and most cheese. After two weeks, do you see any improvement? Then add it back and cut out soy for two weeks. What changes have you seen? I think many people will find right away that cutting out one or both of these food groups leads to improvement of acne symptoms. Note: many processed foods contain milk and soy ingredients, so if you eat a lot of those, be sure to check the ingredients labels to see if you’re getting dairy and soy in unexpected places. If you couldn’t see an improvement being either dairy-free or soy-free, then you have to try cutting out both.
For me, the experience of experimenting with my diet was well, WELL worth it. I learned that while I need to avoid dairy in excess, I can have a little, and soy (perhaps it’s the additional estrogenic compounds) seems to help, rather than hurt my situation. It’s also just another example of how where our food comes from and how it’s produced is just important, if not more so, than the food itself.
Have you had any skin revelations? Do you have experience dealing with dairy or soy reactions? Please share!
Resources:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.07/11-dairy.html
http://dermatology.cdlib.org/124/original/acne/danby.html#2
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11479771?dopt=Abstract
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desquamation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835434,00.html
Shayna Teicher
After nearly three years managing a bath and beauty boutique, Shayna decided to go out on her own and open Butterfly Effect, a holistic, eco-conscious beauty boutique located in Sarasota, Florida. Our very own “Beauty Chick”, read Shayna’s other intriguing articles and product reviews here.
Modern Hippie Mag is an online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living and environmental sustainability. Where it's hip to BE.
I cant have soy at all. Maybe a little fermented soy (tempeh, miso) but no soy milk, tofu, soy bean oil, etc. I am estrogen dominant and that does more harm than good. What has helped my acne was taking N-Acetyl-Cystenine which is an amino acid with vitamin C (you have to take it together). That has made the biggest improvement on my skin.
Hi Carla! That's great that you found something that is working for you. In follow up to both your comment and the article, it's definitely important to see a physician if you experience moderate to severe acne and multiple routes of treatment have failed to produce improvement. I'm not a doctor, but I firmly believe that (with very few exceptions) acne doesn't just come out of nowhere- it always has a cause, whether it is stress, hormones, diet etc. Better to identify the cause than to simply keep throwing chemicals and products at the problem.
PCOS- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, used to be overlooked often by doctors (although it is now starting to be more widely recognized). PCOS also tends to cause elevated androgen levels (there are those male hormones again)- this leads to the symptomsof of excessively oily skin and acne as well as abnormal hair growth ("happy trails" are for dudes, not women!) and sometimes pattern hair loss. Other symptoms include difficulty controlling weight, weight gain, irregular or fewer periods, dandruff. Also, untreated, PCOS can lead to infertility, insulin resistance, and increased blood pressure (among others). If you have even just a couple of these symptoms, it's important to rule out PCOS as a cause as it thought to affect 5-10% of women (and I wonder if this disturbingly high percentage is related to the hormones in our meat and dairy!)
Often, birth control pills mitigate or mask the symptoms so many women don't experience symptoms until after adolescence when they are off the pill.
Knowing that acne can be caused by either estrogen dominance OR excess androgens is a big step in being able to discern what might be the underlying cause.
http://www.medicinenet.com/polycystic_ovary/artic…
Thank you for sharing your experience!
Hey Carla! I'm estrogen dominant too! Wish I'd known that before I completely switched to soy a couple years ago. I seriously think it was the increased soy in my diet that contributed to fibroid cysts that grew to almost the size of a grapefruit! Since then I seriously limit my intake of soy and have replaced cow's milk with organic goat milk and have seen that my eczema has drastically improved!
I had a lot of ovarian cysts when I my soy intake was high. It wasn't just the PCOS, but larger cysts as well. Since I've taken it out of my diet, I haven't had any issues.
I'm toying with the notion that perhaps my coffee intake might be affecting cyst growth as well. I don't drink a lot of it, maybe two cups a day…we'll see.
question:
are the estrogens good for men too? or they will have hormonic imbalances ?
Hi Rose- That's a great question! Certainly, it's as important for men as for women to avoid foods and products that may affect hormones or cause a hormonal imbalance. The give you a short answer, my research has indicated that, overall, soy is safe for men and women and actually offers more health benefits than risks. Regardless of what you read anywhere (safe vs. not safe), the most important thing is to always listen to what your body is telling you. Even if "everyone" says it's safe, if a guy is consuming soy/soy-containing foods on a regular basis and experiencing anything that seems symptomatic (by which I mean, out of the ordinary) with his body or emotions, it's an easy thing to cut out the soy and see if it helps. Soy allergies can effect anyone. Same for dairy, or any other food group the person consumes on a regular basis.
My dad is fond of the saying (which his uncle, who was a doctor used to tell him) "Everything is moderation". I truly believe this is key. Too much of anything, vitamins, minerals,, red meat, fat, soy is usually a bad thing just as not enough can also be. Iron is a great example- too little leads to anemia, fatigue and a host of health problems, too much causes toxicity and can endanger your life! Moderation is key.
Despite some reports that the mildly estrogenic compounds in soy might negatively effect men, the overwhelming consensus currently seems to be that they are not only safe, but offer more benefit in many difference aspects of health than risks.
One study from the Harvard School of Public Health found a possible correlation between men soy consumption in men and decreased sperm count-but NOT in the motility or morphology of the sperm. But that same article also states that the researchers don't believe their observations are enough evidence to indicate that soy is bad for men. Here is an excerpt:
Lead investigator Jorge Chavarro, MD, a research fellow in the department of nutrition: “I don't think we should tell people to avoid soy. The available evidence is not strong enough to recommend avoiding soy for fertility reasons. On the other hand, it seems to have important cardioprotective effects. However, if a man is obese and also has fertility problems and happens to consume high amounts of soy foods, then it might be a good idea to advise him to reduce his soy food intake.”The same study, however, also Studies that explore specific effects, like sperm count [end of excerpt]
There are tons of articles out there both explaining that soy has been found to be safe for men as well as ones spreading fear that soy is as dangerous as a drug! It's important to consider when you come upon these sources what their agenda is. Just as I would think twice before believing a source whose sole goal is to tell everyone how dangerous soy is, I would likewise not give 100% trust to a website dedicated solely to promoting soy. Look for articles by respected medical professionals (like Dr. Andrew Weil-article on soy below) or actual studies. All in all, I believe that the evidence supports that soy not only safe for men, but offers more potential health benefit than risks. Specific instances (like, a couple trying to get pregnant, for example) should be addressed on an individual basis and with a holistic perspective, the goal of which is to identify potential underlying problems and determine the best solution for the individual.
A few articles: http://www.renalandurologynews.com/eating-soy-may… http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400308/is-soy-milk… http://www.npicenter.com/anm/templates/newsATemp….
I hope you find this helpful and thank you so much for your question and participation in the ModernHippie community.
When I gave up eating dairy products, I experienced significant clearing of my skin. I didn't notice a difference with or without soy products in my diet. But I am trying to eat less soy overall, so thank goodness for the new Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream. It's incredible!
Hi Manju- I can't wait to try the Purely Decadent Coconut Milk ice cream. What's your favorite flavor? Maybe I can start with that one when I do a review.
Just as there are many benefits of soy, there are also many associated with coconut! Not that it means that soy/coconut ice cream is a "health" food, but it's certainly far better than traditional dairy ice cream. 
A girl can dream though!
I just bought the chocolate peanut butter coconut milk one the other night- it was delicious!
I had many of the same skin problems! Still have them sometimes…I have been through all the trials and tribulations, too. But when I went Vegan, my skin cleared up a ton! Occasionally, my skin flares up (like now) and I continually attempt to determine it's root cause.
THANK YOU for ALL that you do!
A couple years ago I gave up dairy, wheat, caffeine, sugar, beef, and chocolate to see if any of these were causing my joint pain. I felt great for the whole nine months that I did it! But of course the one time I went back to sweets it all came crashing down!
Of course I still don't do dairy, and beef maybe every couple months. Joint pain is virtually gone so I think it was the wheat (gluten).
I know for certain that diary is a contributing factor with my eczema flare ups!
A few years ago I gave up gluten, sugar, soy and it made a huge difference for me. I did develop an adult onset of eczema (at age 30!) and after giving up eggs, dairy, on top of what I already gave up, I realized that my eczema is stress related. Stress is harder to give up than certain foods!
Honey, I got a serious case of adult acne at 39! No fun at all! Definite hormone and diet issues I think! And I TOTALLY agree with you that stress can wreck havoc on your body…just another thing for me to work on, LOL!
Thank you for sharing your experience with us! I know how hard it is to be always searching for the solution and I'm so glad that switching to vegan helped you (I bet the dairy was a big part of that). You're always welcome to e-mail me if you are interested in looking further into what might be effecting your skin- sometimes we just need an outside perspective to help identify the culprit.
I too have cut back on my dairy intake. I have sensitive skin and always have but growing up i always had this strange rash on my cheeks right above my jawline, this did go away when i lowered my dairy intake. While I am a total cheese monger and cannot give that up I have happily been able to replace cow-milk cheeses with sheep or goats milk cheeses and other varieties of "stinky" cheeses which have less hormones and have been through less processing. I mean, how bad is it that we have become good friends with goat farmers who make awesome cheeses? A little strange considering that we live in Brooklyn!
However I have been testing different milk like products over the past couple of years and have to give two very enthusiastic thumbs up to the brand So Delicious, they make coconut milk that is intended to be a milk substitute (not the stuff from that can that is used for cooking). It's awesome and i can't get enough of it. I love it because i find it creamier than almond or rice milk (not a soy fan either). I also cut out adding sugar to things like coffee and tea a few years ago so the sweetness from the coconut milk makes my morning coffee completely delightful.
Hi! An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!
Hey, I’ve been asked to avoid grease , sugar, proteins, salt, wheat and sour foods to cure acne. I have tried every med (birth control pills, antibiotics, accutane) and they all gave temporary relief. I have PCOS and all, yes ALL the symptoms of it. My hormonal tests always come out normal. Will adding soy to my diet improve my condition? Since it has plant oestrogen?