Are Your Whey Protein Supplements Causing Your Acne?

A recent study showed a relationship between whey protein supplements and acne. We’ve long held the notion that dairy products are not your friend if you tend to experience acne breakouts. Although the study (published in Cutis online) was small, the outcomes were very telling.

Milk is not always a body’s best friend

Diet does have an impact on acne formation and many individuals will take the time to try diet changes in an attempt to remove troublesome foods. Certainly dairy (which contains the whey) is a known problem for many teens. Another common troublemaker is processed wheat – think bread. The underlying bad boy in bread is most likely gluten, which can cause serious digestive ailments for those with sensitivity or intolerance to gluten.

Bread without gluten is available – you just have to look for it. Sprouted grain bread has no gluten naturally, so that’s an option to try. (But read the label, even with most sprouted grain bread, you will see gluten added.) Once you find one that is gluten free, try substituting it for all bread/flour products for a couple of weeks and see if your acne improves.

Another culprit – Sugar

Sugar overload is another problem. Sugar in general is not good for you, but it’s in so many every day products it’s hard to avoid. Sugar will “feed” the bacteria in your skin and “help” it multiply. So, if your skin is out of control, take more control over the amount of sugar – or corn syrup – that you take in.

Typical acne that seems to have no dietary relationship still needs control. A good topical program can make great headway toward clear skin and we advise any acne sufferer to take some kind of action.

Waiting to “outgrow” acne simply makes your life miserable and sets the stage for scarring.

Newer acne lasers help you get a fast jump start on reducing acne and we’ve had great success at our Irvine Cosmetic Dermatology Clinic with the Isolaz laser. Isolaz vacuums the pores to remove existing debris and oils that feed bacteria and medical light kills present bacteria.