I was just wondering if anyone else noticed an improvment in their skin after going veg. I did the last time I did it, and after just three weeks my skin looks freaking amazing! Does anyone know why this is?
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I was just wondering if anyone else noticed an improvment in their skin after going veg. I did the last time I did it, and after just three weeks my skin looks freaking amazing! Does anyone know why this is?
Cow milk is very bad for human skin! ;) So, I suspect, are all the hormones injected into animal "foods". Breakouts are mostly hormonal, and getting rid of all that crap from your diet should help in all but the most stubborn cases of skin problems.
I had a terrible breakout after quitting dairy- loads of zits like iv not had since teenage years! Its alot better now though. I used witch hazel to clear it up.
My skin looked much better.
I agree with seaside - acne is hormonal, despite how dermatologists seem to think it can be cured by antibiotics and topical ointments. That treats symptoms, not the cause.
Dairy is loaded with hormones, so cutting that out helps. It also irritates a lot of peoples intestines, so that vitamins and minerals are not properly absorbed.
My skin is not any better since going vegan more than a year ago. But, it wasn't terrible before, either. But, I figure that since it takes seven years for all your body's cells renew, I need to be patient. :)
I developed adult acne a couple of years ago and had to resort to a topical solution from the doctor as I was getting really big sore spots that wouldn't go away. I've been vegan two months and stopped using the solution just over a week ago, I did have a few tiny pimples last week (woman's time) but so far my skin looks fine. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too soon but it would be great if my skin had settled again.
I always had nice skin, but I didn't really eat the typical "SAD" diet growing up. But once I went vegan, my skin looked even nicer.
I am getting pimples now, though. I really don't know why. Stress?
One of my miracles of going vegan is that my eczema is now gone. I had hand eczema which is the red blister variety and it would also show up in random other spots. My face looks so amazing now. I don't even get the PMS breakouts at all and I have had them my whole life.
Sheila
I try to watch my lysine intake and I believe that this has really helped my skin. I figured this out because when I would get a cold sore I would take two lysine tablets, then the next day my blackheads would be smaller "grey" heads. Hehe.
Sheila,
I have just found out that I have eczema. I actually realized this because my skin is clearing up but these places are still there:p (doctor confirmed it).
Anyway, do you think you are doing anything in particular to be rid of your eczema?
The only thing that is working for me is tea tree oil about 5 times a day directly on the spot, but I would like to knock it out at the source.
Yes, definitely, Tigerlily. Increase your intake of B vitamins to counteract this, as they are easily used up when you are under stress, and you may find that it helps your skin.Quote:
Tigerlily
Well what I was always told and I believe this is true that there is a link between my former severe sinus problems and the eczema. It turns out that I have a dairy allergy and when I quit eating cheese I could breath through my nose which I hadn't been able to do in about 15 years. My eczema could be related to that allergy since it went away at the same time.Quote:
Haniska
My brother has very bad eczema on his arms and has horrible sinus problems. My mother has sinus problems and no eczema. (They are both cheese eating fools)
Here's a link to web md about it though you may have already gone there:
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/61/67471.htm
Sheila
Thanks for the info Sheila! I do have terrible allergies but I think that they are mostly of the external variety. I remember when I was very sick and had hawked out all of the mucous in my throat (leaving it very dry) I would drink milk to get some more. Sorry to be so disgusting but it made sense to me at the time.
Unfortunately mine didn't improve :mad:, but then I've always had okay-ish skin, was vegetarian throughout puberty, and was never a heavy dairy consumer.
Never had acne, but never had good skin - quite a few spots, oily but a bit flakey - it was the thing that bothered me most when I was a teenager. Nothing seemed to make it any better (hygeine regime, diet, going on the pill - for other reasons, etc.). It hasn't vastly improved since I went vegan, but I think a combination of that and using Lush facial soaps has resulted in a bit of an improvement. I came off the pill a few months ago for vegan reasons and was expecting the worst, but so far so good :) .
Bugger! I spoke too soon, got up this morning with two, one's really sore so the topical solution's back out *tisk*
It's been about a month now that I have started to become a vegan. My milk intake is nill, bits of cheese here and there, and only tiny smatterings of meat on rare occasions, or when I am not in a position to make a fuss. I am making no claim that I am 100% vegan at the moment, but I am getting there and my eating habits are hardly recognizable from what they used to be.
Anyway, I have noticed issues with my skin. Specifically, I am finding patches of raised, dry skin, sometimes itchy skin resembling excema (sp?) on random parts of my body, but mostly on my arms, legs and chest. This happened earlier this year, and if memory serves me correctly, it was around when I had first attempted to go vegan and shifted my eating away from dairy, eggs, and meat.
Is it possible that the two are connected? Have I cut something out of my diet that might be causing this that I have not replaced? Is it a vitamin thing? an oil thing? or are my eating habbits completely unrelated and I should just go see a dermatologist?
It's hard to tell. It may be that it would have happened anyway. I have excema, and the things I worry about are omega 3 and zinc. It wouldn't do any harm to supplement your diet and see if you notice a difference. :)
You may find some helpful info on the excema thread
I had problems with dry skin and a little acne before I went vegan. When I went vegan my skin cleared up completely after a few months. I agree with Cherry, flax seems to be helpful for my skin and my hair. Most vegans eat flax for omega 3's, I eat 2 T of milled flax daily, I sprinkle it on food. Good luck on your veganism.
Hi,
has anyone experienced skin problems in the time of being vegan? I've gone from a veg to vegan diet about a month and a half and the problem I've endured is cracked skin at the corner of my lips. Also I've noticed small blisters near my nails, dry skin there and peels.
Has anyone had this sort of trouble?
I've searched through and found out it's due to lack of vitamin B2. So far I've counted avocado, nuts, oat, brown rice, whole grains, broccoli, leafy green vegetables, asparagus and molasses as sources. If anyone knows of other accessible sources, please add!
Also, I tend to purchase Veg1 multivitamin. Does anyone have any experience with it?
Hi Cheeky,
How is your iron intake? The cracked skin at the edges of your mouth could be due to low iron too. Make sure you do keep eating plenty of good green veg. and your right that molasses is an excellent source of iron and B vits. + calcium. Do you like yeast extract, that's a good source for B vitamins too.
It's Marmite, you can buy the Meridian brand which is the most ethical. It tastes pretty salty. We Brits often have it spread thinly on little fingers of toast for us as soon as our parents notice we have enough teeth to manage it! Some hate it but many love it. I do! It is packed with B vitamins.
ive been vegan for a month
and my skin use to be flawless i moved to texas which is way more humid but my skin has gotten worse
im hoping it is just getting worse before it gets better
any ideas on whats going on?
I've heard this can happen as a part of detox and should clear up soon. My skin is horrible and being vegan didn't help unfortunately.
I got something like this, except it was red, blistery, terribly itchy, and started about a month or two before I went vegan (I was completely omni then). Maybe it was triggered with the stress of moving to college and other physical factors (in my case). It stayed for a couple months, went dormant (many spots diminished, stopped itching), then suddenly recently it's flared up again and I'm really itchy and it's red again. The doctor didn't think it was eczema because of checking the inside elbow, but I've always had a red rash like this on my arms, since I was a baby.
are you in a sunnier climate than you used to be? Bight sunlight uses up visual purple in the eye which depletes...vitamin A I think...which plays a huge role in how good your skin is. So if you have recently got more sunny this could be making your skin bad. You can get what you need from orange-y fruits/veg, when I was in Malaysia I lived on papayas and carrot juice.
Ok did a little more research and visual purple is vitamin a, so it is worth trying to up your intake, carrots are good, as are:
sweet potatos
mangoes
spinach
cantaloupe
dried apricots
so orangy veg and dark leafy veg. I had the same problem and it took me about a week after my diet change for my skin to start clearing up. Hope it helps!
As for exfoliator the tendancy is to go for something too harsh, you skin is quite gentle and doesn't need scratching. for homemade stuff I like oatmeal, sea salt is often used but for me that is just to harsh. Sugar in olive oil is ok but a bit too oily for me.
Thank you for all the info on skin problems. I have been having horrible issues with my skin since going vegan. My rosacea is worse, I have horrible eczema on my hand and I am broken out like never before. I was hoping it was just a detoxing thing, but it's been several months and I was worried about being allergic to something I am now eating.
I turned vegan over five years ago, and my skin was the same as ever for quite some time. Then six months ago I developed eczema, and have just been diagnosed with rosacea. Don't think it is connected to my change in diet, and have tried cutting things out like yeast, but nothing has helped yet. Have also tried cutting down on my antibotics this last week, and as a result my face has been incredibly itchy and sore. Are there any herbal things out here to help? Am thinking about aromatherapy, if anyone else has had any luck.
i've been vegan for a year now, and lately my skin looks awful - blotchy with few spots. Idon't know what's changed! I eat loads of fruit and veg and am sure to get all my b12 and iron. i eat the occasional junk food and drink alcohol on weekends (but I always have).
any ideas?
I've noticed a big improvement in my skin since going vegan, it's much more even toned and less oily. I don't seem to get any spots either.
My skin has gotten worse since going vegan... it was pretty good before. But it's not related to veganism... I just haven't been washing my face as often.
My skin turned horrible. I used to get the odd spot more often than I'd like to but now I've got a nasty red cluster on my chin that's all patchy-rash like and general blahness. There are patches of really dry skin at the base of my thumbs and my face is pretty flaky too. I'm not enjoying this side effect at all. I eat loads of fruit and am not bad at looking after myself. Got a bottle of flax oil so hopefully that'll help but yeah, pretty demoralising stuff! I've been vegan for only a bit more than two months so it's pretty clear it's connected. Darn.
Yeah, correlation |= causation. For me personally, my skin on my face seems a little better, but still fluctuates a bit (the fluctuations I notice a bit more now, probably due to greater awareness of myself). I've had an itchy rash type thing on my arms, legs, and chest (since I was a baby, don't know when the itching kicked in exactly but I remember since I was 3 or 4). That has gone up and down the last 4-6 months, but got really bad about two to four months before I went vegan. If it had happened a bit later, I probably would've thought it was the diet (or the weather) that caused the dramatic shift in itchiness and visible appearance, except that correlation doesn't always mean causation, and requires a careful, as objective as possible analysis of all the factors that could plausibly tie into this.
I went to a GP about the rash and just got a cream without an endeavor to find out what was causing it (the cream didn't even work too well). Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to manage, and makes me unable to do anything productive in the hour or two after a shower, and going outside in the rain (ugh) it seeps through my pants and it's crazy! I am somewhat hesitant to bring up this concern at the next appointment, though, as it has already been implied (twice) that I am some sort of hypochondriac even though I expressed relief at negative test results rather than demanding a second opinion or some such...even to the point that they brought in a social worker and behavioral health specialist -twice- because apparently stress must be causing all my back and eye issues, even though I have scoliosis and migraines and I'm still not even sure if they put in a referral to a neurologist (the opthalmalogist was concerned about me rocking! :rolleyes:). If a small annular tear in L5 won't put me out, the stress of being told that it's just stress will. Gee, this is how they acted towards someone who is being reasonable with them; how do they manage to condescend towards those who truly have emotional and logical difficulties?
I'm not sure. I suppose you're right in that there's no way I can know whether it is or isn't, but there's a pretty significant change in a lot about my body since I became vegan, including energy levels and the such (in both extremes, due to what I was eating and this I know). My skin has never been like this before so it's pretty tough not to draw conclusions here. Don't get me wrong, it's not enough to put me off - but it doesn't mean I won't ignore it or assume the cause is probably dietary as that's the only thing that's changed.
The flax oil might help as a shortage of omega-3 oils can cause skin inflammation according to some people. I suppose if someone used to eat fish and stopped without substituting a vegetable source of these oils that could have a bad effect on their skin.
There are a few threads about omega-3 oils on the forum.
Other things can affect your skin, though, like if you start using different cosmetics, shampoos and so on, which people sometimes do when they go vegan. I had a nasty bout of dermatitis on my face a couple of years ago and assumed it was diet-related but it turned out to be toiletry-related :rolleyes:
I think my skin is much better now than pregan, it's clearer and feels healthier.
I have been vegan for just over 3 weeks now and I have noticed a big improvement in my skin.
I have read that skin replaces itself every 3 weeks so now would be the time to notice a difference. I did not have spots but I did have lots of little broken veins which are much better and my skin colour is much nicer loking, well I think so anyway.
My face is much less puffy as are my legs and ankles.