Comments on: Acne Gone Thanks to Self-Experimentation

by: Mark Jayson

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:10:25 +0000

Water is one of the powerful solvent in earth. did’nt you ever notice that God created us in NATURE way.meaning to say like adam and eve way back long time ago,they don’t use soaps,they just use water for cleansing.

by: seth

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:15:54 +0000

thanks, Dennis, a fascinating study about refrigeration.

by: Dennis Mangan

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:04:04 +0000

Seth, wasn’t sure where to post this, but you’d find it interesting I think. It supports the dirt hypothesis. PMID: 19177167

“Crohn’s disease and early exposure to domestic refrigeration.

BACKGROUND: Environmental risk factors playing a causative role in Crohn’s Disease (CD) remain largely unknown. Recently, it has been suggested that refrigerated food could be involved in disease development. We thus conducted a pilot case control study to explore the association of CD with the exposure to domestic refrigeration in childhood.

CONCLUSION: This study supports the opinion that CD is associated with exposure to domestic refrigeration, among other household factors, during childhood.”

Also, this http://www.pnas.org/content/105/43/16413.long “Therapeutic correction of bacterial dysbiosis discovered by molecular techniques” states that “Molecular analysis of fecal and mucosal samples have increased culture-based estimates of 200–300 individual colonic bacterial species to as high as 1,800 genera and 15,000–36,000 species (7). “

by: Janet R

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:05:44 +0000

Actually, standard advice is to never use soap, never use bar cleansers of any type because solids leave behind residue that is hard to wash off that irritates the skin, and to not use any type of cleanser more than 2 times per day because it dries. Instead, the recommendation is to use a gentle liquid cleanser such as Clean and Clear, Cetaphil, Suave’s facial cleanser, or a few similar ones, as simple as possible, no additives and clear in color if possible, and never anything that tingles because that means the skin is being irritated. See Paula Begoun’s book.

I got rid of my acne based on clinical trial results. Initially I was using benzaclin, a prescription cream that is a mixture of antibiotics and 5% benzoyl peroxide. It worked well but I read the package insert and noticed that the t was barely significant between the prescription and just plain 5% benzoyl peroxide, so I started using just plain 5% bp and that was equally effective, though slightly more effective because it was cheaper by an order of magnitude so I felt okay using lots of it. I buy it for $2 a tube online, versus $20 as my prescription copay.

There was a self-experimentation aspect, in that I started using the benzaclin in large amounts because I noticed it was close to the end of its effectiveness date and I wanted to use it up, and it was more effective that way. Turns out that using a lot of b.p. is a common way to get rid of acne, as a guy who owns acne.org turns out to have also “discovered” the same thing.

by: seth

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:56:21 +0000

Walter, that’s an interesting possibility. The usual explanation is that washing your face with soap washes away oils that are then generated in too-large amounts to try to make the face oily again.

by: Walter

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:42:43 +0000

Seth,

Could the washing with soap be changing the ratio types of bacteria so that the acne bacteria runs amok? Sort of like the inverse of your fermented food idea.

Walter

by: Seth’s blog » Blog Archive » Acne Self-Experimentation: Why It’s Promising

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:29:54 +0000

[…] Acne Gone Thanks to Self-Experimentation […]

by: Seth’s blog » Blog Archive » The Pashler-Roberts Law: Expense versus Honesty

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:11:36 +0000

[…] Acne Gone Thanks to Self-Experimentation […]

by: Cord

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:19:14 +0000

Self-experimentation is the only way to deal with acne, IMO. All the standard advice (wash more, it’ll go away when you’re older, use acne cream, don’t pick at it!) is totally useless. I discovered long ago that I did better by not using soap on my face. And later, I used the RPAH elimination diet to experiment until I pinned down the remaining causes of my acne: wheat and chocolate. My face has been wonderfully clear for a couple of years now, except the two or three times I have been lured into eating baked goods over the holidays. But talking with other people who’ve eliminated their own acne… not everyone’s acne is caused by the same things. So since there’s no uniform cause, it’s a cinch there’s no uniform cure either.

by: Jeremy

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:38:27 +0000

Seth, as with so much else in life, there’s often a tradeoff between how sure an experimenter wants to be and how much effort and resources the experimenter is willing to commit to that certainty. The method I presented was merely an answer to Mickey’s desire to rule out the influence of confounding factors with only one research subject, at the expense of simplicity for that subject’s experience.

I’d be impressed if anyone has a method that works for undisciplined self-experimenters who are neither prone to the organization to randomize and record their washing habits or routine to stick to either method for any length of time.