Question
I have been a vegetarian my whole life and eat only natural and organic foods and do my best to drink 8 glasses of water daily. I rarely eat dairy, and when I do it’s either yogurt or occasionally cheese during a holiday. I recently started going to the gym, an hour a day on the treadmill. I take a shower and wash my face and body as soon as I get home. I only use shampoo and a root volumizing spray for my hair. I also use a daily face moisturizer that is organic and has excellent ingredients such as jojoba oil. I put on BareMinerals foundation (powder)a few times a week at most, but only after my skin has some blemishes. I’ve had clear skin my whole life, but these past few months (before I started working out), my skin has been breaking out horribly. I have extremely sensitive skin that is occasionally dry. I feel as though I lead a healthy lifestyle and I treat my skin well, so I feel helpless and that there is nothing I can do. Do you have any advice or guesses as to why my skin is randomly breaking out?
Thank you very much!
Answer
Many Thanks for your email. I gather from your question that your problems started after you started ‘working out’. However I am not quite sure what you mean by ‘breaking out’- are you getting acne spots or an allergic rash? Without the benefit of knowing your full history (age/sex/ medications etc etc), it would be a bit premature for me to speculate as to what is going on. Moreover it would greatly help if you could upload some pictures. Certainly any skin product whether organic/ natural/ mineral or synthetic, can cause allergic skin rashes. You might find the following link/answers regarding cosmetics and acne helpful http://onlineskinspecialist.wordpress.com/category/acne/
If you can upload your details and some good quality photos on https://www.onlineskinspecialist.com/user-registration.php , I can certainly help. The online case- sheet contains a set of questions, that would help me base my diagnosis and treatment advice. So please do enter as many details as possible.
If you leave your phone number, I could call you once I have had a look at your case sheet and pictures. My website www.onlineskinspecialist.com should give you all the information regarding fees. Please mail me if you have any problems navigating through the above links. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards
Dr.Sasi Attili. MBBS, MRCP (London), CCT in Dermatology (UK)
Consultant Dermatologist