Re: Dry Skin/This might come as a surprise...

This may come as a surprise to most of you, but I have stumbled upon something quite shocking about dry skin, acne, and eyesight! Before I tell you, I'd like to give you a bit of background about my history, so that you do not consider this all to be conjecture. As some may know, I have posted before about the benefits I have had with supplements especially vitamin E for my acne. Well, despite my Acne issues, I have for at least the past 30 years suffered from excessively dry skin, to the point of causing occassional sores like a web on my legs that burned when I would bathe. My Acne tended to be large bumps that were painful to touch and would often not come to a head, but would leave an unsightly scar when they did go away. I have tried nearly everything for my skin but Antibiotics and Accutane. Obviously, to no avail. Until now!

So what is my big secret, and the cure to my skin problems? Calcium! I know, too simple, impossible. That is what I kept thinking despite all my research. Everything I investigated said I should up my Calcium but I have believed that it was all hype. I mean, it was all about my bones and teeth, not about my skin anyway. In fact, nothing told me that calcium would be the solution to everything I was experiencing. And up until a few months ago when I cut out all dairy products due to allergy, I know I was getting plenty of calcium, so what made the difference? Well, to sum it up it was using calcium in a healed intestinal tract.

For most of my life, I have suffered from gluten-intolerance. The damage apparently interfered not only with my absorption of calcium, but with my absorption of Magnesium. Here, I have to propose a hypothesis. Everyone knows that vitamin D is suppose to help the body absorb calcium, and more recently information is being spread about how magnesium helps to absorb calcium. Well, it is my theory, that D and Mg help calcium absorption, but in different ways and for different body parts. Okay, both D and Mg help with bone formation, but other tissues really need calcium too, like the skin, the eyes, and the sex organs to name a few. For these areas, I believe that Mg plays the biggest role. However, if there is damage to the intestinal tract, particularly the small intestine, Mg absorption is all but stopped. So transporting cal to those soft tissues also becomes spotty.

How did I finally figure out that my calcium levels was the big factor? Well, it was a convoluted case of trial and error. First off, I noticed more and more that citrus fruits and tomatoes caused me to really breakout, as did vitamin C supplements. Then when I started the gluten-free diet, I also started supplementing Mg since I knew that I would have been low in it. However, I was also doing Liver Flushes which tend to give the body an extra boost of Mg. My body skin became drier and drier, and my Acne was becoming more and more resistant to just going away. My supplements were improving my vision, but it was remaining just outside of normal. Then in my research on minerals and vitamin C I began to realize the C was the key. Not in helping me, but in identifying which vitamin or mineral I was missing. One thing was for sure, whatever it was, it didn't get along too well with large doses of C. I soon discovered that a few minerals including copper and calcium are depleted by excess C. I was very hesitant to meddle with my copper, as I found a deficiency of it to be unlikely, and also discounted the likelihood of it being biounavailable in me considering my supplementation over the previous year.

So that left calcium. A couple of key notes about calcium. 1) cal is an important alkalizer in the body. So if acid foods and drinks affect you, it can help to balance things a bit. 2) cal tends to be a big cell regulator in the body along with Mg and it allows cells to move their contents across the cell wall. Now how all of this affects dryness and acne, I can't say, but I do know that within 3 days of upping my calcium to 1000mg and temporarily dropping my Mg to allow some build up, my inflamed pimples completely disappeared. Okay, some left a mark, but all of the inflammation, redness and pain were gone. My dry skin, for the first time in my life, glowed! Dry flakes rapidly fell away, and now my skin looks like I've been to a spa for a week. I could step out of the shower and forget to use lotion, and not have any problems(of course my years of dry trauma would never permit it).

Sorry if this is too much detail, but I believe it is important to thoroughly explain a new idea for treatment so others can decide if it is logical for them. And my vision? Well, today I was able to renew my license, bare eyes. Restrictions: NONE!

Good luck everyone

P.S. If you are going to use E I would strongly suggest supplementing it orally, 400 IU a day, if you have no contraindications for it. It helps with the oxidation of the poly oils used for cooking and in most prepared foods, even in natural stores, as well as for any supplementation of fish, flax, borage, and evening primrose oils.