Bruce and all,
I have included another article on the culpret behind acne.
As an aside, I recently ask a vet who specialized in cancer whether it was OK for a cancer patient to eat
refined sugar.
The specialist responded that eating
refined suger was fine for a cancer patient.
Note one of the articles in the this thread shown above states:
Sugar suppresses the immune system by causing the pancreas to secrete abnormally large quantities of insulin, which is required to break it down.
Another question I asked the specialist was whether radiation therapy could cause cancer. The specialist responded that radiation from the sun could cause cancer but radiation therapy would not cause cancer. By the way, the specialist was recommending radiation therapy as part of the treatment for my cat.
Quoting an article in from the
Harvard Medical Schools posted in the Cancer, Causes, risk reduction, potential cures topic:
Radiation therapy also can increase your risk of developing a second cancer.
This provides a couple examples why I believe it is vital to perform and understand research on health issues before anyone in your family (In my case, my cat Malissa, who contracted cancer through vaccinations which is a procedure I stopped having performed four years ago when I found that another of my cats, Snowball, also contracted cancer from vaccinations and died as a result.) does contract a serious illness.
These specialist might be myopic in their approach or perhaps even out to sell a procedure. In any event, I believe it is worthwhile to be informed (risk versus benefits for treatments and most of all risk reduction to possibly avoid the disease).
bob
http://news.yahoo.co.../acne_theory_dcFri, Dec 20, 2002
Western Culture May Be Culprit Behind Acne: Theory (excerpts)
By Jacqueline Stenson NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Calling into question the current medical belief that diet does not affect acne, a new report suggests that regularly eating breads, cakes, chips and other staples of Western culture may promote the skin condition.
Dr. Loren Cordain, a professor of health and exercise science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and colleagues arrived at their conclusion after studying two non-Westernized populations: the Kitavan Islanders of Papua New Guinea and the Ache hunter-gatherers of Paraguay.
In the December issue of the Archives of Dermatology (news - web sites), the study authors report that they found no evidence of acne among 1,200 Kitavan Islanders aged 10 or older, including 300 of them between 15 and 25.
They ate primarily fruit, fish, tubers and coconut but almost no cereals or refined sugars. The researchers also saw no acne among 115 Ache hunter-gatherers, including 15 aged 15 to 25. Their diet consisted mostly of the root vegetable sweet manioc, peanuts, maize and rice, as well as some wild game. About 8% of their diet was made up of Western foods such as pasta, sugar and bread.
Previous studies also have found that acne is rare or nonexistent in people living in non-industrialized cultures but tends to appear when they transition to a Western way of life, the report indicates. In Western cultures, studies have indicated that acne affects 79% to 95% of adolescents and persists into middle age in 12% of women and 3% of men.
While genetic factors are known to play a role in acne, the authors point out that other groups of Pacific Islanders and South American Indians who live in more Westernized settings have higher rates of acne.
So the investigators turned their focus to environmental differences that might contribute to acne.
The most likely environmental factor that can elicit the hormonal cascade underlying acne is dietary in nature," Cordain told Reuters Health. "High-glycemic-load carbohydrates have been demonstrated to cause the exact hormonal changes known to occur with acne." He said there is evidence to suggest that high-glycemic carbohydrates--those that substantially boost blood sugar levels--"set off a series of hormonal changes known to underlie the development of acne."
Elevated blood sugar leads to increases in insulin production, Cordain explained. This affects other hormones that ultimately can cause excess oil in the skin to be produced, pores to be clogged and bacteria that cause acne to thrive, he said.
High-glycemic foods include cereals, bagels and other breads, doughnuts and cakes, crackers, chips and candy. Low-glycemic diets, including plenty of fruits and vegetables, might offer a new treatment option for people with acne, Cordain suggested. SOURCE: Archives of Dermatology 2002;138:1584-1592