Fish Oil and Acne

[mkat83]

I've always had some acne my entire adult life, but it was never anything I couldn't deal with. A few years ago I began taking fish oil, and after a while it began to cause lots of acne. If I stopped the fish oil, the acne would clear up. It was easy to see the correlation. I mostly took Nordic Naturals liquid fish oil.

Everything I have looked into has said that fish oil usually helps improve acne rather than make it worse. I refuse to accept that this is "just how my body responds."

I know that I have digestion issues and have chronic constipation. I've done several colon cleanses and had two colonics. I'm still working on the chronic constipation, and thus far I can't achieve regularity without taking something such as cascara sagrada or oxy powder. I've recently started probiotics (capsules for now) and just started drinking kombucha. Just two weeks ago I did my first liver/gall bladder flush (nasty!).

I've recently started taking fermented cod liver oil. So far I think it is causing me to break out a bit, but not as much in the past.

I am looking for ideas on what else may be connected to this all. I have not investigated any types of allergies yet. Another interesting tidbit is that my husband also breaks out just as bad when he takes fish oil. That had made me wonder if it could be something in our diet.

Anyone have thoughts?

[deditus]

I would guess you are not breaking down the fats well. I would be doing some liver/gallbladder support like milk thistle and eating bitter greens like dandelions, as well as some nutrients to support fat digestion and skin healing. Look into zinc and B5, maybe biotin?

[mkat83]

Thanks deditus.  I actually just got some milk thistle this week and started taking it.  The more I've been reading the more I've felt like my liver really needs some attention and support.  I also just got a B complex supplement, although I'd like to get more nutrients from food sources.  Funny because I bought both things for other reasons, but I think they will both have multiple positive benefits.

As gross as it was to do, I'll probably be doing another gallbladder flush in a few more weeks.

The fermented CLO I'm taking now doesn't seem to be causing acne anywhere near what I have experienced in the past with other types of fish oil, so I'm not sure if it is a result of the fermented clo or something else.