Me and my daughter have been doin the Atkins Induction, by the book, for the last 2 weeks.. We will remain in induction for a couple more weeks, as we both had more than 30 lbs to loose... OK, so that being said... My girl has always had Rosacea on her upper arms and her cheeks... She has been self consicous about it but had learned to live with it... I have seen commercials for expensive creams and lazers to get rid of it, but we are poor, with no ins. so we have just lived with it!!!

IT IS GONE!!!! All the redness, and tightness and the rashy bumps are GONE!!!!! That is proof enough for me that this is the way we must be designed to eat.. Her skin is beautiful!! Smooth and soft!! I had noticed some differences in my skin over the last week or so, but nothing this significant!!! I am amazed!!!

That is just incredible. Sounds more like a God-Thingy to me. Amen. Eating healthy has endless benefits that we just even fathom. Thanks for sharing!

Thats awesome!! Her self esteem must be rising also since she is loosing weight and clearing up her skin! Good for both of you!!!!!!!

I think it's a miracle, but not a big miracle (no scientific explanation), but a small miracle (falls in line with known science, but isn't it amazing how something as complex as the human body works.)

The main reason I began seriously considering a low-carb diet (and stopped assuming it's an inherently unhealthy WOE), is the number of times I came across recommendation of low-carb or low-grain diets as a treatment for inflammatory and autoimmune disease.

When I started reading books on the various different conditions I have, and the recommendation for low-carb cropped up in all of them, I started to wonder if maybe there was a common thread in all of my issuse - high grain/high carb eating. I thought "what could it hurt" to give low-carb a shot and see if I saw any improvement.

I was skeptical, but I thought if I could see even a small improvement, I'd be happy. Surprisingly most of my health issues have responded positively to carb reduction. Even though I haven't had much success in going as low-carb or low-grain as I really need to, the improvements have been amazing. To the point that I'm hoping for a complete remission of all of my health issues if I completely eliminated grains and short-chain carbohydrates (sugars and foods easily broken down into sugars) from my diet altoghether.

The health issues that have improved dramatically.

Rosacea - I'm chronically bright pink 24/7 when I eat sugar. If I eat a candybar, I will turn a bright fuchsia within 30 minutes. My skin is been entirely bump free, as long as I keep my carb level under about 100g. Any higher carb intake and I start to get inflammation - to the point that my skin will look like a red orange (the skin swells around the pores, making it look like the skin of an orange). I'm starting to get spider veins around my nose - it's looking like I'm on the verge of Stage II rosacea. I want to preven that - because it's the stage that scarring and permanent damage from the rosacea occurs.

Seborrheic dermatitis (it's believed to be caused by an overgrowth of yeast called malassezia). It gets so bad on my face that it will create open sores that weep and crust over, itching and burning like a (very bad swear word).

Hubby calls this face rot, and while I can't always prevent the flakiness, I haven't had a severe flare since I've been reducing carbs. Even the mild flares seem to be in response to carbs. I can't eat bread at all, and other wheat products seem to have a cumulative effect. If I eat bread, or a couple days of other wheat my skin will break out in both rosacea redness and seb derm flaky, burny, itchiness.

Fibromyalgia - eating sugar is the fastest way to get me into a full flare with severe brain fog (I feel like I'm falling asleep all day, and just can't wake up). Eating low-carb I feel like I have my old brain and body back.

Osteo Arthritis - My hand joints have stopped hurting almost altoghether, and my knees are also feeling so much better that I'm able to
walk a lot more for exercise.



Connective tissue/vasculitis autoimmune disease
attacking connective tissue and blood vessels of my lungs, sinuses, skin, and joints - Seems to be in remission, though I will get symptoms if I go back to high-carb eating for any extended period of time (around Christmas time I had a flare of symptoms after visiting with my parents for a week, and overindulging in my mother's homemade cookies and caramels).

I think it is a scientific miracle. Lots of people have food intolerances that are not termed classic "allergy" (as in hives, and anaphylaxis) but may have a significant impact on health. My daughter used to get vulvar inflammation as a baby whenever exposed to corn starch in her diet, and significant redness on her face and ears with wheat. She "seemed" to outgrow it, but I have been trying to convince her (without success) to try giving those foods up since she has developed significant reflux disease.
I am not at all surprised that going low carb and giving up grains has helped chronic intolerances of lots of people.

wow - its brilliant to hear there are so many positives to this WOE!!!

Wow Kaplods!!! I was excited for my daughter's arms, but now I am even more excited for you!!!! You should lower your carb level to the induction stage and see if your aliments improve even more!!.. We have only been on induction for a couple of weeks and I am so impressed with what is happening to her and I that I will never let the DEVIL SUGAR creep into our lives again!!!

The last time I did the Atkins diet I was too young(27) to really appreciate what really happened to me... I find myself now (38) TO BE WAY MORE OBSERVANT OF THE LITTLE CHANGES.. Not just the scale...

I'm in with the inflammatory changes/ grains connection. I have arthritis in my SI joints (looks cool on xray BTW) and was taking at least one ibuprofen everyday until I started the Primal Blueprint (no grains). I think I may have had an aspirin on the weekend after a particularly heavy shift at work.

And I haven't had any dry skin patches for a while either.

What I find so scary is how hard it is to avoid sugar and carbohydrates. I'm not blaming anyone but myself for the food getting into my mouth, but I do wonder how easy it would be for drug users to abstain if their drugs-of-choice were so omnipresent in the environment - Television ads for heroine, coworkers and family members pushing cocaine and making "special just-for-you" drug cocktails for every minor celebration, 98% of restaurant menu items laced with lsd, having to read food labels to find hidden opiates...

I'm not trivializing drug addiction. Most illegal drugs will cause problems for you that carbohydrates can't. The most obvious - legal consequences, you're not going to be sent to prison for sugar use and distribution.

I'm not discounting personal responsibility, either. Now that I see the sugar connection, it's my JOB to get better. It's my job to avoid sugar (even if almost everyone on the planet seems to be pushing it). I'm on disability and I'd love to get back to work (or even more ideally, be able to start my own business), so I need to treat sugar avoidance as a 24/7 responsibility.

It's just very hard to see the demon in "healthy" carbs (like fruit and even whole grains). It's not much of an exageration to say that I'm trying to undo 44 years of brainwashing.

Although I'm not following Atkins right now (I'm another Primal Blueprint convert), the ideals are so compatible that I'd recommend the author's website to anyone following a low or restricted carb diet (marksdailyapple.com), if only for the recipe and food threads (although there's so much other good stuff, you won't stop there), which are very Atkins compatible, for the most part (I can't think of any incompatibilities off hand).

I think its great that her skin is better. I also think that its clear that she was intoerant or allergic to some substancce that was previously in her diet. I would think that if its not grains, that it could be some preservative or other item in some of the processed foods she was eating. Atkins, while allowing for processed foods, certainly takes us back to eating from more natural food sources as we attempt to avoid carbs/sugars

Great news, hairchick!! Your daughter must be thrilled. I never realized how much grains contributed to inflammation in my body. After years of osteo-arthritis pain in my hip, it was gone after about a month on Atkins. No more arthritis Rx meds either.

After reading this thread I forgot that I used to have mild rosacea on my face. That's gone too.

In reading some of the anti-grain books (Such as Living without Bread, and Dangerous Grains - and there are dozens more), what surprised me is that it's apparently no secret that grains contribute to inflammation. Nutrition experts have apparently known this for decades.

It makes me wonder why it isn't common knowledge, and why nutritional approaches are largely ignored by the medical community. Even in the literature the most persuasive disagreement isn't based on the argument that grains and sugars are healthy, but that a low-grain/low-sugar diet is unrealistic and unpalatable in the modern world.

Essentially that's like saying "we have a safe and effective treatment for people, but we're not going to even tell them that it exists, because they're probably not going to like it, and they'll find it difficult to follow.

Kaplods, you might enjoy Cereal Killer by Alan Watson. Similar to Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories but it is a much easier read and much shorter (140 pp.). As in Taubes book, it explains the history behind the high carb mentality (political from George McGovern ) and why the medical community refuses to offer solutions that will heal people.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. For those who are LCing there is a lot of useful info; if you're not LCing then you might rethink eating all those carbs.

You can read about it on Amazon and listen to a podcast from the author.

We have decided that we are goin to treat this like a food allergy... Just get into the mindset that We clearly have an allergy to sugar and things that turn to sugar!! I really think this will be an effective mindset for us to make this a lifestyle.. Her skin is looking better everyday!!! It's incredible!!! I am still having some swelling, but I am 22 years older than her and a lot fatter... It is gonna take me longer!! Perhaps this will keep me from getting discouraged!!