Depression, Dementia & Acne

With research, experimentation, and tweaking, I have become acne free (fingers crossed) without medication for the first time since I was 16 years old. It seems that fruit is also a major acne trigger for me (I hear the fruit we eat has been genetically modified to contain far more sugar than the body can handle). After corresponding with a dermatologist who had never heard of a melatonin/acne connection or a couple of studies I found on pubmed.gov that show high correlations between dairy & acne and high glycemic load diets and acne, I realized something:

Doctors aren’t really the best people to get medical information from. Take your typical 45 year old doctor. He finished medical school 2 decades ago, where he was taught information that is probably 10 years behind the most advanced research (it takes a while for research to be really proven and make its way into medical books). So he is starting off with 30 year old medicine. Then he quickly goes on to spend 40 hours/week treating patients, growing generally bored and annoyed (naturally, who can stay interested in the same thing forever). Most doctors start a family after med school, so between the busy work schedule, wife, and kids, how can they possibly have time to stay up to date on the newest research? They can’t. So my frustration with doctors and the medical community is slowly coming to an end. They just aren’t armed to do the job properly.

Anyway, after a healthy amount of research, I have put together a rough draft of a website with an acne system that is better than any of the poison pills/creams (the mechanisms of which are not even understood) various doctors will throw at you.

My next topic of research: Dementia – it seems to be a relatively major problem in this family.

OK, I just did a quick news.google.com search on Dementia. Turns out, people who are depressed are twice as likely to suffer from dementia. What’s interesting is that people with acne are 2-3 times as likely to be depressed as the general population. On the various acne forums they always say ‘duh, acne makes people depressed.’ But my thinking was that the same thing that causes depression could cause acne. What causes depression? Poor sleep? (some psychologists think depression *is* sleep deprivation). Lack of exercise? Lack of daylight? Vitamin D deficiency (caused by lack of daylight)? These are all correlated with depression. Well, what if the true factor was a damaged melatonin cycle as put forth by the acne theory I have borrowed? Then a damaged melatonin cycle could lead to acne and depression now, and dementia later. Just something to think about, it’s more than any doctor will tell you anyway.