On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:

> >What is the mechanism by which dietary fats increase oil
> >production in the skin?  Is it known?
>
> I'd tend to incriminate the inflammational response of wrong eicosanoids.

That would be my guess, too, but is increased oil production
actually a sign of inflammation?  For that matter, what is the
relation between skin oils and acne?

For the record, I also had a very bad time with acne as an
adolescent.  In my case, I had large boils all over my back,
which remains heavily scarred to this day.  These boils, in fact,
kept me from being drafted during the Vietnam conflict, although
my lottery number was 8.  When I had my draft physical I fully
expected to be enlisted; I was pleasantly shocked to learn that,
in the opinion of the army doctor, I could not carry a backpack,
due to the likelihood of bleeding and massive infection.  In
fact, the boils were bad enough that sometimes just the friction
from my shirt was sufficient to break them and cause them to
bleed -- an embarrassing predicament for an awkward high school
kid, or anyone else.

We tried a number of dietary interventions, but they did not
help.  What did help, it seemed, was sunlight, and perhaps salt
water.  A few days at the beach really seemed to help to heal the
condition.

I note, however, that if I consume a large quantity of nuts over
a period of days, I will still respond with boils, though not
with anything approaching their former severity.  It could be the
omega imbalance in the nut oils, except for the fact that
walnuts, which are not so imbalanced, are no better.

Todd Moody
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