Severe forehead acne, thyroid supplement related?

[contact]

I'm a 25yo male. About 2 months ago, I started taking nutri-pak thyroid supplement. I started at 1/4 tablet, and over two months I have slowly worked up to 1 tablet. Around the time I started taking it, I have noticed a sharp increase in acne on my forehead. It's not that bad anywhere else; it's really all above my eyebrows. I've tried lowering dairy for awhile, lowering gelatin intake, changing the amount of liver I have in a week, increasing my water intake, and changing pillow cases more often. I used to be able to wear any greasy hat, and wouldn't get any acne on my forehead (not that I like wearing hats that are greasy). I haven't had acne this bad on my forehead since high school.

Since taking thyroid, my temperatures are a lot closer to 98.6, bpm is going up, I feel a lot warmer in general, and I have more appetite, which is all great! However, I would like to come off of my thyroid supplement for awhile to see if that's what's causing my acne. My questions are:

Has anyone noticed an increase in acne when taking thyroid? What about specifically with nutri-pak?
If I stop taking thyroid, will I experience any side effects?
Is there anything that's absolutely essential that I should take with thyroid? My diet is mostly cottage cheese, orange juice, gelatain, coffee w/ sugar, carrot salad, grass fed ground beef, and potatoes.

 

[tara]

Increasing thyroid function can increase the requirements for lots of nutrients.
I think some people have found zinc important wrt acne. Occasional oysters?

Have you checked your calcium to phosphorus ratio? Peat recommends more Ca than Ph. I think quite a bit of the calcium in milk is discarded with the whey when making cottage cheese.

If you are dependent on the thyroid supplement, hypothyroid symptoms may return if you stop taking it. If you are wanting to reduce or cut thyroid supps, I suggest backing it down slowly, preferably in the warmer, lighter part of the year if you live in temperate climes, and monitoring temps and bpm as you go.

 

[contact]

Thank you for the reply, tara. My zinc intake is a little low, so I will look into increasing it.

I just checked, and my calcium:phosphorus ratio is only .5 when it should be around 1.7. I will look into improving that as well.

 

[oxidation_is_normal]

There are quite a lot of people here eating thyroid hormones... Do you all think Ray would be eating thyroid supplements if here were young?

Unless you really need them, contact, then I would recommend going off of something causing side-effects.

 

[answersfound]

There are quite a lot of people here eating thyroid hormones... Do you all think Ray would be eating thyroid supplements if here were young?

Unless you really need them, contact, then I would recommend going off of something causing side-effects.

Ray takes Cytomel/Cynoplus himself. It has done miracles for many, and I will take it for the rest of my life. And it has also helped the OP. Anyone who wants to maximize their health should probably take a thyroid med.

And op I would guess you have a vitamin a deficiency. I take 25000-50000 IU and it has worked wonders for my acne

 

[oxidation_is_normal]

Ya, my point was that Ray is not 25.

 

[answersfound]

Ya, my point was that Ray is not 25.

Point taken. However, anti-aging forums aim to match the hormonal profiles of 21 year olds, regardless of the persons age. So I think Cytomel could be helpful in achieving this.

 

[oxidation_is_normal]

Ya, my point was that Ray is not 25.

Point taken. However, anti-aging forums aim to match the hormonal profiles of 21 year olds, regardless of the persons age. So I think Cytomel could be helpful in achieving this.

If we're gonna be serious about that, then people on this forum who are taking thyroid should post a complete hormone panel at least - don't you think?

 

[contact]

I don't think there's an age limit on whether or not you should take thyroid. For me, the deciding factor on taking thyroid were the hypothyroid-like symptoms I was experiencing. I had constant fatigue, head fog, dark circles under my eyes, bpm in the 50s, temperature in the 96s, diffuse hairloss, and my hands and feet were always cold. All of these are textbook symptoms for hypothyroidism.

The only side effect I was having was forehead acne. Everything else for me felt better. I had better sleep, was regular, felt little anxiety, and felt warmer in general. I appreciate your concern, oxidation, but I believe that this is beneficial to me.

Since I stopped taking nutri-pak thyroid, the acne on my forehead has gotten better, so I'm convinced it's what was causing my break outs. My next action is to try a different thyroid supplement, and see whether I get the same side effect or not. It could be what tara said where my body requires more nutrients, or it could be the specific thyroid supplement itself.

 

[bradley]

Whenever I stop supplementing Vit A or eating liver for a few weeks, my forehead breaks out. It's the only thing that causes a breakout for me. Supplementing again clears it up completely in a week or two. Sometimes I need about 20-30,000 iu a day, especially here in Florida getting so much sun.