Help - Brown Spots on My Face
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free skin care · Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:36 am

JLM, if you start with Obagi again, please let us know how it goes. I'm on maintenance right now, but may go full circle again starting in April '10 (which will be a year) as it's recommended. As with anything :laser, topicals, LED, I think we have to have a maintenance plan in place. Nothing is permanent that I've found so far! But I can keep hoping!

I think your diet ideas are all smart choices and I know I can definitely use improvement in those areas!! When you say you cut out sugar, are you talking about processed sugar only? Natural sugar from fruit would still be ok? Also, what is your "mega dose" of MSM? I've kind of let my supplements lately as well. Thanks for your help!

free skin care · Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:57 pm

Hi Kims,

I think I'm going to try the Blender tonight & see how that goes over the following weeks. I'm hoping that the Blender will give a boost to the fading I've had so far, given the changes in my diet & the MSM.

Yes, I've definitely cut out all processed sugar, but I'm also trying to avoid "high-glycemic" foods, including dried fruit and even some regular fruits as well. If you do decide to try & reduce the sugar from your diet, I'd recommend that you take it slow... for example, I was a chocolate addict for years. I substituted with raisins for a while and then eventually phased them out. Also, you might want to just try adding more healthy foods into your diet, like green smoothies (there's a thread on green smoothies on EDS), which really does seem to help with reducing sugar cravings.

As far as mega-dosing on MSM, I worked my way up to 6 tsp/ day for 2-3 weeks-- that's about 30,000mg, 3tsp in the am, 3tsp in the pm. Mega-dosing on MSM to reduce brown spots was recommended in a book written by Vanessa Wild, although I don't think that the study from which the recommendation was drawn was scientifically rigorous. However, I decided to give it a shot anyway, since MSM has a very low toxicity level (comparable to table salt), and because your body excretes any excess MSM after 12 hours (which was why I divided my dose). Now I am back down to 2 tsp/ day (10,000 mg), taken all in the am. There is also an interesting thread on EDS about MSM, called something like "I lost body fat & have tighter skin"-- although I don't think that part of the MSM happened to me!

Hope this helps!

Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:47 pm

rileygirl wrote:

JLM wrote:

My spots are very stubborn-- Obagi lightened them somewhat, but they returned to their original state after I discontinued using it, despite using sunscreen.

Yes, unfortunately this will happen, which is why a person must stay on maintenance with the Nu Derm. (Just like anything else topical, once you stop, the benefits will slowly go away and your skin will slowly revert back to its former state.)

I didn't want to hear that, but I'm pretty determined not to go on Obagi maintenance, mostly because of the hydroquinone. I'm thinking I might switch to an alpha arbutin, like Medliten or something else, for maintenance, but I'm doing my research first, and I wish I had researched the ingredients in Obagi before I jumped in.
I was wondering if I could continue to use the tretinoin without the blender? Could it be too strong without the blender? Do I really need retin-A for maintenance, wouldn't a retinol be ok. I have so many questions, and I haven't mastered the search tool yet, so I'm wasting a lot of time searching for the answers.

free skin care · Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:07 pm

SunDapple wrote:

rileygirl wrote:

JLM wrote:

My spots are very stubborn-- Obagi lightened them somewhat, but they returned to their original state after I discontinued using it, despite using sunscreen.

Yes, unfortunately this will happen, which is why a person must stay on maintenance with the Nu Derm. (Just like anything else topical, once you stop, the benefits will slowly go away and your skin will slowly revert back to its former state.)

I didn't want to hear that, but I'm pretty determined not to go on Obagi maintenance, mostly because of the hydroquinone. I'm thinking I might switch to an alpha arbutin, like Medliten or something else, for maintenance, but I'm doing my research first, and I wish I had researched the ingredients in Obagi before I jumped in.
I was wondering if I could continue to use the tretinoin without the blender? Could it be too strong without the blender? Do I really need retin-A for maintenance, wouldn't a retinol be ok. I have so many questions, and I haven't mastered the search tool yet, so I'm wasting a lot of time searching for the answers.

I am not sure how old you are sundapple and what you are hoping for with the Nu Derm. Are you fighting pigmentation issues, wrinkles, etc?

You may wish to research Arbutin if you are against Hydroquinone. Arbutin is glycosolated hydroquinone. You can definitely continue the Retin A without the Blender. Retin A without the Blender is not going to be stronger than with the Blender. The Blender is what helps the Retin A get into the deeper layers.

free skin care · Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:27 pm

Tha nks, JLM for your response. I do need to make some major improvements to my diet which would improve my overall health. I'm such a sugar addict; this could be rough!

Are you using the Blender along with Retin a. What about the Clear? I know Clear contains HQ, but I just do not want the sun damage to return.

free skin care · Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:47 pm

I am a major sugar addict, too! It would be very hard for me to cut all sugar out, but I definitely could stand to cut down! I think it is fascinating that cutting out the sugar lightened your spots, JLM. What type of spots did you have - sun spots or melasma or something else?

Thu Jan 14, 2010 8:57 am

I am wondering if I can get the Vitamin A capsules, snip them open, and use that instead of Retin A

free skin care · Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:24 am

grammytammy wrote:

I am wondering if I can get the Vitamin A capsules, snip them open, and use that instead of Retin A

Nope, doesn't work that way with Retin A and an oral Vitamin A capsule!

free skin care · Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:34 pm

Hi kims:

I'm back on using the Blender mixed w/ .05% retin-a at night. Blender also has hydroquinone, same as Clear, so I believe that you could just use Blender w/o the retin-a during the day, which would serve the same purpose as Clear. (However, I'm just going to use this product at night to reduce irritation.)

The spots are lightening even more, but I'm going to wait until I pass judgement on its efficacy-- I want these spots completely gone!!

Hi rileygirl:

I have a ton of age spots, not a swath of melasma, but these spots are sooo stubborn!! I've had them for nearly 10 years (I'm almost 40). They've gotten darker with pregnancies & hormones post pregnancies. My left cheek has a lot more than my right, due to sun exposure while driving I assume. NOTHING worked, except Obagi, and even then, my spots didn't disappear completely, and then returned when I stopped using it.

I got the idea that my diet had a lot to do with the age spots while I was researching on the internet what to about them. (Although being a major sugar/ chocolate addict, I couldn't come to terms with it and was in denial!) It has taken a LOT of time, but I gradually reduced the amount of sugar in my diet, and am now pretty much processed sugar-free & try to avoid high-glycemic foods. Using stevia as a sugar substitute also helps keep those sugar cravings at bay.

Here's an article that might help explain why too much sugar might lead to age spots:

http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view-article&id=632

Also, I do feel that the mega-doses of MSM helped a great deal with the age spots. Age spots can be a symptom of candida, and mega-dosing on MSM is supposed to cure that condition. I don't know if I had candida, but as I said, the age spots have gotten lighter.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these spots will disappear completely-- if they do, it will really be a miracle! I'll keep you posted.

free skin care · Sat Jan 16, 2010 11:30 pm

Hi JLM,
Thanks again for sharing your experiences about eliminating sugars in your diet. I have no doubt that I would feel much better physically and emotionally if I changed my eating habits. Lightening my sunspots would be the icing on the cake! (I would use a figure of speech involving sugar!)

Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:56 am

You can easily get rid of brown spots by using natural remedies. Applying mixture of milk and lemon juice once in a day on effected area will help you remove these spots.

Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:39 am

Have you considered having a medium depth medical grade chemical peel administered by a dermatologist? You can get very good results. The only downside is that you'll have about a week of peeling, and during that time you'll probably want to hide in your house Very Happy

I had a Vi-Peel about a year ago, and was very pleased with the brightening and of my complexion and improvement of skin texture. Wrote a detailed account of my experience with the procedure, but unfortunately I am not allowed to post a link to it because I'm still a new member here. If interested, run a google search for "Diary of a Vi Peel" and you'll find what I wrote...

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