Martha Rotter struggled with stress-induced acne after moving to a new country and taking on a new job. Her first dermatologist prescribed antibiotics that cost $600 per month without success. A food allergist diagnosed allergies to soy and chicken but removing those from her diet had no effect. Through self-experimentation by carefully tracking her food intake, she discovered that cutting out dairy from her diet in December 2010 cleared up her acne by New Year's Eve. She encourages others to experiment to find their own personal triggers rather than spending money on ineffective treatments.

1. Martha Rotter
@martharotter
http://martharotter.com/blog

3. How did I get here?

4. What happened?
 A new country – Stress!
 A new job – Stress!
 A lot more beer drinking – Stress!
 Lots of potatoes – Stress!
 Lots of travel – Stress!
 Less sleep – Stress!

5. First attempt:
 Go to my hometown dermatologist
(December 2008)
 Result: prescribed antibiotic course for a
year plus a monthly prescription bill of over
$600 for pills & creams.

6. Side note: ProPublica

7. Second attempt:
 Talk to a food allergist
(June 2009)
 Result: diagnosed as having allergy to soy
and chicken, cut both out of my diet; no
effect on skin 
 * But now I had an idea

8. Third attempt:
 Take matters in to my own hands
(January 2010)
 Result: over a year of experimentation

9. Method (Or, How You Can Do This Too)
 Record, record, record
 Simple is best
 Make time to make connections

10. Result!
 In December of 2010 I decided to try
giving up all dairy.
 By New Year’s Eve, my face was my
own again.
 Why dairy? Why now?
I have no idea. Maybe my body
changed, maybe it’s something about
Irish dairy, maybe ???

11. Summary
 Don’t let anyone tell you that what you put
in your mouth doesn’t affect your body –
the famous “Acne & Chocolate” study was
found to be badly executed but many
dermatologists still go by this advice.
 Be wary of people telling you to spend a lot
of money to cure your condition (even the
food allergist wanted me to spend a lot of
money on pills & vitamins!)
 Everyone is different, you may have to try
several variations until you figure out your
own personal trigger.

12. Questions?
 Find me on Twitter: @martharotter
 Or on my blog: http://martharotter.com/blog
 You can download my free, experimental app
to keep track of your own food intake at:
http://martharotter.com/qsapp
 Or fork it / build on top of it at:
http://github.com/martharotter/QSApp