Saying adios to gluten? or dairy? Or both?? Hmm...

Last night I had an appt with my facialist, Sarah Elizabeth, aka "the miracle worker." Sometimes I feel guilty for getting these monthly facials, but then I remember that the 30 -60 minutes I spend w/ her each month is probably my most relaxing 30-60 minutes of each month. Seriously, she is so good at what she does.

Unfortunately, I seem to have inherited some seriously bad genes when it comes to my complexion. If there was a 'face transplant' surgery out there, I'd sign up in a heart beat. I absolutely hate my complexion, I feel like people look at me and think, "What? Doesn't she wash her face?" I know it is so vain to care so much about one's appearance, but the first thing people usually judge you on is your appearance... so looking like you are going through puberty at the age of 28 isn't helping me out very much...

I've tried going to a Dermatologist, but I kind of hate the man after this last fall. I saw him in October and asked him to put me back on an antibiotic that I had been on previously. He suggested trying something different and put me on Sprironolactone. Yah, it's actually a drug that is used to treat people w/ congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, or kidney disorders. When he told me that I was like - 'hold the phone, why am I taking this?' He went onto explain that it does something with the hormonal balance in your body so he thought it might be the solution for me. So I tried it, and my complexion went from not so great to freaking ridiculously horrible. I called the doctor and spoke to his nurse who was completely unsympathetic and basically said to just 'deal with it' and give it more time... even though I'd been on the stuff for 7 weeks and he said it's work after 6.

So I gave up and I don't think I will ever go back to that Dermatologist. I don't know if his nurse was hating life that day or what, but she was so rude to me. Maybe I need to find another Dermatologist but after that whole fiasco, I have no desire to give someone else another try...

So last night Sarah mentioned that other clients have eliminated gluten from their diet and have seen great results - I don't really understand how gluten could impact my complexion, but am pretty much willing to try anything. While I was researching gluten's impact on your complexion (couldn't find anything, I suck at research, by the way), I read a few articles that speculate that dairy might be the culprit... apparently they load the cows up with hormones, so when you consume dairy products, it messes with your hormonal balance as well.

So now I am debating whether I should eliminate one or both of these from my diet... I looked up a list of foods that do/don't have gluten - ay yi yi. Eliminating it wouldn't exactly be easy. But I know it can be done - my cousin has celiac sprue and blogs about gluten-free cooking, so she'd be a great resource....

So we'll see what I end up doing. If eliminating one of both of these alleged culprits results in a clearer complexion, it'll be worth it, so it's probably worth trying.

What pisses me off the most about this whole thing is that my older sister often doesn't even freaking wash her face! Seriously! And I don't think I've ever seen her with a single blemish. I obviously got the short end of the stick when it comes to 'complexion genes.'

Oh, and I googled "Face Transplants" - apparently such a procedure exists, but I'm probably not a good candidate...

* Update *

Google is a dangerous thing. It allows people like me with no medical knowledge to self-diagnose. After all this research about gluten, etc, etc, I have practically convinced myself that I have some sort of ailment. So now I am probably going to be 'that girl' that goes to her doctor and says, 'um, so I was googling, and I think I have ____ (fill in the blank). I bet doctors hate the internet and the resulting self-diagnosis that goes on... Do they, Suzanne?