Last week, I talked about how what we eat and how our internal plumbing affects our skin. A couple of you mentioned taking probiotics and how you derived benefits from it.
Well, when I was doing my personal research, I found that probiotics is definitely helpful for helping with digestion and bowel movement. What it is, is billions of beneficial bacteria introduced into your gut via a capsule or a yogurt or yogurt drink or even a drink like Yakult or Vitagen (I happen to love drinking the latter 2 as a kid, nevermind the sweetness. It was such a treat!)
The purpose behind probiotics is to introduce more good bacteria to balance out the bad bacteria in your gut. It is being touted as a new health thing and like all health things, there will naturally be pros and cons. If you look out there though, the pros outweigh the cons of taking probiotics by about a million to one. Probiotics is even said to be able to help people who have skin problems, allergies or acne.
Well, guess who discovered a small side effect of taking probiotics that isn’t quite as inspiring as all that? 😛
Yours truly actually had acne after taking probiotics. Yep. It defies imagination doesn’t it? Here is this capsule of all these supposedly good bacteria that’s supposed to help with digestive problems, clear up internal plumbing and maybe even help with clearing up acne on skin.
What I experienced was otherwise. I was having some spots. This was during the time before I decided to do anything to my diet. It was highly irritating. I was then suggested to try some probiotics. Everyone in my family was taking it and everyone was raving about how regular it made them. That was the primary reason for taking the probiotics I might add.
So I started taking it once a day. After about a week, I started to realize that my skin, which was bad before, was now stark raving NUTS! I was having huge, painful cystic acne on my chin and honestly, after not having such bad skin for such a long time, it was a downer. It wasn’t hormones, I might add. It wasn’t close to that time of the month when hormones go nuts, and I haven’t had hormonal acne for a while now.
I don’t know what made me think about the probiotics I was taking. One morning, I woke up and thought “I wonder if its the probiotics?” Perhaps it was some instinct so I stopped it. Within 2 weeks, I started to notice a difference to my skin. Coupled with my lifestyle and diet change, I found my skin was healing itself, with no lasting damage. Was it the probiotics then? Could it actually cause me to have acne?
I looked for information online but there was little to no information. Most people said it HELPED their acne problem. It was on a few little known forums where I found one or two people who mentioned the same things I experienced. Within a couple of days of taking probiotics, they erupted with acne along the chin and jaw line. After stopping, the breakouts stopped. Most people shot that theory down and told them to stick it out but I personally felt there was something there. I wasn’t going to stick it out, no matter what anyone said.
I’d gotten my problem under control by this time. Barring the regular random blackheads my skin was back to normal. So, I decided to experiment. I popped a probiotic capsule just last week in the morning. By evening, there was a painful hard spot forming on my chin. By the next morning, it was a full blown painful cystic acne spot. I wasn’t waiting around to see what happened if I popped another capsule!
So, going from my personal experience with probiotics, I’m going to stick my head out and say that yes, in some very rare cases (like mine) probiotics can cause you more harm to your skin than good. Probiotics can, in my case, cause you to break out and have acne problems where you had none before, or even make your problem worse.
I’ve stopped taking probiotics and am now treating the spot with the Nexcare patch which is helping to bring down the swelling and reduce the painful spot. Once it flattens out or comes to a head, I’ll go with tea tree oil and then perhaps a whitening spot corrector to get rid of the mark and hydration to get my skin back to normal.
Its a horrible process and if you ask me, I think this an awful way to discover that probiotics isn’t for me. I might add that it could also be the strain of bacteria used in this particular brand (it all looks like the normal stuff in most probiotics supplements though). Not being medically or pharmaceutically trained, I can’t tell. The only thing I will say is that I’m quite safely NOT going near anymore probiotic supplements from now on.
If anyone has shared a similar experience as I have, I hope you could share it. Perhaps you had a good experience with taking probiotics. Share it too! 🙂
Paris B
Yes! I have been taking a daily probiotic for over a month now and my acne prone skin has gotten worse. I am experiencing tiny bumps along my forehead, jaw line and chin like i’ve never had before. The probiotic is the only thing new I’ve added to my life in the last month. I haven’t taken one in 3 days but I am still breaking out. I’ll let you know the status in 2 weeks. Thank goodness I decided to research this cause I thought just like most of you that probiotics would be good for acne.
Have you ever heard of Leaky Gut Syndrome? I came across information tonight about drinking Kombucha and it causing acne, and I drink a fair amount of it (it has probiotics). And I also this past month started drinking Apple Cider Vinegar (for the probiotics – one shot every morning) and eating Keifer (for the probiotics – for breakfast). Maybe it was overboard.. but I’m thinking it might be because I have leaky gut syndrome. You should look into this.. there is a great forum on acne.org that also talks about the correlation. I am currently taking a break from this to test my theory. As well as a break from cod liver oil, which I heard can also cause cystic acne on the jawline.
Hi Paris. Thanks for your post! I thought I was the only one. I was recommended probiotics by my Naturopathic doctor to help with a stomach/bowel condition that I have. It seemed to help my stomach but left me with horrible cystic acne, especially around the chin. I’ve been on the probiotics since June and just recently made the connection. I have been off them for about 2 weeks and seem to be improving greatly. I will mention this to my doctor at my next visit to get her take on it. It’s so hard to know what we should/shouldn’t do 🙂
I hope you find a solution, Julie!
Mornin Everyone !
1st time poster and thought I’d share my experences. A few days after I started taking probiotic pills I started to get a large whitish looking pimple on the gum. Just one of them. (I am not prone to, nor have I ever had any acne issues) I was pretty shook up, as I have bad teeth, and I thought it was another infection, cavity, etc. I called my denist… he said what I was describing did not sound like a tooth/gum issue, but to moniter. On a hunch I stopped taking the probiotics, and within days the pimple was gone. A few months have gone by, and decided to try taking the probiotic pills again. Sure enough, after a day or two, here come another pimple looking thingy on my gum. I thought too, it might be the toxins leaving my body. Since the pimple(s) are on the inside I am going to start taking probiotics again, on the hope if it is toxins leaving that eventually the pimple(s) will go away as the toxins inside me begin to subside. Just my two cents. I’ll bookmark this site, and report back my results. Have A Nice Day All.. Steve Out !!
Great post! I woke up this morning trying to find a cause to my acne. I had acne as a teenager and as an adult it went away. About 2 years ago I started taking probiotics to manage my symptoms of IBS. I started having severe acne probelms..the deep cystic pimples. My dermatologist prescribed me some cream and it helped me manage the acne. Last year I was off the probiotics as I lived in a different country and the price was out of control. NO acne. I started taking probiotics again in September 2011 and since then my acne has returned. I literally woke up this morning and thought to myself that maybe my probiotic was causing my acne. If this is true…I am bummed. I need the probiotics to manage my IBS. Has anyone found any other solutions to manage their IBS w/o having acne break outs?
Hi Jzn,
I have IBS/ulcerative colitis. I posted my experience with probiotics back on September 13th. Since I have stopped taking them, my acne has gotten 100% better. As for treatments for IBS, I have recently started seeing a Naturopath, as I did not want to take a prescribed medication daily. My ND had originally put me on supplements, anti-flammatory shake mix, as well as probiotics. After I made the connection with the probiotics I am now down to just supplements. They are working great! I have not had any stomach issues and do not need to take the prescribed medication from my specialist. It might be worth consulting a Naturopath to see what type of supplements would be right for you. It’s worth a shot. Best of luck!
So thankful I found this blog. I started my probiotic (Align) 3 weeks ago and had almost perfect skin. I have 7 cystic nodules on my face as of today along with other zits everywhere on my chin. I have cried all weekend (I’m 27 and a newlywed and am so embarrassed for my husband to see my awful cysts). The only thing that has changed in my diet is the probiotics for my IBS. I stopped them a week ago but continue to breakout. I am going to the Derm in the morning, I’m convinced I need an antibiotic to kill even the good bacteria from the probiotic. I pray this stops the cysts. I will never take a probiotic again.
Randomly thought of this today… wasn’t sure what was going on with my all of a sudden 4+ cystic acne, i started probiotic PB8 or something about 3 weeks ago. Makes so much sense now.
I thought i was crazy! I cant find much information on this topic, but it seems to be the case with me too!
Thnks for sharing. Ive been looking for this info for a week. I have the same problem. Aftr my friend introduced vitagen collagen to me and i took it every morning then i started to have break outs. Its really painful. So i stop taking vitagen for two weeks and my skin back to normal but it leave ugly scars… so sad.
Oh my goodness…. I hope that this is what’s causing my acne! A few months ago I started breaking out on my chin, and they’ve been the hard, cystic, “leave dark hyper pigmentation marks all over your face” kind. It’s been beyond awful. Once I get it under control I’m going to have to worry about all the awful discoloration. Anyway, I finally decided after spending tons of money on products that haven’t done anything that I needed to change my diet. So recently I cut out dairy and have been treating myself for candida overgrowth. So last night as I was about to pop my two probiotics that I’ve been taking for quite a while now into my mouth, I looked at the back and saw that they’re made from dairy. I thought “Uh oh, can’t take these on my new diet.” So I found some today at the drugstore (Culturelle) that are dairy free. Then for some reason I decided to do a google search to see if probiotics could be the culprit and I found this blog post. I’m having the same type of breakouts you described! I’m not sure if I should not take these new dairy free one or not… I’m so glad I stumbled on this post. Thanks for sharing!
I am 58 and have in the last two years had a terrible problem with cystic acne on my chin. I believe I am alergic to the protein in milk and I find that if I completely leave dairy alone I do much better. Remarkably better. I too just started taking Probiotics 4 days ago. However, I made sure to look for some that do not contain dairy. So far no problem. After reading all of the post I am concerned now, since I was doing this to try and help with the Acne problem as well as it seemed it could help with better absorption of nutrients in the gut which also can be a problem. I would remind everyone to be aware that it seems most probiotics do contain dairy and it is my belief that dairy cause far more problems with our skin that is acknowledged by most doctors. So if you are going to take them you would need to be sure dairy is not the real problem. For the longest time I was eating so much dairy thinking it was good for my bones, skin, hair, etc. And I was continuously getting these huge cyst and I don’t seem to do this as long as I stay away from dairy in any form. And this is very hard to do.
Hi ‘H Dyess’,
I know this is an old post but I too am doing research as I started taking a probiotic 6 weeks ago and it does contain dairy. I have also been breaking out in zits (I’m thinking because of the dairy).
Did you have any luck with the dairy-free probiotics?
I am wondering if I should purchase some myself…
Thanks!
Ive been taking Udos probiotics for exactly one week now and have broken out pretty bad. Ive taken the exact probiotic in the past with similar side effects such as pimples but it only lasted 3 days and by the 5th day I was clear. I took probiotics for years in the past and they really helped my skin out from breaking out, especially on ingesting bad foods or alcohol. I took about a year off and have had such unusual behavior towards certain foods(sensitivities)and vitamins.I think the digestive system is the first place to start with health. I’ll report back in a week and let others know about my experience.
Great article. Every time I start taking probiotics, I break out!
I also get bloated. I’ve tried non-fat yogurt with no sugar and I’ve tried lactose free probiotic capsules. In both instances I break out. Such a shame as its supposed to be so good for you but I guess my body is fine without it.
I’d only ever take them when coming off antibiotics and want to replenish the good bacteria.
I am currently taking antibiotics fro strep throat and since I am very prone to yeast infections when on antibiotics, my nurse practitioner reccomended a probiotic to help even things out. I have noticed that my very pale and usually no problem skin has become reddish in the cheeks as well as areas like the eyebrow corners, nose corners, and occasionally around the mouth. It is visibly oily where I have never had an issue before. As much as I would really like to stop taking the probiotics and get my skin back to its usual low maintenance self, I am afraid of getting a yeast infection. Is there anything that I can do to prevent the infection but also help my skin?
I am so glad I cme across this! My skin has been doing well with little to no breakouts for more than a year. All of a sudden my skin has completely lost control. I’ve been so upset over how bad it has become and now realize its probably due to the probiotics! I take up to 3 a day and the breakouts definitely began around the time I implemented them into my regime. No more probiotics for me!!! 🙂 I’ll keep you posted you the outcome! Thanks again for sharing this!
I began taking probiotic capsules given to me by my doctor. After taking them for about a week, I developed red, itchy whelps. I assumed it was an allergic reaction, so I stopped taking them. The patches dried up and disappeared. I don’t think I’ll be taking those anymore.
Yes, I think this is happening to me. It is very upsetting. My whole forehead is broken out. But I need the probiotics – they do wonders for me in other ways, so I’m not giving them up. I will have to get some stronger skin products, I think. It does make sense that this would happen, since probiotics are making your body an increasingly more hospitable environment for bacteria, which is what causes most pimples.
I just found your blog from searching “probiotics” and “pimples.” It’s now happened to me twice where I’ve taken just one probiotic (50 billion strain) before bed and woken up with painful pimple/pustule type thing on my lower cheek near my mouth and chin. I also wanted to take them to improve gut health and bowel movements, but pimples is a side affect for me too. I’m not going to take them. Thanks for your article.
I just completed a three day cleanse and it included (what I suspect is) a high dose probiotic which I purchased at a high-end, reputable health food store. I have never had more than two pimples on my face at a given time, even as a teenager, until today. My face is covered and feels like it’s burning. It started on the jawline and worked up. After reading other posts, I’m pretty sure its the pills. It’s the only new/different thing I’ve introduced to my system. I’m sure they have wonderful benefits for people; they just don’t mix well with me.
I have been taking probiotic supplements now for a month, and my face is crazy. I have had huge cistic acne along my jaw and on my chin. Nothing seems to help, and it actually hurts. I began to suspect the supplements as nothing else has changed. Thank you for writing your experiences down.
I recently started taking probiotics and my chin has completely freaked out! Cystic acne! I just stopped taking the probiotics. How long did it take you, once stopping, to see results in your acne clearing up?