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
Bella says
Same ting happened to me. Took probiotics to help with my IBS and i broke out on my jaw line and chin. i hate breaking out. it helped with my stomach issues but the breaking out is horrible so i stopped taking them. My nutritionist said it couldnt be the probiotics so i took them again and same problem i broke out…..Recently i tried that kombucha probiotic tea and i broke out…so its definitely the good bacteria thats causing it… any one know any other alternatives??
Faith says
Hi Bella, the same thing happened to me, just as you, except I have always taken probiotics when I was younger. I had a gallbladder removal and developed cystic acne. I realized I had always been allergic to milk. I got off of all dairy. Later I decided to incorporate probiotics into my diet so I bought acidophilus alone. I broke out so bad with cystic acne, again. So I ditched that idea and now I take alternatives. I have not tried kombucha yet. But I will tell you what I do take. I drink a product called goodbelly, it has vegan probiotic google it, the site has coupons and product locator. I eat sauerkraut or pickles the kind in the refrigeration section. AAAND right now I’m looking into a different probiotic that is vegan made by Jarrow, it is actually a strain of yeast. You could also take digestive enzymes, like papain or others mixed with ox bile, pancratin. You could also look into dissolvable gelatin for digestion by Great Lakes and its good for skin and other things. You could look into apple cider vinegar from braggs, like a tonic. Or simple psyllium husk smoothie for ibs. Tell me what you think. I can suggest brands if you have questions. I learned from trial and error and hours of research for my own health. I would be so glad if this helps anyone who reads this. I will come back and write more if I remember.
Sarah Bower says
Well Hallelluhia!! It’s happened to someone else. The EXACT same crap happened to me too. I’ve got the probiotics and their phone number and they say if you used it for 30 days then you can get your money back. Hope so. I put it on a card and it was $131.00 PLUS shipping. I am calling them tomorrow and will let know so wish me luck!
Alice Buck says
In February 2015, I started using a probiotic and have been very pleased with it. After a couple of weeks, my face looked worse than any teenager (I’m 62). However, I never made the connection between the probiotic and my face until now!! I simply could not understand why my face was breaking out so badly. I got to thinking when the acne started in conjunction with starting the probiotic, and a major light bulb went off in my head! I found this blog and read every post and said “THAT’S ME!!” It has now been 5 days since stopping the probiotic and it is truly amazing how my skin is clearing up….I am so thankful for that and hope it keeps improving more and more each day. Thank you so much for the posts and I hope everyone gets great results!
Alice Buck says
Well, I’ve been off the probiotics for about a month now, and my face has cleared almost to the point of before starting the probiotics!!! I am so happy 🙂 ………….. and I’m still feeling good otherwise. Amen!!
TC says
Good to hear cause my face looks like a pepperoni pizza right now. Today will be the first day that I stop taking the probiotic.
Tiffany says
Good to know. I’m on day 3 of no probiotic and I still have tons of small sores, a few new blackheads and my face is red and irritated. I’m praying my face heals.
Brocks wife says
Yep, exact same scenario with me too. I occasionally, during stressful times, flare up with seborrheic dermatitis but only on my hands. When I took the probiotic I immediately noticed many changes within my body, both good and bad. I felt better, I had NO gas which was an everyday problem for me prior, bloating stopped and I became regular. Going from once a week to once a day bowel movement. I thought I had found the ultimate answer UNTIL my face, for the first time ever, flared up in a raging mess of seborrheic dermatitis. Under my eyes, on both sides of my chin, under and in my nose. Very painful. I battled for over a month trying to find a remedy and suddenly it hit me….could it be my probiotic. I immediately stopped and within 3 days I noticed a huge difference in my face finally healing up. Yep, it was the probiotic. The flare-up was so bad my sister found the nerve to ask me if I had ever been tested for herpes because my face resemble a herpes outbreak. I resented that concerned jest urethane she made but I knew I had to do something and QUICKLY! !! I’m so disappointed I can’t keep the benefits without the problem. I’ve wondered perhaps a different probiotic. My child’s Dr suggested a “live” probiotic over the counter that is refrigerated, which you must ask the pharmacist for, additionally quite expensive. However I have yet to bring myself to even find the courage to try it, again 🙁
Auto says
Just started taking the probiotic Align to help with GERD and Psoriasis. Day 1 = red bumps on my arms and behind my knees, super itchy and pimple like. I’m gonna stick it out, I’m 5 days in. Let you know how it goes.
Chana says
I just had the same experience. I was actually looking up to see if this happened to others and I am glad I saw this. I was trying probiotics since many claim it helps acne. But I now have like 3 cystic acne bumps…normally I might get one every few months…but this is bad.
So glad to know I should just toss the probiotics. Think I will stick to zinc since it seems to be helping, and vitamins. Also I found that going to bed before 11pm tends to help too. At least for me…think it might be hormone related to get more rest earlier. Like I tried to go to be at 12 and wake up at 7am but it seems earlier bed time is better. Appreciate the info on probiotics!
Bobbie says
Im so glad i stumbled upon this! For the past 4 years I have been struggling with recurrent BV so I went to a once daily Ultimate Flora Probiotic. The probiotic worked like a charm and I haven’t had issues in over a year! Now that I look back, Im wondering if that has been the cause of my “adult acne.” Im 28 now; never had acne as a teen or young adult. Over the past several years my face has gone haywire! Huge painful pimples around my mouth and chin! Ive gone through expensive treatments, makeup, products and NOTHING seems to help for more than 1-2 days.
Im totally stopping m probiotic today! Hopefully I will see changes in my face over the next month!
Sade says
I too experienced the same ! And I just came to this realization today . I’ve been taking probiotics for the past month and my skin is absolutely awful ! Pimples only around my mouth and jaw line . I tend to get little hormonal pimples a week before my period but not this bad. And just like you, not even close to being that “time” of month where I get them . I am going to stop taking them immediately and pray that my skin will chill a little bit .
Lisa Jefcoat says
I also have been taking the probiotic pearl brand for about a week and a half now and have noticed along my chin and under my chin that I have bout 7 pimples that just popped out of no where! I was wondering this morning what I had done differently and this was the only new thing. And, as you said, all the other articles and searches I have done today, have said they helped to clear up skin! So thank you for posting this, the probiotic may have helped with my ibs-d but at my age acne is so not wanted! ( I am 41). So again, thank you! I know I am not going crazy!
Jenny says
I started breaking out on my cheeks after taking probiotics. Glad to know I am not the only one.
sarah says
I was taking probiotics and noticed I started getting huge painful boils on my chest. One after the other. They took weeks to go away and left huge scars all over which made me extremely self-conscious when sexy time was to happen.
I stopped the pills and the boils went away.
Elizabeth Warren says
I have been taking probiotics for a while now, and I believe the acne may be a reaction from certain brand names only. I take Ultimate Flora 30 billion, once per day. Once I ran out and the store was out of stock, so I grabbed a different brand. I broke out in horrible acne and as soon as I discontinued it, it went away. I stick my usual brand now and have had no issues. So try a different brand, because probiotics really do have a tremendous amount of health benefits, not only for digestion, but for immune strength and inflammation as well.
Edel says
Hi,
I’ve taken probiotics many times in the last 15yrs and never had any problems with them until now. I just started taking them again, a different brand to any I’ve taken before and I have broken out in painful lumps with water blister heads. I’m thinking it can’t be the probiotics that are a problem, must be something else in this particular brand.
Hypnogal says
Well! I don’t know if anyone will read my story here…there are so many who have the same story as my own. If you do read it please know that I am a REAL person, I’m a healthy 50 year old woman who has always had GREAT skin and never a zit IN MY LIFE until my gynecologist told me it would “be a good idea to take a probiotic” even though I didn’t test positive for yeast. This was back in January 2016. So I chose a popular one at 100 billion strength. You know…I thought if a little is good, moe much more would be much better. Was I ever wrong.
Immediately I began to suffer from the kind of diarrhea that makes you run to bathroom…horrible explosive and painful. So I changed probiotic brands….then the acne started. I didn’t even know that probiotic COULD cause acne so I desperately searched for anything in my diet that could be causing it. I began to eliminate whole food groups, anything supposedly “inflammatory” like wheat, white rice, sugar…etc… I dropped 13 ponds and was depressed, hungry and anxious….the diarrhea started up again and the acne went from horrible cystic to smatterings of whiteheads. I scrubbed and cried and his and prayed. All the time never suspecting that it was the probiotic . Two months later and 13 pounds lighter I was in a panic…id completely lost my looks to this and felt joint pain and aches all over my body. Then came the rashes.
Then came the spastic colon and IBS from weeks and weeks of not digesting well at all. I was cancelling everything and blaming myself for what wound up calling “the affliction”. The depression was crushing.
I saw my internist who did blood and stool tests and came back with nothing. I went to a gastroenterologist looking like a sick hypochondriac and he did a colonoscopy and came up with nothing.
Then I found this blog.
Immediately I read hundreds of women here who were describing my own personal hell. Immediately I stooped the three brands of probiotics I kept juggling and taking thinking that they were helpful to me never ever making the connection. I took an anti histamine right away for the itchy face and rashes. Nearly OVernight most of my acne began to HEAL ITSELF not something I ever expected it to do. I took some ibuprofen too to start reversing all this horrible inflammation. That was on April 25th 2016.
Today is April 27th, 2016. I haven’t had diarrhea in two days. My skin seems to be healing at breakneck speed as if it suddenly remembered who it belonged to. My rashes are nearly gone. Joint pain…gone. Anxiety…gone. Depression…gone.
I sit here in tears happy yet angry at the advice that one size fits all …and probiotics are “probably a good idea.” Shaking and wiping away tears …I am truly liberated as a human being and knowing that my life as I knew it was slowly collapsing from beneath me all you WONDERFUL PEOPLE SAVED ME FROM SUICIDE because I was in the process of losing myself as I knew me and I know I couldn’t live like that in chronic pain and constant self blame.
NO MORE PROBIOTICS FOR ME. I AM ON MY WAY BACK FROM PURE HELL THAT LASTED THREE MONTHS….and although I’ve only begun the healing and recovery process I know…I KNOW that the probiotics were the cause and would have been the end of me HAD I NOT FOUND TTHIS BLOG,
WHAT I LEARNED IS: —–MAKE ONE SMALL CHANGE AT A TIME.
——TRUST YOUR OWN BODY TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH
——DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU
NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL.
I HAVE NAMED THIS —–PTS —PROBIOTIC TOXIFICATION SYNDROME
I HOPE MORE VICTIMS SPEAK OUT AND SPARE MANY MORE LIVES!!!
N.H.M. ….who is still alive and HEALING in Bloomfield Hills Mi.
TeeDee says
Thanks so much for sharing your story, N.H.M. Thanks also to Paris and all who have commented over the past several years. I’m 60 and have taken probiotics for the past 2 years after some unavoidable antibiotic use. I just wondered this morning if it could possibly be the probiotics I use (I’ve tried a number of varieties for efficacy) because I’m sick to death of the itchy, dry, inflamed red bumps on each side of my face, cheeks and forehead. I’ve cut out all sugar, fruit, grains and dairy and this post and all of the commenters have made me realize it must be the probiotics, so I’ve stopped them as of now. I don’t plan on going back to the foods I’ve cut out for health reasons, though. I feel they all played a part in the acne, digestive issues and insulin resistance.
Wishing all of you the very best–xox
Tiffany says
NHM, your story made me tear up. I’m so glad you found this post and so am I. I started probiotics and within 3 days was starting to break out with weird pimples along my jaw and covering my chin but was told to push through because my gut was being cleansed. By day 8 my whole entire face and neck were swollen, red, filled with tiny water filled pimples and some huge cyst like pimples under the skin but the worst was the broken capillaries behind each pimple. I even started to see blackheads appearing that I have never had. I’m 46 years old. This is nuts. I’m now on day 3 of no more probiotics and I think my face is beginning to heal. I hope and pray because I won’t even leave the house. I look atrocious. Every story on here has given me hope that my skin will go back to normal. I would love to know why we were affected this way by a probiotic. Mine was a very expensive vegan probiotoc that I purchased. What is it doing to us that it isnt doing to everyone else?
Amber says
I started taking culturelle probiotic about a month ago. I have slowly broken out in rash all over my stomach and it seems to be spreading to my legs and back. I have been itchy too. I have literally thought something seriouse is wrong with me. Now i have read this blog and it has helped ease my anxiety. This has been a horrible experience for me. Thank you for starting this blog. Thank you so much. I am not taking them anymore starting tomorrow. Im not joking about the anxiety. Its been bad.
Nancy says
Wow, finally an. Answer! I have been taking probiotics for about 6 weeks, I have breakouts everywhere on my body, now on my scalp. My gut felt better but my skin went to hell. How can I heal these places? I am stopping probiotics.
Noelle says
I found out about this after I stopped eating yogurt. I ate yogurt every day and finally just got tired of it and stopped eating it. After a little while my chin completely cleared up. A few times after that I ate 1 serving of yogurt and could feel my chin starting to break out again. Then at one point I bought some green superfood stuff, and after about a week of taking it my chin broke out. I checked the ingredients and found it contained probiotics. When I tell people I’m “allergic” to probiotics they scoff, so it’s nice to read that others experience the same thing!
Marcie says
I started trying probiotics years ago when Activia first came out. Within days I made the connection to my sudden breakout and stopped. I only made the connection to the yogurt not the probiotics so I never touched Activia again. Instead I started testing probiotic pills.
I continued to have cystic breakouts on and off but since it had already started with the Activia and I was noticing the positive changes in my digestive and reproductive systems, I never made the real connection. I figured I just had crazy hormones that reflected themselves in my skin. After YEARS of taking probiotic pills, I suddenly stopped that along with my birth control pills. My skin went through a noticeable cleansing phase the first 6 months with random breakouts and suddenly went clear. No more cystic breakouts. I thought great, it’s because I’m off the birth control. I enjoyed clear skin for one whole year.
Mid March 2016, I felt a yeast infection coming on and before it became full blown, I ran and bought my probiotic pills again. Immediately, the cystic acne began again. I thought stress, lack of water, hormones, FOOD. Everyone said I must have changed something in my diet so I examined everything I was eating. Nothing. I was getting really sad and angry. I couldn’t understand how my face and my chest brokeout so painfully almost overnight. It hurt so bad and it looked terrible.
After 2 weeks something suddenly clicked in my head, COULD IT BE THE PROBIOTIC PILLS? That’s when I found this site. OMG. I had to test this theory out so immediately I stopped the pills. I kid you not, within 48 hours my acne started healing. Within 2 weeks, there was a 50% difference. It has now been 7 weeks since I stopped the probiotics. I am 90% better and I have intense scarring that I’m being patient with because I know they will fade in time. I get a pimple here and there but nothing as bad and I see it as my skin finding its balance after the probiotic mess. I will be patient as I am confident that it cleared once before and will clear once again.
I will never touch probiotics and am grateful for this site. I would like to point out the lactose issue some people bring up. I love dairy. Have eaten dairy my whole life. Ate milk, cheese, REGULAR yogurt throughout the year my skin was clear. I had no issues until the probiotic pills. It’s definitely not a lactose or dairy issue for me. I think the smaller amounts in regular yogurt seem fine but the billions of probiotic bacteria in pills and Activia are overkill. At least for me it turned out to be and apparently to many others as well. I wish people made the connection more and talked about it more. Hope my experience helps others.
Keri says
SOOOO HAPPY I stumbled across this! I too started taking probiotics 3 weeks ago and last week my face has gone from 1 blackhead to 6 red bright pimples!!! Will it get better or do I stop?! I feel like 3 weeks in is pretty good. Does it get worse before it gets better? I LOVE not feeling bloated but I HATE these guys on my face!!!!
Katt says
Did it clear up or did you have to stop taking probiotics?
Kristina says
I know this is a super old post, but just wondering if you have tried getting good bacteria from fermented foods such as Sauerkraut, maybe it would not have the same acne causing effect? I too struggle with bad breakouts along my jaw line, but I need to get the good bacteria to prevent vaginal infections.