shared a chat session in group #Gut Health
19M, looking for a real gut health reset protocol after Accutane, nicotine,alchohol and a stressful year
Hey everyone. I took Accutane for around 4 months, finished about a year ago. I also used nicotine (snus) for about a year, quit 10 months ago.I also drank alcohol fairly often that year, mostly social drinking, but it added up (went to far sometimes). After Accutane I went through a restrictive eating phase (was depressed because of the acne) , probably had some nutrient deficiencies from that. Then during the school year I got into eating oats almost every day, and even though they clearly bloated me I kept eating them anyway because of how stressed and busy I was. I think all of this combined is what's behind how I feel now. What's odd is I never had any of this rosacea-like stuff before, even back when I was eating WAY less healthy, so I'm pretty sure this is from the mistakes I made over the past year or two, not a lifelong issue.
My main symptoms are facial flushing (lots of times after meals), almost rosacea-like redness, under-eye bags, facial bloating, and my skin feels kind of weak and layered, like it's more sensitive than it should be. It also gets itchy and reacts more in the sun than I'd expect for my age. I'm not sure if this is histamine intolerance specifically or just generally poor gut health from everything piling up, but the timing makes it feel very gut-related to me.
Right now my life is fairly balanced overall, I eat healthy and take some basic supplements/also my sleep is great, but I haven't actually done anything targeted toward repairing my gut specifically. I want to change that and actually build a proper reset protocol instead of just hoping it fixes itself.
If anyone has dealt with something similar or has real advice on what actually worked for them, supplements, fiber/prebiotic approach, probiotics, elimination diets, anything, I'd really appreciate it.