Matt Velderman wanted to figure out his acne problem. He dove into researching acne treatments, tracking himself and modifying his diet and behavior. His approach was to try every possible thing that could help at once to solve the problem quickly, and then remove one thing at a time to figure out a minimal set of interventions. In the video below, Matt describes everything he tried, odd side effects, and how it’s working, as well as some other QS projects he’s doing, from bodybuilding to home energy usage. There’s a fun discussion at the end about how tracking yourself can impact romantic relationships. (Filmed by the Washington DC QS Show&Tell meetup group.)
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The Niacin reaction was an actual sun burn reaction, meaning you had red skin and heat production from the skin (radiation) and a heightened sensitivity to touch? Or was it only a reddening of the skin, (look of sunburn) not the other issues?
so did he get to any conclusions or did he just noticed this sun burn effect and nothing else?
As far as tracking complexion and acne, I think one thing may get overlooked often… The cleanliness of bedsheets, especially pillowcases. Anecdotally, I noticed in college that people with bad skin tended to have bedsheets that had a more musky smell to them and dirty pillows. For people with acne, they may want to look into how often they change their pillowcase and what types of chemicals they use to clean their laundry (softener or no softener? perfumes or no?)
*I am not a dermatologist