Have there been times where you think you may have broken out in a spot where breakouts can and do happen, like your back, your belly, or your neck? But it’s a little different, like it’s just small spots everywhere, almost like an irritation, but it looks just like it could be acne because some of them are red and inflamed like acne lesions would be?
Well, you’re not alone. And most people who also happen to have acne often mistake a simple allergic reaction or a rash because of an illness, for an acne breakout, because that is what they are used to happening to their skin.
I actually had this happen, of all places, in Las Vegas when I was getting married to my now-husband. It happened to me because I had an odd allergic reaction to vitamin B – a lot of it.
You see, I was paranoid that I would get tired and not be able to enjoy Vegas for all the fun you can have there and because there were some friends and family that came with us, I wanted to be able to give energy to hanging out with everyone (which was nearly impossible in the end).
So, I brought a bunch of those little 5 Hour Energy drinks with me, and one day I drank like two of them ( whole ones) so that I wouldn’t get tired. Well, my stomach broke out in a rash from drinking them.
I later found out that when you take in too much Niacin, which is found in abundance in 5 Hour Energy, because it is a form of a B vitamin, some people can actually break out in a hive-like rash from having too much of it.
To look at this particular rash though, you would have thought it was some sort of an acne breakout. The postules that broke out were red and swollen, but small and much more abundant than an actual acne breakout would have been. They were close together too, not widely dispersed like acne can be, and there were a LOT of them.
I only correlated it to the niacin as an allergic reaction because it went away as soon as I stopped drinking the energy drinks. Otherwise, I probably would have thought it was some weird body acne breakout that was related to the stress and anxiety of getting married and having all those people with us.
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