All my life I have drank a lot of milk. In fact, with the exception of apple juice and water, it's about all I have drank since I was a child.

When I was about 12 years old I started to have issues with what my dermatologist called 'cystic acne' – these huge, swollen mounds on my face, that could be rather large and painful. For the last 10 years (I am 22 now), I have struggled with this acne, and been on every medication, including Acutane, and cream dermatologists could prescribe, and I have all these blood tests done, but nothing helped.

Nobody else I know has heard of the issue much less be familiar with it or experienced it themselves.

But in the last month I made the decision to become vegan (totally unrelated to my acne problem) and I have stopped drinking milk as much as I used to, instead drinking vanilla flavored soy milk, and I have noticed I have had no major breakouts since.

Does this mean I am lactose intolerant? Or do I have an allergy to milk? Or is there something else to this?

Why does milk cause me to have this awful 'cystic acne'?

Weird that NONE of the doctors or dermatologists I have talked to suggested it was milk causing the issue. All they did was prescribe more and different medications and creams for the last decade!