Coconut oil has been used for thousands of years for acne. Many of my patients, especially the ones that are more into holistic approaches to various skin conditions, love coconut oil. You can do oil pulling with coconut oil or improvement of skin health. You can do oil topically. You can do oil gargling with coconut oil. You can do a lot to improve your skin’s health!
The problem is when we took coconut oil and did a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study within a hospital setting. We were unable to show any benefit over the placebo. I don’t think that means coconut oil doesn’t work, but I do I think that patients have noticed that it works for them.
The reason I can’t recommend it for all my patients, is because it seems to be more of an anecdotal solution, where it helps some individual patients, but not all, with their acne regimen. Until those studies can prove that coconut oil has made a real substantial benefit over the placebo, I say if it works, great, but I can’t recommend it as a first line of therapy.
