Perricone Diet

Nicholas Perricone (IPA pronunciation: [pɛrəkon) is a dermatologist who has written several books, primarily on the subjects of weight loss and maintaining the appearance of youth. He is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, from which he received his MD. He has appeared in two special programs on PBS. He sells his own line of skin care products.

Perricone presents himself as a radical in the dermatological community, repeatedly encouraging his audience to challenge the status quo. He compares his work relating diet to skin care with Ignaz Semmelweis's work on hand washing and the spread of disease in the 1800s.

Books
Perricone has written five books. These all take a similar "three-tiered" approach to skin problems. The three tiers are diet, supplements, and topicals. The books share some general recommendations, but each contains unique material.


The Wrinkle Cure
Perricone's first book, The Wrinkle Cure, published in 2001, suggests a diet and products that can allegedly slow, or even reverse, the visible aging process. Some of his most notable recommendations are a diet high in salmon (primarily for its omega-3 fatty acids), supplementation of lipoic acid, and topical application of vitamin C ester and DMAE.


The Perricone Prescription
Published in 2002, The Perricone Prescription, recommends a "rejuvenating" program of diet, exercise, and skin care that is intended not only to improve one's appearance, but also to increase energy and to reduce the risk of several major health problems, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Many of the recommendations, such as a diet high in fish, are repeated from The Wrinkle Cure. The book became a #1 New York Times bestseller.


The Acne Prescription
Published in 2003, The Acne Prescription is a follow-up to The Perricone Prescription targeted at those who are suffering from acne, especially (though not exclusively) those who have older, drier skin that does not respond well to treatments intended for oily adolescent skin. The book is particularly notable for attacking the widely held opinion in the dermatological community that there is, with few exceptions, no correlation between diet and acne, high intake of iodine is an acknowledged exception. Perricone claims that foods do have anti-inflammatory (and therefore anti-acne) and pro-inflammatory effects; which foods fall into which category is somewhat counterintuitive. For example, apples are in the anti-inflammatory food list, while bananas are considered pro-inflammatory. This book's paperback version was released under the title "Clear Skin Prescription" in 2004.


The Perricone Promise
Published in 2004, The Perricone Promise offers a new theory of aging circulating around neuropeptides, and focuses on an extensive diet intended to regulate them. He claims that the diet can be helpful in simultaneously losing weight and smoothing wrinkles, as well as improving one's mood and decelerating aging. New topical recommendations are also included, the primary one being a neuropeptide-based serum exclusively sold by Perricone's company that currently costs $570 per bottle (a 3-month supply), far more than any of Perricone's other products.


The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet
Published in 2000, The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet describes how a version of the face-lift diet introduced in previous books can also be helpful in losing weight without losing body tone. New supplement regimens are introduced along with an updated version of the salmon-rich Perricone diet, as well as several new recipes.