While I was gone, I got a lot of emails asking me questions about when I’d be back, what to eat, or even just plain compliments about the site.

I’d just like to post a few “Dear Abby” styled posts on this blog for you to see that you’re not alone (of course names and emails will be changed for protection =). Hope you can find something!

***NOTE: By the way, if you see your email up here and feel really uncomfortable about it (even though I’ve changed everybody’s name and blocked their email addresses) please let me know and I’ll take it down. I just want to double check because even though I’ve received consent on many of the emails, I want to make sure I didn’t make a mistake. With the way the world is today, random people suing each other for ridiculous things, I can’t afford to make mistakes.

***QUESTION FROM A READER***

hello Ray,

im an acne sufferer of 6 years and i found your site intresting since nothing else seems to work.
but the how to get started links dont seem to work. could u provide some help?

-Max

>>>MY COMMENTS:

sorry about the wait, i actually haven’t been able to work on the site for now cuz i’m still in school and trying to juggle work, academics, workin out, and my own social life. I’m going to start workin on the site in about 2-3 months and try to complete more (there’s a lot). For now:

1. Do some online research about kefir, check out the link I provide
2. Stop eating sweets, white flour products, and bad food
3. Start eating fiber, if you have to, take fiber supplements
4. Take about 1 tablespoon of Health from the Sun Total EFAs mixed in with your kefir (I do this everyday)

If you can do these four steps consistently for about a month or two, you’ll definitely start seeing results.

PS. if you’ve ever taken antibiotics for acne, take some “probiotics” for about 2 weeks with your kefir.

***QUESTION FROM READER***

Hi Ray,

Was at your website and was pretty inspired by it. Was looking into kefir and had two questions about it.

1. Where did you get the kefir grains? Did you buy them online or find them from a local kefir group?

2. Did you actually use raw goat milk to make your kefir?

I was just thinking about how difficult it is to find raw goat milk. I have to make phone calls and drive about an hour to go get it. Also… do you think you can freeze raw goat milk to make it last longer? I was thinking about buying more of it, throwing it into the freezer so that I would have it available when i wanted to use it so I wouldn’t have to drive an hour every week to go get raw goat milk.

Well those were my questions. Thanks again for putting up such a wonderful site. Hope all goes well with finals for your engineering.

Bobby Wang

>>>MY COMMENTS:

just try googling “howiclearedmyacne blog” and you’ll find it.

The kefir grains I actually got from a friend. But it also depends on what kind of strain you get. Some strains are healthy and some strains suck, you can buy some strains on eBay but I dont knwo if they’re good. My friend actually had some heart problems and they’ve been building up their batch for a while so it’s a really good strain.

I did use raw goat milk for a while, but I couldn’t afford it, plus I had to drive an hour to LA just to get it. So with my college student salary, I figured I’d just use raw goat milk when I got a job, for now it’s just regular grocery store milk.

-Ray

***COMMENT FROM READER***

Hi Ray,

great job on your blog and specially on your skin. I can find the 5 step summaries fine but the links to the actual program don’t seem to work. Is it me or they are just not active. Can’t wait to see the videos

thank you for your inspiration

Ralph

***COMMENT FROM READER***

Ray,

I’ve read most of what you’ve had to say including the five steps. After that I went to click on the links to get started on a step and they did not work.

I really like what you have to say. I’m sixteen and I don’t have really bad acne, but I have tried many different things to get rid of what I have. i.e. Aveda foaming cleanser, Proactiv Solution, Clearasil “Clearer skin in just 3 days” and something by J and J. That’s just to name a few. NOTHING has worked. I’m excited to try what you have to offer, but the links have no destination and just reload the current page.

Happy Graduation,
John

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Lol, I just started on this page a couple months ago and really worked on it for a few days even though I knew nothing about website design and programming and this is what I got so far. I’m not even close to being finished but then school started so I’ve been a bit preoccupied with that.

When I finish, in about a month, I’m going to be posting video tutorials on my website of what I eat and what I do on a daily basis. I think you guys will really like that.

My acne was actually not that bad until about 18 years old after I tried a lot of other things I think that had made it worse. Whatever you do for now, do NOT try antibiotics. Start eating yogurt, less sugar and white flour made products, drink more water and eat more fiber. Those would be my suggestions until later.

I’ll be sending out emails to those who emailed me when I update the site though so keep your eyes open and thanks for emailing!

-Ray

***COMMENT FROM READER***

i just stumbled upon it after being so fed up with my acne. and despite what they say, i always KNEW food affected my acne. the minute i stopped eating junk food, my face started looking better. not great but better. now its good to know what foods are better and why… and ironically, my salad once a week doesnt compare to yours once a day haha. please keep posting. thanks!

-thomas

***COMMENT FROM READER***

Hello Im just emailing you to thank you for your great website I think its very informative and put together.
I suffer from mild acne and definetly agree with the information you put on your website specially how diet affects acne and other things… im still reading and absorbing your site lol.
I cant wait for your next update and hope you gain something for doing such a great service to everyone through your site.

-chris

***COMMENT FROM READER***

hey i read your blog on how you cleared your acne, i need help with this one, im not sure what to use and i’ve tried a lot of products.

I read your site but i see a shit load of vitamin pills and im not sure what to do.

Could you tell me in simplier steps on how you cleared your acne?

I know i will start eating salads and yogurt now

Hopefully see your reply soon! I can’t wait to clear my face like yours.

-Joey

>>>MY COMMENTS:

yeah, i’ve actually gotten quite a few emails and talked to a lot of people about my website. They’re usually curious just about what I do and what I’m eating now on a daily basis. When I finish school in March, I’m going to actually do something that I think is pretty cool and that’ll help you guys out a lot. I’m going to start posting video tutorials, probably hosted by youtube or something, on my website about what I take and how to make kefir, etc…

So check back then or I’m going to send out emails when I do that (i’m keeping most of the emails people’ve sent me as a newsletter list). For now, go to ralphs and buy some kefir and start taking some EFA supplements with them during lunch. lol, it’s what I do when I’m away from home and don’t have access to most of my stuff.

-ray

***QUESTION FROM READER***

I’m currently suffering a lot of acne problem I have tried the following methods:

Eating Less chips
Less sugar
Less wheat

Eating more veggies
Eating Omega 3-6-9 capsules twice a day

I EVEN TRIED Perfect Skin Capsules from Genuine Health Product NOTHING WORKS!!!!

NOW i asked my doctor and he gave me antibotic capsules for a month to try its been 2 weeks and no improvement!!!!

I’m IN NEED OF DEEP HELP CAN YOU please tell me what to do???

I usually NEVER take capsules and supplements because i don’t know what they do to my body, but now i see your blog you have a bucket full of supplements ARE THERE ANY supplements that are ALL IN ONE? I can’t buy all of those man.

Perfect Skin supplement i researched which contains : Zinc, Vitamin E, Selenium, Chronium and other fish oil thought this was going to be the one for me but NOTHING AT ALL!

i still have acne so bad, scars on my left and and right cheeks pimples on my forehead im gonna RIP SOMEONE APART.

HELP me out RAY,

-Melissa

>>>MY COMMENTS:

lol, let me just tell you, i’ve been there. it sucks like hell.

that being said, first thing is, you gotta relax. i now at this point that sounds ridiculous, but stress really does affect your skin. not directly of course, but indirectly because it compromises your immune system and relates to your hormones which in turn affect your skin.

but, obviously, just because you’re calm about it, doesn’t mean acne goes “poof gone.” First off, don’t just eat less chips, don’t eat chips at all, completely cut out sugar, I mean completely. And stop eating all forms of wheat, bread, pasta, rice, any sort of bread related products. don’t binge on the alcohol drinking if you’re a partier because that will mess up your liver which, as you probably can guess, works back to your face. i’ll explain how all this works later but in this email i’ll just give you the skinny on what to do because it seems like you’re in a pinch right now.

stop drinking milk. don’t drink juice, too much sugar. don’t eat fruits, too much sugar. i’m not saying don’t ever eat any of this stuff, just for now, stop eating these things because they’re not helping. when your situation improves, you can have some of these things in small doses. but more on that later. stop staying up late, get good amounts of sleep. go out and start eating yogurt, this is important, YOGURT. eat it with your EFAs (omega 3-6-9). Get some multivitamins from costco and start taking those to start. Don’t touch avocados or potatoes. Don’t eat shellfish.

That leaves, fish, any kind of salads, fresh vegetables, some soups (no cheese), subway (i eat that a lot, i make an exception with the bread here cuz it’s my reward for being strict in other parts of my diet), any kind of meat (chicken, turkey, pork, etc), i’m basically telling you that you HAVE TO stop eating sugar, starch, and breads (rice, pasta, breads, etc…)

your diet should be 2/3 fresh fruit and fiber, 1/3 cooked stuff. drink 8 glasses of water a day, spread a part of course don’t down it all at once. oh, and stop taking the antibiotics, that’ll really mess you up in the long run. you should start seeing some sort of improvement within a month if you follow that.

Good luck, i totally get how you feel, trust me, i used to wish i could just rip of the outer layer of my skin. it’s really all about self discipline and will power, if you have what it takes, you can definitely get clear skin. but if you break the rules and don’t follow what i tell you, well… then you’ll get another pimple. =)

I’m not saying that you’ll be fully cured, don’t expect that at all because there’s much more that i still need to tell you and can’t fit it all in one email, but this is a good place to start. oh yeah, and start checking my website regularly cuz i’m gonna start posting videos, i figure it’s a lot faster than me having to type everything and i can start showing demonstrations of stuff.

-ray

***QUESTION FROM READER***

Hi,i think i’m having the same problems as you’v had last time.Could you at least guide me on the right path cos i’m feeling reli lost rite now and i’m heading to college in 2weeeks.Are there any quick methods on how to reduce my scars?I’m quite desperate rite now.My mum seems to be wanting to take me to see a doctor for prescription of antibiotics later but according to your blog,u tot dat it’s a bad idea.HELP ME!!i wanted to buy acneyoda’s book but i dun think i can afford.I’m an Asian btw…..Please reply as soon as possible..really need your help.

-Mary

>>>ME:

ok ok lol, whatever you do, don’t start taking anti biotics, it’ll really f’ you up. just so you know, you need to be realistic, you’re not going to completely clear your acne in two weeks before college, but you can definitely make a dramatic change.

if you really wanted to, you could take antibiotics for a short fix, but in the long run, probably after a month and a half, things might get even worse so you’ll be like 4 weeks into college and have even more acne.

Okay, I’ll tell you what to do for the next 2 weeks, go to your local GNC store or vitamin store and get some EFAs, then go to Ralphs and buy some Probiotic Kefir (plain flavor). Eat those two together during lunch. Stop eating bad stuff. Completely, no sugar, no white flour, stop eating bread (just for now), stop eating fruit.

Actually, you know what, send me another email about what you guys eat on a daily basis. Because I’m asian too and I had to completely transform my diet.

>>>HER:

Thx for replying me…but it’s kinda too late..my mum has already forced me to seeing the doctor and now on the antibiotics.Luckily it’s only a 5-days dosage.
My mum usually cooks fried food(fish,saussage,vegetables)-claiming to be oil-free.But i eat those food as little as possible and to curb my hunger pangs, i eat plain white bread(0.0)…..She also cooks braised chicken and spicy food a lot.

Btw, i thought fruits has vitamins in them.I eat 1 every day.Can i take evening primrose oil and fish oil?

>>>ME:

lol, it’s okay, i took antibiotics for a couple months actually on and off for maybe a total of a year. I still recovered eventually. Your acne will get better for the short term, but it might take a turn for the worse if you keep using antibiotics. The thing you have to know about antibiotics is that it’s indiscriminate of killing bacteria. That means it kills the bad acne bacteria but it also kills the good bacteria in your body. And the good bacteria has to be re-implanted with yogurt and yogloo. if you’re chinese you should know what i’m talking about, yang luh dwoh (lol, i dont know how to spell it with chinese).

Eat oil free stuff, that’s good, try to get your mom to make more liang ban (cool mix) kind of food. I’m saying this assuming your chinese, taiwanese. Don’t eat white bread when you’re hungry, white bread it made from white flour and will aggravate your hunger. White flour, white rice, pasta, any sour dough bread is BAD. Stay away from that stuff. If you’re hungry, eat a salad. It’s better that you eat something else other than sweets and bread related food.

Chicken is good, but try not to eat so much spicy food because it’ll make you sweat, and if you have oily skin it’ll make your glands work. you don’t want to aggravate your skin if you don’t have to. Start taking primrose and fish oil, that’s good. Keep taking your vitamins, that’s good, but I, personally, don’t eat fruits other than berries e.g. blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, etc.. and if you do eat them, only eat about one handful per serving otherwise it’ll spike your blood sugar and aggravate acne too. Feel free to email back if you have any other questions.

-ray

***COMMENT FROM READER***

Wow, that site has an amazing amount of comments on it. Congrats on helping out the acne community. my skin is doing better and been feeling better about myself. eating a lot of salads and taking lots of those vitamins. sometimes i still get breakout because i don’t think i sleep enough or fall off of the diet and just eat crap. Well anyways… thanks for the site. looks like it is coming along nicely.

-Jason

So recently I’ve been slacking off a bit and haven’t had the chance to do another detox. My body started deteriorating pretty quickly and I started noticing the effects that it was having: particularly around my waist. My body and skin are so sensitive that even if I don’t suffer the affects of acne other parts will suffer “collateral” damage, but more on this later.

So my mom was recommended this Chinese Acupuncture doctor, that she should go see him by a friend. This friend was so determined to find a good Chinese doctor that he went to several medical seminars over the course of several months to find the one doctor that all the other doctors seemed to go to for advise after the seminar presentations were over. And that was the doctor that we were about to see. He prescribed me a certain formula and guaranteed that I would get better within 2 months if I kept seeing him.
-
Of course, I got a little bit of the needle treatment. It wasn’t pleasant. Within 2 weeks, the herbs that he gave me worked. They were amazing detox agents. The only problem was they cost me $50.00 a week from him! I’m traveling to China in a few weeks and there was no way I could afford to buy another 2-3 weeks worth of herbs at that price. There had to be another way…

But I found out the formula of what I’m eating so I’m posting it now for anyone whose interested and doesn’t quite want to try colonics yet, lol. I’ve done the calculations and instead of getting about 7 days out of the $50.00 you get about 12 days worth of treatment, but remember, you don’t have to detox for the rest of your life. Usually, a good 2-3 weeks 6-8 months would be good. Here’s the secret recipe:

-Evodia Combination
-Forsythia and Lonicera Formula
-Evodia and Pinellia Combination
-Bupleurum and Rehmannia Combination

I’m finally done with school… Wow, can’t believe my last post was back in September 2007.

Anyway, just got back from Puerto Rico with a bunch of friends from UCI who recently also finished. The food was spicy, the rain forest amazing, and the beaches were hot!

Soon though, sighing… it’ll be back to studying for my GMAT and real estate license, it never ends…

Over the next few weeks I’ll start posting those videos I’ve been talking about; new things have sparked my interest like natural herbal treatments, Eastern medicine, and Nocturne music by Chopin =)

I think that the majority of you out there know that fast food is bad. But, I don’t really think you understand how bad the fast food in our society really is. Allow me to enlighten you =)…

In today’s world, as a young adult looking around, what do we see? I’ll list the popular ones off the top of my head in proximity with my area: Del Taco, Burger King, In N Out, Subway, El Pollo Loco, McDonalds, or Jack in the Box. As a young adult, these are usually the food places that we resort to whether it’s late at night and nothing’s open or we just want something to eat. It’s quick, it’s easy, BUT… it’s also really, really unhealthy.

Let’s take, for example, Del Taco’s basic soft taco which contains ground beef and cheese placed in soft taco skins with a little bit of “special sauce.”

Seems harmless, does it not? Well… ground beef if probably one of the worst kind of meats you can put in your system. Not only is it just left over, ground up pieces of unwanted beef, it’s cooked in TONS of oil and grease. You’re much better off eating a healthier form of protein like chicken or fish (Hint: that’s why it’s more expensive on the menu). But what about the soft taco skins right? Aren’t they a form of carbohydrates, kind of like eating rice, right? They’re made of white flour and do absolutely nothing for your health. NOTHING. This kind of food will just feed the nasty Candida or other bad bacteria living in your GI tract. Cheese is made from pasteurized cow’s milk and will end up congesting and clogging up your system. We’ve been conditioned by society to think that cheese is good. It is good, but only until a certain age, from a certain source, and up to a specific amount. Generally, this food will do nothing for you.

Quicky on Cow’s Milk

Cow’s milk contains “casein” which is an extremely binding substance used to make glue. When you drink cow’s milk, you clog up your system. Try to stay away from anything made from cow’s milk. That’s right, all these years, you’ve been fooled into thinking that “milk does the body good.”

What about the “Better” Burrito?

Well… sometimes, you might splurge and get the healthier “Super-sized burrito” (or whatever the hell they’re calling it these days, lol) which probably has guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, Mexican rice, Del Taco hot sauce, chicken (I think I named the vast majority of what’s in there…). It’s logical to assume that these ingredients must be a lot better for you, right? Well, let’s see…

First, if you have an acne problem, you shouldn’t be eating avacados or guacamole, they contain too much omega-6 fatty acids and that’s one of your main problems for having acne. Beans are good for you, but if you cook them, then fry them, then refry them again; you’ve cooked out all the nutrients and enzymes and now you’re just eating nutritionless mush. When you cook food like that over and over again in extreme heat, the proteins and anatomy of the food become so distorted that it’s difficult for your body to process them. They explained this in my Biology course, when proteins are bent out of shape and your body cannot recognize the coding of the particular element the body must dispose of the denatured protein. Well, if you dump a bunch of these bent out of shape proteins into your body, it’s going to put a lot of stress on your system. Food that’s good for you is not supposed to do that.

Secondly, the sour cream that they use is made from cow’s milk. Had it been sour cream made from goat’s milk then that would’ve been healthy, but it’s not. Mexican rice is just white rice cooked Mexican style. And white rice turns into “sugar” in your body causing insulin levels to soar. For now, just understand that this is not good. Society’s taught the public that white rice is good for you, well… it’s not. Don’t even get me started on Del Taco hot sauce, if you believe that this is healthy, drink a bucket of it and then tell me how you feel afterwards, lol.

If you’re beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed at this point or are wondering if any of this is true, don’t worry because I’m going to be diving further into the details (if you’re interested) later. I’ll be sure to reveal the truth to you about how we’ve been duped all these years into believing so many misconceptions about these foods.

Finally, there’s the chicken. This is probably the healthiest thing in the entire burrito, assuming that you did get “the chicken burrito.” Pork, beef, the fried fish that fast food places usually have, are much dirtier forms of protein when being processed in your body (more on this later). But don’t forget this, fast food chicken’s are usually steroid-injected with plenty of body altering chemicals. When you eat the chicken, you’re eating a lot of the chemicals buried within the chicken meat. Now tell me that doesn’t do your body damage in the long run. And if you don’t believe me about this chicken steroid-injecting, feel free to do a search on “google”, there are hundreds of PETA related articles on it.

The Lying Hamburger

Since we’re on the topic of fast food, I have to talk about the hamburger. Stop eating it. Okay, I know that’s probably impossible so just try to stay away from it. Here’s way, those sexy sesame buns that the junior whopper has? Those buns are made from white flour and ultimately turn into a form of sugar in your body. White flour and sugar feed the bad bacteria in your body. When I refer to bad bacteria, I’m talking about the acne bacteria, the parasites, the leeching Candida, infections, or anything else that’s negative and using your body as a host. So when eat any kind of bread, pasta, rice, doughnut, bagel made from white flour, you’re basically encouraging the problem. And yes, it does make a difference. Try eating a bunch of pasta for a week straight and then tell me how you feel and what your face looks like. I guarantee you’ll notice a “difference.” I know it sucks to know this because I used to LOVE pasta. But I love my face even more so I had to give it up =)

Also, we’ve grown up on hamburgers thinking that poultry (meat) and carbohydrates (bread) go together, right? Wrong. When you eat meat, your body produces an acidic like chemicals to break the meat down. When you eat breads, your body produces base like substances to bread the bread down. When you eat meat and breads together, your body will produce both acid and base together. What happens then? Like we’ve learned from basic Chemistry, the acid and base will cancel each other out. This causes your body to have to work harder and produce additional chemicals just to digest food that shouldn’t be this hard to digest! The food will take longer to digest too which ends up causing putrefaction (spoiling). Long story short, it’s bad for you. Don’t believe me that mixing is bad and ends up causing your body more stress?

Let’s look at an Example

Warning, please avert your eyes if you’re under 21. If you’ve ever drank alcohol before, tell me how messed you’ve gotten after you started mixing several drinks together compared to if you’ve only had one type of drink all night. You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a couple shots of this, then that, then drank some beer, etc… because you’ll know that if you do that, you should also be expecting to throw it back up that night. But if you’ve only had one type of alcohol, your body will have an easier time dealing with it because it only has to deal with one type of substance. The minute you start mixing two, three, four types of foods then things will start to slow down and become more confusing.

Beverages are Almost Pure Sugar

On the topic of beverages, because I’ve seen so many people always ordering a coke or sprite with their hamburger and fries, that stuff is almost pure candy! I have a friend who owns a hamburger stand and sells beverages like 7up, coke, etc. They don’t buy the drink, they buy the syrup that it’s made from. Yes, that’s right, it’s made from pure sugar folks. And if you’ve ever read the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser you’ll know that, something like half, that cup of coke you’re drinking is probably just coke syrup. They add so much sugar, you might as well be injecting it into your veins. When you eat sugar like that you’ll cause your cells at a molecular level to become inflammed and age a lot quicker.

Fries

Same friend who owns that hamburger stand, I saw him make fries. They soak them in oil. After you’ve seen something like that, you’ll never want to eat fries again.

Finishing Thoughts

The way that I started thinking about it is this: when you eat fast food, all you’re doing is temporary satiating your hunger. In the long run, you’re just causing yourself more acne. And I always regret it when I wake up the next morning with a sensitive red spot on the tip of my nose.

The story goes that there was once a man with an incurable disease of the stomach liver. He traveled to many parts of the world visiting many physicians seeking an answer to his problem. Things were looking grim and none could offer any help to the man dying of the plague with infected his body.

As a last resort, the man traveled to a far away place, up high into the mountains to find the mysterious monks. He hoped to finally find peace within himself.

It’s rumored that it was in those temples high in the mountains that the monks presented to him a

But when I come back and finish this article I’ll be sure to tell you all the relation between acne and kefir.

-ray