As an ex-acne sufferer for almost 10 years, I tried a lot of different treatments ranging from the popular ProActiv solutions to even flying to a foreign country to see a famous cosmetologist. But nothing, none of it solved my problem.

Here are some of the things that I’ve tried (There are so many, I’ve forgotten a few but will add them on later if I remember them):

1. Aloe Vera & Products from Forever Living
1. Aloe Vera Drinks
2. Gel
3. Bee Propolis
4. Vitamin B Products
2. Dermatologist
1. Minocycline Antibiotics
2. Tetracycline Antibiotics
3. Benzoyl Peroxide
4. Salicylic Acid
5. Laser Electric Pulse Treatment
6. Steroid Injection
7. Ultraviolet Ray Electric Frequency Treatment
8. Multiple Topical Creams (Different medications mixed into toners, creams, etc.)
3. Cosmetologist
1. Facials
2. Mud Masques
3. Whitening Facial Cream
4. ProActiv Solutions
5. Some other popular brand like ProActiv (but I forget the name)
6. Clean & Clear
1. Acne Creams
2. Facial washes
7. Changing my diet
1. Eating healthy
2. Cutting down on sweets
3. Drinking a ridiculous amount of water (one glass every hour for 10-12 hours)
8. Working out
9. Saunas

I actually tried doing a search for why ProActiv didn’t work for me about 3-4 years ago but found nothing. It’s kind of odd that I’m actually the one, now, who’s posting about it. Alright, that brings us to the main reason you’re all here: so… if ProActiv doesn’t work, what should I do? I’ll have to do a little bit of explaining but stay with me. Trust me, you’ll thank me later you took the time to read this =)

BENZOYL PEROXIDE & PROACTIV SOLUTIONS

Conventional acne medication generally only treats the symptom. Let’s take, for example, the infamous BP or Benzoyl Peroxide, a topical cream that’s applied externally.

Topical acne treatments like salicylic acid or Benzoyl Peroxide do is kill acne bacteria. But after most the acne bacteria is killed on your face, it still doesn’t change the environment of your face. Eventually, the acne bacteria will come back. If you don’t believe me, that’s why you have to continue to use their products otherwise you’ll start breaking out again.

For those of you that Benzoyl Peroxide didn’t even work on, this is because Benzoyl Peroxide couldn’t kill the acne bacteria fast enough compared to the infections that were still happening.

To illustrate what I’m talking about with an analogy, let’s take a pond of water. Healthy people with healthy skin have a nice pond of water with fresh water running in and fresh water running out. This is sort of like their bodies or pores being able to filter out the toxins before it clogs up their pores. If you continue to have this fresh water running in and then having it running out, the possibility of infestation is very low.

But what if you have congesting toxins in your blood and lymph fluid and hormonal imbalance? The congesting toxins would cause your body to not having any “fresh water” running into your “pond”, so to speak. The hormonal imbalance would cause your body not to not be able to filter toxins out, sort of like not having that water running out of your “pond.”

Eventually, you’re pond just becomes a clogged, perfect breeding environment for acne bacteria, a “stagnant pond” if you will. Think of those backyard water fountains that have gone out of use but still have a little bit of water in them. What happens to that stagnant, unmoving water? Eventually it becomes filled with mosquitoes, bacteria, fungus, it’s pretty gross. So what happens if you hose down and pour insecticide in that bacteria infested pond (which is the equivalent of only killing the acne bacteria on your face with benzoyl peroxide)? Obviously, you’ll kill most of the mosquito eggs, most of the mosquitoes, wash out most of the bacteria, etc… And for a little bit it’ll look like that pond’s pretty clean.

But sooner or later, after the insecticide dissipates and fades away, the mosquitoes will come back, the fungus will re-proliferate, and the bacteria will start to grow again. That might be a fine solution for some of you, but also, don’t forget about this. Your body isn’t that random pool of water in your backyard that you don’t really care about. It’s YOUR BODY.

Pouring insecticide on or in your body for a long period of time eventually will start harming it, but we’ll get into that later.

And surprise! What do you think is the main ingredient in ProActiv’s Main 3-step regimen? That’s right, you guessed it, Benzoyl Peroxide. Or check out this website “Nature’s Cure” offering antibiotics and benzoyl peroxide cream (next we cover how bad antibiotics really are). In my opinion, that’s why, if it didn’t work for you, it’s because it really doesn’t work at all.So what’s the best solution here, we focus on getting this “pool” of water running again so it’ll just clean itself and allow us to never have to use any insecticide ever again?

So in the end, some topical treatments might be useful in the short-term to alleviate acne, but you must understand that these topicals really don’t do anything for the underlying cause.

In my blog website, I talk about things like: Have you ever thought about what’s the difference between you and that other person with clear skin? I mean, they barely ever wash their face, they eat like crap, they never sleep, yet their faces are so clear.

But before you click on the link, I want to warn you. This ISN’T going be another one of those 3-days to being completely “acne free” things and I’m NOT offering magical pixy dust to sprinkle into your cereal for only 3 easy payments of $39.95 (But if you’re here, you probably already know that things like that don’t work anyway).

It took me a lot of hard work to finally clear my acne and it will clear for you too, if you want it bad enough. So if you know that you probably don’t want it that bad, then don’t even waste your time with my website. But if you do, like I did, (and let me tell you, I would’ve done anything to have clear skin) you should probably check out my story:

http://howiclearedmyacne.blogspot.com”

-Ray

I used to eat a salad about once every few months. As a matter of fact, I understood that they were healthy, but I didn’t understand nearly how good for me they actually were.

Today, I eat a salad almost everyday. And on days that I don’t, I usually feel pretty guilty about it because I know how healthy they are compared to the vast majority of the food in our society these days.

See, the great thing about salads is that they’re quick, easy to make, fresh with live nutrients & enzymes, and EASY TO MAKE (Although I think I’ve mentioned that already). I’m a college student, and though I can cook to a certain degree (various Asian dishes & soups), I’m extremely lazy when it comes to cooking for myself. I usually want something quick and easy but nothing that will deteriorate my health like Jack & the Box or Burger King.

But these foods aren’t healthy! They lack all the nutrients that your body need, in fact, they actually cause your body to use up more nutrients just to digest them (more on this in a different article post). But salads are the complete opposite, they are live and fresh with lots of enzymes and fiber. They’re probably one of the easiest foods to make out there because salads don’t require any cooking skills. But most importantly, they don’t take hours to prepare! I usually can make a nice size salad and be out of the kitchen in less than 10 minutes.

Now, I’m not saying that salads are the end all be all, but the point is that after I finish one, I “know” that I’ve just eaten a healthy meal and my body is not taking “a hit” just because I felt like indulging myself short term. I think that’s probably one of the hardest things at this point in my life, simply just “avoiding” that bad food eating healthy. It’s such a simple thing: JUST DON’T EAT BAD FOOD (and keep taking the supplements). That’s all it takes and I can wake up every morning, look at myself in the mirror, and admire how clear my skin is. Yet, I still slip up once in a while and eat a bowl of ice cream.

So while you don’t have to dedicate your life to salads, just understand the key principles of eating fresh, live, and fiber rich foods that keep your body alkaline and clean.

If you’re going to eat fruits, stay away from everything except a handful of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and boysenberries. Everything else has too much natural sugar in it which could end up giving you a spike in blood sugar level –> insulin levels to soar –> cellular inflammation –> BAD.

Yes, that would mean that bananas, watermelons, oranges, apples, grapes, etc. are all too high in natural sugars if you have an acne or health problem. They are other sources of food that can give the same nutritional value without the spike in blood sugar level.

The berries that I’ve listed are not only much lower in natural sugar than most other fruits, but they also contain a lot of anti-oxidants. I’m sure many of us have probably heard of this “anti-oxidant” rave that’s been going around. But really, do most of us understand what this is about? Anti-oxidants are what counter free radicals. Okay, what are free radicals? Free radicals are what are produced when you eat bad foods like fried foods. For now, just know that free radicals tear up your system and organs by taking away electrons. Anti-oxidants neutralize them. The more anti-oxidants you have in your body, the less likely free radicals will harm you. There’s actually a lot more detail on this subject, but I don’t think most people are interested in the details. But for now, I just wanted to give you the general idea why everyone is so into this thing called “anti-oxidants.”

One side note is that Granny Smith’s Green Apples are okay to eat. But only so long as they’re Granny Smith GREEN apples because they’re a lot lower in natural sugar than normal apples.

Fruit is designed to be quickly absorbed by the body. So you should eat fruit on an empty stomach. A lot of people make this mistake and usually have fruit with or immediately after their meals. Preferably, you should have it in the morning, as breakfast, when you’re stomach is still empty. It is an excellent source of energy for breakfast and quick healthy too.

I don’t really eat fruits though. Yeah, I know, that was a little bit of a shocker. In general, you can get by without fruits because whether high or low natural sugar levels, they all contain natural sugar which can feed the Candida or bad bacteria living in your stomach. Eventually, it may be okay to eat fruits, but for now, I really just don’t see the need. I can get most of my daily vitamin needs through supplements and most of my fiber via salads or supplements. There’s really no need for me to risk it. I came to this decision after eating the daily amount of the berries that I recommended, it caused my acne to break out a bit so I stopped and the acne lessened too.

Don’t get me wrong, fruits aren’t bad, it just depends on your situation. I had pretty bad acne and a Candida infection (if you have acne you probably do too). As a matter of fact, 90% of Americans have a Candida infection, so you probably do too. One of the first signs is that white film on your tongue when you wake up in the morning that gives you bad breadth. So my point is, if you have a minor case of acne and really like fruit, by all means, go for it. But if you have a serious case of acne and want to be strict with yourself, it’s best to stay away from fruit for a while.

I’ve already gotten used to it, taking like a handful of vitamins everyday. It’s really not a big deal. I know it looks kind ridiculous to most people. But then again, when I think about it, it’s sort of like taking just one multivitamin.

But here’s the thing about multivitamins, you don’t always get the amount of a particular vitamin that you need and you don’t always get the type of vitamin that you need. What I mean by that is, if you look at the back of a multivitamin box, you’ll notice that they don’t always give you the amount that you want. For example, this one particular multivitamin might have 500% of my daily recommended value of vitamin C but only 5% of my daily recommended value of… say… vitamin X (there’s no such thing as vitamin X by the way). Am I going to eat 20 multivitamins just to get my daily value of vitamin X? That would be insane.

The second thing is, when I choose, individually, which vitamins that I want to take, I can pick which sources or brands that I want. I’m still getting the same nutrition, I just feel a lot better about setting my sources and the amounts that I’m getting. I don’t really care about swallowing more vitamins, I just think of it as the more advanced strategy because I already know what I want to take.

I’m going to be explaining each one of these pictures from the first one on top to the last one on the bottom so you can sort of get an idea of how to set things up if you decide to get started. No, I’m not a freak, in fact, had I met someone doing something like this a little bit more than a year ago I would’ve been quite shocked too. But, at this point in my life, I have one clear goal in my mind: I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get my body back in shape and to have clear skin. Even if it means eating vitamin C.

The first picture is just a shot of where I put my vitamins. I put them in two large plastic containers and then place the containers in a cupboard. Sometimes, I will put some vitamins or enzymes on top to remind myself of specialized vitamins that I might have to take on a particular schedule apart from the rest of the daily vitamins.

The second picture is of what’s inside the two plastic containers. There are a ton of things ranging from vitamin B, C, E, Selenium, Zinc, Magnesium, Lecithin, Aloe, etc.. I bought one of those daily vitamin containers to make my life easier. It sorts out what vitamins you have to take each day at what time. That’s what the 3rd shot is of, a close up of these removable compartments that I can take around if I ever have to go out. As you can see, it’s supposed to sort out which vitamins you take in the morning, which you take in the afternoon and so on. I take all of them at once right after lunch. Yeah, that’s right, I go through all morning, afternoon, evening, and bed right after lunch.

The 4th picture is of what’s downstairs. I keep a basket downstairs in the kitchen filled with coconut oil, kefir, raisins, nuts from Costco, and various forms of fiber. I often will use the ingredients in this basket to make salads or just mix with water if I need a fiber supplement.

The last and final picture is of kefir, which I keep downstairs in the kitchen as well. I keep the kefir in jars covered with paper towels. The paper towels are then secured tightly with metal caps.