Clear For Life

ClearForLife
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20072010SeppoPuusa
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Thisinformationisintendedtoinformreadersofpotentialhealthcarealternativestoacne
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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010
http://www.clear-for-life.com
ClearForLife
Disclosures The Full Monty
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ClearForLife
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 7
Why you can never cure acne ................................................................................................... 11
What causes acne ...................................................................................................................... 13
Blood sugar problems ........................................................................................................... 15
Blood sugar levels and acne .............................................................................................. 15
Inflammation and acne.......................................................................................................... 18
Baseline of health.................................................................................................................. 20
Emotional health and self-esteem the secret ingredients behind clear skin and happy life ... 24
The story of two minds and how I messed up my coffee ..................................................... 25
Internal Map of Reality The software that creates your reality ......................................... 28
How your internal map of reality developed .................................................................... 39
Internal map of reality and clear skin................................................................................ 40
Mapping your emotional health ........................................................................................ 47
How to cure acne ...................................................................................................................... 50
Elements of optimal health ....................................................................................................... 52
Diet........................................................................................................................................ 52
Fitness ................................................................................................................................... 53
Sunshine ................................................................................................................................ 54
Fresh air ................................................................................................................................ 56
Sleep...................................................................................................................................... 57
Whats your weakest link? .................................................................................................... 58
Acid/alkaline balance ............................................................................................................ 61
Diet ............................................................................................................................................ 63
How foods cause acne........................................................................................................... 64
Diet and inflammation ...................................................................................................... 65
Diet and blood sugar levels ............................................................................................... 67
Eating your way to clear skin ............................................................................................ 68
Cooked vs. raw ..................................................................................................................... 68
Problems with cooked food............................................................................................... 68
Benefits of cooking ........................................................................................................... 70
Cooked vs. raw recommendations .................................................................................... 71
Causes of indigestion ............................................................................................................ 72
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Essential fatty acids .............................................................................................................. 73
Blood sugar controls and problems ...................................................................................... 76
How blood sugar controls fail ........................................................................................... 77
How do you know if your blood sugars are out of control? ............................................. 80
Restoring blood sugar controls ......................................................................................... 82
Food allergies ........................................................................................................................ 85
Building a diet that gets you clear ........................................................................................ 96
Comments on different food groups ..................................................................................... 99
Practical diet tips ................................................................................................................. 109
Supplements ........................................................................................................................ 114
Working on the physical elements of health ........................................................................... 115
Fresh air and proper breathing techniques .......................................................................... 115
Sunlight ............................................................................................................................... 117
Fitness ................................................................................................................................. 119
Threshold a new look at stress ............................................................................................. 120
Threshold solutions ............................................................................................................. 124
Increase your threshold ................................................................................................... 125
Recommended action plan for eliminating stress, dysfunctional emotions and behaviors 132
Understanding the detox and healing process ......................................................................... 137
What is detoxification ......................................................................................................... 137
How you can help your body to detox ................................................................................ 140
Digestive stress ................................................................................................................... 141
Fasting ................................................................................................................................. 141
Healing crisis ...................................................................................................................... 143
How healing happens .......................................................................................................... 144
How long does it take to get clear? ..................................................................................... 147
Why does it take so long to get clear? ................................................................................ 150
Cleansing and detoxing ........................................................................................................... 153
Preparing for a cleanse ........................................................................................................ 153
How long you should cleanse ............................................................................................. 154
Example cleanses and detox diets ....................................................................................... 154
Breaking the fast ................................................................................................................. 158
Topical treatments ................................................................................................................... 160
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How a happy and meaningful life leads to clear skin ............................................................. 162
From curse to opportunity of a lifetime .................................................................................. 165
Further resources ..................................................................................................................... 167
Books .................................................................................................................................. 167
Other resources ................................................................................................................... 169
Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 172
Healthy cooking methods ................................................................................................... 172
Gluten and acne The hidden connection .......................................................................... 173
How milk causes acne......................................................................................................... 178
ClearForLife
Introduction
Live healthy. Be happy. Get clear.
Six words! One simple, yet powerful and liberating message. Those six words coalesce the
idea behind Clear for Life. Keeping these six words as your mantra, follow the rest of the
book, which details the substance and the science behind the words that will ensure you get
clear for life.
Many people feel tempted to dismiss the message of these six words as too good to be true.
There has to be more to acneor freedom from itthan that. They point to the people who
live obviously unhealthy lives and still have clear skin. They say if acne would be only about
health it wouldnt be such widespread problem. After all, health is not that complicated
right?
You know whats healthy, dont you? And you believe you are healthy. Aside from a common
cold once in a while you have no problems. And everybody catches a cold. So theres nothing
wrong with you and you are in great health right?
And therein lies the problem. In the West we think of health as absence of disease. As long as
we are able to get up in the morning and go on with our daily lives, we tend to think of
ourselves as being in great health. This reflects how doctors trained in Western medicine
define health; the absence of disease or outward symptoms of ill health.
Im going to suggest this is not a very good definition of health at all, and that it doesnt serve
you in your journey to clear skin. If you believe you are already in good health, why would
you do anything to improve your health?
Clearly we need to redefine what health means.
The World Health Organization offers a much better definition of health.
A state of complete physical, social and mental well-being, and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity. Health is a resource for everyday life,
not the object of living. It is a positive concept emphasizing social and
personal resources as well as physical capabilities.
The World Health Organization
Frequently asked questions
What is the WHO definition of health?
http://www.who.int/suggestions/faq/en/index.html
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This is a far more useful definition because it defines health in positive terms, as well-being
and a resource, instead of negative, as absence of disease.
Health is a state of vibrant wellbeing and joyous existence. When you are in a state of perfect
health people can see it and you can actually feel it. You have that healthy glow and a spring
in your step. You are happy for no specific reason and people like to be around you. You are
charged with positive attitude and truly believe in yourself and in your capabilities. You dont
need an alarm clock to wake you up in the morning. You wake up rested, full of energy and
ready to go.
Capturing this state in words is difficult. You have to experience it. Perhaps youve had one of
those days when everything just went your way. You had seemingly endless energy and felt
fantastic the whole day through. Whatever you had to do you accomplished easily. Imagine
living most of the days with the same energy and you understand what real health means.
Consider children. They are full of energy, laughing and running around the whole day. No
way could you have them sit a whole day semi-depressed in their rooms. Im not suggesting
you should become like a child again, but by observing children we can get an idea of what
real health feels like; when your body and mind are still pure.
Contrast this with how you feel on your average day. Difficulties getting up in the morning?
Feeling sleepy after lunch? Feel less than positive about yourself? Know you should exercise
but just dont have the energy? Got cravings for foods you know you shouldnt eat?
If so, perhaps Dr. Douglas Grahams words apply to you too.
People are sicker than they give themselves credit for.

Dr. Douglass Graham interviewed by Frederic Patenaude
In The Perfect Health Program
The reason we have lost that child-like energy and positive attitude is not because we have
grown up. Its because through our diet, lifestyle and mental choices we have allowed our
health to degrade to a point where our minds are dull and our bodies lack the energy and
vitality to enjoy the very essence of life.
When we talk about health, I believe we have to go beyond the body. A truly healthy body
requires a healthy mind. A depressed, negative and stress-filled mind robs the essence of
health from you. It robs the joy of living. It robs the positive spirit that makes life worth living.
We are all well aware that mind and body are connected and affect each other in powerful
ways. Its hard to be positive when your body is ravaged with illness. Similarly, living under
constant fear and stress takes a serious toll on the body. Even the Western medical
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establishment has begun to understand and accept this. To be in perfect health you need to pay
attention to both the physical and emotional levels of health.
Here, then, are few indicators of perfect health you can check yourself against.
On the physical level you are in perfect health when:
All parts of your body glow with health

You have almost boundless energy
You sleep soundly, wake up easily and full of energy
You are able to do and enjoy strenuous physical exercise
You have an athletic and toned body
You have strength to withstand the stresses of life without falling sick, that is, you are
rarely or never sick
On the emotional level you are in perfect health when.
You are happy for no reason

You have a positive outlook on life
You have a positive self-image and believe in your capabilities
You are in control of your emotional state and can remain happy and peaceful no matter
what happens
Think about your friends and family. Given the above indicators, how many of them are really
healthy? Unfortunately for most people the answer is none. What about you? Can you
honestly say you meet those standards?
If not, its time to celebrate. You just found the elusive answer youve been looking for all
these years. What I described above is not some supernatural state reserved for the selected
few with Perfect Genes or who somehow exist in some highly Meditative Trance.
Believe it or not, that state of perfect health is your natural state. Your body constantly strives
to regain it. Alas, most people never allow their bodies to regain that natural state of perfect
health. They prevent it, perhaps unwittingly, through their actions, or they are blocked from it
through some force in their environment (such as radiation or strong electromagnetic fields).
Youve been in that state before. Remember when you were a kid and had so much energy and
enthusiasm that nothing could stop you? By following the information and guidelines
presented in these pages you can help your body to regain that state of perfect health.
Diseases, acne among them, are really nothing more than corruption of health and vitality. As
you allow your body to return to health you reverse the disease process. Healing is reversal of
the disease process.
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Thats why I believe that working to improve your health, wellbeing and happiness is the only
reliable path to permanently clear skin. And because of the side-benefits (not effects, benefits)
its also a motivating and fun process. You get to see your energy levels go through the roof.
You get to experience your body becoming trim, toned and athletic. You get to feel stress and
negative emotions disappear, and happiness and peace of mind take their place. You get a
major confidence boost. You get to watch yourself perform better athletically and socially.
How many other acne treatments that you know can do the same?
If that sounds like a lot, I admit, its easier said than done. I also admit its not going to happen
overnight, or even next week, and that its going to take some effort and persistence. Like all
good things in life you have to pay the price and earn it.
The price is the effort and determination that earns the freedom for you. But the reward tastes
so much sweeter when you know youve earned it by the sweat of your brow, strength of
your back, and courage in your heart (for those who enjoy The Pirates of The Caribbean
movies).
The rest of this book explains how to pay that price. Well talk about the six elements of
health and their effect on your overall health and skin. As you start working on these elements,
you stop participating in the causes of disease and start participating in the causes of health.
Soon afterwards you will start to see results as your body stops producing symptoms and starts
producing health. Simple cause and effect.
I know you are anxious to get started so I wont keep you much longer. I just want to close
this section with a few words about whats coming up.
Well start by looking at how misunderstandings about the nature of the human body lead to
misconceived ideas about diseases and their cures. Moving forward, well look at the physical
and mental causes of acne. Then well move on to curing acne. Well go through the six
elements of health, and how they contribute to health, or how the lack thereof contributes to
illness.
At this point well leave theory behind and move into more practical matters. I walk you
through a simple exercise that uncovers your weak links. These are the areas you need to focus
on first. Well look at how to improve each element of health. This gives you the what (your
weak links) and how (how to improve each element of health) of your personal clear skin plan.
Finally, we talk about detoxification; what it is, and common misconceptions about it. Well
look at how to use this powerful health-building tool. Well conclude by looking at the essence
of getting clear and how to turn acne from a curse into a powerful opportunity that can propel
the quality of your life to new heights.
I promise this will be an exciting journey for you. I wish you all the best on your journey to
clear skin.
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Whyyoucannevercureacne
Have you ever wondered why acne cures have such a miserable track record? Why is it that
the brightest minds in the medical profession cant solve a simple problem of pimples? Its not
because of money. Acne treatment is big business and anyone who could come up with a cureall would get richvery rich. People are desperate for a cure and would be willing to pay
almost anything for it.
Im going to let you in on a little secret. Theres never going to be a cure for acne. All the
efforts to cure acne are based on a wrong mindset. All cures start with the assumption that
theres something wrong with the bodythat something causes acne and must be fixed. This
kind of thinking is very common in Western medical sciences that are based on reductionist
thinking (trying to reduce everything to their fundamental building blocks). Its based on the
assumption that the human body is a machine.
While reductionist thinking has been very helpful in advancing our scientific understanding on
many fronts, it fails miserably when applied to complex systems such as the human body, the
weather or financial markets.
It fails because the human body is not a machine put together by some celestial watch maker.
You know that your body is made of cells right? Scientists used to think cells are simple
building blocks with little relevance of their own. The work of cell biologists Dr. Bruce
Lipton, among others, has shown this not to be the case.
We now know that each of those 50 to 100 trillion cells that make up your body is an
intelligent and sentient being. You can take them out of your body and they continue living on
their own. They exhibit intelligent behavior by moving towards food and away from toxins
and other dangers. The cells are capable of sensory perception. In the cell membranes they
have antennas that perceive the environment. When a cell is in a safe and nurturing
environment it thrives and seeks to reproduce. When its in a hostile environment it tries to
protect itself. In other words, the environment that the cell is in has a direct impact on its
wellbeing.
So what do you get when you put an intelligent and a sentient being together? You dont get a
machine, you get a community. You could think of your body as a city.
Human cities have their problems. New York has homeless people but nobody in their right
mind would say New York is broken and needs to be fixed. We understand that the problems
cities face (crime, unemployment, poverty, etc.) are quite complex.
Reductionist thinking might try to solve crime by putting more cops on the streets. While this
might help, simply strengthening the police force will never get rid of all crime. Humans are
opportunistic. Individuals are often pushed to crime because they see it as the only way to
make the ends meet given their current situation. If the city could offer better employment
opportunities, perhaps people would be less inclined to commit crimes. While police act as a
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deterrent to crime, its the situation (environment) people are in that determines their
inclination to commit crimes. Most people stay away from crime given good prospects of
honest employment and comfortable living. The employment situation is in turn affected by
factors such as taxation, availability of skilled labor, labor costs, raw materials and
infrastructure.
Its easy to understand that we can never win the war against crime by fighting crime itself.
We can win by improving the economic environment for companies to grow and prosper, by
encouraging entrepreneurship and by making the city a more lucrative investment opportunity.
I hope this analogy helps you to understand why you can never win the war against acne by
fighting it directly. Cures based on reductionist thinking (pretty much all acne cures) could
work if your body would behave like a machine. But it doesnt. It behaves like the community
it is. You can get permanently clear skin by improving the environment your cells live in. You
do this through healthy diet and lifestyle choices.
Supplements, pills, flushes, cleanses, washes and laser treatments often fail because they try to
fix the problems without improving your internal environment. Create a healthy and happy
environment and the community thrives, and health and clear skin follow shortly afterwards.
Ignore the environment and you are like a dog chasing its tail.
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Whatcausesacne
Now that you understand why your health may not be at the optimal level, lets turn our focus
back to acne. In this chapter, we look at how a steady decline in health leads to acne.
I realized that nearly everything people knowor think they knowabout acne and its causes
is mostly wrong. That leads them to look for solutions in the wrong places. I would even go so
far as to suggest this misunderstanding of the cause of acne keeps most people from getting
clear.
To the best of my understanding, based on all the research I have done, acne is result of evil
twins: chronic, low-grade inflammation and blood sugar problems. Inflammation and blood
sugar problems are linked and they reinforce each other. Some doctors have suggested they
are like two sides of the same coin.
SIDENOTE: The human body is an incredibly complicated organism and any model trying to describe what
happens in the body has limitations. So does this blood sugar and inflammation model on acne. Nevertheless,
basing your efforts to get clear on this model gives better, more reliable and longer lasting results than any other
model Ive seen (including the ones based on toxins, weak digestion, clogged liver and leaky gut syndrome).
Together they:
Lead to clogged pores

Weaken the immune system, allowing acne-causing bacteria to multiply
Inflame your pimples
Let's see how they work..

Heres the big picture:
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In the middle of the figure is what I call acne engine.

As you can see, both sides of the acne engine need to be present before you get acne.
Unfortunately, chronic, low-intensity inflammation leads to blood sugar problems and vice
versa. They feed each other.
If you have blood sugar problems, it means your blood sugar levels swing too much (they rise
too high and dip too low). The core of the problem is your body cannot clear glucose from the
bloodstream quickly enough, which leads to blood sugar levels that are too high.
Glucose is a simple sugar and an inflammatory substance. Your cells need sugar, but too much
glucose in the bloodstream is dangerous in extreme cases even fatal. On the flip side,
inflammation reduces insulin sensitivity, which is just a step away from blood sugar issues.
But let's see how chronic inflammation and blood sugar problems may contribute to acne.
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Bloodsugarproblems
In the recent years the role of blood sugar problems in many diseases has been recognized.
Blood sugar problems have been linked to most degenerative conditions, acne being one of
them.
Blood sugar levels are like the fuel in your cars tank. Sugar is one of the fuels your body runs
on.
As you look at sugar from that perspective you understand how important it is. Rapid changes
in blood sugar levels can cause severe problems. Too high or low blood sugar levels can be
fatal. Thats why your body has elaborate mechanisms to control blood sugar levels.
Unfortunately, even those cannot keep up with the onslaught of years of modern diets; as is
evident from the explosion of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, chronic fatigue and other blood
sugar related disorders.
Lets explore how blood sugar problems lead to acne.
Bloodsugarlevelsandacne
Summarized below is a study here by Dr. Loren Cordain called Implications for the Role of
Diet in Acne. You can read the complete study at this website:
http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Final%20Acne%20Article.pdf (PFD-file).
I translated the study from medical jargon into common English, so its a bit easier to
understand.
Dr. Cordains study found that swings in blood sugar level cause acne by:
Increasing sebum (the oily substance secreted by skin glands) production

Causing skin cells to regenerate faster
Preventing dead skin cells from separating after they die.
Faster regeneration of skin cells means that more dead skin cells have to be pushed through
skin pores (as skin cells divide and die at a faster rate). This also means your skin ages faster.
When dead skin cells stick together they have to be pushed through narrow skin pores in big
lumps instead of single cells. It's like diverting heavy highway truck traffic through narrow
village roads. That can only mean traffic jams.
Throw in a good measure of sticky sebum and I'm sure you understand it can only mean one
thing: clogged skin pores.
This figure summarizes Dr. Cordains findings.
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The red line shows what happens to your blood sugar levels when you eat foods with high
glycemic index (GI). The green line shows the same for low GI foods. Glycemic index is a
measure of how quickly a particular food increases your blood sugar levels.
Eating high GI foods spikes your blood sugar levels. The pancreas responds by releasing large
quantities of insulin to bring down the blood sugar levels. It has to do this because high blood
sugar levels are dangerous.
Large quantities of insulin cause blood sugar levels to plummet. Too low blood sugar levels
trigger another emergency response. The adrenalin glands release androgens (male sex
hormones). Androgens signal the liver to release some of its glycogen (sugar) storages to raise
the blood sugar levels. Too low blood sugar levels can lead to unconsciousness.
Incidentally, low blood sugar levels trigger serious sugar cravings. With these cravings
hammering the back of your head it's very likely that you'll grab something sweet (high GI)
and repeat the process.
If this would happen only once in a while it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, our modern
diets are full of processed foods filled with refined carbohydrates and sugar. So this becomes a
daily cycle.
As if this wasnt bad enough, in our ignorance we make the situation even worse. Through our
diet and lifestyle choices we bring about a condition called insulin resistance. Insulin
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resistance means insulin becomes less effective. Now the pancreas needs to pump out even
more insulin to clear the excess glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream. Over time the situation
spirals downwards. As insulin resistance gets worse, the pancreas needs to pump out even
more insulin. This is an 8-lane highway to acne, metabolic syndrome, chronic fatigue and
diabetes as eventually the pancreas cannot cope with the stress anymore. This is the reason
some doctors call acne skin diabetes.
So, now you have this escalating cycle in which more and more insulin is circulating in your
bloodstream. If (and when) your blood sugar level swings, you also get a steady supply of
androgens.
Insulin never works alone. It's a precursor to most of the hormones in your body and affects
other hormones. In this case we are interested in insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and
insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3). When insulin levels go up, IGF-1
follows the lead, but IGFBP-3 levels drop.
So how does this cause acne?
Insulin, IGF-1 and androgens all increase sebum production. IGF-1 is a growth hormone and
increases the rate at which skin cells regenerate. IGFBP-3 facilitates separation of skin cells
after they die. So now you have a steady supply of three hormones that increase sebum
production, more of a hormone that makes skin cells regenerate and die faster, and less of a
hormone that helps the skin cells to separate when they die.
Its easy to see how that can lead to blocked pores and acneits a perfect storm.
But this is just a part of the equation.
Despite there being a correlation of acne with elevated IGF-1 and DHEAS
[a type of androgen], it would be difficult to use these hormones as
laboratory markers of adult acne in the clinical setting because levels are
usually within the normal range. Undoubtedly, these hormones have
important effects in other organ systems in the adult in addition to effects in
the skin, and therefore nonspecific inhibition of hormone synthesis could
have undesirable effects.
Correlation Between Serum Levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1, Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate,
and Dihydrotestosterone and Acne Lesion Counts in Adult Women
Mark Cappel, MD; David Mauger, PhD; Diane Thiboutot, MD
ARCH DERMATOL/VOL 141, MAR 2005
www.archdermatol.com
In plain English, that means that IGF-1 and androgen levels cause acne in acne prone
individuals, but the levels are roughly the same both for people with and without acne. This is
no surprise, as people with acne eat similar diets and live similar lifestyles as people without
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acne do. However, something makes acne victims react to these hormones in a way that causes
acne.
Now lets look at the other side of acne engine; inflammation.
Inflammationandacne
Inflammation is the body's response to injury. Healing begins with inflammation. So it's a
useful thing to have. Without inflammation we couldnt heal and would die quickly.
But, like all good things, too much of it is bad.
Inflammation is meant to last only a short time. It is meant to be acute, to promote healing and
then go away. However with our modern diets and lifestyles we've created something new:
chronic, low-intensity inflammation.
Chronic inflammation is the response to internal injuries. Imagine that somehow very, very
small pieces of glass got into your bloodstream. These pieces of glass cause millions of small
cuts to your cells.
Substitute the pieces of glass with free radicals and you understand what happens inside of
you. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that damage the cells they come in contact
with. Unfortunately, modern diet and lifestyle give us a bountiful supply of free radicals. For
example, free radicals are generated by:
Exposure to chemicals
Pollution in air and water
Toxins
Eating inflammatory foods
Chemicals and additives in foods
Eating foods you are allergic to
Indigestion (which leads to putrefaction of food and generation of toxins)
Bacteria
Lack of sleep
Stress
Sedentary lifestyle
Free radicals arent all bad. They are part of the immune system and they kill pathogens
(bacteria, viruses and parasites). Free radicals are also generated when your cells turn sugar
and fat into energy. The human body has a well developed defense mechanism against free
radicals; antioxidants. But our diet and lifestyle choices have left us deficient in antioxidants,
our only defense against free radicals. As a result, free radicals ravage destruction through the
body.
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Chronic inflammation happens when the immune system keeps fixing these tiny, tiny injuries.
As this happens constantly over a prolonged time and throughout the body, this becomes a
serious problem.
Chronic inflammation keeps your immune system on high alert all the time. This constant
alertness is stressful to your body and weakens the immune system substantially.
It can also lead to heart attack, arthritis, diabetes and other serious health issues.
What does it mean when your immune system is weakened? It means the sheriff is out and the
bad guys have a field-day. It means the acne-causing bacteria can multiply out of control and
colonize your skin pores.
Chronic inflammation also makes your immune system trigger-happy and prone to
overreacting.
You just learned how swings in blood sugar levels lead to blocked pores full of yummy sebum
for acne causing bacteria. So when bacteria multiply in blocked pores, the immune system
attacks viciously and perhaps triggers an intense inflammatory response. This turns small
harmless pimples into big, red and painful cysts.
So there you have it:
Blocked pores + extra sebum + overgrowth of bacteria + inflammation = acne
Please understand that this didn't happen overnight. It took years before things got to a point
where you developed acne.
Your body is constantly trying to fix things, and you need a serious imbalance to get to a point
where the immune system weakens and blood sugar controls fail. These are vital systems and
the body does everything it can to keep them in good order.
Simply put, things are seriously out of order well before you actually get acne.
It also means you have plenty of fuel for the acne engine stored in your body.
Consequently, acne won't go away immediately no matter what you do. It takes a while for the
fuel storages to drain empty. I'm not saying this to bum you out. In fact just the opposite, to
make you aware of the patience you need to have when you may not get the results that you
want as quickly as youd like to, or as you might have expected.
This also explains why its futile to think you can get clear by finding what causes acne and
then simply erasing that cause. In all but extreme cases theres not a single thing that caused
your blood sugar controls to fail, or your immune system to weaken. Its a combination of
many small effects working together.
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Rather than thinking theres a single cause for acne let me give you a more accurate picture of
this disease.
Baselineofhealth
It's called the baseline of health curve. I learned this from one of the leading expert in natural
health field, Dr. Jon Barron.
In the figure your level of health is on the Y-axis. On the X-axis are all the bodily systems and
functions. In reality, your body has thousands and thousands of systems and functions, but for
this simplified example I picked few that are commonly associated with acne.
The blue line represents the health of different bodily systems. Its called the baseline of
health. The red line is where you get acne. As long as your systems and organs function above
this level you remain clear. But as soon as any part of your baseline of health dips below the
red line you get pimples.
In this example the person would get acne because the health of his or her immune and
digestive systems dipped below the acne line.
Depending on genetic makeup, the red acne line is at different positions for different people.
In other words, some people get acne easily, while some people can abuse their body more
before getting pimples. Some wont get acne at all, but will likely get other problems.
Remember that everybody has to pay the piper for our health crimes. Only the payment
method varies!
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Baseline of health is also like a 'fuel indicator' for the acne engine. The lower the baseline of
health, the more fuel the acne engine has.
The baseline of health is not constant. It moves up and down depending on your lifestyle.
Things such as unhealthy diet, stress and negative emotions and exposure to toxic chemicals
press the baseline of health down. On the flipside, healthy diet, exercise, fresh air, sunlight and
positive attitude lift the baseline of health.
Depending on which side is stronger, the baseline of health moves up and down.
At birth, your baseline of health was far above the acne line. However, over the years (perhaps
even decades) unhealthy diet, stress and chemicals have pressed your baseline of health further
and further down. Until one day when you noticed pimples.
The baseline of health concept is a tool to guide your thinking rather than an actual physical or
emotional trait with immediate practical application. In reality you never know what your
baseline of health looks like. You never know which part(s) dipped below the acne line.
In this light, therefore, the only reasonable choice is to lift your entire baseline of health.
Just as stress, unhealthy diet and chemicals press your baseline of health down and fuel the
acne engine, the six elements of health lift your baseline and drain the fuel out of the acne
engine.
This is perhaps the most important point to understand. Operating on the basis of this model
automatically directs you towards the things that get you clear.
Before we get to curing acne I want to address a common question I get. The baseline of
health concept explains this nicely.
Why does acne treatment X [insert an acne treatment] get one person clear but does
nothing to help another person?
Another variation of the same theme is the mistaken belief that everybody has to find their
own regimen or solution.
Acne forums are filled with misinformed people misinforming other misinformed people that
they need to find their own regimen; a classic case of blind leading the blind.
As you soon discover this, you realize that the odds of getting clear this way are strongly
stacked against you. Moreover, you are likely to try a dozen different regimens that do not
work, which will result in even more discouragement and unhappiness.
Lets start by meeting Mike.
One fine day, Mike was surfing the net looking for a solution to his acne problem. He came
across Tinas post at an acne forum. Tina enthusiastically explained to everybody that she got
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clear by taking XYZ supplement. According to her, this supplement is the answer to acne and
everybody should take it. Some other people also posted enthusiastic praises for this
supplement.
So Mike thinks he has finally found the answer and runs to the health store to get a big supply
of XYZ supplement. He gobbles it down like a starving hippo.
Feeling happy about himself he waits, and waits, and waits
Despite the large doses of the supplement nothing seems to be happening. He still has acne
and the pimples are as ugly as ever.
How could this be? The supplement worked for all those other people, why not for Mike?
Lets examine what happened.
Heres Tinas baseline of health graph. The blue line is the old baseline of health and the
orange line shows what happens after she started taking the supplement.
As you can see her acne is triggered by problems with the liver. The XYZ supplement helped
her liver and immune system and her pimples disappeared.
Heres Mikes baseline of health graph. As you can see the supplement has helped his liver
and immune system just like it did for Tina. Its just that Mikes acne is triggered by
hormonal problems and a lazy digestive system. So for treating Mikes acne the XYZ
supplement is useless.
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The bottom line here is that the XYZ supplement used by both Tina and Mike to treat acne
produced entirely different results. What does this mean?
It means that gulping down miracle herbs and super supplements to treat acne is like trying to
hit a clay pigeon in the sky with a 22-calibre rifle while blindfolded. The odds are against
you.
Another problem with this approach is the fact that baseline of health is in a constant state of
flux. There are no guarantees that what works today keeps working tomorrow. Its common
knowledge among acne victims that treatments often work for a while and then stop working.
And when that happens you are back at square onenot to mention also being confused,
bewildered and wondering what happened.
The only way to cure acne that works for everybody, every time and all the time is to live a
healthy and balanced life that lifts your entire baseline of health above the acne line.
That is the inconvenient truth about acne.

You can gripe, whine and moan as much as you want but it doesnt change this basic fact. To
get clear you have to accept total responsibility for, and take constant, continuous action,
to build your health. And you have to keep at it as long as it takes.
The sooner you can do that the sooner you get clear.
Luckily, this is far easier to do than you may think. And in the process you become much
happier and you grow more as a person. Plus you can stop wasting money on supplements and
other useless pills!
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Emotionalhealthandselfesteemthesecretingredientsbehindclear
skinandhappylife
Lets revisit the you as a city metaphor again. This time lets take it a bit further, and youll
get to discover whether you are a dictator or a liberator. Ill let Dr. Lipton explain this.
Q: What did you mean by this statement: A human organism is not a

singular individual, it is in reality, a community?
A: When we look into a mirror we usually recognize the image as our self, a
single living human entity. But this is a misperception, because in truth the
cells are the living entities. An individual human is actually close-knit
community of approximately 50 trillion cells. Every cell is intelligent and
can survive outside of your body by living and growing in a tissue culture
dish.
However, when in the body, each cell is an integral part of a community,
working with the other cells that share the common vision of the community.
The nervous system acts as a government that controls and coordinates the
functions of the bodys cells. When the mind serves as a good
government, the cellular community is in harmony and expresses health. If
the mind is confused, angered, in fear or disturbed, it can destroy the
harmony of the cellular community and lead to dis-ease or even death.
Just remember, your thoughts are sent to the bodys cells via neurochemicals and nerve transmission. If you are harsh on yourself, its your
cells that are the ones that physically feel the brunt of your anger. Cells are
generally very loyal, to the extent that if you so wish it, they will actually
commit suicide (apoptosis in the cellular world). Positive and negative
thoughts shape your biology, for your mind is actually governing 50
trillion cells.
Dr. Bruce Lipton
Interview with Bruce in Planeta Magazine - part 3
http://www.brucelipton.com/interviews/interview-with-bruce-in-planeta-magazine-part-3
So what kind of a government are you? Have you been nurturing a healthy and prosperous
community, or does it seem youve been a dictator and your cells have repeatedly borne the
brunt of your iron fist?
Even if you discovered that Stalin, Hitler and Mao could have learned few trick from you,
dont worry, this chapter takes you into a fascinating journey to the depths of your mind.
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Youll discover howso faryouve been at the whim of your mind, and, more importantly,
how to take charge of your life so you can be happy and peaceful and your cells can finally get
good government.
ThestoryoftwomindsandhowImessedupmycoffee
True story: I was just making a cup of coffee. I emptied a sachet (instant coffee, I know its a
crime) into my cup and set the water to boil. While waiting for the water to boil I did
something else. When the water was ready I opened another sachet of coffee and poured into
my cup. Only after noticing an extra high pile of coffee powder in my cup did I realized my
mistake. What was I thinking?
How many times have you done something similar?
Why do so many people fail to lose weight when they try, even the ones with plenty of selfdiscipline?
I bet you have bad habitsthings that you know are not good for you, but you still keep doing
them. Why? And how many times have you tried to build better habits? You were pumped
with motivation and it was something you really wanted to do. Still, after a few weeks, you
found yourself back at where you started.
Thanks for bumming me out! And what does this have to do with my skin?
Actually, this has a lot to do with your skin. So hear me out, and I really didnt mean to bum
you out so sorry about that.
All those are examples of your subconscious mind running the show.
So what was I thinking when I was making my cup of coffee? Nothing, I was on autopilot.
My conscious mind was wandering somewhere else while my subconscious mind was in
charge. My subconscious mind was running a program called Lets make a cup of coffee
(boil water, powder into a cup, pour water over powder, mix and pretend to enjoy this awful
tasting short-cut concoction). Thats why I emptied another sachet of coffee into my cup. My
subconscious mind had started the program over again.
For the purpose of our discussion, think of your mind as divided into two parts: the conscious
mind and the subconscious mind.
Some functions of the conscious mind:
Thinking
Analyzing
Judging
Evaluating
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The conscious part of your mind is the one you are familiar with. When you think and talk to
yourself inside your head you do so with your conscious mind. The conscious mind can
analyze things, weigh on different options and make decisions based on the analysis.
The subconscious mind is a different beast altogether. Its more like a computer; in that its
based on programs and has no analytical capability. It simply executes those programs
without thinking or judging them. Its all raw computing power with no decision making of its
own.
Here are a few examples of what the subconscious mind does:
Managing and regulating your bodily systems. Blood pressure, blood sugar levels,
hormonal balance, immune system functioning, digestion and millions of other systems
and functions are carried out by the subconscious mind. Your heart beats without you
thinking about it. You breathe even if you dont pay attention to it. You dont have to
consciously think about digesting your food, but it still happens. All of these functions
are under the control of your subconscious mind.
Executes the vast majority of actions. Most of your actions are controlled by the
subconscious mind. When you walk you dont have to consciously think of moving your
feet and which muscles to fire and when, and if you did youd probably fall (think of a
baby learning to walk). Instead you simply intend to walk from point A to point B and
hand the execution to your subconscious mind. The same way as I type this, I dont
consciously think of which key to press (the hunt and peck method). That way of typing
is extremely slow. Instead my fingers dance on the keyboard, directed by the
subconscious mind, and the text just appears on the screen. I could just as well close my
eyes and it would make little difference (I typed this whole paragraph with my eyes
closed and didnt make a single typo). Researchers who study the brain estimate that 95%
to 99% of our behaviors are controlled by the subconscious mind.
Stores every experience youve ever had. Your subconscious mind stores everything
that ever happened to you; every word you spoke, every word and sound you heard,
everything youve ever seen. Its all stored in the neural cell patterns of the brain. With
hypnosis one can access this information. For example, hypnotists have taken people
back to when they were only few years old and have had them repeat, word-for-word,
what their moms told them in that situation. You never really forget anything; you simply
lose access to it.
Scans the environment for important information and brings it to your conscious
attention. Every second millions of bits of information come through your senses yet you
are only aware of few thousand of them; a minute fraction. The subconscious mind
analyzes all the incoming information and decides, largely based on your beliefs and
values, whats important. It then focuses your attention on the important information. A
part of the brain called the amygdala controls this filtering process. This is the reason
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why everything in a noisy environment can fade into background noise, but as soon as
someone calls your name you snap to attention and look at the person who is calling you,
or why a mother can hear a baby crying from the other side of the house.
As you can see the subconscious mind is extremely powerful and you couldnt function
without it.
Now that you have a basic understanding of your two minds, lets get to some interesting parts
and a step closer to how this applies to getting clear.
Points two and four above are especially relevant. The second point explains the programming
nature of your mind. When you first try to do something new you are not very good at it. You
have to concentrate on it. You do it with your conscious mind because it can evaluate how you
are doing and correct your actions based on that evaluation. With enough practice (repetition)
you get the hang of it. At that point its handed over to the subconscious mind.
The conscious mind is very limited in its processing power and can only focus on one thing at
a time. Thats why it hands everything it can to the subconscious mind, which leaves the
conscious mind free to focus on other, more important things. Think about it. If you would
have to use your conscious mind for walking you couldnt do anything else. You couldnt pay
attention to the traffic, you couldnt talk at the same time, you couldnt think about anything
else.
When a task is handed to the subconscious mind we can say its programmed there, or that a
program exists for executing that behavior. Mostly, such programs serve you well; however
some can prevent you from reaching your goals or making changes you want to make. You
could also call such unhelpful programs bad habits.
Emotional eating is an example of an unhelpful program. Food is the drug of choice for many
people. When you are feeling down, eating can make you feel better. It numbs you to the
negative emotions. The subconscious mind learns that eating makes the person feel better.
After a while this is programmed into the subconscious mind and anytime the person feels bad
they get an urge to eat. This can lead to unwanted weight gain and serious health problems.
Point four brings home the filtering process that happens in your subconscious mind. The
environment you are in has millions of cues, but the vast majority remains unconscious to you.
Therefore the filtering process that decides what is important and what is not determines how
you perceive the situation you are in.
Simple example: You are walking on a street and theres a 100 dollar bill on the ground. Its
right in front of you, but since you look a bit to the left as you pass it, you dont notice it.
However your subconscious mind does. If it decides (based on its programming) that the 100
dollar bill is important to you, it brings it to your attention, if not you simply walk right over it
and miss out on a free top-up to your lunch money!
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Heres another quick example and an opportunity to experience this process in action. Think
of a color, any common color will do. Hold that color in your mind and slowly look around.
Notice how your eyes immediately focus on that color. Your eyes jump to everywhere you see
that color. Now pick a different color and do it again. Notice the difference. The second time
around your eyes honed in on the second color. The same situation and environment but you
picked up totally different things; all based on what your subconscious determined as
important.
These are simple examples, but I wanted you to understand the process and see it in action
before moving on to more relevant parts.
InternalMapofRealityThesoftwarethatcreatesyourreality
As you go through life and the subconscious mind accumulates information, you start to
develop an internal map of reality (IMR). IMR is a mental concept of yourself, the world in
general and your place in it. Just like a real map, your IMR guides and helps you to decide
how to react to the situations you face. You could think of it as the sum of all your past
experiences.
Since the internal map of reality is an abstract concept and can be a bit difficult to grasp lets
go through few parts of it.
Your self-image
Your internal map of reality contains everything you think and believe about yourself; not the
things you tell other people, but what you deep down believe about yourself. Such as:
What kind of a person you are

Are you happy or unhappy
What you look like and whether you believe yourself to be attractive or unattractive
How much you weigh
How much you like and respect yourself
How much money you make
What you can and cannot do, for example, I cant find love because of my skin, or its
hard for me to find a job because I have acne.
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Your place in the world
How other people react to you; such as, do they like you or find you disgusting
because of your skin
What kind of work you have and deserve
Whether you believe you deserve love, and if so, what kind of a partner you would feel
comfortable with
And so on
What you think of the world in general

Your internal map of reality is not just about you. It also shows what you think of the world in
general. Whether you think the world is abundant with opportunities and love or a dangerous
place where everyone is out to get you, its all stored in your internal map of reality.
Values, ethics and morals

Your internal map of reality also explains what is important to you (your values) and your
concept of right and wrong (ethics and morals).
I learned the term internal map of reality from Bill Harris at Centerpointe. He explains the
concept well:
We each have an internal map of reality, the contents of which we did not
consciously choose, and which operates automatically to create our results
and experience of life.
As we grow up, we each create an internal map of reality, an internal
conceptualization of who we are, what the world is, how we are related to it,
and how to best determine in each moment what to do and how to do it. This
map, however, is not reality. It is a representation of reality.
This map is formed as a result of our interactions with parents, teachers,
friends, the media, and from many other influences-the accumulated effect
of all our life experiences, good and bad. Most of it is unconscious and runs
on automatic, and most of it we did not consciously choose, but rather
became part of us before we were old enough to know any better. Some of it
serves us, but some of it gives us results we don't want.
Having such a map is very handy. It helps us navigate through life, just as a
road map helps us navigate from place to place. But remember that with a
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road map, you cannot drive on those little lines representing roads, and you
can't go camping on those little triangles representing mountains, and you
cannot go swimming in those blue areas representing rivers and lakes.
The map is not the territory-it just represents the territory. It may, in some
cases, even misrepresent the territory (which might cause us to get lost from
time to time).
In just the same way, the internal map we create is not reality, but rather a
representation of reality-it's not who we are; it's just our conceptualization
of who we are.
Bill Harris
How To Really Let Whatever Happens Be Okay and Why You Would Want To
http://www.centerpointe.com/articles/letwhateverhappens.php
Your internal map of reality is critical to your happiness and success in getting clear. It acts as
a series of filters your mind uses to process all information coming through your five senses.
This is done before conscious perception.
This figure depicts the whole process (adapted from the Life Principles Integration Course).
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As information comes through your five senses (input from the environment) it passes through
a series of filters. These filters process the information in three ways:
Delete
Distort
Generalize
This filtering process has one goal: To make sure the incoming information matches your
internal map of reality. In other words, to ensure what you believe about yourself and the
world in general seems true to you.
Here are some of the filters that process the incoming information:
Beliefs
Values
Ethics
Decisions
Memories
Ways of sorting information
The filtering process affects your conscious perception of the event, in other words what you
think of it. Conscious perception is also called internal representation of reality, as its the
way you represent the event in your mind. This internal representation of reality consists of
mental images, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells.
Your conscious perception of the event affects how you react to the event. It determines your
emotional state, how you feel about the situation, and behavior, what you do about it.
Lets go back to the fictional example of the $100 bill on the street. Say you didnt notice it
but your friend did. As your friend picks up the bill, you feel frustrated and cursed. The
pervading feeling within is that you never get lucky hence confirming your belief that you
are unlucky. Notice that this belief is self-fulfilling.
Lets take another example. You can probably remember a time when you were in a public
place and a member of the opposite sex looked in your direction and that made you feel
conscious of your skin. Oh my God, he/she is looking at my skin and thinking how horrible it
looks! Perhaps you even wished to be invisible.
But if you think of the situation, do you really know they were looking at your skin. And how
do you know they were thinking how horrible your skin looks like? Did you go over and ask
that person? I bet you didnt. So how can you know?
Of course you cant know what was going on in that persons mind. The only thing you know
is they were looking in your direction. But did you ever stop to think they might have been
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checking you out? Perhaps they liked the way you look but were too shy to come and talk to
you (people with clear skin are also shy).
Assuming they were checking you out, would you still have felt conscious of your skin?
Would you still wish youd be invisible? I bet that would have made you feel pretty good.
And why did you immediately assume the worst in the situation? Given the fact that its
possible they were checking you out, and since you dont really know the truth, it would have
made sense to pick the option that made you feel good right?
But, if you are like most acne victims, that option never even entered your mind. Why? It
contradicts with your internal map of reality.
Heres what happened. You notice a member of the opposite sex looking in your direction
(input from the environment). Then that information passes through your unconscious filters
and your mind deletes parts of it, distorts it and generalizes it. This filtered version then
becomes your conscious perception of the situation. In other words, it forms into thoughts,
pictures and sounds in your mind. These thoughts, pictures and sounds then determine how
you experience the situation. They determine what feelings the situation triggers and what you
do in response to it.
In this example the filtering process might have happened like this:
Any signs of smile, positive or inviting facial expressions are deleted from your
consciousness.
Your mind generalizes from past experiences (such as, people look at my skin and
think it looks horrible) and distorts this experience accordingly.
In the end you are left with thoughts and mental pictures and sounds of a member of the
opposite sex looking at you and thinking how disgusting your skin looks. This mental image,
not what really happened, determines your emotional and behavioral response to the situation.
In this case you felt horrible and wished you could be invisible. Saying hi to that person
didnt even cross your mind. If you are like me, you walked away and felt bad the rest of the
day.
Imagine what could have happened had you had a more positive self-image. You could have
assumed they were checking you out. That would have made you feel good and perhaps you
would have even walked over and said hello and who knows where that could have led.
The point here is not to argue which of these imaginary scenarios is more likely. The point is
that how you react (emotionally and behaviorally) to a situation has more to do with your
perception of the situation than anything that really happens. Your perception depends on your
internal map of reality, and in most cases on your self-image.
As this is a critically important point, Im going to let Bill Harris explain it from a different
angle.
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Your beliefs, in combination with other aspects of your internal map of

reality, create the results, circumstances, and experiences of your life.
Regardless of what you believe, you will find a way to create consistency
between your life and your beliefs. For this reason, beliefs, for the believer,
are always true.
This principle is critically important to your happiness. The brain is a goal
seeking mechanism, and a very powerful one. Your brain will either make
whatever you believe is true actually come true in your life, or will at least
make it seem to be true (which amounts to the same thing, as far as your
actual experience of life is concerned).
This happens because human beings have a powerful need for consistency
between the world and what they believe. The impulse to create this
consistency is so strong that people will do almost anything to be right
about their beliefs, even when doing so creates failure, suffering or
unhappiness.
You will arrange to be right about your beliefs by creating the
circumstances that confirm to you that they are true.
We create this consistency in three ways:
Method #1: We attract, and are attracted to, people and situations that confirm
the truth of what we believe. If, for instance, you believe that no one will ever love
you, you will somehow feel a magical attraction to men or women who do not
have the capacity to love you, even though you have no way of consciously
knowing this about them in advance.
This is why some people keep attracting essentially the same person, but in a
different body. As long as you entertain the belief that no one will ever love you,
you will, as if by a hidden radar, continue to attract and be attracted to people
who are unable or unwilling to love you. Doing so creates consistency between
what you believe and the actual events of your life.
Method #2: We find ways to distort what we perceive so as to make a belief seem
true, even if it is not. Believing that no one will ever love you, you interpret other
people's behavior as evidence that they don't love you, even if that isn't what it
really means. Of all the possible interpretations, you will pick those that confirm
that your belief is true and filter out any interpretations that contradict your
belief.
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Method #3: We act in such a way that people finally comply with what we believe
and act in the way we feared. You believe you won't be loved, and that fear causes
you to act in such a way that eventually someone who may actually love you
finally really does stop caring.
With all three methods, you get to be right about what you believe, and
create consistency between your beliefs and your life. If you would rather be
right than happy, this is a great strategy, but if you would like to be happy
and peaceful, it's a losing proposition.
Bill Harris
How Your Beliefs Shape Your Results and Experience of Life, and What You Can Do About It
http://www.centerpointe.com/articles/beliefsshapereality.php
Lets take this a step further. How you react to a situation depends on what you think it means.
Lets return one more time to our example in which a member of the opposite sex looked your
way. Thinking they looked at your acne in disgust would be to give it a negative meaning. On
the other hand, thinking they are attracted to you gives the situation a positive meaning.
This may sound like saying the same thing with different words, but heres the important
point: What a situation means to you has nothing to do with what actually happens. Deciding
what a situation means happens during the subconscious filtering process. And because this
happens before conscious perception it seems as if meaning is part of the situation. But as we
have demonstrated, meaning is assigned after the actual event itself and depends on your
beliefs and self-image.
Nothing has any intrinsic meaning, or as Bill Harris so eloquently puts it in his excellent
online course Life Principles Integration Process:
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There is no intrinsic meaning to anything. In most cases, we did not

consciously choose these meanings we give to things. Rather, they were
taught to us, according to the conventions of our culture and our family,
when we were too small to know any better. You can, however, consciously
choose these meaning, and that, in fact, is just what people who are
continually happy and peaceful have learned to do.
This means, of course, that you are the creator of your own reality. In
contrast to how you may have been conditioned to think, you assign
meaning and significance (for most people, based on unconscious
programming) to what happens to you and then, based on that meaning,
choose (again, usually unconsciously) what your response will be.
This principle has a corollary: you will be able to make wise and
resourceful choices to the extent that you live consciously rather than
unconsciously. If you have become an automatic response mechanism,
unthinkingly adopting those responses chosen for you by your cultural,
societal, family, and species background, then your inner journey will be
stalled. Your individuality and creativity will remain stillborn. What is
more, you will spend a lot of time suffering. And, as Ive said, the real cause
of suffering, the most harmful automatic response we pick up from our
culture, is the mistaken idea that there is a problem.
If you are able to wake up and become more aware of what moves and
motivates you, you will see that you have picked up the paintbrush; you are
painting the shapes of your feelings on that blank canvas, and that its all
happening naturally and spontaneously. Because you are the artist and the
author, you can paint anything you like. What you are painting is as
ephemeral as anything else in life, but the lines you draw, the shapes you
form, and the colors you choose are what give your life meaning. While we
are all influenced by the cultural and personal settings in which we live,
some people are able to become independent artists who can express the
dictates of their own heart, and some become proponents of schools run by
others.
Bill Harris
Life Principles Integration Process online course, module 2, lesson 11
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I hope you understand the staggering implications this has on your life. If your emotions and
behaviors depend on the meaning you assign to people and situations in your life, and if, in
turn, these meanings depend on what you believe about yourself and the world, then the
quality of your life is directly related to what you believe about yourself. More than
anything else the quality of your life depends on your emotional state and the actions you take.
I dived into the Emotional and psychological effects of acne section of acne.org forums and
picked up few discussions. Go through these posts and try to read the meaning between the
lines. What do you think the posters really believe about themselves and how these beliefs
reflect in their thinking and behavior?
So Ive been seeing my now boyfriend for awhile...., He has perfect skin and
well....then there's me...
He always says my acne doesn't bother him or anything. Is that possible? lol
Yet, he's the first to notice any improvements. He has pretty much perfect
skin and has his entire life. I just have a hard time believing that it don't
bother him or he never thinks Id be way better looking if it cleared up....Am
I just being hard on myself? Also when he tells me I look good, pretty etc... I
always say some kind of smart ass remark because of my acne.
Anyone else in a similar situation with a bf/gf who has perfect skin?
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/Ive-boyfriend-awhil-t249614.html
-does anyone feel like people reject you quickly based on your appearance (if
you have moderate/severe acne scarring) ?
that's the topic: does anyone here feel like people reject you quickly based
on your appearance (if you have moderate/severe acne scarring) ?
they'll give you body language cues that convey disgust like coughing loudly
when passing you or sniffing loudly, or if you're sitting around others,
they'll mismatch their body language from yours to show they're separate:
i.e.: if you sit up straight, they'll relax more, but if you slouch down or cross
you arms, they'll do the opposite?
not to get all downer up in here but, that above paragraph happens to me so
frequently in life it's become my f**king shadow. am i alone on this one ?
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/feel-people-reject-qu-t250247.html
- Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010
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I can't leave my home.
Yesterday, I reached a new low. I called my boss and told him I needed a
few days off. The truth is I was getting ready for work and what I saw in the
mirror disgusted me so much I can't let it leave the house. I'm talking about
my face. I'm so ashamed of how I look I can't bring myself to leave. I don't
know if i'm ever going to feel ok about going outside and letting people look
at my face anymore.
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/can-t-leave-home-t250958.html
I dont think you had too many problems with those examples. We broadcast our beliefs to the
outside world and other people can usually read these beliefs loud and clear.
Heres the difficult part.
Recall a few situations where acne made you feel less than great. Think of the situations and
see what meanings you placed on people and events. See if you can decipher your own beliefs
behind those meanings.
Becoming conscious of your own beliefs is the first step in getting over them and living a
happy and successful life. As Bill Harris pointed above: This principle has a corollary: you
will be able to make wise and resourceful choices to the extent that you live consciously rather
than unconsciously.
When you become conscious of your beliefs you can re-examine them. You can look at them
objectively and think about whether they still serve you.
Remember that the quality of your life is directly related to what you believe about yourself,
and the world in general. If you want to improve the quality of your life, if you want to
experience more positive feelings, and if you want to behave differently, you have to start with
your fundamental beliefs.
Before we go on, lets address a common objection.
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How can I have a positive self-image when I have acne? It makes me look so ugly!
On the face of it that looks like a valid point. Luckily its not true.
The underlying assumption behind that argument is that your beliefs are a reflection of your
external reality. Remember that we tend to go through life and form beliefs based on what
happens to us. So if people constantly reject you (or seem to reject you), you start believing
people dont like you.
Luckily the opposite is true. Your external reality is a reflection of your self-image and beliefs
not the other way around. Earlier we discussed how that happens and how a simple shift in
your beliefs can create a dramatically different experience of life.
Also, acne didnt create your self-image. The vast majority of your internal map of reality was
formed during the first six years of your life before you had acne. What you believe about
yourself is largely a reflection of your interactions with your parents and other significant
people during your early childhood.
Acne simply justifies these beliefs. It gives you something to point a finger at, for example,
people dont like me because of my acne, or I cant find love because acne makes me
unattractive.
This is not to say that you wouldnt be any happier once you get clear. But getting over acne
wont solve all your self-esteem issues. Every so often a discussion pops up at acne forums
where a person complains that nothing changed after they got clear. They remain selfconscious, but just found something else to be conscious of.
Now that we are clear on the importance of your self-esteem and beliefs and how they create
your life, lets quickly look at how they formed. Understanding this helps you to get over
them.
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Howyourinternalmapofrealitydeveloped
Exactly how your internal map of reality and self-image formed goes beyond our current
psychological understanding. Luckily for the purposes of this book we only need to
understand the effect of traumatic events.
When you are faced with a traumatic event that is more emotionally intense than you can deal
with, your mind protects you by repressing the event into your subconscious mind. Some
people say your personality splits as a result of such an event. Split personality, or dissociative
identity disorder, is an extreme form of this. A person suffering from split personality has two
or more separate personalities, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the
environment. One of these personalities contains the traumatizing event and lives with its
consequences, while the other(s) are unaware of the event.
In most cases we dont split into separate personalities, but the principle remains the same. To
protect you from the emotional pain your mind represses the event into your subconscious
mind. You dont have to consciously live with the pain, but anytime something happens that
reminds you of the traumatizing event you react emotionally. To outside observers your
reaction may seem irrational and/or over the top, as if you are out of your mind. This happens
because the mind reminds you of the traumatizing event, which serves as a warning signal of a
potentially dangerous situation. Your mind tries to protect you from repeating the original
traumatizing event.
Unfortunately, repressed emotions come with a high price. Not only can they cause emotional
suffering, but they can also have a very real physical effect. Later on well look into this in
more detail. I call repressed emotions emotional toxic waste dumps. Silently they leak
emotional poison and weaken your body and mind.
Its important to keep in mind that the impact of the traumatizing effect depends on the
persons ability to deal with the situations. Adults have far greater capacity to deal with
emotions and comprehend what happens. It may take the death of a loved one or an
automobile accident to traumatize an adult. However, as children our capacity is far more
limited. We are helpless and utterly dependent on our parents to care for us. So for example, a
parent telling a child that he or she is stupid, or simply not giving enough love or leaving the
child alone for too long may be enough to traumatize that child. Parents divorcing can be
extremely traumatic and leave small children wondering why one or the other parentor
bothabandoned them.
Traumatic events are not the only way your internal map of reality forms. However, beliefs
formed as a result of traumatic events are among the hardest ones to get over. Sometimes you
have to identify the specific traumatic memory and deal with the emotions of the situation.
Tools such as hypnosis and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can help you with this.
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Internalmapofrealityandclearskin
I realize I dumped a lot of information on you and some of it may be new to you. So lets
recap a bit and at the same time look at the effect your mind has on your skin and health.
In the previous chapter you learned how your beliefs and other parts of your internal map of
reality control your internal representations (what you focus on). We used to believe that
information comes through the five senses into the conscious mind and from there goes to the
subconscious mind. We now know this is not the case. The information goes first to your
subconscious mind where it passes through several mental filters that delete, distort and
generalize the information. Among other things, this filtering process assigns meaning to the
events and situations. After this filtering process, the information is passed to your conscious
mind as your internal representation of the situation. This is your unique perception of the
events or situations, your point of view. This explains how two people can have opposing
perceptions of the exactly same situation.
Your internal representation, or your unique point of view, determines two things:
Your emotional state

Your actions
Emotions flow from focus. Focus on things you desire and you feel good. Focus on things you
dont want and you feel bad. In every situation you have a choice. You can focus on what you
want or you can focus on what you dont want. It is important to remember that no matter
what happens you can find a way to focus on what you want and feel good. But often we dont
make this choice consciously. It happens at the subconscious level and the outcome is
determined by your beliefs and other parts of your internal map of reality.
Your internal representations also affect your actions. Before you can do anything you must be
motivated to act. Motivation is an emotion, and it follows focus. Say you want to eat healthier.
When it comes time to choose your meal what goes on in your head has a lot to do with your
choice. If you focus on how much you miss your old foods and how boring this healthy diet is,
its easy to slip back to your old way of eating. But if you focus on how good you look and
feel when you eat healthy, then you are much more likely to choose the healthy option. Again,
in every situation you have a choice, and again the choice often plays out subconsciously,
determined by your internal map of reality.
Its easy to understand how not feeling motivated to eat healthy affects your skin, but your
beliefs control your actions in more subtle ways, too.
Say you believe nothing works for you and trying to cure acne amounts to nothing but
frustration. In this case you are attracted to solutions that dont work for you and end up
frustrating you. In reality, being attracted to means you notice and pay attention to them and
that you are more likely to believe in them. Similarly you are more suspicious of solutions that
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could actually work for you. You think they are scams or that they wouldnt work for you.
When you research them you do it with the mindset that they are scams. In other words, you
go out looking for evidence they dont work; and you will find it, every time. Whether that
evidence is true or not makes little difference, you still use it to prove you are right.
If, despite all this, you find a solution that could work for you, your mind sabotages your
efforts. You only give it a halfhearted attempt, you creatively misinterpret the instructions or
your mind finds some other way to show you it doesnt work for you.
If this sounds like science fiction, please know its not. Ive seen this happen in my own life
many times over and in the lives of acne victims whom Ive helped to understand this.
Consider what happened to Ellie. She is one of my customers and one of the people I coached
with Emotional Healing for Clear Skin, another book of mine that goes a lot deeper into this
mind stuff. Initially, she was very successful with Clear Skin Lifestyle, lost some weight and
started looking better. However thats when her mind started sabotaging her efforts. In her
own words:
I found that really my main issue was with my self-image (which acne plays
a part of) but my self-image issues go deep and were founded early on. Of
course this kind of thinking no longer serves me and so the following is my
findings:
I started with my recent frustrations with food cravings and over-eating
(both of which are symptoms of my limiting beliefs being challenged).
I recently lost some more weight (a whole dress size) Initially I was
motivated by getting clear and healthy, and with my new healthy attitude to
life (good food/good sleep/less stress etc) my figure also saw great
improvement and everyone is complimenting and noticing how good I look.
Now that I've been looking and feeling better I've started to get the old
cravings and obsessions with food coming back... and with that the doubt
that I look good, and the thoughts that I still need to work more on my
weight and the fear that I may put the weight back on (or fail as I have
many, many times before).
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Following the instructions in Emotional Healing for Clear Skin she started identifying her
limiting beliefs. I emphasized the statements that highlight the limiting beliefs:
I was able to pinpoint the learned behavior to early in my childhood where
my appearance and weight equaled the approval and acceptance, of first
my mother, and then my peers. All through my early childhood, my teens
and my 20s I have battled with this notion that'to be loved I have to be slim
and attractive'. And interestingly... when I achieve a great weight loss I get
scared of letting someone love me (because deep down I still didn't believe
that I was worth enough to be loved) So I start doubting my worth and my
own value and that's when the cravings and the overeating start again..
which in-turn results in the weight gain.
The sad thing is that I still haven't learned to value myself enough to let
someone else love me, and when I have entered into a relationship I have
done so with the notion that I'm not worth much and therefore have been
treated as suchand got hurt in the process.
The notion that 'people dont like fat kids' as a child, led me to think people
weren't attracted to me.
Can you see whats happening here? First, she doesnt believe shes worth enough to be loved.
On the other hand, she believes nobody likes fat kids, or that to be attractive and lovable she
has to be slim. Putting those two together, her mind pushed her into eating and putting on
weight, thus ensuring nobody likes her and fulfilling its mission.
Another interesting point with Ellie is that every time she has entered into a relationship, she
has done so thinking shes not worth much. This belief guided her to act in a way that
probably caused her partner to end up also thinking shes not worth much, and she got hurt in
the process. Just what Bill Harris described in the quote you read earlier.
Once she identified the beliefs, she used the belief change techniques in Emotional Healing for
Clear Skin to replace them with beliefs that served her better.
My new belief needs to be: "I value and love myself, absolutely, and if my
offer of love and value is not reciprocated then this is not a reflection of
myself but of the other person. And their decision is theirs to live with not
mine."
It was so simple yet it took all of that delving to realise the truth. And just
acknowledging my behaviour and it's root cause has been enough for me to
realise that if I stayed the same, I would remain sad, empty, cold (hungry
and craving) and that loving myself and being loved will equal happiness,
warmth and feeling full.
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Heres how she described the change in her life:
Thank you so much for sharing this document with me Seppo!! It wasn't
without a bit of time and effort, but my attitude is definitely a lot happier for
it! And guess what? The cravings have disappeared. I actually feel full all
the time. I feel really satisfied after each meal. And I feel really happy.
Thus by simply changing what she believed about herself, her life changed dramatically. She
went from sad, empty, cold (hungry and craving) to loving myself and being loved will
equal happiness, warmth and feeling full. Quite a change in belief and all from a little bit of
mental work and introspection!
I hope Ellies example inspires you to take this mental stuff seriously. I could give you dozens
of examples from my life and how I use these same processes to find out and replace negative
beliefshow my life has gotten better with each garbage belief I got rid of!
Next, lets look at emotions and how they affect physical health.
Emotions and physical health

The link between emotions and physical health is a bit more ambiguous than the connection
between beliefs and actions.
Doctors now say stress plays a part in most health conditions to the extent of being a
contributing factor in around 75% of cases. This effect is not limited to stress, and other
emotions can lead to health problems. This is not surprising considering that stress is an
emotion. Its a form of fear and happens when you perceive that external demands (possibly
taking the form of a boss or a bank) exceed your capacity to deal with them. You feel stressed
when you dont know how youre going to meet those demands or how you can cope with
them in the future.
Research also suggests that depression is linked to diabetes. In summary:
Depression may cause hyperglycemia (too high blood sugar levels) for diabetic
Children whose parents made more critical comments (possibly traumatizing the child)
had significantly worse blood sugar control than children whose parents were less
critical
Treatment of depression improves diabetic control. The greater the improvement in
depression the more glucose levels improved
This is especially significant for people with acne considering that acne has been called skin
diabetes and is linked to blood sugar levels. This research is done on diabetic patients, but
similar results are seen even on people without full blown diabetes.
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Personality and coping style also affects disease. Doctors have long known that Type A
personalities are prone to heart attacks. The Type A personality is competitive, timeconscious, ambitious, impatient and business-like and has difficulty relaxing.
Doctors are also aware of cancer personality. This is a person, who is timid, avoids
confrontation and is generally the nicest person youll ever know, but who suffers in silence
and keeps negative emotions bottled up inside. This comes with a price in that people who
suppress their emotions are more prone to getting cancer than people who are more
expressive.
While scientists dont yet fully know how stress, depression and negative emotions cause
disease, inflammation is one possible link.
The connection with stress? In a nutshell, stress, too, can raise the
production of proinflammatory cytokinessubstantially, and when such an
increase is not biologically called for. Acute stress can provoke a temporary
increase in levels of these cytokines, chronic stress a longer one. Some other
factors that drive them up are the aging process, depressive symptoms, and
clinical depression. In a double whammy, each also decreases the
production of proinflammatory cytokines in places where they are most
neededthe sites of wounds and infections.
Researcher Explains Stress-Inflammation Link
National Institute of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Newsletter, October 2008
Cytokines are signaling molecules used by the immune system. Proinflammatory cytokines
signal the immune system to increase inflammation. People with depression produce more
proinflammatory cytokines under stress than non-depressed people do.
While at rest (before the stress challenge), the depressed patients had
increased inflammation relative to the control group. Both the depressed
and the healthy groups showed an inflammatory response to the stress
challenge, but people who were currently depressed exhibited the greatest
increases of interleukin-6 and nuclear factor-kB.
Depression, Stress, Inflammation and Disease
Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Psych Central
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Its interesting to note that the depressed people in the study had higher rates of stressful
experiences in their early lives. Perhaps they were more traumatized during childhood and as a
consequence developed poorer self-image and a more pessimistic outlook on life.
Finally, researchers have found that people who have suffered childhood trauma have
abnormal cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone and is also linked to inflammation.
Stress and acne

Stress also affects acne.
In 2003 the Archives of Dermatology reported a study that linked acne to stress. Heres what
the study concluded:
Patients with acne may experience worsening of the disease during

examinations. Furthermore, changes in acne severity correlate highly with
increasing stress, suggesting that emotional stress from external sources
may have a significant influence on acne.
The Response of Skin Disease to Stress
Changes in the Severity of Acne Vulgaris as Affected by Examination Stress
Archives of Dermatology 2003; 139: 897-900
Annie Chiu, BS; Susan Y. Chon, MD; Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH
Recently published research shows how stress may lead to acne breakouts. When you are
under stress the body increases the number of white blood cells in the skin. White blood cells
attack the bacteria and other intruders on the skin. This creates inflammation. And as you
know, acne is a result of inflammation in the skin pores.
Im not aware of studies that link other negative emotions to acne. Most likely the connection
has not been studied. Yet, its logical to believe that the connection between acne and stress
applies to other negative emotions also. As Dr. Lipton mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, the brain and the nervous system control every cell in your body. Negative emotions
are signs of disharmony, decay and lack of vitality.
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Conclusion: self-image, physical health and clear skin
We started by discussing your internal map of reality; your conceptualization of who you are
and your place in the world. Next we looked at how your mind filters and processes all
information that comes through your five senses. This filtering process molds the information
to match your internal map of reality and creates consistency between your beliefs and what
you experience.
Most people dont experience life directly. Instead they experience a reality that has been
filtered through their beliefs. Imagine wearing glasses with green lenses. The glasses tint
everything you see green. Regardless of what the world really looks like you will see it as
green.
Similarly, looking at the world through negative beliefs creates a pessimistic outlook on life.
This happens because the mind gives a negative meaning to people and situations in life. Out
of all the possible ways of looking at a situation, it selects one that gives the situation a
negative meaning.
This negative way of seeing the situation then becomes your internal representation of the
situation. Its what you focus your mind on. What you focus your mind on affects how you
feel about the situation and what you are going to do about it. Focusing your mind on what
you dont want creates negative emotions. Negative focus also leads to less resourceful actions
or even to hopelessness and inaction, thus causing you to create similar situations and
emotions in the future.
Negative health behavior leads to negative health outcome. This should be obvious. However
even negative emotions can cause physical harm, via the inflammation pathway. This can
create a downward spiral in which ever worsening physical health leads to even more negative
mental states that further fuel the downward spiral of physical health.
All of this starts and ends with your self-image. Your beliefs are self-fulfilling behaviors. See
yourself as worthless and thats how you experience yourself, and that experience may include
physical manifestations that prove you indeed are worthless.
Want to experience clear skin and happy life? Then see and believe yourself as a person
worthy of having such a life.
You have to get clear mentally before you can get clear physically. In the later chapters well
look at how to do that.
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Mappingyouremotionalhealth
I cant blame you if everything youve read so far feels a bit overwhelming and abstract. Sure
you know a lot about beliefs and how they can make your life miserable. But what can you do
about it? Its not like you do these things willingly. It happens automatically and
subconsciously.
So how do you disable this machine that automatically creates misery and suffering?
Knowing where you stand emotionally would be a great place to start. It makes the whole
thing a bit more concrete, gives you a baseline starting point and a yardstick against which to
measure your progress.
With that in mind, lets look at few interesting tools and techniques.
Emotional scale
Emotional scale is an excellent indicator of your overall emotional health. Its a bit like an
emotional thermometer. Emotions at the bottom of the scale feel the worst and are the most
damaging to your health. Moving up the scale, emotions get progressively more pleasurable
and healthier.
Keeping it simple, we can map all emotions into these six states:
Disempowered. This is the dark and damp basement of the emotional scale. Feelings
of powerless, fearful, scared, guilty, ashamed, depressed, grieving, lonely, insecurity,
unworthy and heartbroken rule here.
Inflamed. Feel that red hot anger burning inside of you? It may not be pleasurable but
it sure feels better than hopelessness. Anger at least motivates you to take action. Think
angry, blaming, vengeful, jealous, raging and hating and you are at inflamed state.
Stressed. This state feels chaotic, ungrounded and uncontrolled. The emotions are
characterized by primitive, non-resourceful reactions to events. Emotions that belong
here are: overwhelmed, impatient, frustrated, irritated, pessimistic, worried, bored,
doubtful, disappointed and discouraged.
Connected. Emotional freedom and health begins here. At the connected state you
know everything is okay and you feel at peace. Some words to describe this state are:
accepting, simple, safe, calm, peaceful, present, awake and mindful.
Thriving. This is where life starts to feel really good. Feelings that belong here are:
happiness, love, curiosity, gratefulness, inspiration, confidence, energized, eagerness,
enthusiastic, optimistic and hopeful.
Peaking. Peak states are short-lived bursts of ecstasy. Think: blissful, elated,
passionate, joyous, euphoric, jubilant and rapturous.
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Where do you spend most of your time? Take some time at the end of each day to reflect on
how you felt that day. See which state you spend most of your time in and youll get an idea of
your overall emotional health.
Personal Peace Procedure

Personal Peace Procedure helps you to drill deeper into emotional problems you may have.
This deceptively simple exercise gives you the keys to solving your emotional problems.
I learned this technique from Gary Graig, the founder of Emotional Freedom Technique
(EFT). I want to warn you that the technique is so simple you may feel tempted to ignore it.
With that said, here it is:
Make a list of every bothersome specific event you can remember. Thats it. Write down
anything you can think of that bothers you. It may be a memory, an event that happens to you
regularly or something you think happens in the future. Write down anything and everything
that triggers a less than positive emotion.
Remember that negative feelings are a result of negative beliefs. Your mind wouldnt focus on
something you dont want and create negative emotions without a negative belief guiding the
filtering process.
Consider the specific events you wrote down as emotional gold nuggets. They are like
doorways to negative beliefs. As you investigate what causes you to feel bad about these
events, youll uncover the negative beliefs and, if any, suppressed emotions and traumatic
memories that created the belief.
Then its a simple matter of using use EFT or other similar tools to deal with the suppressed
emotions and traumatic memories and finally let go of the belief.
Please see a more detailed explanation of the Personal Peace Procedure and how to use it at
EFT website: Tutorial--The Personal Peace Procedure.
Sentence completion
When you present your mind with an incomplete sentence, the mind completes it. And if you
dont think about it too much the answers pop from your subconscious mind and reflect your
beliefs. This is a great way to find out what you really believe.
Your task is to complete the following sentences. Dont think about the answers. Just write
down anything that comes into your mind. Write as quickly as you can to keep your conscious
mind out of the way. Write as many endings to each sentence as you can, but you should come
up with at least five for each.
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I am
My skin is
It [my skin] makes me
Others think I am
Shocked?
I know I was when I first did this exercise. People often live with a sanitized concept of
themselves. Even though deep down they may know what they really believe, they often
rationalize (rationalize = rational lies) those nasty thoughts away. So it can be a bit of a shock
to find out what you really believe about yourself.
Dont believe thats what you really believe about yourself? Remember that the subconscious
mind has no conscious processing capabilities. In other words it cannot lie to you. It works a
bit like a computer, and you just asked it to print endings to the above sentences from its
hard drive (your past experiences and memories and the beliefs and values that you have
formed based on them). As long as you didnt consciously think about the answers, they
reflect your deepest personal beliefs.
Reflect on what you learned in this chapter and look at what you wrote down. Could those
responses explain why you have acne?
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Howtocureacne
Time to switch gears. So far weve talked a lot about what causes acne. You understand how
drastic fluctuations in blood sugar levels lead to hormonal reactions that increases sebum
production which in turn clogs your skin pores. You also learned how chronic inflammation
weakens the immune system, allows acne-causing bacteria to flourish. We also looked at how
your self-image may subconsciously guide you to take actions that perpetuate acne.
Now its time to look at fixing those problems.
On the surface, the big picture of how to cure acne is simple.
You need to raise your baseline of health above the acne line. In other words, you need to
improve your health to a point where acne vanishes.
Translating that big picture into concrete action steps is slightly more complicated. We all face
different challenges and that makes one-size-fits-all solutions impossible. Instead, we need to
work with flexible guidelines.
You need to make up your own solution as you go. First, you must figure out where you are at
this moment and what you can do to improve your health. As you take that step youll come
across new challenges. Then you need to figure out how to deal with them, and so on. You
create your own solution on the fly as you go through this process. Dont worry; this is simpler
than it sounds.
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Heres an overview of what you need to do:
Evaluate your wheel of health and identify your weak link(s)

Work to improve your elements of health until they are in balance
Work through possible mental obstacles
Persist through the detox and healing period, the first 3 to 4 months
Optionally speed up the healing process with a few short detoxes
Enjoy a lifetime of clear skin
In the coming chapters we are going to look at each of these steps more closely. Lets start
with looking at the six elements of health.
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Elementsofoptimalhealth
In this chapter I introduce the six elements of health to you. They are the building blocks of
your health and clear skin. I show how all these elements are tied together in building your
health.
The six elements of health are:
Diet
Fitness
Sleep
Emotional health
Sunshine
Fresh air
These elements work together in synergistic fashion to create perfect health and clear skin. No
single element is more important than the others. Health conscious people often work hard on
their diet but fall short on many other elements. Many even believe that if they just eat healthy
they will be healthy. I want to make it abundantly clear that such people are delusional. You
could eat the perfect diet but if you never move your body, remain constantly negative, neglect
sleep and stay indoors most of the time, your health will suffer.
Perfect health requires balance. Your health is only as strong as your weakest link. But Im
getting ahead of myself, because I discuss weak links later on in this chapter. Now lets look at
each of the elements of health (we already covered emotional health in an earlier chapter, so
Im going to skip it here).
Diet
Diet is obviously an important part of optimal health. No matter what else you do, your health
and possibly your skin are going to suffer if you eat lots of processed and unhealthy foods.
We are going to deal with diet only briefly here as we have a separate chapter devoted to diet.
Here Ill give you the 6 elements of healthy foods. Later on well look at diet more carefully,
as well as the problems improper diet causes.
Again I want to stress that diet is no more important than any other of the six elements of
health. So please pay attention to all of them.
I believe we committed our biggest dietary sin when we started replacing whole, natural foods
with processed convenience foods. The more a food is processed the less healthy it becomes.
At every step valuable nutrients are removed often replaced with additives, preservatives and
other chemicals that create big profits for food companies while degrading your health.
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Simply switch back to whole foods in their natural state and your diet is already significantly
improved.
Recognizing and avoiding foods you are sensitive to is another critical, but lesser known,
dietary success factor. In many cases avoiding foods you are sensitive to and sticking to whole
foods in their natural state is all a person needs to do in the diet element.
Fitness
This may be little uncomfortable for you to hear, especially if you dont exercise. But since
you paid good money for my advice, my duty is to tell you what you need to hear, not what
you want to hear. So here goes.
Its not possible for an unfit or sedentary person to be healthy and well nourished.
When you are physically fit, your chances of getting clear are much better.
Human beings were designed to be active. Our leg muscles in particular seem shaped by a
need to walk or run great distances. It has been said that because of our large buttock muscles
(which are relatively much larger than those of other primates), there is no other animal that
can keep up with Man over the long haul. Anthropologists say that Man used to track and walk
over long distances to hunt meat before the invention of weapons.
We know exercise is among the first suggestions any doctor gives you when he or she
recommends that you improve your overall health. Proper fitness is one of the basic building
blocks of good health and clear skin. Now we may argue that the health knowledge of your
average doctor is limited, but this one they got right.
If youve ever exercised you know how good it makes you feel afterwards. Exercise releases
hormones that are also called the feel good factors.
Exercise:
Puts you emotionally and mentally into a much calmer state. Stress levels go down.
Improves digestion, absorption, assimilation and elimination. So you get more out of the
food you eat.
Makes you feel better. You like yourself more and arent so prone to giving in to
cravings.
Improves every aspect of your body chemistry. So everything works much better.
Reduces inflammation and improves blood sugar control, both of which are crucial for
getting clear.
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Helps you to sleep better.
Exercise also has nutritional benefits.

An active individual can easily consume 50 to 100% more calories than a sedentary person.
Have you ever thought about the fact that if you consume more calories (and Im assuming
you are eating healthy foods) you also get more nutrients? A 50% increase in calorie intake
means that you get 50% more of every nutrient.
Not only do you get more of the good stuff, but you also improve your digestive capacity (or
what some people call digestive fire). So now essentially, you get even more nutrients from
the same amount of food you eat. In contrast, a sedentary lifestyle can easily lead to
deficiencies in all of these areas.
The benefits of regular exercise could fill many books. But Im going to count on your
common sense here and ask you to just get a move on.
Sunshine
Look at this picture. How does it make you feel?
Feels good, doesnt it?
We love it when the winter is over and theres plenty
of sunshine again. I just love it when I can turn my
face to the sun and let it warm my skin. It makes me
feel good all over.
Theres a reason we feel good when we see the sun.
Sunshine is essential to our health. Its every bit as
important as proper diet and nutrition, exercise and
clean air and water.
Sunshine is essential to good nutrition. Im sure you
know that exposure to sunlight enables your skin to
make vitamin D (also called the sunshine vitamin).
Without vitamin D you cannot use calcium. And
calcium is tied up into the functioning of every cell in your body.
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That is just one example of how critical vitamin D is to our health and well-being. I dont
believe that we know the full benefits of it yet. But just take a look at these headlines about the
benefits of sunshine from Mercola.com and youll start to get the picture:
New Evidence, Sunshine DOES Slash Your Cancer Risk

Want to Lose Weight? Get Enough Sunshine
Sunshine and Calcium Knock Out PMS for Good
13 Reasons Why Lack of Sunshine Makes You Fat
Sunshine: The Newest Natural Weapon Against Asthma
How The Sunshine Vitamin Zaps Disease
Sunshine Improves Athletic Performance
Fight Gingivitis With Sunshine
Sunshine Works for Congestive Heart Failure
Sunshine Can Increase Your Muscle Strength 9/18/04
The Sunshine Vitamin Repairs Your Skin and Boosts Your Immune System
Not Enough Sunshine Can Make You Psychotic 3/17/04
And that was just from the first page of a total of 15 pages! To see for yourself visit:
http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?q=sunshine
Not only is sunshine essential to proper nutrition, but it also cleanses our skin and blood. The
UV rays kill bacteria and pathogens when they penetrate your skin and blood and lymph
vessels. In fact, UV light is used to sterilize water. That means less work for the liver and
kidneys so that they can focus on balancing hormones and creating nutrients.
Sunlight has been used for thousands of years as a therapeutic treatment. It usually goes by the
name heliotherapy or light therapy. Among other conditions, it has been shown to be effective
against acne, psoriases and other skin disorders.
Sunlight also affects your mood. If you live in a Northern climate youll know just how much.
I come from Finland, which is about as far north as you can go. The difference between winter
and summer is like night and dayquite literally in the northernmost regions of the country!
During winter people are moody and depressed. During summer these same people just cant
stop smiling because theres so much light.
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In the medical jargon this is known as seasonal affective disorder, or winter blues.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or

winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental
health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the
winter or, less frequently, in the summer, repeatedly, year after year. The
US National Library of Medicine notes that "some people experience a
serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much,
have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel
depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up.
Seasonal affective disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder
Sunlight also affects the quality of your sleep. When you expose your eyes to bright light your
body generates serotonin, a feel good hormone. Serotonin levels are linked to melatonin
levels. Melatonin is the hormone that helps you to sleep. The higher the serotonin levels the
more your body also produces melatonin. So the more you expose your eyes to bright light the
better you sleep the next night. I cover this in more detail in my other book Wake Up To Clear
Skin.
Freshair
Another obvious element of good health.
Do you ever remember a time when you went to a place with good, clean air? Maybe it was a
place in the forest or next to a lake or the sea. You remember how good it felt to breathe in
that air? Especially when you live in or spend most of your time in a big city.
And why do you suppose we so often use the expression that something is like a breath of
fresh air?
Like the UV rays in sunlight, oxygen in the air cleanses your body. Harmful, acne-causing
bacteria, cancer cells and many other pathogens cannot survive in the presence of oxygen.
They are called anaerobic organisms and oxygen is poison for them. Breathing fresh, oxygenrich air is like natural antibiotic. It kills the harmful bacteria but leaves the good ones alive.
Conversely, breathing polluted air gives you much less oxygen and creates an environment in
which acne-causing bacteria can thrive. Polluted air contains much less oxygen than clean air
does.
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Related to air quality is the way you breathe. Many practitioners of alternative and natural
medicine say proper breathing is at least as important as diet for good health. In Eastern
medical practices breath is often equated with life energy, and these claims have some
scientific basis as well.
Im aware of at least three ways proper breathing can improve your health.
First, it reduces stress and anxiety. Our emotional and physiological self is controlled by the
autonomic nervous systema system that increases and decreases our heart rate, breathing
rate, and so on. One group of nerves speeds us up and one group of nerves slows"us
down. These groups are known as the sympathetic nerves and parasympathetic nerves.
Sympathetic nerves fire during stress situations. Parasympathetic nerves fire when you are
relaxed. Proper breathing shifts the balance towards parasympathetic nerves.
Second, it balances the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. The level of CO2 in the blood largely
determines the pH-level of your blood. Too much CO2 makes your blood becomes too acidic.
Too little (as a result of hyperventilation) and your blood turns too alkaline. Strictly speaking,
blood doesnt actually turn acid or alkaline; the body has other methods of maintaining a
proper pH-balance. But more on that in a later chapter.
Third, proper breathing is important for detoxification. It has been said that if we eat healthy
we eliminate 70% of our metabolic waste via the respiratory system (in English, through
breathing). Perspiration takes care of 19% and the toilet remaining 11%. Now, I have to say I
cant be sure those numbers are absolutely correct, but even if they are only indicative you can
see how important breathing is to detoxification and your health.
Sleep
This is the area where probably most of us are lacking. We just dont give ourselves enough
time to sleep. Some people even consider sleep as a luxury.
This is unfortunate because adequate sleep is essential for good health and permanently clear
skin.
Every aspect of your physiology must recover from the days work. If you dont allow that
recovery time your body cannot work properly. Its the same as neglecting the maintenance
of your car. It runs okay for a while, but sooner or later symptoms appear.
If youve ever gone to sleep when you had a headache, upset stomach or other health problem
and then awakened feeling just fine, youve experienced the healing and recovering effects of
sleep.
Im not going to go into too much detail about what happens during sleep. I just want to say
that sleep is the time for housecleaning and maintenance by (and for) your body.
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Sleep is daily detox time for your body. During sleep your cells dump the waste from days
work into blood and lymph which carry it to the liver and kidneys and is eventually expelled.
Inadequate sleep means that cells cant throw out all the garbage (toxins, metabolic waste
and other waste matter). Your house wouldnt be a pleasant place to stay if you couldnt take
out the garbage. Your cells dont like it either, and it severely compromises their functioning.
After your cells have done the housecleaning, they tweak and tune-up their engines so they
are ready to meet the challenges of the next day.
Whatsyourweakestlink?
Earlier I stressed the need for balance. Your health is only as strong as your weakest link. Now
its time to find the areas you need to focus on first.
Dr. Douglas Graham in The Perfect Health Program says that you get the most return with the
least effort when you focus on strengthening your weak link(s). As you go through this
exercise and discover your weak link(s), I recommend you focus your efforts on them first. It
doesnt make sense to finesse your diet until your score is a 10 if you rate a 5 for the other
elements.
Now its your turn. Ill take you through a simple exercise that helps you to find out where
you stand with each element of health. I recommend drawing this diagram on paper but its
not absolutely necessary. This is an example of a perfectly balanced wheel of health diagram:
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Heres how to go about drawing your own wheel of health.
For each of the six elements of health give yourself a grade. You can use a scale of 1 to 5, or
whatever scale you are comfortable with. Each grade is represented by the length of the
corresponding spoke. When you know the length of each spoke, just draw out the wheel.
Use the following questions as guides when grading yourself:
Diet
What percentage of your calories comes from whole foods in their natural state?
What is the difference between standing up and sitting down readings (see the chapter on
food sensitivities for more information)?
How often do you eat processed foods?
How often do you consume dairy products?
How often do you eat grains, and are they refined or whole grain foods?
How much do you drink coffee, tea, alcohol, sodas or other unhealthy drinks?
Do you smoke? Use drugs? These are not exactly foods but this seems to be the best
category to include them.
Fitness
Are you overweight?

How many times do you exercise per week?
Can you run 5 miles at a moderate pace?
On average, how many calories do you burn a day through exercise? Dr. Graham
recommends 40% of daily calories burned through exercise for athletes, and Id use that
number as a benchmark for a high grade.
Do you do both cardio and resistance training?
Sleep
Do you feel tired or have low energy levels?

Do you need coffee, tea or other stimulants to start your day? Or to get through your
entire day?
Do you wake up tired? Do you have problems getting up in the morning?
Give yourself the highest score only if you wake up easily in the morning (without the aid of
an alarm clock), have abundant energy throughout the day and fall asleep easily in the
evening.
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Fresh air
Do you live in a polluted city?

Do you ever go outdoors to nature areas, beaches or other places where there is clean,
fresh air?
Do you spend most of your time indoors?
Do you have any green plants in your home?
Do you generally breathe deeply or is your breathing usually shallow?
Sunlight
Do you have a tan or look like a bleached ghost?

How much unprotected (no sunscreens or creams) sun exposure do you get per week?
Do you live in a Northern climate?
Emotional health and self-esteem
Where on the emotional scale do you spend most of your time?

How much of your time do you spend below the Connected level?
How many bothersome events did you list on the Personal Peace Procedure?
Reflect on the sentence completion exercise. Are your beliefs positive or negative?
How high are your stress levels?
Is you glass half full or half empty. In other words, are you optimistic or pessimistic?
Do you like and accept yourself as you are even with acne?
Are you happy most of the time, for no particular reason?
Do you get upset easily?
Are you in control of your emotions?
Do you believe in your own capabilities? Do you believe you can achieve your dreams
and goals? Please be honest here.
While grading yourself just remember to be honest. If you cheat you only fool yourself. Just
take a good, honest look at your life and the next steps will become much easier.
After youve graded yourself and drawn your wagon wheel of health, its time to identify your
weakest link. Your weakest link is the shortest spoke. Remember that it should look like a
wagon wheel. What does your diagram look like? If your car or bike had tires that resembled
your wheel of health diagram, would you enjoy the ride?
You usually get the best return on your efforts if you begin by improving your weakest link
first. Just fixing your weakest link may not be enough to get you clear, but its a good place to
start.
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Endeavour to make your wagon wheel of health round and balanced and then steadily improve
all the elements of health.
Acid/alkalinebalance
Acid/alkaline balance is another basic element of health you should be aware of. And since in
the diet chapter I mention some foods are acid forming while others are alkaline forming, Ill
cover it briefly here.
Acid/alkaline balance refers to the pH-level of the organs and fluids in your body. Aside from
the stomach, the other organs of the body and most bodily fluids should be slightly alkaline.
Preserving correct pH-level is critical to your health and well-being. For example, too high or
too low blood pH-levels can be fatal. To maintain the correct pH-level, your body has acid
and alkaline buffers that it uses to neutralize excess acids or alkaloids. These buffers are
certain minerals (calcium, sodium and potassium, for example). The largest storage of these
minerals is in your bones.
Acid forming foods decrease the pH-level of your body and alkaline forming foods increase it.
However, simply by tasting food you cant determine whether its acid or alkaline forming.
Lemons, for example, are among the most alkaline forming foods. What matters is the mineral
balance. Certain minerals are alkaline and certain others are acidic. Once the food is digested,
the residue (ash) determines whether the food is acid or alkaline forming.
If a food is acid forming the body has to dip into its alkaline buffers to neutralize the acids.
Thats the reason acid forming foods (such as dairy products) weaken your bones. These
minerals are then escorted to the kidneys and passed out of the body in urine.
Dont fuss too much about acid/alkaline balance. I just want you to be aware of it. Once you
fix your diet and lifestyle the acid/alkaline balance will automatically return to ideal levels.
Many people would want you to measure your pH-levels and then point out that you are acidic
and recommend their supplements to correct the problem.
More often than not, this is total and utter nonsense, and should someone suggest something
like that to you, grab your wallet and run.
While I agree that keeping track of your saliva and urine pH-levels is a good indicator of the
progress you are making, I dont recommend using any supplements. Supplements are not a
substitute for proper living, and with proper living you dont need them. You alone remain
responsible for your health and it takes more than supplements to create health.
For more information, Google ph balance health or see,
http://www.thewolfeclinic.com/phbalancearticle.html
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I also recommend you read this article from Quackwatch. While Quackwatch is known for its
dogmatic and often vicious attacks on natural and alternative health practices (regardless of
whether those practices work or not), this article is a good one:
Acid/Alkaline Theory of Disease Is Nonsense
Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/coral2.html
In the next several chapters well look at improving each element of health. Well start with a
detailed look at diet, how it contributes to acne and some of the problems with modern diets.
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Diet
Amazon carries more than 300,000 diet books. Most are written by doctors with impressive
credentials and long lists of scientific references. Each comes with glowing testimonials from
people who have used that particular diet approach to lose weight or cure previously incurable
conditions. Many of the popular ones have fanatical followers who swear this particular diet is
the answer that eludes the rest of the world.
Curiously, these books offer widely differing dietary recommendations; from the beef and
butter Atkins diet to raw fruit and vegetable-only diets and everything in between. Each diet
guru believes his or her approach is the correct one and anyone who disagrees either distorts or
doesnt understand science.
Each and every day these gurus and their followers wage diet wars against each others in
blogs, discussion forums, the pages of newspapers and magazines and any other media outlet
that is willing to listen to them, or give them a voice. As is the case with every war, truth is the
first casualty as each camp tries to assert their dominance or superiority and to prove that their
strategy is the best one. The participants in these debates, if you want to call them such,
resemble religious fanatics more than rational people interested in finding out the truth;
anyone who dares to challenge or disagree with them is attacked as a heretic and
metaphorically burned at the stake.
Then we have diet gurus from every camp dropping dead at seemingly early ages; from the
meat and butter camp Dr. Atkins died at the age of 72, and if it wasnt his heart that finally
killed him, it would have soon. At the opposite end of the spectrum, T.C. Fry, famous for his
fanatical promotion of the Natural Hygiene approach to health (raw foods, fasting and total
avoidance of herbs, drugs or other treatment) died at the age of 70. Since the diet and health
gurus are embarrassed or afraid to admit any symptoms or conditions they may have (so as to
not undermine their positionsand book sales) there must be a lot we dont know about.
So what can we make of all this?
The first humbling conclusion is that we really dont know that much. Despite all the research
and several hundred thousand diet books (and counting!), we still cant say we know it all
perhaps not even half of it. If one is honest and looks at all the evidence, one has to concede
that we cant say with any certainty what the optimal diet is for human beingsif an ideal
one even exists at allnor even whether the same diet suits everybody. Alternatively, we
could even claim that the human body can thrive on wildly different diets.
Despite this all hope is not lost. We know enough about nutrition that if you remain open and
flexible with your approach to diet, and dont fall into hubris and dogmatism, you can find a
diet that truly works for you.
Nevertheless, when one takes the ten thousand foot view and looks objectively at different
diets and success stories, certain patterns and commonalities emerge. In fact, the gurus do
agree on certain points. Later in this chapter we go through these principles. No matter what
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diet you choose to follow you should take note of these simple principles. I also explain the
dietary approach I follow and recommend as well as the reasoning behind my choice. This
approach has helped me to clear my skin and dramatically improve the quality of my life. The
emails I get every day from customers and readers show that the same approach has helped
thousands of other people to do the same.
The second glaring conclusion is that diet is not all there is. No matter what diet you follow
and how strictly you follow it, if your emotional health is not in order, or you neglect the other
elements of health, your overall health will suffer. Diet is an important part of the health
solution but its only a part. This bears repeating as most people hold the idea that if they
simply eat well they will remain in good health and vitality. Diet is no more important than the
other elements of health. You must pay attention to all of them to find a balance. Your health
is only as strong as its weakest link and it makes no sense to put more effort into your diet if
sleep or some other element is lacking and holds you back.
With that said lets talk about food.
I ask you to read this with an open, curious and questioning mind. Dont take this as gospel to
be followed blindly. See what recommendations make sense to you and try them out. Do your
own research and come to your own conclusions based on your own experience.
Howfoodscauseacne
Lets start by debunking the myth that diet has nothing to do with acne. Im sure youve heard
it many times. Most dermatologists insist diet has nothing to do with the health of the skin,
even though, paradoxically, they may agree that diet affects your overall health.
The myth that diet has nothing to do with acne started after two shoddy studies conducted
during late sixties and early seventies. Before that dermatologists routinely recommended
dietary changes to their patients. To the misery of millions of acne victims, the two faulty
studies changed that. One study that examined whether chocolate causes acne was sponsored
by a chocolate manufacturer no wonder it concluded chocolate has nothing to do with acne.
In the study the participants were divided into two groups. One group was given a chocolate
bar; another group was given a candy bar without chocolate. Both candy bars were equally
high in sugar, fat and calories. No other dietary changes or observations were made.
This study proved nothing and is scientifically worthless. Yet, it gave the chocolate
manufacturer scientifically proven evidence to point at. The other study was equally
worthless.
Both studies were so flawed they would not get published today, and they are widely criticized
by medical researchers. But the damage is done. Medical students learn diet has nothing to do
with acne, the official stand of the American Dermatological Association and the American
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Academy of Dermatology is that diet has nothing to do with acne, and dermatologists fall to
the official party line. And so the myth persists.
But this is not the time to debate the failures of the dermatology profession. Instead lets
briefly look at how diet affects acne.
As we discussed earlier, acne is a result of blood sugar imbalances and chronic inflammation.
Diet contributes to both.
Lets look at inflammation first.
Dietandinflammation
Inflammation is the bodys response to injury. In the case of diet this injury often means
oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that
damage the cells they come in contact with. The immune system reacts to this injury with
inflammation that starts the healing process. To keep things simple, we can say that all
harmful substances that shouldnt be in your body create free radicals; examples of these
harmful substances would be chemicals, pollution and toxins (produced by bacteria, side
products of cell metabolism and fermentation of undigested food).
One of the main ways diet adds to inflammation is through leaky gut syndrome (LGS). LGS
means just what it says; the content of the large intestine leaks into your body. Lets look at
how LGS develops.
It starts with indigestion. Your digestive track harbors more bacteria than there are cells in
your body; there are almost 10 times more bacteria than cells. When you are in good health
these bacteria are there to help you. Among other things they produce many valuable nutrients.
But these bacteria can turn nasty; a condition called gut dysbiosis. When undigested food
enters the large intestine the bacteria there get their hands on it. As a result carbohydrates
ferment, proteins putrefy and fats go rancid. This decaying creates many toxins; for example
carbohydrate fermentation creates alcohol and protein putrefaction creates ammonia and other
dangerous poisons. Even wondered why flatulence smells? The horrible smell is a result of
proteins putrefying in your gut.
If you keep feeding the bacteria in the gut with undigested food on a regular basis the bacterial
balance shifts. In health most of the gut bacteria are probioticthese would be the good guys.
But as the harmful bacteria get food on a regular basis (as a result of indigestion), they grow in
numbers and eventually take over. This can also happen as a result of taking antibiotics longterm. Antibiotics kill the good bacteria in the digestive track and allow harmful bacteria to
take over.
The gut lining is well protected and normally wouldnt let harmful substances into the
bloodstream. However long exposures to harmful bacteria (also parasites and other pathogens
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that undigested food supports) and toxic chemicals (produced by bacteria and decaying food)
can weaken this protective wall.
The body protects itself by secreting mucus into the colon wall. This protective mucus barrier
is what all the colon cleansers want to get rid of; they want to remove this protective barrier
and expose your body to the toxic substances in the gut. Although this mucus barrier protects
you against toxic substances, it also hampers nutrient absorption.
As the colon wall is exposed to bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxic substances, small holes
develop between the cells in the colon walls. It is through these small holes that substances in
the gut can leak into the bloodstream; a condition aptly called leaky gut syndrome.
These substances are highly inflammatory (as a result of free radical damage), and they stress
the liver and the other organs of elimination. If your body cant eliminate these toxins as
quickly as they enter the body they have to be stored in your tissues (mainly fat and muscle
tissues), and your body has to retain water to keep them dilutedsolution to pollution is
dilution. If no corrective action is taken Im sure you can see where this is headed. Your body
turns into a landfill site of bacterial byproducts and other toxic substances. Cleaning of this
mess is called the detox process and thats why it can take some time.
I want to point out here that theres nothing you have to do to specifically clean your colon
in fact I strongly recommend you dont do anything about it. Simply eating a healthy diet with
plenty of plant fiber and following the lifestyle recommendations in this book will help your
body to clean this mess. Colon cleansers and other invasive treatments often just make
matters worse and stress your wallet as well.
Another way diet can induce inflammation is by eating foods you are allergic to or foods that
are inflammatory. When you eat foods you are allergic to the immune system treats those food
molecules as invaders and attacks them. This increases inflammation. The most problematic
allergenic substances for acne victims are:
Gluten found in wheat, rye and some other grains

Dairy products
Soy
Peanuts
This list is by no means conclusive, and it must be pointed out that it changes from person to
person. Still, gluten and dairy, possibly also soy, are so universally allergenic that I
recommend anyone with acne to stop eating them.
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Another group of bad foods is inflammatory foods. These shouldnt be even called foods
because they are manmade and processed to a high degree. A few examples of these manmade
foods are:
Trans-fats, or hydrogenated fats

MSG and other chemicals added to foods
Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharine and sucralose
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is most prevalent in sodas and candies but can be
found in almost all processed foods
Refined sugars
If you avoid processed foods you avoid the vast majority of inflammatory foods.
Dietandbloodsugarlevels
It should be obvious that diet affects blood sugar levels. Since we take a more detailed look at
blood sugar controls in a later chapter, well cover this only briefly in the context of diet.
Blood sugar levels follow a simple function: baseline (or fasting) blood glucose level +
glucose absorbed from food you eat glucose absorption from bloodstream into cells. Input
minus output.
Your dietary choices affect both the input of glucose into your bloodstream and the output of
glucose from the bloodstream into your cells. Input is largely determined by the amount and
type of carbohydrates you eat. The more carbs you eat the more glucose will enter your
bloodstream. Some carbohydrates are digested quickly and glucose enters your bloodstream
rapidly. This can cause a spike in your blood sugar levels. Other carbs are slower and
produce gentler blood sugar response.
Other factors, such as fiber content and eating carbohydrates together with fats and protein,
also affect the rate of glucose absorption.
The other side of the equation is output (how quickly glucose is taken out of the bloodstream),
which is also at least partially affected by your diet. Insulin resistance makes it harder for
insulin to escort glucose into the cells and thus affects the absorption rate. Well look at the
factors, dietary and otherwise, involved in insulin resistance in a later chapter.
As you can see, diet obviously plays a huge role in blood sugar levels. Eating too much sugar
and refined carbohydrates have a notoriously bad effect on blood sugar levels. Similarly,
creating insulin resistance through dietary choices contributes to unstable blood sugar levels.
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Eatingyourwaytoclearskin
Given that chronic inflammation and blood sugar fluctuations may lead to acne, the diet to
clear skin should aim to:
Put out inflammatory fires

Maintain steady blood sugar levels
Provide the optimum amount of nutrients so the body can detox and heal itself
In the next chapters well look at several dietary aspects that can help or hinder your effort to
get clear. Well look at blood sugar controls, how they fail and how you can bring your blood
sugars back in line. Well look at whether you should cook your food, and if so in which way.
Well look at the causes of indigestion and how to avoid them. Well also look at the
importance of essential fatty acids and how they can both cause or suppress inflammation
depending on how you eat them.
Cookedvs.raw
Should you cook your foods? If youve been interested of health, you have probably heard
about raw foodshow raw foods are natures perfect food and are the answer to all the
problems humanity faces at least according to the more fanatic proponents of raw foods.
Lets start with problems cooking creates.
Problemswithcookedfood
Cooking makes many foods harder to digest
When you apply heat to a food you change its molecular structure and create new molecules.
Your body may not recognize all these molecules and that makes cooked foods harder to
digest.
For example proteins are denaturized by heating, which creates enzyme resistant bonds in the
protein molecules. The digestive enzymes cant break these bonds and those molecules cant
be digested. Similarly, heating fats creates triple bonds instead of normal single or double
bonds. This makes those fat molecules indigestible to humans.
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Eating cooked foods stresses the immune system
Because cooked foods arent digested completely, large molecules may enter your body. Your
immune system reacts to these as invaders and attacks them. After eating cooked foods the
white blood cell count in the blood increases dramatically. In medical jargon this response is
called digestive leukocytosis.
Mainstream scientists consider this as normal, but its not, and it doesnt happen after eating
raw foods. The more you remove a food from its natural state, either by cooking or processing,
the worse the reaction.
Cooking creates harmful substances

Cooking food is like doing a chemical experiment in high school. Due to heat, cooking or
preparing food creates new substances. Many of these new substances come from proteins
reacting with carbohydrates. Some of these substances cause cancer, various brain diseases
and they also hinder neurotransmitter function and metabolism. Your body doesnt recognize
these new substances and cannot digest them properly. Some examples of toxic substances
that cooking creates are:
Caramelization happens in carbohydrates (bread to toast, crust). This makes sugar much
more readily available into the bloodstream. The caramelization process is also
carcinogenic.
A potentially cancer-causing agent used to manufacture certain chemicals, plastics, and
dyes has recently been found to be a natural by-product of cooking certain foods. The
Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look at this white, odorless chemical,
acrylamide, to determine how much of it occurs in foods and whether it could pose a
health risk. In April 2002, researchers in Sweden discovered that cooking at high
temperatures could create acrylamide in many types of foods, particularly starchy foods
such as french fries, potato chips, bread, rice, and processed cereals.
Source: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2003/103_food.html
Research has shown that cooking certain meats at high temperatures creates chemicals
that are not present in uncooked meats. A few of these chemicals may increase cancer
risk. For example, heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are the carcinogenic chemicals formed
from the cooking of muscle meats such as beef, pork, fowl, and fish. HCAs form when
amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and creatine (a chemical found in muscles)
react at high cooking temperatures. Researchers have identified 17 different HCAs
resulting from the cooking of muscle meats that may pose human cancer risk.
Source: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/heterocyclic-amines
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Results in loss of nutrients
Heating food to high temperatures destroys most of the vitamins, minerals and essential fatty
acids. Again, the more heat you apply the more damage you do, although the loss of vitamins
and antioxidants is minimal if you cook by steaming or lightly boiling.
Slows down the transit time

Cooking changes the structure of fiber in foods. Cooking makes fiber mushier and softer,
making it less effective in pushing food through your intestines. The longer food sits in your
stomach and intestines the more time the bacteria there have to feast on it. And the more
bacteria feast (read decay) on that food the more toxic substances they release. Eventually
these toxic substances leak into your body, stress the liver and may cause acne.
Its true that cooking creates many problems, but cooking is not all bad. So dont throw your
pots and pans out the window just yet.
Benefitsofcooking
Makes some nutrients more available
The human digestive system cannot effectively break down tough plant fiber and the cell walls
in them. The nutrients in them simply pass through the digestive system. Cooking breaks
down these cell walls and you can benefit from the nutrients. In essence, cooking pre-digests
the food.
Of course if you heat the food too much you destroy the nutrients and create toxic molecules.
Makes indigestible foods digestible

The human body cannot digest many foods in their raw state. Take grains for example. Try to
eat raw grains and they simply pass through you. In the best case nothing happens, but in the
worst case youll end up with stomach cramps.
Cooking pre-digests these foods and allows humans to eat them. We benefit by having a larger
selection of foods available to us.
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Eliminates toxins and anti-nutrients
Some foods have toxins and anti-nutrients in them. Anti-nutrients block the absorption of
minerals and other nutrients in the digestive track and possibly lead to deficiencies. Beans and
legumes are notorious for their anti-nutrients. Unlike some other animals, humans dont have
the enzymes required to eliminate these.
Luckily we have cooking. Cooking neutralizes the anti-nutrients and many toxins, making
these foods safer for us to eat.
As you can see cooking is not all bad. It offers some important benefits, and certainly, without
cooking our current civilization would not have been possible.
Some raw fooders argue that we should avoid all cooking because its unnatural and no other
animal species cooks its food. Clearly, then, they argue, nature intended us to eat raw foods. I
dont find this argument convincing because using the same standard we should all be running
around naked and be outdoors all the time. I dont see many raw fooders either doing or
advocating this.
Our natural foods today are the ones weve adapted to and evolved with: not what we ate
millions of years ago. We have evolved into a very different species than we were millions of
years ago. It stands to reason we should eat different foods also.
Humans have utilized fire for cooking for more than 100,000 years. We have adapted to and
evolved with cooking some of our foods. However, only very recently we have cooked most
or all of our foods. Clearly this is not natural to us.
Cookedvs.rawrecommendations
Given both the benefits and the problems with cooking, lets see if we can find a happy
medium that minimizes the problems and gives you the most benefits.
Because in most cases raw foods are superior to their cooked counterparts you should eat the
majority of your foods raw. As a rule of thumb aim for raw foods make up 50% to 75% of the
volume of food you eat. If you so desire, and particularly if you enjoy raw foods, you can go
even higher.
However, I do not believe that eating 100% raw food is suitable as a long-term diet, in terms
of health, for everybody. Its an excellent detox and healing diet but deficiencies can occur in
the long-term. Some people may thrive on 100% raw food, but not everybody. There are
enough warning examples in the raw food community.
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When you do cook your foods, use as little heat as possible. Water is the only acceptable
cooking medium when it comes to health. Cooking with oils may make foods tastier but it
offers no health benefits over cooking with water, and in all cases causes harm. Cooking with
oils heats foods too much. The heat also destroys the fats in oils and turns them into toxic
molecules.
If you insist on cooking with fats, saturated fats and coconut oil are the most stable fats, which
means that they survive high heat better than other fats. Never reuse cooking oils because
reheating them creates more and more toxic molecules.
Steaming is the healthiest method to cook your foods. Slowly boiling with as little heat as
possible is the next best option. However, many of the vitamins and nutrients in the foods will
leach into the water, so try to find a use for it also.
Causesofindigestion
Earlier we looked at how indigestion leads to leaky gut syndrome, increases inflammation and
also possibly leads to acne. Before you can get clear you need to ensure this doesnt happen to
you. You can do so by simply avoiding the most common causes of impaired digestion.
Chemicals in food. Most of the chemicals present in foods interfere with digestion.
These chemicals include residues of fertilizers and pesticides, food color, preservatives,
taste enhancers and other food additives.
Overeating. This one is obvious. If you eat more in a single sitting than you can digest,
some of the food wont be digested properly.
Eating overcooked food. Overcooking food makes it more difficult to digest. So avoid
eating foods that are overcooked (see the earlier chapter about cooking).
Eating foods that are hard to digest. Some foods are simply hard to digest even if they
havent been cooked or over-processed. Many people have a hard time digesting large
quantities of nuts. Beans are another food group that creates problems for some people;
perhaps because they combine high amounts of carbohydrates with high amounts of
protein.
Eating too rich meals. As a rule simpler meals digest better than complex meals. Each
macronutrient (carbohydrates, protein and fat) requires different digestive enzymes and
digestive methods. Combining these in too rich meals may cause indigestion. The simpler
your meals the easier they are to digest. Sequential eating is one possible solution to this
problem. Sequential eating states that you should eat foods in the order of their digestive
speeds. Vegetables first, carbohydrates second, protein foods next and fatty foods after
everything else. Sequential eating theory states that when foods are eaten in sequence
they are digested in layers resulting in complete digestion.
Eating fruits with heavy foods. Fruits require almost no digestion in the stomach and
they move through the digestive system quickly. If fruits are combined with foods that
require longer digestion they sit in the stomach waiting for the other foods to digest. As
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they sit in the stomach they ferment and interfere with digestion. Fruits are best eaten
alone and into empty stomach. Greens and non-starchy vegetables are the only
exceptions. Both are safe to eat with fruits.
Eating while stressed. Stress, anxiety and negative emotions weaken and in worst cases
shut off digestion. So anything you eat when you are stressed or in a negative state will
not be digested properly.
Of course, each individual is different in terms of their digestive fire. Some people cant
digest foods that others have no problems with. To make sure your digestion is running
without problems pay attention to the signs of indigestion:
Burping
Flatulence
Bloating
Cramps, burning sensation or other uncomfortable feelings in the stomach
If you notice any of these signs try to remember your last two or three meals and see if any of
the ingredients/combinations/quantities could have caused the problem.
Essentialfattyacids
Essential fatty acids (EFAs) and their role in health is one of the most promising research
topics today. According to the latest medical research they play a role in all of the biggest
killer diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke), as well as in many other conditions.
Essential fatty acids are called essential because the human body cannot make them. You
have to get them from diet. There are only two essential fatty acids: omega 3 and omega 6, and
only one, omega 3, is deficient in most people. Unfortunately, nearly everyone in Western
countries is deficient in omega 3 fatty acids.
Omega 3, and to a lesser extent omega 6, is very delicate. Exposure to light, heat and oxygen
spoils the fat. Any foods that have omega 3 spoil relatively quickly. This goes against the
profit motives of food companies. In order to create more stable products (and extend their
shelf life) foods companies have refined omega 3 out of most of our foods.
Another reason for lack of omega 3 in Western diets is commercial meat production. In nature,
omega 3 is found in green leaves whereas omega 6 is mostly found in seeds. A cow that has
been eating grass has lots of omega 3 in its tissues, whereas a grain-fed cows tissues are
saturated with omega 6. The same is true for chicken (and eggs), pigs and other animals we
routinely eat.
As a result of these changes in our food chain nearly everyone (95 to 99% of the population)
in Western countries gets too much omega 6 and too little omega 3.
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Researchers have also found that the balance of these fatty acids in diet affects your health
balance may be even more important than the amount of these fats you eat. Balance simply
means the ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 in your diet. In Western diets the ratio is between 1:10
and 1:20, in favor or omega 6. That means that for every gram of omega 3 that people get,
they generally get 10 to 20 grams of omega 6. This is way too much omega 6. In cultures
where people eat more traditional diets, and by the way are mostly free from the big killer
diseases, the ratios vary from 2:1, in favor of omega 3, to 1:4, in favor of omega 6.
The balance is critical because these fatty acids play different roles. For example, the body
makes prostaglandins (hormone-like substances that mediate many chemical reactions) out of
EFAs. However it creates different prostaglandins depending on which fatty acids are
available. Simply speaking, prostaglandins made from omega 6 promote inflammation and
prostaglandins made from omega 3 are anti-inflammatory, to give just one example.
Perhaps because our natural foods supplied these fatty acids in balance the body doesnt
discriminate between them. It simply grabs the one that is available and uses it. This worked
well as long as the fatty acids in the pool remained balanced. However, when the supply of
EFAs is biased towards one or the other, the resulting chemical reactions are similarly biased.
Researchers are just starting to discover the steep price we have to pay for this. As these fatty
acids are incorporated into every cell they have also been implicated in nearly all the killer
diseases.
A huge amount of anecdotal evidence implies that omega 3 fatty acids also help with acne.
Balancing these EFAs in your diet is perhaps your most important dietary task. To do this you
need to start tracking your diet. I recommend using http://www.nutritiondata.com for this.
Enter all the foods you eat during a day and the website gives you a detailed analysis of your
diet. Youll find out how many calories you ate, how many of them came from carbs, proteins
and fats, and the amount of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids you got from them.
This analysis includes the amount of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Without such tracking
its difficult to estimate the balance between omega 3 and omega 6. This analysis also shows if
your diet is deficient in any essential vitamins or minerals.
Analyzing your diet is very interesting and revealing. Its a bit of extra work, but you dont
have to do it for the rest of your life. A few weeks to a month should be enough.
Good sources for omega 3 fatty acids are:
Flax seeds
Cold water fish, especially salmon
Walnuts
Soybeans
Shrimp
Grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and their eggs
Omega 3 is also found in leafy, green vegetables, but only in small amounts.
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Perhaps the easiest way to get omega 3 is to eat oils made out of the above foods. However,
you have to be a little careful with the kinds of oils you choose. Omega 3 fatty acids are so
sensitive that unless great care is taken during the manufacturing, bottling, shipping and
storage they go rancid. Care costs money. Most companies are more interested in their bottom
line than your health, and consequently they cut corners during the manufacturing process.
This is not to say all oils are bad, but that you must do your research and look carefully before
eating any oils. The only acceptable oils are stored in dark, glass bottles in a refrigerator in a
natural health store. Oils stored in transparent or plastic bottles at room temperature are most
likely rancid. For more information about oils and the destructive processing most oils go
through, read Fats that Heal Fats that Kill, by Dr. Udo Erasmus.
Because these oils are so delicate the only oil I can safely recommend is Udos Choice Oil
Blend, made by Dr. Udo Erasmus. Udos oils should be available in most well stocked health
stores.
Or you can simply skip oils and eat whole foods. Ground flaxseeds are an excellent source of
omega 3 FAs. You can sprinkle them on the foods you eat. I often mix a tablespoon or two in
my green smoothies (this may cause digestive problems for some people, so be careful).
Flaxseeds also make a tasty addition to salads and oatmeal.
You have to grind flaxseeds before eating them because whole flaxseeds are too tough to
digest and simply pass through your body. A coffee grinder or a blender with a grinder unit
gets the job done. Because omega 3s are sensitive, grind flaxseeds right before eating them.
Omega 6 FAs are much easier to get, so you dont have to be that concerned about them. You
can find them in nuts, seeds, olives and in most fatty foods. As long as you dont eat an
extremely low-fat diet (less than 10% of your calories from fats) youll have no problems
getting your omega 6s.
Scientists have yet to discover the ideal ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 for humans. However, we
know that the human body can remain in good health with a range of different ratios. For
example, the Eskimos diet has 2:1 ratio, in favor of omega 3. This hasnt shown to produce
omega 6 deficiencies. Similarly a ratio of 1:4, in favor of omega 6, hasnt been shown to
create omega 3 deficiencies.
As long as your ratio falls between 2:1 and 1:4 you should be fine. Initially it may be helpful
to even favor omega 3. After years of eating too much omega 6 fatty acids, your tissues are
saturated with them. So getting more omega 3s initially may help to balance these fatty acids
in your tissues faster. However, this should go on for no more than six months and in the long
term your intake of these EFAs should be balanced.
To get sufficient amounts of EFAs Dr. Erasmus recommends 3 to 6% of your total calories
from omega 6 and 2 to 2.5% from omega 3. If you eat 2500 calories a day it would mean 8 to
16 grams of omega 6 and 5 to 6 grams of omega 3.
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LNA, EPA, DHA not all omegas are created equal
Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids dont refer to single types of fats; instead both refer to a
family of fats with similar characteristics.
The most important fats in the omega 3 family are alpha-linolenic acid (LNA or ALA),
eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These fats have different
functions in the human body and all are essential for good health.
You get different omega 3 fatty acids from different foods. Flax and plant sources contain
LNA but no EPA or DHA. Fish and fish oils contain DHA and EPA.
Studies show that given adequate intake of LNA the body can make DHA and EPA from
LNA. Sellers of fish oil would like you to believe otherwise. Please see Humans Turn ALA to
EPA/DHA (http://www.udoerasmus.com/articles/udo/fish_oil.htm).
In the omega 6 family the most common fats are linoleic acid (LA), gamma-linolenic acid
(GLA), dihomogamma-linolenic acid (DGLA) and arachidonic acid (AA). Here again a
healthy human body can convert LA to all the other omega 6 family fatty acids.
Bloodsugarcontrolsandproblems
Given the fact that constantly fluctuating blood sugar levels can lead to acne, its important to
keep your blood sugars stable. So lets briefly look at how your body keeps (or tries to keep)
them under control.
The key to understanding blood sugar controls lies in special cells called beta-cells. These
cells are in the pancreas and are responsible for secreting insulin into the bloodstream.
As you eat carbohydrates they are broken down into glucose (sugar) and then absorbed from
the small intestine into the bloodstream. Blood sugar levels refer to the concentration of
glucose in your bloodstream.
When blood sugar levels start to rise, the beta-cells release insulin that escorts glucose into the
cells, and brings down blood sugar levels. This happens in phases. As you start eating the
beta-cells release stored insulin to the bloodstream. This is called first phase insulin release. In
a healthy person this keeps blood sugar levels from rising too high. Blood sugar usually peaks
within 30 to 45 minutes after starting your meal.
If the first phase insulin release is not enough to bring down your blood sugar levels to below
100 mg/dl, the beta-cells release more insulin. This is called the second phase insulin release.
In a healthy person this brings blood sugar levels down to starting levels within 60 to 90
minutes after the start of the meal.
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In a healthy person the combination of first and second phase insulin releases keeps the blood
sugar levels from rising above 140, even after a high carbohydrate meal.
Howbloodsugarcontrolsfail
When the first and second phase insulin release is sluggish, blood sugar levels rise higher than
normal, and take longer time to come down. This condition is called impaired glucose
tolerance. There are two reasons for impaired glucose tolerance: insulin resistance and/or
failing beta-cells.
Insulin resistance
The first stage for impaired glucose tolerance is insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means
weakened response to insulin by your cells. The pancreas needs to put out more insulin to
compensate for insulin resistance, and this in turn means more stress to your beta-cells.
Insulin resistance is a complicated condition and its cause is not fully known. Among the
known factors in insulin resistance are:
Too high blood sugar levels

Suppressed emotions
Excess weight
Eating too much and wrong type of fat
Sleep deprivation
Overeating
Sedentary lifestyle
Stress
Genetic and hereditary factors
Lets look at few of these.
Too high blood sugar levels

Sugar is a bit like fire. Its a good servant but a poor master. Sugar is quick-burning, clean
fuel, but too much sugar is dangerous. When your blood sugar levels rise too high (140 and
above) glucose toxicity becomes an issue. Too much glucose in the bloodstream damages the
organs it comes in contact with. Cells protect themselves against the toxic effects of too much
glucose and develop insulin resistance even if they werent insulin resistant before. The
higher your blood sugar levels go, the worse the effect.
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High blood sugar levels also damage nerve endings, heart and other tissues. Again, the higher
they go the more damage they do.
Eating too much of, and the wrong type of fat

Eating too much fat can also lead to insulin resistance. After being consumed, fat it finds its
way into your bloodstream. High-fat diets alter insulin signaling and hence make insulin less
effective.
Authors promoting low-fat diet regimens dont make any distinctions between different types
of fats. To them all fats cause insulin resistance. However, research indicates this is not the
case.
In terms of insulin resistance, saturated fats, trans-fats and damaged fats (during processing or
cooking) are the main culprits. Such fats should be kept to the minimum.
However, research indicates that unsaturated fats are more forgiving. Consider the conclusion
of the largest human study on fats and insulin resistance:
Insulin sensitivity was significantly impaired on the saturated fatty acid diet
(-10%, p = 0.03) but did not change on the monounsaturated fatty acid diet
(+2%, NS) (p = 0.05 for difference between diets). Insulin secretion was not
affected. The addition of n-3 fatty acids influenced neither insulin sensitivity
nor insulin secretion. The favourable effects of substituting a
monounsaturated fatty acid diet for a saturated fatty acid diet on insulin
sensitivity were only seen at a total fat intake below median (37E%). Here,
insulin sensitivity was 12.5% lower and 8.8% higher on the saturated fatty
acid diet and monounsaturated fatty acid diet respectively (p = 0.03)
Vessby B, Unsitupa M, Hermansen K, Riccardi G, Rivellese AA, Tapsell LC, Nlsn C, Berglund L,
Louheranta A, Rasmussen BM, Calvert GD, Maffetone A, Pedersen E, Gustafsson IB, Storlien LH;
KANWU Study.
Substituting dietary saturated for monounsaturated fat impairs insulin sensitivity in healthy men and
women: The KANWU Study.
Unit for Clinical Nutrition Research, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences/Geriatrics,
University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden.
In this study, healthy subjects were fed a diet with an average of 37% of calories from fat. In
the saturated fat diet, 17% of total energy came from saturated fats, 14% from
monounsaturated fats and 6% from polyunsaturated fats. In the monounsaturated fat diet the
ratios were 8%, 23% and 6%, respectively.
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While humans studies havent been consistent, animal studies clearly demonstrate that the
type of fat eaten significantly affects insulin sensitivity.
Animal studies have already shown the possibility to modulate insulin
action by changing not only the amount of total fat, but also the type of fat.
In these studies, saturated fat significantly increased insulin resistance,
long- and short-chain omega(3) fatty acids significantly improved it,
whereas the effects of monounsaturated and omega(6) polyunsaturated fatty
acids ranged somewhere in between the two.
Rivellese AA, De Natale C, Lilli S.
Type of dietary fat and insulin resistance.
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Federico II University Medical School, Napoli,
Italy.
Although human studies have not consistently shown positive effects of omega 3 fatty acids
on insulin resistance, this doesnt necessarily mean they dont exist. Human studies are more
difficult to control than animal studies. Also, after years of eating saturated fats and too much
omega 6 fatty acids our tissues are saturated with them. This may skew the results. Longer
term studies may show a more conclusive correlation as the omega 3 concentration in the
tissues of study participants grows.
From these studies its easy to conclude that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats in
diet helps to prevent and reverse insulin resistance. You should pay even more attention to the
essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega 3 and omega 6) as outlined in the Role of
essential fatty acids chapter.
Beta-cell failure
The next step on the road to glucose intolerance, and later on to full-blown diabetes, is betacell failure.
Failing or dying beta-cells may be another reason why first and second phase insulin responses
fail to rein in blood sugar levels. The beta-cells may be overstressed and cant produce enough
insulin to bring down blood sugar levels.
Genetics plays a role in beta-cell failure, but that you have no control over. Glucose toxicity is
another factor in beta-cell failure. Fortunately, you can control glucose toxicity by preventing
your blood sugar levels from rising too high.
Glucose toxicity starts becoming an issue when your blood sugar levels rise to 140 mg/dl and
above. The higher your blood sugar levels rise the worse the effect gets.
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Howdoyouknowifyourbloodsugarsareoutofcontrol?
Impaired glucose tolerance can be problematic because it usually doesnt produce any
symptoms. You may go on for years without any visible symptoms while the situation is
slowly getting worse and worse until one day you reach a point where your body cant take the
stress anymore. From that point on your glucose control deteriorates rapidly into full-blown
diabetes.
Testing your blood sugars is the only way to detect the problem.
Fortunately, you can test this easily at home. Most drug stores carry blood glucose monitors
that you can use to test your blood sugar levels. The test kit comes with a lancet device that
pricks the skin on your finger tips (dont worry, it doesnt hurt). You then squeeze a drop of
blood onto a test strip and the meter shows the concentration of glucose in your blood (your
blood sugar level). Glucose monitors are reasonably affordable, although the testing strips may
be expensive in the long run.
You can also ask your doctor to test your blood sugar levels. You should ask for fasting blood
glucose and oral glucose tolerance tests.
You can do the same tests at home also, as follows:
Test your blood sugar levels first thing in the morning, and make sure you havent
eaten anything in the last 8 to 10 hours. Note down the reading. This is your fasting
blood sugar.
Eat something with 60 to 70 grams of fast acting carbs (high GI). A bagel, a large
boiled potato, or a cup of white rice gets the job done. Dont eat any protein or fats as
they slow the absorption of glucose and skew the results. Note down the time you
started eating.
One hour after you started eating test your blood sugars again.
Two hours after eating test again.
Finally, test your blood sugars three hours after you started eating.
So what do those numbers mean?

Fasting blood glucose:
70 90 mg/dl: normal
90 125 mg/dl: pre-diabetes. Most doctors would say that fasting blood glucose
under 110 is normal, but research shows that fasting blood glucose in the mid 90mg/dl
range often predicts diabetes diagnosed a decade later
125 mg/dl and above: diabetes
Under 70 mg/dl: hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels)
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Post-meal blood sugars:
If your readings remained under 100 mg/dl at the one hour test and all the tests after it,
you have normal blood sugars and can stop worrying over it.
If your blood sugar did not reach 140 mg/dl an hour after taking a large dose of
carbohydrates and if it was below 120 mg/dl two hours after you ate the large dose of
carbohydrate, most health authorities would also say that you are normal. These
numbers, 140 mg/dl at 1 hour and 120 mg/dl at two hours after a meal are what Joslin
Diabetes Clinic of Harvard Medical School defines as the upward limit of "normal."
If your blood sugar is at the very top of this normal range, near 140 mg/dl at one hour
and near 120 mg/dl at two hours, you may have a slight amount of either beta-cell
dysfunction or insulin resistance going on.
If your blood sugar surged over 140 mg/dl at one hour or stayed above 120 mg/dl at
two hours, you may have impaired glucose tolerance or IGT. Another name for this
condition is "pre-diabetes." Note that the values given here are lower than the values
that doctors use to diagnose impaired glucose tolerance using a lab glucose tolerance
test. That is because blood sugar does not rise as high after you eat a food that needs to
be digested as it does when you drink pure glucose solution (as you do when a doctor
tests you), so you will not see as high a number with a food test as you will on a
glucose tolerance test.
If you tested 200 mg/dl at any time, you just registered a diabetic blood sugar level.
Your doctor may give you reference ranges that are somewhat higher than the ones listed
above. Most doctors in the US stick to the American Diabetes Associations diagnosis
guidelines. However, the ADA guidelines are out of date and dont accurately diagnose prediabetic conditions. The guidelines have come under intense criticism, and only institutional
inertia keeps them in place anymore they are no longer supported by any scientific or
empirical data.
If you ask your doctor to test your blood sugar levels you can also ask for an insulin test.
Insulin is another part of the blood glucose equation. Its possible to have normal blood sugar
values and be insulin resistant at the same time. Your pancreas may compensate for insulin
resistance by producing more insulin. Research has shown, for example, that some obese
people have more than double the amount of beta-cells than lean people do.
As certain hormones are linked to acne (see What causes acne chapter), its in your best
interest to keep insulin levels as low as possible. Insulin tests show how much insulin your
pancreas secretes in response to the glucose challenge (the sugary drink you consume before
the test). Higher than normal insulin levels may indicate insulin resistance. Your doctor can
guide you with interpreting the test results.
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Restoringbloodsugarcontrols
If you find that you have glucose intolerance, dont worry, because there is a lot you can do to
bring your blood sugars back to normal range and restore blood sugar controls. If you test at
diabetic levels you can still benefit from following these guidelines, but you also need to
consult with your doctor because diabetic complications can be severe even lethal.
In order to get clear and maintain good health you need to keep your blood sugar levels as
close to normal range as possible. The following steps can help you to do that.
Keep a food journal and test, test, test

Testing is the only way to learn how your blood sugar levels react to different foods. Keep a
food journal (write down all the foods you eat) and note down your blood sugar response after
each meal. Always test 1 hour and 2 hours after the start of the meal, but you may also test
after 30 minutes to get an idea of how high your blood sugars spike in response to the meal.
As you test different meals youll learn which foods are safe for you to eat. You can use that
feedback to modify your diet.
Increase your omega-3 intake

Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids may restore insulin sensitivity and prevent insulin
resistance from developing.
Guidelines for optimal intake of omega-3 are around 2% of your total calories. However even
higher intakes may be warranted and have not been shown to be harmful. The easiest way to
get your omega-3 is Udos Choice Oil Blend. In addition to oils, eating ground flaxseeds and
fish is also recommended. Whole foods always have more nutrients than the oils refined from
them.
Keep your blood sugar below 140 mg/dl

To prevent any further damage to the beta-cells and other organs, do your best to keep your
blood sugars below 140 mg/dl. If your blood sugars remain below this level the organ damage
is either minimal or non-existent. Blood sugar levels that are consistently higher than 140
mg/dl create a high blood glucose death spiral where they cause more and more damage to
the beta-cells, which deteriorates blood sugar levels even further.
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Dont overeat
When you eat more calories than you need your cells become insulin resistant and blood sugar
levels rise. Excess calories are turned into fat, which makes controlling your blood sugar
levels more difficult.
Listen to your body and never eat more than you are comfortable with. As you eat natural
foods and get in tune with your body it will tell you when you are full.
Replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats

Research has shown that a too high intake of saturated fats cause insulin resistance whereas
monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats have less or no effect on insulin resistance.
Avoid trans-fats and damaged fats

Trans-fats and damaged fats can cause similar blood sugar control deterioration as saturated
fats do. Trans-fats and damaged fats may be even worse since the process of creating these
fats causes toxic molecules to form in them (please see Fats that Heal Fats that Kill by Dr.
Erasmus for more details on the kind of processing that most commercial oils go through).
Aside from trans-fats you should consider most processed oils and fats as damaged. The
processing to create these fats subjects them to temperatures above 200 C as well as to the
oxidizing effect of light and oxygen. As a result, these oils have few nutrients left but are full
of toxic and deranged molecules.
The Comments on different food groups chapter has more details on vegetable oils.
Watch your total carbohydrate intake and the type of carbohydrates you eat
If you have blood sugar control problems you may need to restrict your carbohydrate intake.
Fats and protein do not increase your blood sugar levels and are therefore safer foods to eat.
However, eating fats and protein increases your insulin levels just as carbohydrates do.
Through testing you can find the level of carbohydrates that works best for you.
Avoid getting more than 40% of your calories from fat because eating too much fat has been
shown to have detrimental effects on insulin resistance and overall health. Forty percent of
total calories from fat means carbohydrates make up 40 to 50% of your total calories. If you
cant maintain steady blood sugar levels with this percentage of carbohydrates then you may
need to eat more fat.
The type of carbohydrate you eat also affects your blood sugar levels. The Glycemic Index
(GI) of a food shows the effect it has on blood sugar levels. Avoid high GI foods (70 and
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above). Check http://www.glycemicindex.com for more details on GI and the GI of specific
foods.
One caveat with GI is that many processed foods have lower GI than whole foods. Thats
because they are harder to digest and have been combined with unnatural fats, proteins and
chemicals. Stick to whole foods in their natural state as far as possible.
Finally, choose carbohydrates that have high fiber content. Fiber slows digestion and creates a
gentler blood sugar response.
Combine carbohydrates with fats and proteins

Eating carbohydrates together with fats and/or proteins slows the absorption of sugar and is
easier on your blood sugar levels.
This goes against conventional food combining rules, but if you dont experience signs of
indigestion (gas, burping, stomach pain, etc.) it may be worth it.
Lose fat and build muscle

Research shows consistently that people carrying excess fat have more insulin resistance and a
higher rate of diabetes than lean people do. Excess body fat is probably the most deleterious
substance when it comes to glucose control.
Replacing fat with muscle has the opposite effect. Start a combined exercise regimen with
aerobic exercise and resistance training (weight lifting or body weight exercises).
Exercise has also been shown to improve insulin sensitivity as it creates demand for glucose.
Improve all elements of health

Glucose intolerance is a complicated condition with many factors. All of the other elements of
health have been shown to contribute to insulin resistance. Focus on building a balanced wheel
of health and put the most emphasis on your weak links.
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Foodallergies
Food sensitivities might be the hidden key that explains why some people who eat a seemingly
healthy diet still struggle with their health. Unfortunately, as humans we react to foods
differently. Very differently.
Heres my story with food sensitivities.
A few years ago I got into raw foods. I bought into the notion that raw fruits and vegetables
are the healthiest foods for humans to eat. I started eating more and more of them, up to a
point where 70 to 80% of my calories were coming from raw foods, mostly from fruits.
For the first 8 months I felt fantastic, but later I started developing some unsettling changes. I
felt tired constantly. I had massive joint pain. I felt drab and didnt have much enthusiasm for
anything. I also developed serious acne on my throat; something I had never had before.
Thinking I was just going through a detox, I waited to see what would happen. This went on
for about 3 months, by which time it was obvious to me that something was not right and I
started changing my diet.
Long story short, I discovered the food allergy/sensitivity tests I am about to share with you.
Using these free tests at home I was able to find out I was allergic to most fruits. Ive also
discovered my body reacts badly to oatmeal and chickpeas.
I stopped eating fruits immediately and within two weeks felt like I was coming back to life.
My joint pain vanished (I could run again, yippee!). My throat acne faded away and my
energy levels gradually returned to normal.
I share this story hoping you take food sensitivities seriously. They are nothing to sneeze at
though they may make you sneeze. Food sensitivities are problematic because they are often
silentthey may not cause any visible symptoms. I felt absolutely fine after eating fruits or
oatmeal; there was nothing to alert me of a possible sensitivity.
Yet they can wreak massive havoc on the body. Because they trigger an inflammatory
reaction, food allergies and sensitivities can cause or aggravate an enormous variety of
symptoms. According to the American College of Allergy and Immunology, these include
upset stomach, gastroenteritis, runny nose, dark circles under the eyes, shock, edema or
swelling, anxiety, ulcers, joint pain, asthma, addictions, and rashes. In children they can cause
seizures, red ear lobes, red cheeks, excessive talking or aggressive behavior, bedwetting and
attention deficit.
Other symptoms are bronchitis, celiac disease, diarrhea, chronic fatigue, colic, colitis,
diabetes, depression, failure to thrive, hay fever, headaches, hyperactivity, bowel disease,
insomnia, iron deficiency anemia due to blood loss, learning disorders, malabsorption,
myalgia, nephritis, acne and sore throat. And the list goes on.
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Before we go on I want to say that food allergies and sensitivities are not same as food
intolerances. Food intolerances are often constitutional and result from lacking an enzyme for
digesting a particular food (such as milk or beans). In many cases you were born with them
and have them for life, although its possible they can be the result of a temporary deficiency
or imbalance. Because you lack a specific enzyme, the food doesnt digest properly. This
causes gas, abdominal pain and cramps.
Doctors often make a distinction between food allergy and food sensitivity, but for our
purposes its not necessary. Both can make your acne worse and thats all the matters.
All this begs the question: how can you find out what foods you are sensitive to?
Unfortunately theres no perfect answer to that question at the moment. There are no tests that
would reliably identify 100% of your food allergies and sensitivities. Even the blood tests used
by doctors arent always reliable. There is a huge variability in results among different
laboratories. Heres the conclusion from a study that measured the reliability of food allergy
testing:
In conclusion, food allergy testing by IgG ELISA/EIA panels is a convenient
and easy way to diagnose food allergies in a patient. It is, however, a testing
method that is questionable in both its theory and validity. It is also costly
and may not be reliable, depending on which laboratory you use.
IgG Food Allergy Testing by ELISA/EIA
What Do They Really Tell Us?
Sheryl B. Miller, MT (ASCP), PhD
Clinical Laboratory Director
Bastyr University Natural Health Clinic
http://www.tldp.com/issue/174/IgG%20Food%20Allergy.html
Granted, the study was small, but it highlights the problems with this method of food allergy
testing. In the test the researchers sent each of three laboratories 6 blood samples (2 to each
lab) drawn at the same time. One laboratory had 59% clinical variance in its test results, which
means that the recommendations to eat or not to eat were contradicted in 59% of the foods
tested in at least two of the six samples. The other laboratories had more acceptable clinical
variances, but the researchers concluded that the results from 2 out of the 3 laboratories which
conducted the tests were not reliable.
How do you know which laboratory to use? Thats the million dollar question and perhaps
your doctor can help you answer it.
Im telling you this because these tests can be expensive, running to several hundred dollars
per test. So, if you decide to use these tests, do your research before putting money on the
table.
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That said, with a little patience and work you should get good results with the free test
described below. Are they perfect? Certainly not, but, when used correctly, they should give
you reasonably accurate feedback on your diet.
In my own testing I use these three tests:
The pulse test

Muscle testing
Food journal
All of these tests come with their own drawbacks, but used in combination and with enough
testing, they should produce fairly accurate results. Best of all, they are free.
The pulse test

The pulse test relies on adrenaline release of both allergies and sensitivities. When this
happens, your heart rate (pulse) increases. Since the heart rate is easy to monitor, you can use
it to identify the foods you are allergic to.
The pulse test was developed by Dr. Arthur F. Coca over 40 years ago and its still one of the
best methods available to you.
Measuring your heart rate

Checking your heart rate is very simple. The only equipment you need is a watch with a
second hand. You can feel your pulse using two or three fingers. Just place your finger tips on
either of these spots:
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Underside of the wrist, right next to the

tendons. If you have difficulties feeling your
pulse, try bending your wrist up or down a bit.
Either side of the neck.
When you find the correct spot you should experience a slight pulsating feeling on your finger
tips: thats your heartbeat.
To measure your heart rate, count the number of beats in 60 seconds. Its that simple. Make
sure that you take 1 minute pulse. Dont try to use 15 seconds and multiply the count by 4,
because it is important to have as accurate readings as possible.
For more accurate and reliable readings I recommend you use a heart rate monitor. They are
inexpensive and available at any sports store. In fact, you can get one for less than $35 on
Amazon. There are a few advantages to using a heart rate monitor:
Less chances of error; your readings will be more accurate

You can see the variability of your pulse rate. My pulse always fluctuates within a 5
beat range. Knowing the range is useful when you are using the shortcut pulse test (see
below)
More objective readings. I take 5 to 10 minute before reading while working on my
computer. Then I eat the food I want to test, after which I take 5 to 10 minute after
readings at regular intervals while also working on my computer. This way the before
and after testing conditions are identical. As my mind is occupied elsewhere I dont try
to affect the reading by regulating my breathing. So the readings will be more
objective and accurate.
Of course you can also use the heart rate monitor to help you with exercise.
I recommend you invest in a heart rate monitor, but you can do the pulse test even without
one.
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What you need to know before doing the pulse test
While the pulse test can accurate identify many food allergies you need to be a bit careful in
interpreting the results, because obviously an allergic reaction is not the only thing that affects
your pulse. Ignoring these other factors could give you many false positives and negatives.
Here are just few things that affect your heart rate:
Breathing; slow and deep breathing lowers your heart rate

Emotions
Exercise and movement. Depending on your state of physical fitness, it may take
several hours for your heart rate to return to resting levels.
Toxins and allergenic substances passing through the colon. You may get different
readings before and after a bowel movement.
Detox
Smoking and drinking alcohol
In my experience, the digestion of foods that one is not allergic or sensitive to does not affect
the heart rate in any significant way.
You can also run into complications with these kinds of allergic reactions:
Delayed reaction. Not all allergic reactions happen quickly after eating allergenic
foods: some reactions are delayed and may happen two to three days later.
Persistent reaction. Often the allergic reaction fades away in few hours and your pulse
rate returns to normal, but in some cases it may persist for as long as three days.
Masked food allergy. This is what you might call a withdrawal reaction. You get a
reaction a day or two after you stop eating a particular food and when you eat the food
again the reaction goes away. As this happens your heart rate goes down.
Even with all these complications the pulse test can give you accurate readings. You just have
to be careful in interpreting the readings and collect lots of data, never jumping to conclusions
after a single reading.
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Pulse testing yourself
The first thing you need to establish is your baseline, or normal, heart rate. Any food or
substance that increases your heart rate from the baseline is potentially allergenic to you. You
need many readings to establish your baseline heart rate. During the first 3 to 5 days check
your pulse:
Immediately after waking up

Before a meal
5, 15, 30, 60 minutes and 2 hours after a meal
Before going to bed
Additionally you could take few readings between meals.

Take all the readings sitting down in a similar position. The only exception is the reading
taken immediately after waking up, which should be taken while still in bed. Ideally, all the
readings should be taken while in a relaxed position, but I realize this is not always possible.
The more identical the conditions, the more reliable the readings will be.
If you go to a college you could take a before reading during a lecture prior to your lunch
break and then an after reading during the next lecture. Dont stress too much about strictly
adhering to the above timings. Just get plenty of readings.
If you notice a difference larger than, say, 10 points in your before and after readings for a
particular meal, stop eating that food.
Once you get few days worth of readings your baseline heart rate should be obvious. Most of
your before-a-meal readings should be at the baseline. Significant variations in the before-ameal readings may indicate you are eating something you are highly allergic to. In identical
conditions your heart rate should be fairly stable.
Your waking up reading should be lower than the reading you take before going to bed. If not,
you may be allergic to something in your bed; perhaps the laundry detergent or dust.
After the first few days are over, and assuming your heart rate is fairly stable, you can start
testing individual foods.
Testing individual foods is very similar to what you did for the first few days, and you should
continue to check your pulse at the same times. The purpose of the first few days was to get
you to a point where you can get fairly accurate readings you know your baseline heart rate
and your heart rate remains fairly stable.
Even though you know your baseline heart rate, its still a good idea to take a before reading.
If the before reading is significantly higher than the baseline, then you know something is
wrong. In this case, the reading you get may not be accurate (for example, the effect may be
masked by a delayed reaction). Taking a before reading also gives you a benchmark in
identical conditions to check the after readings against.
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Start by testing entire meals. If your heart rate doesnt increase after the meal, most likely you
are not allergic to anything you ate. If it did increase, proceed to test the individual
ingredients. Keep in mind that the allergic reaction may also depend on the amount of food
eaten. So get plenty of readings in different situations.
I treat an increase of 5 beats from the before reading as suspected allergen.
As you remove allergic foods from your diet, you should notice both your baseline and waking
up heart rate go down. Its a sure sign of progress.
The shortcut pulse test

You can also do a shorter version of the pulse test. I call this the shortcut pulse test. The
problem with normal pulse test is that it may take a significant amount of time for your heart
rate to return to the baseline after eating something you are allergic to. During this time the
readings you get may not be reliable.
The normal pulse test also takes quite a bit of time to complete.
The shortcut pulse test helps to get over these problems.
In the shortcut version you dont actually eat the food, you just hold it in your mouth. If you
are allergic to the food, this is often enough to activate the immune system and increase your
heart rate. However, the increase is often less than 5 beats, so you really need to get accurate
readings.
Because you need such accurate readings, dont do the shortcut version until you have
established a baseline heart rate you are very sure of and your pulse is stable most of the day.
Here are the steps:
Check your heart rate before putting the food into your mouth. I recommend going
though the same motions before eating the food (picking up an imaginary food and
placing it into your mouth) as you will when you actually do eat it to make the
readings as accurate as possible.
Place the food into your mouth.
Wait one minute and take a reading.
If your heart rate increases, spit the food out
If your heart rate doesnt increase, take additional readings once a minute
After 5 minutes (including the first minute you waited), spit the food out and rinse your
mouth with water
If your heart rate increases, check it again. Within 2 to 5 minutes it should be the same
as the before reading.
Again treat any food that increases your heart rate as suspect.
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On the other hand, even if this shortcut test shows no problems, confirm the result using the
normal version of the test and using a whole meal. And remember that the shortcut version
cant detect delayed reactions.
I highly recommend you use a heart rate monitor for the shortcut version. Your heart rate
naturally fluctuates somewhat (mine fluctuates within a 5-beat range). Because the increase
during the shortcut version is often much smaller than during the normal test, this normal
fluctuation may cause problems interpreting the results.
Using a heart rate monitor eliminates this problem because it gives you accurate readings
every second, so you can actually see the fluctuation. So if your heart rate fluctuated between,
say, 54 and 59 before putting the food into your mouth, and between 57 and 62 while the food
is in your mouth, you know its a suspect.
Of course, you can do the shortcut version even without a heart rate monitor. Just take more
before and after readings to be on the safe side.
Major and minor allergies

Before we go on to the next test I want to touch on major and minor allergies. Food allergies
can be like the layers of an onion; peel away one and youll find another.
Lets say you test two foods, almonds and bread. In the first round of testing almonds have no
affect on your heart rate but bread sends it through the roof. You drop bread from your diet but
conclude that you can safely eat almonds. After some time you test almonds again and notice
they increase your heart rate a bitnot as much as bread but still more than 5 beats.
What happened? Didnt your earlier test show that almonds are safe for you?
This is an example of major allergy masking a minor allergy. Because bread affected your
body so much, you couldnt even detect the effect of almonds. Once you remove major
allergens from your diet your body becomes more sensitive and you can pick up less severe
allergies also.
Moral of the story: Test the foods you eat periodically, say, every three months or so.
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Measuring allergic tension
The difference between your standing up and sitting down pulse rates can be a helpful
indication of the presence of allergies. Dr. Coca described this as allergic tension. This test is
really simple:
Check your heart rate while you are sitting down

Check your heart rate while standing still
If your pulse-count taken standing is greater than that taken sitting, this is a positive indication
of food or environmental sensitivity.
The muscle test

Muscle testing is a way to ask your body what it thinks of a specific food. You need two
people for muscle testing, but its quick and simple to do. You hold out one arm at your side,
parallel to the floor. Using one hand the other person puts some pressure on your arm by
pushing it down. Youll get a yes answer if your arm wont move: in other words, you test
strong. If your arm goes down easily youll get a no answer; you test weak. Yes means the
food is good for your body and no means its bad for
you.
This illustration shows the testing position.
Using enough power, the other person can force your
arm down even if you test strong. The point of this
test, however, is not to see which one of you is
stronger. The point is to determine if the muscle tests
strong or weak, and your testing partner doesnt need
to press hard to find that out. Even with moderate
pressure the difference between weak and strong
response is obvious. Testing strong, the arm might
move few inches, whereas in testing weak it goes
down easily.
As you can probably imagine, this is a bit of a
controversial test. People in the natural health
movement make it sound you as though you could read gods mind with this test (one person
actually claims thatIm not kidding). Not surprisingly, doctors are less than convinced.
Still, the proponents of this test claim that it can read the electric field in your body. Your
body is an electric system, which is a fact, and when you bring to it an energy thats not
compatible with it the electric field gets disturbed, which also makes sense. When the electric
field is disturbed your arm goes weak.
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I would take that with a big grain of salt. In controlled, double-blind studies, muscle testing
constantly fails. In other words, when both the tested person and the tester dont know the
right answer, muscle testing is no more accurate than guessing. So much for the
disturbances in the field.
Scientists have shown that muscle testing, pendulums, dowsing and similar reading methods
are based on ideomotor action. Ideomotor action refers to something you do unconsciously
and involuntarily; the pain reflex is an example of ideomotor action.
What this means is that your arm going strong or weak is a reflection of your own
subconscious mind. That said, it doesnt mean the muscle test is useless. Its used as an
accurate diagnostic tool by many natural healers. I see muscle testing as a simple way of
communicating with my subconscious mind. My subconscious mind certainly knows whether
a specific food is good for me or notkeep in mind that the allergic reaction to a food is
initiated by the subconscious mind. And it might later even turn out that how my body
responds to a food depends on what the subconscious mind believes about that food. So
having a way to tap into those beliefs is very useful. Remember that we are not trying to
decipher the ultimate truth of anything with muscle testing. We are simply trying to
consciously know what we already know at the subconscious level.
So, when used correctly, muscle testing can give you accurate results. In my tests the foods
that made my arm weak also frequently send my pulse through the roof.
Because muscle testing is inherently a subjective process, you have to approach it accordingly.
If you think its the biggest pile of horse droppings youve ever heard, then you probably
shouldnt use it. It most likely wont give you accurate results and your mind only gets to
confirm your belief. Also, any strong feelings about a specific food may distort the results. If
you already know in your bones (or even just believe that you know) that bananas are bad for
you, then clearly you shouldnt expect bananas to test strong.
Any emotions, even unrelated to the food being tested, can interfere with the test. So test only
when you are in a neutral and peaceful state of mind.
Muscle testing is a skill. So if you can find someone with solid experience, I suggest you test
with them. At the very least, you should test with someone you are very comfortable with and
whom you trust, and you should do all of your tests with the same person.
If you are both inexperienced, practice with questions you know the answers to, such as My
name is__? or That wall is white/pink/__?
As far as possible, empty your mind of all preconceived notions about the food before you test
it. Maintain an open and curious mind.
Make the experience as real as possible. So, for example, have the food with you, because
trying to do this test by imagining the food doing the test may not give reliable results. Put the
food into your mouth or at least hold it in your other hand. If you test weak with a particular
food in your mouth, rinse your mouth thoroughly before the next test.
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Its also possible that cooked food will give you a different result than the same food raw, so
have the food in the form you intend to eat it.
Its not necessary to ask any questions. Simply have the food in your hand or mouth and focus
on it. Asking verbal questions just adds an unnecessary layer of uncertainty; words come
loaded with meaning that may cause bias in the test results.
Dont test too many foods at one time. With repeated testing your arm gets tired and then even
a strong answer may feel weak.
Finally, a cautionary note about self tests: You can find several versions of the muscle test that
you can do by yourself (without a testing partner) on the internet. I would avoid these because
being both the tester and tested adds an unnecessary layer of uncertainty. I have tried many of
these solo tests, but Ive never had much success with any of them.
Food journal
Food journal isnt so much a testing method per se as it is a way to support the other tests. If
you recall from earlier, allergic reactions can persist from several hours to a few days. Using a
food journal helps you to identify them.
I use Excel worksheet for this, but you can use anything you feel comfortable with. Note down
the following:
All foods and drinks you consume

Pulse test results
Your emotional state
How you feel physically
Any exercise you perform
Anything else you think is relevant
To keep it organized, make sure to add date and time with each entry.
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Buildingadietthatgetsyouclear
The question Whats for dinner? has been bugging people since the dawn of the industrial
era, when food became plentiful. It used to be easier. People simply ate what was available to
them. The people who follow the same recipe today dont do that well. They end up sick, tired
and obese. Today we have to pay more attention to what we fill our plates with.
Is there a perfect diet for humans? Many diet gurus would say yes and recommend that you
buy their books to find out exactly what it is. In fact, not long ago I too would have claimed
that there is one diet that fits everyone, or at least, most people. Unfortunately, the research
evidence suggests otherwise.
Nevertheless, while theres not one single diet that fits everyone, we are all similar enough
that by following a few simple steps, each one of us can build a diet that fits us perfectly-individually. Lets look at these steps.
Add micronutrients
Add essential fatty acids
Add a protein rich food
Add fuel (calories)
Remove foods that aggravate acne
Add micronutrients
Vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients are essential for clear skin and radiant health.
Some of them protect you. Some are required to facilitate digestion and other chemical
reactions that take place in your body.
Leafy, green vegetables are by far the richest source of micronutrients. They pack the most
nutrients per calorie. Dr. Fuhrman once said that in a 2-mile race of nutrient density, greens
would win by 1.5 miles.
Other non-starchy vegetables (such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers) are also good source
for micronutrients. Eat them liberally.
You can get most of your micronutrients from greens and vegetables. Fruits, nuts, animal
products, beans and grains supply the rest.
As you start building your diet, I recommend using http://www.nutritiondata.com to check to
make sure your diet gives you a good balance of nutrients. Individual requirements vary, but
make sure you at least meet your Required Daily Allowance (RDA) for each nutrient (aside
from vitamin D that you get from sunlight). Nutritiondata.com is free and simple to use.
Simply type in the foods you eat during the day and click Analyze. If the analysis shows you
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are short on some nutrients, make the necessary corrections. You can also use the site to find
foods that are high in nutrients that your diet is short on.
Add essential fats

The next step is to make sure you get your essential fatty acids (EFAs), and that they are in
balance. Though EFAs are actually micronutrients, they are so important and so often
neglected that I separate them, and single them out for special attention here.
Follow the suggestions in the Importance of essential fatty acids chapter, and use
nutritiondata.com to make sure you are on the right track.
Add protein
In addition to micronutrients and EFAs, certain amino acids are also essential. Amino acids
are the building blocks of proteins. Your body cannot make 8 of these amino acids, so it is
important that you get them through your diet.
Though most people dont have to worry about protein as long as they meet their caloric
needs, its a good idea to add one protein rich food to your diet. Beans and animal products are
all excellent sources of protein. Nutritiondata.com has a protein completeness indicator that
tracks the essential amino acids in your diet. Make sure you dont consistently run short on
any single amino acid.
Because you get protein in all whole foods, this step is not nearly as important as the first two
steps.
Add fuel
Once you get all the essential nutrients (vitamin, minerals, EFAs and amino acids) its time to
add fuel to the furnace. Calories.
What you eat for fuel depends on how much carbs your body can handle. Check the Blood
sugar controls and problems chapter for more details. If you pass the fasting blood glucose
and post-meal glucose test with flying colors, then you have no sugar metabolic problems and
should be able to handle larger amounts of carbohydrates. If your blood sugars are on the
higher side, or if you have impaired glucose tolerance, then you might do better with a more
balanced approach.
If you can handle them I recommend getting a large portion of your fuel from fruits. Fruits are
an easy to digest source of clean burning fuel. They are also high in many vitamins and
contain some minerals.
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Starches (grains and starchy vegetables) are a reasonably good fuel source. Check the
Comments on different food groups chapter for problems with starches. Unprocessed,
starchy foods often burn slower than fruits, so they are easier on your blood sugar levels.
Given that your sugar metabolism works fine, carbs could make up 50 to 70% of your total
calories, fats 20 to 30% and protein 10 to 20%. But there are no hard and fast rules when it
comes to your fuel mix. Listen to your body and see what kinds of foods your body asks for
(though getting to know your body well enough may take some time). Also periodically keep
an eye on your blood sugar monitor so that you dont create insulin resistance by eating too
little or too much fat.
I wouldnt recommend going much below 20% of your total calories from fat because you run
the risk of not getting enough good fats. Many people also report dry skin and other problems
with very low-fat diets.
If you have problems with your blood sugars, a more balanced fuel mix might suit you better.
You could start with 40 to 50% of energy from carbohydrates, 30 to 40% from fat and 20%
from protein. You might also do better with more starches and other medium to low GI foods
rather than sweet fruits. Use your blood sugar monitor to guide you. Studies show that the
benefits to insulin resistance and blood pressure from unsaturated fats hold as long as total fat
consumption remains below 40% of total calories. So I would keep my fat intake below that.
Finally, if you decide to go very low with carbohydrates (20 to 30% of total calories) you may
need to eat more protein. Your body requires certain amounts of carbohydrates to run (for
example, brain and red blood cells require glucose as fuel). Your body can convert protein into
glucose but not fat. Your body is going to make the glucose anyway and if you dont supply
enough carbohydrates or protein for that purpose, its going to turn muscle tissue into glucose.
This is the reason why many people on low-carb weight loss diets lose muscle.
Remove foods that aggravate acne

The final step in the process of building your diet is to make sure you eat as few bad foods as
possible. These mostly fall into two categories: foods you are allergic or sensitive to and
inflammatory foods.
Lets talk about food sensitivities.
When it comes to building a diet that gets you clear, this may be the most important step. Food
allergies and sensitivities may turn even the healthiest foods into life-draining poisons. One
mans meat is truly anothers poison. Follow the steps in the food sensitivities chapter and test
all the foods you eat on a regular basis. Remove those that cause a negative reaction.
Removing foods you are sensitive to may be one of the few shortcuts to clear skin. Please
dont skip this step.
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Different people are sensitive to different foods, but among acne victims common ones are:
Dairy products
Gluten grains (such as wheat and rye)
Peanuts
Soy and soy products (especially highly processed, vegan, imitation foods)
Citrus fruits (not very common)
Tomatoes (also not very common)
Other inflammatory foods are easier to find. Most are highly processed, so as long as you eat
whole foods in their natural state you avoid most, if not all, inflammatory foods. The key is:
Eat real foods, not food-like substances, and you will be fine.
Commentsondifferentfoodgroups
Now that you know the steps to building your diet, lets look at the building blocks. Different
food groups have different properties, for the lack of better word. Each food group has some
good and bad points. In this chapter well look at different food groups so that you can pick
the ones best suited for your diet.
Greens
Leafy, green vegetables are a must. Period. They are your main source of most vitamins and
minerals. Without a sufficient quantity of greens in your diet you will be deficient in many
nutrients.
Aim to eat at least one pound (400g) of greens a day. Greens contain very small amounts of
toxins. They are there to encourage animals to eat a variety of greens. As long as you rotate
your greens your body can easily deal with these toxins, and when you eat a variety of greens
youll get a wide range of vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients.
Greens contain fiber that provides bulk that pushes food through the digestive track and gently
cleanses the colon. Unlike the harsh fiber in grains, which can irritate the digestive track,
vegetable fiber is softer and better for your digestive track. It also contains prebiotics;
substances that the beneficial bacteria in your digestive track consume. So greens help to
balance the bacteria in your gut.
A good way to enjoy greens is by drinking a green smoothie. A green smoothie is a fruit
smoothie with greens blended in. It doesnt sound good, but done correctly fruits mask the
taste of greens and the smoothie tastes delicious. Mild tasting greens (such as lettuce, spinach
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and celery) are best suited for green smoothies. See the recipe section in the Appendix for
delicious green smoothie recipes.
Another way to get your greens is to enjoy a big salad with most of your meals.
Hard, fibrous greens (such as broccoli) are best eaten cooked. The human digestive system
struggles with tough vegetable fiber. Cooking softens them and makes nutrients more
available. Steaming is the best way to cook greens. The next best method is light boiling,
which you can also use to blend cooked greens into delicious soups.
Greens and vegetables are the only foods without a significant downside. The only minor
shortcoming with them is that they contain hardly any calories. So you need to eat other foods
to meet your caloric needs.
Vegetables
After greens, vegetables are the next most nutritious foods you can eat. Many of the benefits
of greens can be said about vegetables also.
I recommend making one of your meals a big salad with a liberal helping of vegetables in it.
Vegetables are important foods but they are not as crucial as greens.
Fruits
Fruits are controversial foods. On the one hand they have plenty of vitamins and antioxidants
and some minerals, and for this reason most health authorities classify fruits as health foods.
On the other hand, fruits are full of sugar, and Im sure youve heard about the evils of sugar.
Whether you should eat fruits, and how much, comes down to how well your body can deal
with the sugars they contain. If you have a healthy sugar metabolism, fruits are ideal fuel
sources for you. They contain hardly any toxins and put only minimal stress on your digestive
system, which makes them ideal detox foods because, instead of spending time dealing with
newly ingested toxins and working harder to digest foods, your body is free to focus on getting
rid of stored toxins and healing. This speeds up the healing process and helps you to get clear
faster.
If your blood sugars run on the higher end of normal or you have glucose intolerance you may
need to be careful with fruits. Use your blood sugar monitor to check how you react to
different fruits (and quantities eaten). Even if you have problems with blood sugars you should
be able to eat fruits with lower sugar content, such as apples, pears and berries. Use
nutritiondata.com and GI to guide your choices.
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Starches
Starches are complex carbohydrates. Whereas sugar and fruits have simple sugar molecules,
starches have long chains of sugar molecules linked together. Thats why they take longer to
digest. Your digestive system has to break the bonds between the sugar molecules before it
can use them for energy.
Dr. Graham (http://foodnsport.com/) likes to say that complex carbohydrates are too complex
for humans to digest. His statement may have a grain of truth to it. Some people, perhaps
everybody, cannot completely breakdown complex carbohydrates. As a result, incompletely
digested starch molecules enter the small and large intestines where they can irritate the lining
of the digestive track. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is based on replacing complex
carbohydrates with easier to digest fruits and other simple sugars. Many people at acne forums
report good results with the diet.
You can divide starches into two categories: grains and starchy vegetables. Of the two, grains
are usually more problematic.
Although grains form the basis of our civilization they come with baggage.
Many grains are highly inflammatory. The most common grains (wheat, rye, barley and
in most cases oats) contain gluten, which is a highly allergenic and inflammatory
substance. Gluten is the protein in these grains that makes the dough sticky. It binds
things together. I cannot even begin to emphasize the importance of avoiding gluten.
Eating gluten is like throwing gasoline into the inflammatory fires that create acne. I
wrote an article for naturalnews.com that explains the gluten and acne connection, which
is reprinted in the appendix. I highly recommend you read it after finishing the rest of the
book.
Grains have been shown to slow the time it takes for food to pass through the digestive
system (transit time). The longer the food spends in the colon the more chances bacteria
have to putrefy it.
Addictive. Gluten in grains contains morphine-like molecules called "exorphins" that are
addictive.
Irritate the digestive track. Contrary to common understanding, the fiber in grains may
not be good for you. Grains have mostly insoluble fiber, which means that it passes
through the body unchanged. Insoluble fiber in grains has sharp edges that may irritate
and potentially damage the sensitive walls of the digestive track. You could compare
these fibers to tiny pieces of shattered glass. By contrast, fruits and vegetables have
mostly soluble fiber. Soluble fiber picks up water and softens. This soft mass of soluble
fiber is gentle to the digestive track.
That said, grains are still a reasonably good source of slow-burning fuel that helps keep blood
sugar levels in check. Whole grains are also a fairly rich source of many nutrients.
Because gluten is highly inflammatory and a trigger food for many acne victims, choose
gluten free grains if you want to eat grains. The most common gluten grains are wheat, rye and
barley. Amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, rice and corn dont have gluten. Oats are a bit
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controversial. They dont have gluten naturally but are often contaminated with wheat or
barley by being grown on adjacent fields, by the use of the same farm equipment or during
processing. Can you eat oats? You have to test it. Use the tests explained in the food allergies
chapter.
The problems with gluten extend far beyond grains and the foods made with them. Most
processed foods contain gluten as well as many non-food items (such as shampoos and
lipsticks). However, for anyone without a celiac disease these non-food sources shouldnt be a
problem. Because gluten is such a big problem for acne victims I recommend you check
http://www.celiac.com for more information. This site has lists of safe and unsafe foods and
ingredients as well as useful information about gluten-free living. Please check it out.
If you have the patience for it, try sprouting your grains. Sprouting makes grains easier to
digest and improves the availability of nutrients. You may find sprouted grains sold in health
food stores and even in some high-end supermarkets.
Starchy vegetables like potatoes, manioc, sweet potatoes and yucca arent usually as
inflammatory and irritating as grains. On the other hand, starchy vegetables have higher GI
than grains and drive you blood sugars up faster than most grains. Whole grains are usually
more nutritious than starchy vegetables.
As long as you stay away from gluten and arent sensitive to the foods you do eat, it probably
doesnt matter whether you choose grains or starchy vegetables.
Both grains and starchy vegetables need to be cooked before eating.
Nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds make a great addition to most diets. They are heavy with fat soluble vitamins
and nutrients that most fruits and vegetables lack. They are also a good source of many
minerals. Most nuts and seeds are high in fat (and calories). Unfortunately, they contain much
more omega 6 fatty acids than omega 3. If you eat too many nuts and seeds you need to
balance it by eating more omega 3 rich foods.
In the nuts and seeds family flaxseeds, hempseeds and walnuts are the highest in omega 3 fatty
acids. A cautionary note about hempseeds and hempseed oils: They may trigger a positive
urine test for smoking marihuana.
Nuts and seeds can be hard to digest especially in large quantities. Thats why they are better
used as snacks or additives to other foods (such as salads and oatmeal) rather than making an
entire meal of them. Eating nuts also quickly bumps up your fat (and calorie) consumption, so
be careful with them.
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Beans
Beans are great. They are:
Rich in protein and contain many minerals

Nutrient-denseBeans help to stabilize blood sugar and help prevent cravings.
Low in fat
Filling and satiating
Beans can make a good addition to your diet. However, they can be hard to digest for some
people. Avoid beans if they create excessive gas or other digestive problems for you.
Like starches beans need to be cooked. You can also soak and sprout beans and eat them raw.
However, in most cases its better to cook them because cooking makes them easier to digest
and neutralizes many anti-nutrients found in beans.
Meat, fish and animal foods

Whether to eat meat or not is one of the most debated questions in nutrition. There are
convincing arguments on both sides.
To begin with, theres unquestionable evidence that eating animal foods increases the risk of
most of the major killer diseases of our times.
On the other hand, not a single civilization is based on an entirely vegan diet. All over the
world, humans eat some animal foods. Humans have also never been vegans and have hunted
and eaten animal foods for millions of years. In fact, humans hunted before we invented any
tools or weapons.
The human body is perfect for a specific kind of hunting: distance hunting. Humans are the
best endurance athletes in the world. We may not be the fastest beings on Earth but no other
animal can match humans in endurance because of our unique anatomy and cooling engine
(we cool through sweating whereas most other animals cool though breathing; i.e., panting).
The unique construction of the human body allowed our forefathers to literally run animals to
death. The hunters chased the quarry down until it simply dropped from exhaustion and
overheating (unlike humans most animals cant cool as they run, they have to stop and pant,
whereas our cooling system allows us to run for hours and keep cool). Aside from few tribal
peoples in Africa, this ancient form of hunting has all but disappeared. See Christopher
McDougalls Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World
Has Never Seen for more details and a fascinating story of why humans are born to run.
Anthropological evidence suggests that high consumption of calorie and nutrient-dense animal
foods allowed Man to develop a significantly larger brain (relative to body size) than is found
anywhere else in the animal kingdom.
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Theres no question that humans have evolved eating animal foods and that they are natural to
us.
Many of the problems associated with animal foods are a result of the types of animals we eat.
Earlier in our history we ate game. Today we eat domesticated animals that are raised for food.
Industrially grown animals have much more fat than wild animals do. They are also grain-fed,
which makes their fat high in omega 6 but low in omega 3. They are also pumped full of
antibiotics and drugs and the processing itself can add other pollutants to the meat.
Nevertheless, animal foods are a good source of nutrients that are hard or impossible to get
from plant foods (such as vitamin B12).
Balancing the benefits against these controversies, I recommend a limited consumption of
animal foods. Eating meat is not necessary; you can also eat eggs or dairy products. As far as
possible make sure the animal products you choose are organic, grass-fed and/or free-range.
But be aware that the industry has diluted these terms, in some cases to the point of being
meaningless, so the best option is to buy from a farmers market or from a local farm directly.
The conditions under which the animals are raised and the type of food they eat both
significantly impact the nutritional content of the animal foods. If you buy directly you can
confirm these factors with the farmer.
If buying direct from a farm or a farmers market is not possible or practical you can also
order good quality animal products from the internet. For example, http://www.eatwild.com/
lists many farms that can ship these foods directly to you.
Dairy products
The idea of drinking milk from other animals is unnatural. Nature didn't intend humans to
drink milk from cows, goats or any other animals.
Milk also happens to be one of the worst things for your skin, right up there along with gluten.
Naturalnews published my article on the 4 ways milk causes acne. You can find that article in
the appendix. Read it to find out how a glass of natures perfect food leads to unnaturally
bad skin.
People primarily drink milk to get calciummilk is said to prevent osteoporosis. However,
the four countries (Finland, Sweden, the UK and the US) that have the highest consumption of
dairy products also have the highest rates of osteoporosis. Contrary to the dairy industry
propaganda, milk can weaken bones and lead to osteoporosis.
The reason? Milk is acid forming and so it actually leaches calcium from the bones, plus it
also creates an acidic terrain where bacteria and parasites thrive. To make matters worse, milk
contains antibiotics and hormones that have been fed to dairy cows to increase their milk
production.
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Greens and vegetables are much better sources of calcium than dairy products. They dont
have as much, but their calcium balance is better. In other words you get more calcium from
them, pound-for-pound, than you do from dairy products.
If you want more information on milk, check out these articles:
http://www.mercola.com/2000/jul/30/milk.htm
http://www.notmilk.com/
With all of the potential problems with dairy products, it may be best you avoid them as much
as possible.
If you want to eat dairy products, yogurt that has been pasteurized before fermentation and
still has lots of beneficial bacteria is a reasonably safe food to eat. Cottage cheese is another
borderline acceptable food in small quantities.
Goats milk is better than cows milk but still far from optimal food for humans.
Soy is a step above goats milk but comes with its own baggage. Soy is allergenic and can
cause hormonal imbalance for some people. Soy products also tend to be highly processed. In
fact, most soy available in North America is genetically manipulated and full of pesticides.
Rice and nut milks are the best substitute for dairy products, and they are acceptable for daily
use.
Vegetable oils
Vegetable oils arent a food group but since many people use them in the name of health they
deserve a few comments.
Most commercially available oils are highly processed and you should stay away from them.
Pressing and processing subjects them to temperatures exceeding 200 C. As a result they
contain unnatural and toxic molecules. In his book Fats that Heal Fats that Kill, Dr. Erasmus
says that the average person gets more toxic molecules from margarine and processed oils than
from all other foods combined. In other words, the 100g to 200g of processed fats a person
eats contains more toxins than the 1.5 to 2 kg of other foods he or she eats.
Because vegetable fats are so sensitive to light, heat and oxygen, and because the processing is
so destructive, they contain a staggering amount of toxic chemicals. So be careful with the oils
you choose. As a rule, avoid most oils youll find in supermarkets. They are made with profits,
not health, in mind.
Dont be fooled by the term cold pressed because its meaningless. It simply states that no
external heat has been applied during pressing. However, most modern, screw-type presses
generate so much heat that oils inside the press frequently reach temperatures of 100 C and
higher. In order to increase yield the seeds are cooked before pressing. Further processing
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subjects the oils to temperatures exceeding 200 C. As you can see, the term cold pressed is
both meaningless and misleading.
The oils sold by health food stores are probably better, but the fact they are in a health store
doesnt mean they are healthy. Do your research before buying oils. The companies that make
oils with health in mind will not hide it. The label can also help you. It doesnt contain all the
information you need, but it contains clues. Unless the label specifically states unprocessed
the oils are probably heavily processed. Stay away from such oils.
The only exception to this is virgin olive oil. Virgin olive oils are extracted using a press that
produces very little heat and they undergo no further processing after that.
The packaging also matters. Healthy oils are sensitive to light. Light destroys the essential
fatty acids in those oils. Oils with omega 3 are more sensitive than oils with omega 6. The oils
with omega 9 (olive oil, for example) are the most stable. The best oils are packed in dark
glass bottles; and some even come in cardboard boxes to completely seal them from light.
Finally, no matter how much care is taken during pressing, bottling and storage, one cannot
avoid some exposure to oxygen, light and heat. Therefore oils with EFAs wont last for very
long. Oils with omega 3 (such as flaxseed oil) last only for 2 to 3 months when stored
correctly (in a cool and dark place). Omega 6 rich oils hold for 3 to 6 months while omega 9
oils are the most stable and can hold for a year. Make sure you check the date on the bottle and
use your oils when they are fresh.
Because there are so many pitfalls with vegetable oils its probably best to avoid them
altogether (virgin olive oil being the exception). Instead, simply eat the foods they are refined
from. This is not to say that if you can find an EFA rich oil that hasnt been processed to
oblivion you shouldnt eat it.
Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, smoking and other miscellaneous substances

These arent actually foods, but this seems to be the best place to talk about them.
Caffeine and other stimulants

Caffeine is a poison. End of the story. Its a natural pesticide produced by some plants to
protect themselves. It affects the central nervous system of everybody who consumes it.
Theres a huge hoopla about the supposed benefits of caffeine, but I would not pin my hopes
on such research. My logic cannot comprehend how a pesticide turns into a health-giving
substance.
The alertness caffeine causes is only stress as your body tries frantically to eliminate this
poison from your body. This leads to enervation and excessive stress to the body.
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Without going too deeply into how, caffeine, and especially coffee, can trigger acne. This
topic pops up regularly at acne forums. We are all individuals and caffeine affects each of us
differently, so caffeine may or may not affect your acne.
To be on the safe side, I recommend avoiding caffeine as much as possible. The main sources
of caffeine are:
Coffee
Soft drinks
Energy drinks
Teas
Hot chocolate (contains small amount of caffeine and also contains other stimulants)
Some prescription drugs
Green tea also contains caffeineLess than black tea but its still there. You get some
antioxidants from green tea, but the amounts are insignificant compared to what you get from
fruits and vegetables. I wouldnt drink green tea as a health drink but if you enjoy it I cant
imagine it being that bad either.
What goes for caffeine goes for other stimulants also. As a rule of thumb, pretty much
everything thats said to give you energy is going to damage your health. Energy (not
calories, but what we call alertness) comes from sleep and sleep alone. You cannot refill it
with any external substance.
Smoking and drugs

This should be obvious: Stop using them.
Salt, spices, vinegars and condiments

Salt is a poison that people for some inexplicable reason believe to be healthy. You know that
if you drink seawater you die of dehydration. Its a mind-bending contradiction how removing
the hydrating element (water) and leaving the lethal element somehow transforms sea salt into
a health food.
At this point someone always raises the objection that salt is good in small quantities, but not
good when taken too much.
Sometimes I feel sorry for Mr. Logic when people twist him so much Look, poison is
poison is poison. It doesnt matter how much you take it, its still poison. Just because your
body can deal with small quantities of a poison does not transform it into a healthy substance.
The next argument in line is that anything, even water, taken in excess is going to kill a
person. This is where people start arguing from extremes. The critical difference, of course, is
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that its very difficult to kill yourself with any healthy substance (such as water or fruits), but
its actually very easy to kill yourself with salt. If I remember correctly the lethal dose of salt
is about 8 teaspoons. Its not difficult to imagine someone ingesting this by accident. Whereas
to kill yourself by accidentally drinking too much water? Or by eating too many bananas by
accident? Sounds a bit less likely. Sea salt does contain some minerals, however, the form they
are in may make them difficult, if not impossible, for your body to absorb. If you eat plenty of
greens you will get all the minerals you need.
Dried and powdered celery is a good substitute for salt. It adds nice flavor without any
negative side effects. If you dont have a dehydrator, you can dehydrate celery in an oven at
low heat, leaving the door slightly ajar. After dehydration you can powder the celery either in
a coffee grinder or a blender, such as a VitaMix.
Vinegar is another poison masquerading as a health food (e.g., apple cider vinegar). Vinegar is
a diluted form of acetic acid. Its a reasonably strong acid, and heres what Wikipedia says
about its safety:
Solutions at more than 25% acetic acid are handled in a fume hood because
of the pungent, corrosive vapour. Dilute acetic acid, in the form of vinegar,
is harmless. However, ingestion of stronger solutions is dangerous to
human and animal life. It can cause severe damage to the digestive system,
and a potentially lethal change in the acidity of the blood.
Wikipedia - Acetic acid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid
Here again, merely changing the concentration of a lethal acid does not transform it into
health-giving substance. It is a poison and remains such regardless of the concentration.
Finally, a word on spices and condiments. In natural hygiene they are classified as irritants.
They interfere with digestion and irritate the digestive track, especially stronger spices.
Remember the last time you ate a bit too much chili? How you started feeling hot and your
nose and eyes started running. Perhaps you even started sweating. You may have even
mistaken this as doing something good for your body but its quite the opposite. By sweating
and producing mucus your body was getting rid of the irritating substances in the chilies you
ate. Your body was expelling harmful substances.
Your body doesnt lie: Consider any signs of burning, irritation or other uncomfortable
feelings as your body telling you not to eat those substances anymore.
So use spices as little as possible. If you need to add flavor to your foods, use mild spices or
culinary herbs.
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Practicaldiettips
So far weve covered the basic building blocks of a healthy diet. Lets look at next some
practical tips on building a healthy diet out of them.
Meal suggestions
Green smoothies make a great breakfast. They are delicious, quick to prepare and eat. Greens
and fruits load you up with essential vitamins and minerals. Green smoothies digest quickly
and leave you high on energy. You can also add some ground flaxseeds or some a bit of
omega 3 rich oil to your smoothies. This way youll get some EFAs also. As you try this, keep
in mind that mixing fruits and fat can sometimes cause digestive problems so pay attention to
that.
Most people eat lunch out, which makes it the most difficult meal. Still, if you make careful
choices lunch doesnt have to turn into a disaster. Choose starchy vegetables or gluten-free
grains over pasta or bread made of wheat. Avoid fried foods and other foods heavy with transor damaged fats. If possible start lunch with a salad. Youll get more raw foods. Depending on
your blood sugar test put emphasis on fat or carbs.
Salad makes a great dinner. I like to eat a huge, family-sized salad for dinner, which usually
contains about 600 to 1000 calories. I go heavy with greens (close to a pound) and vegetables.
I may add beans or some animal foods, such as tuna or feta cheese made out of goats milk.
Top up with olives and sprinkle some ground flaxseeds or flaxseed oil on top. Avoid
commercial salad dressings as they are loaded with chemicals and flavorings. I usually prefer
to douse my salads with little bit of oil (virgin olive or EFA rich oil) and lemon juice or apple
cider vinegar.
Together or in place of salad you can also have a home-made soup. Steam broccoli,
cauliflower or other hard vegetables and blend them into a soup. Add some tahini for creamier
flavor and omega 6 fatty acids.
Fruits and nuts make great snacks (but not together). They are easy to carry and eat. Fruits are
almost pure carbohydrates and nuts are heavy on fats. Choose depending on whether you want
to emphasize carbohydrates or fats.
Fruit-only meals are also a healthy option if your blood sugar metabolism can handle them.
You can also start any meal with fruits. Just make sure you wait 10 to 20 minutes before
eating anything heavy. This gives fruits time to leave the stomach. Fruits are also an ideal
evening snack. They digest quickly and wont interfere with your sleep.
These are merely suggestions and you are certainly free to experiment in building a diet that
suits you; as you do so use nutritiondata.com to guide you. Make sure you meet your
nutritional requirements, your EFAs are in balance, and you eat as few inflammatory and
allergenic foods as possible.
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Eat sufficient calories
Eating too few calories is the most common mistake people make when they start eating
healthier. Healthy foods are often dense in nutrients and light in calories. Foods we used to eat
are the opposite; they are dense in calories but light in nutrients.
It doesnt matter whether you eat healthy foods or unhealthy foods; you still have to meet your
caloric needs. This means that you need to eat more of the healthy foods than you may have
used to eat when your diet included unhealthy foods. The quantity of foods you eat must go up
so that you will get the same amount of calories.
If you arent satisfied after a meal or start feeling hungry quickly afterwards, you probably
arent eating enough calories. A meal with sufficient calories should carry you for 3 to 4
hours. Weakness or feeling hungry all the time are also possible signs of not eating enough.
When you sign-up with Nutritiondata.com and fill out your details (weight, height, age, sex,
activity level and whether you want to lose, maintain or gain weight) the program gives you an
estimate of your daily caloric requirements. Youll find the Daily needs calculator under Tools
in the menu bar. I find that the estimate Nutritiondata gives me is on the higher side. Still its a
good estimate and over time youll learn how accurate it is for you.
Listening to your body is the most accurate indicator of your caloric needs. If you are hungry,
eat more. When you dont feel hungry, dont eat. Respect the signals your body gives you.
Dont force yourself to finish a meal if your body asks you to stop eating. Use the calculated
caloric needs strictly as guidelines and fine tune by listening to your body.
Simplicity in meal, variety in diet

You need to eat a variety of different foods to meet your nutrition needs. On the other hand,
simple meals are better for digestion. The solution is to eat simple meals but eat a wide variety
of them. Dont have the same foods every day. Rotate your greens, fruits and vegetables. As
much as possible try to eat foods that are in season.
An apple a day wont keep doctor away if you drink five cups of coffee a day
Unless you aim carefully and hit the doctor square between the eyes.
Jokes aside, the point is that what you dont eat is at least as important as what you do eat.
Many people believe that if they just add healthy foods into their diet theyll get healthy. They
believe eating fruits and vegetables helps them to get away with their bad habits. This is
natural since its much easier to add something to your diet than to take something away. We
dont like to give away our bad habits.
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If you want clear skin and perfect health you must be willing to give away your bad habits.
Otherwise it may not happen.
Transition strategies
Following through with your new diet choices can be a little difficult at the beginning;
especially if the new choices are radically different from the old ones.
Thats why I came up with few simple transition strategies to make the journey smoother.
For example here are some steps you can take:
Have fruits or a smoothie as breakfast. This is highly recommended because it has a big
impact on your skin and its easy to carry out. Most people arent so attached to their
breakfasts, so its easier to replace it with fruits or smoothies, which have the added
convenience of being quick to prepare and eat, which is good for your morning rush to
work or school.
Switch from eating proteins and carbs at the same meal to having a salad or steamed
vegetables with carbs OR proteins. So, for example, instead of eating meat and potatoes
eat a big salad with potatoes only or with meat only.
Replace grains with sprouted grains or root vegetables (like potatoes or yams).
Replace industrially grown meat with beans or organic, grass-fed and free-range
products.
Have fruits for lunch every other day, if your blood sugars allow it.
About 20 to 30 minutes before a meal eat as many fruits as you care. This will make you
less hungry during mealtime and youll eat less. So youll get more of your calories from
healthy sources but still feel you can eat a proper meal. Just make sure you wait 20 to
30 minutes after eating the fruits. Otherwise the fruits will still be in your stomach when
the food comes in and make a mess of everything.
Use fruits or green vegetables to satisfy your evening hunger: Avoid packaged snacks.
Psychology of healthy eating

Changing your diet can be tough. Keep in mind that you dont have to change your diet
overnight. Its okay to give yourself time. If you are comfortable with making diet changes
rapidly, then by all means do so. Just dont let diet take over your life.
Unfortunately, many acne victims get obsessed with diet. They believe they have to have the
perfect diet before they can get clear. When they break out they look back to what they ate and
try to find a culprit. Then they beat themselves up over their imagined failureno matter that
the breakout probably had nothing to do with what they ate. You must realize that its normal
to keep breaking out during the detox and healing process. See the chapter on How healing
happens for more information.
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As you start getting healthier you start naturally making better dietary choices. Unhealthy
foods lose their appeal. Its okay to discipline yourself, but be careful not to push too hard as it
does more harm than good. In the long term, you should eat healthy food because you choose
to do so not because you force yourself, which can lead to resentment that in turn can lead to
giving up. Remember that diet is just one of the elements of health. You arent doing yourself,
or your skin, any favors by putting too much effort on dietand too much pressure on
yourselfwhile ignoring other elements of health.
Its also important not to label yourself. Examples of labels are: Im a vegetarian, or I only
eat raw foods, or I dont eat dairy. Labels create conflict and restriction, and your brain
doesnt like restrictions.
This may sound like Im splitting hairs but theres more substance to this than meets the eye.
Let me give you an example.
Lets say you label yourself as a vegan, but you still like meat and choose to be vegan just to
get clear. Say your buddies are traditional with respect to their dietary choices. You go out
with them and they order burgers and other notso-healthy meals. You remember how good
those burgers taste and you would really like to order one. Your friends (being such a good
buddies) most likely make fun of you by calling you a rabbit, a vegetarian sissy or some such
other affectionate terms, if you order a salad while they chomp down on burgers.
However, since youve labeled yourself a vegan, this creates what psychologists call cognitive
dissonance. Youd really like to order the burger, and also, you dont want your friends to
think you are weird. However, your Im a vegan label restricts you. This is Human
Psychology 101: We always strive to act in accordance with the beliefs and labels we have
accepted as true.
This is a true lose-lose situation because it sets up a sharp conflict within you. You either feel
uncomfortable for violating the standards youve set for yourself. Or you feel uncomfortable
because this stupid diet and acne restricts my life,
And you know what? Even if you stick to your guns and order a vegan (or other healthier)
meal, you do more damage to your health and skin than the burger would have caused. Thats
because cognitive dissonance makes you feel bad and the stress you experience creates
problems with digestion. It also isolates you from your friends, and having a healthy social
circle in your life is important for your wellbeing and happiness. Humans were never meant to
be alone.
The language we use to describe ourselves is very important. It impacts you far more than you
imagine. So watch how you describe yourself, and dont restrict yourself unnecessarily or
unfairly.
I eat healthy, because I prefer to eat this way, not because Ive restricted myself with labels
and rules.
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Selecting my meal is a matter of conscious choice for me. Sometimes I choose the unhealthier
option, but I do it with the full understanding that the choice will have some consequences.
Over time my results (about health and skin) reflect my choices. If I dont like the results Im
getting I choose differently the next time.
Finally, I want to say that what you eat consistently is far more important than what you eat
once in a while. Having a burger once a month is not going to be the end of the world or even
prevent you from getting clear. Remember that getting clear is a journey and a long term
lifestyle. Healthy choices are steps forward. Unhealthy choices mean you stop or even take a
small step backwards, but there is no Return to start without passing Go card in this game.
Many people freak after a dietary slip. They believe they have destroyed all the good work
theyve done so far. Please understand that this is simply not the case. This way of thinking is
very dangerous because its a road to eating disorders. Its okay to indulge yourself once in a
while.
Eat healthy most of the time and occasional dietary slips wont rock the boat too much. One
thing you can try to do is to slip as healthy as possible. Trigger foods, such as gluten, can
cause a nasty breakout if you are sensitive to them. If you can, slip on something that is less
consequential.
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Supplements
In the majority of cases supplements are a waste of money. A well-balanced diet supplies all
the nutrients most people require. Further, nutrients work in harmony with each other and need
to be balanced. Food supplies you with nutrients in correct balance. Supplements are often
high in certain high profile nutrients and woefully short in others. This makes them look
more valuable and increases sales. Finally, many supplements are either synthetic or made
from cheap ingredients that make their nutritional value questionable.
However, there are some cases where supplementation may be warranted:
Digestive problems. If you have chronic digestive problems taking HCL (stomach
acid), probiotic bacteria, and digestive enzymes may help.
Deficiencies. If your diet is chronically short on certain nutrients or you are diagnosed
with a deficiency, supplement to correct the problem, or, even better, change your diet.
Therapeutic effect. Certain nutrients taken in extremely high quantities, in controlled
circumstances, can have therapeutic effects. Getting nutrients in such high quantities
from diet is not possible. However, this should be done only under the direction of a
certified healthcare professional.
Abnormal requirements. We differ in our nutritional requirements. Some people
require abnormally high quantities of certain nutrients. Our nutritional requirements
also change depending on our lifestyle and condition. When we are sick or under lots
of stress we may require more nutrients. In such cases supplementation might help.
Again, such cases are difficult to pinpoint without the help of a qualified professional.
Correcting chronic imbalances. Omega 3: omega 6 imbalance is the most common
example. In such case supplementing with omega 3, or eating omega 3 rich oils, may
help to correct the imbalance and help the body to heal.
Needlessly restrictive diets. Very restrictive diets may not meet all the nutritional
requirements for everybody. Strict vegan and raw food diets are good examples. In
these cases supplementation with vitamin B12 and possibly with DHA and EPA (part
of omega 3-family) may help.
Theres an enormous hype promoting supplements that have questionable benefits. I suggest
you work to improve your diet first and then consider supplementation. In most cases it
shouldnt be necessary. Its also recommended that you work with a qualified health care
professional (not necessarily a medical doctor) to first identify possible problems and
deficiencies and then to find appropriate, quality supplements that can help you.
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Workingonthephysicalelementsofhealth
In this chapter well look at improving the other physical elements of health: breathing and
fresh air, sunlight and fitness. In the next chapter well look at stress and negative emotions,
and how to deal with them.
Freshairandproperbreathingtechniques
Unfortunately, the quality of the air you breathe is largely out of your control. If you live in a
city with polluted air you are in a compromised environment. Yet, there are few things you
can do to improve your situation:
Get plants into your home. Plants are natural air cleaners. They both filter and oxygenate
the air. The quality of your indoor air is far more important than the quality of the
outdoor air, because most likely you spend most of your time indoors.
Sleep with a window open. Even if you live in a city, the outdoor air is better quality than
indoor air. So keep your windows open as much as possible. Breathing air over and over
again (as happens when you are in a closed space) reduces its oxygen content. Thats why
its good to get some fresh air into your bedroom.
Get out of the city occasionally.
If possible exercise in a nature area. This way you get the benefit of exercise as well as
fresh, oxygen rich air.
Regardless of the quality of the air, proper breathing helps you to get more oxygen. Proper
breathing should be deep, slow and rhythmic. Here are few simple exercises to develop your
breathing.
Mechanics of breathing
Before we get to the exercises lets examine how deep breathing works.
The diaphragm is a dome-shaped organ that helps in breathing and acts as a natural partition
between your lungs and other organs. The surface of our diaphragm moves downward as we
inhale and upward as we exhale. (See if you can sense these movements periodically
throughout your day.)
When you breathe fully and deeply, the diaphragm moves farther down into the abdomen and
your lungs are able to expand more into the chest cavity. This allows you to take in more
oxygen and release more carbon dioxide with every breath cycle. Deep breathing works
because the lungs are larger towards the bottom than the top. Its also said to massage and
stimulate the vital organs.
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Breathing awareness and deep breathing exercise
1. Lie down or sit in a comfortable chair, keeping good posture. Your body should be as
relaxed as possible. Close your eyes. Scan your body for tension.
2. Pay attention to your breathing. Place one hand on the part of your chest or abdomen that
seems to rise and fall the most with each breath. If this spot is in your chest you are not
using the lower part of your lungs.
3. Place both hands on your abdomen and follow your breathing pattern, noticing how the
abdomen rises and falls.
4. Breathe through your nose.
5. Notice if your chest is moving in harmony with your abdomen.
6. Now place one hand on your abdomen and one on your chest.
7. Inhale deeply and slowly through your nose into your abdomen. You should feel your
abdomen rise with this inhalation and your chest should move only a little.
8. Exhale through your mouth, keeping your mouth, tongue, and jaw relaxed.
9. Relax as you focus on the sound and feeling of long, slow, deep breaths.
Complete natural breathing exercise

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sit or stand with good posture.

Breathe through your nose.
Inhale, filling first the lower part of your lungs then the middle part, then the upper part.
Hold your breath for a few seconds.
Exhale slowly. Relax your abdomen and chest.
The 4-7-8 (or Relaxing Breath) Exercise

This exercise is good for two purposes. It pumps your body with oxygen and relaxes you at the
same time. And, if you are able to be out in nature you can also take advantage of the oxygen
rich environment by doing this exercise for just a mere 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
The exercise is simple, takes almost no time, requires no equipment and can be done
anywhere. You can do this exercise in any position, but while learning sit with your back
straight. Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front
teeth, and keep it there through the entire exercise. You will be exhaling through your mouth
around your tongue; try pursing your lips slightly if this seems awkward.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.

Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
Hold your breath for a count of seven.
Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of
four breaths.
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Note that you always inhale quietly through your nose and exhale audibly through your
mouth. The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time.
It doesnt matter how long each phase of the breath cycle lasts. The important thing is to
maintain the 4:7:8 ratio. If you need to you can speed the exercise, but maintain the ratio. With
practice you can slow it down considerably and develop the habit of breathing deeply.
This is also an excellent stress-buster. Its practically impossible to be anxious or stressed out
while doing this.
Do it at least twice a day. You cannot do it too often. Do not do more than four breaths at one
time for the first month of practice. Then have a short break and breathe normally for few
breaths and then continue again. Later, if you wish, you can extend it to eight breaths. If you
feel a little light-headed when you first breathe this way, dont worry, it will pass.
Sunlight
Sunlight can be a bit tricky because the benefits depend on where you live and your skin color.
In the northern latitudes your skin cannot make any vitamin D from sunlight during most of
the winter. This is because the angle of the light is such that the UVB rays that cause the
synthesis of vitamin D in your skin bounce off the atmosphere and never reach the Earths
surface.
If you live below 35 degrees latitude (in the US thats at the level of Las Vegas, Los Angeles
and Memphis, and in Europe its at the level of Cyprus and just below the Southern tip of
Spain) you are actually fine, because your body can make vitamin D from sunlight throughout
the year, even through the winter.
However, as we move up to 51 degrees of latitude, just north of the border between US and
Canada and roughly at the level of London, during the 3-month period from mid-November to
mid-February, your skin cant make any vitamin D at all from sunshine, even if you were to sit
in the midday sun for hours. Naturally, in the regions between 35 and 51 degrees, the
transition is gradual, with less vitamin D production possible the farther north you go.
Finally, when we reach the 71 degrees latitude, just north of Norway and in the northernmost
regions of Canada, the period when your skin cant produce vitamin D is 5 months.
These latitudes are mirrored at the Southern hemisphere.
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So how much unprotected sunlight should you get? Dr. Holick at the Vitamin D Laboratory at
Boston University Medical Center gives this recommendation:
How do you prevent vitamin D deficiency? I encourage judicious limited
exposure to sunlight as the best method to prevent vitamin D deficiency.
Since the cutaneous production of vitamin D3 is dependent on so many
factors, including season, time of day, latitude, and the person's sensitivity
to sunlight (i.e., amount of skin pigmentation), no one recommendation can
be made. If a person knows that he/she will develop a mild sunburn
minimum erythemal dose (MED) after 30 minutes of sun exposure, then
exposure of the face, arms, hands, and legs for 20% to 25% of that time
(i.e., 6 to 8 minutes) 2 to 3 times a week is more than adequate to satisfy the
body's requirement.
Michael F Holick, MD, PhD
Sunlight and Vitamin D
Both Good for Cardiovascular Health
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1495109
If you are deficient in vitamin D then you may need to get more sunlight to correct the
deficiency.
Remember that we are talking about unprotected sun exposure; so no sunscreens or creams. Of
course, you should protect yourself against sunburn if you spend longer times in the sun.
In the article cited above, Dr. Holick reported that when adults in bathing suits were exposed
to enough tanning bed radiation to produce mild sunburn, the exposure raised their blood
levels of vitamin D to the same levels achieved by ingesting 10,000 to 25,000 International
Units (IU) of vitamin D. By contrast, most multivitamins contain 400 IU of vitamin D. This is
just to show you how much easier it is to get your vitamin D from sunlight.
So what about those winter months in northern latitudes?
As far as vitamin D is concerned you have two options; artificial UVB radiation from a
tanning bed or sunlamps or a vitamin D supplement. As long as the tanning bed emits UVB
radiation your body can create vitamin D from it.
However you cant just go into any tanning salon. Many salons use lamps that emit
deceptively named non-burn rays. That means is the lamps emit only UVA radiation and
often the intensities are higher than in sunlight. Please avoid such salons because they wont
help your vitamin D production and can even damage your skin. What you need is a tanning
bed that emits both UVA and UVB radiation in amounts that are close to the intensities of true
sunlight.
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As an alternative to tanning salons you can also use a sun lamp. Sun lamps work a bit like
tanning beds do. They emit radiation thats identical, or at least very close, to sunlight. Like
tanning beds they trigger vitamin D production in your skin. They are meant for home use so
they are more convenient than frequent visits to a tanning salon, and they are cheaper in the
long run, since sun lamps generally cost only few hundred dollars.
If you choose a vitamin D supplement the current recommendation is 1000 IU per day.
Thats as far as vitamin D goes, but sunlight could, and probably has, other benefits we arent
aware of yet. Thats why I recommend you get some sunlight even during the winter months,
if for no other reason that it helps you to feelboth physically and psychologicallyand
sleep better.
Fitness
I dont think we need to dive deep here. Just get a healthy amount of exercise. It doesnt
matter what you do as long as you break a sweat. I recommend that you do something that you
really like because that will make it easier for you to stick with it. Ideally, you should aim to
exercise 5 times per week.
Other things you can do:
Be active. Use your feet for transportation. Take the stairs. You already know the drill:
Always look for ways to be more active. Instead of driving or taking the bus try walking or
cycling to college or office. Be creative, there are always ways to be more active. And during
these walks you can do your breathing exercises so you kill two birds with one stone. And if
its sunny outside, well, thats three birds.
Research shows that cardiovascular training combined with resistance training is better for
your health than either alone. So make sure your fitness regimen combines some aerobic
training (such as running, tennis or ball games) and muscle building exercises (gym or
bodyweight exercises). Swimming is an excellent exercise as it gives you a cardiovascular
workout as well as working on your muscles.
Dr. Graham recommends burning 40% of your daily calories with exercise. In practice this
means about an hour of strenuous exercise (such as running) a day. If you are sedentary and
not used to exercising, this may be a lot, but please dont get discouraged. The important thing
is that you start doing something. Even walking 15 minutes a day is better than nothing. As
you get fitter you can always add to, or increase the intensity of, your regimen.
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Thresholdanewlookatstress
Stress. You know what it is. Or at the very least, you certainly know what it feels like. And if
you do, you also probably feel like you have your fair share of itperhaps more than your fair
share. Since things so often seem to come in bundles of three, Ill also venture to say that you
havent been very successful at dealing with stress. You manage to dissipate it temporarily, if
only to put it out of your mind, but it always comes back, sometimes with a vengeance.
I can say this because the common wisdom about stress is wrong. The stress management
advice that fills the pages of nearly every magazine today is woefully inadequate; both in
terms of what stress is, how it happens, and what you can do about it.
Earlier when we talked about your internal map of reality and how you do, or deal with,
your emotions, we touched on stress. In this chapter we are going to expand on that, and Ill
explain how you can rid stress and negativity from your life.
This discussion is not only limited to stress, as its commonly understood. This applies to all
dysfunctional emotions and behaviors.
The typical explanation given for them, often by both experts and non-experts, is that you
were traumatized in some way, and as a result you ended up with something inside of you that
you have to get rid of. People say that theres a lot of anger in you, for example. When you get
rid of whats inside, you feel better, or so the typical explanation goes. Several therapies have
sprung from this approach; the primal scream therapy perhaps being the most descriptive
and demonstrative!
Often such therapies do in fact help you to feel better, so they are not totally useless. The
problem is that the results rarely last. Often within a few months, or even weeks, stress and
negative emotions and behaviors return. These therapies help you to release built up tension,
but they dont resolve the traumatic memories that are the root cause of stress and negativity.
So what exactly is the root cause of stress, negative emotions and dysfunctional behaviors? To
answer that question, Im again going to defer to the good work of Bill Harris.
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Heres my alternative model to describe why people exhibit dysfunctional

feelings and behaviors. Every person has a threshold for what they can
handle coming at them from the world, and this threshold is different for
each person. As long as what happens goes on within the bounds of that
thresholdas long as your threshold is not exceeded, everythings fine, and
you feel pretty good. Theres a very clear and logical reason why this is so,
which Ill get to in a moment.
But once the amount of whatever it is thats coming at you from the world
pushes you up to your threshold for what you can tolerateor, worse,
pushes you over ityou begin to feel stressed, and in an attempt to cope
with that stress, you try to cope with it in various ways.
Bill Harris
Life Principles Integration Process online course; module 2, lesson 5
Think of water in a kettle. As it begins to heat up on the stove, the water remains calm and not
much happens. But as the water slowly approaches the boiling point, some action begins to
occur. Youll notice small bubbles forming at the bottom of the kettle, and then releasing to
the surface, which becomes increasingly more turbulent. Once it reaches the boiling point, the
water is a tumbling maelstrom that can only be described as molecular chaos!
A similar phenomenon happens with you. When you are under your boiling point, or what
we call your threshold, you remain calm and peaceful. Once you get closer to your threshold
you start feeling the pressure; this is even true in a literal sense as stress often feels like a
pressure in your chest. Sooner or later you reach a point where you just cant take it
anymore. Thats when you go over your threshold. Most people are not in control of
themselves anymore once they go over their threshold; emotionsand even irrationality
take over.
This figure helps to explain threshold.
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The blue line in the picture represents your threshold, which as you can see, is not a straight
line. Depending on your beliefs and self-image, your threshold in some areas of life is higher
than in other areas. Thats because you are more sensitive in some areas of life than in others.
Acne victims in general are very sensitive about the way their skin looksunderstandably, I
might add. An innocent remark or a question concerning their skin by a stranger is enough to
push many acne victims over their threshold; whereas a similar remark concerning their
finances would have no effect on them. When that happens they go down in a destructive spin
of depression, isolation and self-pity, and perhaps also anger.
Im sure you know the expression pushing someones buttons? Perhaps you even know
someone who always gets upset when a certain thing happens, and you wonder why because
to you it doesnt seem like its such a bad thing. These buttons are areas of low threshold.
Buttons are often caused by traumatic experiences that the subconscious mind generalizes into
limiting beliefs and self-esteem problems.
Earlier we talked about how focus drives emotion. When you focus on something that you
dont want you feel bad (and as a double whammy you are more likely to get it). Thats
exactly what happens when you go over your threshold. Your focus goes to things you dont
want.
Now I want to point out that you still have 100% control over your focus. It is within your
power to focus on the positive and feel good even if you are over your threshold. Its just
much harder to control your mind when you exceed your threshold.
Traditional stress management techniques focus on releasing and coping with the buildup of
pressure. People develop different ways of coping and not all of them are healthy:
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The coping hall of fame include such things as anger, fear, anxiety, sadness,
depression, substance abuse, overeating, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and
many other so-called dysfunctional feelings and behaviors, but it also
includes a number of things that are typically thought of as being more
healthy, such as exercise, talking with friends, escaping into TV or reading
or movies, and some things that are considered to be extremely unhealthy,
such as psychosis, schizophrenia, multiple personalities, personality
disorders, and so on.
Bill Harris
Coping mechanisms normally fall into two categories:
Reducing input
Increasing output
When you go over your threshold theres just too much coming at you from the world. To feel
better you have to get it off your chest. You can do this by shutting yourself down, so to
reduce the pressure coming at you. Over time, the pressure dissipates and you feel better.
Distracting yourself with TV, movies, books and overeating are ways to do this. Alternatively,
you can push more stress out of your system, for example by exercising, breathing deeply or
by talking about it with someone (ever lend a shoulder to a friend and then realize that you felt
exhausted after the experience?).
All these methods help you to feel better. But they are just temporary solutions because they
dont help with the root cause of the problem, which is a too low threshold for the
environment you live in.
Going over your threshold is bad for your health. In an earlier chapter, Dr. Lipton described
how your cells bear the brunt of your anger. Thats what happens when you go over your
threshold. It can also harm your health indirectly if you cope with it by overeating or indulging
in unhealthy foods or substances.
If you want to get clear as quickly as possible, you need to stay under your threshold as much
as possible. While crossing your threshold may not directly affect acne, spending too much
time over it will certainly retard the healing process.
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Thresholdsolutions
There are two ways to deal with the threshold problem:
Increase your threshold

Learn to control your mind when you are over your threshold
Lets look at the second one first. Believe it or not, you always have total control over how
you focus your mind. No outside influence can force you to focus on something you dont
want. So you can feel good and peaceful even if you are over your threshold. Your mind has
that kind of power.
Unfortunately, however, most people are not in control of themselves when they go over their
threshold. Instead emotions take over and they follow the subconscious mental patterns they
have picked up.
To get over this problem, you have to train yourselftrain your mindto be alert when you
are approaching, and/or going over your threshold. If you remain alert and conscious you can
control your mind. If you arent conscious you have little control over your mind. Being
conscious means being alert, aware and in control of your mind.
When you do so, you can actually turn the stress into a positive force by channeling it in
constructive and creative ways. Artists, as you probably know, have a reputation for being a
little bit nuts, and many great artists are people who have channeled overwhelming stress and
personal hardship into highly creative artistic expression, instead of into tantrums, though
many do some of both. Be aware that you will still feel the pressure when you are over your
threshold, but you can turn it into positive pressure and use it to improve your life rather than
dissipate that energy in useless tantrums or negative behaviors.
To remain in control, you have to train your brain to notice when you approach and go over
your threshold. Heres a little homework that can help you to do that:
Homework
Carry a pen and some 3 by 5 cards with you. When you approach or go over your threshold
make a note of it. Jot down X happened and I went over my threshold. Then notice the
feelings in your body. Notice how it feels to approach and go over your threshold. Notice the
emotion and where its located in your body. For example, note down pressure/contraction in
the chest. Also note down the pictures you make in your head and what you say to yourself.
As you do that notice what happens to your feelings. You may find that the stress fades away.
Then ask yourself what do I want in this situation, and then make mental pictures (imagine)
of what you really want. Again, notice what happens to your feelings.
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Youll get the best results if you approach this with detached curiosity, as if you are watching
the situation and stress happening to a stranger. Be curious of it but try to remain as detached
as possible. Simply watch. I know this is much more difficult to do than to say but with
practice youll get there.
In the evening take a minute or two to review your notes. Bring the situation back into your
mind and go through what happened.
By doing all this, you train your brain to notice and to be alert when you approach and go over
your threshold, and, more importantly, you train it to focus on what you want instead of what
you dont want. Over time this also raises your threshold so that youll be less likely to go
over it in the future.
I dont pretend this is easy. At first, you will hardly ever catch yourself in time when you go
over your threshold; and instead you will follow your subconscious patterns as before. But
with practice you will start catching yourself in time, and remain conscious enough to make a
note of the situation and to observe yourself going through it. And you will soon avoid losing
control.
Increaseyourthreshold
Now lets look at ways to raise your threshold. Again you have two options, both of which
require work and commitment.
Meditate
Fix your internal map of reality
Meditate
First I want to say meditation has nothing to do with religious practices. Its simply a tool that
Buddhists have used to quiet their minds and reach nirvana. Christians often use
contemplation and prayer to connect with God. However, neither meditation nor
contemplation are religious practices as such. So dont think they conflict with your chosen
religious beliefs or practices. In fact, if you are religious meditation helps you to feel closer to
God, the universe, or whatever you choose to name it.
As far as threshold is concerned, meditation helps you in two ways. It helps you to remain
alert and conscious when you go over your threshold, so you can remain in control of your
focus and your emotions. Meditation also shakes loose negative mental patterns and raises
your threshold.
Bill Harris, the creator of Holosync meditation tracks, describes the effect of his meditation
program:
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This is why Holosync is so powerful in changing a persons experience of
life. Holosync raises your threshold for what you can handle, and as this
happens, it takes more and more coming at you from the world to get you to
the point where your threshold is exceeded. Since dysfunctional feelings and
behaviors only occur when you are over your threshold, as it becomes
harder to get to that threshold, they appear less and less often. When
someone who comes to us with a low threshold uses Holosync for a while,
they begin to notice that what bothered them before is not affecting them in
the same way. Soon, they get to the point where their threshold is at a more
normal level, and their reaction to the world is more like that of other
people around them.
But as they continue to use Holosync, and to progress through the levels of
the program, their threshold continues to go higher, and after a while they
find that their threshold is now higher than those of most other people. This
is what happened to me. I used to be the one who had the low threshold, and
was always reacting to everything, and I eventually became the one who
could deal with an incredible amount of input and still keep my internal
balance and equanimity. The same thing will happen to you as you continue
to move through the program, and I have to say that having lived both ways,
I highly recommend having a high threshold for what you can handle. When
your threshold is high, anger, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and all
kinds of other coping mechanisms fall away, and I can tell you that the
world is a lot more fun without them.
Bill Harris
How does meditation increase your threshold? Meditation is to the mind what exercise is to
the body. It puts stress on your mind, and your internal map of reality, and as a result of the
stress your mind gets stronger and is able to deal with more pressure coming from the world.
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Of course the benefits of meditation are not limited to those using Holosync. But if you choose
to meditate, and I highly recommend you do, please use a meditation program, such as
Holosync or Clear for Life Meditations. Heres why:
Meditation, especially at first, isnt much fun. The initial experience is usually
somewhere between boredom and frustration. A good meditation programs gets you
through this phase faster.
It takes only a few months with a good meditation program to get the same results that
would take years or decades with traditional meditation.
It doesnt matter if you lose your focus from time to time, especially in the beginning.
When this happens with traditional meditation, the benefits stop. However meditation
programs that use brainwave entrainment use embedded audio technology to stimulate
your brain and produce the benefits. Both Holosync and Clear for Life Meditations use
this technology.
Both Holosync and Clear for Life Meditations will work for you. The two programs differ on
intent and price. Holosync is a tool for personal transformation. Regularly using Holosync you
can make leaps in your personal, emotion and spiritual growth. Clear for Life Meditations
helps you to deal with the stress and negative emotions acne causes. Its aim is to give you
enough mental control to stop the depressive cycles acne may put your through.
Of the two, Holosync is more advanced program. As you advance with Holosync you go
through levels, each being more powerful than the previous. There are 12 levels and each level
is a separate purchase. At the time of writing the first level costs $179. Clear for Life
Meditations is simpler and aimed at people with no meditation experience. It contains an easy
to get started with guided meditation. This meditation teaches you the essential skill required
to meditate successfully. This is something I wish I had when I started with Holosync, as
meditation can be quite frustrating until you learn these skills.
Regardless of which program you choose; Holosync, Clear for Life Meditations, or some
completely different program, its important you start meditating. Its the one thing that can
make the biggest difference in your skin, happiness and quality of life.
Now lets look at the other way to raise your threshold.
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Fix your internal map of reality
Your threshold, and especially the areas of low threshold, is a product of your internal map of
reality. If you have a lot of problems with your internal map of reality (areas that produce
results you dont want), then your threshold is also lower. The solution is to identify the areas
that dont work and change them.
Of course this is a bit difficult if your internal map of reality remains unconscious. So your
first priority is to bring it into your conscious awareness. Unfortunately, that is not something I
can teach you in a book.
Bill Harris has an excellent online course called Life Principles Integration Process. LPIP is a
three module course that runs for 18 months. Each module in the course lasts 6 months and is
divided into 12 lessons.
The first module describes all the parts of the internal map of reality, how they work and what
they do. If you do the homework Bill gives you, by the end of the first module you know more
about how the human mind works than most psychiatrists. You will also be significantly more
peaceful and happier and experience far less stress and frustration. And you have the tools at
your disposal to fix any problems you may encounter. The second module shows how to be
peaceful in the world. The third module, The Success Solution, shows how to succeed at
anything you do. If you take this course seriously within few years you will join the exclusive
ranks of people who are happy, peaceful and successful.
I dont recommend the LPIP course because I make money out of itin fact I dont. I
recommend it because its not possible for me to teach you this material within the context of
a book. It has taken me more than 2 years to learn and its not something you can pick from a
book. You learn it by observing what happens inside of your mind and then changing it. Thats
exactly what the LPIP course helps you to do.
My other book, Emotional Healing for Clear Skin, offers a more light-duty solution to this
problem. Ive taken what I learned from the LPIP course, and from other sources, and
condensed it into a solution thats easy to use even for people who have little experience in
working with their own minds. Emotional Healing for Clear Skin shows how to identify areas
of low threshold (dysfunctional beliefs) and then how to change themhow you can get rid of
your buttons and raise your threshold. However, in all fairness, I have to say that if you are
truly serious about becoming happy, peaceful and successful you should take the time to go
through the LPIP course.
Another way to fix your internal map of reality is to simply overwrite it with a new one. Most
personal growth techniques are based on the principle that if you repeat an affirmation long
enough and with emotion it will be accepted by the subconscious mind and acted upon. In
other words it becomes a belief and a part of the internal map of reality.
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Many books on the subject describe an experiment done by NASA in which astronauts wore
goggles that flipped their vision upside down; in other words everything they saw was upside
down. The interesting thing is that within about 30 days their brains had rewired themselves
and adjusted to the incoming information. Their vision flipped to the right side up again. This
should tell you that we really see with our brains, not our eyes. Your eyes simply receive the
incoming light and send the data to your brain where what you see is actually formed (after it
goes through the filtering process described earlier). So the astronauts brains simply flipped
over the visual data that was upside down to them (flipped over by the goggles) so that what
the astronauts saw was right side up again. And of course, when they removed the goggles
they had to go through the same adjustment and rewiring process all over again.
Using this same process you can immerse your mind into your new internal map of reality.
Repeated long and often enough and with enough emotion it will replace your old internal
map of reality.
The only problem with this approach is that it doesnt address suppressed emotions and
traumatic memories you may have. As such it may not be able to clear deeply held negative
beliefs. Regardless of this limitation, its a useful tool for improving your self-image, and it is
especially effective in conjunction with emotional healing techniques that address suppressed
emotions and traumatic memories.
Its important to note that, as far as your mind is concerned, it doesnt matter if the
information you try to embed is real or imagined. What you see from the real world is nothing
but a mental construct created from the visual stimuli. For your mind, what you visualize or
imagine is equally real as the real world.
So how then would you go about creating and embedding a new internal map of reality into
your mind? This process is often called mental reconditioning.
The first step is to know what you want, and with this I mean what you do want, not what you
dont want. When asked what they want many people start explaining passionately what they
dont want; things they want to avoid. This is not the right way to go about this because you
still focus on what you dont want. If you tell me you dont want acne anymore you still focus
on acne and your mind goes on creating the circumstances for acne to happen. You need to
focus on what you want, which in this case would be clear skin.
Let your imagination fly and think of what your ideal life would look like. Think of all the
things you really want to do, be and have. Imagine that you have no limits and that you cant
fail. If that was the case, what would you want? Jot down whatever pops into your head.
Now that you have an idea of what you want, just imagine what your life would be like when
everything you wrote down is true. Imagine yourself living your dream life and really immerse
yourself into it. See what you would see, hear what you would hear, and feel the feelings you
would feel. This is called visualization, and it sends a powerful command into your
subconscious mind to start creating what you visualize.
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While visualizing and playing a mental movie in your head is an effective form of mental
reconditioning, I find that I get much better results by creating a real Mind Movie. Mind
Movie is a 2 to 4 minute inspirational movie or a slideshow with powerful affirmations, vivid
images and uplifting music. Mind Movie is simply your imagination turned into a real movie.
I prefer watching Mind Movie to visualization for several reasons:
Mind Movies create a much more powerful emotional response. I often find it difficult
to feel strong emotions while visualizing, whereas watching my Mind Movie often
brings up goose bumps of excitement.
Visualization can get tedious while watching Mind Movies is great fun. I look forward
to watching my Mind Movies whereas I may have to push myself to visualize.
You can watch Mind Movies anywhere. To visualize effectively you need to find a
quiet place and relax. Load your Mind Movie into an iPod or a phone and you can
watch it anywhere. Mind Movies work even in noisy and busy environments where
visualization is impossible.
Mind Movies are concrete, whereas visualizations can be hazy. The process of making
your Mind Movie forces you to really think substantively about what you want and to
thoroughly crystallize it in your mind. This clarity alone is worth the effort of making a
Mind Movie.
The effect of watching a Mind Movie stays with me longer than visualization. I find
that after watching a Mind Movie Im in such an excited state that it keeps playing in
my head long after the Mind Movie itself is over. In other words, I keep visualizing it
in my head over and over again. This way I get the benefit of watching my Mind
Movie and the continuing visualization effortlessly.
Mind Movies are motivation and positive attitude on demand. Whenever I dont feel
motivated or I feel down in some other way, I watch my Mind Movie. It instantly picks
me up and charges me with positive attitude and motivation. I have never been able to
get the same results with visualization, although with practice this is probably possible.
So please create your own Mind Movie. I cant recommend it enough.

The easiest way to create a Mind Movie is to create a slideshow, and you can find plenty of
free programs on the Internet for doing this. You can even create one with Windows Movie
Maker that comes with a Windows installation. Macs should come with similar software
preinstalled (I dont have Mac, but I think you can create a slideshow with iPhoto).
You can find pictures to put into your Mind Movie from the popular picture sharing websites,
such as Flicr.com or Photobucket.com.
Then simply add your favorite, upbeat song, publish and your Mind Movie is ready. With very
little experience you can create your Mind Movie very quickly. The biggest task is writing the
script and finding the pictures.
If you are really serious about Mind Movies, which I hope you are by now, I recommend the
Mind Movie Creation Kit by Ryan Higgins, which has everything you need for creating your
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Mind Movie. Ryan takes you by the hand and walks you through the process of creating a
Mind Movie, step-by-step. Youll learn how to write the perfect script and how to find
pictures that portray just what you want. I have the Mind Movie Creation Kit and Im very
happy with it. The kit also comes with 6 premade Mind Movies you can use as examples and
for inspiration or you can simply watch the premade movies.
During the mental reconditioning process you need to get over your old beliefs and
limitations. Have you ever thought of something you really want, only to then tell yourself to
get real and stop the childish fantasy? What you imagined violates your subconscious beliefs
and your mind reminds you that such a thing is not possible for you. This may be true in some
practical cases, such as if you are 5 feet tall and want to play in the NBA, but in most cases
such limits exist only in your mind. For example, I can say with certainty that its possible for
you to earn 10 times the money you earn at the moment. But before you can do that you need
to get over the belief that its not possible.
Mental recondition gives you the best results when you are free from limiting beliefs. Limiting
beliefs drag your focus back to the negative by telling you that such a thing is not possible for
you and that you better stop thinking about it unless you want to be disappointed again; they
also dampen your spirit and cause procrastination.
Once you get over your mental limits your mind is free to work on creating the desired
outcome instead of dwelling on the reasons why such a thing is not possible for you.
You can get over old beliefs and other mental limits with several methods. One is by brute
force. Simply watch your Mind Movie repeatedly or repeat your affirmations (or do both!)
until they are accepted by your subconscious mind. The problem with this method is that it
takes time.
A better way is to use one of the many mental techniques on the market. I like Emotional
Freedom Technique (EFT) the most. I also frequently use Sedona Method. Both of these
methods help you to release any emotions, feelings or behaviors that hold you back.
Hypnosis can help you get over limiting beliefs as do many Neuro Linguistic Programming
NLP techniques (I described two in Emotional Healing for Clear Skin). Paraliminal CDs from
Learning Strategies are also effective.
We again covered a lot of ground in this chapter. So lets pull it all together into an action
plan.
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Recommendedactionplanforeliminatingstress,dysfunctionalemotions
andbehaviors
Stress, negative emotions and dysfunctional behaviors are caused by a threshold that is too
low for the environment you live in and by problems with your internal map of reality (selfimage). If you raise your threshold and fix the problems in your internal map you can live a
happy, peaceful and successful life.
As with everything else in life theres a price to pay for this; different results require different
way of thinking and acting. Please approach this as mental detox or mental weight loss.
Results will take some time to show up. Nothing will change by tomorrow, or even next week,
but if you work diligently, youll probably feel better next month, a year from now youll be a
new person, and 10 years from now you will have reached your goals many times over and
will be living your dream life.
When all is said and done, heres what I believe to be the easiest way to pay the price for
happy, peaceful and successful life.
Step 1: Figure out what you want

Remember to think of what you want instead of what you want to avoid. Think in terms of
moving towards positive outcomes instead of moving away from negative outcomes. Let your
imagination fly and write it all down.
Be as clear as possible. Avoid vague statements like I want to make more money. Write
down how much and when. A good way to get crystal clear on what you want is to create a
Mind Movie.
You dont have to concern yourself over how it happens. Nobody knows how to achieve
anything when they set out to do it for the first time. Ideas will pop into your head and youll
learn as you go on. When you know what you want, the how shows up.
Step 2: Meditate 30 to 60 minutes a day

Meditation is mental weightlifting and is necessary for building a strong and healthy mind.
You wont get physically strong unless you exercise your body and you wont become happy
and peaceful unless you meditate. Once you get over the initial hurdle, 60 minutes meditation
is not difficult. In fact time flies very quickly.
Clear for Life Meditations contains a meditation that takes you through a technique for
releasing negative emotions. Learn this technique and meditation becomes easy and enjoyable.
In any case, follow the advice of the great American thinker, Michael Jordan, and Just Do It.
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Step 3: Learn Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
Learning EFT can probably do more for you than anything else in this book. Mastering EFT
can give you emotional freedom other people can only dream about. As you learn EFT you
realize that feeling bad is optional. EFT allows you to release negative feelings and deal with
repressed emotions and traumatic memories. It can help you to deal with cravings. EFT can
help you to improve your motivation and willpower, or more accurately it can help you to get
rid of issues that weaken or sabotage your motivation and willpower.
EFT is so simple you can learn it in few minutes. You can download a free starter manual
from the EFT website. It teaches you the basics of EFT and is all you need to get started.
Although the mechanics of EFT are really simple, the art of delivery can be a bit tricky. EFT
works best when you get to the core issues and memories behind a particular belief or feeling.
The EFT starter manual and free tutorials on the EFT website explain this in greater detail.
Please study them.
Mastering the art of delivery depends on understanding how the mind works and uncovering
the core issues behind limiting beliefs. These core issues may be painful memories or
something your parent(s) frequently said or did to you.
You can learn this by observing how your mind works. The Life Principles Integration Process
(LPIP) online course by Bill Harris teaches you the mental processes that create your reality
and shows you how to observe them.
Step 4: Recondition your mind for success and clear skin with Mind Movies
Create your Mind Movie and keep it with you all the time; load it into your iPod or phone.
Watch it whenever you feel down or unmotivated, or when you feel good but want to feel even
better. The more you immerse yourself in your new reality, the faster it shows up in your life.
Juice your Mind Movie with as much emotion as possible. If watching your Mind Movie
doesnt bring up any positive emotions its not nearly as powerful as it could and should be.
When I watch my Mind Movie I find that Im on the edge of my seat and I keep leaning
towards the screen. Thats why its important to create your own Mind Movie; because only
you know what you want and what it is that gets you going.
I recommend you get the Mind Movie Creation Kit for best results although you can create
one even without the kit.
In addition to Mind Movies, use your spare moments to visualize and imagine what your new
life looks like; repeat powerful affirmations in your mind, or even better, out aloud.
Also immerse yourself into inspirational material. Read inspirational books. Read books by
people who already have what you want. Watch inspirational movies. Surround yourself with
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success-oriented and positive people; their attitudes and beliefs rub off on you, and
subconsciously you draw inspiration, motivation and energy from them.
Step 5: Go through the Life Principles Integration Process (LPIP) course

This step is optional since the LPIP course is not free. Given that the course can totally change
your life I highly recommend you go through it. And I make this strong recommendation only
as a satisfied customerI have no ties to Bill Harris nor do I gain anything personally by
recommending this course.
If you decide to sign up please take the course seriously and do the homework. Otherwise the
course offers little else than entertainment. To get the value you have to participate by working
hard and doing the homework.
LPIP shows how your mind works and how you create your own reality with your mind. After
the course you have all the tools you need to create anything you want in life.
Its hard to describe how much better my life is as a result of this. Before I started LPIP I was
quite miserable and working a job I hated, and my website wasnt making much money for
me. A mere18 months after starting the course I live a happy and fulfilling life. Im happy and
peaceful 90% of the time. Im financially independent, fully support myself with my online
business that I love working on, I live in a place of my choosing and I fired my boss 12
months ago. If you dream about the beach and laptop life, well, thats my reality. I blasted
financial stress out of my life. And I say this as a solo entrepreneur running a fairly new
business and in the middle of the greatest financial meltdown since The Great Depression. My
sales may not be as high as Id like them to be, but I dont let it bother me. I keep my mind on
my goals and take constant action to build value for my customers and readers. The results
will show up sooner or later. This recipe has worked for every successful person and I have
every reason to believe it will work also for me (it already is working). I know that within a
few years my business will bring in enough money to make me very comfortable financially. I
love what I do and every day I work enthusiastically towards my goals and a better future
and I have a blast every step of the way.
Im not telling you all of this to brag or to somehow imply that Im better than anyone else. I
say it to contrast the 180 degree turn my life took as a result of fixing my internal map of
reality and getting over my self-imposed limitations. I say it with full conviction that you can
do the same if you are willing to pay the price.
Life is so much better when you live it to the hilt. The price to pay for this is a pittance
compared to the rewards. I mean, for a chance at a lifetime of happiness and success, would
you be willing to be curious enough about your mind to do a few simple exercises for 15
minutes a day for the next 12 months? So would I. So whats holding you back?
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If you still arent convinced of the need to create a better self-image perhaps this snippet of a
blog post I wrote recently will push you over the edge and into action.
Youcantoutperformyourselfimage
Side note: This post refers to the results of a customer survey I conducted.
Interestingly, quite a few people commented that CFL gives them fantastic results when they
stick to it. Unfortunately they keep falling off the wagon and in the process make a mess of
their skin.
While I agree that staying healthy in today's world takes some work, I wouldn't say it's
difficult. The truth is that eating and living healthy is easy - once you get over your own limits.
If you find yourself repeating a pattern where you make progress and then fall back, I believe
you need to work on your self-image.
In the personal growth circles it's well-known that you can't outperform your self-image.
Deep in your subconscious mind you have an image of yourself; your self-image. That image
shows what you really believe and think about yourself. It shows what you can and cannot do.
It shows what your life is like.
Your mind's job is to make sure that your life matches your self-image. Scientists say that 95%
or more of our behaviors are subconscious. Humans like to believe they behave rationally and
logically, but even a cursory look shows this is not true.
Your subconscious mind controls most of your actions and choices. It guides your life to the
fulfillment of your self-image. One way this happens is through your thoughts. If you think
exercise is boring, you'll find it hard to motivate yourself to exercise. If you believe eating
healthy is difficult, you'll find that it is. But if you believe exercise is fun and eating healthy is
delicious and fulfilling, living a healthy life gets easy.
While it's true that you are free to choose your thoughts most people don't exercise that power.
Instead the choice happens on the subconscious level. And here's where your self-image
guides your destiny.
In each moment your subconscious feeds your mind with thoughts and images that guide your
life towards your self-image. If you haven't trained your mind your life inevitably slips
towards your self-image - even if you fight it.
Acne can be part of your self-image directly or indirectly. You may see yourself as a victim of
this horrible curse. Or you may, for example, believe that you don't deserve love; acne then
justifies that belief and gives you something to point your finger at. You can say the reason
you haven't found love is because nobody would date anyone with your skin.
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I used to be afraid of success. I had a belief that it's better to be small and not attract too much
attention to myselfthanks to my childhood. This held me back in many ways. For example
my mind created food cravings. I used to be able to stick to raw food diet for few days. But
regularly also found myself eating pizza, coke or some other junk. I pushed my limits and my
mind had to bring me back to my "comfort level."
Luckily I found that belief and got rid of it. The food cravings disappeared overnight. Now I'm
free to choose my meals and eating healthy is easy.
If you keep hitting a wall and can't get past a certain point, I recommend you work on
upgrading your self-image.
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Understandingthedetoxandhealingprocess
Along with improving the elements of health, the elimination of built up toxins and waste
material is another major part of getting clear. However, as with diet, detox is another area full
of conflicting information and snake-oil salesman peddling cleanses, cures, detoxes, pills and
powders.
This chapter gives you a healthy dose of common sense that lets see through the hype and get
real resultsand save your money.
Whatisdetoxification
Before getting into specifics you need to understand what detoxification is.
Detoxification is a process of cleansing that happens within the body
that is generated, directed, supervised and totally run by the body.
The keywords there are generated, directed, supervised and totally run by the body.
Its really important to keep this in mind, because the natural health field is full of
unscrupulous salesmen and peddlers of bogus cleanses and supplements. Theres no end to the
opportunities to buy different cleanses that are supposed to naturally and gently cleanse you.
There are cleanses available for every organ and probably for your baby toes also.
The underlying message is always that you can fix your problems easily by taking this pill,
powder or substance. Does that ring a bell? Its exactly the same shortcut to health and
happiness the pharmaceutical industry wants you to buy into. In the natural health field, we
pride ourselves on abandoning medical solutions and doing something different. But in the end
we arent doing anything different. Herbs and cleanses may be safer than drugs but they are
based on the same mentality. Same snake oil, different bottle.
Heres the truth. The body is a self-directing, self-controlling, self-monitoring, self-healing,
self-cleansing and self-repairing organism. No outside herb, supplement, drug or any other
substance affects the detox process. You cannot force the body into detoxing or into health.
The detox process is going on in your body all the time24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It has
to be, because the body is continuously producing new toxins it needs to get rid of. The
byproducts of your own physiology, your own cellular metabolism (when your cells burn
sugar for energy), are toxic to you.
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There are two main detoxes happening in the body: The chemical detox that is organized and
run by the liver and the mechanical detox, which is essentially straining, that takes place in the
kidneys.
If the liver and the kidneys cant cope up with the toxic load, the body uses secondary
detoxification means. These are mucus coming out of your throat and nose, via skin and lungs
and even tar coming out of the bellybutton. The body is very good at eliminating toxins.
Heres the truth about different flushes and cleanses in the market. They do not and cannot
work the way they are marketed.
The chemicals and herbs contained in these cleanses irritate the target organ. The organ
responds by trying to expel the offending substance. This detox reaction is then offered as
proof that the cleanse works.
Thinking you can irritate your body into health is absurd. Essentially the same thing happens
when I throw lemon juice into your eyes. Besides cursing me to the lowest reaches of hell,
your eyes quickly produce water and mucus to get rid of the lemon juice.
Can you say the lemon juice is good for your eyes? That it detoxifies your eyes?
This is of course beside the point, as I would already be selling this miracle eye flush over the
internet. When I wouldnt be laughing my way to the bank I would be claiming this miracle
flush cures everything and anything from cracked fingernails to fleas on your dog.
When you look outside the body for generation of health you are fooling
yourself into thinking you dont have the responsibility to create your own
health. Health comes specifically and only from healthful living and never
can you irritate the body into health. Health never comes in a bottle, box,
can, pill, elixir, potion or powder.
Dr. Douglass Graham
In The Perfect Health Program by Frederic Patenaude
Furthermore, not only are these cleanses and flushes useless in creating health and clear skin,
they can also be dangerous. And this applies to all cleanses, be it liver flush, colonics, colon
cleanse or any other cleanse.
I know Im probably going to get hate mail for bashing the liver flush because many acne
victims seem to be attached to it. Many people claim their skin and health have improved after
using it.
But that doesnt mean you should go and do it, or that its safe. Drinking a cup of olive oil
stresses the liver and the gallbladder. If you happen to have real stones in your gallbladder it
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may be dangerous. As these reputable doctors (who advocate natural health and healing) tell
you:
Swallowing several ounces of pure olive oil at one sitting makes for a very
large, fatty mealand such a great load of fat could potentially trigger a
sustained, severe contraction of the gallbladder. If there are actual stones
contained inside the gallbladder, such a forceful contraction could result in
an excruciating bout of right upper quadrant abdominal pain for the owner
of the gallbladderand a possible unplanned trip to the operating room for
an emergency cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder).
Questions & Answers GALLBLADDER PROBLEMS - AND SOLUTIONS;
Dr. Michal A. Klapper
http://www.vegsource.com/klaper/qa02.htm
One is that it [liver flush] can and does occasionally send people to the
hospital with an attack of cholitis if a stone becomes lodged in the biliary
duct.
Dr. Kevin Murray, ND, Lac;
http://chetday.com/gallbladderflushes.htm
I have done the liver flush on few occasions. Ive tried several versions of it. On every
occasion I felt sick to my stomach after drinking the olive oil. And once, after doing Dr. Hulda
Clarks version of it, I spent the better part of the night with my head in the toilet bowl
vomiting that olive oil out.
Is it possible that liver flush, colon cleanses and other therapies remove some toxins and
harmful elements from the body? Yes, when you irritate the organ to the point where it
forcefully expels the offending substance, it may actually flush out some other harmful stuff.
Are they necessary? Absolutely not.
Eating a clean diet and living according to the elements of health enables the body to do all the
detoxing it needs.
If you are still inclined to do a liver flush, perhaps because you want to get rid of gallstones, I
suggest you stop and think: Its comforting to know the body gets rid of them on its own. Im
seeing the gallstones in the toilet bowl nearly every day; the same stones that I passed during a
liver flush. And all Im doing is eating a healthy diet, exercising, resting properly, getting
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some sunshine and fresh air and being positive. No need to gulp down cup after cup of olive
oil and throw it up during the night.
The bottom line is cleanses and flushes cannot make up for unhealthful living practices and if
you are living properly, according to the laws of nature, you dont need any of these flushes.
Howyoucanhelpyourbodytodetox
Even though the body does all the work you can help by providing the ideal conditions.
Detox is happening all the time. The speed at which you experience the beneficial results is a
matter of toxins out (detox) minus toxins in (retox). So the magic formula is:
Detoxspeed=toxinsouttoxinsin
To get the fastest results the only thing you have to do is maximize the speed at which toxins
are eliminated and minimize the generation and exposure of new toxins.
Keeping well hydrated is one important factor in the overall equation. Water helps the kidneys
to filter toxins out of the blood. As a rule of thumb you should drink so much water that
you urinate 8 to 12 times a day and the color of the urine should be close to clear. Less
than 5 times a day puts enormous stress on the kidneys.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is that the body eliminates toxins the fastest when
its at sleep or in a deep state of rest. In fact detox should be understood as a period of rest,
because thats what it really is. The more rest (in all levels: digestive, physical, mental and
sensory) you give to the body, the more energy and resources it can dedicate to detox and
healing work.
Reducing the amount of food you eat (temporarily only) not only minimizes the generation of
new toxins but also reduces digestive stress. Like rest, this also allows the body to use more
time, energy and resources for detoxification.
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Digestivestress
Did you know that digestion consumes enormous amounts of energy and resources (minerals,
nutrients, vitamins, enzymes, etc)? In fact, digestion is the second largest energy hog in the
bodyright after sex and reproduction. Well, depending on your sex life, digestion might
actually occupy the top spot
Ahem... So digestion puts enormous amounts of stress on the body.
As long as you force the body to spend energy and resources on digesting food it cannot detox
effectively. So to get the most out of any detox you have to significantly reduce the digestive
stress.
Your body prioritizes the tasks it has to do. As with any living organism, the more important a
task is to survival and/or reproduction, the higher it is on the priority list.
Digestion is high on the list. Detoxing, cleansing and maintenance work are not so high up,
because they are not so critical to immediate survival. However, neglecting this detox and
maintenance work for too long leads to acne and other health problems.
So what's important here is that once in a while you reduce your digestive stress and allow the
body detox and repair.
Fasting and various detox diets are an excellent way to do this. Another way is to simply
switch to a healthier diet. The healthier the food you eat and the easier it is to digest the less
digestive stress it causes. Thats why a raw food diet is such an excellent cleansing diet.
Fasting
Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The
natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting
well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.
But to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness."
Hippocrates, M.D., 460-377 B.C., Father of Western Medicine
Fasting is the best method for cleansing your body. Fasting means that you don't eat anything
(or a very restricted diet) for a certain period of time (usually 3 to 10 days).
You are probably thinking youll starve if you skip just lunch. How could you go for days
without eating? Well its not that difficult. Sure, it feels odd initially, but once you get into it
you'll be fine. I have never felt hungry on any of my fasts.
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How fasting helps with acne
Fasting is beyond doubt the best alternative treatment for acne. Can you think of any acne
treatment that could claim the following benefits?
Clears all types of acne

Works for everybody
Doesnt dry your skin in fact it makes your skin smooth and radiant
Eliminates the root cause of acne
Automatically opens pores and eliminates bacteria
Normalizes sebum production
Long lasting benefits
100% natural
No long-term side effects (as long as you dont fast for too long)
As you know, there are no acne treatments that could come even close to that. If there were,
imagine how much some huge corporation would charge for it! People would pay anything for
it. And it would be hailed as the miracle breakthrough in acne treatment.
Well it is truly a miracle, and you dont have to pay a thing for it.
Fasting triggers a truly wondrous cleansing process that reaches right down to each and every
cell and tissue in the body.
Within 24 hours of cutting off food intake, enzymes stop entering the stomach and travel
instead into the intestines and into the bloodstream, where they circulate and gobble up all
sorts of waste matter, including dead and damaged cells, unwelcome microbes, metabolic
wastes, and pollutants.
All the toxins that have been stored in your cells are dumped into the bloodstream and
eliminated. Suddenly the harmful bacteria and parasites notice that their food supply has been
cut off and the environment that used to support them has become increasingly hostile.
Fasting gives your vital organs time to rest and to be balanced. After removing toxins, acids
and parasites, your liver can function at ideal levels. When you resume your normal diet, your
liver is stronger and healthier and it can better cope with the workload.
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Healingcrisis
The road from acne to clear skin begins with elimination. This elimination process is called
the healing crisis. The healing crisis is the result of every body-system, in concert, working
to expel waste products through all elimination channels and thereby to set the stage for
regeneration. The result: Old tissues are replaced with new ones.
There are three ways healing crisis occurs:
Die-off of bacteria Harmful bacteria contain significant amounts of endotoxins (toxins

within the bacteria itself). When a detox treatment triggers a large-scale die-off of these
bacteria, the toxins are released into the body. The more bacteria present and the faster
they die, the stronger the healing crisis.
Liver detox Many organs (particularly the liver) are used to store toxins and poisons.
When a detox program causes these organs to release their stored toxins into the
bloodstream for elimination, a healing crisis may occur.
Rapid weight loss Any program, such as fasting or the use of weight loss herbs, that
causes a rapid breakdown of fat cells (which are a storehouse for toxins), can be
accompanied by a detox reaction.
The unfortunate thing is that fasting and detoxing are going to make you feel a little bad
initially. Once you reduce digestive stress your body starts to release toxins, old cells and
other waste material back into bloodstream. On their way out they may create a little havoc.
Ive often said the process is comparable to a hangover. After a night of drinking your body
eliminates the alcohol and other poisons you took in. The more you drink the worse you are
going to feel as a general rule.
The more intense the detox the faster toxins are dumped into bloodstream and the worse you
are going to feel.
Here are some possible detox symptoms:
Headaches may occur at the beginning

Fever and/or colds may also appear
The skin may break out
There may be a short interval of bowel sluggishness
Occasional diarrhoea
Feelings of tiredness and weakness
Disinclination to exercise
Nervousness, irritability, negativity or mental depression
Frequent urination
Usually I just feel tired and my head feels blocked. By taking a gradual approach and with
the detoxes I recommend (see the next chapter) you shouldnt experience too severe detox
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symptoms. If youve survived a moderate hangover then youll survive the detox symptoms
also, because detox symptoms are usually milder than a moderate hangover.
Howhealinghappens
If I were asked which is the area of greatest misunderstanding and
confusion in the field of nutrition, I would immediately be forced to reply, it
is the failure to properly understand and interpret the symptoms and
changes which follow the beginning of a better nutritional program.
What Symptoms to Expect When You Improve Your Diet (or Start Fasting)
Dr. Stanley S. Bass
http://www.drbass.com/symptoms.html
Once you start to improve your diet and lifestyle your body starts to heal itself. For one who
doesnt understand the process it sometimes feels like one is getting worse instead of better.
Its important that you understand what happens during the healing process.
3 stages of healing
This figure summarizes what happens.
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As you can see, healing is a cyclical process; two steps forward and one step back.
In the first phase the body starts to clean up, fix and rebuild the vital internal organs. These are
the highest priority. Energy and resources are directed to these organs, which mean less is
available for muscles and other activities.
You probably feel more tired during this phase and its important that you sleep as much as
possible.
The second phase is elimination (catabolism). Many people call this phase detoxification.
Your body starts cleaning the house. Waste material, undigested food, chemical and drug
residues and other poisons that have been stored in the fat cells are dumped into blood and
lymph. From there they go to the liver and the kidneys for elimination.
During this phase you can expect to feel some detox symptoms (as discussed in the healing
crisis chapter). Old tissues built with lower quality nutrition are also disposed of at a rapid
rate. During this stage the elimination of old tissues and waste material is faster than the
buildup of new tissues so you may lose some weight. Toward the beginning of the elimination
phase your skin may get worse. However, as elimination progresses less and less toxins are
pushed through the skin and you may start to see some improvement.
The final stage is buildup (anabolism). Now that the body has eliminated toxins and waste
material and started replacing old tissues, its time to start building new tissues from higher
quality nutrients. You can expect to gain some of the weight back and your energy levels to
increase dramatically.
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Dont try to cure the cure
Please respect the healing process. You cannot get better without initially feeling (at least a
little) worse.
If you have lived a clean life then you should only get mild symptoms. On the other hand, if
youve abused your body liberally, then theres more to clean and the ride will be little
rougher.
The symptoms will vary according to the materials being discarded, the condition of the
organs involved in the elimination, and the amount of energy you have available. The more
you rest and sleep when symptoms are present, the milder they are and the quicker they
subside. Be happy you have symptoms.
Dont try to cure the cure.
As long as you are eating and living a healthy life the symptoms you experience during the
healing process are not symptoms of deficiency, allergy or anything like that. Dont be
alarmed if you get clear and then few months later break out again. Your body is still doing
the healing work by eliminating toxins from deeper within your organs, tissues, and bodily
systems. It will pass as long as you stick to the program and dont try to cure it. Over time
your breakouts will get milder and milder until one day they stop completely.
Recovery is the reverse of disease evolution

I occasionally get complaints from people who say these methods dont work. They tried and
nothing happened. When I ask them what they did and when they started, I invariably find out
that its only been a week or two since they changed their habits.
Weve been hypnotized by modern medicine into believing that cure and recovery happen
almost instantly.
Its essential you recognize that recovery of health is disease evolution in reverse and that it
takes time to be completed. What we call disease is an evolution out of wrong ways of
living, whereas recovery of health is an evolution out of correct ways of living. Just as it
takes time for disease to evolve and progress, so also it takes time for health to recover and
evolve.
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As famous naturopath Dr. Herbert Shelton said:
Why do we expect to get well in a hurry of a condition that requires a lifetime for its development?
THE TIME FACTOR IN RECOVERY,
Dr. Herbert Shelton
http://www.drbass.com/recovery-time.html
To better understand the healing and recovery process, I recommend you read these two
articles:
Dr. Stanley S. Bass: What Symptoms to Expect When You Improve Your Diet (or Start
Fasting) http://www.drbass.com/symptoms.html
Dr. Herbert Shelton: THE TIME FACTOR IN RECOVERY,
http://www.drbass.com/recovery-time.html
Howlongdoesittaketogetclear?
This is one of those If I could get a penny for every time someone asks me that questions.
Let's see if we can find an answer, because it's probably also on your mind.
First, I want to point out that you've been working hard to create acne. It takes lots of effort to
cause acne. You have to eat foods that make you feel bad (or at least used to), you have to feel
tired, stressed out and entertain many negative feelings.
I'm not being sarcastic. I just want you to understand you've put lot of time, effort and energy
into this. Most likely it took more than 15 years of continuously destroying your health until it
started to crack and acne showed up.
Recovery of health and getting clear is the reversal of that process. I'm talking about erasing
the root cause of acne, not just treating symptoms with drugs, creams or supplements.
Let's take an example that puts this into perspective. Let's say you started to cure your acne
and build your health. And you've been really good for a month. You've dedicated yourself to
the six elements of health and have never slipped. You've been perfect. I assume you are 25
years old; just so I can put some numbers in front of you.
So you've been creating acne for 25 years. Twenty five years is 300 months. And you've been
creating health (and clear skin) for a month.
To drive the point home, take a look at the diagram below. Can you see the little dot on the
left? You may have to zoom in to make it bigger so you can actually see it. That's how long
you've been curing acne. The gigantic ball on the right is how long you've been creating acne.
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Can you see the unrealistic expectations you place on yourself and on your body if you expect
to reverse 300 months of unhealthy living in a month?
We've been hypnotized by modern medicine, dermatologists and supplement peddlers to think
we can fix our problems in a flash. Just by taking a pill.
Just keep in mind that those little pills didn't take care of the problem. They only masked the
symptoms and created the illusion you solved the problem. You only need to think how many
times and how soon your acne came back after you stopped taking those little pills.
Another point that's important to understand is, once you start building health, your body is
going to attend to the most urgent demands first. This often does not include curing acne. You
have to trust your body. It knows what it needs to do first, and sooner or later it starts also
clearing your skin.
Still, I understand that its easier to go through the program with at least some sort of an idea
of how long it takes to get clear.
In my experience, here's what you can expect.
Dont expect much during the first month. Some people see good results within the first few
weeks. This is because they eliminated inflammatory foods from their diet and replaced them
with anti-inflammatory foods. However, this is often just the calm before the storm.
It takes a few weeks for the detox process to really kick in. As it does, its common to start
breaking out again. People react differently to the detox process. Some breakout horribly
while others see little difference in their skin. Please dont be alarmed if you break out. As
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long as you pay attention to your diet and make sure you dont eat inflammatory foods and
keep your blood sugar levels steady, the breakout probably has nothing to do with your diet.
Its simply part of the detox process.
Months 2 to 4 are the toughest. This is the time when the detox process is the most intense.
Depending on how your skin reacts to the detox process, the breakouts can be intense, or the
process may not affect your skin at all.
Going through this period may be hard because it feels like nothing works. All the effort you
put into healthy lifestyle and yet you see little difference in your skin. Please hang in there,
because you have to go through this to get to the other side. You have to allow your body to
clean and heal itself if you want permanently clear skin.
Please dont use your skin as an indicator of progress. Its the worst indicator you could
possibly pick and it is not reliable at all. Lots of healing work has to happen beneath the
surface before the skin starts getting significantly better. The perceived lack of progress on
your skin doesnt mean the healing work is not going on subcutaneously.
Rather than looking at your skin, keep your focus on your overall health and wellbeing. Are
you feeling better overall? Do you have more energy? Do you feel happier? Do you sleep
better? All these are signs you are getting healthier and on the right track.
Though you may keep breaking out during this time many people report their breakouts are
not as intense as they used to be and that they fade away faster.
Things often start looking brighter after the fourth month. The most intense detox period is
passing. Still, you may get lingering breakouts. The good thing is they are significantly milder
than before. If you got cysts before the program you may breakout in small whiteheads at this
stage. You may also have lingering red marks that take time to fade away. This is the last stage
of your acne.
As you keep on with the program the breakouts will eventually stop completely. No one can
say for sure how long this takes, but I believe 6 months is a realistic timeframe to achieve
completely clear skin (or at least very significant improvements).
Please dont take this schedule as set in stone. We are all different and how the skin reacts to
the detox and healing process varies a great deal. I have received emails from people who got
clear within the first month, and, at the other end of the spectrum, some people take 8 to 9
months to get clear.
Just hang in there.
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Whydoesittakesolongtogetclear?
Why does it take so long to get clear?
Now that I bummed you out and robbed your expectations of instant gratification, lets take a
look at why it takes so long to get clear and how impatience can sabotage your progress.
I often see this type of post at acne forums:
A person hears acne is caused by unhealthy diet and changes his diet to a healthier one. After a
few weeks on the diet and seeing no changes he grows frustrated and starts to doubt acne has
anything to do with diet or healthy lifestyle. He starts thinking maybe this health thing and
eating healthy doesnt work for him. Maybe he needs to find a different solution.
Have you ever been in a similar situation?
I know it can be frustrating to stick to a healthy diet and lifestyle when you don't see visible
results, especially if your friends can eat anything they want and still have clear skin. But
before you give up and call for that pimple fertilizer pizza, I want you to consider something
important.
Acne is a result of serious imbalances in the body. These must be corrected before you can get
clear.
Imagine a car engine for a second. This motor has been abused for years with bad quality fuel,
low grade oil and lack of maintenance. To make matters worse, someone poured tar into the
piston chambers and the whole thing clogged up.
Before the motor can run smoothly again it needs a serious overhaul. A mechanic has to
disassemble it, clean all the parts and replace the ones that are worn out. After that he puts it
back together and tunes it. And like magic the old, clogged engine runs perfectly again.
Your body needs a similar overhaul.
Your body is far more complicated than an engine and obviously you can't just stop it and let
the doctors disassemble and then reassemble it (and you wouldnt want to even if you could,
because doctors are good at taking things apart but not so good at putting them back together
in working order).
Just so you can appreciate how huge this task is, I'll give you few examples of what your body
needs to do before it can run smoothly again.
Healing the colon and the digestive track. As a result of wrong diet and lifestyle the colon
harbors harmful bacteria and waste material. This compromises the absorption of nutrients.
Before you can be healthy the colon and the digestive track need to be rebalanced and healed,
plus the leaks in the colon need to be plugged so the toxins won't leak into your body.
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Taking charge of Candida and pathogenic bacteria. Acidity, high blood sugar levels and
compromised immune system may have allowed Candida (a fungus that can cause yeast
infections) and pathogenic bacteria to grow out of control. Your immune system has to get
things under control again.
Clearing the body burden of chemicals and toxins. According to Randal Fitzgerald, the
author of The Hundred Year Lie: How Food and Chemicals are Destroying Your Health,
every American carries a body burden of at least 700 different synthetic chemicals that disrupt
the hormonal balance and the nervous system. As you start living a healthy life your body
starts to remove these toxic chemicals.
Clearing the build-in defenses. In natural health there's a principle called vital
accommodation.
Understanding the Law of Vital Accommodation may be one of the most

important lessons in this book. It will help clarify many blind spots. This law
states that when a poison is introduced into the organism on a regular
basis, to a degree beyond the bodys capacity to expel it, the body adapts to
this invader by insulating itself from it. This is done at the expense of
normal body functioning. For example, if you smoke, your body will prevent
absorption of the toxic fumes by hardening the lung membranes to avoid
intoxicating the body beyond a certain level of toleration.
If you take a less-than-fatal dose of poison every day, after six months you
could take a more-than-fatal one and survive. The body will resist the
poison by avoiding absorption at all cost. But this also means that general
nutrient absorption will be diminished.
In Orthobionomics, Shelton wrote, Toleration to poisons is merely a slow
method of dying. Instead of seeing in the phenomena of toleration something
to be sought after, it is something to seek to avoid the necessity for.
Frederic Patenaude
Raw Secrets, 2nd edition
Your body protects itself against the poisons you ingest. The poisons can be synthetic
chemicals, unhealthy foods or any substances that do not belong in the body. This protection
not only blocks the poisons but also everything else; including nutrients, hormones and other
chemicals the body needs for communication and functioning properly.
These are just few examples of the work the body does behind the scenes.
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It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the body can repair the damage. You could have
abused your body for decades and it often takes as little as a few months to get most of the
damage repaired.
But even with this knowledge I know desperate thoughts sometimes creep into your mind.
These are like poison to your progress because they carry the seeds of doubt. And doubt can
make you to throw away everything you've done and return to your old, acne-causing habits.
If you ever find yourself desperate for results, it's good to know you can look for other signs of
progress:
You feel better

You have more energy
You sleep better
Your bowel movements are regular and easy; no more constipation
Your eyes are brighter
You feel happier for no obvious reason
Your physical fitness improves
You lose some weight
You have a stronger reaction to unhealthy foods and substances
All these and countless other signs show you are making progress. The healing process is
working and you are on your way to clear skin.
Please hang in there. It may take few months to see big changes on the skin.
Know that these are the lasts months you have to endure acne!
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Cleansinganddetoxing
In this chapter well look at detoxing in practice. Well look at how to prepare for a cleanse,
examples of detox diets, and finishing a cleanse properly.
Regular detoxing is recommended as it speeds up the healing process. However, its not
strictly mandatory. As long as you eat a healthy diet and give your body the rest it requires, it
will eliminate stored toxins and poisons.
Preparingforacleanse
The best way to succeed with a cleanse is to prepare well in advance. Look at the following
factors before you undertake a cleanse (adapted from Frederic Patenaudes The 21 Best
Detox Diets):
Know your reasons. Reasons give you motivation to stick to the fast. Make one list of all
the ways acne has ruined your life and another one for all the ways your life will be better
when you have clear skin. Then stick copies of those lists all over your house. Refer to
them when your motivation wanes.
Mark your calendar and commit to following throughout the cleanse.
Get a buddy. Cleansing with a buddy is not only more fun, but your chances of success
are much higher.
Get inspirational material. Go the local bookstore and buy a few books on fasting and
detoxing. By reading how good fasting is for you, youll remain inspired and fasting is
much easier to endure when youre inspired.
Get everything you need in advance. You dont want to run out of things to eat in a
middle of a detox diet. If you decide to go on an apple fast for 4 days, get enough apples
to cover the whole period. Better get some extra so you are on the safe side.
Warn your friends and family. You dont have to tell them exactly what you are doing.
But its a good idea to tell them you are going to eat healthier for few days and ask
them to leave you to do your things instead of calling you for a cup of coffee or a dinner
or a few beers.
Control your environment. The more you control your environment the easier it will be to
enjoy the cleanse. If you can afford it, go to a retreat center where cleanses are facilitated.
Otherwise do your best to remove distractions and temptations from your home. It may
mean taking a look at your fridge and cupboards and throwing out or locking up all the
foods you might crave during the cleanse. Its also a good idea to plan some nonfood
related activities. Books and movies are great as they both occupy your mind and allow
you to rest as much as possible.
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Howlongyoushouldcleanse
This depends on your goals and the time you have available for cleansing. The longer you
cleanse the better the results will be.
However, longer cleanses without appropriate experience and guidance can be dangerous. I do
not recommend that you cleanse for more than one week at a time.
Remember that clear skin comes from healthful living, not cleansing after unhealthful living.
A few 3- to 5-day cleanses combined with proper diet and lifestyle should be more than
enough to get you clear.
Examplecleansesanddetoxdiets
Lets look at several specific detox diets. Please keep in mind that your success doesnt hinge
on following the instructions to the letter. Eating some apples during grape cure wont make
much of a difference to your progress. The aim of the detox is to reduce digestive stress and
give the body as much rest as possible. How you do it is less important than the extent to
which you do it.
The grape cure
Allowed foods: good quality seeded grapes, avoid seedless grapes as they are too high in
sugar and low in mineral and antioxidant content. Unless you can find good quality
seeded grapes (such as Muscat or concord), avoid this cleanse.
Sample diet:
o Breakfast: 1 to 2 pounds of grapes
o Lunch: 1 to 2 pounds of grapes
o Dinner: 1 pound of grapes
o Snacks: a few grapes
o Water as much as needed during the day
Recommended duration: 2 to 5 days
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Apple fast
Apple fast is my favorite mono cleanse. Its not terribly difficult to stick with and produces
good results.
Allowed foods: apples of your choice (preferably organic). For best results its better to
stick with one variety of apples throughout the cleanse. But if you want some variety you
can use different varieties, but stick to one variety per day.
Peel your apples. The apple peel is indigestible and you would be eating large quantities
of it if you did not peel them.
Sample diet:
o Breakfast: 1 to 2 pounds of apples
o Lunch: 1 to 2 pounds of apples
o Dinner: 1 to 2 pounds of apples
o Snack: few apples
o Water as much as needed during the day
Recommended duration: 2 days to 1 week
Mono cleanse
Mono cleanse is similar to apple fast and grape cure, but instead of eating the same food
throughout the cleanse you can change foods from one meal to the next. This cleanse still
produces good results, but is much easier to follow than grape cure or apple fast.
Allowed foods: fresh fruits and vegetables, but no fats (for example avocado, durian, nuts
and seeds, oils)
Sample diet:
o Breakfast: apples
o Lunch: banana
o Dinner: melon
o Snack: tomatoes
o Water as much as needed
Its okay to eat as much as you want during this cleanse. Youll quickly notice your
energy levels increase and its recommended that you exercise during this cleanse.
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Green cleanse
This is one of the most enjoyable cleanses Ive seen and its something I highly recommend
that you try.
During this cleanse you consume only green smoothies and occasionally fresh fruits. The
benefits of this cleanse come from nutritionally packed greens and increased fiber
consumption. By eating large quantities of greens you correct many nutritional deficiencies.
Consuming lots of fiber acts as a colon cleanse, and also restores the bacterial balance in the
intestines.
Allowed foods: green smoothies, fresh fruits and vegetables, but no fats (e.g. avocado,
durian, oils, nuts and seeds)
Sample diet:
o Breakfast: green smoothie
o Lunch: green smoothie
o Dinner: green smoothie or fruits
o Snack: fruits or vegetables
A variation of this cleanse is the smoothie diet in which you can have fruit smoothies also
(instead of only green smoothies). If you feel like it, its okay to have a plain fruit smoothie
instead of a green smoothie, but stick to greens as much as possible.
The lemonade diet

This is a variation of a very popular detox called the The Master Cleanse. The Master
Cleanse includes cayenne pepper, which irritates many people. So skip the cayenne pepper
and you have the lemonade diet.
The recipe for the drink is:
3 cups of water
3 4 Tbs. maple syrup
lemon, juice of
a few grains of Celtic sea salt (optional)
Adding a little bit of Celtic sea salt makes this cleanse a bit easier to follow, but dont go
overboard with it. Just few grains are enough.
You can drink the lemonade as much as you want during the cleanse.
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Water fast
Water fast is the ultimate form of detox. Water fast can produce powerful detox reactions and
you shouldnt do it if you have no prior fasting/detox experience.
Instead of going on a dedicated water fast I recommend you make it a part of a longer detox.
For example, if you are doing a 5-day apple fast you might water fast for the 3rd and 4th days.
By doing this, you get a very powerful detox, but dont have to go through such intense detox
symptoms.
During water fast you can only drink water. I recommend you avoid plain tap water and have
only filtered or bottled water.
During water fast its important to give your body total rest. Sleep as much as you can and
spend most of the day horizontal. Switch off your phone and avoid every possible distraction
you can. Just get some movies and books, relax and let your body do the work.
Recommended duration: 1 to 3 days as a part of another cleanse
The no-dinner plan

Its exactly what the name suggests. This is not strictly a cleanse by itself, but more like an
eating plan. During the no-dinner plan you eat nothing past 3 or 4 PM.
This is excellent for people with sleep problems. By not eating anything after 4 PM you ensure
that digestion is complete by the time you go to bed. This way, while you sleep, your body is
not distracted by digestion and can focus on repair and maintenance work. And youll sleep far
better and deeper than you used to.
This is also excellent if you want to get into the habit of waking up earlier. The no-dinner plan
forces you to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier.
There is no specific diet to follow during the no-dinner plan. You can do it with any diet, but
since you are after clear skin I recommend following the dietary principles outlined earlier in
this book.
Its best to gradually ease your way into the no-dinner plan. Youll surely fail if you go
immediately from eating a heavy dinner at 9 PM to vegetables-only at 3 PM. Start by not eating
anything past 6 PM and gradually work your way down from there.
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Breakingthefast
Breaking the fast is one of the most important and, unfortunately, the hardest things to do. By
gorging on pizza and hamburgers after the fast is over you give your system a serious shock.
Heres what usually happens, and what you should avoid.
Towards the final days of your fast you start to fantasize about eating foods you havent been
able to eat during the fast. You think that youll reward yourself for been so disciplined
throughout the fast.
Now dont get me wrong, Im the last person to tell you not to reward yourself. A proper
reward is an excellent motivator.
My point is this: Pay attention to what you reward yourself with. Can you see how you can
easily set up a bad association (and an inaccurate one) in your mind if you reward yourself
with unhealthy foods? Let me show you:
Unhealthy foods = rewards; fasting = punishment
Do you really think thats a healthy way to represent things in your mind? Especially if you
want to get clear?
Reward yourself with something elsesomething that either supports your efforts to get clear,
or at least wont compromise them. Like spending a nice day at a spa or buying yourself
something youve wanted for a long time.
During the fast remember that:
Focus = reality
What this means is that we tend to get more of what we focus on. If you keep thinking how
hungry you are or how much you miss forbidden foods, thats what you are most likely going
to get more of. Instead force your mind to think how good this is for you (this is where those
fasting books come in). Think about how you are taking a big step towards a clear skin, how
the causes of acne are being annihilated and how good you are going to look and feel after this
is over.
I know this takes mental discipline. The mind is a tricky creature. If you dont watch it, its
going to think about forbidden foods and cause problems for you. You must be mentally
tough.
Finally, lets return to breaking the fast.
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After your fast is over, introduce old foods back gradually. After a liquid only fast (the
lemonade diet or water fast), the first day should be only raw fruits and vegetables. The next
day you can have baked potatoes, steamed vegetables and yogurt (unpasteurized) also if you
like. I would wait two to three days before introducing grains and meat if you want to
introduce them back at all.
After an apple fast or green cleanse, or any other fast that included solid foods, you can
immediately reintroduce baked potatoes, steamed vegetables and yogurt. I would wait a day or
two before eating grains and meat again if you choose to eat them.
The recommended length of the breaking period depends on the length of your fast. As a rule
of thumb it should be half as long as your fast was in both time and intensity (more intense
the fast, the longer the breaking period). So for a 5-day fast two to three days is enough. After
a 3-day fast one or two days should do.
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Topicaltreatments
I have to admit this chapter is not very comprehensive. Topical treatments are irrelevant to
your long term success. The condition of your skin is determined by what happens inside you
not what you apply on your skin. Topical treatments may offer temporary help, but the real
healing comes from the inside out. Excessive use of harsh topical treatments can also interfere
with the healing of the skin and lead to scarring.
Another reason for shallow coverage of topical treatments is my lack of expertise. Its not my
place to advice you on matters you probably know more about than I do.
The third reason is that what works for me often doesnt work for you. Through testing you
need to find a regimen that works for you. My only recommendation is to avoid using harsh,
chemical-based products. Some of these chemicals penetrate your skin and eliminating them
puts additional stress on the liver. Also, chemicals often irritate the skin more than natural
products do; though this is not always the case.
Many customers report better results after they stop using topical treatments. They report that
pimples heal faster and result in less scarring after stopping topicals. The skin heals from the
inside out. When you provide the conditions for your skin to heal it may do better without any
topicals interfering with the healing process.
On the other hand, topicals can help to manage the breakouts that the detox and the healing
process possibly trigger. So topical treatments have their place in relieving (not curing) acne.
Please do some testing and find out what works for you.
I did some research in various skincare forums and found few a simple skincare recipes that
work for many people. You can make these out of cheap, everyday ingredients you should
already have in your kitchen or medicine cabinets. Try them out and see if they work for you.
If not, try something else, but focus most of your efforts on improving the elements of health.
Lemon juice wash

Wash with hot water and a facial brush or washcloth. Squeeze a fresh lemon into a small bowl
and put the juice on a cotton ball. Apply cotton ball to face. Repeat soaking of cotton ball in
lemon juice as needed. Let lemon juice dry on face for about 10 minutes then rinse with cool
water. The lemon juice should make your face sting or mildly burn. For sensitive skin, dilute
juice with filtered water.
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Honey aspirin mask
In a small bowl crush 4 to 5 uncoated aspirin pills with the back of a spoon into a fine power.
Mix with little honey and apply on the face, avoiding the areas around the eyes. Leave on for
10 to 15 minutes and rinse off. Some people at acne.org report that this removes their pimples
almost instantly.
Aspirin reduces inflammation and redness. Honey enzymes rejuvenate the skin and act as an
antimicrobial.
Tea tree oil

Tea tree oil has been shown to remove and stop the growth of bacteria on the skin. An
Australian study showed that a 5% tea tree oil gel was as effective as 5% benzoyl peroxide.
Tea tree oil is the only essential oil (except for lavender) that can be applied directly to the
skin with no carrier oil. Like other antimicrobials, tea tree oil should be used in a consistent
daily regimen to prevent infections.
Exfoliate with baking soda

A very cheap cooking ingredient that most people have in their homes already, baking soda,
can be used as a scrub. The purpose of a scrub is to exfoliate the skin and remove dead skin
that can eventually clog pores and lead to acne spots.
To start off, you'll want to mix a small amount of baking soda with little bit of water to form a
paste. Baking soda is very effective as a scrub, so you want to be sure to be extra careful when
applying it to your face. Gently massage the paste into your skin for ten to fifteen seconds.
Then rinse the baking soda off, and pat your face dry with a clean towel.
You can also do this while you are taking a shower. Just dip your wet fingers into a box of
baking soda, scrub your face and rinse off.
A word of warning: Applying baking soda on inflamed areas may sting.
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Howahappyandmeaningfullifeleadstoclearskin
Now that we have covered most of the practical aspects of curing acne, I want to touch on the
philosophical side of it. I believe it helps you both in life and in getting clear to understand the
larger context in which getting clear fits.
As humans we are holistic beings, which is just a fancy way of saying your mind, body,
organs and systems and everything that happens to you are interconnected. In the West we
make the mistake of noticing the individual pieces but failing to see the connections between
them. Thats why so many people struggle to get clear. They treat acne as a problem thats
separate from the larger context of their lives. Sure they understand how acne makes them
miserable (or so they believe), but they fail to see that the opposite is also true.
If you have a feeling that what youve read so far is a mishmash of random and unrelated
things that may or may not have anything to do with acne youd be partially correct. You may
be even a little disappointed for not finding a straightforward and simple solution to acne.
If thats the case, I understand you. In many ways this book is very different from other acne
and health books you may have read. However, there is a method to the madness.
The reason for the lack of a simple, step-by-step solution is that no such system or solution
exists. The marketplace is littered with different solutions, treatment and 3-step regimens that
promise to deliver clear skin. Yet, no system, regimen or treatment works consistently and
reliably for a large number of people. What works for you may not work for the next person;
and what works for you today may stop working tomorrow.
Theres a simple reason for this. All these treatments are like trying to fit a square block into a
round hole. They attempt to reduce curing acne to series of simple steps with predictable
results. They are based on the thinking that your body is a machine put together by some
celestial watchmaker.
In an earlier chapter you learned this is not true. Your body is a complex, living system
composed of 50 to 100 trillion cells working in unison. Because its a complex system, its
non-linear, which means we cant predict with certainty what happens. Stock markets and the
weather are examples of similar complex systems. Weather predictions further than 3 days out
are no more accurate than guessing; and any competent investor knows that no system can
guarantee that an investment turns a profit.
When we deal with complex systems we have to talk in terms of probabilities. The
weatherman (or woman) tells you theres a certain probability its going to rain tomorrow;
and we have all experienced the frustration when predicted sunshine turned into torrential rain.
Similarly, in the stock market investors look for certain indicators that, when met, represent a
high probability that an investment will be profitable. But despite all the indicators and all the
experience, all investors make both good and bad choices. Successful investors know that as
long as they stick to their rules, in the long run more investments succeed than fail. Its the
nature of the game.
Lets turn our focus back to getting clear. So we know that the body is a complex, non-linear
system and theres no way to predict whats going to happen.
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If there are no guaranteed solutions or sure-fire treatments for acne, what, then, can we do to
get over it? The same as successful investors do. We stack as many cards in our favor so that
the probability of getting clear is as high as possible.
Thats the only thing we can do. Aside from topical solutions and burning the skin with lasers
theres little we can do to cure acne directly. What happens inside of our bodies is not under
our control. I have yet to see buttons or dials that regulate different bodily functions. Thinking
that you can somehow control acne is illusion.
This same principle applies to building muscles, for example. Theres nothing you can do that
would directly build muscles. The only thing you can do is to create conditions where muscle
growth is likely to happen; work the muscles and provide energy, nutrients and rest.
The same is true with acne. The only thing we can do is create the conditions under which
acne is less and less likely to happen. Then we wait and allow the body to do its work. The
same way as investors are patient; they are not attached to the outcome of a single trade
because they know that in the long run the probabilities will play into their favor. You have to
be patient and not set too many deadlines to getting clear. In the long run the probabilities play
into your favor.
Throughout this book I sneakily introduced the elements of healthy, happy and successful life
to you. As you work to stack as many of these cards into your favor you create a life in
which acne becomes less and less likely to occur, or reoccur.
But what if you have extremely bad luck and wont get clear? Well, I have to admit thats a
possibility even if its a remote one. So lets consider this worst case scenario.
Im willing to submit you dont want to get clear just for the sake of getting clear. What I
mean is that, if you would get clear but nothing else in your life would change, it wouldnt be
much of a victory. Nothing else changing means you would still go through the same emotions
and you would still have the same insecurities as you do now. Im willing to bet getting clear
this way means nothing to you.
What this means is that its not clear skin you are really after. Its what you believe that
happens when you get clear that you really want right? At the moment you believe your
life is the way it is because of acne, and until you get clear theres not much you can do about
it. But once you get clear the gates of heaven swing open and life shares its riches with you.
And because you want these riches you want to get clear and preferably by tomorrow
morning.
Im sorry but I have to burst your bubble.
The day you wake up with clear skin will not be much different from today. Sure there may be
the initial euphoria but after that fades away not much has changed. People still treat you the
same way as they do now. If you are a man, talking to women will still be scary, and women
wont magically be any more attracted to you than they are now (because its your character
that most women respond to not your skin).
Thats because acne doesnt really cause any of the problems you blame on it. I explain this in
detail in Emotional Healing For Clear Skin, but for now it suffices to say that acne simply
justifies those problems. It gives you something to point your finger at and say thats why my
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life is what it is. At acne forums I frequently read posts where people who have gotten clear
suddenly find other things to be self-conscious about. Suddenly their weight becomes the
problem, or their nose, or perhaps their grandparents birthplace, or whatever.
This is good news and you should be jumping up and down and doing the rain dance.
This means that no matter what problems you believe acne causes, you can get over them even
before you get clear. It means that no matter how much you believe acne holds you back in
life, you can do, be and have whatever you want even with acne. What you can do, be and
have depends on how much you believe in yourself and your capabilities not what your
skin looks like.
The real problem is dysfunctional self-image. You have certain beliefs that drag your focus
down to the negative (which makes you feel bad), and compels you to conclude that certain
things are not possible for you because of acne.
Once you iron out the wrinkles from your self-image and condition your mind to success,
those feeling and limitations fly out the window. They simply cease to exist for you, and then
you wonder why you let something as insignificant as acne hold you back in life so much.
Theres a remote possibility that you wont get clear. But even if it happens you can still live a
healthy, happy and successful life, which is what you really want anyway. So no matter what
happens you can get what you want.
As you can see, when you follow Clear for Life the game is set so you cannot lose.
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Fromcursetoopportunityofalifetime
What does acne mean to you? If you had to condense acne into a few words what would you
say? Is it a curse? A burden to bear? An unfair bully? Or perhaps a blessing?
The words you choose reflect the meaning you give to acne. Meaning is the lens through
which you look at the world. It colors your world and your life reflects the meanings you give
to things. If you think of acne as a curse, then thats how you experience it. Everything related
to acne is filtered through that lens. Seeing acne as a curse robs your power to change. You
may not find the motivation to change your diet and lifestyle since whats the point, Ill never
get over this curse anyway. Clearly thats not conductive to getting clear.
Throughout the book I have tried to show you a different way of seeing acne. That its simply
a reflection of the condition your body is in; a warning signal that something needs to change.
In this final chapter I want to take that a step further. Im going to suggest you see acne as an
opportunity. If this just sounds ludicrous, allow me to explain.
Humans are motivated by pain and pleasure. We move away from pain and towards pleasure.
However, for most of us pain is a far stronger motivator. The average male changes his diet
after a heart attack or a divorce; that should tell you something. Until you get over many of
your limiting beliefs and advance in your personal development journey, pleasure is not very
motivating. We would like to have good things in life but most wont do whats necessary to
get them. But we go to great lengths to avoid pain. We need pain to put fire into our bellies
and get moving.
If you are like most acne victims your skin is the biggest source of pain in your life. When
directed properly, that pain can be a tremendous resource in your life. Unfortunately, most
people wallow and whine in their pain and never put it to good use. This only serves to keep
them stuck, and extends their suffering.
Im sure you already understand how the pain of acne helps you to create better physical
health. You simply use the pain to change your diet and lifestyle. When you make good
choices, good things happen to you.
I would suggest you to think a bit further. How else could you put that pain to good use?
Think of what you really want out of life. What is it that you have always wanted to do, be and
have in life? What did you dream about when you were a kid? What kind of a life do you
dream about now?
Most people arent really happy with their lives. They would like to change many things and
have a better life but dont seem to get around to doing much about it. They dont have enough
pain to motivate them. They want to change, but its not so bad that they would actually do
something about it.
You are luckier. You have acne and the pain it brings.
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In the earlier chapters I suggested that living a happy, meaningful and successful life helps in
your efforts to get clear. In fact, thats the best way to cure acne. Forget acne and focus on
making your life as happy and successful as possible, and acne takes care of itself.
Why not use acne to do just that? You make diet and lifestyle changes for the sake of getting
clear? Why not add building a happy, meaningful and successful life to the list? Given that it
helps you to be get clear it shouldnt be such a farfetched idea right? Why not milk acne for
all its worth?
What becomes of your life tomorrow depends on the choices you make and the actions you
take today. Anthony Robbins uttered one of my favorite quotes: How am I going to live today
in order to create the tomorrow Im committed to?
Time is going to pass no matter what you do today. Tomorrow turns into today and eventually
to yesterday. Why not live today so that tomorrow turns out fantastic? Living a happy and
successful life isnt any more difficult than living an unhappy and meaningless life. In fact its
easier since you spend less time suffering.
As odd as it sounds, acne may be your best chance to turn suffering into happiness and
fulfillment. See the Recommended action plan for eliminating stress, dysfunctional emotions
and behaviors section in the Threshold chapter to learn how to get started.
Live healthy. Be happy. Get clear.

This book started with those six words, and in the end we circle back to those six words. I
hope you now understand the simple, powerful and liberating message behind them. I hope the
message doesnt sound so wacky and excessively simplistic anymore. I hope that it actually
makes a lot of sense. I hope this simple message serves as a guide that takes you toward a
healthy and happy life.
Above all I hope it moves you into action. Even the most powerful idea serves no purpose
until someone acts on it. Nothing in this book is difficult. Your current habits may not support
good health. It may take some effort and persistence to break those habits and build new ones.
But thats where the struggle and work ends. Once your new habits are in place this turns into
lots of fun. You start to get a taste of what real health feels like, and once you do, theres no
stopping you anymore. Remember that when you cultivate actions you build habits, when you
cultivate habits you build character, and when you cultivate character you build destiny.
It all starts with a very simple idea. How do you choose to spend your time today? Choose
wisely today and the rest falls into place.
I wish you the best of luck on your efforts to get clear. Remember the words of the great
American thinker, Michael Jordan.
Just Do It.
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Furtherresources
I like to say that curing acne means learning to respect yourself. As you treat your body and
mind with respect, they reward you with radiant health, clear skin and happiness.
Learning to respect yourself is continuing process. As you grow and mature you learn about
different aspects of yourself and face new challenges. When it comes to personal development
you always have room to grow and more to do. Which is good because personal growth is
both a fun and rewarding task.
As you grow and evolve you also need new information and new ideas. Reading widely keeps
your mind fresh and open to new ideas. It helps you to get the most out of your life and,
consequently, get clear faster.
To get you started, here are some resources that I have found helpful.
Books
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan.
In Defense of Food is perhaps the best book about food I have read. It's not a diet book and it
doesn't give you rigid rules to follow. Instead, it brings sanity back to your dinner table.
Michael Pollan explains how the health effects of food depend on far more than the chemical
constituents of the foods we eat.
You can't understand what healthy eating means until you understand the message in In
Defense of Food. A must read for all health conscious people.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/indefenceoffood
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Another excellent book by Michael Pollan. The Omnivore's Dilemma talks about the
environmental effect of the food choices you make. Among other things you'll learn that
organic food is not always better for the environment.
If you are at all interested in the environment or sustainable development you need to read The
Omnivore's Dilemma. It makes a perfect companion to In Defense of Food.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/omnivore
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The Hundred-Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying
Your Health by Randall Fitzgerald.
This Amazon review summarizes this book:
"The Hundred Year Lie" tells the sordid story of a century of deception and
irresponsibility by the companies who process our food and manufacture
the drugs and chemicals we use everyday. Indeed, the promise of "a better
life through chemistry" is a notion we all need to examine and seriously
reconsider.
At a bare minimum, reading The One Hundred Year Lie will make you stop in your tracks and
think about all of the different chemicals you are ingesting and coming into contact with every
day.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/100yearlie
Energy Medicine: Balancing Your Body's Energies for Optimal Health, Joy, and Vitality by
Donna Eden
If you are at all open to the non-physical nature of your body Energy Medicine should be on
your list of books to read. It's an interesting, eye-opening and highly practical look at the
energetic nature of the human body.
With clear explanations and simple, quick and easy to do exercises, Donna has made this
aspect of human existence and healing accessible to people with no experience or prior
knowledge of the subject.
Energy Medicine gives you a deeper understanding of the nature of your body, and better
insights into how it works, why it sometimes stops working, and how to rebalance your
energies for optimal health, joy and vitality. Highly recommended.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/energymedicine
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Healthy Salad Dressings by Frederic Patenaude
You know that salads are good for your skin. But you also know they can get a bit boring
without good dressings. Unfortunately, most salad dressing in the supermarket resemble
chemical cocktails more than anything edible.
If you want tasty salads without wrecking your health check out Frederic Patenaude's Healthy
Salad Dressings. It contains 70 salad dressings you can make in less than 2 minutes. Healthy
and delicious.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/healthysaladdressings
Otherresources
The Perfect Health Program by Frederic Patenaude and Dr. Douglas Graham
Confused about health? Does it feel like there's just too much contradictory health
information?
The Perfect Health Program is by far the best thing that happened to my health. Dr. Graham
has an uncanny ability to explain health in a way that is clear, sensible and makes you wonder
why you didn't figure it out on your own.
If you liked Clear for Life you are going to love The Perfect Health Program. It expands on
the physical elements of health described in Clear for Life.
Listening to The Perfect Health Program makes health easy and simple again.
Note that I don't completely agree with the dietary advice in The Perfect Health Program
anymore, for reasons explained in the diet chapter. Still, the other information in the PHP is
fantastic. And even a lot of the dietary information is good, I simply don't agree with the rather
dogmatic view Dr. Graham and Frederic Patenaude have about diet.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/php
Life Principles Integration Process online course by Centerpointe

Want to be happy? Want to have a peace of mind? Would you like to be able to set a goal and
know with absolute certainty you can achieve it?
How would you like to start living the life you dream of?
If your life isn't what you would like it to be, you need to go through the Life Principles
Integration Process (LPIP) course. Period.
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When we talked about stress and the emotional component of getting clear, I explained how
your mind creates your life. LPIP shows how that process works, and, more importantly, how
to take control of it and direct it so that your mind creates the life you want and dream of.
You have the capability to live the life of your dreams. The LPIP course shows how to tap into
that potential.
But I want to say that LPIP is not for babies. To get the benefits of the course you have to do
the homework. When you put in the work you'll reap the rewards. That having been said, often
the homework is not that difficult and doesnt take very much time (usually no more than 15
minutes a day), and completing it is a very enlightening process. You'll learn so much about
yourself.
Check the free preview recording from this page:
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/lpip
Mind Movie Creation Kit by Ryan Higgins

Discover how watching a 3-minute movie helps you to live a healthy and happy lifeand get
clear at the same time.
How you focus your mind determines to a large extent how you experience life. Focusing on
things you want makes you happy and instructs your mind to bring those things to you.
Focusing on what you don't want does the opposite.
Often your focus slips on things you don't want, such as acne, and that makes you feel bad.
The problem is that it's hard to keep your mind on what you want. Correction. Focusing on
what you want was difficult before mind movies. With mind movies, it's as simple as pressing
play.
Figure out what you want. Find inspiring pictures that display what you want. Compose them
into a slideshow and jazz it up with your favorite song.
The result is a highly inspiring mind movie of the life you want. Watching your mind movie
instantly focuses your mind on what you want, and that makes you feel great.
I call mind movies motivation and positive attitude on-demand. Feeling good is as simple as
pressing play. Upload the mind movie into your iPod or phone and you'll have it with you all
the time.
Don't know how to create a mind movie?
Mind Movie Creation Kit by Ryan Higgins takes you by the hand and guides you through the
process, step-by-step. It shows you where to find perfect pictures for your mind movie and
how to create a mind movie you will want to watch everydaybecause it makes you feel so
good.
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Included in the Mind Movie Creation Kit is the software required for creating your Mind
Movie. Creating a mind movie with the Mind Movie Creation Kit is simple and easy - even if
you have no experience. Know how to use a mouse? Then you'll know enough to create your
own mind movie.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/mindmovies
Steve Pavlina's website Personal Development for Smart People

Steve runs what is probably the best personal development website. Here's how he describes
his website:
The purpose of this website is to teach people who are living below their
potential how to feel more motivated and energized, how to earn money
doing what they love, and how to make a genuine contribution to
humanityso they can finally experience the kind of life that deep down,
they always knew they were meant to live.
Steve writes very good blog posts on various personal development topics. I recommend you
follow his blog regularly. Steve's website is free.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/
Lightning Speed Fitness program by Roger Haeske

Exercise is essential to clear skin and good health. Unfortunately it can also take time.
If you are one of those people who wants to exercise but never has time the Lightning Speed
Fitness Program by Roger Haeske is just what you need.
Roger shows you simple exercises and regimens that you can do at home. These mini
workouts only take 5 to 15 minutes, but are still very effective in building strength and
increasing your cardiovascular health. No equipment needed.
http://www.clear-for-life.com/recommends/lightningspeedfitness
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Appendix
Healthycookingmethods
Using the cooking methods described here you do the least amount of damage to the food you
are cooking. Ive also described cooking methods that require no heating of oils. Heating of
oils is among the unhealthiest of cooking practices.
Healthysaut
Its good to start sauting with onions. They release their own oil so you dont have to add
any. Adding a little liquid allows the onions to start releasing their oil, and by the time they
start releasing the liquid is usually cooked off. This gives you a nice sauted flavor.
Start by heating 1 tbs of broth in a non-stick skillet over a medium heat. Once the broth begins
to bubble add onions and stir frequently. Cook onions for about 5 minutes and add ingredients
such as garlic and ginger. After they have cooked together for about a minute add other
vegetables of your own choice.
Healthystirfry
Healthy stir-fry is very similar to healthy saut. Instead of using oil, use broth (for example,
vegetable or chicken). Many Asian-style recipes call for stir-frying ginger first. This wont
work with a healthy stir-fry method as the ginger sticks to the wok-pan. So start by stir-frying
onions as they release moisture and their own oil. After that you can add ginger and other
ingredients.
Start by adding 1 tbs of broth to a non-stick wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. When
the broth is hot add vegetables and other ingredients in the order given in the recipe. Stir
constantly. Stir-fry quickly so that vegetables remain crisp inside.
Healthysteaming
Most steaming methods use a basket on top of boiling water that gets thrown away at the end.
This steaming method robs too many nutrients from the vegetables. The best steaming
method is to cook in a pot with a heavy lid and without the basket. Cook with as little water as
possible so theres little or no water left at the end. The remaining water contains many
nutrients, so you can either drink it or add it to your recipes. You should steam only until
vegetables begin to soften. They should remain firm and intact.
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GlutenandacneThehiddenconnection
I wrote this article for Natural News and it was originally published here: There is a
connection between gluten and acne that often gets overlooked. Ill copy-paste it here for you.
Does it feel like nothing helps with your acne? You eat healthy, you live healthy and you've
tried everything, but nothing helps. Your acne just won't budge.
You may suffer from gluten sensitivity and it may prevent you from curing acne.
Gluten sensitivity is one of those hidden and hard to detect causes behind many health
problems. And something you might not think of in a million years. It also happens to be the
reason many acne victims struggle to get clear.
If you are badly sensitive to gluten, you could have a perfect diet and live the healthiest life
but won't get clear because of regular exposure to gluten.
To make matters worse, gluten is everywhere. You can find gluten in nearly all processed
foods. And even in items you wouldn't think of, such as lipsticks, shampoos and vitamins.
Gluten - Acne Connection

So how does gluten contribute to acne?
First let me say acne is a result of blood sugar problems and chronic inflammation. These
trigger hormonal reactions that lead to increased sebum production, blocked pores and
overgrowth of acne-causing bacteria.
Gluten contributes to acne in two ways. First, it causes damage to the small intestine, which
could lead to nutritional deficiencies and increased toxic load (through leaky gut syndrome).
The second link between gluten and acne is inflammation. People with gluten sensitivity
cannot digest gluten effectively. As a result they absorb incompletely digested protein
molecules. The immune system treats these as invaders. As it attacks these invaders the
white cells release histamine, which increases inflammation. Inflammation increases insulin
resistance in the nearby cells.
Insulin resistance leads to blood sugar problems, which are linked to acne.
As this happens once in a while the body can deal with it. But most people are exposed to
gluten 3 or more times a day. This, coupled with other inflammatory agents, spreads
inflammation all over the body. Suddenly cells all over the body start becoming insulin
resistant.
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Hidden Connection
I call the glutenacne connection hidden; for two obvious reasons.
First, most people are not aware of their gluten sensitivity. Even fewer are aware of its link to
acne and other skin problems. Second, gluten lurks in many foods and it's very easy to get
exposed to iteven if you try to avoid it.
For many medical professionals, the dangers of gluten extend to celiac disease and not much
further. Celiac disease is a clear-cut allergic reaction and as such is easy to diagnose.
Subclinical gluten sensitivity is entirely different. First, most people show no outward signs
that could be linked to gluten. Second, the immune system doesn't produce standard antibodies
after gluten exposure. So gluten doesn't show up in standard allergy tests. Doctors specializing
in gluten sensitivities can detect it with special tests.[1]
Gluten sensitivity could be the most common food allergy, as it is estimated that around 40%
of the population is sensitive to gluten.
Gluten Here, There and Everywhere

With most food allergies it's reasonably easy to avoid exposure. Usually you just have to read
the labels carefully.
Not so with gluten. Thanks to modern food processing you can find gluten in most processed
foods.
Avoid the obvious, such as breads, pastas and pastries, and you've cut out the biggest sources.
But did you know there can be gluten also in cheese, butter and teriyaki sauce? Many
processed foods contain vegetable starches and other additives that may contain gluten.
So gluten could be lurking in 90% of the items in your local supermarket.
Outside grains, most food products contain only small amounts of gluten, but for people with
severe sensitivities, even these can make it difficult to cure acne.
As a rule, don't assume anything. If the food is not raw, such as fresh fruit or vegetables, or
does not clearly state gluten-free (wheat-free is not enough), it may contain gluten.
And if that's not bad enough, it's not just the food items that contain gluten. Your toothpaste
may contain gluten. Same with your shampoo. And what about that new lipstick you (or your
girlfriend) have. That also may contain gluten. Finally, even the capsules of your nutritional
supplements may contain gluten.
Gluten is one more reason to avoid both processed foods and chemical-based personal care
products.
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I cannot list all the sources of gluten here, but here are few good links with more information:
Unsafe Gluten-Free Food List (Unsafe Ingredients):
http://www.celiac.com/articles/182/1/Unsafe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-UnsafeIngredients/Page1.html
Safe Gluten-Free Food List (Safe Ingredients):
http://www.celiac.com/articles/181/1/Safe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-SafeIngredients/Page1.html
Additional Things to Beware of to Maintain a 100% Gluten-Free Diet:
http://www.celiac.com/articles/183/1/Additional-Things-to-Beware-of-to-Maintain-a-100Gluten-Free-Diet/Page1.html
Hidden Sources of Gluten:
http://gfcf-diet.talkaboutcuringautism.org/hidden-sources-of-gluten.htm
Gluten-free diet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-free_diet
Coping with Gluten Sensitivity and Curing Acne

There are two parts to getting over gluten sensitivity and eventually curing acne.
The first is to avoid gluten. When you stay away from gluten you avoid triggering the immune
system and inflammatory response.
Study the above resources for sources of gluten and see how you can cut them out of your life.
The second is to bring your body back to a state where it's not so sensitive to gluten anymore.
Gluten causes problems because of two reasons:
Undigested protein molecules leak from the digestive track into the bloodstream
The immune system is on edge because of chronic inflammation
As you heal the digestive track and bring down the inflammation levels, you become less
sensitive to gluten. You may never fully get over the gluten sensitivity, but at least it wont
trigger such a strong reaction anymore.
Let's look at the digestive track first.
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Research has shown two interesting facts. First, people with celiac disease have different
bacterial gut microflora than healthy people. Second, supplementing with probiotic bacteria
may reduce the damage gluten causes and may accelerate healing.
Researchers at the Department of Science and Technology, University of Verona in Italy
studied the differences in the composition of bowel microflora between celiacs and healthy
people. The researchers concluded the following [2]:
"The diversity of the faecal microbiota was significantly higher in coeliac
children than in healthy controls. The presence of the species Lactobacillus
curvatus, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Leuconostoc carnosum was
characteristic of coeliac patients, while that of the Lactobacillus casei
group was characteristic of healthy controls. The Bifidobacterium
population showed a significantly higher species diversity in healthy
children than in coeliacs. In healthy children, this population was
characterized by the presence of Bifidobacterium adolescentis. Overall, the
results highlighted the need for further characterization of the microbiota in
coeliac patients, and suggested a potential role of probiotics and/or
prebiotics in restoring their gut microbial balance."
The composition of the bowel microflora may hold the key to celiac disease and gluten
sensitivities. Probiotic bacteria have been shown to digest gluten into peptides, and thus make
it harmless.
Researchers in Finland studied the effects of probiotic bacteria on cultures of epithelial cells
(cells that line the intestine) to try to understand their effect on gluten-induced cellular
damage. The researchers found that a probiotic bacterial called Bifidobacterium lactis
countered the harmful effect of gluten, and that it may be a helpful addition to gluten-free
diet.[3]
Despite supplementation, healthy diet and lifestyle are still the most important factors
controlling the health of your digestive track. The type of bacteria you have in the gut depends
on what you put in there. A healthy diet with plenty of raw fruit and vegetable fiber cultivates
healthy bacteria. A diet full of processed food, sugar and animal products cultivates unhealthy
bacteria. Drinking enough water and getting enough exercise are also important.
Reducing inflammation is the second part in coping with gluten sensitivity and curing acne.
Healthy diet and lifestyle are the only viable solutions. Antioxidant supplements may help, but
they cannot overcome the harmful effects of unhealthy diet and lifestyle.
You can find many articles on anti-inflammatory foods and supplements at Naturalnews, so
I'm not going to cover them here. The same diet that cultivates healthy bacteria in the gut also
helps to reduce inflammation.
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Fighting inflammation is not just about diet. Proper sleep, maintaining positive attitude (or at
least avoiding stress) and steering clear of chemicals and pollutants are equally important.
Regular exposure to sunlight also has an anti-inflammatory effect.
So if you have been struggling with persistent acne that, despite all your efforts to eat and live
a healthy life, hasn't budged, gluten might be the missing piece.
Try a gluten-free diet and the other suggestions in this article for at least one month and see
how your skin reacts.
REFERENCES
[1]Lydia S. Boeken M.D. Allergy and Intolerance
http://www.celiac.com/articles/179/1/Allergy-and-Intolerance-by-Lydia-S-BoekenMD/Page1.html
[2] Sanz et al. Differences in faecal bacterial communities in coeliac and healthy children as
detected by PCR and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis - FEMS Immunol Med
Microbiol. 2007 Dec; 51(3):562-8
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17919298
[3] Lindfors et al. Live probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis bacteria inhibit the toxic effects
induced by wheat gliadin in epithelial cell culture - Clin Exp Immunol. 2008 Apr 16.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18422736
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Howmilkcausesacne
This is another one of my articles that was published at Naturalnews.com. Originally here: 4
Ways Milk Causes Acne. I believe its going to help you, so Ill copy-paste it here.
(NaturalNews) We all know the advertisements where celebrities sport the milk mustache and
ask Got Milk? However studies suggest that a more accurate question would be: Got milk?
Got acne? This article explores how hormones and allergenic proteins in milk could
contribute to acne.
At least three large-scale studies reported in the American Journal of Dermatology found a
link between drinking milk and acne. NaturalNews reported about a study that found those
who drank two or three glasses of milk a day had 44% higher chance of developing severe
acne.
Most studies on acne and milk were conducted on teenagers. But anecdotal evidence from
thousands of adults suggests that milk also affects adult acne. As many adult acne victims
report their skin gets better after quitting milk and dairy products.
But how can a glass of natures perfect food wreak such disaster on your skin?
In many waysit seems.
Research suggests that acne is linked to problems with blood sugar metabolism and chronic
inflammation. Wild swings in blood sugar levels lead to hormonal reaction that increases
sebum production and turnover of skin cells. Chronic inflammation taxes the immune system
and opens the door for acne causing bacteria to colonize the blocked skin
Drinking milk leads to a similar hormonal reaction that blood sugar problems do. Further, milk
can increase inflammation throughout the body.
Though this article only talks about the link between milk and acne, this also applies to all
dairy products.
Milk opens the sebum tap

A large portion of the commercial milk comes from pregnant cows. Milk from pregnant cows
contains hormones that are close to hormones that signal the skin cells to produce more
sebum.
Milk contains dihydrotestosterone (DHT) precursors, including 5a-pregnanedione and 5aandrostanedione. These hormones are only few steps away from DHT. For acne victims more
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DHT equals bad news. DHT signals the skin glands to produce more sebum. That`s one reason
researchers agree DHT is a prime acnegen.
To make matters even worse, skin glands already contain the enzymes required for converting
these precursors to DHT. And that means the precursors in milk are immediately converted to
DHT.
Milk and IGF-1

DHT is not the only way milk can cause acne. Milk contains an array of powerful growth
hormones. That shouldn`t come as a surprise as milk is supposed to make things grow. By
drinking milk a newborn calf turns into 1.5 ton steer.
Insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is one of the growth hormones found in milk. IGF-1 is
problematic for acne victims for two reasons. It increases sebum production, and it stimulates
the growth of skin cells. The faster the skin cells grow the faster they also die. That means
more dead skin cells to block the pores. Consequently it also leads to faster aging of the skin.
Unfortunately, the bovine version of IGF-1 is identical with humans. And, contrary to what
FDA has claimed, it does survive digestion and it goes into your bloodstream. The dairy
industry`s own studies confirm this.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (October, 1999, Vol.
99, No. 10), dairy researchers studied 204 healthy men and women. These people regularly
consumed less than 1.5 servings of dairy products a day. They divided the participants into
two groups. One was the control group that didn`t make any changes. The other group was
asked to consume 3 servings of dairy products a day.
The study found that serum (blood) levels of IGF-1 increased by 10% in milk drinkers. IGF-1
levels remained the same for people on the control group. Large-scale studies on the effect of
diet on IGF-1 levels confirm these findings. As the abstract of one study says:
"The most consistent finding was a positive association between protein intake with
circulating IGF-I concentration (174, 188, 201, 192, and 196 ng/ml across quintiles of protein
intake; P = 0.002), which was largely attributable to milk intake."
Holmes et al.
Dietary Correlates of Plasma Insulin-like Growth Factor I and Insulin-like Growth Factor
Binding Protein 3 Concentrations
Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention Vol. 11, 852-861, September 2002
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Milk, insulin and acne
Insulin is another link between milk and acne.
Higher insulin levels usually mean higher rates of acne. Insulin alone stimulates sebum
production, but more significant than that is the fact that insulin levels correlate with the levels
of IGF-1 and several sex hormones. These hormones are closely linked to acne.
Drinking milk significantly increases insulin levels, as the dairy industry`s own studies
confirm.
"The blood glucose and plasma insulin responses to test milk samples were studied in healthy
normal volunteers. After an overnight fast the subjects were given 500 ml of either regular fat
free milk (abt 25 g lactose) or 500 ml of new low-lactose fat free milk (3.75 g lactose and 4.25
g fructose). Blood glucose levels were not significantly altered after either milk sample, but
plasma insulin responses were significantly elevated after milk consumption."
Salminen et al.
Blood glucose and plasma insulin responses to fat free milk and low-lactose fat free milk in
healthy human volunteers
Zeitschrift fr Ernhrungswissenschaft Volume 26, Number 1 / March, 1987
Milk and inflammation

Inflammation is the other side of the acne coin.
Inflammation turns blocked pores into big, red and painful pimples. Inflammation is the
body`s response to injury and harmful substances (such as bacteria, virus, chemicals and
toxins). Inflammation happens when the immune system attacks invaders and clears foreign
substances from the bloodstream.
Unfortunately milk doesn`t have to be as pure white as fresh, fallen snow to end into your
fridge. Most milk has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins (up to 200 times
the safe levels), up to 52 powerful antibiotics, blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses.
Most dairy cows live in miserable conditions and are riddled with infections. The cows
immune system produces white blood cells to fight off bacteria and virus. Both white blood
cells, commonly referred as pus cells, and bacteria end up in milk. The dairy industry calls pus
cells somatic cells and refers to their presence as the somatic cell count (SCC).
In a study of milk sold in New York State the average SCC was 363,000 cells/ml. These white
blood cells were produced by the cow to fight off the 24,400 bacteria/ml found in this milk.
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If you think pasteurization kills these bacteria, think again. The milk in the study was already
pasteurized. As you drink milk, the bacteria, pus, herbicides and other chemicals enter your
bloodstream. The immune system has to clear them out, which leads to more inflammation
and potentially more acne.
Allergies are another inflammatory reaction. So anything that causes an allergic reaction may
also cause acne. In milk, whey and casein protein are the main allergens. Homogenization of
milk puts more of these allergens into your body.
During homogenization milk is forced through small holes with tremendous pressure. This
breaks otherwise large fat globules into much smaller pieces. Without homogenization the fat
in milk would rise to the top. Homogenization makes sure fat globules remain evenly
distributed in milk.
Unfortunately, it also changes the membrane covering fat globules. The original fat globule
membrane is lost and a new one is formed that incorporates a much greater portion of casein
and whey proteins. These much smaller fat globules enter the bloodstream easily. This
exposes milk drinkers to larger quantities of allergenic proteins.
As the immune system attacks these foreign proteins it increase inflammation through the
body and can lead to more pimples.
What about raw milk

Many health conscious individuals make a sharp distinction between raw and processed milk.
Raw milk is said to be health promoting substance.
Of the two, raw milk is the healthier choice. Raw and organic milk usually comes from
healthier cows (as they are kept in better condition). This means the milk contains less pus,
bacteria, chemicals and other pollutants. Processing also makes milk more allergenic. Raw
milk is unprocessed and in its natural state. Hence drinkers of raw milk suffer fewer allergic
reactions.
Regardless of these advantages, acne victims would be wise to avoid all milk. The acne
causing hormones are present in raw milk also. They are there because a baby cow requires
them for growth and development. Adult humans don`t need them anymore, at least not in
such quantities. Milk drinkers expose themselves to these hormones, and that can lead to
various health problemsacne being one of them.
In conclusion, the next time you think of getting a glass of milk, think of extra sebum, dead
skin cells and inflammation it`s going to give you. For any acne victim, that should be more
than enough to wipe out the milk mustache for good.
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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

People are sicker than they give themselves credit for.

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

All parts of your body glow with health

On the emotional level you are in perfect health when.

You are happy for no reason

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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Lead to clogged pores

Let's see how they work..

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In the middle of the figure is what I call acne engine.

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Increasing sebum (the oily substance secreted by skin glands) production

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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Blocked pores + extra sebum + overgrowth of bacteria + inflammation = acne

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That is the inconvenient truth about acne.

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Q: What did you mean by this statement: A human organism is not a

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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

What kind of a person you are

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What you think of the world in general

Values, ethics and morals

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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Your beliefs, in combination with other aspects of your internal map of

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There is no intrinsic meaning to anything. In most cases, we did not

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Your emotional state

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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Emotions and physical health

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Stress and acne

Patients with acne may experience worsening of the disease during

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

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Personal Peace Procedure

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Heres an overview of what you need to do:

Evaluate your wheel of health and identify your weak link(s)

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Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

Helps you to sleep better.

Exercise also has nutritional benefits.

Seppo Puusa 2007 - 2010

New Evidence, Sunshine DOES Slash Your Cancer Risk