Acne FAQ:
You have to take a “kitchen sink” approach to your skin. Bad skin is a result of; Q is for the questions you have to ask yourself if they apply to you, A is for answers to these.
#1Q. Poor Diet (many components we’ll get to later)
#2Q. Poor Hygiene (I don’t care how clean you think you are, 46% of hospital workers can’t take off their gloves without getting germs all over themselves in the latest report)
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/lascisnhospitalcontaminationgownsglovesfail20151011story.html
#3Q. Poor Environment (our skin was designed for various environments where we evolved & now we are living in vastly different ecosystem with controlled & pollution indoor air environments)
#4Q. Past use of antibiotics/immune problems
#5Q. Hormones (also effected by #1)
#6Q. Stress
#7Q. Stuff we can’t even think of
Can you do something for each one of these items? Can/Will you do it consistently? Can you keep a food diary? Is clear skin worth learning how to cook differently & keeping very focused on a cleaning routine? Most people we counsel just can’t be bothered to watch all these items & give up because it seems too overwhelming & blame their acne on everything else under the sun.
Mr. Vegan will get bad acne from messing up any one of these things & he says “it is never worth the break out” when it comes to eating chocolate or greasy food. Its up to you, though. Some people can bathe in grease & mud & have perfect skin, that is not you or me, so here goes!
#1A. You need to be on starch solution, no added fats. Mr. Vegan hates orange sweet potatoes unless they are cut into fry shapes (really!?!) but have you tried yellow or purple? That is just one starch of many! Rice, Oats (high silicone great fort the skin), Beans, White Potatoes, Red Potatoes, Corn, Barley, the list goes on & on, quinoa, amaranth, find your starch! When we eat any added fats they go directly to the surface of the face & eyes 1st. We are made mostly of water & fat floats in water and diffuses rapidly when it hits our mouth. You can run your thumbnail down your nose before a high fat meal and notice it will be dry & immediately after and it will be greasy. If you analyzed the grease it would be the exactly oil you just consumed (even avocados & nuts). This matters because acne bacteria feed off fat! They take in long chains of fats & poop out short ones. These short chain poos are highly irritating to our skin & immune system & cause acne. So follow Starch Solution to a T, get Dr. McDougall Cook Books, etc. Read ingredients & don’t trust food you don’t cook for yourself!
#1B. Additionally, some people are more sensitive to increased triglycerides from eating too much fruit. Lower your fruit intake & eat only whole fruits if this applies you. Triglycerides are a major component of human skin oils & fructose increases triglycerides in some people.
#2A. When is the last time you wiped down your phone? keyboard? do you have an allergy cover on your pillow? How old is your mattress? Do you have an allergy cover on your mattress? Do you have an in room air filter? Do you use a ph balanced baby soap on your face only? Do you use a new pillow case every night? If you are using make up, do you clean your brushes & make up after each use? How old are the products? Are you putting an oil based product on your face? The bacteria love oil based make ups and moisturizers. Are you washing your face & eye brows & eye lashes in the morning, after working out or sweating & before bed or touching your face? We don’t want to turn you into a crazy person, but a little bit of focus will go a long way in keeping nasty bacteria off your face & healthy bacteria living in peace. Nasty bacteria grow very rapidly & take over when introduced to a pristine environment. We want to focus on non harsh wash like an organic baby shampoo. Once you get your skin back into balance you don’t have to be as strict.
#3A Guess what the world has changed! We are living in a very different environment to 10,000 or 100,000 years ago. We have adapted the world around us & moved to every inch of the planet & now have to take B12 & wash our hands, but it comes with insanely awesome benefits vs dying from communicable disease, which was the leading cause of death 100 years ago. Your air might be drier, sun might stronger, pollution might be greater so how do you adapt? MOISTURIZE!!! Get an oilfree moisturizer (cruelty free if you can find one). Something based on silicone (dimethicone) if you don’t react to it & after you wash up COVER YOUR FACE. You can use sun screen over the top of it (most sun screens contain oil & chemicals, find a good one that you don’t break out from using). MOISTURIZE, it provides a barrier to bad bacteria, it tells your body to stop producing so much damn bacteria feeding oil & it keeps your skin cells healthy & not dry so you don’t have bacteria hanging out in a layer of dead dry skin. If you only do ONE thing MOISTURIZE with an OILFREE product. OilFree Moisturizers LIFTS OIL & DEAD SKIN OFF YOUR FACE all day & night long!!! Why aren’t you doing this???
#4A. The longer you eat healthy, get adequate sunlight, rest, exercise, etc your body will heal & your immune system will level out. Probiotics can create issues with some people, but give a probiotic a try & if you have a bad reaction, try another one with a different strain of healthy bacteria. A healthy gut will be reflected in healthy skin.
#5A. Women have added hormone challenges & fluctuations, just be more observant of all these issues during high hormone times. Eating very low fat & exercising/being active regularly will lower the hormones that increase the oil production in the skin.
#6A. Learn to meditate, take classes in stress management. Nothing like stress to wipe out an immune system & fuel a breakout. Any problem can be fixed, life goes on, cherish the things & people while you had the good fortune to be around vs mourning the time you missed out on. (don’t mean to be this brief here, but stress is worse than cigarettes, stressing out about your skin leads to worse skin, learn to identify negative behaviors like that & work to turn them around, see them as a challenge you are excited to take on vs a defeat.)
#7A. Allergies, mold & pollen in the air, weird genetics, chemicals, who knows!?! You have to accept we can’t know it all & there are so many wild variables that we need to just focus on the simple & do our best to get better at it ever day & not give up because we feel overwhelmed or because other people don’t have to do it or because it feels unnatural. The added steps here are because of the awesome benefits of not living in a cave on the side of a mountain & eating poop all day from the lack of running water. Civilization is awesome & so what if we have to be extra clean & eat a little cleaner that some other people, the benefits out weigh the extra work for us!
Summary
#1. Eat starches, no added fats with (only whole fruit as snack if triglyceride issues) & vegetables. Take pictures of your meals because 99% of people lie to themselves about what they are eating, we are addicted to food for good reason, but addiction makes liars out of us.
#2. Wash face with non-toxic baby shampoo mild mild mild soap that can get in the eyes. Eyelashes & lids are bacteria reservoirs. Have a clean environment, new pillow cases, encasement to prevent dirty pillows and mattresses from reinfecting you at night.
#3. MOISTURIZE with OILFREE product after washing because our Air Conditioned, artificial hyper clean environment sucks, but at least we don’t die from diseases like we did 100 years ago & we aren’t eating poo covered food (b12).
#4. Probiotics for healthy gut.
#5. Exercise & sunlight
#6. Meditate, learn how to manage stress.
#7. Pay attention to your breakouts and try to identify triggers in food, environment, supplements (only take b12) etc.
Be the scientist for your own body. GIVE IT TIME. Do everything above and in 3 months your skin will look stunning! Don’t screw up on the details! We are always here to help coach you along!