It would be unreasonable to speak about acne treatments without discussing Proactiv Solution. It is without a doubt the most widespread and most commonly used acne treatment on the market today. However, with all the marketing, referrals and sales pitches found in a search there aren’t many sufficiently informative reviews available on the product. So I have decided to remedy this…

Let’s start with the formalities: Proactiv Solution was developed by dermatologists in the early 1990s and released as an acne treatment in 1995. The treatment kit is comprised of 3 separate solutions; a cleanser, a toner, and a repairing lotion.

The cleanser is used to clean the skin from dirt, oils, and bacteria. The toner is used to maintain this level of cleanliness and to continue to prevent the build-up of sebum and bacteria for a prolonged period of time. The repairing lotion is as it sounds; it is used to repair skin damaged by blemishes or acne scars.

Proactiv Solution has generally had a somewhat positive result against light acne for the majority of people that have used it, including me. For severe sufferers, it will sometimes reduce the severity and frequency of breakouts, although in most cases it will not clear your acne completely. For mild or light sufferers who are not against the use of non-natural products or cosmetics, Proactiv is probably a good choice of treatment.

I want to emphasize my use of the word “non-natural”. There are other treatments available that are all natural and will show similar effectiveness, though these are less known and usually either unpleasant or more expensive. If you are looking for a holistic acne treatment, Proactiv is not the product for you.

In general, the cleanser works much like an exfoliator in that it clears away the dirt, oil and dead cells on the skin surface. It is fairly effective in doing this and your skin usually feels quite small after a wash with this cleanser, but in my experience a generic face wash specifically designed as an exfoliant is usually more effective and less expensive.

The toner is applied after the skin is washed and is allowed to dry. The purpose of the toner is to apply a layer of benzoyl peroxide to the skin to continue the actions of the cleanser for a longer period of time. It works to keep pores unclogged and to prevent the secretion of excess sebum (keeping the skin oil-free). In doing this, however, you will usually find that unless you apply the toner moderately you skin will dry excessively. If applied too liberally, you will usually see white flakes/powder appear on the skin as the benzoyl peroxide continues to work in excess. For these reasons, it is important that you apply only the amount specified in the instructions or what you have found works for you.
NOTE: If applied properly, any toner in general can assist in making your skin appear healthier and more radiant.

The repairing lotion, I have found, is the most beneficial solution of the Proactiv System. Perhaps there is a more effective combination of ingredients or maybe it is because it is a cream rather than a liquid, but the repairing lotion is quite effective in minimizing the inflammation of a pimple and healing the damaged skin after a breakout. You can usually see an improvement after a day or 2 of using the lotion.

I have always promoted the use of all natural products but the repairing lotion is still the most effective commonly available treatment in healing the skin after breakouts and minimizing acne scars. You can purchase the repairing lotion on its own through external sources but if you are going to do that you may as well purchase the system because the cleanser and toner are still effective products and even if you do not purchase Proactiv you should still use products similar to this (exfoliator/toner) regardless of the brand.

THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT:

The active ingredient in Proactiv, as in many other acne treatment creams, is benzoyl peroxide. Benzoyl peroxide was first developed by a Revlon scientist in the 1920s to treat acne and is used in concentrations of 2.5 - 10 %. This chemical is absorbed by the skin and a chemical reaction occurs creating free radicals. It works by reducing the amount of sebum released and causing the skin surface to become excessively dry, although a tolerance is usually built after 1-2 weeks of use.

I would like to mention now that if your acne is caused by dry skin, you should probably avoid this product as you will more likely be negatively effected. This is because for some people a burning, itching or irritating sensation occurs. If you try this product and your skin has an adverse reaction you should stop treatment immediately and seek medical/dermatological assistance.

That being said, the benzoyl peroxide concentration in Proactiv is only 2.5%. Research has shown that this concentration is far better tolerated.

This substance will generally reduce the severity of your acne while it is in use but once the benzoyl peroxide ‘wears off’ you will notice an influx of blemishes. This effect is much like that of antibiotic medication. If used frequently your body becomes accustomed to it and processes within the body are altered to match this input. However, once treatment is stopped your body is again forced to change processes and this usually leads to an inverse effect. With benzoyl peroxide, this is because the sebum creation is slowed and acid is forced to build up within the skin rather than being discharged and once the benzoyl peroxide wears off a larger amount of sebum is then produced and needs to be released.

In addition, benzoyl peroxide is used to dye hair and has been found to bleach the colour in clothing it comes into contact with. Always be careful what you are wearing and what you touch after applying a Proactiv product, and always wash you hands thoroughly after application to avoid damaging your clothes - as you may or may not know, bleached clothes cannot be repaired.

All up, despite the cautions, the Proactiv System is, more often than not, an effective treatment for acne, even if it is just a small improvement. It has individually varying results, as mentioned above, but in general you should see some results after using this for a few weeks. And if you have only a few blemishes and are not opposed to a non-natural treatment, Proactiv is probably your best bet.

Last year Sydney, Australia, made a lone stand against global warming with the entire city going dark. Thousands of businesses and local governments, and millions of residents, switched off their lights for 1 hour to save power and to send a message that something needs to be done about it.

This year, at 8pm on 29 March 2008, Earth Hour goes global, with cities and towns around the world taking stand on the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, and millions of people uniting to turn the tide on global warming.

Get as many people, businesses and government involved in Earth Hour as possible and get them to turn off their lights for one hour at 8pm on March 29 2008.

MAKE EARTH HOUR HAPPEN!

To inspire yourself and those you speak to about Earth Hour, check out www.earthhour.org to watch the video of the first Earth Hour in Sydney in 2007. This video will go a long way to inspiring you and those you speak to, to get involved in Earth Hour and to help take a stand against global warming.

http://www.earthhour.org

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FINAL LIST OF CITIES PARTICIPATING IN EARTH HOUR 2008 (as of December 14, 2007)

* Aalborg, Denmark
* Aarhus, Denmark
* Adelaide, Australia
* Atlanta, USA
* Bangkok, Thailand
* Bogota, Columbia
* Brisbane, Australia
* Canberra, Australia
* Chicago, USA
* Copenhagen, Denmark
* Darwin, Australia
* Dublin, Ireland
* Hobart, Australia
* Manila, Philippines
* Melbourne, Australia
* Montreal, Canada
* Ottawa, Canada
* Odense, Denmark
* Perth, Australia
* Phoenix, USA
* San Francisco, USA
* Santa Cruz, USA
* Suva and Lautoka, Fiji
* Sydney, Australia
* Tel Aviv, Israel
* Toronto, Canada
* Vancouver, Canada

So here we have another acne “miracle” cure, Bruunhause. But this one actually ticks me off! And I’m not easily ticked off…

To start with, according to their website, this is named the “Strongest Acne Serum in the World”. Based on what? Did they actually test this against every possible acne serum available? Was there an independent study done or are they just talking crap?

And straight away I can see that there is no ‘ingredients’ page. I never buy anything unless I know the ingredients. I mean to start with what if you have allergies? I don’t but if I did that would concern me. And the fact that they haven’t considered this shows they have no medical training whatsoever.

I also immediately noticed that there is only 2.2oz in each bottle and a single bottle costs $107!! What’s with that? Even Proactiv, which I have found to be the most expensive acne treatment available short of surgery, is cheaper than that.

So to recap, so far we have a false claim, no ingredients, and a ridiculous price for a small amount of serum. And I haven’t even started reading the content yet!

THEN, I started reading… Their labs are apparently at the “top position in acne and medicinal research”. Again, fantastic claim based on what? I already established that if they had medical training of any kind they would have the ingredients posted somewhere, even if it was hard to find. But they don’t. And no support for any of their claims.

Once we get past the first sentence, the next thing that stands out to me is the use of the word “bhatologist”. You see this word used in a number of testimonials and content as some kind of health specialist that recommends Bruunhause. This seems to be his only job description because, I don’t know about anyone else but, I’ve never heard of this person. And neither has Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Encarta, Mirriam-Webster, or even the Oxford English Dictionary! Enough said…

The use of this word in testimonials, however, got me a little suspicious so I read the rest of them thoroughly. I’ve read quite a few testimonials for a lot of different products and, even if we ignore the use of the word “bhatologist”, they still just don’t seem real to me. Like Zyporex, it’s as though the sellers sat down and came up with these themselves. And when you take into account the face that one of these alleged testimonials is from someone who IS a bhatologist that’s a fair assumption to make.

After this load of nonsense we are introduced to something called “Source Acne Theory”. This is an another invented name, this time to label what we all know about how acne develops in the skin, which is, as they describe, “bacteria infected sebum beneath the skin, appearing for numerous reasons”. Not very specific and, other than that the name being a little catchy, totally useless.

As we move on we, once again, see the use of an elaborate scientific term, hydronium (H3O). This is the key ingredient of the product, and, in fact, the only one even mentioned. A little research into this (5 minutes) and you will discover that hydronium is an ion found in all water based solutions. Basically, the amount of hydronium ions a solution contains is a basis for discovering the pH of any substance. This means nothing as an ingredient since hydronium ions are found in ALL water based substances including acids, bases, and even PURE WATER! But, assuming they wouldn’t use pure water and would still use a safe acid, this product would have the same effect as salt water. Now if you haven’t checked my previous posts, I already gave a recommendation about using crystal as a treatment for acne (see Treatments for Acne Symptoms). This salt, though not specifically sold as an acne treatment (Shhh! it’s a secret), will be just as effective as this miracle serum “with H3O” but will only cost 1/20th the price of Bruunhause and will last at least 4 times as long.. Which is to say you can find it some places for around $5-6 and your average bar lasts 6 months!

If we (finally) get past the first page, if you consider buying this product (not that you would) you will see they don’t offer a money back guarantee. The number one rule for purchasing online: ALWAYS get a money back guarantee! They don’t have one. So if it doesn’t work, you’re screwed.

There are far better acne treatments with far better offers.

Now to be fair to Bruunhause, since this will have around the same effect as salt water, it will probably help with acne a little. But then so would the ocean. And are you willing to pay $107 for a sample of sea water? I know I’m not…

“Zyporex? What’s that? Has anyone used it?” I’ve been seeing this question all over the net. You can’t go to an acne forum (e.g. Yahoo Answers, Acne.org, and the My Acne Review Forum) without seeing a post about this new product. But there aren’t many useful responses or reviews yet so I decided to investigate it myself and provide you with as much information about it as possible.

Let me start by saying that Zyporex is basically just an exfoliating scrub. So, while it has some differences to make it better, if other exfoliating scrubs have not “cured” your acne, then neither will this one.

Now let’s take a closer look.

All exfoliating scrubs are great to use. They clear away the dead skin and remove dirt from pores. This in itself is beneficial for preventing acne on mild acne sufferers. However, I must emphasize the word “mild” in that statement. Exfoliators, like other skin-application products, while beneficial for everyone, are only effective against acne for very mild sufferers; this type of sufferer will only have 2-3 pimples maximum at a time and will primarily still have great skin. If this is you, then by all means try this product.

But if not.. if you are a severe sufferer.. or if you have a number blemishes and red marks all over the place.. or even just an outbreak in one particular area of skin, this product will do absolutely nothing other than make your skin feel fresh.

Now before I continue with the criticism (which I do below), I always like showing both sides to any argument, so in that spirit here’s what’s makes Zyporex better than other exfoliators…

1. Most of the ingredients are natural (e.g. avocado, aloe vera etc). This is good because it will not dry your skin like benzoyl peroxide does in products like Oxy10 or Proactiv. In addition, natural ingredients mean that your skin feels rejuvenated and oil is minimized, which is also beneficial for preventing acne.

While that is a great thing for a product to offer this, the same effect can be received by washing using any facial scrub and simply using a natural cream to follow it, like something with aloe vera or avocado. What’s more, the combined cost of a facial scrub and a natural cream or mask would be something like $10-20 for a decent quantity, whereas Zyporex costs $30 for a 1 month supply.

You would be better off buying Himalayan Crystal Salt which would cost $10 for a bar that would last 6 months to 1 year and is more effective (I wrote a post on this earlier - Treatments for Acne Symptoms - and I have a section on it in my acne book). Additionally, using this in most cases will do nothing for the cause of acne which is not found in the skin. As mentioned earlier it is an underlying issue and acne is a symptom of it (see What Causes Acne? Behind The Science).

If we leave the product alone now, there are still other things to consider before looking at this product.

Firstly, you cannot buy this anywhere but from zyporex.com or from a single eBay seller, so it would be fair to say that only one person is selling this product and anyone else advertising it is an affiliate selling for the same person to make some money.

That alone says quite a bit. But on top of that, the testimonials don’t even sound like they are from actual people. I have processed quite a few testimonials for work that I have done and none sound like the ones that you see on that site. To me, it seems as though someone just sat down and said, “Okay I need some testimonials, so I’ll write a few and make them different and try and sound like I’m actually other people”. It may work for some readers, but I don’t think they are real.

As if that wasn’t enough, one of the sites selling this product (acnecuresrevealed.net) lists it as one of the Top 5 acne treatments available. But, if you look at the other 4 products - Acneticin, Orovo Acne Kit, Oxycerin, and Asso Gold Cleansing Bar - all of the websites look almost identical in layout and format. ‘So what?’ you may ask. So that means that, most likely, the same person created each of the sites and simply knows about internet marketing and is trying to make money from a very large online market. In this sense, they probably wouldn’t even care that I am reviewing it because simply mentioning the product gives it a better rank on Google.

So, I may have rambled on a bit too much but I think it is important to know what a product is before buying it. If after reading this, you believe it is still worth trying then give it a try! There is nothing wrong with trying things and this is a useful product for your skin! BUT, if you have anything more than a very light case of ‘acne’ then other than having fresh feeling skin, this product will not help you.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

To avoid any confusion here is some additional information about the ingredients of Zyporex.

In reference to the product being all natural, that is not entirely accurate.

Firstly, the extraction process generally used to retrieve nutrients and oils from herbs and fruits (the majority of the ingredients in the product) most often reduces the value and benefit of the nutrients altogether.

The vitamin content in Zyporex is 100% synthetic.
- Ascorbyl palmitate (the vitamin C content) is created by combining two forms of acid and is also used as a food additive
- Retinol palmitate (vitamin A content) is a manufactured form of vitamin A and is the form that can lead to adverse side-effects

In addition, one of the more prominent ingredients (determined by its position in the list) is sulfur, which may be the cause of the high allergic reaction rate.

The product also contains the following non-natural ingredients:
- preservative
- peptides
- glycerin (usually a byproduct of extracting other oils)
- hyaluronic acid (an excess of this substance in the body has been shown to be involved in the progression of malignant tumors)

Please investigate these substances further if this description is unclear.

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Hi Guys,

Here is an image I received from one of my readers of the damage caused by Zyporex. Her acne was never this bad before using Zyporex.

Anyone else with images they would like displayed should contact us using the Contact Form.

Most of you will know about Accutane, Isotretinoin, or any of the other names given to the synthetic drug prescribed for severe acne sufferers. However, if you have not researched it or taken it yourself you may not be aware that this drug is simply a synthetic (manufactured), pre-formed vitamin A replacement.

Most of you will also know that synthetic drugs and vitamins more often than not have a negative side-effect on the human body that comes with the benefits. Accutane is no different. Now, yes, Accutane is a proven treatment for acne and I don’t doubt that it works but the fact that a prescription is needed to purchase it and a liability waver must be signed is proof enough that it is dangerous. Prescription acne treatments in general have are similarly unsafe, and medical supervision and advice is always required for these treatments. That is not to say that they will all cause you harm, because they won’t. But if a safer, natural and equally effective alternative is available then isn’t that always the better option?

Vitamin A has been proven to maintain healthy eyes and skin. This is the primary reason for the development of isotretinoin, the active chemical form of vitamin A used in Accutane. However, the natural forms, or more specifically the carotene forms of it (e.g. beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, etc), found in dietary sources are not toxic. In this way, the natural alternative (or some of you might call it the “home remedy”) is far superior.

Organic, natural Vitamin A supplements are available from most chemists and health stores and are easily purchased over the counter. The bonus of this is that you can purchase 100 Vitamin A or beta-carotene capsules in a small bottle for less than $10. However, supplements, while massively safer than Accutane, still have a smaller risk of Vitamin A toxicity if taken in excess. Therefore, for the highest benefit, you should review the dietary sources listed below for an increased intake without danger and compare it to the risk of toxicity based on the suggestions below.

Generally, vitamin A capsules will contain approximately 5000IU (international units). For the majority of sufferers, this will be a sufficient acne treatment and they will notice results almost immediately. At this level of intake there is almost zero risk for the first 12 months of use, which should not even be required. For more severe cases or in cases where other medications are in use (e.g. anti-inflammatory medicines) which can increase the severity of acne, 2-3 of these capsules may be needed each day. Preferably, no more than 10-15 000IU, depending on weight and body mass, should be taken daily as recommended on the label and throughout available research sources. This should not be an issue as 15000 IU should show dramatic results in even the most severe sufferer.

That said, a study was done recently which indicated that beta-carotene supplements help to prevent cognitive decline (the decrease in mental capabilities).

As mentioned previously though, the dietary forms of vitamin A and beta-carotene have no risk whatsoever! Therefore, I would suggest considering adding a large amount of the below items to your diet, rather than taking Accutane, or even supplements. Now that’s not to say that other vegetables should be disregarded, as they all have benefits to your pH balance, but all of the below sources are also high in beta-carotene / vitamin A content and since it is a dietary source there is no risk of toxicity.

• sweet potatoes
• carrots
• goji berries
• cantaloupe melon
• mango
• apricots
• spinach
• kale
• chard
• turnip greens
• dandelion greens
• beet greens
• mustard greens
• collard greens
• watercress
• cilantro
• fresh thyme
• broccoli
• parsley
• romaine lettuce
• ivy gourd
• rose hips
• winter squash
• pumpkin
• cassava

Vanity is a natural human characteristic. It is innate in all of us. And although most people do not regard their skin as an organ, our skin is in fact the largest vital organ in our body. Skin that is clogged and unhealthy is not just a beauty problem. It can become a hindrance to your sense of vitality and wellness. Proper care of your skin is important not only to your personal sense of beauty but also to proper elimination, more graceful aging and overall health.There are five major types of skin. Understanding your skin type is the best approach to your personal skin care.

• Normal skin—is the type of skin that we’d all love to have. This is the “healthy” type of skin. This type is the not too oily, not too dry type, characterized by few blemishes, generally firm and smooth with small pores. When you pull the skin away from the bony structure, it springs back to normal position. Lines and wrinkles are appropriate for age.
• Dry Skin—due to environmental exposure to harsh elements and very often lack of water skin may flake off and feel tight in your face. It may lack natural oils, may look rather flaky with small pores, blemishes and blackheads. Without adequate moisture, dry skin can easily become chapped. As dry skin ages, it’s more likely than other types to become wrinkly.
• Oily Skin—skin may look oily and coarse, may have recurring blackheads, acne and large pores. The texture of skin is thick; the touch is often sticky. This type is usually youthful- looking due to the presence of oil on the skin. Often, individuals with oily skin have a tendency to develop acne in their teen and middle years, and overgrown oil glands, or sebaceous hyperplasia, in the middle and late years.
• Combination Skin—varies according to your skin type. This is the Jekyll and Hyde type of skin, often with split personality. This type may be characterized as oily on the T-zone (the area that stretches from the forehead down to the nose and chin), and dry to normal on the cheeks and around the eye area.
• Sensitive Skin—people with sensitive skin are the most prone to allergies, rash, sting, and burns. This type of skin gets irritated easily and can go very red and blotchy. This type will have a lot more trouble to environmental factors and tends to be very sensitive to cosmetics.

Know your skin and take care of it. It is your glory to being healthy and beautiful.

There are varying opinions on the use of Accutane as a treatment for severe acne. While being very strong and having an effectiveness of approximately 50% there are many side-effects that must be acknowledged. In the US, the iPledge brochure and agreement ensures that all users are fully informed of all effects of the drug. Most other countries have similar legislation or at the very least require a prescription from certified professionals

In any case, I strongly recommend learning as much as possible about Accutane and its effects before considering it as an option.

So what is Accutane?

The active ingredient in Accutane is isotretinoin. Isotretinoin is is a type of Vitamin A that is found in small amounts within the body. One of its key responsibilities in the body is to moderate sebum production. In larger amounts it can noticably reduce the production of sebum and the size of the sebaceous glands in general (which are responsible for the production of sebum).

Since the active ingredient of Accutane is a vitamin A, the effects of the drug are much like taking large amounts of vitamin A. This, however, is the issue. Vitamin A can cause many different kinds of damage to the body when taken in excessive amounts. This is more evident if you look at multi-vitamin bottles or general vitamin supplements containing vitamin A. You will always notice the advice on the labels always specifically warns about taking no more than the maximum daily dosage of vitamin A (depending on your age).

For this reason, side-effects of Accutane are similar to that of an overdose of vitamin A (or vitamin A toxicity). I will go over these side-effects in a later post.
NOTE: Isotretinoin is also the active ingredient in, and sold under the names of, Amnesteem, Clavaris, Sotret, Roaccutane, Isotrex and Isotrexin.

Everyone knows that swimming is one of the most beneficial activities for anyone’s health in general. I have heard of studies showing that the only exercise more beneficial for overall health is running. The difference, however, is that swimming forces slower, deeper breathing and removes the physical strain on joints. In addition, people of all fitness levels can swim at effective paces due to the low impact on the body.

Now how is swimming particularly helpful in eliminating acne? It is a well-known fact that exercise in general promotes healthy skin. In addition to that, the deep breathing allows more oxygen to be processed and circulated by the body assisting in the removal of toxins and dead cells from the body and promoting the regeneration of cells. (see my next post for information on what everyone means when they speak about toxins).

Furthermore, because swimming requires the immersing the whole body (hence the entire skin surface) in water, it allows for the natural moisture absorption of the skin. Since you will most likely either be swimming in chlorinated pools or salt water, the disinfectant properties of the water will also be absorbed by the skin. And as you may or may not remember from a previous post, severe acne is the result of a susceptibility to infection.

In particular, painful pimples are acne blemishes that have become severely infected. Thus, swimming, more so in salt water than chlorinated, is extremely effective in disinfecting the skin and killing bacteria on the skin surface. Salt also dries the skin, limiting the production of sebum.

If you are not yet convinced then simply look at professional swimmers and surfers and notice whether or not they have acne. The results will speak for themselves.

So now that we have established the root cause of acne, how do we deal with it? The first step is to cleanse your body of the excess acid and toxins. There are a number of ways to do this and yes, you can use enemas and products you can buy at a pharmacy but if it’s not natural then it will probably do more harm than good. I find that the simplest way to cleanse the excess toxins from your body is to go on a 3-Day Raw Vegetable Fast. This, quite simply, involves eating nothing but fresh raw vegetables for a period of 3 days. It does not make a huge difference which vegetables you use but the basic rule is the greener a vegetable is the better it is for your pH level.

I personally use cucumbers as my largest source of vegetables. They taste great, are extremely alkalizing, and they are easy to carry with you wherever you go. In my regular diet I will eat 5-6 cucumbers a day for snacks. During a cleansing period, I will eat more than 10 on any given day. Some of you may not like cucumbers and that is fine. Celery and tomatoes are good alternatives, but I find them slightly more difficult to eat in large numbers.

The key is to find a raw vegetable that you can eat on a large scale or to find a salad that is easy for you to make. Remember that you will need a lot of these types of foods from now on so make sure you find something that is easy to find and prepare. For those of you with particularly fast metabolisms, you may find it difficult at first to eat only raw vegetables. I strongly recommend using vitamin supplements and/or ‘green’ drinks to assist with your daily nutritional requirements, especially during the cleansing period.

A ‘green’ drink comes in a powdered form for you to mix with water. A single teaspoon contains almost all of the vitamins and minerals your body requires on a daily basis. During the cleansing period, I recommend using 4-5 teaspoons (i.e. drink 4-5 glasses) per day. You can purchase these drinks from most chemists and all vitamin and health food stores or you can purchase them online. There are a variety of different green drinks available on the market but I find that the majority are not very pleasing for the taste buds. There is only one that I have found so far that actually tastes good - Vital Greens (available by clicking here - 300g/10.6oz should last about 2 months). However, you may find others that you prefer or are easier to purchase. Other drinks that may help are liquid chlorophyll, which again can be bought from your local health store and some pharmacies, and lemon water. Liquid chlorophyll can be bought in various flavours and is a well-known pH booster. It is found in all green vegetables and is one of the most active ingredients in alkalizing the body.

Lemon water is simply freshly squeezed lemon juice mixed with water. The bonus for this option is that lemons are extremely easy to find and much less expensive than the previous mentioned drinks. Lemons (and limes) are also known to have a strong alkalizing effect on the body. You may be wondering how that works, as lemons are a citrus food containing citric acid. Unfortunately, I still do not entirely understand it myself; but I can verify that it does work. The only disadvantage of using lemon water as opposed to green drinks is the lack of all the vitamins and minerals that green drinks have, that your body requires.

There are a number of actions that can worsen acne in anyone. In my experience I have discovered quite a few but that does not mean there are not others and it also does not mean that everything I list below will affect you in the same way. The only real way to identify your own personal stimulants is by paying close attention to what you eat and what you do. If you can, record your daily food intake so that when you have flare ups you can reference the records and see any links.

For a more comprehensive list and more detailed information I have created a complete guide available by clicking here.

* Medication

Some doctors will prescribe certain antibiotics to treat acne. The basis for this treatment is the concept that worse cases of acne usually imply a high susceptibility to infections. This concept is true. However, all people who have a low pH level are highly susceptible to infections and illness. And by using antibiotics, you are both ignoring the reason behind this vulnerability, and stopping your body from producing its own antibodies. You will then build a tolerance to antibiotics and require more when you are actually ill.

Also, some conditions require the use of anti-inflammatory medication. These can include prednisolone, salazopyrin, cortelone, etc. In general, most (if not all) anti-inflammatory medicine will aggravate infections, making what would be a minor passing infection into a major flare up. Your body frequently deals with minor infections with ease, but, unlike pH balance which simply allows infections to develop, taking anti-inflammatories will both cause and make these infections worsen.

Wherever possible, avoid this type of medication. Understandably, some conditions will require them and there is little or no alternative. During these periods, you will need to work extra hard on your pH balance. Eating 80% raw vegetables and cutting out junk food and red meat altogether is a necessity, and in some cases (depending on the strength of your dosage) it will still not be enough. The only way to be sure your acne is at its absolute minimum while on anti-inflammatories is by eating entirely raw vegetables and maintaining a pH of 7 or slightly higher.

* Red and processed meat

Processed meats are overall entirely lacking nutritional value. Meat pies, hot dogs, frozen meats all go through an extensive preparation process which extracts the little nutritional value they have and also allow them to further ‘decompose’ making them even more acidifying than they already were. Even fresh meat is notorious for its negative effects on pH balance. It is a general fact that a dead animal will have an acidifying effect on your body. That is not to say that it is completely unhealthy. Meat will always have its benefits; protein, energy, some nutrients. But over-indulging in any type of meat is definitely not a healthy choice. In particular, red meats should be kept to an absolute minimum. White meats like poultry and seafood are better options as they are less acidifying and still provide the necessary proteins that a meat should.

Additionally, while there is no direct scientific evidence to link red meat to cancer, it is widely accepted by medical practitioners that red meat aggravates the bowels and can cause (or at the very least worsen) diseases that develop in the bowel. As the most important part of the digestive process, the bowels are responsible for extracting nutrients from the food you eat. Any damage done to either of the bowels will adversely effect your body’s ability to digest food, even healthy food. This will, among other and more serious things, lead to a lower pH level.

* Touching Affected Areas

Don’t touch your pimples! I am sure you have all heard this one before but here is why you shouldn’t. As mentioned in previous posts, acne on the skin is based bacteria and infection. Touching affected areas spreads bacteria and infection to the surrounding areas. Additionally, our hands come into contact with hundreds of different objects every day. Door handles, keyboards, tables, cars, floors, plants, etc. All of which hundreds of other people have touched and which have probably not been cleaned for many months (if ever). Bacteria and/or dirt cover the majority of these objects and until you wash your hands, you will spread both over anything you touch. So why touch an area that is bad enough to have acne and make it worse?

* Junk Food

Generally, you will find that certain foods will aggravate your acne far more than others. For example, chocolates, ice cream, fried foods, oily foods, etc. Foods that are high in sugar and fat content have a strong acidic effect on your body’s pH balance. And while your body can digest and dispose of small amounts of these kinds of food, you should avoid having them more than once or twice per week. For some of you, even that will be too much.

* Oily, Dirty and Dead Skin

Throughout the course of the day, your skin will both sweat, shed, and produce oil. On top of that, it will also collect any dirt from the air. You must avoid allowing this to build up. There are a few ways to maintain your skin. The first is to make sure you have a shower every day (twice a day is better but once is minimum). Always use an exfoliator (a facial scrub and loufa will do). If you exercise or play sport, always shower immediately afterwards - if no shower is available at the very least you should wash your face.

Sweat is one of the most efficient ways for your body to discharge toxins that have built up. This is why exercise will always help the fight against acne. However, if you allow the sweat to remain on the skin it will allow excessive growth of bacteria and collect even more dirt than usual. It is hard to say how sweat effects the buildup of oil because the moisture could be either. Despite that, the other factors should be enough to convince you to keep your skin as clean as possible.

Oh and one more thing. For those of you that do suffer from oily skin, the best treatment I found is to apply Himalayan Crystal Salt 2-3 times a day. It is 100% completely natural and does not damage the skin. Simply wet and apply. Easy.