Clear for Life

Stacy emailed me with another jewel of misinformation about Candida and acne.

She said that she just discovered that she "suffers" from severe Candida infection. I put the word suffer on quotes because Candida is not something you suffer from. In all likelihood it’s saving your life. Anyway, she said that after her "research" she discovered that she shouldn’t eat fruits. The reasoning goes that fruit has sugar and sugar feed Candida. Hence fruit is bad.

I covered this in Candida and acne page on natural-acne-solution.com. Anyway, here it is again in a nutshell.

First, Candida is not caused by eating sugar. It’s caused by problems with blood sugar metabolism. There’s a world of difference there.

In a recent blood sugar post I mentioned that blood sugar metabolism problems are an issue of output. Meaning the glucose can’t get out of the blood stream. That means insulin resistance.

Here’s how the blood sugar thing and Candida works. You eat and the food is converted to glucose. Glucose goes into the bloodstream, and from there insulin escorts it into your cells. Insulin resistance weakens the action of insulin and glucose stays in the bloodstream.

Your body cannot allow too much glucose to remain in the bloodstream. It can cause some serious health problems, and even death.

That’s where Candida comes in. It multiplies and eats away the excess blood sugar and hence saves your live. So instead of cursing Candida, bless it.

Now that you understand Candida let’s see what you can do about it.

The culprit behind insulin resistance and blood sugar problems is excess fat - not carbs.

When you eat too much fat, your blood gets ‘fatty’. All the fat you are is now floating in your blood. Now your red blood cells, sugar molecules, insulin and insulin receptors at cells are all covered in fat. This layer of fat prevents insulin from working effectively; hence causing insulin resistance.

And after a high-fat meal your blood can remain fatty up to 24 hours.

Clear out the fat from your bloodstream and you can go willy-nilly on fruits without any problems. And soon you’ll discover that your Candida infection is gone.

I know that practically all Candida sites tell you the exact opposite thing. They also say that you have to stick to the diet for months. Some people have been on these high-fat, low-carb diets for years without making any progress.

Candida, like all yeasts, is a short-lived organism. It’s life span is measured in hours. If you don’t constantly feed it with glucose it cannot survive in your bloodstream in large numbers. Candida overgrowth dies-off very quickly.

Just to nail the point home I’m going to quote Steve Pavlina. Steve writes one of the most popular self-development blogs in the web. A while ago he did a 30-day trial on low-fat, raw vegan diet. He kept a detailed diary during the whole time.

Here’s his comment about blood sugar levels during the trial:

I monitored my blood sugar using a blood sugar testing device, the same kind diabetics may use. It showed no discernible spikes in blood sugar throughout the trial whatsoever — absolutely none. In fact, my blood sugar remained incredibly steady throughout the trial. My highest blood sugar reading of the trial was 94, which is still medium-low. All that sweet fruit in my diet simply did not have any adverse effect on my blood sugar.

Eating this way gave my blood sugar more consistency than ever. I couldn’t spike my blood sugar on this diet if I tried. Even eating 19 bananas in one day made no difference.

Raw Food Diet

Isn’t that just weird that all that ‘evil sugar’ did nothing to spike his blood sugar levels? Not even 19 bananas.

I recommend you read Steve’s post. It details out what happened to him during 100% raw food diet. It’s going to blow your mind, especially the tidbit about athletic performance and muscle development.

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Clear for Life - The lifestyle for health, happiness and clear skin

Have you ever wondered what acne ads would look like if they would have to reflect the real world results and perceptions people get?

I did, and I’m about to show you.

I got this crazy idea while I was browsing ‘Bad medicine’ and ‘Fun with propaganda‘ contests at Worth 1000.

So for inspiration I picked few common acne ads, and started playing with Photoshop.

Here’s what I came up with.

And you know, this is just for fun and giggles. The ads I chose are just for inspiration. This does not reflect the quality of these fine products or the results their customers get. I just used them for inspiration to come up with alternative ads that reflect the experiences I hear acne victims generally have with general acne products.

OK, our first ad comes to us from IQ Derma.

Based on the feedback I get from acne victims and read at acne forums I made an ad for a fictitious ‘My cool cream’ acne product.

 

The next ad comes from Murad.

And using it as an inspiration I came up with an ad for ‘My cool pills’ acne treatment product.

 

The third ad comes again from IQ Derma.

Few minutes in Photoshop and we have a winner ad for ‘Wonder tubes’.

 

And for those with severe acne, here’s something that never fail. And this ad is 100% true.

I mean, just look at these success stories.

 

Ok, that’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed looking at the ads as much as I did making them.

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Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear
Skin
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Edgar recently asked me about athlete’s diet that would also help him to cure his acne.

So my question is can you give me an example nutrition plan for me as an athlete. Like what should I be eating for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Or like what type of meat I should eat or foods that will give me enough energy as an athlete while still helping my health, building muscle, and avoiding triggering my acne. I mean like foods that give me energy and help me recover, but the foods that arent bad for triggering my acne.

I have to go by what I’ve learned from Dr. Graham here. If anyone, he should know the subject. Lifetime athlete, coach to many Olympic and world-class athletes and at age of 60+ fitter than most people half his age.

Plus what he says makes a heck of a lot sense.

As an athlete you don’t have any special nutritional requirements. You just need to eat more.

Athletes and active people have somewhat higher protein requirements than sedentary people do, but you’ll get the extra protein from the extra calories you eat.

The same healthy low-fat, raw-vegan diet that gets you clear also helps you as an athlete. In a nutshell, get plenty of fruits and greens.

No need to unnecessarily complicate the matter.

Contrary to commonly held wisdom this diet suits also bodybuilders. Because all the bodybuilding magazines and books tout the need for high-protein diet you won’t find too many examples of bodybuilders eating this diet, but Charlie Abel is one.

Though I have to say that a diet in animal protein probably gives better ‘results’ for bodybuilders. That’s because it exposes you to extra growth hormones. So it could get you bigger but that’s really just artificial ballooning. It’s a bit like blowing more air into a balloon.

Gaining size that way does nothing to your athletic performance. It won’t make you any stronger or faster. You just balloon up, and once you stop eating that way you’ll shrink back to more normal size. And in the process you’ll wreck your health and make it more difficult to get over acne.

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Clear for Life - The lifestyle for health, happiness and clear skin

Katherine emailed me asking about Visine and acne. Visine is a brand of eye drops that are used to reduce redness and inflammation in the eyes.

Visine works by constricting the small blood vessels in the eye. So it reduces the blood flow to the eye and so gets rid of the redness.

Apparently some people have said that Visine also works for acne. That it reduces redness of a pimple. If the acntive ingredients in Visine penetrate your skin deep enough and do constrict the blood vessels around the pimple, this could happen.

Whether this works or not I’m not convinced this is very smart.

Pimples get rid for a reason: inflammation. Inflammation is part of the healing process and happens because the immune system fights the acne causing bacteria and other invaders in the blocked pore. Restricting blood flow to the pimple could clamp down your body’s healing efforts.

This could lead to slower healing of the pimple and possibly more scarring.

I’m just speculating there, but this kind of thing happens when you stick your fingers in and mess with the healing efforts of your body.

Better just let the body do the healing, and focus on supporting the body the best way you can.

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Clear for Life - The lifestyle for health, happiness and clear skin

Few days ago Dobre emailed me asking about alkaline water.

I recently started doing a little research on the effect of alkaline/acidic water on acne and health in general, and to be honest, I`m really amazed at what I found.
The reason I`m writing this email now, is because I want to know your opinion on the subject, and maybe you could do a blog-post-response something like that, to let people know if this is a scam or it may help.

As you may guess from the title I don’t share her enthusiasm.

This looks just like the other health fantasies and miracle cures that plaque the natural health field.

According to promoters alkaline water is supposed to:

• Bring the body back to healthy alkaline state
• Detoxify the body
• Hydrate you better than normal water
• Act as an antioxidant
• And pretty much cure every ill that has plagued humanity aside from global warming - but hold on that one will probably be added to the list also.

And it’s as simple as drinking water treated with their special machine or drops.

So excuse me if I’m little skeptical.

I couldn’t find any independent verification to these claims. Most positive comments come from people selling these machines and drops. And many of their claims would pass as science fiction. Most credible scientists laugh at them.

I know scientists aren’t always the best source when it comes to new developments in the health field. Energy healing and mind over matter are just few examples. Still the evidence against these claims is staggering.

Let’s look at alkalizing the body first.

Most of this acid/alkaline theory is complete nonsense. The body controls the pH of blood very carefully. It has to because even minor variations would be dangerous or even lethal. It has very good mechanisms for doing this.

Breathing is the primary mechanism for this. As a result of cellular metabolism you develop acidic wastes. Breathing out removes this waste through the lungs. The body also has buffers of alkaline and acids minerals that it uses to maintain proper pH. Any excess acid or alkalinity will be removed via kidneys.

This system works very well and you do not want to mess it up by trying to over-alkalize your body.

Decades of eating acidic and unhealthy foods do degrade the body, and it’s forced to store these acids or toxins into your tissues. Simply because it cannot eliminate them quickly enough. The only thing you have to do is to stop eating these. Instead eat healthier foods.

I don’t believe alkaline water does anything to remove these acidic wastes. Simply because alkaline water stops being alkaline the moment it hits your stomach. Stomach acids are highly acidic and mildly alkaline water does nothing to neutralize them.

And you wouldn’t even want that. Because your stomach needs to be acidic for digesting foods.

When you drink alkaline water the stomach responds by producing more stomach acid to maintain acidity. Due to nutritional deficiencies most people have far too little stomach acid to begin with. Further depleting it simply causes more digestive problems.

Another detox miracle

It seems that almost every week we discover a new miracle substance or process and easily, gently and thoroughly detoxes or flushes toxins out of your body.

They are all based on delusional fantasies about detoxing and how it works. They are always based on the idea  that something external is capable of removing poisons from the body. Somehow these inert substances spring into life when they come in contact with toxins and shovel them out of the body when you just kick back and relax.

Last time I checked I had to use the power within my body to put them into my mouth. I have yet to discover a substance that would on its own spring into my mouth. They are no more capable of detoxing your body as they are getting into your mouth on their own.

It’s always the body that detoxes and nothing external can affect the process.

Yes the body uses water to dilute toxins and then eliminate them. But you don’t need alkaline water for that. Simple, pure water works the best.

Antioxidant potential

Alkaline water is also claimed to act as an antioxidant.

The ‘proof’ of this is that oxygen reduction potential (ORP) of alkaline water is much better than normal water. They have nice looking meters to show you this is the case. ORP means the potential to reduce oxygenation (for example rusting or the process that turns cut apple brown).

I just haven’t seen any evidence that this ORP would have an antioxidant effect in the body. Further when you consider that real antioxidants (such as oranges) sometimes have positive and sometimes negative ORP values (alkaline water has negative ORP that that is claimed to be the key to antioxidant power). So if real antioxidants sometimes contradict this ORP claim I wouldn’t put much weight on it.

The hydration claim seems equally bogus.

The claim goes that alkaline water is restructured. They say normal water has clusters with 10 to 12 molecules. Restructuring reduces the cluster size down to 5 or 6 molecules. These smaller clusters are said to be able to penetrate cell walls better and thus hydrate you better.

Of course they forget the fact that water enters cells one molecule at time. So the cluster size is irrelevant to the hydrating power. There’s more to this story, and at the end of the post I’ll provide few references for you to check out if you are interested.

What about all the people alkaline water healed

The most impressing thing in the sites selling machines that alkalize water are the testimonials from normal people and doctors. So many people seem to have been cured from various illnesses by drinking alkaline water.

So it must be the real deal - right?

Well, the human mind is an interesting system. Once you’ve bought into something you’ll do everything to prove you are right. That’s simply how the human mind and our beliefs work.

So any potential health benefit is immediately attributed to alkaline water. Even though there could be many explanations to it.

Most people are dehydrated anyway and that leads to many illnesses. Simply drinking more water can ‘cure’ people. They could have also become more health conscious and change their diet and lifestyles.

Then there’s the placebo effect.

As humans we are quite capable of imagining all the evidence we require to convince us that we and our beliefs are correct.

I’m not saying this is necessarily the case. I’m just saying that the testimonials are not really credible proof that something works. Neither, or I should say especially so, is not discussion at curezone.com. Curezone is perhaps the best source of health fantasies on this planet.

So in conclusion I’m highly skeptical that alkaline water would have any healing power over normal, pure water. It may, but given that the promoters make such ridiculous claims and have no credible proof to back it up, I remain highly skeptical, and would rather use the $1000+ those machines cost to something else.

Until proven wrong, use this as a rule of thumb.

Anytime you see anything that promises to fix or heal you without you having to change your diet or lifestyle, it’s probably not worth your time or money.

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Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear
Skin

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Here are few resource to check out regarding alkaline water:

“Ionized” and alkaline water - snake oil on tap: http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
Does Alkaline Water Promote Health? by Dr. Weil: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA98873
Ask Alice: Alkaline water - Is it better for your body?: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/4067.html
ACID OR ALKALINE? by Dr. Gabe Mirkin: http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/1603.html

 

UPDATE

After looking into the matter a bit more it seems that ‘alkaline’ water might have antioxidant properties.

I found few studies from Asia that indicates that alkaline water could protect against oxidative stress.

Still, I wouldn’t jump to conclusions from abstracts of few studies. It’s too easy to rig the studies to show what you want. Plus from the abstracts it wasn’t clear whether the studies were human or in vitro (in the test tube or petri dish).

So it’s possible alkaline water has antioxidant properties.

If you are interested of looking at the papers here are few links:

• The mechanism of the enhanced antioxidant effects against superoxide anion radicals of reduced water produced by electrolysis.
• Electrolyzed-reduced water scavenges active oxygen species and protects DNA from oxidative damage.
• Reduced hemodialysis-induced oxidative stress in end-stage renal disease patients by electrolyzed reduced water.

When I look around acne forums I see one type of thread popping again and again.

“What can I do to lower my blood sugar?”

Sometimes they talk about foods that should lower blood sugar levels, sometimes it’s about herbs, and lately even about salt.

Most time the discussion on these threads is so far off the base that it’s almost painful to read. Btw, one reason I don’t recommend these forums is the amount of misinformation being passed around there. Interaction is good, but without solid understanding of health most people get horribly confused there.

Back to the point, and let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this issue.

There’s no need to make blood sugar control more complicated than it is. Your blood sugar levels are affected by two things: input and output. Input is the amount of glucose that goes into your bloodstream and output is the amount that leaves. Quite simple.

For keeping blood sugar levels steady output is far more important than input. I know you’ve probably heard otherwise, but that’s just one more jewel of misinformation.

As long as the output is working well your blood sugar levels remain stable - even if you screw the input with lots of refined sugar.

Output is all about your lifestyle. Burn more calories than you eat (or don’t overeat), exercise, sleep well and keep the fat off your plate.

Do that and your blood sugar levels remain just fine.

For some reason people don’t get this. Confusion about diet is probably one reason. People don’t understand how diet affects insulin resistance. And maybe some people just don’t want to accept the responsibility. It’s always easier to look for herbs and other easy solutions rather than change the way you life your life.

Whatever the reason be, it shows up as confusion in acne forums and keeps acne victims from finding real solutions.

Let’s finish by looking at few examples of the kinds of threads I’ve seen recently.

Which foods lower blood sugar levels?

This question is fundamentally flawed. No food lowers blood sugar levels. Food is all about input, and all foods increase blood sugar levels. But I guess that person meant to ask what he/she could eat to keep blood sugar levels stable. Again, that’s more about output. Just make sure you don’t mess up the output with your diet.

If you are quite not sure how to do that, pick up a copy of Clear for Life and I’ll explain it in detail. It’s something most people wouldn’t figure out on their own. Thanks to the diet ‘advice’ we’ve received from out parents, school and the media.

Cinnamon lowers blood sugar levels!!!

You could just as well replace cinnamon with some other herb. Many herbs mimic the effect of insulin or stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin. So the give the illusion that they lower blood sugar levels.

At the outset it might seem like a good idea to take these herbs to lower your blood sugar levels. But it really isn’t.

See, insulin resistance is again one of those protective mechanisms I talked about in Acne 101. If you have insulin resistance, it’s there for a reason. Cells develop insulin resistance for example when you eat more than you need. It’s a result of over-nutrition, or I should say over-calories.

So when you take these herbs you force the cells to take in more glucose they can use. And perhaps that’s not very smart.

Pancreas also has its limits. If you stimulate it with herbs or drugs at some point it will collapse, and you’ll get type 1 diabetes.

Please remember that herbs are drugs, only made by nature. They medicate but never deal with the real problem.

Salt lowers blood sugar

This was the one theory that got me shaking my head the most.

So some scientists made a study that showed that salt intake lowers blood sugar levels. As this amazing discovery is in the form or scientific study people take this nonsense seriously. And to think of this shows how badly people misunderstand the function of blood sugar.

It’s like the fuel tank in your car. When your cells need fuel they take glucose from the bloodstream. When they don’t need it, they don’t take it. It’s really that simple. And to think that salt somehow makes the cells more ‘hungry’ is just absurd.

But what about the study? It showed that salt lowers blood sugar levels. That’s a scientific fact.

Yes, it’s possible that the study showed that. But blood sugar level is measured as concentration of glucose in a particular volume of blood. You can lower blood sugar levels two ways: by reducing the amount of glucose or increasing the volume of blood.

What happens when you eat salt? You get thirsty.

Salt is extremely poisonous to life. It kills all life - and that includes you also (I’ll get to your objection soon, just hold on). For the body to cope with the salt you eat, it must dilute it. The solution to pollution is dilution. That’s why you get thirsty. And if you don’t drink water it’s going to pull it out of your cells and cause dehydration.

So, if after eating salt your blood volume increases by 1 liter because of the water your drink and gets pulled from your cells, of course your blood sugar levels will be ‘lower’. But it’s just an illusion. You still have the same amount of glucose in the blood. So no real progress was made. In fact you wrecked your health by eating poison.

I know that by this time someone is just dying to object. Saying that salt is essential to us. That it’s only harmful in large quantities. The flawed reasoning goes that everything is dangerous in excessive quantities - even water.

Of course the difference is that no matter how little salt you take it’s going to cause an adverse reaction. But the body can deal with it in small quantities. Water causes no adverse reaction in normal quantities. And the lethal dose of salt is not very much. The average American eat 1/8th of it every day. So it’s not very difficult to eat a lethal dose of salt almost by accident. But for you to kill yourself by drinking too much water?

I trust that you understand the difference.

Again, I have to stress that there are no secrets of shortcuts to clear skin and happiness. Every such shortcut you take is just going to make the matters worse in the long run.

Just eat healthy, respect the way your body works and be merry. That’s the ’secret’.

And of course buy Clear for Life, and all your problems will be magically solved for this and all your future lives to come : )

Here’s an acne cure you haven’t heard of.

There’s a brand of condoms in Cambodia that has lubricant that seems to help with acne.

Telegraph newspaper in the UK reports:

Number One Plus, a water-based lubricant produced by health organisation Population Services International (PSI), is an excellent cure for acne, 29-year-old vendor Tep Kemyoeurn told news agencies.

Apparently Cambodian women have been applying lubricant from these condoms on their faces and seeing their pimples vanish in few days.

Whoever came up with that? I have no idea.

My guess is that the lubricant contains antibacterial or similar substance that kills bacteria and hence ‘cures’ acne.

You can read the full Telegraph story here: Condom lubricant cures acne

If you are not getting any because of acne, now you have a good reason to buy condoms. So it at least looks like you have a sex life : )

And who knows, maybe these things do work, and you could start using condoms for what they were made of. Despite this seeming dual purpose, I don’t recommend using the condom you used for sex on you face - or vice versa.

Do use different condoms.

OK, enough of stupid jokes.

Have a great day, and DO buy Clear for Life (just had to work that in).

Here’s one more Accutane legal case that ended up in huge compensations.

Roche, the maker of Accutane, was ordered to pay $2.5 million to 36-year old Andrew McCarrell.

Mr. McCarrell developed an Inflammatory Bowel Disease from taking Accutane. Inflammatory Bowel Disease is the name used to identify a chronic condition of the bowel including diarrhea, painful swelling, cramps of the abdomen, bowel blockage, bloody stool, weight loss, and other symptoms.

Despite the compensation this story doesn’t end up happily for Mr. McCarrell. After enduring several surgeries he had to have his colon removed.

Steep price to pay for clear skin. Especially since you can cure acne with simple diet and lifestyle changes. As I explain in Clear for Life.