Clear for Life

Clear For Life

© Seppo Puusa 2007 ‐ 2009 http://www.clear-for-life.com

NOTICE: You may NOT give away or share this report

©2007 ‐ 2009 Seppo Puusa

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without express written, dated and signed permission from the author,

DISCLAIMER

This information is intended to inform readers of potential health‐care alternatives to acne and must not be considered as medical advice. See your qualified health‐care professional for medical attention, advice, diagnosis, and treatment. And keep in mind that anyone who is setting‐out on any dietary, drug, exercise, or other lifestyle change that is intended to prevent or treat a specific disease or condition should first consult with, request a green‐light from, and be monitored by a qualified healthcare provider.

WARNING: Nutritional supplements, while usually benign, can produce adverse reactions in some people. Nutritional supplements can interact adversely with other supplements and with prescription drugs or can make prescription drugs ineffective or may boost their potency. As with prescribed drugs, long‐term effects from supplements are often unknown. Women who are pregnant or nursing should discontinue all supplements except as directed by their healthcare providers. Parents should not provide supplements to their children or teens except after consultation with their healthcare provider. Never exceed the recommended dosage on the container unless under the supervision and direction of your healthcare provider. If you observe adverse effects stop taking the supplement immediately and contact your healthcare provider. If you are under age 18, you may not lawfully view this website and/or any documents and emails associated with it.

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Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 Why you can never cure acne – and the way to permanently clear skin .................................. 10 What causes acne ...................................................................................................................... 12

Blood sugar problems ........................................................................................................... 14 Blood sugar levels and acne .............................................................................................. 14

Inflammation and acne .......................................................................................................... 17 Baseline of health .................................................................................................................. 19

Mental and emotional aspects of health and clear skin ............................................................. 25 The story of two minds and how I messed up my coffee ..................................................... 26 Internal Map of Reality – The software that creates your reality ......................................... 29 How your mind affects your skin and health ........................................................................ 37

How to cure acne ...................................................................................................................... 41 Elements of optimal health ....................................................................................................... 43

Diet ........................................................................................................................................ 43 Fitness ................................................................................................................................... 45 Sunshine ................................................................................................................................ 46 Fresh air ................................................................................................................................ 48 Sleep ...................................................................................................................................... 49 What’s your weak link? ........................................................................................................ 49 Acid/alkaline balance ............................................................................................................ 52

Diet ............................................................................................................................................ 54 How foods cause acne ........................................................................................................... 55

Diet and inflammation ...................................................................................................... 56 Diet and blood sugar levels ............................................................................................... 58 Eating your way to clear skin ............................................................................................ 58

Cooked vs. raw ..................................................................................................................... 59 Problems with cooked food ............................................................................................... 59 Benefits of cooking ........................................................................................................... 61 Cooked vs. raw recommendations .................................................................................... 62

Causes of indigestion ............................................................................................................ 63 Essential fatty acids .............................................................................................................. 64 Blood sugar controls and problems ...................................................................................... 67

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How blood sugar controls fail ........................................................................................... 67 How do I know if my blood sugars are out of control? .................................................... 70 Restoring blood sugar controls ......................................................................................... 72

Building a diet that gets you clear ........................................................................................ 75 Comments on different food groups ..................................................................................... 78 Practical diet tips ................................................................................................................... 88 Supplements .......................................................................................................................... 92

Working on the physical elements of health ............................................................................. 94 Fresh air and proper breathing techniques ............................................................................ 94 Sunlight ................................................................................................................................. 96 Fitness ................................................................................................................................... 98

Threshold – a new look at stress ............................................................................................... 99 Threshold solution .............................................................................................................. 102

Increase your threshold ................................................................................................... 103 Recommended action plan for eliminating stress, dysfunctional emotions and behaviors 109

Understanding the detox and healing process ......................................................................... 113 What is detoxification ......................................................................................................... 113 How you can help your body to detox ................................................................................ 116 Digestive stress ................................................................................................................... 116 Fasting ................................................................................................................................. 117 Healing crisis ...................................................................................................................... 118 How healing happens .......................................................................................................... 119 How long does it take to get clear? ..................................................................................... 122 Why does it take so long to get clear? ................................................................................ 125

Cleansing and detoxing ........................................................................................................... 128 Preparing for a cleanse ........................................................................................................ 128 How long you should cleanse ............................................................................................. 129 Example cleanses and detox diets ....................................................................................... 129 Breaking the fast ................................................................................................................. 133

Topical treatments ................................................................................................................... 135 How happy and meaningful life leads to clear skin ................................................................ 137 From curse to opportunity of a lifetime .................................................................................. 140 Further resources ..................................................................................................................... 142

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Books .................................................................................................................................. 142 Other resources ................................................................................................................... 144

Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 147 Healthy cooking methods ................................................................................................... 147 Recipes ................................................................................................................................ 148 Gluten and acne – The hidden connection .......................................................................... 158 How milk causes acne ......................................................................................................... 163

© Seppo Puusa 2007 http://www.clear-for-life.com

Page 6

Introduction

Live healthy. Be happy. Get clear.

6 words. One simple yet powerful and liberating message. Those six words condense the idea behind Clear for Life. However it’s a common practice that books contain more than six words. So the rest of the book attempts to dress them up with substance.

I know many people are tempted to dismiss those six words as simply too simple to be true. There has to be to acne than that. They point to the people who live obviously unhealthy lives and still have clear skin. They also say if acne would be only about health it wouldn’t be such widespread problem. After all, health is not that complicated – right? You know what’s healthy, don’t you?

Well of course you know what’s healthy, but I’m talking about other people. Those who aren’t as smart as you are.

Even if you feel the temptation to dismiss this message I ask you to keep an open mind for a while. Just see what I have to say and then make up your mind. I promise that reading Clear for Life will be both entertaining and enlightening experience. Even if you are a health guru I’m sure you’ll pick up a thing or two.

I’m going to throw a wild thought into the air. I say that our general ignorance about health and what’s healthy kills us, keeps us miserable and puts many acne victims through needless suffering. Consider these fictitious but common examples.

I’m in a robust health, said a man few days before he died of a heart attack at the age of 56.

“Sure I have diabetes, but other than that I’m in a perfect health”

Of course I’m in a good health, said a man. His friend asked about the 50 pounds of excess weight the man carries? Oh that’s just little baby blubber, the man responded. He continued, other than that the little bit of weight I carry, I’m in perfect health, and besides I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a little bit overweight.

These are just some examples of what you would hear, if you’d ask people how healthy they are. Clearly we like to think we are in great health. Unfortunately the harsh reality doesn’t often meet our grand ideas.

You could say people are delusional about their state of health. Dr. Douglas Graham puts it aptly.

People are sicker than they give themselves credit for Dr. Douglas Graham

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© Seppo Puusa 2007 ‐ 2009 http://www.clear-for-life.com Page 7

This comes from our definition of health. We think we are in good health as long as we are able to go on with our daily lives. This reflects how doctors trained in Western medicine define health; absence of disease or outward symptoms of ill health. In the Western society what doctor says goes. Hence we get such comical answers when we ask people about their state of health.

I’m going to suggest this is not a very good definition of health, and that it doesn’t 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 Organisation offers a 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.

This is far more useful as it defines health in positive terms, as well-being and 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. You have that healthy glow, and you have spring in your step. You are happy for no reason and people like to be around you. You are charged with positive attitude and truly believe in yourself and in your capabilities. You don’t need 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 you’ve had one of those days when everything just went your way? You had tons of energy and felt fantastic the whole day. Whatever you had to do you got it done 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. I’m 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’.

The reason we have lost that child-like energy and positive attitude is not because we have grown up. It’s because through our diet, lifestyle and mental choices we have allowed our health to degrade to a point where our minds are dull and bodies lack the energy and vitality to run around and enjoy the whole day.

When we talk about health I believe we have to go beyond the body. A truly healthy body requires a healthy mind. 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.

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The mind and the body are connected and affect each other. It’s hard to be positive when your body is ravaged with illness. Similarly living under constant fear and stress makes a mark on the body. Even the Western medical establishment begins 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 and wake up easily and full of energy • You are able to do and enjoy strenuous physical exercise • You have athletic and toned body • You have strength to withstand the stresses of life without falling sick, i.e. you are rarely

or never sick

On the emotional level you are in perfect health when.

• You are happy for no reason • You have positive outlook on life • You have 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 of 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, it’s time to celebrate. You just found the elusive answer you’ve been looking for all these years. What I described above is not some supernatural state reserved for the selected few with perfect genes.

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 through their actions, or through some force in their environment (such as radiation or strong electromagnetic fields).

You’ve been in that state before (remember when you were a kid and had so much energy and enthusiasm nothing could stop you?) and by removing the obstacles you can help your body 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 disease process.

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That’s why I believe that working to improve your health, wellbeing and happiness is the only reliable, and probably the only, path to permanently clear skin. And because of the side-benefits (not effects, benefits) it’s also motivating and fun process to go through. You get to see your energy levels go through the roof. You get to experience your body turning into trim, toned and athletic. You get watch stress and negative emotions fly out the window, and happiness and peace of mind flying in. You get a boost to your confidence. You get to watch yourself perform better athletically. How many other acne treatments you know that can do the same?

If that sounds like a lot, I admit, it’s easier said than done. I also admit it’s not going to happen overnight, or even next week, and that it’s going to 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. And it tastes so much sweeter when you know you’ve 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. We’ll 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 to the cause of disease and start participating to the cause of health. Soon afterwards your body stops producing symptoms and starts producing health. When you take the right actions good things happen to you. This is simple cause and effect.

I know you are anxious to get started so I won’t keep you much longer. I’ll just say few words about the structure of the book and how to best benefit from it.

We’ll start by looking at how misunderstanding about the nature of the human body leads to misconceived ideas about diseases and how to cure them. Then we’ll look at the physical and mental causes of acne. Then we’ll move on to curing acne. We’ll go through the six elements of health, and how they contribute to health, or lack thereof.

At this point we’ll 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. We’ll 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 is detoxification, and common misconceptions about it. We’ll look at how to use this powerful health building tool. We’ll conclude by looking at the essence of getting clear and how to turn acne from 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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Why you can never cure acne – and the way to permanently clear skin

Have you ever wondered why acne cures have such a miserable track record? Why is it that the brightest minds in the medical profession can’t solve a simple problem of pimples? It’s not because of money. Acne is big business and anyone who can come up with a reliable solution would get rich, very rich. People are desperate for a cure and are willing to pay almost anything for it.

I’m going to let you in a little secret. There’s 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 there’s something wrong with the body. That something causes acne and must be fixed. This kind of thinking is very common in Western sciences that are based on reductionist thinking (trying to reduce everything to their fundamental building blocks). It’s 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 miserable when applied to complex systems; such as the human body, the weather or stock 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 it’s in a hostile environment it tries to protect itself. In other words the environment the cell is in determines its wellbeing.

So what do you get when you put intelligent and sentient being together? You don’t 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 complex.

The reductionist thinking would 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 pushed to crime because they see it as the best way to make the ends meet – given their current situation. If the city would offer better employment opportunities people would be less inclined to commit crimes. While police acts as a deterrent against the life of crime it’s the situation (environment) people are in that determines their inclination to commit crimes. Most people stay away from crime given good prospects of

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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.

It’s easy to understand that we can never win the war against crime by fighting crime itself. We can win by improving the economic environment, encouraging entrepreneurship and making the city a more lucrative investment destination.

I hope this analogy helps you to understand why you can never with 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 doesn’t. It behaves like a community it is. You can get permanently clear skin by improving the environment your cells live in. You can 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 follows shortly afterwards. Ignore the environment and you are like a dog chasing its tail.

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What causes acne

Now that you understand that your health may not be at the optimal level let’s turn our focus back to acne. In this chapter we look at how steady decline in health leads to acne.

I've realized that nearly everything people know about acne and what causes it is wrong. Because of that they look for solutions in the wrong places. I would even go as far as to suggest this misunderstanding of the cause of acne keeps most people from getting clear.

As far as I understand acne is a result of ‘evil’ twins: chronic, low-grade inflammation and blood sugar problems. Inflammation and blood sugar problems are not separate. They work together and reinforce each other. Some doctors have suggested they are like two sides of the same coin.

SIDENOTE: The human body is incredibly complicated organism and any model trying to describe what happens in the body will have its limits. So does this blood sugar and inflammation model on acne. Basing your efforts to get clear on this model gives better, more reliable and permanent and more predictable results than any other model I’ve seen (including the ones based on toxins, weak digestion, clogged liver and leaky gut syndrome). That said, if you know better models please let me know and I’ll incorporate them here. No point in being dogmatic when only the results matter.

Together they:

• Lead to clogged pores • Weaken the immune system so acne-causing bacteria can multiply • Inflame your pimples

Let's see how they work.

Here’s the big picture:

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In the middle of the picture 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. That means your blood sugar levels are often too high.

Glucose is a simple sugar and also an inflammatory substance. Your cells need sugar, but too much of it 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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Blood sugar problems

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 car’s 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 for you. Rapid changes in blood sugar levels can cause all kinds of problems. In fact too high blood sugar levels can be fatal. That’s 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.

Let’s explore how blood sugar problems lead to acne.

Blood sugar levels and acne

I’m summarizing a study here by Dr. Loren Cordain called ‘Implications for the Role of Diet in Acne.’ You can read the study here: http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Final%20Acne%20Article.pdf (PFD-file).

I’m translating the study from medical jargon into common English, so you don’t need a PhD and a removal of the ability to speak clearly to understand it.

Dr. Cordain says swings in blood sugar level cause acne by:

• Increasing sebum production • Causing skin cells to regenerate faster • Causing dead skin cells to stick together

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 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 picture summarizes the whole thing.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Final%20Acne%20Article.pdf

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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 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 wasn’t 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 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

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spirals downwards. As insulin resistance gets worse the more insulin pancreas needs to pump out. 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 why some doctors call acne ‘skin diabetes’.

So now you have this escalating cycle where more and more insulin is circulating your bloodstream. If (and when) the blood sugar levels swing 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 always affects other hormones. In this case we are interested of 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?

Well 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 when they die. So now you have a steady supply of three hormones that increase sebum production. More of one hormone that makes skin cells regenerate and die faster. And less of one hormone that helps the skin cells to separate when they die.

It’s easy to see how that can lead to blocked pores and acne.

But this is just a part of the equation.

Despite there being a correlation of acne with elevated IGF-1 and DHEAS [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 acne do. However as acne victims something makes us react to these hormones in a way that causes acne.

http://www.archdermatol.com/

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Now let’s look at the other side of acne engine; inflammation.

Inflammation and acne

Inflammation is the body's response to injury. Healing begins with inflammation. So it's a useful thing to have. Without inflammation we couldn’t heal and would die quickly.

But, like all good things, too much of it is bad.

Inflammation was meant to last only a short time. It was meant to be acute 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.

Now 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 aren’t all bad. They are part of the immune system and used to kill pathogens (bacteria, virus 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. Unfortunately our diet and lifestyle choices have left us with deficient in antioxidants, our only defense against free radicals. As a result free radicals ravage destruction through the body.

Chronic inflammation happens when the immune system keeps fixing these tiny, tiny injuries. As this happens constantly over a time and throughout the body this turns into a big problem.

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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 pores.

Chronic inflammation also makes your immune system trigger-happy and prone to overreacting.

You just learned how swings in blood sugar levels leads to blocked pores full of yummy sebum for acne causing bacteria. So when the p. acnes bacteria multiply in blocked pores the immune system attacks viciously and perhaps triggers too 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

Just know that this didn't happen overnight. It took years, most likely decades, before things got to a point where you developed acne.

Your body is constantly trying to fix things and, more importantly, 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 before you get acne.

It also means you have plenty of fuel for the acne engine stored in your body.

So acne won't go away immediately no matter what you do. It takes a while for the fuel storages to empty. I'm not saying this to bum you out. You need to be aware of it so you remain patient if you don't see results as quickly as you expect.

This also explains why it’s futile to think you can get clear by finding what causes acne and then erasing that cause. In all but extreme cases there’s not a single thing that caused your blood sugar controls to fail, or your immune system to weaken. It’s a combination of many, small effects working together.

Rather than thinking there’s a single cause for acne let me give you a better way to look at acne.

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Baseline of health

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 picture on the Y-axis you have your level of health. On the X-axis you have all the bodily systems and functions. In reality your body has thousands and thousands of systems and functions. For this simplified example I picked few that are commonly associated with acne.

The blue line represents the health of different bodily systems. It’s 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 state of his immune and digestive system dipped below the acne line.

Depending on the genetic makeup the red 'acne line' is at a different position for different people. In other words, some people get acne easily, while some people can abuse their body more before getting pimples. Some won’t get acne no matter what, but will get other problems. Remember that everybody has to pay the piper for our ‘health crimes’. Only the payment method (health challenges) varies.

Baseline of health is also like a 'fuel indicator' for the acne engine. The lower the baseline of health is 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

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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 at one day you noticed pimples.

The baseline of health concept is a tool to direct your thinking rather than anything 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 the only reasonable choice is to lift the 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 the baseline and drain the fuel out of the acne engine.

This is perhaps the most important point to understand. Operating from this model automatically directs you towards things that get you clear. Because understanding and operating from this concept is crucial to getting clear I included a related article that explores this from a different angle.

Related article: Nothing causes and a simple way to get clear

Nothing causes acne.

Does that sound strange and illogical to you?

If you are looking for a specific cause to your acne, you have seriously misunderstood acne. This misunderstanding may prevent you from getting clear. If you are running after a cause, you are looking for answers in the wrong place.

Here's the real 'cause' of acne.

You have allowed your body to deteriorate to a level where it cannot cope with the stress and demand you place on it.

I know this isn't what you've heard about the cause of acne before, but don't reject it if it doesn't make sense to you. Let's use a simple metaphor to explain it.

Think of your body as a medieval castle.

This castle is under constant attack and needs robust defenses. The immune system represents the solid walls. The liver takes the form of archers sniping away enemy troops that are within the firing range. The friendly bacteria at the digestive track guards the castle gates.

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The castle is under constant attack by an enemy that wants to take over it. Among the attacker are toxins, chemicals, stress and negative attitude, bacteria, virus, and free radicals.

Here's the interesting part. If the attackers manage to break the defenses and enter the castle you get acne. And as long as they remain inside the castle you keep having acne.

Throughout a large part of your life your defenses have managed to hold off the attackers.

Unfortunately the attackers are persistent. They are on the castle like stench on manure. They want in, and over time their ranks have strengthened.

At the same time you may have neglected to take care of the defenses. The troops on the walls grow tired under constant barrage. One by one the archers fall down. Little by little cracks appear on the solid walls.

Until one day a battering ram brings down the gate and the enemy troops enter the castle.

This is the day you get acne.

Here comes the moral of the story, so hold on to your hat.

Was it the battering ram that broke the defenses? Do you think the defenses would have held if someone would have destroyed that battering ram?

Of course not.

Destroying that battering ram would have made little or no difference on the long-term outcome. It was the persistent and coordinated attack from the enemy troops that brought the defenses down; as well as the lack of reinforcements for the defenders.

However, most people with acne keep acting as if they could have prevented the disaster by hunting down that battering ram. Or, if they are little more informed, they believe that just by reinforcing part of the defenses, for example archers, they can prevent it.

If you think about this for a while you'll see that both of these approaches are doomed to fail. Bring down that battering ram and another will replace it. And it doesn't matter how strong your archers are if the gates are wide open and the enemy can ride in to the castle in massive numbers. The defenses are only as strong as their weakest link is.

What can you learn from looking at acne from this view?

The only way you can break free from acne is to build and maintain strong defenses. You do that by building your health.

Let me explain.

Building health accomplishes two important goals.

First, building health reinforces the defenses by giving them the necessary resources they need. Some examples of these resources are high quality nutrition, fresh air, sunlight, positive attitude and adequate and restful sleep.

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The keyword is health building. You can't reinforce the entire castle overnight. But you can kick-off a repair and maintenance program that, in fairly short time, will substantially strengthen the walls and reinforce the defenses.

Second, building health weakens the attackers. The great thing with this is that you can, in very short time, cut the attackers' supply lines. It's simple. Just stop doing things that weaken your health. Stop drinking coffee and smoking. Don't eat processed foods. Reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals. Get some plants to filter the air in your house.

None of those individually causes acne, but they all add to the force that hammers the defenses. As you drop them you weaken the attackers until one day they cannot break the defenses anymore.

That is the day you get clear.

That is the real and simple truth about the cause acne and how to cure it.

The easiest and the most enjoyable solution to acne is to start building your health. You don't have to wonder frustrated in the dark anymore. Instead you can focus your efforts on taking action to building health, and sooner or later acne will disappear.

--End of article--

Before we get to curing acne I want to address another common question I get. The baseline of health concept explains this perfectly.

Why treatment [insert an acne treatment] gets one person clear but does nothing to other?

If I could get a penny every time someone asks me something similar to that. Another variation of the same theme is the 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 blind.

As you soon discover the odds of getting clear this way are strongly stacked against you.

But hey, no point moaning about it, because I want you to meet Mike.

One fine day Mike was surfing the net looking for solution to his acne problem. He came across with Tina’s post at a forum visited by people with acne. Enthusiastically Tina explained to everybody that she got clear by taking XYZ supplement (or using XYZ treatment). According to her this supplement is the answer to acne and everybody should take it. Some other people also post enthusiastic praises for this supplement.

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So Mike thinks finally he found the answer and runs to the health store to get this magical supplement. He gobbles it down like a starving hippo.

Feeling happy about himself he waits, and waits, and waits…

Despite the magic supplement nothing seems to be happening. He still has acne and the pimples are as ugly as ever.

How could this be? I mean the magic XYZ supplement worked for all those other people, why not for Mike?

Let’s examine what happened.

Here’s Tina’s 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 supplements.

As you can see her acne is triggered by problems with the liver. The magical XYZ supplement helps her liver and immune system and her pimples disappear.

Here’s Mike’s baseline of health graph. As you can see the supplement has helped his liver and immune system – like it did for Tina. It’s just that Mike’s acne is triggered by hormonal problems and lazy digestive system. So to Mike’s 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 at constant flux. There are no guarantees that what works today keeps working tomorrow. It’s common knowledge among acne victims that treatments often work for a while and then stop working. As I’m sure you’ve either discovered yourself and heard from others.

As that happens you are back at square one. 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.

I’m sorry but that is the inconvenient truth about acne.

You can gripe, whine and moan as much as you want but it doesn’t change the fact. To get clear you have to accept total responsibility of and take constant 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 doing that is far easier to than you might think. In the process you become far happier and grow as a person. And you can stop wasting money on supplements and other useless pills.

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Mental and emotional aspects of health and clear skin

Let’s bring revisit the “you as a city” metaphor again. This time let’s take it a bit further, and you’ll get to discover whether you are a dictator or a liberator. I’ll let Dr. Lipton explain this.

Q: What did you mean with 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 becomes 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 body’s 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 body’s cells via neuro-chemicals and nerve transmission. If you are harsh on yourself, it’s your cells that are the ones that physically feel the brunt of your anger. Cell’s 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/article/interview-with-bruce-in-planeta-magazine-part-3rn

So… what kind of a government are you? Have you been nurturing a healthy and prosperous community, or does it seem you’ve been more like 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, don’t worry, this chapter takes you into a fascinating journey to the depths of your mind. You’ll discover how so far you’ve been at the whim of your mind, and, more importantly, how

http://www.brucelipton.com/article/interview-with-bruce-in-planeta-magazine-part-3rn

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to take charge of your life so that you can be happy and peaceful and your cells will finally get “good government”.

End of preview.

To read the rest of the book please visit http://www.clear-for-life.com to buy your copy.

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