HI SHELLY! Im new, and have a ? for you, please help :)

[prettybow]

Hi, someone reccomended this site to me! I bought some vitamins to see if they will help with my acne problem. Before I start taking them, someone suggested that in order for my body to be able to absorm and use the great nutrients from them properly, that I do a liver and bowel cleanse and I dont know what exactly I need in order to do this. Can you help? Thanks!

[shelley]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You have a very smart friend. Taking vitamins is NOT the way to go, at least not at first. And really, super-foods are much better than pills! Most pills are junk and will simply congest you further.

Please read the FAQ - the essential recipes, the sections on Vital Health Management, and Acne is under Ailments.

Get started immediately with bowel and lymph management, and increasing the power of your digestion. Consider fasting.

Do you have a picture of your face? The type and location of acne will tell me exactly why you have it.

I also need to know of your other symptoms such as digestive complaints, age, your typical diet and exercise regimen, whether you ever eat yogurt, kefir or fermented foods, drink filtered water, and a picture of your tongue, or description.

[prettybow]

hi shelly, and thanks for replying Yes, I actually took some pics of my face last night so theyre recent. How can I send them to you? My acne is strictly cystic acne, and Ive had it ever since I was 13. Im 21, and I exercise/work-out every other day, and actually, Im on my way to the gym right now! Heres an example of a day of eating for me-

Morning: Bagle, Oatmeal, a glass of coffee,Water
Lunch: Soup, fruit, water
Dinner: Chicken, Bread, Veggies.

As far as digestive complaints, I dont think I have any. I do know that ever since I was little, I only go to the bathroom (BM) every other day, and sometimes its every two days so I dont know if thats normal. And when I do, more often than not, Im sorta constipated. ( sorry for being so graphic) How can I describe my tongue to you?!! Like what are you looking for? I guess I could take a pic of it too. Let me know where to send my pics..I appreciate your time!

[shelley]

Oh sweetie, that may sound like a healthy diet, but NOPE nope nope. It's not. Close, but crucial things are not right.

Okay... send pics to: editor#askshelley.com.

Get as graphic as you like! this is not a charm school and the blessing of a physical body is wonderful no matter what aspect we're dealing with.

So what's wrong with the diet?

Gluten grains - oats, bagel. Very irritating to the intestines, and thus lowering the power of digestion, absorption, limiting the ability of the body to maintain and repair itself.

Eating soup with fruit in the same meal, and drinking water. Talk about watering down your tummy and expecting it to still have acids left to disintegrate things! Not good. #1 cause of acne is low stomach acids. Spead the word.

Eating bread with both meat and veggies. Okay occasionally, but not every day. Bread is a cheat. Plus it's gluten if it's wheat or white.

You have to have at a minimum 1 BM a day, and if that 1 BM does not include every meal you ate the prior day, then that's not good, you need more than one BM. Some people get to the point where they can have 3 BMs a day because they eat 3x a day, but women don't usually eat enough to do that.

So consider this: you're eating 3 meals a day and tend to only go every-other day. That means at any one time there are a total of 6 meals in your body, rotting. If you skip another day, that's 9 whole meals inside of you. No one should have more than the most recent three meals inside of them.

[prettybow]

hi shelley,
eeeeew! meals inside me rotting away! Thats gross and scary. Well, Im sending you my pictures of my acne..did you mean "editor@askshelley.com" or "editor#askshelley.com" cause I figured the second one couldnt be right. Anyway, let me know what you find about my acne. Also, Im pretty low on funds right now, since I need to change my diet, (which means buying expensive health food) how can I do it without spending tons? Thanks and the pics are on their way.

[shelley]

Oh I'm all about doing things cheaply! LOL! The nice thing is that real food IS cheap. Much cheaper than buying tons of cheese and phony foods! And you don't always have to buy organic.

I got the pics okay! Can you send one of your tongue?

[shelley]

Okay, the pics aren't that bad really, I think once you get out all your old meals and change your diet just a little bit you should be fine!

The guidelines for acne are in the FAQ under Ailments. Study them, they are good guidelines for you. Read as much of the FAQ as you can: vital Health Management, power of digestion, Tongue diagnosis, liver management, bowel management, lymph management, recipes...

Essential expenditures for you are:

Triphala. I have a link in the Sources forum to a cheap source. Take about 2 caplets 3x a day for a month, take more if you're not having at least one BM a day, then stop for a week and see whether you have one good BM a day without it. If you do, you can lower the dose. If you don't, adjust the dose as you think necessary.

Planetary Formula's Bupleurum Liver Cleanse. Just take 2 of those a day on an empty stomach.

Dandelion tea, peppermint tea, ginger tea. If your tongue has a coat on it, get lots of ginger tea and Yogi Tea's India Spice. Drink at least one cup of that a day. If it's clear just drink a cup occasionally.

I don't know what your tongue looks like so I can't be certain wtih the diet recommendations, but no matter what you need to be eating the basic cleansing salad as often as possible for lunch and nothing else. Eat as much of that as you like at lunch along with peppermint tea, nothing else.

Breakfast can be either Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Farina or Lundberg's Brown Rice Cereal or Quinoa Flakes. Lundberg's doesn't need anything else to make it taste good if you get the Almond flavor. The plain just needs a bit of butter and cinnamon. The Brown rice farina is best served wtih Vanila Rice Dream, cinnamon and coconut oil or a flax oil mix, all things you need for the Protein Shake anyway.

Mid-morning snack and late night should be the Cleansing Drink. You should not eat anything after 8:00 and if you can afford it, get some digestive enzymes. Kcal pancreatin is probably the cheapest.

Dinner can be any of the essential recipes or misc. cooked fruit recipes. The trick is to only eat ONE thing, basically, like ONE protein shake with 2 eggs, one bowl of kichadi, one bowl of soup, one large salad, one large sweet potato. You can add fermented veggies like Saeurkraut or marinated ginger or marinated cucumber to any meal.

But you shouldn't eat again until you get all of your old meals out of you. I just posted the Vital Cleanse, be sure to read that, they are good guidelines for you.

[prettybow]

[prettybow]

[prettybow]

Hi Shelley,
Ok, I started to read. I will definately read through it all. I tend to get overwhelmed though..and since thats alot to read, I feel like I may miss something, and not do something right. While Im reading threw this stuff for the next couple days, can you pretty much just list me all that I need to do, like every step so that I dont feel like Im messing up?
I still need to figure out what stuff thats good for me to eat, that you listed,that Ill acutally like so that it can become a staple. Just list all that I need to do, up until the point where I'll be "cleansed" and doing good. Thats when I can take my supplements and benefit from them. Of course, Ill still continue to eat right also. Please help with whatever you can. I mainly dont have alot of time right now (starting a new job) and Im so eager to do this so thats why Id love it if you could list what I need to do so that I could at least start doing it, while Im reading up, you know? Thanks SO much.

[JQ]

Hi Prettybow....

.......were you on acne.org? If so I was the one that recommended you to Shelley.

Well you learn something everyday! I've just read from Shelley that low stomach acids were the No.1 cause of acne! I knew it was a causal factor for congested, bad skin, but I had no idea it was in the top 3 reasons for acne....

My naturopath told me I had almost zero stomach acids in March 2004, 3 months before my first full blown acne breakout....if I had know then what I know now, I could have avoided acne altogether.....ho hum.

I've been cleansing, taking digestive enzymes, etc and have stopped the acne now. I admit I only had acne for 6 long, tiring months but it felt like years after being clear skinned all my life....

I wish you all the best. When you get clearer, spread the word to other acne.org surfers, I am trying to. So many have been suffering with acne for years , are frustrated, depressed, upset, complaining about accutane and other acne medications, etc.......

[shelley]

Don't worry, you can start out slow and get tons done!

Has your tongue always had those red spots? After a month of cleansing, see if they go away.

For now, simply do what I've already recommended, PLUS:

take a good intestinal cleanser like Sonne's Perfect 7 intestinal cleanser, or another fiber-based cleanser - they tend to be the cheapest.

Take a good liver cleansing herbal supplement such as Planetary Formula's Bupleurum Liver Cleanse. If you can afford to get their Turmeric one too, go for it. They are distributed nationally and should be at your local health food store. They have a blue and white label.

Drink 2 Cleansing Drinks a day, at any time is fine
Drink 1 Emergen-C a day
Drink 1 cup of Yogi Tea's Detox or Peach Detox
and as much Peppermint tea you like. Doesn't look like you need the ginger tea or India Spice at all.
And if you can start dry skin brushing too that would be great.
Detox Bath once a week.
Take digestive enzymes with each cooked meal. Kcal pancreatin is the cheapest.
Take one teaspoon of ACV or lemon juice with each cooked meal.

It would also be very helpful if you could not eat any meals for 3 days, just take the above and drink broths if you like.

Your choices for breakfast, once you start eating, are the cereals I mentioned in a previous post, the Protein Shake, or the Kefir Protein Shake, or just the Cleansing Drink.

You choices for lunch and dinner are the Basic Cleansing Salad, you should have that at least once a day for etiher lunch or dinner, Kichadi, Moroccan Chicken Soup, Carrot Cleansing Salad, Basic Veggies prepared with lots of garlic. Avoid red meat for awhile, and only eat good quality chicken and turkey that is hormone-free, occasional fish and seafood.

Don't drink milk.

[prettybow]

[prettybow]

[shelley]