Today we have an interview with David Benjamin, who’s got his own blog and business dedicated to helping folks clear their skin naturally and live happier, healthier lives. You might have heard of him already. He’s kinda famous on Youtube :-p

Anyway, in the interview he talks about his experience with acne, how he cleared his skin, and gives you his top three pointers for clearing up yours! Enjoy!

So David, how did you first get interested in health and skincare?

It’s been a combination of a few things, my brother was born with a birth defect because of the acne drug accutane.  My mom took it when she was a teenager and my brother paid the ultimate consequence from it.  She later in life was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and overcame it naturally without any chemo or radiation.

I had acne in my teens and tried everything to get rid of it, it started with facial washes and then become proactiv and other chemical based junk.  Finally my mom started recommending more natural solutions like a clay mask, apple cider vinegar and supplementing with some herbs.  Thankfully this worked better and I started to see results. It didn’t clear up all my skin but I saw a drastic improvement which made me realize that the natural approach worked better overall.

Later in high school I read the book ‘Natural cures they don’t want you to know about’ and realized how backwards the so called ‘health industry’ was. I realized that they only treated symptoms with temporary drugs and treatment and never actually treated the root cause of a problem to fully eliminate it.  This lead me to learn, research and ultimately improve my skin and clear it up fully.

How did you go about clearing your acne?

I focused on a few things to clear up my acne.  I focused first and foremost on using all natural skincare products instead of skincare products that are full of chemicals, preservatives and parabens.  Looking back I would have focused more on my diet along with switching to all natural skincare products, but this was something that I also focused on as well I just didn’t take it as seriously as I could of have I had known too! 

I also focused on cleansing and detoxing, I took different cleansing herbs and supplements to cleanse the intestines, colon, liver and digestive system overall so that my body could better process the food I was eating and not circulate the toxins through my body.

What specific changes did you make? 

I drank more water, I started drinking 50% of my body weight in ounces of water each day.  So I took my weight, divided it by two and drank that many ounces of water each day.  This way I stayed hydrated and my body had the water it needed to purify the blood, keep the digestive system working properly and to cleanse the skin.

Another change I made was to include cultured (otherwise known as fermented) vegetables in my diet.  I would eat saurkraut, kimchi and other fermented vegetables.  Thankfully if you don’t like saurkraut or kimchi you can ferment any vegetables for the most part such as carrots or you can even ferment apples which are delicious.  These fermented/cultured vegetables contain good bacteria known as probiotics which help balance the good-bad ratio of bacteria in your digestive tract and body.  Bad bacteria feeds the growth of acne so getting these foods in your diet helps to balance that and keep the skin clear.

Another important change I made was just to eat more organic, vegetables and fruits on a daily basis. Going to the store and getting organic carrots, celery, kale, cucumber, leafy greens, cilantro, parsley, tomatoes, apples, blueberries etc.  Eating plenty of organic vegetables and fruits daily.  I started snacking on berries instead of potato chips! (good move) and I started eating salads instead of processed foods.  I started making homemade miso soups as well as all other sorts of organic meals with organic vegetables and fruits.  I also did smoothies and vegetable juices with a juicer, both great for plenty of nutrition!

Another change was just to be more positive and to literally ignore the mirror, when I would look into the mirror I would get sad and disappointed that my skin was the way it was so I would ignore the mirror and pretend my skin was healing, I would drift off to sleep thinking about how my skin was healing and just focusing on that while I went to sleep.  The ability to stay positive can be tough but if you stay positive and visualize the outcome you want it can really help you out and help you reach your goals quicker, it did for me.

I also took herbal cleansing supplements for the digestive system in order to really cleanse and detoxify it.  I started using apple cider vinegar on my face, i’d simply spray it on my face and let it tone my skin.  I now also recommend adding a little bit of ACV (short for apple cider vinegar) to the water you drink and drinking it! it’s very detoxifying and great for your gut and internal health and balance for clear skin.

What were some of the most difficult changes?

The most difficult change was eating sauerkraut at first because I did not like it! as time went on though I grew to like it and my taste buds changed to enjoy it more.  Also, some of the herbal supplements I took were pretty bitter and did not taste anything close to ‘great’ at all but the more bitter something taste’s generally it means it’s a better liver detoxifier so that’s a good thing!

Believing that my skin would clear up, and staying positive, persistent and determined that it would get better was a big step for me too because I had so many other things in my life that I could get negative or stressed from.  Just do your best to stay positive, persistent and expect the best while continuing to move forward and learn.

If you had to recommend just 3 things for people to change in their life to attain clearer skin and a healthier life what 3 things would you recommend changing?  

The first thing I would recommend is to drink more water, drink 50% of your body weight in ounces of water each day and do your best to just drink water each day.  No fruit juice, coffee, energy drinks or anything like that! Just drink pure spring or purified water.  This will help to cleanse your body, hydrate it and give your cells more fluidity in order to detox and move better.  Also, if you are drinking spring water that is mineral rich your body will become more conductive and be able to communicate with other cells better so when you start to make other positive changes they will happen faster and you will see results quicker.

The second thing that I would recommend doing is to eat more organic (preferably mostly raw) vegetables and fruits on a daily basis.  Go to the store and get a shopping cart and just buy vegetables and fruits and nothing else.  You can use the vegetables for salads and soups, as well as fermenting them to eat fermented vegetables and you can use the fruits to snack on or cut up and make a fruit bowl.  The more vegetables and fruits you add into your diet the better because they will replace other foods in your diet which aren’t as healthy and won’t serve you in clearing up your skin like veggies & fruits will! Vegetables and fruits should be the very core base of a healthy diet and for healthy clear skin.

The third change I recommend that you make is more difficult and will take time because you can drink water and eat more healthy foods starting today if you wanted too.  Your mind is something that take’s time to change, it take’s time to change your beliefs, emotions, thoughts which in turn control your actions.

I recommend doing your best to keep your thoughts, feelings and beliefs positive, it’s easy to get negative and see the bad side of acne and how much it sucks! Don’t let this get you down, see acne as a blessing and a learning lesson.  You get to learn from a skin condition (that is not that serious) that you need to improve your health.  Some people never have acne or any signs that they aren’t as healthy as they could be and then later down the road they get cancer or some other life threatening disease!

Acne is just a sign that you have some internal toxicity, nutritional deficiencies or issues going on internally that you can fix! It is empowering if you really think about it, it’s an opportunity to educate and improve your health and get an immediate reward for it, to look better and have clear skin.

Stay persistent, positive and always continue learning.  As you continue to learn and try new things it will get easier and you will find what helps you most.

To learn more you can read my blog at http://acneerasingsecrets.com/Blog/ or join the facebook community at http://Facebook.com/AcneErasingSecrets