Eliminating Adult Acne from the Inside Out: A Functional Medicine Approach with Leigh Brandon, Functional Medicine Practitioner

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Choc Talk Gym Podcast, where we explore insights into healthcare that

[00:00:07] help uncover new opportunities for growth and success.

[00:00:11] I'm your host, Jim Jordan.

[00:00:21] Today's guest is Lee Branden.

[00:00:23] He's a highly accomplished practitioner or functional medicine and for those of you that

[00:00:27] don't know what functional medicine is, is an approach that focuses on identifying

[00:00:31] and dressing the root causes of chronic conditions rather than just treating symptoms.

[00:00:35] He has a DSA in management studies from the University of Greenwich as well as being

[00:00:39] a clinical nutritionist and a certified massage therapist.

[00:00:43] Lee brings us today a unique and well-rounded perspective of his work.

[00:00:47] Now his personal journey is a testament to the power of his approach for 18 years he struggled

[00:00:51] with severe acne that persisted despite trying every conventional treatment available.

[00:00:56] He wasn't until he began exploring these underlying triggers of acting through diet and

[00:01:00] lifestyle modification that he finally found the key to healing his skin from the inside

[00:01:05] out.

[00:01:06] What struck me during this conversation is the skin is the body's largest organ and it's

[00:01:10] actually the only one we can see from the outside other than the eyes.

[00:01:13] The skin is a remarkable indicator of overall health.

[00:01:17] Changes in skin can often be the first visible signs of underlying health issues and by

[00:01:21] paying attention to the skin and addressing its problems at their root cause, we can not

[00:01:25] only achieve clearer skin but also promote overall health.

[00:01:30] Driven by his own transformation, Lee has now made his mission to help others struggle

[00:01:34] with acne to reclaim their clear healthy skin through his coaching practice and a new

[00:01:39] book eliminating adult acne for good.

[00:01:42] In our discussion he shares his hard-won insights on the complex factors that can fuel acne.

[00:01:47] He talks about the limitations of standard treatments and the transformation potential

[00:01:51] of a holistic functional medicine approach.

[00:01:53] Whether you're dealing with acne or other skin issues yourself, we're just curious

[00:01:57] about the power of getting to the root cause of stubborn health challenges.

[00:02:01] You won't want to miss this episode.

[00:02:02] So Lee, tell me in the audience a little bit more about your journey and what motivated

[00:02:07] you to pursue this path?

[00:02:09] When I was 13 years old, I started getting acne like a lot of teenagers do and it got

[00:02:14] worse and it got pretty bad after a few months my mother took me to my doctor, my general

[00:02:19] practitioner and he said, no, and I want to do, I'm going to give you this cream, I'm

[00:02:25] going to give you a cleanser.

[00:02:26] It's going to solve all your problems.

[00:02:28] So I'm like awesome, great, mind you get rid of this horrible acne on my face.

[00:02:33] So the creamy gave me basically it didn't really help and in fact it might make me got worse

[00:02:38] and not only had quite bad side effects from the cream and the cleanser so my skin went

[00:02:44] really dry but it would go from being extremely dry to extreme, sometimes I'd have greased

[00:02:49] dripping off the forehead for instance.

[00:02:51] That continued for a while and then my mother said, I've got to take you back to the doctor

[00:02:55] because it's just getting worse.

[00:02:57] So I went back to the doctor's, looked at me and it's, oh yeah, yeah it's not clearing

[00:03:00] up is it?

[00:03:01] What I'll do now and cleared up and I was like great problem solved and then about six

[00:03:04] weeks later came back and it came back with an engine.

[00:03:08] And for the next 18 years every time I went back to look it's not working his only solution

[00:03:13] was here's another antibiotic on that 18 years.

[00:03:17] What that does to you when you take antibiotics for that long but in terms of this I don't

[00:03:22] know if the numbers have got worse in recent years I guess they probably have but mine was

[00:03:26] so bad my nickname was it, you know what it's like at school everyone gets the cruel nickname

[00:03:31] you know it happens but that shows you how bad mine was because that was my nickname.

[00:03:35] So it affected it had on me it was very devastating to myself esteem and my confidence and you

[00:03:41] go through your teenage years and you think well this is a teenage problem so once I get

[00:03:45] to 1920 it's all going to go away and life is going to be great right.

[00:03:49] So I got to 1920 the acne wasn't going away and in fact it was getting worse so you

[00:03:55] know you're starting work you're starting in my case chasing girls and you know going

[00:04:00] on the dating scene and all that and you know going for job interviews you know you've

[00:04:06] got a job into coming up maybe for a job promotion and you know you really want this job

[00:04:10] is extra money and you wake up in the morning and it's like my face is covered in acne right.

[00:04:16] Anyone who's at acne if they they will be able to tell you if they've had anything coming

[00:04:20] up like a big event a job interview or you know a day or whatever on that day the skin

[00:04:26] will break out.

[00:04:27] Wedding and again.

[00:04:28] Wedding.

[00:04:29] Absolutely.

[00:04:30] How did that influence your educational background just sharing with our audience that aspect

[00:04:35] of your history?

[00:04:37] I mean during those years it didn't affect it at all to be honest.

[00:04:40] I mean I was academically reasonably good you know I was in top 3% of every aspect I was

[00:04:46] very sporty which probably saved me mentally actually fact that I was good academically

[00:04:52] I was good at sport.

[00:04:53] If I hadn't been good and I had the acne as well I imagine that would have been a complete

[00:04:56] disaster but it possibly influenced my educational background as an adult which again we can

[00:05:02] come on to.

[00:05:03] So what I was finding was when I went for job interviews, face full of acne and I knew

[00:05:08] I was the best person for the job and then they were given it to people that were far less

[00:05:11] qualified than me, far less experienced than me.

[00:05:14] And I can't help but think that it was because the way I looked you know I might be 25 26 27

[00:05:19] and they're looking at this person I mean I already look young still look young now

[00:05:23] I'm in on 55 which surprises a lot of people but I looked imagine how young I looked when

[00:05:28] I was 25 and they're probably looking at me seeing this spotty looking kid in front of

[00:05:33] them applying for a high position and even subconsciously I think they probably thinking

[00:05:39] well this kid's a teenager how can he possibly do this job you know.

[00:05:42] So it cost me a lot of money I believe it cost me relationships so again when I was in

[00:05:47] my 20s whenever my face would be really bad if I was in a relationship it would end and

[00:05:52] I have to say I can't blame those women for ending a relationship because I don't find

[00:05:57] it attractive so why should I expect someone else to find that attractive and when you look

[00:06:01] at it from a evolutionary perspective you're not going to be attracted to someone who looks

[00:06:07] like their diseased right because you want to have healthy children.

[00:06:11] So my relationships were effective my social life was effective because sometimes you know

[00:06:15] when I loved going out with my friends the pubs and clubs in my 20s you know my friends

[00:06:19] would be going for a night out and my face would be so bad I would just be sorry guys

[00:06:25] I can't come out tonight and I would sit at home and just feel depressed you know

[00:06:29] whilst I knew my friends were out having a great time so it had a real detrimental effect

[00:06:34] on my mental health and my quality of life.

[00:06:37] Now you mentioned that it influenced your educational pathway you want to show that

[00:06:41] a little bit about your back?

[00:06:42] Yeah so there's quite a long story but I will keep that relatively as short as I can.

[00:06:48] So at the age of 27 I became a personal trainer so again I've still got acne so can you

[00:06:53] imagine you're turning up, you're trying to teach people how to be healthy and you've

[00:06:56] got a face full of acne.

[00:06:58] It doesn't make you feel full of confidence to start but also makes you feel like a fraud

[00:07:02] because you're teaching other people how to get healthy but yet you're not that vision

[00:07:06] of health.

[00:07:07] Now it was when I was 31 and this is where my journey started of healing my acne I was

[00:07:12] at a conference in Bluffer University in England and there was an American guy called Paul

[00:07:17] Czech from the Czech Institute and he was doing a lecture and it was called Flatten your

[00:07:21] absurrever.

[00:07:22] So we go in this room and we think we're going to be learning how to do crunches or these

[00:07:26] ab exercises but it's a lecture hall and you think I have a little skin on here.

[00:07:30] So anyway so the guy starts talking and I had known about this guy for several years

[00:07:34] but he starts talking and there was a few things that really grabbed my attention so he

[00:07:38] said what you eat affects your hormones, your hormones affect your skin and can cause

[00:07:44] issues like acne and then he said food sensitivities can also cause acne.

[00:07:49] Now I'd been asking my medical doctor for 18 years whether Daya had anything to do with

[00:07:54] acne and he assured me every single time that it had absolutely nothing to do with acne

[00:07:59] and there's this guy who you know I've read a lot of his articles over the years and

[00:08:04] he seemed to know what he was talking about so anyway after this conference I went back

[00:08:08] home went to see a local guy he tested me and he found out I actually had a Candida over

[00:08:15] growth which is a fungal infection and I had several food intolerances so he said to

[00:08:21] me okay the first thing I'm going to suggest you do is stop taking those antibiotics

[00:08:24] because they're not working and be they're causing you damage and they probably caused

[00:08:28] your fungal infection.

[00:08:29] Absolutely did yeah.

[00:08:33] And he said here's a list of foods you're sensitive to so I'm going to put you on an anti-fungal

[00:08:37] diet and you also need to go on an elimination diet to cut out the foods that you're sensitive

[00:08:42] to so I went home and being the kind of person I am I emptied my cupboards through everything

[00:08:47] away, restocked and I followed his program to the letter and within two weeks my skin

[00:08:54] was clear.

[00:08:55] Now what food for you was the culprit?

[00:08:57] So I remember I've not done so many tests since then but definitely gluten and wheat, dairy

[00:09:03] there was chili peppers there was bell peppers there was black pepper there was garden

[00:09:06] peas there are the ones I can remember off the top of my head there were some others

[00:09:10] but I went from having more than one breakout a week to maybe having about four year after

[00:09:17] that two week period so I wasn't completely acne free but you wouldn't have said oh that's

[00:09:22] lead that's the guy with acne because I would only break out a few times a year and then

[00:09:26] over the next 10 years the number of times a year I would break out got less and less

[00:09:30] and less to the point where I just didn't really break out at all but that initial change

[00:09:34] of diet was life changing for me and there is a lot more to acne than just diet but for

[00:09:40] some people literally just changing diet can be enough to get rid of their acne.

[00:09:45] So today what do you do?

[00:09:47] You wrote a book tell us about the book and then what does your organization do what do

[00:09:51] you do to help people in this area?

[00:09:52] Yeah so I practice functional medicine I mean I've studied lots of other things I've studied

[00:09:57] nutrition I've studied holistic dermatology I did that's what I did in during lockdown

[00:10:03] so I'll make sure I was busy I've studied many other things through exercise and manual

[00:10:08] therapies like massage therapists etc but I mainly work with people that are either in chronic

[00:10:13] pain have a skin issue or a gut issue.

[00:10:15] Now it's quite interesting because there's quite a link between gut issues and skin issues

[00:10:19] as well but what I do is I help people overcome a health challenge by getting to the root cause

[00:10:24] of the problem and because of my own history with acne I really love helping people overcome

[00:10:31] their acne issues because a lot of people think that there is not a solution to acne

[00:10:36] that they've just got to live with it or the only solution is a pharmaceutical solution

[00:10:40] or a topical solution but what I've found over the years is that the topical solutions

[00:10:48] and the pharmaceutical solutions they only aim to treat the symptom they don't get to

[00:10:53] the root cause and the thing that's an important message for me to get across to people

[00:10:58] is the same things that we know cause acne also cause much more serious illnesses so

[00:11:05] whether it's obesity diabetes dementia heart disease cancer they're the same things

[00:11:11] so what I try and explain to people is acne is almost like your canary in the coal mine

[00:11:17] it's your engine warning light on your car dashboard telling you that there's something

[00:11:21] wrong on the inside.

[00:11:23] Now if you treat acne with topicals and pharmaceuticals what you're in essence doing is you're

[00:11:29] taking a piece of black tape and covering over the engine warning light on your dashboard

[00:11:33] you're not fixing the problem you're just kicking the can down the road and kicking

[00:11:37] the can down the road generally means that you're going to have a much more serious problem

[00:11:41] later on so the book that I wrote to help people with acne it's called eliminating adult

[00:11:47] acne for good and it's basically a self-help book that people can use and go through

[00:11:53] the book step by step almost exactly the same sequence as I would take a client one to

[00:12:00] one through overcoming acne so I wrote the book because and there's a lot of people out

[00:12:05] there that can't afford a coach so I thought how can I help those people who can't afford

[00:12:10] a coach because I've had so many people contact me and when I speak to them you know they

[00:12:14] might be a janitor or a cleaner or a bell boy at a hotel they just can't afford a coach

[00:12:21] so I thought how can I help those people and keep the cost down as I was writing the

[00:12:25] book I was thinking right okay if I was with a client now what would I be telling to do

[00:12:29] first what would be the next thing right when they've done that what will be the next

[00:12:33] thing it's like I'm holding their hand through the process of overcoming acne and the way

[00:12:38] I do that is by getting them healthy so hypocritees stated thousands of years ago that you should

[00:12:45] not treat the disease a person has but to treat the person that has the disease and I have

[00:12:50] a saying and the saying is that health and disease cannot live in the same body so if you

[00:12:55] get yourself healthy you won't have any symptoms and acne is a symptom of an internal problem

[00:13:01] so it gets interesting that so I'm dealing with some researchers on a project between

[00:13:05] Carnegie Mellon University at Pittsburgh and it's the recognition that our body is really

[00:13:11] one system we look at organs we look at cells but the reality is you know our body is

[00:13:16] always moving and adapting and how do we understand that and how do we make sure that

[00:13:20] when we're treating the acute issue that we're not impacting other issues right and extreme

[00:13:25] obviously is you know we use radiation and chemotherapy for cancer but we're also you

[00:13:30] know killing healthy cells and doing some other things now obviously from a pragmatic perspective

[00:13:35] given the acute nature that that makes sense but the other aspect when you talk about functional

[00:13:39] medicine is there's when you look at Crohn's disease and irritable balance syndrome or

[00:13:44] some of these other things the big connection between braining dot a disconnect it goes on

[00:13:49] in the impact of food and influencing that so we actually are learning that even some

[00:13:55] of our mental states and our moods are coming from the foods and things that we eat so you

[00:14:00] get the book out tell us some stories of people come back and shared with you their experience

[00:14:05] from your book well the book is not been out very long so I haven't had any people come

[00:14:10] back to me with a book it's only been out literally a couple of months but I can say

[00:14:14] a few stories of people that I worked with but are quite interesting so one lady came

[00:14:20] to see me we were talking about weddings earlier so she came to see me she was age 27 she'd

[00:14:25] never had acne in her life she was getting married in about six months time and for the

[00:14:30] first time in her life her skin have broke out and she was in a panic and she had always

[00:14:36] not really been too careful about what she ate yet she was a stunning looking woman said

[00:14:42] like a great figure so she was never overweight never had bad skin before so I often start

[00:14:48] with changing nutrition so we made a few tweaks to a nutrition and I also got her to do

[00:14:54] a stool test to see what her gut microbiome was like there was a few little things going

[00:14:59] on so we worked on those couple of months in and she's like yeah it's got a little bit

[00:15:04] better but you know I'm only four months out from my wedding I'm I need to sort this

[00:15:09] out so I said okay let's run a toxicity test let's see if there's any toxins that are

[00:15:14] causing a problem because again toxins can be related to acne so one of the tests I got

[00:15:20] her to do was a blood test for heavy metals and I was looking through the list no that's normal normal normal

[00:15:25] normal mercury off the scale wow so she had blood mercury levels that were way off the scale

[00:15:32] and you know when I presented them with the results she said well how can that be like how

[00:15:37] am I being exposed to mercury and I said well the most common reason is actually people

[00:15:43] that eat a lot of fish particularly bigger fish enough face just froze as she said I've

[00:15:49] been eating tuna sandwiches or tuna salad for lunch every day for 10 years so I said okay

[00:15:54] so maybe you need to swap out the tuna at least not have it every day so anyway I suggested

[00:15:59] she used the supplement called El Glutothione so I like the somal El Glutothione so it's

[00:16:05] absorbed really well and within a few weeks our skin are completely completely cleared that's

[00:16:10] amazing so in your book I think you talk about this for me causes of what are those well technically

[00:16:17] they're not causes and I'll explain why in a moment but this is what the general kind of consensus

[00:16:22] is for for the for main causes and the first one being an excess of oil on the skin the oil is

[00:16:28] called sebum and it's secretive by the sebaceous glands which live in the hair follicles and they

[00:16:33] roll is to moisturize and protect the skin and the skin barrier so if there's too much oil being

[00:16:39] released that can plug the hair follicle and that can lead to blackheads whiteheads etc another one

[00:16:46] is an increase in the number of skin cells produced so if there are skin cells the skin cells

[00:16:52] they come like through the layer of the skin if you like as they're coming up through the hair

[00:16:56] follicle if there's more of them again they're more likely to plug the hair follicle now on the skin

[00:17:02] like everywhere in our body we have millions of microbes so we have microbes that live on our

[00:17:07] skin and they're part of you know our immune system they protect the body they're there for

[00:17:11] very good reason and the downside to if you're a microbe living on the skin you don't have a food

[00:17:16] supply like if you're a microbe living in the gut obviously how food goes in that gut so they

[00:17:22] generally live off the sebum so the oil in the sebum and the proteins from the skin cells

[00:17:27] so when there's a blockage due to excess sebum in an excess skin cell generation now it's party time

[00:17:33] for these microbes they proliferate but now they become an infection the immune system comes in

[00:17:39] to try and deal with that now when the immune system's activated it creates inflammation it creates

[00:17:44] redness swelling and pain and that's exactly what you get with an acne lesion so you've got exo-sebum

[00:17:51] excess skin you've got the proliferation of the bacteria cutie bacteria and acne which is the one

[00:17:57] that's generally involved in acne and then you've got the information so there you're a fall I

[00:18:02] would call them mechanisms rather than causes because the question is what's causing those to happen

[00:18:08] and this is where it gets interesting and I've got a whole chapter on the book on this but with the

[00:18:12] sebum the sebum have hormone receptors on them and when specific hormones increase what happens is

[00:18:20] if they reach the sebaceous glands they stimulate the release of more sebum so it's generally

[00:18:26] suggested that androgens are the cause of the stimulation of the sebaceous glands and androgens

[00:18:32] are the male hormones so testosterone is one there's dehydratestosterone which is DHT but there are

[00:18:37] lots of other hormones as well that have been shown to increase the activation of the sebaceous

[00:18:43] glands so insulin is another one so whenever we're eating sugary foods the way that the body tries

[00:18:50] to balance our blood sugar is to release insulin so each sugary foods your insulin levels go up

[00:18:55] that can potentially stimulate the sebaceous glands so there's my first tip is that sugary foods

[00:19:01] are one of the causes of acne there's another hormone called insulin-like road factor one and

[00:19:07] that's linked to insulin insulin-like road factor one or IGF one is naturally in dairy products

[00:19:13] so the whole purpose of dairy is to help baby mammals grow so when we have dairy products that also

[00:19:22] stimulates the sebaceous glands to secrete more sebum so we've got sugary foods we've got dairy

[00:19:29] now the other thing that from a dietary point of view is that if we're eating anything toxic

[00:19:35] or anything that causes inflammation so things like seed oils vegetable oils etc cause inflammation

[00:19:40] in the body they can increase the systemic inflammation in the body so then rather than you might

[00:19:46] have a tiny black head or tiny white head might not even see it if there's excessive inflammation

[00:19:52] in the body that can turn into something bigger like a nodule or a cyst so making sure that you're

[00:19:59] not eating foods that your sensitivity so remember earlier I was talking about I did a test for food

[00:20:03] sensitivities and I cut those foods out and that helps get rid of my acne so anything that can cause

[00:20:09] inflammation in the diet and dairy is another food that can cause inflammation for some people

[00:20:14] and again we're all slightly different so food is a big issue particularly high glycemic foods

[00:20:20] dairy foods and inflammatory foods but also toxins can be an issue as well so again if there are

[00:20:27] toxins in the body it's the immune systems job to try and mop them up and get them removed from

[00:20:32] the body so again any kind of toxin is going to increase systemic inflammation but another issue

[00:20:39] with toxins is that if the liver becomes overworked because the liver has multiple multiple functions

[00:20:47] but one of them is obviously to help detoxify toxins from the body and help get them removed

[00:20:52] but they also remove used hormones from the body so if the liver is trying to do too many things

[00:20:59] another thing that can happen is that excess hormones can start circulating around the body

[00:21:04] because the liver isn't getting rid of them and there are other hormones that have also been shown

[00:21:10] to increase sebum reduction so if this is normally for females but if a female has what's called

[00:21:16] estrogen dominance so that could be high estrogen levels or low progesterone levels that can also

[00:21:22] stimulate the sebaceous glands but also the stress hormone cortisol when it's very client

[00:21:28] has also been shown to stimulate the sebaceous glands so whenever we're stressed that can also

[00:21:35] increase the likelihood of a breakout and again I mentioned earlier if you've got a big event coming

[00:21:40] up or wedding job interview you know hot day whatever it might be the fact that you're stressed you

[00:21:46] might be secreting excess cortisol and again that can help to stimulate the sebaceous glands to

[00:21:53] more sebum so you see it's very multifactorial acne there are so many different reasons and

[00:21:58] it really saddens me because I try and join in with acne social media groups and some of us say

[00:22:04] well I tried this it didn't work I'll try this it didn't work I tried this it didn't work but you've

[00:22:08] got to look at it from a bigger picture you've got it it's got to be a whole lifestyle change

[00:22:12] rather than one thing here and one thing there so you mentioned that everybody has sort of a different

[00:22:16] skin type how do individuals determine which foods are right for their unique skin type?

[00:22:21] yeah it's not so much skin type it's what I would call metabolic type okay so this is a process

[00:22:27] I'd take people through you know if they work with me as a client but I also do it in the book as well

[00:22:32] and to kind of explain it in very simple terms someone that for instance if they came from a

[00:22:40] family where their ancestors were from a cold climate they would have evolved eating predominantly

[00:22:45] animal based foods and a little bit of plant based foods conversely if someone was from an

[00:22:50] environment where there wasn't much game meets around but they're maybe in a jungle let's say

[00:22:55] their ancestors would have evolved eating predominantly plant based foods and very little animal

[00:23:00] based foods so that's where our metabolic type comes from it's more from our genetics our environment

[00:23:06] does impact it as well but the process I take people on first of all I get them to do a questionnaire

[00:23:11] that gives them a starting point and then from the starting point I go through a journey where they're

[00:23:17] logging the foods that they eat and how they feel one to two hours after that meal so whenever we eat

[00:23:24] it affects our energy levels our appetite in our emotions so if you can track those three things

[00:23:31] in quite a lot of detail what you can start to do is to fine tune your ratio of what we call

[00:23:37] your macronutrient ratios so that's your facts your proteins and your carbohydrates to make it

[00:23:42] more simple you can say your animal based foods versus your plant based foods and everyone

[00:23:47] has got their own sweet spot so it's a process it is to a degree it's a process of trial and error

[00:23:52] and a lot of people think well that's not very scientific but actually the body does change as well

[00:23:57] if you think of working with women women have a hormonal cycle right a menstrual cycle so for females

[00:24:04] it actually changes throughout the month as well and any woman will tell you when they're pre-menstrual

[00:24:09] they will crave carbs right so that's just one way in which you can kind of see how this is true

[00:24:14] and what I would say is that when I go through that process with most people whether it's to help

[00:24:18] me that can eat or anything else and even I've been doing this for 20 years even now I still

[00:24:24] blown away by the difference it makes the peoples you know it made a huge difference to me when I

[00:24:29] started eating that way and it's not you know yes your skin gets better but you get more energy

[00:24:34] you could perform better you go longer between meals you don't need to snack you lose your cravings

[00:24:39] but the key thing with acne in terms of eating right as well as avoiding the foods that you're

[00:24:44] sensitive to when you eat right for your tired what it does it helps to balance your blood sugar

[00:24:50] levels so remember I was saying that insulin is one of the key factors that can stimulate the

[00:24:55] sebaceous glands so when you eat right for your type your blood sugar levels they don't go up and

[00:24:59] down so much there are a lot more balanced so again you're not stimulating or releasing as much

[00:25:05] insulin because you don't need to so that again reduces the likelihood of acne.

[00:25:10] One of the great things about having a podcast is you can ask questions that are personal to you so

[00:25:14] I started doing cold showers about a year ago and I noticed my skin health was outstanding so when

[00:25:21] the winter you usually get the roach of the dry skin and I maybe would break out a little bit more

[00:25:26] not in the way that you're talking about being older but just you know would break out and I have

[00:25:32] not had any skin issues in almost the entire year that I've been doing that so what is the cold

[00:25:37] water doing that hot water yeah yeah so are you having pure cold water or are you doing hot and

[00:25:44] then cold or not pure cold it's okay but in December to now it's kind of rough to get in there

[00:25:50] in the morning yeah yeah it's interesting I mean obviously what cold does to the skin

[00:25:56] so it closes everything up okay when you have hot it opens everything up so why that's having an

[00:26:03] effect on your skin I couldn't be sure now how long do you spend in the shower minimum of three

[00:26:09] minutes so yeah which is yeah and it's really cold it's as cold as it can I can tell the seasonal

[00:26:17] changes it definitely just from the yeah yeah yeah coming into the house yeah yes it gets pretty cold

[00:26:23] in the winter for sure yeah I mean if you're in long enough what it does do once your body gets

[00:26:29] to a certain temperature it will shunt your blood away from the skin and into your internal organs

[00:26:36] so it might be that you're getting more blood flow to your organs that's why I was asking how long

[00:26:42] do you spend in there because if you're spending over three minutes it's possibility that you could

[00:26:46] actually just be shunting more blood to your internal organs and that could potentially be helping

[00:26:50] I don't know for sure yeah but that's also actually pretty good it's not washing away the oils

[00:26:55] that are on my skin and maybe in the dry months be protected when you look at some of the myths

[00:27:01] of skincare I mean I imagine you're fighting that all the time what are some of the top myths that

[00:27:06] you deal with and have to debunk well again in my book there's a chapter called the good the bad

[00:27:12] the ugly where I discuss the common medical treatments that are advised and I clearly explain

[00:27:20] what are their benefits but also the side effects because I'm not again I'm not sure how many people

[00:27:24] really get told what the side effects are and I saw a port last week actually it was stating that

[00:27:31] in the products that contain benzene peroxide so remember I used a benzene peroxide product

[00:27:36] for 18 years that didn't work it did stain my carpet by the way so if you drop it on fabrics it

[00:27:42] actually takes the dye out of the fabrics it's the first thing there's an issue right yeah so

[00:27:48] what this report was showing was that they've studied benzene peroxide and due to oxidation or

[00:27:55] to heat the benzene peroxide can break down into an ingredient called benzene now benzene is

[00:28:01] a known carcinogen and it's been linked to leukemia so this is why it's really important that people

[00:28:07] understand the benefits but also the side effects because without knowing that you could potentially

[00:28:13] be causing a lot more harm than good now I don't know about you but I would rather have acne than

[00:28:18] leukemia now I'm not saying I mean I didn't get leukemia right even though I used it for 18 years

[00:28:23] but you're increasing the risk now one of the things that I mentioned earlier as well was that

[00:28:29] people often think that acne is a skin condition that's one of the biggest myths now what I

[00:28:35] mean by that is that acne is an inside jaw it's telling you that there's something wrong something

[00:28:41] imbalanced possibly something toxic going on on the inside the symptoms are appearing on the skin

[00:28:48] so I think what's striking to me as as I'm listening to today is that if you were to talk to a

[00:28:53] physician they would say the skin is an organ and I think it's the only external

[00:29:00] measurement we have as individuals on our internal health I guess is what I'm hearing here

[00:29:06] yeah absolutely so we should go about working with people what are some of the challenges that

[00:29:13] you have do you have situations where their general practitioner or any they folks are

[00:29:19] contradicting your strategy or for the most part of the supportive or most people that come to see me

[00:29:26] to help them with acne they've already been down the doctor route they've already been down

[00:29:30] the dermatologist route and they got nowhere so they're at that point where that hasn't worked

[00:29:36] for them so they're not really interested in continuing to work with the doctor anymore so I've never

[00:29:41] had that kind of conflict of me saying one thing and their medical doctors saying something else

[00:29:46] that biggest challenge for me as a practitioner and for people that are trying to overcome acne

[00:29:52] and I would say most health conditions is sticking to the program right I can give people a program

[00:29:58] that's going to work but if they don't do it it's not going to work so again in my book there's

[00:30:03] a whole chapter that's dedicated to mindset because if you're not in the right mindset to start

[00:30:09] a program and I call it a program because it's not a quick fix it's a whole lifestyle change

[00:30:14] and change takes energy so the important thing is just that people are really in the right frame

[00:30:21] of mind before they begin so the first thing is understanding that there aren't quick fixes I mean

[00:30:27] some people may have used the product and it worked but I imagine they're in the minority understand

[00:30:32] you've got to go on a journey of education and application and also understand there's going

[00:30:37] to be difficulties whilst you're on that program it's never a really smooth ride there's always

[00:30:42] going to be things that get in the way things that bump you off course but that's why it's important

[00:30:48] to get the mind strong first so that are you're going to expect these bumps in the road

[00:30:52] but also prepare for them now I've been practicing for 28 years I've heard so many different excuses

[00:30:59] as to why people couldn't do something so one of the things that I get people to do and it's in my

[00:31:04] book and it's in my coaching program is to think of all the potential situations that could come up

[00:31:11] that would mean they wouldn't be able to continue following the program even if it's just for a day

[00:31:15] or one meal or whatever it might be so as an example one of the excuses I've heard in the past

[00:31:21] so again if I'm looking at someone's diet sheet for instance and I'm looking at their lunch

[00:31:26] and their reactions are all full to their lunch you know that it didn't fill them up they were really

[00:31:30] hungry soon afterwards it made them feel a bit depressed and also okay so what happened with that

[00:31:35] meal and they'll say oh well I wasn't in control of that meal I said okay that's interesting

[00:31:39] so why weren't you in control well we had a meeting at work and they gave us sandwiches and yeah that

[00:31:45] just didn't work for me okay that's interesting so if you were in that situation again what could

[00:31:51] you do differently and obviously they start thinking they said well yeah I guess I could have

[00:31:55] taken my own food in okay yep that would have been one anything else well maybe I could have

[00:32:00] just popped out and got something a bit more healthy than the sandwiches they were and so the

[00:32:03] person's coming up with their own solutions so if they're confronted with that situation i.e you

[00:32:11] know they've got a lunchtime meeting on foods being supplied rather than say oh well I haven't

[00:32:16] got any control over this situation they've already planned ahead so I know what to do now

[00:32:21] so if they knew about the meeting the day before they could have taken something with them

[00:32:25] or if it was just sprung on them they might say right let me just quickly run out and get

[00:32:28] something a bit more healthy than what I know they're going to give me so when you've got those

[00:32:32] things in place it just makes the whole process run that much smoother and also you don't get those

[00:32:38] know if you do something where you know it wasn't right no people feel bad about it they're quite

[00:32:43] often feel guilty so it stops that negative cycle because again people often they go off the wagon

[00:32:50] they get into this negative spiral downwards and they say oh well our mothers will have a terrible

[00:32:54] dinner as well now and then they wake up the next oh yeah I'll fallen off the wagon you know

[00:32:59] well I also think our diet is very related to also culture and environment so I think of

[00:33:05] two situations so you know every January I do dry January and if you're out in a business situation

[00:33:10] and you're not having a drink people make the assumption you're a former alcoholic and I think

[00:33:16] of another story of I was in medical device sales and marketing so I was in an in-stage renal disease

[00:33:21] dialysis situation and it was in the south and there was this gentleman being elected by an

[00:33:26] astrologist for eating too many tomatoes and he told the story that his wife made the most

[00:33:33] delicious tomato soup every year from their garden and to not have that soup would be an

[00:33:39] insult to his wife and the doctor said you know do you think for a moment that your wife would want

[00:33:44] you to be ill because of this and it's just a conversation he wasn't ready to have so I also

[00:33:50] think that a lot of these things are the house we grew up in the food that we have the connection

[00:33:55] of comfort you know mom made me this certain pie or something like that it's extremely difficult to

[00:34:01] your point requires a bit of discipline and it's about not feeling bad how other people feel about

[00:34:06] you it's about making control of that which I think is part of it so as you've gone through this

[00:34:11] journey tell me about a time when you've had to adapt or shift your strategy quickly because

[00:34:16] you sort of found your way through this right if it wasn't a typical pathway that anyone would take

[00:34:21] in what respects how have you turned it into a business and that you know you could get your

[00:34:26] message out and you can support yourself financially what so I want you to name when you said change

[00:34:31] direction so I've done a few startups in my day and at some point in time when you realize you

[00:34:38] you love the product you love where you're going but for whatever at this moment in time with this

[00:34:42] US reimbursement system it's not going to work right and so you pivot to an area that's less

[00:34:47] attractive but it makes a vibe in this model okay yeah so obviously as I said back in was

[00:34:53] 1996 I started off as a personal trainer so I was going down that route for quite a few years

[00:34:58] and then I studied with the check institute I mentioned earlier I studied there for five

[00:35:02] and a half years and I actually started doing a lot of injury rehabilitation after my studies

[00:35:08] with the check institute and I was actually working predominantly in lumbar spine pathologies so

[00:35:13] I was helping people recover from lumbar spine injuries particularly disc injuries they're interestingly

[00:35:19] 11 years ago I ruptured two discs in my lumbar spine which was an experience to say the least

[00:35:25] but what I've done in recent years is that I've focused on helping people that have the same issues

[00:35:32] that I've been through because not only have I studied them from a textbook and in lecture rooms

[00:35:38] but I've lived it as well and I think that gives me a certain level of authenticity because I've been

[00:35:43] there and I've done it but also the main thing is because I want to help those people so I could

[00:35:48] continue and I enjoy doing it I could continue just helping people with lumbar spine pathology

[00:35:53] and I would make a lot more money than helping people with acne right but I want to help people

[00:35:59] with acne that's why I've come out with this book you know just a couple of months ago and I'm really

[00:36:05] on a mission to help people with acne understand that yes they can get in control of their acne

[00:36:10] and they can reverse it and by reversing it not only are they reducing the likelihood of

[00:36:16] serious disease further down the line but they couldn't massively increase their quality of life

[00:36:21] by doing so it struck me in the story of the woman that had metals in her body that it's also

[00:36:27] the data that you're getting the correcture skin also has all sorts of other health benefits

[00:36:32] associated with it absolutely so where can people get your book so it's from all major outlets

[00:36:38] so Amazon, Barnes and Noble online retailers if you've got a physical story you want to go to they

[00:36:44] can order it for you you can also there's links via my website so my website is eliminateadalacne.com

[00:36:52] and you've all should say your book is a limited adult acne for good I believe is that

[00:36:56] yeah eliminating adult acne for good available from all good bookstores and some rubbish ones as well

[00:37:02] apparently so if someone wanted to hire you would they go to your website?

[00:37:08] yeah go to my website so there is a coaching program that I have so they can watch there's

[00:37:13] a little video on there they can watch a bit more about how I work and they can schedule an

[00:37:19] acne breakthrough call with me absolutely free and you know we can chat about a whether I think

[00:37:24] they're right for my program and they can decide whether my programs are right for them

[00:37:28] anything else you'd like to share with your audience?

[00:37:30] I think the key message for me is that acne is an inside job cleanup your body from the inside out

[00:37:37] and just be aware that if you don't treat it at the root cause level

[00:37:41] they likely heard 10 20 30 years down the line there's going to be something a lot more serious

[00:37:46] come along so deal with the root cause now gonna save yourself a lot of trouble and you're also

[00:37:51] going to improve your quality of life. Excellent well thank you for sharing your journey with us.

[00:37:56] One pleasure. Thanks for tuning into the Chalk Talk Gym podcast for resources show notes and

[00:38:04] ways to get in touch visit us at chalktalkgem.com