Hey guys,

I hope to share with you what I have learned in my 12 years journey to clearing acne. I used to have moderate to severe acne. (I'm a guy btw)

It took me 12 years to figure out because I was doing it by changing one factor at a time, and I wasn't really exactly focusing all my time and energy into it as well, that's why it took so long.

1 - Stress is my main root cause. Even at my best behaviour, I'll still get 1-3 medium spots when stressed. Acne worsens from 2X to 100X mainly based on the food I eat (See point 3) and a few others.

2 - The regimen works to a certain extend.100mg doxycycline with differin gel per day, and Acne.org regimen twice a day. The external factors like dirt and abrasion on my face didn't cause much acne anymore like it used to. However internal ones still do.

3 - Food are amplifiers that worsen acne, but not exactly root cause itself. Food only worsen acne when I'm stressed (Point 1)
3a) Sugar. 10X to 100X worse
3b) Dairy. 40X to 100X
This includes yoghurt, ice cream, milk, cheese etc
3c) Coffee. Good quality=5X, bad ones=50X
3d) Nuts/legumes/seeds. 10X to 50X
3e) Chocolate. 85% high quality cocoa=2X. Cheap ones = 50X to 100X
3f) Fried food = 5X to 40X, depending on quality of oil
3g) Complex carbs = 5X to 15X
combination of these foods proved to worsen my acne up to maximum 100X.
But when im stress free, these foods would just clog pores without much inflammation

4 - Exercise
Helps a bit, but mainly for bowel movement for me (see Point 7). Even if I exercise without bowel movement, I'll still have moderate acne.

5 - Sleep
Pretty important, the lack of sleep makes me more neurotic and therefore more stressed (See point 1)

6 Weather
Dry/low humidity can cause light to moderate acne. I guess it's because the oil gland try to produce too much oil at once to keep face moisturised, but clogged pores instead.

7 - Bowel movement (important!!!)
I was surprised by this. I'll get from clear skin to moderate acne outbreak suddenly if I haven't done my big business longer than 4 days (usually when travelling)

Myth Buster (for me)
- Sun tanning improves and dries acne (wrong, it will look worse after 2 -3 days)
- Alcohol helps (wrong, it has no effect on me)
- Toothpaste to dry the spots (wrong, it makes the spot more sensitive, it didnt work for me)
- Cleanser (I can use pretty much any cleanser I want now without causing acne, but I'd still recommend acne.org cleanser as it's still the best for least skin sensitivity)
- Vegetable clears acne (I spent 3weeks not eating Veg, still clear skin. However it can still affect if there's no bowel movement)
- Spicy food causes acne (still inconclusive for me)

So there you go. It's been an incredible journey to find out and explore all these things myself. It's tiring but rewarding. I hope it helps.