11 Fun Ways To Clear Acne

After researching acne, you might easily get the impression that clearing acne is a long, dreary slog. If you obey the traditional acne doctrine, it can be. After all, applying benzyl peroxide daily in a meticulous regimen is pretty dull.

Yet the truth is that some of the best ways to clear acne are also extremely fun. Clearing acne does not have to be boring and time consuming. You can improve your life in the process and many clear skin obsessives already have. Today, we will discuss those secret fun methods.

On one level, you could call clearing acne naturally fun simply because it makes your entire body healthier. Your brain will feel sharp, your sleep will be deep and your joints will no longer creak like door hinges. The fun and pleasurable strategies are actually just the icing on the cake.

But nevertheless, here are 11 ways to have fun while simultaneously fulfilling the serious mission of clearing acne. 

 

One – eat pineapple

The first fun way to clear acne could not be simpler: eat 50 grams of pineapple daily! Pineapple easily ranks in the top third of acne-clearing fruits.

Firstly, pineapple is almost as rich in vitamin C as strawberries. Secondly, pineapple is strongly anti-inflammatory. Finally, pineapple flesh contains the protease enzyme bromelain, which breaks down amino acid structures and makes protein more digestible.

Pineapple is fairly high in sugar at 10 grams per 100 grams, but not so high that you can’t eat a delicious feast. In fact, the sugar is arguably a benefit because pineapple can directly supplant sweet acne villains like cookies and cake, ensuring no net pleasure loss. Pineapple is particularly useful if you have a ravenous sweet tooth.

Pineapple doesn’t even require effort; you can shovel it into your mouth as easily as a policeman shovels in donuts. If you buy a whole pineapple you do have to slash off the leaves, extract the core, and slice up the flesh first. However, the high-end prepackaged slices usually taste just as great. Alternatively, you might find find hacking a whole pineapple open with a machete fun as well.

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Look for a deeper yellow colour to get the richest taste possible. Pineapple flesh’s colour has one of the closest correlations with its taste.

If you hate pineapple then papaya has similar though not identical properties. The proteolytic properties can also be interesting: you can reduce a tooth-shattering hunk of meat to a soft and succulent meal, and generally experiment like a mad scientist.

 

Two – swim in the ocean

It doesn’t get much more fun than swimming in the sea, as you can show off your skills at swimming, diving, dodging waves, vanishing under the sea and reappearing meters away, fighting off sharks, and much more. For acne, there’s a number of advantages.

Firstly, swimming and fighting against the constant waves is great exercise. This can 1) lower inflammation levels once you’ve finished, 2) expend carbohydrates and keep your insulin levels low, and 3) enhance blood flow to your skin. Overly intense exercise like a Tour de France style cycle ride can actually worsen your skin, but swimming is the perfect intensity.

Secondly, most beaches are full of fresh salty air, rather than smoggy pollution. Thirdly, the odds are high that the sun will be shining, unless you’re a fan of polar bear plunging. Your skin will reap the rewards of vitamin D, nitric oxide and blue light.

Finally, swimming in the ocean exposes your entire body to sea salt. While it’s far from proven, sea salt has some antibacterial properties and that may apply to the most feared bacteria of all, p.acnes bacteria.

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Assuming your local beach isn’t a polluted casino beach, there’s also a chance that seawater has extra unconfirmed benefits. For example, it was discovered recently that the ocean’s classic smell, the smell which gets you excited as you walk around the corner from the hotel, is actually due to a gas called dimethyl sulfide. This is produced by bacteria that consume decaying seaweed and marine matter. DMS is actually the precursor to the popular anti-inflammatory supplement methylsulfonylmethane (MSM). It’s perfectly possible that this most natural of substances has benefits for the skin too.

Remember: human beings aren’t adapted to swim in chlorine, but we are adapted to swim in lakes and sea water.

 

Three – laugh

If you want to clear your skin and have some fun at the exact same moment, all you have to do is think of something funny RIGHT NOW.

Think of your favourite joke, your favourite comedy, the funniest events you can remember. Make sure you laugh and if you’re in a grim and serious mood, just force yourself. Your skin will be replenished with vitamins, your skin will gain a healthy redness which members of the opposite sex can’t resist. Over days of manic laughter, your pimples will heal much more quickly.

How is all this possible? It has been shown in a study that the simple act of laughing triggers the release of nitric oxide in the blood stream. NO is the premier vasodilating agent of the human body, and consequently, laughing can enhance blood flow by 22%.

That means more blood to the skin, and also to the brain. That’ll improve your mood, and you know what means? More laughter! Which means more nutrients and more clear skin. You’ll become a runaway mine train of clear skin.

Obviously, there’s a limit, but the best thing about this fun acne strategy is that it’s free too.

Try laughing right now, even if you can’t conjure up anything funny. If necessary, you can just get a job as a clown where it’s your job to laugh, but don’t start stalking innocent people. This is an acne secret which countless people are exploiting without realising it, but others are missing out on.

 

Four – take a magnesium supplement

Magnesium is unquestionably a nutrient which the average acne-ridden teenager needs more of. So do adults for that matter. Why? Because heavy agriculture has sucked this mineral right out of the soil, resulting in a sharp decline in the magnesium content of common fruits and vegetables.

Deficiency has been estimated at 80% in parts of the USA, ranging from severe to mild. Magnesium supplements can achieve the following: 1) strengthen your antioxidant supplies by providing the ingredients for glutathione, 2) boost your sleep quality, and 3) suppress the stress hormone cortisol.

So why is magnesium such a fun remedy? Because magnesium is an amazing supplement for energy levels.

Magnesium is required to manufacture ATP, the chief form of cellular energy. Take magnesium and not only will you be running up the walls and ceiling, you may well succeed. Realistically, you’ll have much more energy to make the most of every minute of life.

Furthermore, and most interestingly, magnesium is linked to vivid dreaming. Somehow, the deeper, more restful sleep that magnesium provides carries over into wild and more immersive dreams. Nobody knows why, but the testimonials are everywhere.

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Every style of dream will be amplified according to reports; your happy dreams will be happier and your nightmares will be extra insane and wild. Some believe that the known melatonin increase is responsible, others speculate that magnesium fuels the pineal gland (associated with mystical experiences and natural psychedelics).

On magnesium, you could get dreams so vivid that you’ll sell your entire DVD collection, AND your acne will slowly improve. 

 

Five – hunt for wild berries

Do you live in a town or village in North America or Europe? Then in a woodland or field edge near you, wild berries could be growing at this very moment. If you want clear skin, it is your duty to pick them.

The fun part is tracking the berries down, mapping out the secret locations, and exploring new areas in your quest to find them. The acne-clearing part is that almost all berries are pumped full of antioxidants and phytonutrients.

In fact, wild berries tend to be richer in acne-clearing compounds than agricultural ones. Like laughing, exploring and hunting down wild berries is a free strategy.

In some villages and towns, wild blackberries are plentiful, yet in another town, you could find nothing but one small and lonely blackberry bush hiding behind a bus stop. Wild strawberries and raspberries are much rarer and it’s very satisfying when you finally find them.

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Strategically, you’ll need to outsmart deer, fruit flies, spiders, and fellow human beings. Berries from different bushes can also vary massively in size, and you can make a map in your head of where all the freakishly large ones grow.

Before you know it, your skin tone will look amazing and everyone will think that you’re a genetic freak. The only non-fun part is when you bump into an angry farmer wielding a shotgun.

 

Six – sleep in the forest

You might be aware that air pollution is a huge problem for acne, but did you know that indoor air can be just as bad? In fact, the EPA estimated that indoor air contains 2 to 5 times as many chemical contaminants as outdoor air.

Examples include phthalates from plastics and personal care products, and formaldehyde. There’s also volatile organic compounds, inflammatory combinations of various chemicals from paints, cleaners, disinfectants and more.

Hair spray and deodorants are classic culprits. Being a smoker makes matters worse.

Bedrooms are particularly bad, since they’re a hub of activity. Unless you preserve your bedroom as a shrine of fresh air and cleanliness, you’ll be sleeping in that air for 8 hours long, and that’s why the ultimate acne-clearing maniac ventures out into the forest with a sleeping bag every night.

If you sleep in the forest, then the moment you wake up as the sun rises (not because a bear is kidnapping you), you will feel much more refreshed compared to usual. Try opening your window widely on a warm summer’s night and you’ll notice a minor difference then too. The lack of contaminant exposure will filter through to your skin, with less inflammation, free radical exposure and collagen damage. The only problem is when you wake up and you’ve been adopted by a pack of wolves.

Select a clear night for your forest adventure and don’t select a spot by a river, or you may well wake up floating in the Atlantic ocean. Another fun alternative is to grow house plants, which can absorb and neutralise formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds – even a basic spider plant has powers.

 

Seven – go hiking

Hiking has many of the benefits of swimming in the ocean, minus the sea salt.

You’re exposed to sunlight, fresh air and expend some carbohydrates to prevent your insulin levels from getting too high. Exercise and inflammation is easily the most complex and confusing topic there is, but the evidence points towards brisk walking lowering overall inflammation levels if you do it daily. Just 20 minutes of walking lowered the cytokine TNF by 5% in this study.

Also, walking through mountains or a forest in the summer is a happy activity, but it turns out that it’s a very physical response. Studies show that simply being in nature lowers the stress hormone cortisol, because of something intrinsic related to nature which is built into our evolution.

For example, this study sent patients with initially equal stress levels to three different location. Only those visiting site A, a woodland wilderness with green spaces, ravines and wooded ridges, enjoyed a drop in cortisol.

There’s a reason why sleep deprived people listen to CDs of birds chirping and rivers flowing rather than traffic driving past. If you consider evolution again, we’re probably designed to have a stress response when we hear a lion roaring or a harsh wind blowing.

In fact, one 1980s study found that patients with a window facing a park recovered faster compared to identically treated patients facing a brick wall. You too can take advantage of this and you can explore and have an adventure at the exact same time.

 

Eight – listen to music

A continuation from reading, since many kinds of music are able to suppress stress and its associated hormones.

Countless studies have detected biological responses to music including an increased heart rate and lowered blood pressure. Like with hiking, the process is much more complicated than simply making you happy because it’s your favourite song.

Music might be like reading, where it activates certain brain waves and brain sections to put you in a mild form of trance. Not a trance where you unquestionably obey orders, but an altered state of mind.

In fact, one study even found that music could calm patients undergoing a spine operation, lowering cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormones (ACTH) compared to the unlucky patients who had to sit in silence.

Studies have analysed different types of music too, and results are fairly consistent. Heavy metal and techno either increase cortisol or have no effect, while classical, pop, jazz and country all tend to lower levels.

For example, one study found that Beethoven decreased cortisol levels by 50%.

Another tested Mozart, J Strauss, and ABBA. All three lowered stress hormones significantly in humans, although weirdly, ABBA was the only artist which failed to lower blood pressure.

Heavy metal and techno seem to induce a fight or flight response, as the aggressive music starts to manipulate your mind. However, it won’t be enough to create whole new acne by itself: there’s no need to give up your favourite music genre.

 

Nine – sit in the sun and read a book

This acne strategy rolls two fun activities into one. Getting sucked into an amazing book while basking in warm sunlight is a little known acne secret.

How exactly? Like with swimming, the UV rays will stimulate vitamin D and nitric oxide production the moment they hit your skin. The blue light helps to suppress p.acnes bacteria.

But how does reading a book cure acne? By lowering stress, according to a study where reading lowered stress levels in humans by 68%.

The scientists speculated that reading puts the brain into an altered state where real world stressors fade away. Consider how easily you get sucked into a great book during the final chapters.

Reading a book is known to activate different sections of your brain in strange ways. Also consider how your brain automatically creates its own versions of characters and locations as you read a book without even trying to.

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Reading lowered stress more effectively than music, drinking coffee, and playing videogames. The sunlight will then evaporate the last remnants of your stress, since it boosts endorphins, AKA the “sunlight high”.

 

Ten – Eat dark chocolate

The definition of a fun acne remedy. Bite into some 85% dark chocolate and you’ll be annihilating acne and experiencing extreme pleasure at the exact same time.

It won’t be sugary, sweet pleasure, since your dark chocolate must be 85% cocoa or more, but it will have a strong chocolatey flavour. Dark chocolate clears acne by lowering inflammation and supplying a huge amount of antioxidants. It also boosts your energy stores’ insulin sensitivity, allowing blood insulin levels to fall and stimulate less oily skin.

Dark chocolate is also fun in a very different way: as a proven mood enhancer.

First there’s theobromine, cocoa’s very own stimulate like caffeine, which is able to pump you up and make you more alert. Cocoa powder is also a great source of the serotonin ingredient magnesium.

Much more unusual though is anandamide, a bliss-inducing cocoa chemical said to feel similar to the “runners high”. Anandamide is strongly suspected of being the compound which gives people chocolate cravings. Cocoa can even increase blood flow to the brain thanks to being easily among richest food sources of flavonoids; this blood flow benefit applies to your skin too (study).

Nature is full of varied psychoactive substances, ranging from coffee beans to magic mushrooms growing in a field, and cocoa is simply another one. Yet another fun aspect is comparing and analysing the subtly different flavours of each 85% brand.

 

Eleven – eat steak

Newspapers will have you believe that a single bite of steak wipes 15 minutes off your lifespan, but in reality, only grain fed steaks are to blame.

In its natural form, steak is the other side of the acne-clearing coin to fruits and vegetables. Beef or lamb steak is rich in minerals needed to clear acne, including the pimple-evaporating zinc, and the antioxidant producing magnesium.

Well-raised steak is also a great source of omega 3 fatty acids, as long as you leave the fat on. If you fry your steak in a cold-pressed oil like coconut oil or ghee, you can add yet more nutrition.

Steak also supplies some top quality protein with the full spectrum of amino acids. Basic protein intake is often overlooked, particularly among acne patients who decide that a plant-based diet is the way forward, who make numerous improvements yet ultimately see their skin get weaker. Different amino acids can 1) improve neurotransmitter activity (depression, sleep quality) and 2) strengthen your skin’s collagen proteins. Just as importantly, steak is such a tasty dish that it will reduce your temptation to eat donuts, cake, pizza, and other acne villains.

Just make sure that your steak is grass-fed and preferably organic. A corn-fed steak from a metallic industrial facility won’t help your skin at all – in fact, the negative fat profile and artificial hormones will hurt it.

 

And one which worsens acne

Finally, there’s one activity which doesn’t join the club: getting drunk.

Drinking alcohol is undoubtedly a negative. Alcohol’s toxins chip away at your skin just like they chip away at your liver. If you dream that beer can clear your skin, then the dream is dead!

This isn’t news that most people like to hear, but you have to know the truth and now that you do, you can start capitalising on strategies to make your skin stronger.

The main villain is acetaldehyde, the primary toxic metabolite of ethanol. Acetaldehyde must be detoxified by your glutathione stores, reducing the quantity available to protect your skin, leaving it dull and lifeless.

The solution: feed your skin the nutrients it requires to replenish those stores. This big article on alcohol will give you all the secrets you need. So strong will your skin be that Heineken will recruit you as their new drunken mascot.

In the media, there’s an endless tug of war happening. One study comes out saying that two glasses of wine daily is actually beneficial, then everyone rubs their hands with glee. Then just days later, a study declares that “NO level of alcohol is safe”. This cycles continues endlessly, leaving middle aged drinkers dazed and confused.

That’s why you might have wondered whether acne has a cycle like this too, whether drinking lightly is another way to clear your skin. The truth is that no level of red wine is healthy for acne.

Acetaldehyde will always deplete your antioxidants to a greater extent that resveratrol and polyphenols can replenish them. It’s a simple numbers game. The only rare cases in favour of 1-2 red wine glasses would be if your glutathione reserves were extremely deep, yet your plant-borne antioxidant intake was next to nothing. Basically, the stars would have to align perfectly.

But that said, a couple of glasses are much more manageable and your acne defences probably won’t be breached. A full drunken evening will always bash through your skin’s defences like a battering ram, but you can still avoid getting even a single pimple.

Accept the obstacle in your path and overcome it by acquiring treasure chest after treasure chest of hidden knowledge. Alcohol will then be all yours, and plus, you’ll have 10 hazy hours of thinking you have the godliest skin ever to grace a human being.

 

Conclusion

There you go: curing acne does not have to be a heroic slog.

The best part is that these strategies are all significant. They actually treat the root causes of acne rather than just fiddling around at the edges.

Dark chocolate gives you much needed antioxidants; pineapple does the same for vitamin C. Stress and lack of exercise are the 21st century’s biggest lifestyle villains behind the “basement dweller” skin tone: dull and grimy with a series of smaller pimples that gives your skin an unkempt look even if your hygiene is immaculate.

If you’ve ever been weary and depressed about how much effort clearing acne seems to take, those days are now over! 

NEXT: discover the root causes of acne and banish your pimples forever

 

Thanks for reading!