“Why is my skin so angry at me?!”
I had this thought basically every day for two years. I would wake up and before I even left my bed or my eyes opened, I was lightly feeling my face – searching for new tender, angry spot. A new red, painful cystic blemish to add to the existing pile.
If you’ve ever woken up like this, you may know the feeling of wanting to scream, “Whyyyyyy?! Why is my skin so angry all the time?” I wished so many times that I could actually communicate with the skin on my face to say, “Just tell me what you need! I’ll do anything for you to be happy and healthy!”
I didn’t fully understand that my skin wasn’t angry, it was inflamed. My whole body was inflamed. When I truly started understanding the immune system and taking inflammation seriously, I saw my skin transform. All thanks to a functional mushroom called AHCC®.
Before we jump with joy into the world of mushrooms, you need to understand something about inflammation. It gets a bad rap, but inflammation is actually a defense mechanism for your body. The heat and redness around each blemish is a response from your immune system attempting to eliminate the harmful stimulation or bacterial pathogen. However when this inflammation becomes excessive, chronic and unnecessary, the body is harmed. AKA acne, scarring and mental distress.
When it comes to acne, healing is multi-faceted.
There’s so many factors that can affect our skin health: nutrition, personal care products, supplements, gut health, stress and more. But one thing is consistent with all acne cases. You guessed it. Inflammation.
As we evaluate all of the acne-causing factors I just mentioned, we also need to be sending a regular and clear signal to our immune system. To do this, the immune system simply needs more intelligence.
Roll out the red carpet. Enter mushrooms. Enter AHCC®.
If you’ve never heard of AHCC®, that’s okay. Even if you know a thing or two about medicinal mushrooms like Chaga or Reishi, I would be surprised if you already knew about AHCC®. It stands for Active Hexose Correlated Compound. Don’t worry, you don’t need to remember that – just remember the immune intelligence.
AHCC® comes from Shiitake mushrooms.
Shiitake has been used for literally thousands of years in Ancient Chinese Medicine for its medicinal benefits, especially for skin! But in the late 1980’s, Japanese scientists started culturing the mycelium (roots) of Shiitake mushrooms and studying its clinical effect on different diseases. AHCC® now has over 30 years of clinical data to support it.
I first heard about AHCC® in 2018 as a clinical dental hygienist. One of my patients was cleared of her HPV using a “mushroom” that her naturopath recommended. Of course I was intrigued, and started devouring all the AHCC® content I could – clinical research, articles, patient success stories, medical textbooks, and the AHCC® Research Organization.
After studying this incredible food for a few months, I was equal parts shocked…and angry. Shocked that I worked in the health industry, knew about medicinal mushrooms, but had never heard of AHCC®. I was also angry because people using AHCC® were being healed of disease all over the world – stage IV cancer, hepatitis, HPV, autoimmune disease, arthritis, and more – so why wasn’t this taught in every medical school in the world?! I couldn’t stop learning.
Here I am two years later.
I’m no longer practicing as a clinical dental hygienist. Yep, I left my fancy dental office to teach people how to heal and prevent disease through the intelligent power of mushrooms. And the primary asset in my toolbox is Immune Intel AHCC®. I believe so whole-heartedly that AHCC® can benefit every human that I developed my own private label.
Like the name implies, Immune Intel AHCC® delivers immune intelligence to your body. The same intelligence I mentioned before – that your body needs to chill out, decrease inflammation, and lower stress hormones. So your inflammatory acne can start healing more quickly.
I don’t want to get to “sciency,” but y’all can handle this! When your doctor measures inflammation, he/she is likely testing for levels of C-Reactive Protein (CRP). When this is high, this means inflammation in your body is high. AHCC® has been clinically shown over and over to directly lowers systemic inflammation in the body by reducing C-Reactive Protein. (1)
Once I started taking a regular dose of Immune Intel AHCC®…
My body was able to balance out, calm down and start the healing process. It was like a total reset, a sort of “permission to start healing.” These before and after photos that were taken just a year apart.
This may not be the most severe case of acne you’ve ever seen, but I was tired, depressed, discouraged, and so sad – you can see it in my eyes on the left. My skin was extremely puffy, not only from the inflammatory acne, but also the constant poking and prodding I was doing to my skin, trying to force the toxins out by “popping” them. This never worked.
What finally DID work was starting from the inside. First addressing the inflammation with Immune Intel AHCC®, then fixing my gut health, starting a meditation practice for stress, eliminating sugar, and ditching most of my supplements for “skin health” like biotin and collagen that were actually major pore cloggers.
If anyone tells you they fixed their cystic acne by only changing ONE thing – they are either very very lucky, or more likely trying to sell you something. It’s probably too good to be true.
True healing takes a little time. Every case of acne, and every body is different. But one thing holds true for all acne cases – the inflammation needs to be addressed. Immune Intel AHCC® will help you do that, no matter what other treatment you choose to try.
After my consistent active breakouts finally halted, I was introduced to the CLEARSTEM CELLrenew serum which completely melted the acne scars off my face in a matter of months. It makes sense that my body responded so well to it because one of the active ingredients is Ganoderma lucidum, AKA Reishi medicinal mushroom.
Reishi mushroom has the longest list of benefits of all medicinal mushroom, and is nicknamed “The Mushroom of Immortality.” For the skin specifically, it acts as an adaptogen. It helps to calm dry, itchy skin, strengthen skin, and also helps with acne, wounds, and swelling. Reishi promotes truly radiant smooth skin from the inside out.
The mushroom duo of Immune Intel AHCC® and Reishi-infused CLEARSTEM CELLrenew serum is a powerhouse of healing and anti-inflammatory benefits that your skin is begging for. (To see another jaw-dropping healing case from this mushroom duo, go here!)
I’m going to be bold and make a prediction:
Some of you will try Immune Intel AHCC® for the inflammation and skin benefits, but if you’re really paying attention to your body, you’ll notice other benefits as well. You may have thoughts like…
• “Jeez, everyone in my office but me is sick.”
• “Mom, my HPV test finally came back negative!”
• “Wow, my crazy headaches have almost completely gone away.”
• “I love having so much more energy.”
• “My hormones feel so balanced.”
I hear all sorts of amazing results from my clients on Immune Intel AHCC®. Remember, it’s delivering more immune intelligence to your whole body. So systems run more efficiently, more balanced, and just…better. The way they were intended to. The AHCC® heals your body, and then your body heals your acne.
Believe me, I know the acne struggle can feel like a constant uphill battle. Hear me and read this slowly: Don’t give up. You can heal! I’m here to help you, and so is AHCC®.
If you’re ready to get your lovely little hands on a bottle, you can find it in my store. And use the code CLEARSTEM for a hefty discount!
If you have more questions about AHCC® and the conditions it’s effective against, follow me on Instagram @getmimifit, and check out my other disease preventing education!
1. The Science of AHCC: Japan’s Medical Breakthrough in Immunotherapy. Dr. Fred Pescatore. 2010
Mimi is a clinical dental hygienist, culinary nutrition expert and AHCC® educator. She has been helping people heal and prevent disease naturally for over 9 years. Mimi committed to being the link between the clinical research behind AHCC® and the common public via social media and online courses. Her purpose in life is to see others get out of unnecessary suffering through the intelligent healing power of mushrooms.
