How One Man Defeated His Cystic Acne through Changing What He Ate

- We've brought you the best of viral videos, everything from cute animals and babies to dangerous challenges and shocking moments caught on tape, but our next guest's video went viral for a different reason altogether. Check it out. - Over the years, you know, having acne. I'd become comfortable with this.

I've had it since 15, I'm 22 now. But this one specific time, it finally got to me. I don't think I've ever told anyone this.

This was the first time that I had ever cried because of my acne. This one is pretty big, it's pretty bad, and, as you can see, it comes off of my face quite a bit. And I used to get these cysts but bigger, like I'm telling you, two times as big as as this, and this specific time it came up on my nose.

As soon as I got to school, the first thing that they say is, "Oh, look at Rudolph." It was my turn to give a speech that day. I could hear them talking about my giant zit, you know, "Oh, watch out, dude. "It's gonna explode.

"It might get on you." The last thing that just killed me. It just frickin' killed me, man. I went up to one of my good friends at lunch and he just runs up and pokes my nose, right on top of the cyst, like flicks it, and I got in my car and I sat down and I just started crying, man. Silly as it sounds, it was so relieving to finally just like be, ahhh. Now here I am sitting, crying in front of a bunch of people who aren't used to seeing me vulnerable and crying. (audience applauds) - Well, he's now clear-faced. Please welcome Brian to the show. - Thank you, thank you.

- I have to give you credit. I hadn't seen that, but you were so authentic in that. - It's so real to me, you know? I don't think people understand how traumatic it can be. A lot of people seem to downplay acne because it's just something everybody's kinda supposed to have and if you make it a big thing, it's like, "Oh, it's okay.

"It's not that big of a deal. "Just get over it." But it can be your entire life from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, so I wanted to make videos and a channel that people could come to to become comforted just by being able to see someone else who's gone through it and really understands. - You know, and great example. Not all acne is the same. It's different for men, it's different for women.

We know it can be hormonally based and in your case, you went through all the traditional treatments, right? - Yeah, so I tried everything and I went through the topicals, the antibiotics and stuff. Finally I tried Accutane. It cleared up for a long time and then the acne started coming back. I started getting cysts again, started getting on my forehead really big, so I just tried taking dairy out and it started to help my acne, started clearing it up.

And then I thought, if I can make one little tiny dietary change, why not try some other things? So I started, what I call, megadosing vegetables, and I was taking 12 to 16 vegetables a day, and it started like really clearing it up so I just kept trying new things. - And so you did this on your own? - Buddhist medicine. - Absolutely.

- We've had dermatologists on who have talked about the importance of diet and its effect on skin, so clearly for you was dietary, especially dairy, affecting the production of sebum, your sebaceous glands. - It's interesting. I was just doing an interview the other day and they were looking for health and beauty tips to look better, and I kept talking about how, trust me, the food you eat, the food you put in your body has more of a reflection in your skin than anything else and no one seems to get that. You're a shining example of how important, yeah, taking care of your skin externally is, but internally, I mean. What's really cool to me is looking at how bad your acne is and the quality of your skin is phenomenal. - Yeah, over just taking more water in and having more vegetables, the scars have started to fade very naturally and it's awesome. For me, it's crazy because I used to wake up and I'd look in the mirror every day and I would just wait to see, to collect which ones were the new ones on my face, okay, let's go out.

- Like waking up and expecting to see a new zit. - Absolutely. - You know what's crazy is this may end up being one of those blessings in disguise because 20, 30 years from now, what's crazy is all this veggie intake, too, you're probably gonna age so well. - Yeah. - Right. Are you currently on any prescription medications at all? - None at all. - None? And I think you brought up a very important point, like a lot of times people don't get it because I actually use Accutane and so I understand what you're saying.

I used it on more than one occasion and it's a big deal. When you take Accutane, you sign contracts. - Oh, yeah. - For a woman? - For a woman, like, it's a big deal.

And people don't realize that about one in five people with acne will actually consider suicide at some point so I want to thank you for being brave and I want to thank you for making these videos because people underestimate what a big deal it is when you have the type of acne that requires Accutane. - And you can openly have a dialogue with your doctor, if you're working with a doctor, dealing with acne, have an open dialogue. "Okay, these treatments, "and what are maybe some things I could do?" Elimination in your diet, try different things, increase veggie intake. Do that hand in hand.

Brian, thank you for highlighting this and keep up all great work. (audience applauds) - Thank you, guys. - We'll be right back.