Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

As you know, if you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, I think that there are several natural solutions that will work just as well as medications professionally prescribed for acne, whether you are an adult or teen. 

Of course, not every product is going to do the trick for every person, so as with medical acne medications, there is always an “experimental” period to be had with herbal acne remedy supplements just as many times a dermatologist may play around with a few different types of acne medications for their patients before finding the one that attacks the correct source of the acne in that individual patient. 

For minor cases of acne, decreasing stress levels, treating your face with benzoyl peroxide and other over the counter topical treatments will probably suffice.  But for more severe forms of acne, including cystic acne and forms of acne that could leave serious scarring throughout life and wear away at self esteem, more aggressive treatment is often called for.

Isotretinoin is one such drug for serious cases of acne that don’t respond to mere topical treatments.  Isotretinoin, in the oral form, is known by different trade names such as Accutane, Amnesteem, Clavaris or Roaccutane.  Isotretinoin is derived from vitamin A and is considered a retinoid.   Isotretinoin, the infamous Accutane, works by inhibiting production of sebum and reducing the size of sebaceous glands.  This medication should be taken after eating a high fat meal for better absorption thereby increasing it’s effectiveness.  Isotretinoin is available by prescription here and in the U.K.. 

There is a version of isotretinoin that is a topical preparation on the market also.  Isotretinoin in it’s oral form has a list of side effects that is rather extensive and the individual taking it should be aware of what they are.  Your dermatologist should advise their patients of these.  Isotretinoin is not meant to be taken in combination with Tetracycline.

Another approach to medically treating moderate to severe acne is the use of Tetracycline antibiotics.  They are taken orally and the antibacterial action suppresses acne and rosacea. 

Tetracycline should not be taken with dairy products as it decreases it’s effectiveness.  Tetracycline is available by prescription so you must be under the care of a dermatologist for this mode of treatment.  For acne that is unresponsive to over the counter treatments and persists or worsens, it’s worthwhile to consult a dermatologist to control the acne and save the young person’s self esteem. 

I was on tetracycline for a while as an adolescent, and to be honest, it worked for a while and then just stopped working on me.  I also had to stay out of the sun as it increased my sensitivity to sunlight, and I’m convinced that being on antibiotics for long periods of time now is very detrimental to one’s health and can even cause health issues later in life – this is my personal opinion, but it happens to be shared by many others as well.