Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

Accutane (isotretinoin) is an OTC (over the counter) product used for treatment of severe acne problems. Isotretinoin is given as an oral medication, only prescribed by a dermatologist. Isotretinoin was first developed as chemotherapy medication for pancreatic and brain cancer and other. His chemical composition is retinoid; he is derivative of a synthetic form of Vitamin A and is found in small quantities normally in the body.

But in 1982 Hoffman-La Roche announced isotretinoin as Accutane, a revolutionary systemic drug for treatment of severe acne problem. Accutane targets sebaceous glands and reduces oil production. But as all drugs he has side effects, like dry skin, dryness of the nose which leads to nose bleeds and eyes dryness also.

But the more serious side effect is his teratogenic (Birth Defects) effect. Sexually active woman and still in reproductive age are given the advise to take at last two forms of contraceptives during treatment. It also effects on blood composition and may lead to depression, suicide and mental instability.

The best benefit of Accutane is that after one or two treatments courses, acne should go into long term remission, however there are some that have not experienced this and have had pursue alternative acne treatments.

For the prescribing of the Accutane it is the doctor or dermatologist that must carefully and correctly gauge the proper dose and time of administration and the period of treatments duration. Also the dermatologist must take care of the benefit–risk ratio for every single patient with acne. Since 01.03.2006 this acne medicament is prescription drug in United States and dermatologist are required to register their patients before prescribing.

But these precisions didn’t work at all stages and the consequence of the side effect of this medical treatment was 30% of children with congenital malformations.
On 29.06.2009 Hoffman-La Roche discontinued Accutane manufacturing and selling in United States.

Now some generic alternatives are available on the market Roaccutane – not for American market (same as Accutane before July 2009), Amnesteem, Claravis, Clarus, Decutan, Isotane, Izotek, Oratane, ISOTRET or Sotret, while topical isotretinoin is most commonly marketed under the trade names Isotrex or Isotrexin. These generic products have the same side effects as Accutane.

Unfortunately, you can’t just go out and take vitamin A, as it can become toxic if taken in too high of dosages, however, there are some excellent alternative products to treat acne which combined things like supplements and cleansers and other specialized topical ingredients which treat acne safely and very effectively.

Acne is common skin problem, often treated by dermatologists. In fact, it can affect almost every one of us at any time, but teenagers are the ones who get it most often. Alternative treatments for acne are one of the fastest growing methods to treat acne because people are so aware of putting drugs and chemicals into their body that can be potentially harmful, but not everyone can be successful with this kind of treatment. When acne appears, the first thing people do, they buy various acne products.

For some lucky ones these cleansers work just fine, but in many cases they don’t. What is next? Next would be an advice from your dermatologist before using any kind of medicine, who will suggest you a prescription acne medication or treatment.

You need to start by finding out what causes acne. Once you know what is happening to your skin you will be better able to deal with it. Using antibiotics is known to be an effective way to cure acne. A variety of prescription medications are used today to clear acne. Tetracycline is the most widely prescribed antibiotic.
This antibiotic is used to treat various bacterial infections.

It helps in treating gonorrhea, Chlamydia and is an effective drug for treating acne. Tetracycline works well in reducing the acne not only on the face but on other parts of the body as well. It works by fighting various pathogens and bacteria present in the body. It is used to kill the bacteria responsible for the acne. You may need to take treatment for several months to clear spots. It can take at least two months before any improvement is noticed.

If you are taking this drug for long-term use, as many with acne do, you should be very careful, because it can be dangerous. While you use this medication, it can cause side effects like dizziness, stomach upset, vomiting and diarrhea. It can also cause fever, breathing difficulty, swelling in genital area or swelling of the face. This medication should be not be consumed by pregnant or breast feeding women or children under 9 years of age.

The benefit of tetracycline is that it is far-reaching, reducing acne on your face and body. However, tetracycline use may come with certain side effects, dangers and restrictions.

Therefore it is not recommended to use it as the long term treatment of any disease or condition like acne. It will destroy the body immune system and will produce the long term bad effects on the body. The main problem with tetracycline is that it destroys your body’s primary immune defense, the friendly bacteria in the colon. That causes your body to be dependent on the anti-biotic.

Since tetracycline is a prescription drug, it should be taken exactly as prescribed. Many sufferers believe that tetracycline is a very good agent to cure the acne and can be used for the long term acne treatment and may be the best treatment. However, what they don’t realize is that long term use of any antibiotic diminishes their supply of good, healthy bacterium in the colon and intestines, which can lead to bowel problems. Some studies have even linked long term antibiotic use to breast cancer.

Will acne return after treatment? This is a common question among acne sufferers. Once the spots have cleared, acne commonly flares up again if you stop treatment. Therefore, after the spots have gone or are apparently reduced, it is common to carry on with a ‘maintenance’ treatment to prevent acne from flaring up again.

When you’ve got acne, all you want to do is get rid of it and often times this means you may make decisions that are not completely well informed about what the alternatives to medical acne treatment are. The good news is that you can! Don’t think that this information is waste of your time. Be sure that they get you one step closer to clearer skin. Let it be your challenge!

The most common skin complaint, as we discussed in one previous post, is acne, at a rate of just over 80% of dermatologist complaints. Acne is basically, as you know, a sort of explosion of bacteria and infection which is usually seen in or near the sebaceous glands in different parts of the human body including the face, neck, upper back, and shoulders.

Today there are many of the best acne treatment products available in the market place. When it measured best acne treatment anyone has to keep in mind that the best acne treatment for one person may not be the best acne product for the other. This is because the skin type of one person differs from the other. Hence the best acne treatment for a human being can only be resolute per skin type of the person and the effect on that treatment as it interacts with their individual unique body chemistry.

Today the best acne treatments could also range from the usual herbal medicines to modern medicines which are proven more and more as great alternatives. Some of the most popular acne treatments of this millenium are listed below.

The skin should be cleaned daily with appropriate acne fighting cleansers, a foundation of good acne care. Many people who have tried this acne treatment they have reported positively. By cleaning with glycerin soap, for instance, which is no irritating, with a soft brush from the skin it will remove the dirt from the pores.

The gels or creams which you apply on your hair has known to trigger acne. Then the chemical of gel and cream obtain on the pillow cover, when you sleep on this pillow cover it comes even on the facial skin. If this problem comes than take the care to change your pillow covers frequently.

Even the light treatment is another popular treatment for acne. This method is done by ultraviolet rays which are used to clear the acne. This light treatment is a completely safe method for acne treatment. This treatment is similarly like using a tanning stall the patient need to simply take a bath in ultraviolet rays for nearly 15 minutes daily.

This treatment is also extensively accepted as one of the most popular acne treatment method. To use the acne creams is very easy, you can use it like any other face creams, but more sparingly. There are many companies who offer acne creams for the people. How you are suffering from acne? Before you purchase any acne cream, ensure that the product is free from comedogenic elements, oil, and sunscreens.

For some people with the sensitive acne, the popular acne treatments we will discuss here which may not give up best the results. In such cases, it is good to consult your doctor who can give you good treatment for acne.

The acne treatment which I have discussed that is also best and useful treatment. The most commonly medicine or drugs for acne used today are listed below:

1. Adapalene.
2. Azelaic Acid.
3. Benzoyl Peroxide.
4. Clindamycin.
5. Erythromycin.
6. Isotretinoin.
7. Oral Antibiotics.
8. Oral Contraceptives.

People, young and old, who suffer from acne or problem skin, tend to usually ask this question if they’ve tried a few things for their skin to help clear it up and nothing seems to be working. The short answer is, when a few other options that are alternative and natural in nature and lifestyle change oriented, have been attempted by individuals with acne prone skin, then they probably should go seek a professional dermatologist’s evaluation and opinion on what should work for their skin.

I went to a dermatologist for the first time when I was about 13 or 14 years old, when my normally pristine skin began to erupt into painful, under the skin lesions that marred my face – mostly my chin. I had a rough bout with adolescent hormone onslaught, as was evidenced by my wild mood swings, the onset of my period, and the systematic destruction of the skin on my face. I literally seemed to get acne over night. There was no gradual progression of a zit here and a zit there, but rather my face erupted all at once into the worst hormonal acne you could imagine.

My mom’s first instincts were to try to treat it naturally so we cut out chocolate and fried foods from my diet, but this was beyond food, this was hormonally based, and something needed to be done on a medical/professional level. Keep in mind that back then there was no internet where you had the coolest treatment options at your fingertips, but rather word of mouth and natural health shops that mostly sold bogus homeopathic remedies that didn’t work for the majority of people. Nowadays, you have all kinds of options, including my favorite, dermacleanse, and you also have other top sellers like Acnezine and Clear Pores.

I think most people should try a few things before they go to a dermatologist, especially since dermatologists often prescribe antibiotics for acne, and the long term effects of antibiotic use are more and more scary as more things come to light about them. If natural alternatives do not work, and changing your diet to help regulate your hormones, then you may want to consider going to see a professional, but make sure you examine all options first, as more and more people are treating acne with a good amount of success with alternative acne treatments.

I have reported to you my one-time experience with Retin-A, when I was only about 14 years old and struggling with pretty serious acne on my face. I had it the worst on my chin, which would erupt in painful, under the skin, explosive zits several times a week. It seems my hormones were totally out of control, and it seemed that nothing would work to clear my skin up consistently.

One of the products I was given to try which did not work for me was Retin-A. Let me explain though, as I’ve done more research recently and I have decided that Retin-A is really a good thing, I just think that my dermatologist at the time first of all gave me way too high a dosage of it, and they also prescribed it to me in a harsh gel form instead of as a cream, which I think may have helped me with the dryness that it caused.

Retin-A is used not only for acne and acne scarring today, but it is also used as an anti aging product. The reason is that it is a retinoid, which speeds the turnover of your topical skin cells, thereby helping to prevent acne from forming because it helps keep the pores clear, and also helping to shed the older skin layers to reveal fresh new ones, and help prevent and minimize the appearance of lines and wrinkles (it’s anti aging purpose, which is it still very popularly prescribed for).

When I was using this product, I not only was using this, which is a drying product if not used properly, but I was also using several very harsh, very drying products on my skin, thinking these were going to help my acne clear up. So I would use a harsh cleaner, and I would keep it lathered on my face way too long, then I would use an astringent, then I would apply the Retin-A.

All this while, I didn’t even think to use a moisturizer! In my youth, I was definitely ignorant of how to care for my skin, so the Retin-A just magnified the dryness and I ended up with flaking, dried, scabbed over skin that looked just awful and was very painful. Knowing what I know now, I think Retin-A is actually an excellent product when used correctly. I’ve read too many people that have had great experiences with it minimizing the pores and helping to keep acne at bay. I’m going to shortly add Retin-A overview page that gives you more information about this product!

I mentioned last time that I has been to my dermatologist to get my twice annual checkup for basal cell carcinomas (a cancerous growth that is not generally invasive, but it’s a good idea to get it removed), and she had noticed that my face happened to be breaking out.

I told her that I usually break out when under stress, but that I was going to begin taking a supplement which usually worked for me to clear my skin up – Dermacleanse.

By the way, it’s already clearing me up after about one week of use, more on that later, but she had told me that if I happened to continue to break out and get one of those large lesions that seems to have a life of its own and almost always results in a scar since it goes so deep and usually causes damage to the skin’s layers when it does finally pop, to come in and see her.

She said that she could give me an injection to make the zit go away within a matter of days. The injections she’s talking about is called a corticosteroid (interlesional, which just means that it’s going to be injected into the lesion to break it up). What it does it is actually breaks up the white blood cells and all the other junk and bacteria in there that are causing all the unsightly inflammation, and it basically “melts” it away within a period of 3-5 days.

That’s much better than the sometimes weeks it takes for a lesion like that to go away on it’s own, and it also saves your skin an almost certain scar, so it’s important to get these taken care of if you possibly can. Usually most dermatologists can get you in fairly fast for this service since it’s literally the push of a needle.

I haven’t gotten this done yet but have always been intensely curious about how it works, and I probably will go get one if I happen to break out in hideous large postules or one giant one before my wedding, which is coming up in one month.

I know myself, and I know that when I’m under a lot of stress or feel responsible for the fun of many people, I usually exhibit that fear and anxiety in my face, so we’ll see. I’m on Dermacleanse now, and that will definitely help me through the stress and the inevitable hormone fluctuations, since I’ve found it helps to balance the hormones.

Remember when Wal-Mart first rolled out it’s dirt cheap prescription drug plan, where you could get the most common prescriptions for just $4, which, depending on what medication you were taking, could save you hundreds of dollars a year? Well, apparently they are expanding this program greatly to include drugs that are used for fertility, birth control (including Orto Tricyclen, one of the only proven acne fighting birth control pills), and also certain drugs that are used to treat acne, although the article I read did not specifically say which ones.

I suspect it will be the least expensive ones, like antibiotics such as erythromycine and tetracycline, both of which are not all that expensive to begin with but which I believe have negative long term health effects, so I encourage people to try different methods for getting rid of acne if they are encouraged to go on antibiotics long term.

This program, while met with the usual anti Wal-mart criticism that complains that they take out all the competition and created monopolies, actually spawned a lot of competition from other pharmacies, so maybe in the end, although the entrepreneur in me says that Wal-mart is bad for small business, it will be better for the consumer who ultimately benefits with reduced health care costs and better complexions due to lower prices, as well as reduced overall living costs which helps them to perhaps spend more and stimulate this dismal economy.

I’m sure that more expensive acne drugs like say doxycycline and accutane are not included, as these are more expensive to make, and may even have patents on them as far as I know. Accutane is also a very tightly controlled medication due to it’s ability to greatly increase birth defects in fetuses, and it’s current status as a controlled medication with a watch list for current patients, as well as the requirement to go on birth control if you are not already.

Yes, unfortunately there is some bad news that has developed that all of us who are skin-aware and have either struggled with acne in the past or are currently still struggling with acne will want to know.  You hear in the news all the time about illnesses that are cause by bacterias and viruses are always evolving to become more and more resistant against the treatments that are prescribed for them.  I mean, bacteria and viruses are built to survive, just like any species is, and since it is the survival of the fittest, they usually will adjust to any hurdles thrown their way, becoming stronger and also unfortunately for us humans, harder to treat with conventional medicines and treatments.

That’s why you’ve seen so many antibiotics done away with.  What used to be taken care of with a little bit of older antibiotics is now only going to react to stronger, more potent ones like Zpac and other stronger strains of antibiotic.  Likewise, it appears that the bacterium that specifically causes acne vulgaris, which by the way is called the p. acnes bacterium (yes that’s the name of the little buggers that have been the bain of your existence all these years), has evolved into a much stronger, and much more antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is making acne a lot tougher to treat with antibotics.

This of course doesn’t mean the acne is untreatable, it merely means that antibiotics don’t work as well since they actually work on the bacteria part of the problem, there are of course other acne treatments that get the job done, just in a different way.  Typical antibiotics that have been used as a traditional weapon against acne are tetracycline and erythromycin, both of which I had a lot of my friends had experiences with growing up.  Turns out that we may have outgrown those treatments and are now only going to respond either to tougher antibiotics for acne, or a whole new approach to acne treatment all together.

Another problem added to the pot is that since antibiotics have been used for so long on acne patients, this fact alone has contributed to the acne bacteria’s ability to mutate and become immune to them, making it much harder to kill these bacteria using these traditional treatments, so the fact that we are using them alone is actually hurting us.  The other problem is that using antibiotics long term causes issues of it’s own. I’ve written before about how some believe that long term antibiotic use is linkd to breast cancer.  This doesn’t exactly make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside either, especially since I was on tetracycline myself for many weeks, even months at a time when I was a teen for acne.

I’m fascinated by this topic, and the topic of antibiotics being used for acne, simply because I strongly believe there are so many better and more long term effective ways to fight acne out there, that I’m going to write the next post on this as well.  Coming soon!

If you read this blog, you know how I feel about some conventional acne treatments, and I’m not one to give any of them a very ringing endorsement, some more than others.  Well, you also may know that I’m against long term antibiotic acne treatment, or even sometimes short term I think is unnecessary and can cause problems.  The BBC has recently reported that a young teenaged boy of 14 years died suddenly after taking antibiotic acne treatment tablets.

The family has declined to name the actual brand or type of antibiotic acne treatment until the inquest into his sudden and untimely and obviously devastating death has been completed.  The upsetting part is that it was his first dose of the medication.  The medication is labeled with a warning that warns of possible breathing problems from taking the medication but also does say, and rightfully so, that risk of death is extremely rare. 

As soon as the boy was seen having trouble breathing, he was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late and doctors were unable to revive him.  Can you imagine the devastation and utter horror this family feels? And it’s really no one’s “fault”, but more than likely just a freak accident, a very severe allergic reaction, but that is yet to be found when the inquest (the name for British investigations into deaths) is completed or there is more information to be had that can be more conclusive evidence about why and how he died.

The father of said that the whole family is still in a state of shock because one moment he was here and the next he was gone to them.  He also says that the doctor that prescribed him the medication for his acne is completely devastated, but that the family does not blame him, it’s just one of those things that no one knew, and how were they to know?  My heart truly goes out to this family.  It sounds like their son was a really good sportsman, and will be sorely missed by his family and friends. A life taken too early that is this bright just never seems fair or right in any way, accident or not. 

Tetracycline, ah, now there’s a name from my acne fighting past.  Back when I wasn’t even old enough to drive and my face started breaking out worse than any of my friends and from there became quite a real problem thanks to my raging hormones, my mom took me to the dermatologists and I was put on the antibiotic tetracycline, which back then was one of the most popular acne treatment medications on the market. 

This was even before Accutane came onto the market – that was just a few years later that it came bursting on to the scene as the savior of those with acne who had tried everything and anything.  That was also before many of the problems that are now associated with the medication were known.  It was also before any of the potential long term problems with tetracycline were known as well. 

There has been some evidence, and I’m not sure how strong, that long term use of tetracycline, or any other antibiotics, may lend a helping hand to the development of breast cancer in women.  I remember the first time I read this and it scared me because although I wasn’t on it for years and years, I was on it for a while, at least a year, and wondered if that could potentially increase my risk for developing breast cancer down the line.

Add to this the fact that my aunt, on my mom’s side, who passed away from breast cancer years ago, was on tetracycline for years as a teenage for very bad acne, and I thought there could definitely be something to this link.  Then I also thought, maybe it’s just an unrelated fact, since women with bad acne who have been put on tetracycline or other antibiotics also typically have hormonal imbalances, and this may be a risk factor for breast cancer in itself.  What do you think?