Posts Tagged “accutane”

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What is the best acne treatment?I get asked often what is the best acne treatment and as you have probably seen by many of my post good diet and correct methods of facial cleaning is all it takes for most people to treat their acne.

When I have looked at products in the past I have always tried to cut through the hype and the crap and concentrated on which products are going to work from the inside to cure acne. Creams and soaps and lotions are fine for basic, simple acne but you need to make some real changes in order to cure the tough acne problem that you are dealing with.

In the case of those that have struggled with acne for many years as I did though, there are two different products that I think both qualify as the best acne treatment. I have reviewed both Acne No More and Acnezine in the past but wanted to again bring these up to answer the question that I get asked so often: Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to acne issues, women sometimes have a larger burden to bear. Lament it as we might, they’re often judged more on looks than men. Their hormonal systems make them more prone to developing acne at certain times. Treatment options can be more expensive for them and costs harder to meet.

During the teen years, girls tend to develop acne sooner than boys. On average most girls will start to develop acne by about age 11, as contrasted with age 13 for boys. The reason isn’t hard to find. Girls mature sooner. They tend to enter puberty a few months to a couple of years before boys. Read the rest of this entry »

Acne, it’s a double whammy this time of year.

When it’s the beginning of October, teens and tweens are “faced” with a problem. It affects 85 percent of all teenagers, making it the prevalent problem of adolescence.

“Everyone gets it, but I have a lot of friends who have it worse than I do,” said 12-year-old Johnathan Trent of Valparaiso.

“The best thing to do is to wash your face as much as you can and watch what you eat.”

But according to Dr. Hilary Baldwin, dermatologist and president of the American Acne and Rosacea Society, lifestyle changes and new products can help young people reduce acne.

“This is one of the worst times of the year, because once you hit October, students have been dealing with the stress of the first month of back to school, and the result is acne breaking out,” she said.

Baldwin said ideally, the best hope is to stop problems before they start. She cites stress as a factor that sets off specific chemical and hormonal reactions in the body. Read the rest of this entry »

A question I recently saw for a lady asking an online forum about what her 24 years old daughter can do to get rid of acne and can contraceptive pills help?

My daughter has acne and has taken the contraceptive Pill Marvelon since she was 15 to combat it. Now aged 24 and fearing for her fertility, she has come off it – only for her acne to return with a vengeance.

What alternatives does she have when over-the-counter treatments have no effect?

Acne is caused by overactive sebaceous glands in the skin on the face, chest and back.

They produce the oily secretion that makes skin waterproof and flexible; if they produce too much, the excess oil (or sebum) builds up in the pores, causing spots and blackheads.

Bacteria that thrive on the sebum break it down into fatty acids – this leads to the characteristic redness and swelling.

Acne is usually the result of changes in the levels of male hormones (even women have these, albeit in small amounts).

It is not caused by poor hygiene or dietary factors, although a healthy diet is important when trying to encourage healing and a better complexion.

Oral contraceptives are useful for treating acne in female patients. One of the best is a combination containing the anti-male hormone drug cyproterone (which blocks the action of male hormones in the skin), such as Dianette.

It’s odd that Marvelon has helped your daughter in the past; it’s not one of the cyproterone combinations and can make spots worse because it contains a particular type of progestogen.

Many women worry that long spells on the contraceptive Pill might lead to infertility, as it prevents the release of an egg from the ovaries each month.

However, I can assure you that Pill-related infertility is a myth. It’s true that some women do fail to ovulate for some months after stopping the Pill; it may take some time for the pituitary gland in the brain to tell the ovaries to stimulate egg production.

But the delay is not permanent.

And if a woman is keen to become pregnant quickly, there is medication such as clomiphene that can speed up the process.

The nearest thing to a cure for acne is a drug called retinoic acid, or Ro-Accutane.

However, this potentially toxic drug that must be used within strict safety guidelines.

For this reason it must be prescribed by a dermatologist rather than a GP, so your daughter would need to be referred.

There are two reasons why Ro-Accutane treatment may be stopped: the drug can sometimes cause liver damage (which is reversed once you stop taking it) and greatly elevated cholesterol levels.

However, liver function and cholesterol levels are monitored before and during treatment to prevent this.

As worrying, the drug causes severe damage to a foetus, so the specialist will insist on contraception being used for four to six months before the woman starts the treatment and for a month afterwards. Usually this will be the Pill.

Don’t be alarmed – properly used, retinoic acid is a highly successful treatment for acne.

And by ‘properly used’ I mean supervised by experts who prescribe it regularly, as there have been cases of depression and, in rare instances, suicide. But with all these caveats, I still think this is a good treatment.

A rehashed story gets legs again. I remember years ago when I took Accutane, actually I took it twice, I did have some of the side effects of depression. As most people that take Accutane are teenagers with hormonal issues already this can be expected. The thing that is most important for any parent or loved one to watch for signs of depression in people taking Accutane.

Anyway this is a true side effect that was reported originally back in the 80’s.

Canadian scientists believe that taking Accutane, the most commonly used acne drug, is associated with a higher risk of depression.

According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, isotretinoin, the active ingredient of Accutane, doubles the risk of depression.

CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre scientists say while depression is a rare side effect of isotretinoin therapy, close monitoring of isotretinoin users is necessary due to the serious consequences of depression.

They concluded that psychiatric assessments of patients prior to and during isotretinoin therapy are crucial. Read the rest of this entry »