Acne!!!!

I have acne. Any acne is bad acne. It's on my right cheek mostly.

I use Proactiv Solution. It's not too bad, but you have to stick with it. And I get lazy...

I really hate acne.

 

thank god i dont have acne, i get the occasional two or three zits on the face, but nothing more. Cept i have minor bachne, which is the worst out of all of them...

 

i have some bad acne. I just got some proactive solution used it twice but haven't got it into my routine yet the mask works great it cleared up a lot of it. By the way the way you sleep doesn't affect acne. Acne is caused when your skin can't shed away dead skin and dirt and that irritates the skin and causes acne (gotten from proactive book thingy)

 

for my acne I use benzoyl peroxide 8% and take some pills twice a day >_>

 

One word. ACCUTANE!
"Accutane is used to treat severe nodular acne. It is usually given after other acne medicines or antibiotics have been tried without successful treatment of symptoms."

What it is, is a pill that you take, but you have to have a dermatologist to perscribe it, and its pretty hard to obtain. After the doctor tries multiple treatments of other stuff on you and it doesn't work, he will usually prescribe it at the end if nothing else it working too well. Accutane is the most powerful acne treatment you can get, and not a ton of people know about it because you have to have a dermatologist to prescribe and because it costs a bit of money. Its around $800 for 30 pills but, insurance picks up most of that I'm pretty sure, depending on your provider.

Seriously though, it is like amazing. You can have like the worst acne in the world and it will work. It makes your face SOO MUCH CLEARER within about 2 months, but it can also have quite a few risks and symptoms such as messing up your organs and all of that stuff which is why you gotta sign like a lot of paper and you have to get your blood drawn once a month so they can screen you constantly and make sure you cholesterol and all of that stuff in your blood is doing okay. Accutane is literally like a miracle drug. =]

 

Yeah but doesn't Accutane have some really NASTY side effects?
I just googled them and look at what I found!
http://www.naturalessentials.com/accutane.htm

I would not take Accutane. It has some serious side effects.

A better acne drug is Doxycycline. That has sideeffects, and I've taken it, but the worst thing that happened to me was slight cramping and rashes on my hands.

 

Ahahah i have said this sooo many times on these boards im gonna be famous for it soon!

Accutane is EVIL!

To start with it's illegal in most western countries for it to be given to women because if he doesn't make them infertile it gives them an extremely high rate of deformed children.

It leads to over 4000 male suicides a year because it alters your hormonal patterns.

It regularly causes skin to dry to the extent that it flakes, cracks open and i have known people who have lost large chunks of their lips due to cracking (abit like sunburnt lips)

Had a very high rate of arthritis in many of the joints, is most commonly linked to the knee's.

Often kills sperm count.

But worst of all if you stop taking it, the acne often returns after 3-4 months.

Now that that's over.

ACNE!

Me and sexyalex love this topic


For all those that ask the question even though there are so many posts of it; here is the general rundown on skin care.
3 main area's that contribute to acne.

Diet

Exercise and overall body wellbeing.

Skincare.

1. Diet
Probably the most important of the aspects. There are way to many vitamins and minerals for me to mention that contribute to healing, cleansing and oil productions of your glands, skin and pores but i will say that avoid foods containing saturated fats, high glucose content and even high sodium. The best thing u can do your skin is to drink water, lots and lots of water. Fenegret and Peppermint tea's can also help.

2. Exercise
As with every aspect of your body exercise helps. The more you move the smoother your body can work in every way. Even sweating helps! Just remember to wash well and exfoliate after any significant exercise.

3. Skincare
Probably the most underestimated contributor to solving the acne epidemic! And im not talking about specific Acne treatments, i mean overall skincare.

The main points.

1. Hygiene: Make sure u wash well with warm water and an exfoliate material regularly and after any exercise or meal. Change pillow cases often try to avoid touching your face and back with your hands as much as possible.

2. Cleansing and Toning: Very effective, unlike a lot of acne treatments they clean and balance your skin tone and oil production without stripping too much of the natural nutrients.

3. Exfoliating: Very important and can really have an impact if you don't do so. There are different levels of exfoliating, products like St Irves scrubs and heavy exfoliates should be used about once every 3 weeks on the whole body. You should also have a softer body defoliant for the body to use once a week. But most importantly use either a defoliant glove or shower sponge on your whole body every day.

4. Moisturising: Also very important. Many people believe that moisturisers clog the pores and cause acne but it's no so at all. If you exfoliate regularly then they have a very positive effect. They heal and protect the skin from many nasties and provide a protective layer to the physical dirt that does clog the pores.

That said, a none greasy moisturiser is advised.


Remember that acne is a natural part of the lifecycle and that most people will experience in their life no matter how healthy they are or the products they use. Trying to get rid of it permanently and altogether is an unnatural thing and often the methods used have many bad side effects.

 

yes your rlght but thats why the constantly watch you and trust me it is worth. And also you mentioned doxycycline. It sucks. Lol I've been on it before and seemed to be okay at the beginning and ended up stopping. Doxycycline gives you BAD stomach aches and burns that the only noticeable reaction I had from it. Accutane is seriously awesome tho. Like every drug has risks obviously and the side effects of accutane are obviously extremely rare and slim otherwise they wouldn't be able to sell it. Personally I think its so worth it. My brother used it when he had acne stuff going on during teen years and he was completely fine and normal. =]

 

Actually Accutane side effects are VERY common, that's why is being taken of the shelves in many countries and is already illegal for women in most. But i do concur, as with most drugs they wont effect everyone badly, but with such probable and permanent side effects i wouldn't risk Accutane.

 

yeah in australia, I don't think you're allowed to take accutane. My doc refused to give it to me even though I have one of the worst acne cases she's seen.

Doxycycline only gave me severe cramping when I was already sick, same with the rashes on my hands. It only works if you use it all the time, because it takes extra oils from your skin or something like that without taking too much. My skin was fabulous while I was taking it, but I had to stop cos the rashes were coming up constantly, because I was constantly sick.

If you're female, I would highly reccommend the Pill. There are different varieties to suit different needs. I went through at least three other types before I found the right one for me. The first three all made me cramp horribly and get migraines. The one I'm on now I haven't had any side effects from, and it's been 6 months now.

 

You can get it in Australia if you are a male but ONLY if u have little to no history of reaction to medication and have what they called 'Heavy Skin' aka the opposite to sensitive. But it's very rare to be given out here and most doctors go through a hell of a lot before suggesting Accutane, many suggest surgery first.

Unfortunately there is a lot of cover up on the side affects of it and it's suspected that it's a lot worse then we already know.

Figures say that there were over 4000 male suicides from it, but England (they seem to give it out very easily over there) reported 2000 for the UK alone.

All come down to personal choice and priorities. It's readily availible to most people and it's no ones right to say u can't take it, but learn all the pro's and con's beforehand.

Do a proper Risk V Reward.


Enough posting for today, off to bed.

 

I agree. Bad acne is unsightly, but it is also very common, will clear up on its own and does not do any lasting harm. It is an appearance problem and not something that needs to be treated for health reasons.

The "side-effects" of Accutane seem to me to be worse than the condition being treated, and potentially have longer lasting effects. I had bad acne up to my early 20s, but given the choice of that or all the side-effects that went with Accutane (had it been available then) I would have accepted the acne.

 

I have really bad acne. But all I can do about it is wash my face. Cause I can't use any treatment cause i would have to buy it and I don't a job.

 

As I mentioned above I had fairly bad acne from my mid teens to my early 20s. There were not so many treatments back then, and for me the creams and cleansing lotions did not help at all.

I had quite oily skin and greasy hair too, and found that the best thing for me was to wash my hair every day with a mild shampoo (I used and still use baby shampoo) and to wash my face twice a day with mild moisturisers etc, just wash it, pat it dry, and that's it.

Also improving my diet helped. Cutting down on fatty foods, sugary foods, junk food and dairy products, and trying to eat more of the healthy stuff none of us really like. Also drinking more water.

Someone at work mentioned recently that they saw something on TV that suggested milk can cause acne. I have just googled it and found this article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-453505/How-pint-milk-day-acne.html

Note that skimmed milk is the worst, as it seems like the processes for removing the fat could raise the levels of some hormones in the milk. That's the opposite to what I was expecting. I don't really understand the science, but a key sentence is near the beginning:

There's another article here http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...culprit-how-milk-can-trigger-acne-447979.html

Anyway, it may be worth cutting down on milk (and other dairy products) for a few weeks to see if it makes any difference.

 

I took accutane for half a year. As of now, its gotten rid of most of it.

 

haha nice save

 

I used to have mild to severe acne (hated it like you wouldn't believe) and I tried such a huge number of commercial products. Including strong benzoyl peroxide solutions, Proactive, and just about anything else I could find. I also went through a year long period where I was eating amazingly well and was in fantastic shape (I still eat well, but I've been too lazy lately xD) and it did nothing. So I got frustrated and went and talked to my doctor about it. He recommended I use a combination of Benzamycin and Retin-A Micro. The stuff isn't cheap and you need a prescription, but it actually worked. I only get the rare pimple now and it goes away within a day or two. The only issue I had with the stuff was that my skin was really sensitive to it at first and would turn red and peel... but after cutting down on how much I used it (I was told to use the Benzamycin in the morning and the afternoon, and the Retin-A at night, but I stopped using the Benzamycin the second time) and using an oil free moisturizer I managed to stop that from happening. My skin is used to the stuff now, so I no longer need the moisturizer. And although I didn't have this happen myself, the stuff can make your acne better before it makes it worse. Although, a good number of products do that.

Now, as much as I'm starting to sound like some kinda infomercial, I do recommend trying the stuff to anyone who has had no luck with commercial products but doesn't want to/can't use Accutane or something similar.

 

One of the frustrating things about acne is that it sometimes takes several trials of different medications before you find what works for you. If you look around at the people around you, you will see that every's skin is different and this is why different people require different treatments.

In this thread, there are lots of different things that have worked for people. Just be aware that you may have to try different things before you find what works for you. Sometimes this can be frustrating.

Accutane is currently the treatment of last choice because of the high incidence of side effects. It is a very strong medication but it is the drug prescribed most often for cystic or nodular acne. When I was a teenager, there were a few people that I went to school with who developed horrible pits and scars on their face from cystic acne. It's very rare to see this today because Accutane permanently resolves cystic acne in most people by changing the consistency of their skin.

There's also a new treatment that is available in some countries called Intense Pulsed Light or IPL phototherapy. It uses light to treat severe acne that does not respond to other treatments. The initial research looks very promising.