Tetracycline

LegacyUser

Was just wondering i anyone has any good/bad results with this ? I tried Minocin and it didnt do anything and wouldn't be too keen on trying Accutane. Is this the answer ?

dudara

For those who don't know, Tetracycline is used to treat acne.

Please remember that this is not a medical board, so it would be good if people could just confine themselves to their experiences with Tetracycline.

dudara

Fast_Mover

PERSONALLY..I found Tetrcycline crap/didn't work for me.

LegacyUser

For acne, you have to take that anti-biotic stuff for about 6 months if it's going to work.

LegacyUser

dudara wrote: »

For those who don't know, Tetracycline is used to treat acne.

Please remember that this is not a medical board, so it would be good if people could just confine themselves to their experiences with Tetracycline.

dudara

Yeah, just looking for experiences and results.

Fast_mover - did you get prescribed anything else instead and did that work ?

LegacyUser

i used it for over a year and found it worked very well. so much so that if i stopped taking it for even a few days i would get spots again. and i definately noticed its effects before 6 months.

you cant take it with calcium or iron preparations though or it won't get absorbed. there are long term side effects but i haven't noticed anything really, probably cos the dose is quite low. bone marrow suppression and hearing damage apparently.

PurpleFistMixer

I took it for about a year... worked a little for a while, then it just stopped. Think I must be immune to it by now.

brian_ire

I've been on both, but i've found Minocin to be better, but it really depends on the person and how committed you are to taking them. speaking from my own personal experience if i missed on day of taking either i would find that it would have effects further down the line.

For me it would take about 2 months for both of them to show some improvement, but i never liked the idea of taking tablets (antibiotics) continuously so after 6 months i would always try do with out, and ultimately next time i visited the doctor for any reason he would always put me back on the tablets.

I'm now off them and i'm trying other methods which seem to be working... many people may argue and say its nothing to do with it, but i find loads of water and fruit and veg have made a big difference! shame they always make an appearance around exam times... nothing like a bit of stress to awaken a few spots!

thats my two cents.... of which non is medical advice! hope it helps!

white_falcon

wondering.... wrote: »

Was just wondering i anyone has any good/bad results with this ? I tried Minocin and it didnt do anything and wouldn't be too keen on trying Accutane. Is this the answer ?

i had horrible acne and still have it kinda bad on my back but have come to live with it. tetracycline is not the answer. the doctor presribed it to me and i found that while im taking it it stops a bit, and when i stop taking it it comes back straight away. i went to an alternative doctor and he explained it to me in a way that made sense to me (maybe its bullsh1t, but i think its true). doctors try to treat acne from the outside in, using anti-biotics etc. my advice to you would be to spend the money you are spending on goin to a GP and they drugs he is getting you to buy, and instead go see a few alternative doctors. i went to one, and im still goin to him about my acne. he gave me an allergy test and found i was highly allergic to alcohol and dairy products. when i drink them, they dont get digested properly and heat rises in my body and gets trapped in my back causing acne. now iv eased back on both my acne has got sooo much better its crazy - it would never have been cured by doctors from my point of view normal doctors and the antibiotics they prescribe are only a short term solution. get a food allergy test, see whats actually causing the acne and solve it from the inside out hope that helps

white_falcon

brian_ire wrote: »

I've been on both, but i've found Minocin to be better, but it really depends on the person and how committed you are to taking them. speaking from my own personal experience if i missed on day of taking either i would find that it would have effects further down the line.

For me it would take about 2 months for both of them to show some improvement, but i never liked the idea of taking tablets (antibiotics) continuously so after 6 months i would always try do with out, and ultimately next time i visited the doctor for any reason he would always put me back on the tablets.

I'm now off them and i'm trying other methods which seem to be working... many people may argue and say its nothing to do with it, but i find loads of water and fruit and veg have made a big difference! shame they always make an appearance around exam times... nothing like a bit of stress to awaken a few spots!

thats my two cents.... of which non is medical advice! hope it helps!

yea - diet is such a freakin important part of it its amazing...i wish they taught this kind of stuff in school...seriously it would rule out so much teenage depression. a good diet with loads of fruit, veg and water and a fair amount of junk food seems to be fine from my experience and solves any problems ur body has!

LegacyUser

Id have to disagree. I think that a bad diet can cause acne in an acne prone person but not in someone who is not acne prone. Unfortunately, it runs in my mothers side of the family so I don't think diet has anything to do with it.

I Currently drink bucket loads of water, at least 5 fruit & veg a day, take a zinc supplement and always keep my face clean. None of this seems to help at all though unfortunately.

Even though its only v.mild acne I think I would still like to go on accutane as it gets me down. Would find it tough not to drink for 6 months though!

How do they do food allergy tests and how accurate are they ?

smaoifs

wondering.... wrote: »

Was just wondering i anyone has any good/bad results with this ? I tried Minocin and it didnt do anything and wouldn't be too keen on trying Accutane. Is this the answer ?

I was on it for 3 or 4 months when I was 17 after being on every other tablet and cream since I was 15. Before I went on it I had to have bloods taken, a pregnancy test and had to be on the pill for a month (this is for every woman whether she's a nun or a slapper cos it causes birth defects.) My mother was brought in with me so she'd be aware of the side effects and what to watch for. Had to see my dermatologist to get repeat prescriptions each month so he was monitoring me as well as my family being extra watchful. My skin cleared up and the only side effect I had was dry and cracked lips but vaseline helps with that.
My brother went on it for 3 months this summer. His skin was an awful lot worse than mine, he had it all over his face, chest and back whereas I was just my face. His skin is now perfect and all he suffered from was dry and cracked lips as well.
Only you and your doctor (and your family if you discuss this with them) can decide if you should go on it or not, but personally I would go on it as myself and my brother are both clear skinned now.

delos

I was on a prolonged course of tetracycline about 25 years ago. Nobody talked about the side effects and they were much happier with long term treatments. While my acne didn't get much better, it also didn't get much worse. When I spoke to the doctor about this he said that one of the main reasons for taking it was to prevent permanent scarring after the acne had cleared up.

The side effects that I suffered were very minor, consisting of a yellow staining of my teeth. The acne cleared up after about 3 years and there was no scarring.

Would I use it again? I don't know if I'd take anything for 3 years. I'd certainly try the alternative medicine / diet approach first to see if that would help.

slade_x

Wondering... wrote: »

Yeah, just looking for experiences and results.

Fast_mover - did you get prescribed anything else instead and did that work ?

When i was younger i tried everything short of roacutane, if i remember correctly i was put on tetracycline early enough and was on it for a few months, seemed pretty useless, after that i was perscribed erythromycin, then after a while i was given an isotrex gel to accompany the erythromycin. i used both for months also, and i still didnt see any results. from what i could tell they were doing nothing but really drying out my skin. i now have really dry skin thanks to all the crap and i dont use much of it anymore

after i went off the erythromycin tabs and the isotrex gel, i then started using Isotrexin gel; which contains isotretinoin just like isotrex gel but the isotrexin also contains erythromycin in the gel.

Im 24 in january and still get outbreaks from time to time, for some spots the isotrexin gel can take maybe 2 days to clear up a spot but then again it probably takes 2 days to clear up any unstubborn spots anyway without aid of anything.

Moral of the story, dont bother. i would have done anything in my youth to get rid of acne but acne is basically your bodies best way of reacting to whats going on whether your in your teens or early to mid twenties. Its hard to accept, but not everyone suffers from acne. if you suffer from acne as a teen you might still suffer from acne into your twenties regardless of experimenting with tested and untested drugs

Also your diet for the most part doesnt cause acne.. unless of course you live a very unhealthy lifestyle, in which case such abuse will show on your complection and in other aspects etc. but a very important thing to remember is the odd fryup, chocalate or any other indulgence etc. that people think causes acne really isnt a factor.

i have however absolutely no certified medical knowledge!!

scotia

I took it on and off for three years, the spots would clear up for a while(3 or 4 weeks) then it would come back with a vengance, i stopped using it about a year ago and started using a facewash(clean and clear), since then only very minor outbreaks, haven't a clue why it cleared up so much, it used to be really bad at the back of my neck very painful spots, but as i said it's mostly cleared up now.I would say that it worked well for me and would advise giving it a go.

lizzyvera

white_falcon wrote: »

yea - diet is such a freakin important part of it its amazing...i wish they taught this kind of stuff in school...seriously it would rule out so much teenage depression. a good diet with loads of fruit, veg and water and a fair amount of junk food seems to be fine from my experience and solves any problems ur body has!

You obviously haven't had sever acne then. Acne is not symptomatic of anything. It's just a hormonal thing, OP's skin is too sensitive to androgen. It will clear up in a few years naturally, or they can take medicine and use creams for it.

Please don't give advice about medicine/biology if you haven't been to several dermatologists and are currently studying it (I am).

I avoided fat like the plague because of bad advice like that and my skin got worse and my periods stopped. Of course, I started off just eating super healthy, that didn't work (and it will never work for anyone because acne isn't caused by bad diet) so I cut out everything I could think of. I can say that bad advice actually damaged me and my health. You NEED fat to absorb vitamins and to function, I didn't know that when I was 15.

I would have preferred not to take anything but because of the prevailing attitude that my acne was caused by poor hygiene and diet I had to take roaccutane to stop uneducated people looking down on me.

Everyone look at the british medical journal's articles on it. They are very reliable. Wikipedia is ok too.

white_falcon

lol riteo so...i suppose when i gave up foods i was allergic to and my acne stopped it was clearly just co-incidental...

I was just going with dudara on his comment "Please remember that this is not a medical board, so it would be good if people could just confine themselves to their experiences with Tetracycline."

white_falcon

plus a hormonal imbalance can be caused by diet....milkthistle if i remember correctly can restore the hormonal imbalance in a body...so yea i would say diet does have a fair bit to do with it, but NOT everything - it is something to look at...

Pythia

I was on it for about a year, a good few years ago. I found it didn't totally get rid of spots, but definitely reduced the number. I found the pill much better, but if you're male then obviously you can't go on it!

SprostonGreen

I used it. I works for a while and then spots come back.

Get on Roaccutane, its great.

sportswear

took it . it worked brilliantly.

FunkZ

I took it for a while, worked wonders, then I stopped taking it and now I only get bad spots when my diet is bad.

So take it with a good diet. Don't take too much. I found it wears away your tooth enamle (sp?) so I stopped. I'd advise using it for a while then stopping for a while, like 3 weeks on then 2 weeks off or so.