Getting rid of acne

LegacyUser

Heres the deal-my acne isn’t severe,and is isolated to a smallish area,but it’s a stubborn prick.Currently it has taken up residence in two areas,a small spot on,of all places,the tip of my nose,and a rather nasty bit down at my chin just below the mouth. problem is that it acts like an army on the run-once I get it out of one area it migrates to another!For example I probably first got it about a year ago.Im glad it isn’t as bad as most peoples(in my experience perhaps 40% of boys get it at some stage,and of them a substantial amount have it all on their forehead,jaws,chin and just about anywhere else on the face.)But its annoying!When I first started getting it it was confined to my forehead.But due to the fact that it wasnt too bad I got lazy as you do,only using the Clearasil occasionally and so on(you do get complacent when your half asleep at wakey wakey time in the morning).But as it started to get worse I realised that id better get busy.Clearasil is very good for keeping spots from forming,but it works slower in eradicating them altogether.So I got myself some super strong industrial strength stuff which worked wonders.But I couldn’t use this stuff every morning as it is so strong it bleaches all fabrics orange if not thoroughly washed off,and my mother was terrified of me destroying my clothes and the furniture.And so I only can use it when I have a bath,rather than every morning.So while my forehead is largely spot free,some nasty stuff has developed on my chin,and it requires a good 10-15 minutes soaking myself in the sink every morning to insure I don’t look like I caught herpes.This works,but its tiring and I want a long term solution so as I don’t have to be constantly watching out for the ****ers returning.I suppose my diet has a lot to do with it as well.I drink a lot of coke every night.Im extremely partial to very regular visits to the takeaway-cheeseburger with fried onions and your typical takeaway chips are probably not the best thing for it.As well as the dozen odd little mini tubs of icecream I eat per week(by the way you must think Im a fat bastard-Im not,weighing the average for my age and I cant figure out why Im not a fatso with all the ****e I eat!)But me cant help myself!My mother suggested going on some tablets after her friend told her her nephews took the pills and were clean in 2 months.But ive heard a lot of bad stories about them pills-some people have got depression or allergies to certain foods.So if possible non tablet tips only please.Thanks
Also,a girl I know told me she saw somewhere that too much chicken choking cau aggrevate it.True?You see when i do it i go mad on it-unlike the rest of you who do it once a week or whatever,I abstain for weeks and then go on an insane binge of non stop kitten slaughtering for one entire week out of,lets say,every 6.I sometimes find the spots worse afterwards.Well,a cause?A home medical book listed one cause as overactivity of the sex glands-posh language for shining kojacks moneybox methinks.So,is it a cause?

LegacyUser

Yall know ima regular-i musta logged out,hence the guest moniker

sceptre

Originally posted by The Gopher
chicken choking
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kitten slaughtering
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shining kojacks moneybox

Class:D

I wouldn't have thought it would make much if any difference.

Your diet is as bad as mine (luckily, at 27, I've never had an acne problem). I suspect that may be one of the main causes. Especially the fast foods (more so than the ice-cream - it's a different kind of fat). Regardless of what you take to get rid of the acne you'll have to cut down a lot on fatty food if you want to eliminate it. Also it might make some small difference if you took a course of vitamins for a while (given that your diet isn't great)

Going to a doctor about it might be a good idea. From what you're saying it's not that serious that you'll have those little scars on your face that some people get from acne but a doctor might be able to prescribe some steroid cream or something (works wonders for some people)

LegacyUser

Gopher.. your posts are harder to read than a book that's been through a washing machine

VinceBlack

Hi there,

People who have suffered horrendous problems with ACNE and have tried all the prescription drugs going with mixed results and no permanent solution have found that a water soluble vitamin is the best permanent answer.

The Vitamin is Pantothenic Acid also known as B5. If you do a google search on ACNE + B5 you will get sites where sufferers talk about how B5 helped them etc. You need about 5-10grams a day which is miles over the RDA but it is harmless. Only downside is that 5grams a day is quite a bit unless you find powder instead of capsules.

HTH

po0k

I can only tell you my experience.
When I was 13-16 I had pretty bad acne.
It was all over my Face.
I went to the doctor.
He put me on pills called meconine or something (I'll have a hunt around for them later, see if ic an get teh name).
After the 3 months of that I was put on a topical solution called Zineryt. That worked for a while, but the solution itself had to me made up in the chemist and it kinda wore out after about a month which was much too soon.
I went back to the doctor and he gave me a prescription for "Dalacin T", which i still use the odd time now and again.

I didn't suffer from and depression that I noticed, I'm still here and my acne isn't.
I never once changed my diet (though maybe I should've for other reasons )

What Vince said above sounds like very very good advice.
Afaik acne is a virus, is it not?

_sheep

one word about getting rid of ance - sauna - cleared up lots of people i know including me and i was on tablets when i was younger, sauna = best results

yellum

Minocin or Minocyclene is what it prob was Syx , I blame that for my stomachs inability to cope with wheat, yeast, chocolate, cheese, coffee, alcohol, and mushrooms. I was fine before the tablets.

It seems to have done permanent damage too. It did clear my skin though. Wasn't worth it now though since when I eat any of those foods I get heartburn/ulcers and a way bigger chance of getting stomach cancer.

Gordon

I wouldn't advise pills yet unless they are good vitamins as suggested.
Some tips:

• Wash your face with hot water to open the pores, cleanse with cold water, dry with a clean towel.
• Change your pillow slips every day (if possible)
• When eating fatty foods (mmm) never touch your face afterwards
• in fact, keep your hands away from your face, period.
• Drink lots of water.
• Change your diet, eat vegetables instead of... muck. Even if you just make a concerted effort, a partial reduction in eating fast food.

With respect to the touching your face thing, a survey was done on some MacDonalds workers to try find out why they had so much acne seemingly. 50% were told not to touch their face after handling food, the other 50% they didn't say anything. The 50% that didn't touch their faces had a significant reduction in relative acne.

So I guess the moral of the story is: Let sleeping dogs lie... or something

smiles

Hmmm... personally I think some people are more genetically disposed to get it than others, in my family my brother was the only person to really ever have acne.

I get one maybe two spots at a time, and they're just little things that i couldn't consider acne, and my friends always give out to me. I dont think your diet ever really effects them.

Only hint, be careful when you're washing your face, wash a tiny bit, then clean the sponge/cloth/whatever with fresh water - otherwise you're just spreading the virus thing.

and besides, they're only spots, I generally don't notice them on other people!

<< Fio >>

D-Generate

A month or so ago the Sunday Times Magazine had a big article on Accutane an Acne drug. This has been linked to many cases of depression. The 15 year-old who crashed a plane in to some building a couple of months ago had been prescribed this drug. The best advice I have is just to wash your face well and to include more fruit in to your diet.

I have spots on my back and on my chest but thankfully not on my face. These are an allergy but I am not certain but i hear people can get acne on their back and chests aswell.

Lemming

My experience was as follows:

A few years of trying such things as sudo-cream and the likes of the clearasil stuff, which worked at least skin deep.

But as fio(smiles) has mentioned, that some people are prone to it due to chemical imbalances as oppossed to dirtyu skin, these measures didn't work too well.

I was placed on a combination of Minocin-Sa and Zineryth since I had VERY bad acne to my upper back, shoulders chest neck and face, and was leaving scarring around the shoulders and back.

I never had any major problems with either piece of medication, although applying zineryth after such things as shaving stung like F*CK. It worked well though.

But this still didn't stop things, only delay (in my case) and I was referred to a dermatologist who prescribed that titan of acne drugs "Ro-Accutine". This is one of the most powerful drugs that you can actually have prescribed to you. I was handed a 3 page document listing all the *possible* side-effects, some of them mundane and some of them downright disturbing to think about. I suffered from dry lips, easily remedied with lip-balm, and flaky(ish) skin during the treatment.

It worked, although I still get acne but nowhere NEAR to the extent that I used to.

Makaveli

You said you get it around your chin, make sure you change your razorblades frequently.
I used to get a few spots around my chin but when I changed the blade in my razor it cleared up.
Also if you have oily skin make sure you keep it clean. Carry a tissue or something in your pocket and give your face a wipe every now and then.
I like you eat a lot of crap, I reckon the worst type of "junk" food for your skin is chocolate, high fat content. I've pretty much stopped eating chocolate now and the few spots I had are gone basically.
Oh, and like Gordon said, keep your hands away from your face.

Ruaidhri

afaik UV light will clear up acne a bit(sun-bed)i have 2 friends that say that this WORKS. so i'd suggest booking a sunbed for yourself(but i never had the need to myself,so it's second hand advice). but then you have to worry about the side effects of tanning beds(but it seems way more safe than the drugs discussed here?)

anyway that's my 2c.what ever you try i hope it clears up for ya

[edit]sorry about spelling/grammer its early monday morning,and i'm tiredp]edit]

Saruman

Gopher you could maybe clear something up (eh sorry sounds like a pun but im being serious!).

Do you suffer from spots/pimples or Acne? If you dont know the difference... Spots can be cleared as you said by washing and so on. Acne is not spots... though it does involve them.. If you see someone on the street with roaring red mounds on their face and they look like they have been burnt in a fire.. thats Acne... a few annoying spots are not even close.

If it is Acne then leave pills as a last resort.

Minicin was mentioned.. i was on that for a while but it made no difference... so i was bumped up to the heavy duty stuff...
ROACCUTANE!!

OK firstly despite all the scare stories.. this stuff in most cases works. How it works is not known for sure but essentially what it does is reduce the gland that produces the oils in your skin that creates the irritation and spots... without the spots it does not turn to actual Acne! The result is very dry skin and also some photosensitivity... so avoid the sun when possible and live like a vampire for a but.. after 3 - 6 months you come off them, acne free and after another 3 -6 months you are back to normal so sun away. By the way sun itself is a great way to get rid of them... But not too much as its also a great way to irritate the skin.

This is a LAST resort and ONLY if its actual acne and not some spots that clearasil or Biactol are supposed to clear.

VinceBlack

I saw the article in the Sunday Times - scary stuff indeed. I never had acne as described in one of the posts and never many spots, I do not have many now but I am still going to take the B5 to see if it will clear up the skin completely.

The evidence is too compelling from unbiased Joe's to ignore. I have heard of steroid users who suffer from Testo spots and these clearing up during a cycle using B5!

These are interesting reads:

http://gmuntz.tripod.com/b5.html
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/review/322931.html

po0k

Originally posted by D-Generate
The 15 year-old who crashed a plane in to some building a couple of months ago had been prescribed this drug.

Jees I wonder, 15-year old, in a plane...accident? Blame it on TEH DRUGGZ!
Blatent scaremongering imho.

Anyways, the sun is a deffinate help too, pit y we live in IReland.
I went to California for about 3 weeks 3 years ago. My skin cleared up pretty well during that time. Got bad soon after coming home again though.

LegacyUser

Heya, im a regular poster too, but im embarrased by this, hence me not posting under my actual nick.
I have bad acne over my upper back, and it is acne, its also deposited at various locations down my back, on my shoulders and across my chest.
As such, i have not sunbathed for any length for a good while, due to how horrible it looks, my face has cleared up, mostly, but the stuff on my back is terribly embarrasing.
I wouldnt go near any drugs as a few years ago, a close friends brother committed suicide, this was attributed to depression from acne drugs that he was taking.
So i wanted to know if theres any lotions for this?
My family has thus far proved to be allergic to clearasil, so i havent used it.

Saruman

I have heard about the depression side effect and all i can say is it did not happen to me... I think though it does heighten your emotions... SO if you are depressed in the first place it makes you feel more depressed... I was never depressed and in actual fact i felt better taking them.. BUT i dont think it was the drug itself.. i think it was more a case.. hey wow its clearing up.. a little dry skin but a small price to pay!! I still get the odd spot.. everyone does but its not acne and i got away with it before any permanent scars developed!!

The moral is it depends on your personality! On the outside people think i look sombre or unhappy sometimes.. on the inside im the happiest person on the planet so no way i could get depressed with a few little pills!! But you dint give them to people who are a little depressed (says so on the box!).

smiles

Oh, i forgot, try spending more time out in the sunlight, some people use sunbeds to speed up the healing --- but personally i think sunbeds are very dangerous and i'd suggest some genuine time outside!

Sunlight does speed up healing, i read it in several places.

<< Fio >>

LegacyUser

I used to get acene quite badly.

In fact people would think it is still pretty bad, but it is nothing in comparison to when I was in my mid to late teens.

Essentially I would be very,very wary indeed about getting prescribed medication, be that topical or oral for acene.

It is caused by the hair folicles overproducing sebum (the substance that lubricates your hair) which can clog your pores.

Bacteria then feed off of sebum and cause irritation of the skip, a spot.

Now, the side effects of acene drugs profess that some of them may be bad for your liver and in my opinion it is probably better to live with spots for (n) years then to be dead of liver failure.

In any case what I do to try and control my acene is to wash with anti-bacterial soap, in the morning (when I shower) and in the evening (sometime) before I go to bed.

No this does not stop my skin overoiling itself, but then again 'most' of the acene treatments (the ingested ones anyway) centre around having your body secrete anti-bacterial agents when you sweat... (not deoiling your skin), so in my opinion, washing with anti-bacterials is preferable to ingesting medication that could damage my liver.

It helps, but thus far has not sufficiently negated the condition.

LegacyUser

If u got medium to severe acne, the only way u will clear it is Accutane and a good diet. Dont mess about with over the counter crap , just go to ur doctor and talk to him about accutane. I tried it, had to go on 2 courses to clear mine up , wish I knew about it earlier , would of saved me years of taking useless treatments and trying different diets.

Accutane will clear ur acne, or Roaccutane as its called here I think.

bernie_1974_10

Cleansers and facial wipes by Neutrogena are brilliant. I have tried everything over the last 15 years and discovered these about a year ago. So far they have worked best of all.

A lot of the drugs and creams you get prescribed leave your skin really dry and flaky which can sometimes look even worse than the spots.

P.S. Drink loads of water, your skin will probably get worse at first but after a week or so you will notice a definite improvement.

And you might want to go and get yourself a girlfriend to help you with your other habit!!

LegacyUser

I have recently started drinking loads of water due to advice from a nutritionist who deals with performance in sport. He was saying how important water is to hydrate the body. I have started drinking at least 2-3 litres of water a day and have noticed my skin has got better as a result.

I have had spots for the last 3 years . They are not as bad now as they were. I have tried different treatments but none of them seemed to work so i just got out of taking them.

Just wondering , I use a battery shaver for shaving is this worse or better for your skin than blades and does shaving less/more affect your skin ?

Gordon

Unregistered ^^
I'm just wondering, why go Unregistered there?
If you don't have an account on boards, set one up mate. If you have an account, there's no need to go unreggie, surely?

Just wondering, sorry for off-topicness.

Corega

Use tea-tree oil was instead of that clearasil sh*te.

Something

Sandpaper

DadaKopf

There's a very good treatment called Zineryt, or Zynerit (pronnounced ZINNERIT). It's a prescription so go to your doctor and ask for it.

It's not an oily cream or a tablet treatment, it's a colourless, practically odourless liquid that you apply to trouble spots once a day, preferably in the morning.

I recommend anyone who has trouble spots check it out.

Lemming

Originally posted by DadaKopf
There's a very good treatment called Zineryt, or Zynerit (pronnounced ZINNERIT). It's a prescription so go to your doctor and ask for it.

It's not an oily cream or a tablet treatment, it's a colourless, practically odourless liquid that you apply to trouble spots once a day, preferably in the morning.

I recommend anyone who has trouble spots check it out.

Zineryth works very well at a skin-deep level, although its not a "cure". You'll need to apply it every day, once in the morning, and then at night again iirc.

YOu're supposed to apply it after washing/cleaning/shaving, so that it can get "directly" at the pores and such.

As a warning ... it sometimes stings. And if you've just shaved ... DO be prepared to scream

DadaKopf

Yeah, it's for moderate to bad acne but not more vicious bouts of it. For anyone with a moderate dose of it, it beats the socks off Clearasil, Oxy 10 and any of those panoxyl-10 mixtures.

Cork

I have recently started drinking loads of water due to advice from a nutritionist who deals with performance in sport. He was saying how important water is to hydrate the body. I have started drinking at least 2-3 litres of water a day and have noticed my skin has got better as a result.

I agree - Drink lots of water.

I had a lot of acne. I went to the doctor - he perscribed some pills. They were not really effective. Time really does help. My face & back are now ok.

But I have dry patchs on both my arms & legs.

I thing it may be ezemma or acne. The only thing the parmacist said was - the water solution.

LegacyUser

Ya you could try drinking a lot ofwater and using all those treatments but they wont get rid of your acne. Stop wasting your time , there is only one way to cure acne and its RoAccutane. Its the only product that gets at the ROOT CAUSE of acne and thats why its the only one that works. Take my advise and dont waste ur time on anything else. See your doctor and talk to him about it. Trust me I tried everything u can imagine for years and most of it made my skin worse. esp that over the counter crap.

And to whoever said time being a healer? Lol, the more time he wastes the more likely he could be left with scars and potmarks that never go.

Kali

"I drink a lot of coke every night"

theres your problem. sugary foods (not necessarily fatty ones) are the major cause of spots etc.
when i was in my teens i had good few spots, its part of that age, but everytime i changed my diet they would be noticeably less frequent..
even now if i had 3 packets of skittles (or something equally sugary) and a bottle of 7up guaranteed i'd wake up the next morning with the odd spot or two... yet two meals in burger king have no effect

The Gopher

Cheers for all the help.I got some topicycline from the doc which has helped a grea deal.As Kali said I can occaionally break out if i have too much coke but generally im fine now.I am also drinking a minimum of 2 lites of water a day and hardly any coke.I now realise I was an addict-some nights I was drinking 4-5 and even 6 cans a day!
BTW does alcohol have any adverse affect on acne?(I mean primarily beer,cider and vodka).Sometimes when I have been out the night before I am slightly redder next day.It could just be the heat in the club but just curious.Thanks.

Gordon

I'd say alcohol has an effect on your skin but moreso are the spin-offs of drinking. Getting drunk in a smoky bar with no food only to eat late at night eating fatty foods close to the time you go to sleep can be bad for your health in general.

Being run down is bad for your organisms health, I feel very run down after a night of drinking, it's like my insides have run a marathon - or a liquidathon at least. It's not just the drinking, it's the joking and the dancing and the hey hey hey. (The hey hey hey is a drainer I find!)

Typedef

Roaccutane. If the acene is pretty bad, long lasting and persistant, then Roaccutane can actually permenantly reduce the oiliness of your skin and thus negate you developing spots period.

Needless to say that is a fairly radical therapy, so you have to see a dermatologist to get perscribed said snake oil.

LegacyUser

Originally posted by VinceBlack
Hi there,

People who have suffered horrendous problems with ACNE and have tried all the prescription drugs going with mixed results and no permanent solution have found that a water soluble vitamin is the best permanent answer.

The Vitamin is Pantothenic Acid also known as B5. If you do a google search on ACNE + B5 you will get sites where sufferers talk about how B5 helped them etc. You need about 5-10grams a day which is miles over the RDA but it is harmless. Only downside is that 5grams a day is quite a bit unless you find powder instead of capsules.

HTH

Ive heard quite abit about this now, any ideas where i could get some Vitamin b5, im a bit afraid of going into the chemist to ask for it and get handed a bottle of Panten.

Is there a Vitamin B product out there?

Caesar_Bojangle

sudo-cream (stuff in grey packaging for cuts and grazes) does wonders for bringing the big pussy terrorists to soften and then empty their load, apply that if you can. Its not a cure but it helps to get rid of those pussy spots that you are constantly aware of when someone is looking at your face and make you want to cringe from the staring.

Sauna just opens the pores by bringing them out quicker and cause the smaller spots to swell, so dont join a gym for the sole purpose of using the sauna everyday to find out you have wasted 800 quid, i go to the sauna roughly four times a week so take my advice on that.

I have a patch of acne on my chin not too bad, but shaving everyday seriously antagonises it so maybe you could look into that if its on your chin or within the usual shaving area of the face.

xx

Roaccutane, like it or hate it, it works. BUT, if you do go on a course of it, be prepared for:
1. Seriously cutting down or completely stopping drinking when you're on it.
2. Don't bother using Oxy, Clearasil or any other crap like that when you're on it. Roiaccutane dries your skin out, so using those other things to wash will make you're skin as dry as a geckos nads.
3. Use a decent moisturiser, E45 works good, make sure its not too greasy though.
4. Get a decent diet and eat lots of fruit. Drink lots of water too.
5. Don't wear scarves (if you've got acne on your neck).
5. Using a lip moistener too.

Typedef

Roccutane, a medication that dries your lips... and has side effects know to cure acene!*

*apt descriptions TM