accutane and vitamin A

[Laney_Rae]

What does everyone think of accutane? I know it works but I am afraid it would have bad side effects. Has anyone has success treating acne with high dose vitamin A?

[glein]

From what i have read accutane does not work the same way as vitamin A (retinol). And the side effects of high dose vitamin A could be even worse than accutane.

I would stick with cod liver oil.

[little monkey]

Accutane is pretty bad i think - it messes up the way your body handles fats, people can get all kinds of problems from it, including severe depression. I understand they use smaller doses now than they used to, but personally i wouldn't want to take it.
Also it doesn't work for everyone.

[Laney_Rae]

Well up til now I have been avoiding it like crazy. But I am really running out of options. My acne has improved significantly but I really just want it gone for good. Accutane is what cured my moms acne...she had it for over ten years and then after accutane it was gone. I probably have the same type of acne she did which is why I am thinking that might work for me as well. I'm just wondering if there's something natural I can do that works the same way as accutane. I thought vitamin A might be the answer, but maybe not? What do you guys think?

[glein]

Nope I don't think there is anything natural that works like accutane.. They don't even know exactly how accutane works. If you visit acne.org you can do some searches in the diet/holistic board about accutane. Loads of info and stories.

Personally I figure it took 17 years of western diet to make my body fucked up.. soo... I need to give it time. My results so far are great, and i have still got many options left to try.

I would never go for accutane. Not after the stories I have read...

[Jonathan]

READ THIS CAREFULLY
As far as i know taking large doses of vitamin A would do the exact same thing as accutane. the only reason that doctors prescribe accutane is that it is/was patentable, whereas vitamin A is not. accutane is DERIVED from vitamin A, do a little research and you will find this.

large doses of vitamin A tend to create the same side effects as accutane (look it up.). therefore large doses of vitamin A cannot be taken safely.
BUT... beta carotene, converts to vitamin A in the Body, so therefore there is no risk of overdose (the body can choose to not absorb it once it has enough Vitamin A). There are several books that say to supplement with beta carotene at around 300,000 iu's per day, at this rate the literature says that the acne will be CURED in six months (very similiar to accutane). I suggest that you get some beta carotene drops - turns out to be the most cost effective method.

this is what i am doing now and my acne has been getting steadily better over the last 3 months (since i started)
i also take zinc, omega 3,6 and vitamin E
i hope someone takes this in or at least is convinced to research further into this.

[glein]

Beta-karotene has side effects to. Including increase in some cancer rates etc..

[chardy]

Beta carotene also increases your bodies ability to absorb chlorine and flouride from the environment, water, for example. Which isnt expecially great in these days of cholrinated / flouridated water. toothpastes and whatever else!

Ive cut my carrot juicing down a bit, and dont drink any tap water or have any showers for about 2-3 hours after drinking the carrot juice. Though I may be being a little over cautious, I just dont like the idea of poisioning myself more...

[Laney_Rae]

Where can beta carotene drops be found? I am interested...

[Jonathan]

From what i have read, its only the synthetic beta carotene that increases the risk of cancer and heart disease. The synthetic beta carotene is that which is found in the commercially available supplements (as apposed to getting it from our food), but the high doses of beta carotene are only for 6 months or so, and this is meant to correct a Vitamin A deficiency. After this six months, a retaining amount should be adopted, which is unlikely to cause any side effects, however if your worried bout side effects then just eat a few carrots a day or take 10,000IU's of normal Vitamin A to keep you levels up.

Look on google for the drops. i said that its the most cost effective method because where i am from (Australia) 75 tablets (6mg) cost about $9. so half a bottle of those per day doesnt really work out to be cheap.

[sariewarie]

I take cod liver oil, 2 tablespoons of seven seas contains 8000iu of vit a, 800iu vit d and 20iu of vit e

[Laney_Rae]

I worry about taking cod liver oil because I've heard it has small amounts of mercury in it.

[chardy]

Im sure high quality cod liver oil wouldnt have much or at least, companies would work to exclude it from their products.

I also assume that mercury was water soluble and was less likey to be in fish oil? Nevertheless a good brand of cod liver oil would work hard to exclude mercury, also Im fairly certain that if you live in the US it has to be regularly tested to show mercury contamination levels.

[Laney_Rae]

Yes, but I don't really trust those tests. Look at vaccinations-according to all official standards they have "safe" levels of mercury and other heavy metals, but they have done immeasurable damage. I'm already mercury poisoned and I just don't want to add any more. I'm hoping to find some cod liver oil that has been more vigorously purified than the normal standards.

[shelley]

there are "pharmeceutical grade" fish oils that are pure and clean. I jsut don't know which one is sold where you are.