pics of my acne, is Acutane or curology a good solution

[Noahsteelers34]

I have been dealing with acne for a couple of years now. Although it's not the end of the world, I'm sick of people thinking I'm a strawberry. I have multiple friends who went on Accutane for their acne and had it pretty much cleared within 6 months. I have also had friends try curology and have that pretty much clear their acne. I am very hesitant to introduce medication or chemicals. IM not sure if my skin could become reliant, which could cause a lot of issues. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with either of these things or any advice in general. I included picks of my skin just for referance 

[Etherial Cat]

You might be able to cure it already with something milder, like Retin-a. 

Have you looked into that? Accutane is much more aggressive.

 

[Matthew85]

@Noahsteelers34 Before you use something like Accutane I would try probiotics. Dr Ohhira is an excellent one. 

[Noahsteelers34]

@Etherial Cat  No I have not 

@Matthew85 Ill look into it 

[Average Investor]

I used acutane when I was younger. It worked great for getting rid of acne. However, I became very depressed after using it. It's pretty hardcore. 

The problem with using that is it is just a quick pill solution to the problem. There is a root cause to the acne that you could probably find. 

What do typical meals for you look like? 

[Roy]

This will sound insultingly simple, but what is your liquid intake like?

What do you drink over the course of a week, list your averages for everything.

[Noahsteelers34]

1 hour ago, Average Investor said:

What do typical meals for you look like? 

I am in college and have a campus meal plan. It's usually not the best, a lot of carbs cheese, bread, eggs, but I also eat veggies fruit and chicken a lot. The food definitely isn't the best, and there is a limited amount of healthy options. It will be a lot easier next semester when I'm making my own food.

 

22 minutes ago, Roy said:

This will sound insultingly simple, but what is your liquid intake like?

What do you drink over the course of a week, list your averages for everything.

I could definitely drink a lot more. I cant say for sure how much. some days I drink a lot, other days not much.

 

[Roy]

3 minutes ago, Noahsteelers34 said:

I could definitely drink a lot more. I cant say for sure how much. some days I drink a lot, other days not much.

It's not how much you drink (hopefully not dehydrated), it's what you drink.

[egoeimai]

No. I wouldn't use them in your case. 

I'll send u a list of products

[animani]

I highly recommend you to do some research on Accutane. There's a lot of dangerous side effects to it. 

I used Isotretinoin four years ago (same as Accutane). I didn't really read about the side effects or anything, I was just desperate for a "cure", a quick fix without considering potential root causes. Compared to your pictures my case were more "severe". After taking it for 6 months I think most of it cleared up but I get smaller ones like you now again because I haven't resolved my root causes. 

It's hard for me to see how Isotretinoin really has affected me because I've got other stuff too that affect my body and my body has a lot of different imbalances right now. And I have no idea how Isotretinoin could affect me in the long term.

Though some side effects that are quite obvious to me that I currently have:

Dry skin, dry eyes.

My skin seem to heal slower so basically I've got a lot of acne scars and dark spots from wounds that should've been healed sooner.

I get very easily sunburned compared to before.

Gut issues (this one I'm not as sure of because there's other root causes too).

People react differently. There's a facebook group where you could read about other people's experiences, called - Accutane Survivors, Roaccutane, Isotretinoin Injuries & Side Effects. 

Sending all of my healing support to you! Patience & acceptance, my friend! 

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by animani

[Michael569]

I used Roaccutane about 15 years ago for 6 months. It worked and it cleared out my acne forever. It was hardcore, I was getting rashes, dry mouth and because the meds affect cellular turnover cycle and are pretty fucking rough on the liver so liver enzymes need to be tested regularly for signs of damage. With the information I have today I'd probably try to tinker with my lifestyle and diet first. Back then my parents did not have this info so Roaccutane was the best solution. I'm still hoping I won't be diagnosed with something as a late-onset side effect of that Accutane treatment in my 60s. 

As a growing male in your primal anabolic years, you are naturally susceptible to developing acne because your body is flooded with growth promoters and androgens. This is not a problem but sometimes the balanced can get tipped over by our lifestyle and this is when the effects of those growth promoters go beyond physical growth and start affecting other tissues not associated with physical growth (e.g. shoe pattern hair loss, acne etc) 

If you wanna try a more natural approach first, these may help: 

1. Get rid of most of added sugar in your diet (crackers, chocolates, candy, icecream, soda, sweet drinks etc) 
2. Get rid of refined grains (this means flour products such as white toast, donuts and pastries) 
3. Get rid of white pasta and white rice too 
4. Play around with dairy, some people get affected by it. Rather than consuming cheese and that sort of stuff I would minimise my dairy consumption to either kefirs and high probiotic yoghurts or just eliminate it completely. Definitely avoid eating butter, ghee and any sort of processed cheap dairy 
5. Hydrate well 
6. Read on Mediterranean diet and try to make the bulk of your diet kinda tilted towards that 
   1. high amount of whole foods, fruits, vegetables, legumes, wholegrains, nuts and seeds
   2. you can also add some fatty fish unless you avoid animal food for ethical reasons
7. Exercise at east 3 times a week and you could consider adding some mild sauna and some time spent with direct sunshine exposure
8. Seek out ways to manage your stress

In forms of supplements: you could try short try testing for vitamin A and vitamin D and if either is low, supplement. Both are important regulators of the cellular turnover cycle. If you don't get alot of sunshine, 2000 IU of vitamin D is safe long term dose howeve rif your levels come as below 30ng/mL you may need to go in 5,000s for a few months. With vitamin A I would only supplement short term and only small doses. With this one i would even consult doctor before supplementing. 

These points may not be enough to eradicate it but it should bring about significant improvement over 2-3 months. Give it a try and see how it goes. If all else fails, consider doing the medical treatment. You gotta weight out the side effects of Accutane vs taking no treatment and ending up with scar tissue on your face due to prolonged epidermal & dermal inflammation. This has to be a personal choice. 

Btw from the pic, your acne isn't nearly as bad as mine was. Maybe you can get this under control without meds. I would definitely try it first. 

Hope that helps. Good luck, you got this !

Take Care!

[Noahsteelers34]

@Michael569

Thanks man I think going for a more diet and lifestyle based approach is best!

[Leo Gura]

@Noahsteelers34 The #1 solution is to radically clean up your diet. Acne is mostly caused by bad diet.

If you do a strict elimination diet you should see most of your acne clear up.

Adding drugs to the mix is not going to solve the underlying problem of bad diet.

I used to have pretty bad acne for years but it all cleared up once I started cooking all my own food and cut out all junk food, fast food, and restaurant food.

I discovered that the biggest cause of acne for me was the additives, chemicals, and low quality oils that restaurants use to make their food. Even pricey restaurants do this. If I cook my own food using high quality organic ingredients I never get acne.

[docs20]

Acutane is very legit.

But you should work it out with a dermatologist since you need to do blood tests before taking it and also to monitor the treatment. 

It might give some side effects, but usually bearable and it might even seem to worsen the acne for a little while, but if you persist for a few months the results are really good!

[OBEler]

Please take isotretionin immediately

diet can fix this but it takes a lot of will power.

[Michal__]

Acutane cleaned up my acne completely. And I had it even worse than you.

But it has serious side effects.

[Average Investor]

I feel like accutane is like making a deal with the devil. 

As you mentioned your diet isn't that great. I actually had issues with acne again with eating processed and bad foods after it. 

What is preventing you from eating quality food now? 

[Vido]

Yoo I had and have a lot of acne too.

 

So if you face is oily, put a towel on top of your pillow and wash it atleast once a week. If you don't wash it, you will get acne again

Remove sugar, dairy, fast food (or any processed food) 

Eat shit that is made by nature not my machine, like bread bad, rice good

Don't jerk off to much, minimize to once a week or once every 2 weeks.

Don't jump to Accutane now, try benzoyl peroxide 5% and then if it's not too strong enough, then 10%. If you go to a doc, he will give you antibodies + this mostly

I don't feel comfy sharing my before after pic here, but if you are curious to see, DM me and would love to share

Gotta change the way you value people, if you give people value because they look good, when you look in the mirror, you are fucked. You're self esteem will drop below rock bottom. You can start value people by their values, or character, or their willingness to grow, etc.

If you get stressed, you're fucked. Acne will pop out + you will lose hair..

What diet do I follow? The diet that you can stick too. This is a loving process, takes some time to eliminate the addition. Junk food is designed to make youre brain over eat.

Beautiful video, watch this. Very inline to our line of work as well

https://youtu.be/548FCRTVBys

 

[Razard86]

10 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Noahsteelers34 The #1 solution is to radically clean up your diet. Acne is mostly caused by bad diet.

If you do a strict elimination diet you should see most of your acne clear up.

Adding drugs to the mix is not going to solve the underlying problem of bad diet.

I used to have pretty bad acne for years but it all cleared up once I started cooking all my own food and cut out all junk food, fast food, and restaurant food.

I discovered that the biggest cause of acne for me was the additives, chemicals, and low quality oils that restaurants use to make their food. Even pricey restaurants do this. If I cook my own food using high quality organic ingredients I never get acne.

Yep pretty much this. I only get acne when I eat a whole bunch of junk food.

[Noahsteelers34]

@Leo Gura  Yes usually I notice new pimples any time I eat a lot of greasy junk food