cycle acne prevention

[theJmad]

Has anyone tried running an antibiotic a month before your cycle and all the way through your pct? I know it would be even harder on the liver, but im clear when im on anti biotics. I was wondering if that would prevent the acne. anyone done it?

 

[theJmad]

hmm..
guess not.

 

[friction515]

I run doxycyclene throughout everything. However when i add proactive to the mix it helps out alot. My acne is not to bad during my cycles if i dont have to run nolva to combat gyno during. But post cycle I have to be precise about using the proactive perfectly and then i dont have to much trouble.

 

[Matthew D]

Okay personally from what I know about microbiology, I would not run any antibotic without a good reason to... there are other ways of dealing with acne without them

 

[rhinochaser48]

Matthew is right. Running antibiotics when it isn't absolutely necessary is a bad idea.


I posted an NEJM article about the clinical treatment of acne:

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26893&highlight=acne

It's a very good read.

If you aren't already using them, give Retin-A or a topical benzyl peroxide a try. They should help considerably.

I'd say save the antibiotics for week two of PCT and use them briefly, if you need them.

 

[Grifter]

What about using B-5 vit throughout the cycle. Does anyone know the dose that should be taken to help prevent acne?

 

[rhinochaser48]

I'm not sure where the B-5 myth began. I tried it high dose for a LONG time and it didn't do squat.

Stick with what's proven.

 

[bioman]

The B5 protocol comes from a fairly shakey Chinese study that is posted around here somewhere. It's a purely observational study that's totally prone to subjectivity and thus can't be taken very seriously as standard for acne treatment, however...

B5 use has some merit to it actually. I've run it for as long as 4-5 months at a time and then I just get incredibly sick of taking it. Protocol states 10 grams taken with meals spread out throughout the day although I get by with 5-7 grams. Even at the lower doses you'll likely have some intestinal issues/ diarhea/ loose stools particularly if you don't slowly ramp up the dose.

Off cycle it did dry my skin out and slow down the formation of lesions a lot. I have fairly severe chronic cystic acne on my back and this does seem to be the most benign way of reducing it. The B5 also seemed to slightly alter skin texture..even my wife noticed it, so the claims of it reducing pore size seem sort of true. Scarring from secondary infection also became less visible.

Is it a cure? Hell no, but it can help calm down acne after a cycle. During a cycle it won't hardly do a thing IMO. It's also a huge hassle to cap 500 grams at a time and take 1-2 grams 5-6 times per day...but it's not Accutane and it's not antibiotics so it lacks their effectiveness and it takes a long time to kick in..like several months.

I've been on every antibiotic in the book and it always gets resistent and comes back strong or stronger. I've done a long cycle of Accutane(never again!) in my teens and now at 33, the acne is back in full force. I've used about every topical out there and the 1% retin A with dexpanthenol from IBE is the best I've used for scar reduction as well as to slow down lesion formation. At this point I need a bathtub full of it.

My wife did the Proactive sytem for like 8 months and saw little to no improvement.

Goes to show that skin types and acne types are so vastly different that results will vary a lot.

 

[rhinochaser48]

Thanks for the info.

The first I heard of B5 being used for acne was on CEM around early to mid 2003. I started using it then, and continued for about a year, (around 10-15g per day). I can't say I noticed any of the finer details you do, but it definetly did not reduce the amount of, severity of, or duration of acne for me. And since my acne has never been severe, ever, I don't think it was worth the money spent.

It seems to be worth it for you though. So maybe it has it's place.

 

[lifted]

Yeah, I've also used B5 and it did nothing for me...although, I only ran it for a month and a half. In the past I've also used hte creams, etc. but the only thing that really worked was Minocycline..I used this at 100mg twice daily. I normally don't have acne while on, it's only when I come off and I get hit HARD!!! My face gets it the worse and I get very minimal on my upper back. But the thing is, since I only get my acne during PCT, I'd rather not use the antibiotics during this time since I'm already on creatine and tamox...JMO, but I'm not too crazy about running all 3 of these together since I know that anti's can be hard on your kidney's etc..so I usually just suck it up and deal with it instead of fvcking my body up...

And yes, I've also tried Pro-active and it's nothing but strong clearasil....my DERM even told me this.