Has anyone taken accutane? It’s a medication for acne with major side effects. Anyway, my doctor didn’t know so I figured I would ask you guys.
I’m Male, 19 5’11" 160 pounds. I’m taking 2 40mg caps of accutane a day. Before I was put on accutane the suppliments I was using are Grow!, Triple Whey Fuel, Ribose-C, 250mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid, Twinlab Mega 6 (multi vitamin/mineral) & cod liver oil.
There is a warning about taking vitamin A with accutane and my doctor said that it is because accutane has a high dosage of Vit-A in it already. I don't think they are any known side effects to a Vit-A over dose so would there be any problem with me taking the 500% Vit-A in the Mega 6 Caps?
How about any of the other suppliments?
The reason I ask is because my doctor couldn’t give me any real info mostly because he doesn’t know crap about nutrition. Also this medication has some serious and some times perminate side effects including loss of night vision, dry weak skin, yellow eyes & some other stuff like damage to some major organs. Some of it can be perminate and I don’t want to increase those chances. Can anyone help me out here? I’d like to continue taking my suppliments because it leaves me feeling weaker and less productive.
Hey. I just finished a 5-month treatment of Accutane. It works, but it fucks you up big time. My hips began hurting so badly while I was on it that I couldn’t squat. But maybe your experience will be different. Now that it’s over, I think it was worth it.
As far as supplements go, I wouldn't ingest mega-dose multi-vites. Go with something more reasonable, like Centrum. I wouldn't exceed 100% of the USRDA in Vitamin A via supplements. Do take extra Vitamin E, however; 400IU twice a day can help with the side effects. The other supplements you mentioned shouldn't interact with the accutane at all.
You didn't ask, so I apologize for giving unsolicited advice, but I found that if I moisturized like a madman with a high-quality, non-greasy moisturizer twice a day (I like Cetaphil the best) I was able to avoid the severe skin dryness that most accutane users complain of. Oh, and keep a tube of chap-stick in your pocket at all times! Good luck!
The fact of the matter is that overdosing on vitamin A does have serious consequences. Granted doing it once isn’t gonna kill you. But if you do it for any length of time you’re asking for trouble. The following info taken from medicinenet
:
Some Vitamins taken in excess can be harmful!! Vitamin A is an example of too much causing us harm!! Deficiency of this important chemical leads to Night Blindness, scaly-dry skin, abnormalities of smell and appetite, and dental problems.
However-too much causes Cirrhosis of the Liver, loss of bone mass & Osteoporosis, decrease in mental alertness, and abnormalities of the skin & hair and even Birth Defects.
Present Recommended Daily Allowances for Vitamin A are:
Hey I posted something abou accutane a few weeks ago on the roids forum, but maybe you all can help me since this is the topic…has anyone here that has used accutane had any side effects that were SERIOUS??? For real, after I read the pamphlet I was ready to throw that shit away…has anyone started to go bald from this stuff?? I also suffer from very mild acne too, and I have been taking minocycline now for awhile and have been somewhat happy w/the results…but when I was given the script to take 40 mg/day of accutane I was skeptical b/c I am always totally loaded with sup’s that the “average” person would not be taking (creatine, tons of protein, extra vitamins/minerals, md6, androsol sometimes), so I still have the script in my wallet but I don’t want to do any serious damage to my body(especially since i’m only 22 and I don’t want to be a cue ball head in a month)…any help IS always appreciated…thanx.
Every vitamin has a different level of toxicity, some the LD 50 is very high over the MDR like vitamin C, however too much Vitamin A (not beta carotiene) can stone dead kill you.
People have died from eating too much bear liver for example.
I took accutane years ago and it raised my triglycerides too high so I had to stop taking it after 3 months. It did help me with acne for about 1 year and then the break out cycle started all over again! I hope that your blood is being tested by the doctor every month. Anyways, please be sure to drink lots of water because I got really dehydrated taking that stuff.
Do yourself a favor… if you miss a dose (usually proscribed as 2 doses per day) don’t take the 2 doses close together, since by doing this you can increase your odds of getting all the nasty side affects (esp hair loss and a permanent yellowing of the iris.)
Deep bone pain is usually accompanied with the use of this medication in active individuals and you might feel like someone beat you with a hammer a few hours after an intense workout.
Studies have shown that accutane works by shrinking the oil producing glands drastically while taking the medication, but they re-enlarge (but are usually smaller than before you started) about 6-12 months after your accutane cycle.
I posted about this on the Steroid forum also. I had pain all in my ankles knees and hips and i had gotten and inflammed disc inmy neck from it which pinched a nerve i had to got o therepy for it. I have mild acne but its not as important as lifting. Also i just started taking Metabolic Thyrolean and that shit is making my acne go away better then anything else i have taken. (with no pealing)
I used to have pretty bad acne as well. The doc was getting ready to give me acutane, but gave me Retin-A topical creme as a last ditch effort before going to the acutane extreme. The first few weeks on it seemed like it made it worse (alot of redness and peeling), but once my skin got used to it my acne went away rather quickly. If you haven’t tried Retin-A I would ask your doc about it, it seemed to work really well for me.
As far as supps while on acutane, I would cut out anything that had vitamin A in it. The risks seem to certainly outweigh the benefits of the supps.
As part of this genetically gifted body god gave me I also had moderately severe acne during high school. (also gyno one the left side but we will leave that alone!) I was taking 160 mg a day of accutane (4 yellows) and had no side effects except for turning red as a tomato (took one year to go away) and having chronically chapped lips. I was on that dosage for almost a year when my triglycerides shot from under 100 to 450 in a month and they took me off. I would also reccomend retin-a. It takes a few weeks to work but it is pretty effective if you have mild acne.
the benefits vs. the side effects is an issue. But given a smaller dosage over the duration on it limits the side effects. @ 175 i took 60 mg\day and only experienced a red face and sensitivity to the sun. finally something that got rid of it completely. i say go 4 it.
Listen, accutane is usually prescribed for a five month cycle and the dosage varies according to bodyweight. Your physician will probably increase your dosage the second month and maintain that doseage for the remainder of the cycle. I am currently on my fourth month of accutane use @40mg 2x a day. I take tons of protein and have used nandrosol, creatine, tribex and methoxyisoflavone with no side-effects and good test results. Actually if your cholesterol levels rise due to the accutane, it might be beneficial to use methoxy, as it lowers cholesterol levels. My levels were actually a little too low, so I stopped using the Methoxy. Otherwise, so far so good. The only thing that has had an adverse affect on my liver test was the use of alcohol. Don’t drink period. I drank twice the third month and it adversely affected my liver. My advice is to drink TONS of water and constantly cover your lips with vaseline. Good luck!
I just completed a 6 month course of the same dosage your taking and had no problems at all (except chapped lips). The dermatologist tested my blood once a month. I did stop taking vitamins during this time because I wasn’t sure which one had the vitamine A in it. But I continued taking protein and creatine with no apparent side affects. I have had relatively severe acne and so the benefits outweighed the risks. Anyway, I think the severe negative side affects are not very common and probably only happen in people that have a higher than normal sensativity to it. I wouldn’t take vitamine A while you’re on it though. You might be able to get away with it, but is that little bit of edge worth the risk (however remote it may or may not be) of doing irreparable damage to your body? I don’t think it is. Anyway, following instructions is usually better. Let someone else do the experimenting. You can always take vitamine A again after you’re done with the acutane. The advise I’m giving you is the advise I took myself and it worked for me.
as i recall when i went on this drug, it has similiar side effects to vitamin a, such as skin dryness, dry eyes, chapped lips so my doctor advised against excessive vitamin A intank to avoid those side effects not because of toxcicity.
Take 10 grams of Pantothenic Acid and 320mg of Saw palmetto a day. You will see amazing results withing a month to 6 months. Although you may experience an initial breakout as the b5 pushes sebum out.
Thanks for the replys guys.
I did some research and have found out that accutane is refined from vit-a. So the side effects of accutane are the same side effects of megadosing vit-a. No one would tell me exactly how much vit-a it would take to equal a dosage of accutane, though. I guess it’s because they want to charge $500 for 10 pills! (Yes I know this because my insurance dropped me last month!) My insurance was kind enough to pay for the last two months worth of pills though.
I did resume taking the mega6 caps. It seemed reasonable due to the fact that they were monitoring my blood any way. No problems other than the cracked lips, nose bleeds & dry scratchy eyes. They all could be prevented. It also does limit my abality to preform in the gym and actually seems to have caused me to lose 10 pounds, which sucks badly!
Other than that I’m proud to say that I’m acne free. Unless you’ve been there, you don’t have any idea what it’s like to feel your face with out lumps on it. Though seeing the scars that remain is kind of upsetting, it’s my fault. I have had sever acne since I was 12.
I recommend anyone who has acne go see a doctor. Chances are if you are older than 17 it WILL NOT go away.
As far as the creams, I’d rather have a perminate solution. Don’t you think it’s a pain in the ass to put that on every day? If you don’t have bad acne, I guess that would be a good solution. Though I would still opt for accutane.
If anyone could find out just how many “IU” of vit-a it would take to equal 1mg of accutane I would appreicate the info.