I use it now, have been for the last 2 months.. It works a little. It's helped with reoccuring acne.

It helped a little but I was on it for over a year and still got horrible breakouts...I finally started accutane and it is really helping dry up my skin:-)

My doctor set me on tetracycline and a topical benzoyl peroxide 5% face cream for nearly 4 weeks now and I don't see any real change or improvements, except for the fact that now I notice my condition is worsening slightly.

I tried it for one year and it worked great, all my acne disappeared, but I acquired a lot more, I started to have stomach problems (ulcer, diarrhea), my cycle went wild. I did not have period for over six months (doctors wanted me to take steriods) and it only normarized after 4 years. But the worse part about it the moment I stopped taking tetracycline all of my pimples, blemishes and cysts reappeared.

I recommend to stick to natural products, oral and topical. For me worked beautifully topical acne cream by nucream without any oral supplement.

Don't fill your body with antyibiotics, it is not worth it. Take them then it is really nessesary.

Good luck

This is just ignorant...I'm so tired of people constantly disrespecting antibiotics without understanding how they work or what they do.

Doxycycline is a protein-inhibitor that does affects bacterial cells while doing absolutely nothing to human cells. What it does do is stop bacterial cells from growing (and thus reproducing), by inhibiting the production of a protein that is required for the bacteria to grow, so that your body's natural immune system can eradicate the infection. To state "don't fill your body with antyibiotics, it is not worth it. Take them then it is really nessesary" (all spelling and grammatical errors aside) implies that you think that doxycycline is harmful to humans, which it is not. Of course the acne comes back when you stop taking it...People that are prone to acne will most likely always be prone to acne. So what? It isn't causing any problems for the majority of people taking it, so why should they ever stop?


By the way, any drug, from antacids to whatever can cause stomach problems like ulcers in those that are sensitive to them. All antibiotics can cause diarrhea at the onset of treatment, because all humans have beneficial bacteria in their digestive systems. While some of these will be affected by the antibiotics, some will survive and their "offspring" will be immune to further doses of that antibiotic. Note that this is not a concern, as these bacteria are symbiotic and not parasitic.


I really wish that the people that preach against antibiotics would take the time to understand what they do and how they work before denouncing them as evil.

- chas

Oh, I forgot to put in the most important part of the message...I am 40 years old and have suffered with acne for the last 25 years. The only thing that has worked for me in all of that time is antibiotics. Of those, the one that works consistently and the best is doxycycline, and it has no discernable side-effects. By all means, try it. And if it works for you, do a google search to find a supplier that won't charge you an arm and a leg for it. I recently picked up 500 100mg capsules (i take one a day) for $99 a few bucks for shipping from thailand (where it's an over-the-counter drug).


- chas

[quote="chazzzzer"]this is just ignorant...I'm so tired of people constantly disrespecting antibiotics without understanding how they work or what they do.

[snip]

i really wish that the people that preach against antibiotics would take the time to understand what they do and how they work before denouncing them as evil.
/quote

I've used tetracycline and for the most part I *think* it's helped me... I was prescribed three things at once, so i'm not sure what did the trick. For a lot of the time I have only been using tetracycline and i've used other meds like the ones I was prescribed so I think it was the pills that helped with the aid of the duac gel, mostly.

Here's my update on my condition with tetracycline. Been past a month through and there has been few breakouts, maybe one or two at a time. I don't feel any side effects at all. Different thing work for different people.

Deleted

well, i'll have to agree that you're no doctor, as you've made several common mistakes in your understanding of antibiotics. Don't feel bad though, as they really are common and most people would agree with you because of what they've heard from others.

First, a clarification: "germ" is not a technical term (i.E. Not used by scientists), but when it is used it generally means "a microorganism causing disease." a bacteria, on the other hand, is "any of a group of prokaryotic unicellular round, spiral, or rod-shaped single-celled microorganisms that are often aggregated into colonies or motile by means of flagella, that live in soil, water, organic matter, or the bodies of plants and animals, and that are autotrophic, saprophytic, or parasitic in nutrition and important because of their biochemical effects and pathogenicity." that's obviously a technical term, and the important difference is that it makes no distinction as to the bacteria being the cause of disease. In fact, most bacteria are harmless or even beneficial.

Now, moving on to your points:



too many antibiotics are not good for anyone? Actually, the opposite is true, in a way. The problem with antibiotics comes when people stop taking them before they are supposed to, usually because they are feeling better. There's a reason that you are supposed to take them for 7 or 10 or 14 days, even if you feel better after 3 or 5 days...It has to do with natural selection. You see, some bacteria are extremely susceptible to an antibiotic, and will perish almost immediately. Others in the same colony may not, and may hold on for many days. If you only take antibiotics for a few days until you feel better, then the only living bacteria from the colony that caused your infection are the ones resistant to the particular antibiotic that you're taking. Once you stop taking it, those resistant bacteria that didn't die will continue to reproduce and will form a new colony of bacteria that are all resistant to that particular antibiotic. Whereas most of the time if you take the entire prescribed amount of the antibiotic then even those that are naturally resistant will succumb by the end of the treatment.

Perhaps it's time for a definition: "antibiotic: any of a variety of substances that inhibit the growth of or destroy certain other microorganisms." in fact the things we group together as antibiotics are really unrelated to each other in all ways except that they inhibit the growth of or destroy bacteria. In other words, to make a broad statement against all antibiotics and their effects or side-effects is ignorant, as they all work in different ways and have different side-effects.



i know, it's the same quote again, but this time i'm commenting on the antibacterial soaps part. This is a common misconception, that antibiotics and antibacterial soaps are related and that both are bad. In reality, the problem I think you are referring to is with antibiotic soaps, not antibacterial soaps. The problem is that antibiotics take time to work, and so using antibiotics in a soap tends to only kill the most susceptible bacteria, leaving the less susceptible behind to multiply and create a antibiotic-resistant strain. This is why you can't buy antibiotic soaps. They are only used under controlled conditions, like in hospitals when surgeons scrub in before surgery. (at that point, the idea is to kill as many bacteria as possible before they put their hands inside of a patient, and the antibiotic used in the soap is not commonly used as a prescription antibiotic because it wouldn't work well once the patient has come out of surgery.)

antibacterial soaps work in a completely different fashion, they simply kill bacteria on contact. This is a good thing. There's no issue of creating a resistant bacteria, as they just die instantly on contact.



well, yes, we have both "good" (often called "probiotics") and "bad" bacteria in our bodies. Actually, without the good bacteria, we couldn't digest our food and would die! Fortunately, the good bacteria are constantly replenished from our food supply, which is how they get inside of us in the first place, and so are not substantially affected by antibiotics. It is common to develop diarrhea when first taking a broad-spectrum antibiotic, as it tends to kill off almost all of the good bacteria in your digestive tract. After a few days though, the diarrhea goes away. The key reason is that the new bacteria entering through the food that you're eating will take a few days to die from the antibiotic, by which time they will have been replaced again and again. Eating yogurt is a common remedy for this, as it is teaming with beneficial bacteria and will curb the diarrhea almost immediately. However, the point here is that there is no lasting effect on the good bacteria from taking antibiotics. And actually, if you take the same antibiotic for a long period of time or repeatedly over time, then the good bacteria living in your gi tract become resistant to that antibiotic and are no longer affected by it. So, in summary, antibiotics don't make a significant difference to the good bacteria in your body.



this is a common symptom of not taking antibiotics properly, as in not taking a high enough dose or not taking them long enough to completely eradicate the bacteria and thus creating a resistant strain (to that antibiotic) of bacteria. Of course, there are other forms of pneumonia, the most common of which are viral and mycoplasma, which are not affected by antibiotics at all because they aren't bacterial-based. There are also fungal and protozoic strains of pneumonia...And even one caused by inhaling vomit...That are not affected by antibiotics because they aren't caused by bacteria. If you actually had a bacterial pneumonia and no antibiotic helped, then you probably would have died from it. Before antibiotics, most people who caught bacterial pneumonia did die from it. In fact, it was the leading cause of death before the discovery of antibiotics.



you've got me stumped on this one...I can't find any documentation anywhere that supports your claim that antibiotics "flush out your system." actually, for the most part antibiotics do absolutely nothing to your body. They cause the death of bacterial cells, but leave human cells alone. Otherwise it wouldn't make much sense to put them in your body, would it? There are plenty of substances you could take that would kill both the bacterial and human cells, but that would be counter-productive.



well, okay...I'll have to disagree rather than take your advice. As usual, the people that offer their advice against antibiotics don't really understand what they're talking about.

As I said previously, antibiotics work in a number of different ways, and most are unrelated to each other. For instance, penicillin works by causing the cellular wall of the bacteria to stop growing. The internal parts of the cell continue to grow, however, so the cell eventually explodes and dies. Tetracyclines, on the other hand, retard the growth of the entire cell. This causes reproduction to cease, and then the bacteria either die from age or the body's white cells eventually catch up with the size of the infection and kill all of the remaining cells. And other kinds of antibiotics work in different ways. The only thing they have in common is that they kill bacteria. Don't trust anyone that says that all antibiotics are bad for you...They clearly don't know what they are talking about.

- chas

boy, it took me almost a full day to figure out that b/c meant birth control pills. You're right on that point, some antibiotics can cause a loss of effectiveness. Here's what mayoclinic.Com says:

the effects of antibiotics on birth control pills (oral contraceptives) may be overstated — except in the case of one antibiotic, rifampin. studies clearly show that rifampin decreases the effectiveness of birth control pills in preventing ovulation.


Anecdotal evidence suggests this effect may also occur with other antibiotics, such as:

* amoxicillin
* metronidazole
* tetracycline
* cephalexin
* erythromycin
* isoniazid

no large studies have proved this effect. But researchers can't rule out the possibility that this may occur in a small number of women. If you're concerned, consider using a barrier method of contraception while taking antibiotics.

and femalepatient.Com (written by doctors, for doctors) says:

what do pharmacokinetic studies show?

* medications that induce hepatic enzymes do reduce serum levels of steroids. This can compromise efficacy. These include the antibiotics rifampin and griseofulvin and other medications such as phenytoin, carbamazepine, phenobarbital, primidone, carbamazepine, felbamate, topiramate, vigabatrin.

* pharmacokinetic studies of antibiotics other than rifampin have not shown any systematic interaction between antibiotics and oral contraception (oc) steroid levels. Studies of serum levels in the face of amoxicillin and tetracycline found that such a large intrasubject and intersubject variability in steroid levels at baseline, a small number of women might be vulnerable when exposed to an antibiotic.


Because oc steroids are strikingly reduced in women concomitantly taking rifampin, such women should not rely on cocs, progestin-only ocs, or implants for contraceptive protection. pharmacokinetic studies have not demonstrated lower oc steroid levels with concomitant use of tetracycline, doxycyline, ampicillin or metronidazole or quinolone antibiotics.

there are many drugs other than antibiotics that can lower the effectiveness of oral contraception. Many doctors believe that the anecdotal evidence of antibiotics causing the decrease in effectiveness of oral contraceptives is due to diarrhea that is often caused by a new antibiotic. A standard warning on birth-control pills is "with vomiting or diarrhea, the absorption of oral contraceptives may be diminished and women should be advised to use additional methods of contraception at the time of such disorders." diarrhea from antibiotics, if it occurs at all, is usually very short-lived. In other words, someone taking an antibiotic long-term for the treatment of acne wouldn't be at an increased risk of pregnancy.


Of course, you should always tell your doctor what drugs you're taking so that they can choose an antibiotic that either has no interactions or so that they can at least inform you of the risks.


- chas

Um...Different things work for different people. Did you discover antibiotics? Do you hold the patent for mold? Why on earth are you so up in arms over the fact that antibiotics don't work for everyone?

First off.. Too many antibiotics can be bad for you. Why? Because as we continue to constantly take them, the bacteria that it is fighting become resistant to the antibiotics. Therefore, eventually the antibiotic will become ineffective because the bacteria will be resistant to the medication. This means if you have a reoccuring infection later in life in which the bacteria has become resistant to the antibiotics, when you take them they will not work. Does that mean everyone should stop antibiotics? No.. But it means you should think about it before taking it. Acne is not a necessary reason to take antibiotics because you will not die from acne. However, if it is your only option then you should make that decision. Also, antibiotics are well known to create ulcers and stomach problems when taking them either in high doses or for a long period of time.
Chazzer is right though that the effects on b/c pills is very minimal, especially if you are not taking high doses of the antibiotics.
Also.. Anti-bacterial hand soaps are not bad for you at all. It kills off bad bacteria such as salmonella and stuff that can make you really sick. It does not altar your resistance to things in any way.

Deleted.

you really shouldn't have to take antibiotics for the rest of your life. I was reading this post, and it frustrates me when someone one starts off telling people their ignorant. I agree some don't know how they work. Which is great that you are willing to educate us. Why call us ignorant though?



good bacteria comes from our food. Bad bacteria comes from . . . Where? Perhaps we should look and see instead of how to kill whats in us, but at how it actually gets there, and let our bodies naturally kill the bacteria thats there on it's own.

I don't know you. I don't know your qualifications. I know i'm just a kid who has done some research and lots of experimentation. I have decided that tetracycline doesn't do so much for you. I only took it for about 4 months which should have led to at least some improvement. I had little to none. Definatly not noticable improvement. So I stoped paying the $20/month. I am always welcoming new information, but don't be an ass.