High Dose Vitamin A for acne?

[jallrd]

I just broke out for the first time in a while and I read a thread a bit ago about taking upwards of 50,000 iu/day when this happens but I’m most likely only going to take 20,000 because gpt says the side effects such asbone thinning start to kick in after that. Will this help? Should I do more/less? Should I start taking 10,000 iu/day consistently?

 

[Zeekie]

Hey um.. whoever wrote this thread is a total dumbass and is trying to kill you lmao

50k IUs of vitamin A is a stupid idea, as a fat-soluble vitamin, vitamin A is stored in your body and eventually becomes toxic. This is called hypervitaminosis A, and it has nasty side effects and usually takes months to resolve once you hit the upper threshold.

Vitamin A is excellent for your skin, but your body has this little issue where it feeds the skin a very small portion of it. That's why instead of taking toxic levels of the vitamin, we just apply it topically directly to the skin, aka using retinoids (retinol, retinal, adapalene, tretinoin, etc.), alternatively you can also use something like Accutane, but that requires a prescription and is usually overkill for the majority of people.

 

[jallrd]

Hey um.. whoever wrote this thread is a total dumbass and is trying to kill you lmao

50k IUs of vitamin A is a stupid idea, as a fat-soluble vitamin, vitamin A is stored in your body and eventually becomes toxic. This is called hypervitaminosis A, and it has nasty side effects and usually takes months to resolve once you hit the upper threshold.

Vitamin A is excellent for your skin, but your body has this little issue where it feeds the skin a very small portion of it. That's why instead of taking toxic levels of the vitamin, we just apply it topically directly to the skin, aka using retinoids (retinol, retinal, adapalene, tretinoin, etc.), alternatively you can also use something like Accutane, but that requires a prescription and is usually overkill for the majority of people.

Ok thanks i’m using tretinoin currently and was aware it was a retinoid derived from Vitamin A similar to accutane but was unsure whether it was working effectively enough or I should begin supplementing it aswell. Thank you i’ll try to link the thread here:
https://looksmax.org/threads/comple...-net-archive-from-2017.1461386/#post-21239537

 

[bruhtoobrutal]

holy bro just do tazarotene or accutane its not that hard to source and its cheap asf

 

[Zeekie]

Ok thanks i’m using tretinoin currently and was aware it was a retinoid derived from Vitamin A similar to accutane but was unsure whether it was working effectively enough or I should begin supplementing it aswell. Thank you i’ll try to link the thread here:
https://looksmax.org/threads/comple...-net-archive-from-2017.1461386/#post-21239537

People back in 2017 did pretty stupid shit tbh.

As for tretinoin, continue treatment, how long have you been using it for? It usually takes 2 to 6 weeks for your skin to improve, ironically, during the initial adaptation treatment it can even temporarily get worse. Just stick to it, and you should eventually see results, if you have been applying it consistently, properly and for a period longer than 6–8 weeks, and you still see no results then you may need a stronger treatment.

As a side note, I really hope you're using sunscreen during the day if you're using tretinoin

 

[jallrd]

People back in 2017 did pretty stupid shit tbh.

As for tretinoin, continue treatment, how long have you been using it for? It usually takes 2 to 6 weeks for your skin to improve, ironically, during the initial adaptation treatment it can even temporarily get worse. Just stick to it, and you should eventually see results, if you have been applying it consistently, properly and for a period longer than 6–8 weeks, and you still see no results then you may need a stronger treatment.

As a side note, I really hope you're using sunscreen during the day if you're using tretinoin

I’ve been using it for about 2 months now and have noticed a ton of improvement. Even tho my skin is def far from perfect having no cystic acne is the best because breakouts clear way faster. I’m also taking an antibiotic (amoxicillin) and have 2-3 weeks left. That combined with the tret makes me very sensitive to the sun so I am definitely using sunscreen everyday thank you for the advice. I was wondering if it would be smart to take a probiotic supplement at as different times as possible between my two daily antibiotic dosings to increase healthy gut bacteria while not cancelling out the antibiotic? Also because I am sensitive to the sun and therefore spend less time in it my skin has gotten increasingly pale so I am thinking about getting Mt 1 for my first peptide since the contrast of acne on pale skin makes it appear 10x worse.

 

[Zeekie]

I’ve been using it for about 2 months now and have noticed a ton of improvement. Even tho my skin is def far from perfect having no cystic acne is the best because breakouts clear way faster. I’m also taking an antibiotic (amoxicillin) and have 2-3 weeks left. That combined with the tret makes me very sensitive to the sun so I am definitely using sunscreen everyday thank you for the advice. I was wondering if it would be smart to take a probiotic supplement at as different times as possible between my two daily antibiotic dosings to increase healthy gut bacteria while not cancelling out the antibiotic? Also because I am sensitive to the sun and therefore spend less time in it my skin has gotten increasingly pale so I am thinking about getting Mt 1 for my first peptide since the contrast of acne on pale skin makes it appear 10x worse.

1. You should 100% use probiotics when you're using antibiotics, I'm weirded out by the fact that they didn't prescribe them to you. Basically, every time I get them prescribed for anything, I'm also given probiotics. But of course, you should take the probiotics at different times of the day, so if your antibiotics were prescribed for the night, take probiotics in the morning. Other than that I believe you should in generally be eating fermented foods, even when not taking probiotics (kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, etc.)

2. Honestly I'm not going to act like I know anything about Mt 1, but I believe it only worked if you were exposed to the sun, so you know, that may cause.. a few issues, I suppose. In the meantime, I'd suggest you just use carotenoids, or just read some threads on it over here, I'm certainly not the one to give you advice on it. Just yk, the obvious thing, be careful with sun exposure.