Is Doxycycline an effective drug for acne treatment?
I am just curious if Doxycycline can be effective in the treatment of acne (mild-to-moderate case). My doctor recently re-prescribed me to a generic Doxycycline hyclate tablet – 100 mg. twice daily (I used to take 75 mg. twice daily). My acne, although fairly mild, has flared up a bit recently and I am just wondering if it would be worth it to initiate a second treatment of the medicine at a higher dosage (I have been off the medication for about 10 days and have developed a few cysts – which I think can be attributed to my body’s weaning off the medication). Any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated!!
Tagged with: acne • Doxycycline • drug • Effective • treatment
Filed under: Body Acne Treatment
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Yes, but make SURE you drink alot of water with it .
It can be very effective and it sound like it helps you but higher dosage wouldn’t necessarily help you more. I actually don’t like the idea of antibiotics for long-term acne treatment because you can run into antibiotic resistance later in life which can be a real problem. Also, high doses of antibiotics can really mess with your intestinal tract. Doxycycline was prescribed for me recently for an infection and made me terribly sick to my stomach. Like all drugs, antibiotics can have side effects and higher doses may be hard for you to tolerate, especially long-term.
A few tings may be happening. What ever is causing the acne may be getting killed and need to be eliminated from the body. In this case, your skin may develop more acne and cysts to get rid of it. Another thing that may be happening is that you are having an allergic reaction to the medication. In this case, you should quit taking it and report it to your health care provider. Another thing that may be happening, is that you quit taking it 10 days ago and the bacteria have a more susceptible host to invade without the antibiotic. Cysts do not occur from not taking a medication. If it is fom medication i would be considered an adverse reaction and it should be reported.
If the acne isn’t severe, it’s probably best to just not mess with the drugs.
in my experience (which has been a good 10 years even though I am only 19), I have found that antibiotics seem to make it flare it before making it better. I have been on 3 antiobiotics…tetracycline, minocin (mincocyline) and another one and I can’t remember what is was called but they were yellow diamondy-shaped pills that had a good aftertaste to them (lol). I didn’t fare well on the minocin….it made my throat sssoo sore I couldn’t swallow and could hardly talk. Tetracycline worked the best for me. I was on apo-tetra tetracycline orginally for 100 days to see if it worked at just I believe 250 mg capsules just once a night. It cleared up my face fairly well. Anyways, long story short I didn’t go to my doctor for a good 6 months after my prescription ran out and my face got worse, but not as bad as it was. I eventually went back and he decided to try minocen, which didn’t last long seeing how I could barely talk while on it because it made my throat so sore. He then tried prescribing me the medication that I can’t remember what it was called lol (sorry! this was a long while ago). So that didn’t do anything (he also gave me topical treatment but that wasn’t working too well either) and he reffered me to a dermatologist. The dermatologist put me on Apo-Tetra Tetracycline again once again with the 250 mg capsules but instructed me to take two in the morning and two at night. He also gave me a cream called Differin. Well, the cream made my face dry out ssoo much that it BURNED whenever I touched my face with anything. It actually brought tears to my eyes. Eventually though, the weather got a little better (cold-wise) and my skin wasn’t so dry and the combination worked well. At my second visit with my dermatologist, things were looking good, so he gave me some more apo-tetra tetracycline and told me at this point, if I felt it was alright, then I could take only 1 in the morning and 1 at night. Unfortunately, that did not work well with my line of work that I did in the summer (factory continental 12 hr shift work) so I took either 2 in the “morning” or 2 at “night” (depending on which shift I was on since it was two week rotations). This was just fine, although during the summer I noticed that my nose especally would burn in the sun meanwhile the rest of my skin had the same sensitivity to the sun.
By September I decided to go onto the birth control pill. I did this for many reasons. The first pill lasted only a month and didn’t do too much to my face and had to be taken off due to severe depression.
The second pill I was prescribed was supposed to be absolutely amazing for clearing acne, but only lasted on that for a week and a half before taken off for possible blood clot formation in my legs.
The third pill I was on for 3 months before it started to really really mess with my system. It cleared my face up A TON! I was ssoo happy…although eventually I started getting bruises the size of quarters/loonies/toonies on my legs. They looked disgusting and actually looked like my bf had actually beaten me. I found out it was my tetracycline because I had been on it for almost a year straight. So I went off of that. I also was taken off of my birth control pill because of other effects it was having on my body.
I was then prescribed my fourth pill and I have noticed that within the first week and a half, it makes me break out BADLY but by the third week or so, my face is clearer than ever! So basically I spend the first almost 2 weeks crying because I feel like all my hard work for my acne has gone to waste, but then happen the last week or so when my face is incredibly clear.
I still use Differin every once in awhile but I also use Aloe Vera on my incredibly dry skin in the winter and sometimes sunburnt skin in the summer and works great! It doesn’t make me break out or anything…if your skin is really dry it will burn though until your skin has more moisture in it, and in the summer when using on burns it feels really nice being of the “cooling” effect it has.
I found that once I took myself off of the tetracyline, or lowered my dosage, my face would at first break out, but then it would get a bit better. Unfortunately for antibiotics, if that’s the way that your body will respond to it, then you may be stuck taking them for life (which isn’t great for your immune system).
Anyways I can only assume that you are a guy, so birth control is out of the question for you….I’d stay on Doxycycline for a little while – it takes a while for medications such as antibiotics to kick in and get rid of the bacteria. It’s just a really slow fight and you kind of have to live with it.
I would just like to add…as someone posted below about using herbal remedies….unfortunately….they dont’ work. At least NOTHING worked on me…I tried everything and had to resort to using drugs. I don’t approve using drugs continually as it CAN affect your overall health, but sometimes it’s the only resort people have
I am not trying to “bash” herbal remedies or alternative medications or anything because personally I use some of that stuff (like tea tree oil…LOVE that stuff although it smells horrible lol).
i take Minocycline, i think it’s better, as you only have to medicate twice a day or once a day.
Doxycycline is from the same family as Minocycline, so it should work, make sure you drink loads of water with.
I suggest you avoid using drugs to fight acne. It’s true that you should fight acne both from outside (topical) and inside, but HERBAL treatments are your best option.
Also, what the skin needs is a product that clears pores and kills bacteria, thus preventing hair follicles from clogging and turning into acne. This is what you should be looking for if you want to get rid of those ugly acne.
Before trying any treatment, I suggest you read this informational source that listed the most effective acne treatments available:
http://www.17acnetreatments.com
Good luck