It may seem like I’m against prescription oral and topical medications for acne treatment but really I’m not. In fact, I believe prescriptions can often be a vital part of your acne treatment, especially if you sufferer from moderate or severe acne.
However, whether or not you choose to use prescription oral or topical medications, it is still essential that you treat your acne naturally. This means that even if you use prescriptions, it’s still important to treat your acne naturally at the same time.
Most prescriptions work by clearing the acne alone. They do not work on healing the actual cause of your acne - the reason why you’re getting it in the first place. Prescription medications such as antibiotics, accutane and the contraceptive pill often do a good job at clearing acne, however, because you haven’t fixed the cause of your acne, your skin condition is likely to return once you discontinue using the prescription.
I believe that it’s vital to treat your acne holistically. This means working on treating the cause of your acne through natural methods. Whether or not you choose to take prescription medications and topicals in addition to the natural methods is completely up to you.
Pros and cons of prescription medications and topicals for treating acne
In many cases of moderate to severe acne, the use of prescriptions in addition to natural methods is often a good idea. The prescriptions will help prevent the bacteria from spreading, help prevent the acne bacteria from forming and reduce the redness and irritation of the skin. Combined with natural methods of treating acne, the prescriptions can really speed up the healing process of your skin.
The bad thing about taking medications is the possible side effects.
The first thing your doctor may prescribe for your acne condition is a combination of oral and topical antibiotics, or the contraceptive pill if you’re female.
The antibiotics prescribed for acne are well known to make your skin more sensitive to the sun, cause stomach upset and nausea, and vaginal thrush for women. They can also cause birth defects if taken while pregnant so it’s very important to use a contraceptive (even two types if you can) while on the antibiotics to prevent pregnancy. Keep in mind that the antibiotics can also make the contraceptive pill ineffective.
The contraceptive pill has a large range of possible ‘bad’ side effects which I won’t list in here simply because there are too many. Some women have a lot of luck with the pill and have no side effects at all. I took the pill for a year, my skin was fantastic but it gave me a chronic case of vaginal thrush that took me a year to get rid of so it does not sit well with me.
Also keep in mind that not all contraceptive pills can prevent acne. In fact, some are well known for making acne worse. Your doctor or dermatologist will be able to prescribe the best pill that is especially designed to treat your skin.
Do not become dependant on prescriptions
Another reason why it’s so important to treat your acne naturally is to prevent dependency on prescription medications. I know of many cases where the acne has either come back or the ‘patient’ is scared to go off the medication out of fear of the acne coming back.
Medications can be good at aiding the healing process of the acne bacteria, but you will need to address the cause of the acne as well so you do not become dependant on the drug.
Take for example the use of the contraceptive pill for treating acne. If the contraceptive pill clears up an acne condition, it will be obvious that that particular case of acne was purely hormonal. The pill works by controlling the hormones in the body, so once the hormones are controlled and balanced the acne condition can just go away.
The problem with using this drug to control your acne is fear that when you stop using it your acne will come back with vengeance. It is therefore important to work on treating your skin and your hormones naturally even while you’re taking the pill. There are many natural ways to help balance hormones without taking the contraceptive pill - such as taking supplements, eating well and exercising. Once a good holistic routine is established, the use of the contraceptive pill can then be stopped without fear of a bad case of acne returning.
The same goes for antibiotics or even accutane. You simply cannot take these drugs for a long period of time. In the long term they’re bad for your body. In the case of antibiotics, you can become resistant to them which will make them ineffective in the future when you need to take antibiotics for acne again, or another type of infection. It is therefore very important that you treat the cause of your acne naturally so you can go off the antibiotics or accutane a lot earlier and thereby minimizing nasty side effects and possible antibiotic resistance.
My history with prescriptions
I’ve had bad acne twice in my life - once when I was 18 and a second time at the age of 27. The first time I knew nothing about the importance of treating acne naturally so I was prescribed a long dose of antibiotics. The prescription worked well at clearing my acne but after I went off them a year or so later I experienced a breakout which totally freaked me out. If I’d been eating well and working on my stress levels and hormones, I should not have experienced a breakout like that.
Now, for a second time in my life I’m back on antibiotics at a very low dose. I’ve been working with my natural therapist for almost a year now to fix my condition naturally, and I think I did a really good job at clearing my severe acne. I am now left with mild acne only …but it’s the mild acne that I’m having a lot of trouble shifting. I researched the possible side effects in depth and spoke to my natural therapist about their thoughts on taking the drug and we decided to make an appointment with a dermatologist (two and a half month waiting list!) and take the low dose antibiotics until then to see if it cleared my condition up.
I actually think I’ve abused my skin by trying too many different ‘quick fixes’ and switching between different topicals and oils and cleansers and scrubs and picking and squeezing. I think all of this mucking around too much with my skin has given me a face full of plugged pores, blackheads and whiteheads. It’s this abuse of my skin that has given me the constant mild acne.
I strongly believe that if I just left my skin alone from the very beginning, and just followed a very natural holistic system, like I’ve written in this article - 5 Steps To Healthy Clear Skin, then my acne would have cleared up completely by now. Trust me on this one - it’s the comedonal acne (blackheads and whiteheads) that are the hardest to get rid of so you don’t want to be messing with your skin to create it. Leave your skin alone and let it do it’s job, you’ll be much better off for it.
So my point out of all of this is that sometimes it’s essential to take oral or topical prescription medications. As long as you are fully aware of the possible side effects and make an informed decision then you should not feel bad about it. Just make sure you treat your acne naturally at the same time to prevent the acne from returning, and so that you can stop taking the prescriptions as soon as possible.
You also can’t look at prescriptions as a miracle cure because often they’re not - they don’t always work. By combining both natural and conventional methods you’re giving yourself the best chance of clearing your acne by attacking it from all angles. It’s a complete holistic approach to your acne treatment.
One important point before I finish off - if you want to treat your acne by natural methods only then you can! and that’s fantastic, you’ll certainly be a lot healthier for it. If your acne is mild, or you’ve tried prescriptions in the past with no luck, or you’re female and are or want to become pregnant then the natural way is definitely the only way for you 
Fran
Fran Kerr is the founding editor of High on Health. To cure your acne, sign up to Fran's FREE acne cure mini-course or download her latest how to guide, Eat Away Your Acne.
5 responses ↓
I was in the bookstore the other day, and as I usually do I look at the girls as much as I look at the books. So after I got my coffee, I walked around and saw maybe a dozen girls. Next, i noticed a young girl (maybe 20 y.o.) sitting on a bench. She had terrible acne, and she was probably self-concious about it. I am not saying that acne is a healthy state of affairs, or that acne cannot be treated, but… she happened to be the cutest girl I saw that day.
Andy, you’re awesome and thank you so much for sharing.
One of the biggest things us girls struggle with is not feeling beautiful or sexy when we have this skin condition. I’ve struggled with this one a lot … so it means so much to know there are people (especially guys) out there that can look past it
[...] When To Seek Professional Medical Advice For Your Acne Treatment [...]
I realized that since we sleep on the same pillows every night, they can build up oil and bacteria, as well as flaking skin. I just bought two new pillows today. My skin will probably be much healthier with the fresh start.
Funny, I just put my pillowcase in the wash before …I’ve started washing my pillowcases more often than my sheets because of what you just said.
You can also invest in satin pillowcases. Cotton can grip a little bit onto the skin which can tear your acne and skin. Satin doesn’t do that. Oh, and satin pillow are supposed to be great for preventing wrinkles …that’s a double bonus.
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