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Why Take a Contraceptive to Treat Your Acne?

The rhetorical answer to the headline above is very obvious: It"s just another way, thanks to the almighty wisdom of the safety conscious FDA (an acronym that also stands for FRAUD DECEIT ALWAYS) for Bayer Schering Pharma AG to extend the use and profitability of YAZ, a needless oral contraceptive that may also harm a woman"s health, to treat moderate acne.

By the way, YAZ has the dubious distinction of not only being FDA-approved as a contraceptive and one-pill cure for moderate acne: It"s also sanctioned to treat the emotional and physical symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (formerly known as PMS) as is Prozac under another name.

Just a reminder, any conventional approach -- from YAZ to Accutane -- merely treats the symptom, but never the underlying problem associated with acne.

Your first and best solution for controlling acne for good: Optimizing your insulin levels by reducing, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars from your daily diet.

Kaiser Network.org January 30, 2007

New York Times January 29, 2007 Registration Required





 
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Comment on This Article Community Comments (8)
 
 
Posted On Jan 30, 2007
Yet Another Zero for the pharmaceutical companies.  They think just because they make money on it they can use it for what ever it just might help.  They do not look at the cause of the problem, only the symptoms.  Acne is 99.99% of the time caused by diet, if you are eating correctly for you body you will not have acne.

mmc88121

 
mmc88121
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 11/2006
mmc88121  
Replied

wduff
Novice User Novice User Joined On 6/2006
wduff  
 
Posted On Jan 31, 2007
Acne is caused by a surge in testosterone. It only makes sense that another hormone would appear to help clear it up.  THe cure may be worse that the disease in this instance.  If acne occured soley due to foods we eat then a lot more adults would have acne.


Joan McGovern Tendler
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 1/2007
Joan McGovern Tendler  
 
Posted On Jan 31, 2007
Perhaps this will "clear up" this issue (sorry 'bout that). Low levels of zinc, which can be caused by diet, increase the conversion of testosterone to its active form, DHT, which then stimulates the oil glands, causing acne. Zinc has been used successfully to treat acne in women who produce excess testosterone. Normally these women are given oral contraceptives, like I mentioned above, which treat the symptoms somewhat but can, ultimately, worsen their condition.

 
 
 
Posted On Jan 30, 2007
This is very bad news. There are many blogs devoted to women who are suffering from the effects of Yasmin, which has the same type and amount of synthetic progesterone as Yaz. However, Yaz is taken for 3 more days per month, increasing exposure to these chemicals. Also, acne can be caused by a zinc deficiency, and birth control pills lower levels of zinc, so taking birth control pills for acne could be very problematic!

 
Joan McGovern Tendler
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 1/2007
Joan McGovern Tendler  
 
 
 
Posted On Jan 30, 2007
  1. We have five detox systems in the body: skin, liver, kidney, colon and lymphatic system. Anytime there is an issue with one of these, as well as it being more chronic, you will start to see issues with the skin. I would do some lab testing to see if you have any “kinks” in your metabolic pathways.

2. Most of the time when there is heat in the blood, the Chinese believe this can cause cystic acne. Acupuncture treatment for acne involves both distal and local points.

  • Lung Heat patterns may be treated by using points such as Large Intestine 11 , Large Intestine 4 and Lung 5
  • Stomach Heat patterns may respond to acupuncture points such as Large Intestine 11 Stomach 44.
  • Toxic Heat patterns may be treated with points such as Du 14 and Large Intestine 11
  • Blood Heat patterns may be treated as with Toxic Heat, with the addition of Spleen 10
  • Damp Heat patterns may be treated like Stomach Heat patterns with the addition of points such as Spleen

The lesions themselves may be treated by a technique known as "surrounding the dragon," in which needles are placed superficially about one inch apart to surround the area where the acne is present and retained for about 20 minutes.

Ear acupuncture, in points corresponding to the Lung, Stomach, and Endocrine system, may prove useful as well.

Herbal Medicine may work as well:
Herbal medicine focuses on Heat according to the differential diagnosis, while reducing the inflammation and attempting to prevent the formation of new lesions. A combination of herbal medicines taken internally and an externally applied solution is preferable.

  • Lung Heat may be treated with formulas of herbs such as Pi Pa Ye and Sang Bai Pi.
  • Stomach Heat may be treated with proper supervision using combinations of purgative herbs, such as Da Huang and Mang Xiao
  • Toxic Heat may be treated with combinations such as Jin Yin Hua and Lian Qiao
  • Blood Heat may be treated by using herbs such as Sheng Di Huang and Mu Dan Pi
  • Damp Heat may be treated with combinations of the herbs used to treat Toxic Heat, along with other herbs, such as Yi Yi Ren and Tu Fu Ling , to drain Dampness.

These are just generalizations and recommendations. I would find a TCM Practitioner to work with.


 
Josh Rubin
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 6/2006
Josh Rubin  
 
 
 
Posted On Jan 30, 2007

Like swatting a fly with a tactical thermo nuclear war head...what could these people be possibly thinking?! 

Hmmmm, maybe they are trying out some of their own approved mind altering drugs, irrespective of BAD side effects?

This is ill conceived (pardon the pun) at a minimum, and gross ethical and empirical medical, if not criminal, negligence at worse.

The Hippocratic Oath explicitly states: "First, Do No Harm".

Obviously, no one in Big Pharma, or at FDA, has a clue what we are talking about here.


 
Russ Bianchi
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 9/2006
Russ Bianchi  
 
 
 
Posted On Feb 01, 2007
I used to take a combination of contraceptive pills with antibiotics (tetracycline, I think) for acne and they really worked!  However, since my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I decided I would rather have acne than half a rack (or none at all).  There are claims that even though contraceptive pills increase a woman's chance of breast cancer by half, it also cuts a woman's risk of ovarian cancer by the same percentage.  Since the ratios getting cancer remained the same whether I took them or not, I decided not to and sure enough, the acne returned.

I do believe diet is a factor.  However, I know people who live on greasy hamburgers (sandwiched in a refined white flour bun, of course), trans-fatty fries and corn sugar-laden sodas and never get a blemish (or get fat, for that matter), but I believe certain people are just more susceptible to "bad" food and break out. 

 
katherine_mayfield_25
Users with negative points NoviceUser, Joined On 12/2006
katherine_mayfield_25  
 
 
 
 
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