The link between UC and Adult Acne

I'm in the same boat. I had pretty bad acne all through highschool and college, then it turned into big ugly Cysts on my shoulders and neck.. I had always feared going on Accutane because of what I had heard about it potentially worsening UC. But it got to the point where the embarassment and frustration was just too much that something had to be done, so I took the dive and went on Accutane. I got half way through my first course of it and then went into a flare (not related to the Accutane, it was right around the time of the year that I typically get a flare so I was expecting it, accutane or not) so I waited until the flare cleared up and then went back on it again, this time I got a full course out of it and I am completely happy that I decided to go through with it because nothing was able to help my skin. Now I only occassionaly get a pimple here and there. I do believe that there is some sort of connection between my acne and colitis, I notice that when I start to slide into a flare my skin starts to get worse and I get some pimples showing up again. Then if I catch the flare in its tracks and it starts to clear up, so does my acne.. I think it has something to do with the fact that the cells lining your intestins are the same as your skin cells, I think it is all one tied together layer. (Can't remember where I read that, don't quote me on it).

Here is something, notice 55 people who had acne but no anitbiotics got UC.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20700115

I did not have acne but I am sure I had tetracycline in my youth at least once.
Just before my son got UC he was being treated for acne with isotretinoin cream and tetracycline pills.
Old Mike

I have had pimples my whole life. I usually don't get a lot of them but I get a few huge, cystic ones. Birth control seems to keep mine under control. I switched to a non-estrogen pill about a year ago and it worked great for months and then one day, I started getting the acne again and I had to switch back to my old pill. I think I have a hormonaal imbalance. I am so sick of having acne problems. I think I would try spirnolactone before accutane though. I've used spirno in the past with luck in my particular case.

I had pretty bad acne in high school and still have light-moderate adult acne at 32. It gets much worse when on Prednisone. After finishing my last round of prednisone in February my face has mostly cleared up, but my shoulders and back are continuing to break out worse than they ever have in the past.

I am curious how wide-spread this link is... if there really is a link.

Post Edited (tensai) : 4/26/2012 12:18:03 PM (GMT-6)

Sorry Hoogie, but I have to call your doctor out, he sounds like a brand rep of the drug who is being paid to promote it privately (since the brand no longer promotes itself) and most likely pushes the fact that Accutane is just a synthetic form of Vitamin A (which it is), but you could be looking for alternatives: anything rich in Vitamin A.

Isotretinoin is Accutane's real name and actual ingredient, which was originally designed to be a chemotherapy drug, its very strong and thats why a portion of the people who use accutane can develop the serious side effects that are stated on the warning label. I guess I would just be mindful, I know alot of this because a few of my friends took the product a few years ago and possibly attributed some side effects (long term) to its use.

It states if can cause UC-like symptoms, once you stop taking it, those symptoms go away (unlike actual UC) and not everyone will experiance those UC-like symptoms, so it's not like Acutane actually causes UC...that's the difference. But if you already have UC then I wouldn't risk taking Acutane.

I haven' had acne really since college (before I had UC) and I believe back then I did take Tetracycline for awhile. I would actually say once I got UC about my 3rd year of college, it was right around the time I stopped having acne. Of course I also started birth control pills around that time that could have cancelled it out.  Haven't really had any adult acne since over the past 18 years I've had UC.

Strangely enough, I lived in San Diego for 2 years and did get these huge cysts that took weeks to go away. Not sure if it was the salt air or what!  But wasn't having a UC flare-up at the time I lived there.