Acne.org Products
Pianina, dont beat yourself up too much. This place is usually bubbling over with terse exchanges. I probably played a bigger part than anyone else. If you want to come back I will leave; I promise I will leave the revolution to the revolutionaries. I have access to the unique straw that often breaks camels backs. Recently, she has really wanted to put me in the ground.
After going through all the past blood work I got done I found out that I have had both elevated IgG and total globulins for a couple of years. According to the following homepage both may point to autoimmune hepatitis. Total globulins are always between 2,9 and 3,1 g/dL and IgG has not exceed 1550 mg/dL so far.
This would explain why I am doing so well on UDCA and other liver enhancing supps.
Criteria for Definition. There are no established diagnostic criteria for drug induced autoimmune hepatitis; however, based upon similarity to idiopathic autoimmune hepatitis the following are important elements in the diagnosis:
- Time to onset of 2 months or more
- Rash, arthralgias or extrahepatic manifestations
- Hepatocellular pattern of serum enzyme elevations (R >5 at onset)
- Presence of an autoantibody in titers of 1:80 or greater (ANA, SMA or anti-LKM)
- Raised immunoglobulin (IgG >1800 mg/dL) or total globulin levels (>3.0 grams/dL)
- Exposure to an agent that is typically associated with drug induced autoimmune hepatitis: nitrofurantoin, methyldopa, minocycline, hydralazine, alpha interferon, beta interferon, cholesterol lowering agents
- Liver biopsy showing features of chronic hepatitis with interface hepatitis and prominence of plasma cells
- Prompt response to corticosteroid therapy (decrease in ALT levels by half within 2 weeks)
- Ultimate resolution upon stopping the medication (and corticosteroid therapy), although resolution may be slow and may call for corticosteroid therapy for several months.
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Incredible lecture for anybody who wants to try ALA, which is on my list of things to try. ALA is supposed to help with many things like energy, detox, raise glutathion ...
For anybody tryning ALA you have to assure yourself of two things according to Dr Berkson:
1. It should be sourced from Europe
2. Take it with a Vitamin B Complex
Berkson himself takes 2 to 3 capsules of ALA each 300 mg a day.
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BTW: I came across this guy after stumbling over http://www.curingcourtney.com/ , the mother who wrote the book apparrently relied heavily in the protocol that she developed on the work of Dr. Berkson.
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A little more on Dr. Berkson. He wrote books both on ALA and Vitamin Bs. He was a researcher and worked for the FDA before he got into practicing medicine.
I found a thread about somebody who saw Dr. Berkson with crohn's. It gives some insights in his practice and the supplements and brands he recommends: http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=10947
I've asked everyone I knew in real life that took accutane, it was about 10 people and only one of them said they noticed hair loss but it stopped after treatment.
I do think some hair shedding is a common side effect, but I think for most, the shedding is so insignificant that it goes unnoticed.
On 6/13/2013 at 9:06 PM, MovingOn said:How much iodine are you taking?
6.25mg (half an Iodoral). Tried higher, up to 100mg, got WolffChaikoff effect which is a decrease in sodium-iodine symporter (NIS) expression for a few days.
NIS may be thought of as a kind of I metabolism master molecule, participating in the anion's translocation from its intestinal absorption to its uptake in the thyroid, lactating breast, salivary glands, and gastric mucosa. In these last two tissues, NIS activity causes I to return to the gastrointestinal lumen, from which the anion, as part of an I conservation system, is again absorbed via NIS in the small intestine.
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NIS is expressed in the thyroid, the salivary glands, gastric mucosa, and the lactating mammary gland. TSH and iodide regulate iodide accumulation by modulating NIS activity via transcriptional and posttranscriptional mechanisms.
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hNIS transcripts of approximately 4 kb were detected in thyroid gland and parotid gland but not in a broad range of endocrine and nonendocrine tissues. RT-PCR and Southern hybridization revealed hNIS gene expression in thyroid gland, salivary gland, parotid gland, submandibular gland, pituitary gland, pancreas, testis, mammary gland, gastric mucosa, prostate and ovary, adrenal gland, heart, thymus, and lung. By contrast, hNIS transcripts were not detected in normal orbital fibroblasts, colon, and nasopharyngeal mucosa.
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TSH, however, does not influence NIS expression in extrathyroidal tissues such as mammary gland, salivary gland, and gastric mucosa. [...] The thyroid gland expresses several iodide transporters in addition to NIS, including pendrin, apical iodide transporter, and a predicted iodide-permeable chloride channel (9). Those transporters are expressed on the apical membrane of thyrocytes and are responsible for transport of iodide from thyrocytes into the follicular lumen. Recent in vitro studies, however, revealed that excess expression of those transporters and/or excess concentration of iodide outside of the cells give these transporters the ability to promote iodide influx in monolayer cells.
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Turns out...
Treatment of FRTL-5 rat thyroid cells with tRA [all-trans retinoic acid], however, downregulates NIS mRNA. These findings suggest differential regulation of NIS expression by RA in normal and malignant thyroid tissues.
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In contrast, in nontransformed rat FRTL-5 cells, 1 microM RA downregulated NIS mRNA levels, inhibited the TSH- or forskolin-triggered induction of NIS message after TSH-depletion, and reduced iodide uptake to 38% after 5 d. This divergent RA-responsivity of NIS may provide the means to target radioiodide to thyroid carcinomas by upregulating iodide transport into tumor tissue while simultaneously inhibiting iodide accumulation in normal thyrocytes and may thus re-establish the potential for radioiodide therapy.
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Refresher: Accutane (isotretinoin aka 13-cis retinoic acid) metabolizes to 4-oxo-isotretinoin, retinoic acid, and 4-oxo-retinoic acid. It's used over all-trans retinoic acid because it's more stable, less toxic and has a longer half-life. It's a cancer drug first and foremost.
These studies show RA increases NIS expression in some cancers initially then it decreases. In normal tissue it decreases. I wonder if the length of accutane treatment periods makes epigenetic changes to NIS or RAR/RXR receptor expression. Maybe the high DNA methylation activity causes depletion of it's co-factors (way beyond me). B-12, folate, sam-e, choline support methylation. Vitamin C can repair NIS according to iodine experts. Selenium protects the thyroid from autoimmunity. Magnesium cos everything needs it (mg oxide is useless btw). Water distribution needs iodine and chloride (link).
On 6/14/2013 at 9:16 PM, Chico Esposito said:It only contains EPA and DHA, these are two essential fatty acids that the body can synthesize from ALA and plant based omega 3's. It's like for example vitamin A, it comes in the form of carotene and retinol. [...] For people with no sebum post accutane, the basic building blocks of sebum are omega 3 and omega 6, the over use of oleic acid as found in olive oil can mess up the ratio's and acne can result.
The first thing i'd take if i had acne would be udo's choice oil and i'd make sure that i avoided fatty meats in favour of chicken
ALA doesn't convert well to DHA (link). Same with beta-carotene to retinol (even less in hypothyroidism) (link).
Chicken has a lot of omega 6. Flax oxidizes easily.
On 6/15/2013 at 5:28 AM, Chico Esposito said:In my case all foods with retinol cause problems with me
I found out taking cod liver oil (4000iu retinol palmitate) with vit d3 (say, 5000iu) greatly reduces any reaction. Vit A/D/K2 taken together prevent toxicity (link). Since upping iodine I've tried clo by itself with no problem but I'm still avoiding it for now. Retinoic acid is inflammatory in IBD (link).
On 6/21/2013 at 10:24 AM, MovingOn said:just an updated. 2 weeks on iodine and i feel amazing...i'm over the hump of draining mucus from my head, and now i can breathe all of a sudden...i smelled nature the other day and it brought me to tears. I have next to no joint pain and I don't need to drink as much water. fucking loving life. no negative side effects, but i need to be careful not to overdo it. also, moisture in my skin and eyes! still have scalp issues though. apple cider vinegar has calmed the burning and inflammation though. seeing a derm next month to get a scalp biopsy. [Edited image out]i'll give up my hair for no joint pain. not that vain, but it'd be nice to have hair too.
Awesome [Edited image out]We're 2 for 2!
The easy answer to hair loss is hypothyroidism (eyebrows thinning?), but it's also a symptom of other potentially related conditions like malabsorption, impaired protein and iron metabolism. Could be bacterial/fungal, in which case apply coconut oil.
On 6/27/2013 at 3:00 AM, Believe said:Incredible lecture for anybody who wants to try ALA
Didn't watch thing but make sure it's R-Alpha Lipoic Acid and cycle it.
yep, stabilized r-ala aka sodium r-alpha lipoic acid
Berkson says that people should take the ALA that has both the R and the S (synthetic) form, this is the one that has been used successfully for decades, he doesn't recommend only taking the R-ALA. I am going to stick to his advice, I am no biochemist or MD.
hi guys..........just wanted to let u know that i'm still loosing lots of hair, my scalp is very visible, hair line is completely ruined, receding badly, i cant even go out without hat. 
Does anyone know if propecia work for accutane hair loss? any real info on that?????
How about minoxidil??? does it work for this type of hair loss??? My whole scalp hair is super thin, dry, very short, and falls like crazy.... i tried minoxidil for a few weeks, with no result, but if u guys know anything about u, please tell me...
Did u find something that really works guys?? anything at all? im so down......
QuoteDubreuil, et al. from the University of Barcelona have shown that elevated bilirubin and lithocholic acid levels can be detrimental to osteoblast cell function. In normal circumstances, when bile is secreted for fat emulsification the bilirubin within it is converted into a secondary bile acid called ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) by commensal (beneficial) bacteria in the gut. (The lithocholic acid is bound by fiber and excreted.*) A healthy balance of gut bacteria promotes this conversion of bilirubin to UDCA, neutralizing the bilirubin's adverse effects on osteoblasts. In other words, when the gut microbes are of the "good" kind, bilirubin is turned into UDCA which simply helps improve the digestion of fats. In dysbiosis, where there is microbial imbalance with an overgrowth of "bad" bacteria in the gut, conversion of bilirubin to UDCA does not take place, bilirubin levels increase in the blood, and osteoblastic bone formation is adversely effected.
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You missed your chance at the dramatic exit; my post at Panina was 99% legit.; I threw in a small slap at Areola. I know you are a little pissed I turned the sexism charges around; I was just joking.
buzz cut and nobody will notice men's hair loss.
seriously.
Update: Got the book Curing Courtney and it is a good book for all of these people that still lack perspective on how to tackle the problem. The advice in the book and the protocol make a lot of sense judging from what I have read over the years and my own experience.
If you want to follow the complete protocoll which will work with some tweaks for more people than just those with colitis and autoimmune hepatitis get the book, I am not going to post it, because following the protocol will cost you between 300 to 500 $ a month, so buying the book is cheap by comparison. Also the book includes a lot of beneficial info that helps and which doesn't cost you anything as long as you have the will to implement it.
My doc recommened to me today taking UDCA with Liv.52.
Many "miracle drug" and "poison" comments beginning to appear in a cracked.com article that discussed Accutane side effects.
It has nearly half a million views already and was just posted today!
So, if anyone else here would like to give their opinion:
http://www.cracked.com/article_20514_the-5-most-horrifying-side-effects-common-medications_p2.html
"following the protocol will cost you between 300 to 500 $ a month,"
Lol. But also, respect.
I have cut down to just yogurt and shrimp with excellent results on performance and well-being. Shrimp is simply the perfect meat. Still drinking the broth. So I eat more shrimp now, which is more expensive. Still limiting yogurt to 1.5l - 2l /d.
I believe I need to add an IBS-friendly fiber to my diet to unlock the next level of performance. My next iHerb ordering round:
My doc recommened to me today taking UDCA with Liv.52.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22942741
"Unanticipated" UDCA toxicity includes hepatitis, pruritus, cholangitis, ascites, vanishing bile duct syndrome, liver cell failure, death, severe watery diarrhea, pneumonia, dysuria, immune-suppression, mutagenic effects and withdrawal syndrome upon sudden halt. UDCA inhibits DNA repair, co-enzyme A, cyclic AMP, p53, phagocytosis, and inhibits induction of nitric oxide synthatase. It is genotoxic, exerts aneugenic activity, and arrests apoptosis even after cellular phosphatidylserine externalization. UDCA toxicity is related to its interference with drug detoxification, being hydrophilic and anti-apoptotic, has a long half-life, has transcriptional mutational abilities, down-regulates cellular functions, has a very narrow difference between the recommended (13 mg/kg/day) and toxic dose (28 mg/kg/day), and it typically transforms into lithocholic acid that induces DNA strand breakage, it is uniquely co-mutagenic, and promotes cell transformation. UDCA beyond PBC is unjustified.
I read the whole article there are a few things to take away from it which may explain why it works so well and why I will discontinue taking it:
UDCA does not affect long-term survival, or transplant free survival and does not slow progression of the PBC, but achieves a 25% drop in serum bilirubin, a 35% drop in serum alanine aminotransferase, a 33% drop in aspartate aminotrasferase, 40% drop in alkaline phosphatase and a 50% drop in gamma glutamyl transpeptidase, that is not associated with control of pruritus, fatigue or weakness.
The anti-apoptotic property of UDCA inhibits relentlessly a natural cascade of events that secure timely and effective regeneration of damaged cells.
UDCA is a steroid with immunomodulatory properties. UDCA suppresses production of IgM, IgG and IgA induced by Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I in peripheral blood mononuclear cells derived from healthy subjects and patients with primary biliary cirrhosis and also in human B lymphoma cell lines.
UDCA does not cure cholestasis, or liver disease.
Long standing use of UDCA is recognized to be associated with tubulointerstitial nephritis, leukocytoclastic vasculitis, skin rash, thrombocytopenia, recurrent wheezy chest, cough and interstitial lung disease. Its use is also associated with hepatic complications as vanishing bile duct syndrome, pruritus, cholangitis, ascites, increasing cholestasis, portal hypertension and liver cell failure.
Clinical trial flaws and bias: Not all clinical trials of UDCA were long enough beyond 2 years to foresee the full-blown effects of UDCA.
In the paper they talk about trials of 6 to 36 months, so I guess it is still a good time to get off this stuff. There are basically no side effects mentioned on the packaging, this is in stark contrast to what one learns after reading the report. I did not realize any but positive effects from the drug. It even improved certain symptoms for me sustainably after taking it the first time like red eyes for example. Overall from taking UDCA the first time for 40 days more than half a year ago to now having taking it for about 19 days I feel like I benefited from it. My doc was never a fan of taking it constantly over extended periods of time, now I know why. Usually she only administers alternative medications, all conservative medicine she only uses in stints.
UDCA is not extremely safe as I stated before, at least not long term.
The paper also says that UDCA boost phase I detoxification. So this is what I will be working on. But from now on I will stick to the natural alternative route, no more prescription drug form me ever again. It was never a long term solution to begin with. I am certain that it is not a good idea to take the drug long-term, but I would not be where I am today without it. It allowed me to put on a healthy weight and go on a paleo diet, which has just like vegeterian diet a lot of benefits when it comes to the liver. I always thought of UDCA as a way of unplugging my liver-gall-bladder system, this is also what my doc told me that the drug may help me move my system to a new and improved equilibrium. Liver-flushes had worked for me, they worked at times even better than UDCA, but over time I became quite underweight so that they were hard to pull of regularly, There were times where my weight was around 150 to 155 pounds, now I weigh 190 to 195 pounds, so liver flushing should come easy.
The protocol from Denis Otten reduces bascically the same things like AP, bilirubin, GGT which are also positively influenced by UDCA. I would recommend anybody who suspects the liver is the key to regaining their health to get the book. For some of us there is not a lot of what we don't already know in the book, but it is like a guide to see what is possible by sticking to a plan and a protocol. I have been emailing with Denise. Her daughter after having had autoimmune hepatitis was completely healed. She does not have to follow the protocol anymore and is even able to consume alcohol. Boosting glutathion and the liver is the key in my eyes, of course, the liver, glutathion and detox are closely related.
If I had come across this paper before I would probably would have tried this stuff only for a little while. At least I know now what the problem is, before doctors were not able to locate the problem.
I wrote an email to the professor who wrote the article and asked what is the best way to get off the drug, whether to get off immediately or phase it out.
Appreciate you going to the effort of posting that info.
I've found UDCA has helped a little, but not as much as I was hoping. However, it has assisted in my digestion and certainly with metabolising fat soluble vitamins etc. I plan to cycle on it. Still, for most, it takes greater than two weeks for it to really show it's worth so I'll go for a month or two and report back. Personally, I'd like my body to be creating it's own bile and would like to hope UDCA can be used like a "jump start". Will see what happens.
The biggest thing that has helped me recently is in fact Vitamin D. I'm having a large 10000IU a day (I'm a big boy 
), and have found I can finally digest Vitamin B properly so long as I'm having the vitamin D. Go figure. My psoriasis has cleared up better than it's been in years and feeling a nice mental boost on the Bs and Ds.
Also, has anyone had any benefits for racetams to deal with brain fog/mental drag? Noopept seems to be popular at the moment and could be very promising in dealing with our mental tennis matches etc (might even ease the tension in these forums ).
Possibly posted before... http://suicide.org/never-use-accutane.html ... the last bit about brain scans was interesting. It shows how accutane changes our brains. And here we are, preparing for a zombie apocalypse when something is already attacking our brains.