On 2/14/2018 at 11:45 PM, Hopeful74 said:

Would love to hear from anyone who used Minocycline and if they had any side effects? How long they used it? Were you weaned off of it and how is your acnenow?

Hi Hopeful,

I am currently on a 100mg (once a day) dose of minocycline and I think it has improved only the acne that used to appear in my upper neck area that used to be big acne pimples that would take weeks to go away. I used to be on Doxcycline/epiduo for a year and i cleared up, but as soon as I got off it my acne came back after 2 months.

If you do research on these antibiotics, minocycline seems to be more effrctive at fighting acne, but it also has a realy bad side effect that causes discoloration of the skin and even turning your teeth/gums blue. People getting blue skin patches from bruises or even acne scars. The more i researched minocycline, the more worried I am about taking it. I am actually supposed to take 2 pills a day, but i dropped myself down back to 1 a day.

One thing I did find on a pretty informative website [removed] was that taking vitamin C pills can assist in preventing this discoloration, so I am actually going to the store tomorrow to purchase those.

hope this helps and if anyone else who has been on minocycline can chime in, that would be extremely helpful for me and OP.

EDIT: In regards to side effects, I havent experienced any at all and I have been on it for about 3-4 months now. I take it with and without meals and dont notice any difference at all. Same for when I was on doxycycline.

13 hours ago, Ludadubz said:

Hi Hopeful,

I am currently on a 100mg (once a day) dose of minocycline and I think it has improved only the acne that used to appear in my upper neck area that used to be big acne pimples that would take weeks to go away. I used to be on Doxcycline/epiduo for a year and i cleared up, but as soon as I got off it my acne came back after 2 months.

If you do research on these antibiotics, minocycline seems to be more effrctive at fighting acne, but it also has a realy bad side effect that causes discoloration of the skin and even turning your teeth/gums blue. People getting blue skin patches from bruises or even acne scars. The more i researched minocycline, the more worried I am about taking it. I am actually supposed to take 2 pills a day, but i dropped myself down back to 1 a day.

One thing I did find on a pretty informative website www.progressivehealth.com was that taking vitamin C pills can assist in preventing this discoloration, so I am actually going to the store tomorrow to purchase those.

hope this helps and if anyone else who has been on minocycline can chime in, that would be extremely helpful for me and OP.

EDIT: In regards to side effects, I havent experienced any at all and I have been on it for about 3-4 months now. I take it with and without meals and dont notice any difference at all. Same for when I was on doxycycline.

Thank you for the reply. I am being weaned off in about 2 weeks....makes me nervous. I keep reading i need to take probiotics but then on this group people say they make you break out.

1 hour ago, Hopeful74 said:

15 hours ago, Ludadubz said:

Hi Hopeful,

I am currently on a 100mg (once a day) dose of minocycline and I think it has improved only the acne that used to appear in my upper neck area that used to be big acne pimples that would take weeks to go away. I used to be on Doxcycline/epiduo for a year and i cleared up, but as soon as I got off it my acne came back after 2 months.

If you do research on these antibiotics, minocycline seems to be more effrctive at fighting acne, but it also has a realy bad side effect that causes discoloration of the skin and even turning your teeth/gums blue. People getting blue skin patches from bruises or even acne scars. The more i researched minocycline, the more worried I am about taking it. I am actually supposed to take 2 pills a day, but i dropped myself down back to 1 a day.

One thing I did find on a pretty informative website www.progressivehealth.com was that taking vitamin C pills can assist in preventing this discoloration, so I am actually going to the store tomorrow to purchase those.

hope this helps and if anyone else who has been on minocycline can chime in, that would be extremely helpful for me and OP.

EDIT: In regards to side effects, I havent experienced any at all and I have been on it for about 3-4 months now. I take it with and without meals and dont notice any difference at all. Same for when I was on doxycycline.

Thank you for the reply. I am being weaned off in about 2 weeks....makes me nervous. I keep reading i need to take probiotics but then on this group people say they make you break out.

I also read that as well. It really sucks when we dont have a clear cut answer. I am on Tretinoin Microsphere Gel 0.1% and i think i will stay on minocycline until the gel start to work and clear my face up. But I called a different dermatologist and have an appointment next month to see her.im looking for different opinions from different derms to see what I find. I do not want to relapse again once i get off antibiotics...it is as other people say, it just gets worse than it was before.

I am going to avoid dairy, soy, gluten, sugar and anything else that i notice that may be breaking me out. And I will start jogging at least 30 minutes almost every day. Also, I only drink water...no coke, juice, nada...just water, but I may get green tea since it seems to help alot of people with their acne from what I have been reading. I hope that a mix of those things along with taking supplements will help with weening off minocycline.

24 minutes ago, Ludadubz said:

I also read that as well. It really sucks when we dont have a clear cut answer. I am on Tretinoin Microsphere Gel 0.1% and i think i will stay on minocycline until the gel start to work and clear my face up. But I called a different dermatologist and have an appointment next month to see her.im looking for different opinions from different derms to see what I find. I do not want to relapse again once i get off antibiotics...it is as other people say, it just gets worse than it was before.

I am going to avoid dairy, soy, gluten, sugar and anything else that i notice that may be breaking me out. And I will start jogging at least 30 minutes almost every day. Also, I only drink water...no coke, juice, nada...just water, but I may get green tea since it seems to help alot of people with their acne from what I have been reading. I hope that a mix of those things along with taking supplements will help with weening off minocycline.

I am seeing another derm on Thursday, will report back what I find out. May I ask, are you male or female? And how long have you battled acne?

9 hours ago, Hopeful74 said:

10 hours ago, Ludadubz said:

I also read that as well. It really sucks when we dont have a clear cut answer. I am on Tretinoin Microsphere Gel 0.1% and i think i will stay on minocycline until the gel start to work and clear my face up. But I called a different dermatologist and have an appointment next month to see her.im looking for different opinions from different derms to see what I find. I do not want to relapse again once i get off antibiotics...it is as other people say, it just gets worse than it was before.

I am going to avoid dairy, soy, gluten, sugar and anything else that i notice that may be breaking me out. And I will start jogging at least 30 minutes almost every day. Also, I only drink water...no coke, juice, nada...just water, but I may get green tea since it seems to help alot of people with their acne from what I have been reading. I hope that a mix of those things along with taking supplements will help with weening off minocycline.

I am seeing another derm on Thursday, will report back what I find out. May I ask, are you male or female? And how long have you battled acne?

I am a 31 year old Male and I have been battling acne since I was 15 years old. I had a severe case of acne when I was 15 all the way up to after I left the military at 20 years old and thrn my acne dropped to the moderate level. I never went to go see a doctor about it until about 2 years ago, and the only time i tried treating myself was with proactiv when I was in the military, but i never followed it daily and it never seemed to producr results.

i been dealing with acne my whole high school to adult life, but I never lrt it stopped from trying to succeed in life. I have kids now and was once married also, but now I am tired of acne and am looking to get rid of it.

The 2 derms i went to go see were men and this time i made sure I am going to see a female dermatologist, and I am going to bombard her eigh questions specifically tailored towards how long I have had acne and to see how knowlegeable she is in regards to acne. The last two times i went to thr doctor, i simply stayed quiet and let them give me whatever they recommend, but not this time.

how long havr you had acne and are you male or female?

2 hours ago, Ludadubz said:

I am a 31 year old Male and I have been battling acne since I was 15 years old. I had a severe case of acne when I was 15 all the way up to after I left the military at 20 years old and thrn my acne dropped to the moderate level. I never went to go see a doctor about it until about 2 years ago, and the only time i tried treating myself was with proactiv when I was in the military, but i never followed it daily and it never seemed to producr results.

i been dealing with acne my whole high school to adult life, but I never lrt it stopped from trying to succeed in life. I have kids now and was once married also, but now I am tired of acne and am looking to get rid of it.

The 2 derms i went to go see were men and this time i made sure I am going to see a female dermatologist, and I am going to bombard her eigh questions specifically tailored towards how long I have had acne and to see how knowlegeable she is in regards to acne. The last two times i went to thr doctor, i simply stayed quiet and let them give me whatever they recommend, but not this time.

how long havr you had acne and are you male or female?

I am 15, male. I always had acne, few spots but never anything bad. In late October and November of 2017 I broke out worse than ever. I was using Exposed skin care, and it was doing nothing. Went to the dermatologist and she gave all of 5 minutes and prescribed Minocycline 100mg 2x a day, duac topical in the morning and epiduo forte gel at night. My mom thought that was a bit much so we went to see my primary care dr who said to do the antibiotic and epiduo, not the duac. So I have been on that since 12/8. We have no family history of acne so not sure why I am dealing with it.
I am so sorry yours has lasted so long, has it severe all these years. Did your acne just affect your face or was it all over? This is really killing my self esteem. I am a sophomore in high school and on the track team. Never had to worry about sunblock before but now I do so it makes it really hard when I am at a meet. I want off the antibiotic but I am scared too. I have an appointment with my moms' dermatologist tomorrow, anxious to see what he says.

4 hours ago, Ludadubz said:

I am a 31 year old Male and I have been battling acne since I was 15 years old. I had a severe case of acne when I was 15 all the way up to after I left the military at 20 years old and thrn my acne dropped to the moderate level. I never went to go see a doctor about it until about 2 years ago, and the only time i tried treating myself was with proactiv when I was in the military, but i never followed it daily and it never seemed to producr results.

i been dealing with acne my whole high school to adult life, but I never lrt it stopped from trying to succeed in life. I have kids now and was once married also, but now I am tired of acne and am looking to get rid of it.

The 2 derms i went to go see were men and this time i made sure I am going to see a female dermatologist, and I am going to bombard her eigh questions specifically tailored towards how long I have had acne and to see how knowlegeable she is in regards to acne. The last two times i went to thr doctor, i simply stayed quiet and let them give me whatever they recommend, but not this time.

how long havr you had acne and are you male or female?

Bit of a personal question but did you have a lot of acne when you got married? I'm in a situation where I'm getting married in just over 6 months and have had a moderate acne outbreak for over 5 months now.

I always had acne, it just fluctuated on how severe it was. Since I turned into my 20s things have been more persistent and moderate.

Just asking cause I know it will have a negative effect in the back of my mind. If i still have it, hoping I get Accutane

On 14/02/2018 at 5:45 PM, Hopeful74 said:

Would love to hear from anyone who used Minocycline and if they had any side effects? How long they used it? Were you weaned off of it and how is your acnenow?

I would advise against antibiotic use. I used them for 3 months and got clear, it was brilliant. Clear for about 6-8months and now acne has returned and is more resilient still in my 20s.

6 hours ago, jPablo said:

Bit of a personal question but did you have a lot of acne when you got married? I'm in a situation where I'm getting married in just over 6 months and have had a moderate acne outbreak for over 5 months now.

I always had acne, it just fluctuated on how severe it was. Since I turned into my 20s things have been more persistent and moderate.

Just asking cause I know it will have a negative effect in the back of my mind. If i still have it, hoping I get Accutane

I would advise against antibiotic use. I used them for 3 months and got clear, it was brilliant. Clear for about 6-8months and now acne has returned and is more resilient still in my 20s.

I am already on it. Were you weaned off your antibiotic or did you just stop them?

6 hours ago, Hopeful74 said:

I am 15, male. I always had acne, few spots but never anything bad. In late October and November of 2017 I broke out worse than ever. I was using Exposed skin care, and it was doing nothing. Went to the dermatologist and she gave all of 5 minutes and prescribed Minocycline 100mg 2x a day, duac topical in the morning and epiduo forte gel at night. My mom thought that was a bit much so we went to see my primary care dr who said to do the antibiotic and epiduo, not the duac. So I have been on that since 12/8. We have no family history of acne so not sure why I am dealing with it.
I am so sorry yours has lasted so long, has it severe all these years. Did your acne just affect your face or was it all over? This is really killing my self esteem. I am a sophomore in high school and on the track team. Never had to worry about sunblock before but now I do so it makes it really hard when I am at a meet. I want off the antibiotic but I am scared too. I have an appointment with my moms' dermatologist tomorrow, anxious to see what he says.

yes, I do have acne on my body (Chest and back) as well, but it is mild.

After I got off of taking doxycycline for about a year, my acne flared back up, but I was eating like a glut (Alot of Dairy and sugar products) and BOOM...my acne came back. I think a combination of me eating irresponsibly and stoping my treatment was causing my acne to flair back up.

For me, I honestly think certain things Im eating is causing me to have acne, but I don't know if that is truly the case or not. All I know is after being on Epiduo and doxycycline for a year, my face was clearing up, but it took about 6 months before i noticed a difference and then I would only have about 1 small pimple here and there. Even though I pretty much had clear skin - minus some acne scarring and some spots of hyperpigmentation spots ( which is probably due to years of having acne and from picking at my skin.

* I strongly suggest NOT to pick at your skin no matter how small or big the pimple is. It will damage your skin and either be permanent or take a very long time to heal. I strongly believe this is extremely important! *

Now I am on Round 2 of trying to find a good treatment with a different dermatologist in my area who is giving me a different antibiotic (minocycline 100mg once a night) and epiduo forte for the first about 4 months, but then I told my derm on my 3rd trip to him within 3 months,that I believe the progress is very slow, so he then prescribed me tretinoin 0.05%, which I used for the next month. On my last check up about a month ago, I told him i still am breaking out, so he has me using Tretinoin 0.1% microsphere gel and minocycline 100mg (twice a day).

I am currently seeing an improvement in my skin, but I notice if I get into a sugar rush, I usually will break out with pimples - further halting my progress of getting clear again. I also believe rice breaks me out (white and brown) if I eat it alot, which I eat almost daily for dinner, but again, I am not sure if my diet is causing my acne or not.

BUT ever since i started paying closer attention to my break outs, I notice I start to break out after eating certain foods (Mostly Junk food or fast food) and I do that alot. So I am slowly but surely changing my eating/drinking habits. I am not going to eat or drink anything that has Dairy, sugar or any type of wheat or grain to see if I see an improvement. I am not going to drink any beer/liqour either. I have mostly been drinking only water and VERY RARELY I will drink something with sugar in it and I have been doing that for almost 2 years now. I think drinking sugary drinks aggravates my acne, but I love drinking only water so I am not upset about that. My kids (daughter 4 and son 8) have begun to drink only water...even they are liking the idea of drinking only water since they see that is all I drink lol.

I had severe acne from senior year of high school to about 20 years old. During that time I moved back and forth from Tennessee to Puerto Rico (parents were divorced) and I think maybe the different climates were affecting my acne, as well. When I was in Puerto Rico, which is mostly hot and humid, I had severe acne. When I moved to the states, was when my acne was not as bad, but I am not sure if climate plays a role or not.

I also believe that stress/feeling down/being sad/overthinking to much causes my acne to flare up. I am trying to find ways to keep my mind positive, busy, and stress-free. We all know Acne can affect your self-esteem and put you in a bad mood or make you sad, but i think that causes your acne to get worse if you do...so I try to not get that way and I believe that helps alot. Another reason I think that is true is because every time I think back on my more severe acne days, those were the times I was always stressed out or feeling down, sad, etc. And i had those type of feelings alot during those times.

For me, i dont know if exercise plays a role, But honestly, the only time i ever constantly exercised was when i was in military basic training, but my acne was severe during that whole time (6 weeks). After Basic training, i stopped exercising regularly and been that way ever since. During my clear skin phase, I did exercise more regularly (jog at least 30 mins at least 6 days a week), but I still ate junk food and unhealthy diet, so I think the antibiotic and epiduo along with exercising helped with clearing my skin up.

i so far have been to 2 different dermatologists and March 8th will be my 3rd, and the most frustrating part of having acne is that there seems to not be a fast cure/effective treatment for me that will not cause me some type of unwanted side effect like what minocycline and accutane, etc can cause. The more i read of peoples different stories of what they tried, the more i get discouraged to do something that isnt natural or healthy to my body.

the only thing i am applying to my face is the tretinoin microsphere gel and taking only 1 pill of minocycline a day. I am not applying any cleansers when i shower or any sunscreen or any misturizer because so far witch hazel and 2 different type of moisturizers have caused me to break out a little when I use those products...so i am avoiding them...

Sorry for the long reply, but I wanted to try and answer everyones question lol.

7 hours ago, Hopeful74 said:

14 hours ago, jPablo said:

Bit of a personal question but did you have a lot of acne when you got married? I'm in a situation where I'm getting married in just over 6 months and have had a moderate acne outbreak for over 5 months now.

I always had acne, it just fluctuated on how severe it was. Since I turned into my 20s things have been more persistent and moderate.

Just asking cause I know it will have a negative effect in the back of my mind. If i still have it, hoping I get Accutane

I would advise against antibiotic use. I used them for 3 months and got clear, it was brilliant. Clear for about 6-8months and now acne has returned and is more resilient still in my 20s.

I am already on it. Were you weaned off your antibiotic or did you just stop them?

I just stopped when my course ended so no I wasn't weaned off them.

Just an FYI...i started using nature's body zinc gluconate 50mg pills and vitamin D3 1,000 IU (bought from cvs) in the morning (after a meal) and have been using those for about 5 days and I have noticed that ever since I have been using those pills, I have not had a NEW active pimple show up on my skin. I have had acne for so long that I can look at my face in the mirror and tell when a new pimple is forming and sometimes how big it will get lol...but when i look all over my face, I do not see a new pimple forming.

I do not know if this is due to these two pills I just added to my regimen or if it is something else, but when i was just on minocycline and the tretinoin microsphere gel, I would always get AT LEAST 1 new pimple FORMING every day or every other day.

When a new pimple shows up on my skin, I can tell it is coming when the area that it pops up in turns red. It will look like a very small pimple or it will discolor the area it is forming to red and be flat and eventually get bigger as the day passes.

but another thing i also recently changed was my eating habits. I literally have only eaten carrots, hard boiled eggs, chicken that I bake in the oven with only 1 type of spices rubbed in to it, lettuce, celery, and apples/bananas (slowly trying to eat healthy and add more healthy items to my meals). I have started eating those ever since i started taking the vitamin pills. Last night i also added ground turkey to my diet, as well that I made on the stove.

i am not sure if it is a combination of those things or if it is because I am "training" myself to not stress out or feel down or overthink stuff.

but nonetheless, the big question is...once I get off minocycline, will my acne return if I continue to see improvements and then get clear skin???

How the heck do we ween off of minocycline properly and not relapse?

3 hours ago, Ludadubz said:

Just an FYI...i started using nature's body zinc gluconate 50mg pills and vitamin D3 1,000 IU (bought from cvs) in the morning (after a meal) and have been using those for about 5 days and I have noticed that ever since I have been using those pills, I have not had a NEW active pimple show up on my skin. I have had acne for so long that I can look at my face in the mirror and tell when a new pimple is forming and sometimes how big it will get lol...but when i look all over my face, I do not see a new pimple forming.

I do not know if this is due to these two pills I just added to my regimen or if it is something else, but when i was just on minocycline and the tretinoin microsphere gel, I would always get AT LEAST 1 new pimple FORMING every day or every other day.

When a new pimple shows up on my skin, I can tell it is coming when the area that it pops up in turns red. It will look like a very small pimple or it will discolor the area it is forming to red and be flat and eventually get bigger as the day passes.

but another thing i also recently changed was my eating habits. I literally have only eaten carrots, hard boiled eggs, chicken that I bake in the oven with only 1 type of spices rubbed in to it, lettuce, celery, and apples/bananas (slowly trying to eat healthy and add more healthy items to my meals). I have started eating those ever since i started taking the vitamin pills. Last night i also added ground turkey to my diet, as well that I made on the stove.

i am not sure if it is a combination of those things or if it is because I am "training" myself to not stress out or feel down or overthink stuff.

but nonetheless, the big question is...once I get off minocycline, will my acne return if I continue to see improvements and then get clear skin???

How the heck do we ween off of minocycline properly and not relapse?

I'm not saying it wasn't the vitamins, but they usually take a lot longer to work and get into your system.

It may be the case however that you were severely lacking zinc and vitamin d.

I have been taking vitamin A, C, D, E And zinc for about 3 1/2 weeks and I'm only starting to notice benefit now. I still have some days were multiple pimples appear, like 3-5 a day but it has started slowed down. I notice that surface wounds or small acne heals a lot faster.

however deep acne spots or ones I've picked at still take time to heal. It's work adding vitamins in. Something else to try for a while.

9 hours ago, jPablo said:

I'm not saying it wasn't the vitamins, but they usually take a lot longer to work and get into your system.

It may be the case however that you were severely lacking zinc and vitamin d.

I have been taking vitamin A, C, D, E And zinc for about 3 1/2 weeks and I'm only starting to notice benefit now. I still have some days were multiple pimples appear, like 3-5 a day but it has started slowed down. I notice that surface wounds or small acne heals a lot faster.

however deep acne spots or ones I've picked at still take time to heal. It's work adding vitamins in. Something else to try for a while.

You are right..I just looked at my skin today and sure enough i can see some spots i didnt have before...sigh lol.

I got excited too quick smh, BUT i am going to continue the vitamins.

what brands/dosage of vitamins are you taking, JPablo?