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anyone else taking this besides Colin and kady75? I got my Topiramate today. Going to start taking it tomorrow.
kady75, do you still get acne? If so, what are you doing to control it?
I still get a small zit once in a while, it's no big deal, I'm not using anything now for acne or scars. I guess not using anything else will really help determine if this works.
If anyone has any updates please do share. I'm going to start taking this tomorrow, hopefully I won't get the 'stingy with info' side effect. 
I've seen Colin lingering around, so he hasn't succomed to the DREADED side effects which many seemed to be concerned with.
Although nearly two months should present SOME conclucions.
Also, tj, what did you tell your doctor to get a prescription? Did you forthright tell him/her that the drug showed promise for acne scars, or more devious venture of requesting topiramate for headaches.
Hey, this thread is alive again, ...well, as long as someone shows interest on this, I'm happy to report whatever I discover.
I just started taking Topiramate 5 days ago. Very soon to make any judgements. However, I'm happy to report that my headaches are gone . I used to get headaches almost daily, now they are gone.
NEC2234, I didn't request it from a doctor. With my luck, I'm pretty sure he would've told me to try something else and not give me that. If you read some of my previous posts, you will see that I ordered it online. 
I have stopped taking the topamax, my hair was coming out like crazy. Which was strange because I did not have hair loss until later in my topamax treatment the original time. This time right away it started to shed a lot. I tried to wait it out thinking 3mons would not be so bad but had to stop. I do not want to be bald. I noticed no improvement but hardly took it long enough to make a change. So it really was not a good test at all.
I still break out once in a while. I get big zits once in a while, major ones. I have had cortisone shots but I do not like them at all. That is my acne style if you will. Clear skin for a while and then gigantic horrible zits.
Now I use Queen Helene mint Juelp sp? and crushed up asprin and water. It works alright, no miracle.
I think my scar is from picking my face. I am pretty sure it is.
Here's an update for you antsy ones.
I unfortunately don't have any conclusions because of the following reasons.
1. I definitely think the Tazorac was making my skin worse and I stopped using that on my face a couple of weeks ago.
2. I was precutting 50 mg pills in half, days ahead of time and recently found out that you cannot cut topiramate tablets because they lose effectiveness (I guess when exposed to air) when you do this. 
Doh!
3. My skin/scars continue to flake/peel and looks good on some days and worse on others. I don't know what is causing the peeling other than possibly the winter weather.
I also wasn't (like I said several times) going to conclude anything until 3 months had passed.
I can mention a couple of things but I can't say now that they were directly related to the topa. During the period I was taking it, I was bitten by what I believe was a brown recluse on the knee and after 2 weeks I could show you my knee and you couldn't have guess where I was bitten. Granted not all brown recluse bites are as damaging as some of the pictures you see on the internet but 2 weeks for a bite to totally go away is pretty nice. Also during this time I was in a car wreck and my forearm suffered some cuts from broken glass. After 4 weeks you can definitely still see the areas where the cuts were but they are healing nicely.
Again I can't correlate this with the topa since I don't really know the actual effectiveness of what I was taking since it was cut in half but I seem to be healing nicely.
As far as side effects I still don't notice any.
So if you are taking topa do not cut, crush or chew it cause it loses effectivity. I will be restarting with 25 mg tablets. Again I will not report anything until 3 months have past cause I don't want to mislead anyone (which can often happen)
I am getting my wisdom teeth removed on the 13th, but after I recover from that, I will be starting Topamax 25 mg/day for the treatment of scars.
Unlike some other posters, I will be keeping you updated on results, as well as hopefully including before and after pics.
Wish me luck!
Hi, Colin/Pocket Aces do you have any other updates? Another question, what exactly did Rakesh replied on the email?
...well, for anyone else still following this, here's a little update from me.
I've taking Topiramate for 31 days now. Honestly, I'm getting a little impatient. So far I haven't seen any improvement on my acne/chicken pox scars, but I guess it might still be too soon too tell.
In fact, I think it looks somewhat worse, but it's not due to taking Topiramate. I think it's due to the fact that I just stopped doing everything else I was doing before the Topiramate.
I stopped doing peels since the beginning of this year. The only thing I continued doing was taking vit B5 and some other vitamins. And then I finally stopped even taking the vitamins like one month before starting Topiramate. I noticed once I stopped taking the vitamins my scars started looking more noticeable.
For this reason I have decided I will again start taking the vitamins, I think they make my skin look healthier and make scars less noticeable.
As far as side-effects go, I think I got a bit of blurry vision around the 3rd week, but it went away.
And now for the positive things I've noticed.
Since I stopped taking vit B5, my acne treatment, I have gotten a couple of pretty big cysts. I hadn't gotten zits that bad in more than 5 years, so I was very upset about it as I was sure they would leave an ugly indented scar and redness for a long time. I'm happy to report that they are completely gone now, no redness and no scars! That's incredible!
Also, 10 days ago I got a small but nasty cut on my finger. It completely 'scooped out' a piece of skin I'd say about 3mm diameter by at least 1mm deep, so I was left with a hole.
I guess I'm a bad healer and I was thinking, based on previous experiences, this would leave a permanent scar or take at least a year or more to completely fade IF I was lucky.
I'm very happy and surprised to see it's almost completely healed and faded now. I think probably in another week or so it will be completely unnoticeable.
This is amazing. I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for the topiramate this would probably leave a permanent scar or take a long time to heal.
So, although I have not seen improvement on my old acne/chicken pox scars, I have seen something incredible with fresh scars. This really got me thinking, Colin/Pocket Aces mentions a similar finding. So, if this doesn't work with old scars, at least we know it does something for fresh scars.
With this therory in mind, I think I'm going to try needling in a couple of scars and see how that goes. What do you think?
So, although I have not seen improvement on my old acne/chicken pox scars, I have seen something incredible with fresh scars. This really got me thinking, Colin/Pocket Aces mentions a similar finding. So, if this doesn't work with old scars, at least we know it does something for fresh scars.
With this therory in mind, I think I'm going to try needling in a couple of scars and see how that goes. What do you think?
It sounds like a good plan. Have you tried needling before?
Update time Pocket Aces.
It's been about three months since you've begun using Topiramte. The experiment conducted by University of Florida covered similar time, so I figure you should have a fairly accurate assessment of its potency.
I've seen you floating around the board-- so I take it results must not be very promising. Regardless, I believe many people here would appreciate an update.
Update time Pocket Aces.
It's been about three months since you've begun using Topiramte. The experiment conducted by University of Florida covered similar time, so I figure you should have a fairly accurate assessment of its potency.
I've seen you floating around the board-- so I take it results must not be very promising. Regardless, I believe many people here would appreciate an update.
It would be nice if you said please instead of sounding so demanding though. 
NEC, I restarted less than 2 months ago cause I was splitting pills. Splitting pills makes them less effective but if you want an answer now I would have to say no I don't see any significant improvements but I will continue the whole 3 months.
I wouldn't exactly say it doesn't work cause Rakesh operates at a Dermatology Center so he would surely know about improvements in acne scarring and wouldn't just be making this up and jeopardizing his credibility.
...anybody still interested in this?
Sorry, I haven't been around to give an update, my best friend died about 2 months ago and I just kind of stopped caring about my scars and everything else. I did continue taking the topiramate everyday though.
So if anyone is still interested in this let me know and I'll give my update as detailed or brief as appropriate.
...anybody still interested in this?
Sorry, I haven't been around to give an update, my best friend died about 2 months ago and I just kind of stopped caring about my scars and everything else. I did continue taking the topiramate everyday though.
So if anyone is still interested in this let me know and I'll give my update as detailed or brief as appropriate.
I wouldn't mind an update, TJ.
OK guys, here's my conclusion:
I started taking Topiramate on February 18. I took a 25mg pill every night for 90 days. To this day, I keep taking it, but I have slowly decreased the dose after the 90 days.
Unfortunately, I haven't noticed any improvement in my pitted scars.
I have talked to Dr. Rakesh Barthi and was told that I should double up the dose to 50mg a day or continue taking it every day for three more months. I'm not going to do either, I don't want to risk any side effects by taking 50mg a day and I honestly I don't think I'll get any results if I continue taking 25mg a day for another 3 months.
Cons
-No improment in pitted scars that already existed.
-Side effects, blurry vision once in a while, but it wasn't a big deal.
Pros
-No more headaches. I used get a lot of headaches, but since taking Topiramate I've only had probably two.
-Makes new wounds heal faster. As stated on an earlier post, I had a cut on my finger that scooped out a piece of skin and left a hole, it completely healed in less than two weeks. I've also had numerous other wounds and they all always heal very fast and never leave any scars. I've also gotten a few big zits, which I was very sure would leave nasty scars, but surprisingly they went away rather fast and didn't leave any scars.
I started using A-Peel once a week at the 90 day mark of taking Topiramate. I had used A-Peel before, when it first came out, in late 2004 I think. It was very strong, you only applied a pea-sized amount to the whole face and that was it, you would start peeling quite a bit in 2-3 days.
Now, even though Julie says it's the same formulation in the A-Peel, I apply a lot and leave it on, I don't remove it like most people do, yet I only get a wimpy peel if anything. So either the formulation is different, which Julie says is not, or the Topiramate somehow makes it less effective or makes me heal so fast I don't even notice.
Unfortunately, the faster wound healing only happens with new wounds. I did a little experiment. I needled some of my pitted scars hoping they would heal just as good as the new wounds had healed. They did heal fast, but they virtually remained the same.
Dr. Rakesh said that one of his patients did have to increase the dose to 50mg a day in order to see results. So who knows, I probably needed 50mg as well to see results, but I'm not going to take that much. With my horrible bad luck, I wouldn't be surprised if I got some of the worse side effects if I took 50mg a day.
So that's my update, if I remember something I missed here I'll tell you later. If you have any questions just let me know.