Hey all,

Can anyone tell me if they had success with a round of doxycycline hyclate? For instance, after they came off the round of doxycycline, has their acne been much milder or disappeared completely without it causing more problems?

The reason I ask is because last march (2012) I broke out in some crazy pustular acne which started out from hives (allergic reaction to peanuts <--- which i never had before in my life). I went to a dermatologist in april 2012. The dermatologist looked at my skin and said it was folliculitis (left cheek) and just a bad acne breakout on my forehead. She prescribed me some Retin-A and doxycycline hyclate 100mg (twice a day, 60caps). I never used the Retin-A as I was worried that it would irritate my skin. So I just took the course of the doxy and the acne went away throughout the rest of April into May of 2012. However I noticed that sometime in late May up until present day, after I ate foods that I never had problems with in the past would cause me to break out in pustular acne (itchy, oily, red). It's a strange kind of mechanism where if I eat a food daily (for example: chicken), I would break out increasingly the more I ate it. The reactions are pretty quick within a hour to a few hours. I've been doing research over the year and stumbled upon different types of possible causes whether it be candida, leaky gut, pityrosporum folliculitis, etc. I've seen three internists, a gastroenterologist, an allergist, and another dermatologist in the few months. None of my doctors believe in leaky gut or candida due to the lack of clinical evidence and support. All of them think it's either due to stress (which doesn't make sense because I don't really lead a stressful life) or just plain old acne. I had bloodwork done and everything came back normal. Negative on celiac disease, negative on HIV/STDs, negative on various bacteria (stool culture test), and normal on all the other standard bloodwork. Currently i'm still scratchin my head tryna figure all this out. My GP and dermatologist prescribed me some more doxycycline hyclate 100mg 60 caps again, but i'm really hesitant to take it because i'm not sure if these antibiotics caused all these problems in the first place. Before all this happened (before march), I had very mild acne where I would have one or two pimples every three weeks to a month since I was 14 (i'm 24 now).

Can anyone shed light on this? Is doxycycline a smart choice or should I opt to find another solution? At this point, seeing all these doctors is draining all my paychecks (I recently got insurance though), but I am hoping one of you guys could offer some advice. At the very least, i'm hoping someone could answer my initial questions.

Thank you in advance for your time!

so you took doxy for 1 month or 2 months?

I have been on doxycycline (50mg/day) since the 6th of March, and only in the past 2 weeks have I had flawless skin. This is in conjuction with the regimen and vitamins.. plus a healthy diet and exercise. My doctor started me off with 100mg for the first 2 weeks, and when I dulled the dosage to 50mg I broke out something fierce. I have another month and a half to go, and in the next few weeks I am dulling my dosage down to 25mg daily. Doxy is worth it, but it wouldn't be my number one preference as it's just a "quick fix". If you were to use doxy, having a topical regimen like the one here on acne.org or retin-a would give you better results. Expect a long wait though as it will be a long while before you see results.

I am not a fan of treating acne with antibiotics and since you are already having some funky issues with food allergies, i would hold off on using them. Whats your topical regimen like? You want to focus on getting a regimen going as you try to find out and fix whats going on internally. Keep in mind that this can take months to sometimes years so don't get frustrated if you hit a few brick walls.

Hey all,

Can anyone tell me if they had success with a round of doxycycline hyclate? For instance, after they came off the round of doxycycline, has their acne been much milder or disappeared completely without it causing more problems?

The reason I ask is because last march (2012) I broke out in some crazy pustular acne which started out from hives (allergic reaction to peanuts <--- which i never had before in my life). I went to a dermatologist in april 2012. The dermatologist looked at my skin and said it was folliculitis (left cheek) and just a bad acne breakout on my forehead. She prescribed me some Retin-A and doxycycline hyclate 100mg (twice a day, 60caps). I never used the Retin-A as I was worried that it would irritate my skin. So I just took the course of the doxy and the acne went away throughout the rest of April into May of 2012. However I noticed that sometime in late May up until present day, after I ate foods that I never had problems with in the past would cause me to break out in pustular acne (itchy, oily, red). It's a strange kind of mechanism where if I eat a food daily (for example: chicken), I would break out increasingly the more I ate it. The reactions are pretty quick within a hour to a few hours. I've been doing research over the year and stumbled upon different types of possible causes whether it be candida, leaky gut, pityrosporum folliculitis, etc. I've seen three internists, a gastroenterologist, an allergist, and another dermatologist in the few months. None of my doctors believe in leaky gut or candida due to the lack of clinical evidence and support. All of them think it's either due to stress (which doesn't make sense because I don't really lead a stressful life) or just plain old acne. I had bloodwork done and everything came back normal. Negative on celiac disease, negative on HIV/STDs, negative on various bacteria (stool culture test), and normal on all the other standard bloodwork. Currently i'm still scratchin my head tryna figure all this out. My GP and dermatologist prescribed me some more doxycycline hyclate 100mg 60 caps again, but i'm really hesitant to take it because i'm not sure if these antibiotics caused all these problems in the first place. Before all this happened (before march), I had very mild acne where I would have one or two pimples every three weeks to a month since I was 14 (i'm 24 now).

Can anyone shed light on this? Is doxycycline a smart choice or should I opt to find another solution? At this point, seeing all these doctors is draining all my paychecks (I recently got insurance though), but I am hoping one of you guys could offer some advice. At the very least, i'm hoping someone could answer my initial questions.

Thank you in advance for your time!

so you took doxy for 1 month or 2 months?

My dermatologist had me take doxycycline twice a day for a month (60caps total) from mid march to mid april of 2012.

I have been on doxycycline (50mg/day) since the 6th of March, and only in the past 2 weeks have I had flawless skin. This is in conjuction with the regimen and vitamins.. plus a healthy diet and exercise. My doctor started me off with 100mg for the first 2 weeks, and when I dulled the dosage to 50mg I broke out something fierce. I have another month and a half to go, and in the next few weeks I am dulling my dosage down to 25mg daily. Doxy is worth it, but it wouldn't be my number one preference as it's just a "quick fix". If you were to use doxy, having a topical regimen like the one here on acne.org or retin-a would give you better results. Expect a long wait though as it will be a long while before you see results.

Oh have u been on doxycycline before starting this current round that you are taking? If so, have u noticed any allergies to foods that you've never had in the past? And yea I do a prescription for generic (tretinoin) retin-A that I have yet to try. I just haven't yet because i'm not convinced that this is necessarily acne based on the way it manifests itself. The "acne" that i'm used to and had in the past took a few days to form and always started as a red bump that hurt then became pustular. The acne that i'm talking about (after the whole doxycycline course last year) that i'm currently struggling with shows up after I eat a food repetitively within a hour to a few hours. It itches and makes my skins really oily. Have u experienced anything like that?

I am not a fan of treating acne with antibiotics and since you are already having some funky issues with food allergies, i would hold off on using them. Whats your topical regimen like? You want to focus on getting a regimen going as you try to find out and fix whats going on internally. Keep in mind that this can take months to sometimes years so don't get frustrated if you hit a few brick walls.

Well that's what i'm trying to figure out whether it's really acne or something else like chronic folliculitis because it itches and makes my skin really red and oily after I eat any kind of food repetitively. My allergist had me taking cyproheptadine 4mg and an allegra tablet everyday for the past month to see if it's some kind of IgE reaction, but it hasn't really done anything for me. Right now i'm using Cerave Moisturizing Cleanser and some derma-e lotion every morning and night. I ordered vivant mandelic acid 3-in-1 wash and 8% mandelic acid serum recently after hearing that it worked for some people on these forums, so I have yet to try that. Any recommendations?

I also forgot to add that last november I saw a naturopath and she had me do a food sensitivity test (igG and igA) and it came back that I was strongly reacting to all dairy, blueberries, eggs, brewers and baker's yeast, coffee bean, and sesame seed. I avoided all those for three months like the naturopath told me to do. I also approached her about the whole possible candida issue (yeast overgrowth from the use of doxycycline) and she said it could be a possibility. So for three months I avoided those foods from the igG/igA test, took a bunch of antifungals (oregano oil, grapefruit seed extract, black walnut, etc), and maintained a very low sugar and carb diet from December to March. During that time I was still having those acne like flare-ups. However more recently my diet became whole grains (quinoa, brown rice, millet, and buckwheat), chicken/turkey/beef/fish, and all different types of greens and some fruits all the way up until now. But i'm still having these weird acne flare-ups. I showed all the medical doctors i've seen my food sensitivity results and all of them shook their head saying that it wasn't credible. My allergist actually said that the whole igG thing wasn't a good test at all stating that if anyone were to take that test, it would probably look the same with the results showing which foods were eaten most frequently. At this point i'm wondering if these reactions are even acne, which is the reason why I bring up (chronic) folliculitis as a possibility because I hear it gets misdiagnosed as acne all the time.. IF ANYONE can point me in some sort of direction or offer ANY advice that would be helpful because as of now, I don't know who to turn to because these doctors aren't even helping me much...