The peer support and advice on this site are terrific...you can get some treatment ideas, or help in implementing them from an experienced user...but it's no replacement for professional advice if it's needed.

Have you tried the Acne.Org Regimen?? When done religiously and as directed, it can bring about dramatic improvement. My son had very severe cystic acne over the winter...and like you it seemed like everything we tried only worked for a short time. We went through phases where the Regimen wasn't working, but as we ironed out all the kinks and corrected our mistakes, we noticed more and more consistent results. We also consulted with a derm who also prescribed tretinoin .05% as an add-on treatment for blackheads and clogged pores, as well as a course of antibiotics to level the bacteria playing field. This made a huge difference. So did boosting his zinc, D3, and omega 3's...all great for calming inflammation.He's 100% clear today (except for some scars) and still doing the Regimen for maintenance. This combo treatment plansaved him from Accutane.

Bear in mind that there is no cure for acne. There's only treatment to stifle the symptoms until acne natural resolves. The only true "cure" is time, and unfortunately that can be different for everyone.

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I feel like this forum is better than a derms office that's why I've always been reluctant to go to one

Given the commonness of acne, one might think that it is one of the highest priorities of dermatologists to investigate and cure this disease. Not at all. They profit from prescribing expensive products and treatments. In general, providing cure of degenerative diseases for his patients would put a physician into severe conflict of interest (the same holds for dentistry, where focus does not lie on the cause of problems nutrition but on threatment of symptoms). This fact alone is reason enough to boycott quackery when it comes to degenerative diseases.

It is obvious that the first thing to try in case of skin problems is to stop putting chemical products on it. Humans managed to evolve without it. Acne needs no treatment, you just need to stop poisoning your skin.

The Acne.org regimen indeed reads like a religious script (good point, DeLovely). I guess it earns them a lot of money. I believe that it brings improvement up to a certain point, because the cleanser seems to contain no acne-inducing substances like SLS. But do you really think that a major part of mankind is so defective that it needs a whole arsenal of chemistry to maintain normal function? Not yet.

As far as I read, the Acne.org regimen fails to inform that laundry contains large amounts of SLS from detergent residues. This has been a significant source of comedones for me. That is why I suppose that the regimen fails to provide complete cure in many cases.

Read my first post in this forum (see my profile) for detailed practical advice on a cure.

Sorry you have been going through this!
I've been using Yasmin for about 1 year + 0.05 Retin A for about 6 months now and my skin is clear than never. Curiously, my skin only got 100% better when I added the Retin A (with the pill alone, I only got rid of cystic acne, but was still getting oily skin and small pimples). I really think that, when it comes to acne, a combo treatment is important: birth control and a topical cream. I already tried some vitamins and diets before for 3 years with no improvements. I've always eat very healthy and exercised for 5 times a week but it seems that my lifestyle don't affect my skin at all. People say dairy and fast food gives you acne but I really think that's a lie, at least for me, of course.

Thank you everyone for your replies. The reason I'm at a loss now is because I've been browsing this forum for a while and I have tried pretty much everything I have stumbled upon here. BC, Inositol (very helpful but it seemed bumping up dosage made it worse, so now I'm confused), diet/exercise, benzoyl peroxide (best topical treatment for me yet), azelaic acid, salicylic acid, glycolic acid (second best topical for me), vitex (tried it in the past), Spiro (can't take it because it gives me bad side effects), and Saw Palmetto (made my skin a lot worse). I'm reluctant when it comes to trying DIM because of the confusing way it works, it seems there's no clear explanation anywhere. Testosterone has been the main culprit of my acne for years and I want to tread lightly when it comes to hormonal treatments that may increase it.

So what I'm doing now is use bp/glycolic acid together and apart depending on dryness and take yaz (yasmin and diane 35 also gave me weird side effects like spiro so that's not an option), Inositol, Zinc, Vit A, Vit D3, and Cranberry pills for unrelated issue that contain some Vit E and C. I can't take multivitamin because it always makes me sick not to mention it usually has iodine or other things I don't want. I try to stick with diet rich on Omega 3 and generally low fat, low GI diet, and I think it makes some difference.

I haven't tried the regimen but from my understanding it seems to have the same old ingredients I'm already using so honestly I don't really see a point to it. I like to use dove soap or some simple cleanser to calm my skin from all the topical treatments. I also use St Ives scrub almost every day otherwise I get even more comedones.

On 9/23/2016 at 1:58 PM, DeLovely said:

The peer support and advice on this site are terrific...you can get some treatment ideas, or help in implementing them from an experienced user...but it's no replacement for professional advice if it's needed.

Have you tried the Acne.Org Regimen?? When done religiously and as directed, it can bring about dramatic improvement. My son had very severe cystic acne over the winter...and like you it seemed like everything we tried only worked for a short time. We went through phases where the Regimen wasn't working, but as we ironed out all the kinks and corrected our mistakes, we noticed more and more consistent results. We also consulted with a derm who also prescribed tretinoin .05% as an add-on treatment for blackheads and clogged pores, as well as a course of antibiotics to level the bacteria playing field. This made a huge difference. So did boosting his zinc, D3, and omega 3's...all great for calming inflammation.He's 100% clear today (except for some scars) and still doing the Regimen for maintenance. This combo treatment plansaved him from Accutane.

Bear in mind that there is no cure for acne. There's only treatment to stifle the symptoms until acne natural resolves. The only true "cure" is time, and unfortunately that can be different for everyone.

Thank you for the info! I suppose getting on antibiotics and tretinoin would be worth a shot. I'll ask my derm. How much would tretinoin be without insurance?

8 hours ago, lifelong confusion said:

 

Thank you for the info! I suppose getting on antibiotics and tretinoin would be worth a shot. I'll ask my derm. How much would tretinoin be without insurance?

Not sure, you'd have to ask, sorry. We were fortunate enough to have insurance that covered it. But I can't imagine it would be more than $30. BTW a little goes a long way...you only need a pea-size amount and the tubes are generous. We're still using the original tube we got in April.

On 9/27/2016 at 4:31 PM, DeLovely said:

On 9/27/2016 at 7:33 AM, lifelong confusion said:

 

Thank you for the info! I suppose getting on antibiotics and tretinoin would be worth a shot. I'll ask my derm. How much would tretinoin be without insurance?

Not sure, you'd have to ask, sorry. We were fortunate enough to have insurance that covered it. But I can't imagine it would be more than $30. BTW a little goes a long way...you only need a pea-size amount and the tubes are generous. We're still using the original tube we got in April.

That's good to know, thanks!

I've had cystic acne for 20 years and I'm 49. For me, staying on minocycline was the answer. I've been on it for 15 yes and as have gotten older, I have been able to cut back considerably. So much so that for last couple months, no meds. I still break out but I've been testing Mario Badescu Buffering Lotion and drying lotion. Happy to say, for me, it works! I posted two videos. Here is the second testing on a new Big One! Fingers crossed. [Edited link out]

On 10/2/2016 at 5:00 AM, bonniegracemarks said:

I've had cystic acne for 20 years and I'm 49. For me, staying on minocycline was the answer. I've been on it for 15 yes and as have gotten older, I have been able to cut back considerably. So much so that for last couple months, no meds. I still break out but I've been testing Mario Badescu Buffering Lotion and drying lotion. Happy to say, for me, it works! I posted two videos. Here is the second testing on a new Big One! Fingers crossed. [Edited link out]

Interesting. Do you have to stop taking it after a while and then restart? Or did you take non stop?

I am so sorry I am just getting back to you  for a couple years I took two minocycline a day.  Then I went to one.  A couple of years ago I tested going to one every two or days, and it worked.  This past year I have taken only before my cycle.  Occasionally a breakout gets ahead of me like this, but that's where the Mario Badescu  came in.  That stuff works!

On 10/23/2016 at 0:45 PM, bonniegracemarks said:

I am so sorry I am just getting back to you  for a couple years I took two minocycline a day.  Then I went to one.  A couple of years ago I tested going to one every two or days, and it worked.  This past year I have taken only before my cycle.  Occasionally a breakout gets ahead of me like this, but that's where the Mario Badescu  came in.  That stuff works!

Hey! thanks for the reply were you afraid of the skin pigmentation though? I read that it's rare but you can get it on Mino and it's permanent? That seems scary