Post by catatonic on Mar 29, 2004 20:04:19 GMT -5
My teenager's acne is showing some really impressive improvement. He'd showed improvement initially after about two weeks but then seemed to hit a wall where he didn't get any worse again but didn't get any better either.
I read the research more thoroughly and found some follow up information and based on that, bumped up his dose significantly. Instead of 4,000mg daily, he started taking 10,000mg daily. Yes, that's a huge amount, but according to the National Academies of Science (who publish all the RDA guidelines), this stuff is not going to hurt him. He could take twice that amount and never experience a negative effect. And he hasn't had any problems at that dose.
And the higher dose is working. I'd say the amount of acne on his face is at about 25% of what it was when we first started. In the beginning, virtually his entire face was inflamed, reddened, covered with painful looking swollen eruptions. Now he's actually got pretty normal skin color over most of his face (his chin still needs some work) and the pimples he has are actual identifiable pimples, not just part of some horrible bumpy field covering his entire face.
Interestingly, his personality has improved along with his acne. (For which we are all extremely grateful.)
What he is taking now:
10,000mg pantothenic acid, split into 3 doses
50mg zinc
a multi-vitamin containing copper (to prevent the zinc causing copper deficiency). It's a two-a-day and he takes on with the morning and evening B5 doses.
I read the research more thoroughly and found some follow up information and based on that, bumped up his dose significantly. Instead of 4,000mg daily, he started taking 10,000mg daily. Yes, that's a huge amount, but according to the National Academies of Science (who publish all the RDA guidelines), this stuff is not going to hurt him. He could take twice that amount and never experience a negative effect. And he hasn't had any problems at that dose.
And the higher dose is working. I'd say the amount of acne on his face is at about 25% of what it was when we first started. In the beginning, virtually his entire face was inflamed, reddened, covered with painful looking swollen eruptions. Now he's actually got pretty normal skin color over most of his face (his chin still needs some work) and the pimples he has are actual identifiable pimples, not just part of some horrible bumpy field covering his entire face.
Interestingly, his personality has improved along with his acne. (For which we are all extremely grateful.)
What he is taking now:
10,000mg pantothenic acid, split into 3 doses
50mg zinc
a multi-vitamin containing copper (to prevent the zinc causing copper deficiency). It's a two-a-day and he takes on with the morning and evening B5 doses.
