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What You Didn’t Know About Antibiotics & it’s Relationship to Acne
Intestinal flora (bacteria) compromises of 95% of the total cells in the body. Antimicrobial drugs, better know as antibiotics, are drugs that destroy these bacteria. There is a common belief that antibiotics are good for the body. This thought stems from misconception and misunderstanding of how antibiotics really work.
There are two types of bacteria in the body.
- Healthy bacteria, which exists to consume toxins and wastes ingested through unhealthy foods, and keep other otherwise damaging microorganisms, such as yeast, in check.
- Unhealthy bacteria, which exist as a result of the bodies natural effort to localize toxins and wastes away from vital inner organs.
Antibiotics destroy ALL bacteria. They are not discerning towards which are good and which are bad. Continual use of antibiotics can have a devastating effect on the immune system, because healthy bacteria play a very specific role in the body.  Destroying these healthy bacteria removes one major defense system put in place by your immune system.
Antibiotics only treat the symptom
Now if you’ve ever taken antibiotics for acne, maybe you’ve noticed that things got better at first. This is to be expected. Antibiotics are capable of destroying the bacteria that leads to acne. However, this is only treating a symptom and not the disease itself. Remember our Fundamental Acne Law # 8, “The symptoms of acne are not the actual disease.”
A weak immune system allows this bad bacteria to overgrow in the first place. You can destroy the bad bacteria that has overgrown, but what happens when you stop? If you immune system is still weak, the bacteria will overgrow all over again. This makes antibiotics as an acne treatment, an effort in futility.
Bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotic treatment
Bacteria are living organisms which evolve and adapt, just like we do. When you take antibiotics, sensitive bacteria are killed, but resistant germs are left to grow and multiply. 
The bacteria that causes acne is no different. Antibiotics will usually alleviate the symptoms caused by acne the first or second cycle of dosage, but after continuous use, the bacteria will become resistant and overgrow even worse then before. Take a look at just few first hand experience with antibiotics to treat acne.
Acne sufferers experiences with antibiotics
A simple search on the acne.org forums show dozens of these cases:
I was on tetracycline for about a year before i had to come off it because it made me lose so much weight and I was becoming resistant to antibiotics in general. It’s great for a temporary solution, but unfortunately when I came off of it again after a few months my acne went from being mild/moderate to severe when I went away to college and practically impossible to control since.
after a month all of the zits came back even in places on my face i never had them before
You have to keep using it, once you stop they come back. I have been on them for years. Everytime I think I should stop using them I break out all over again!!!
I stopped taking the pills for about two months and decided to start taking them again. I found that my acne had worsened. My cheeks are red and they feel/look almost like I have a rash. I’m not sure what to do. I’m frustrated.
later..after i was taking it for over a year, it entirely quite working and my acne got very very very bad. way way way worse than when i started a year earlier. this happened to be right when i started college.. really made it easy meeting ppl
I have been on lymecycline before and it worked very well.
I stopped taking it for 6 months to see how it went and it wasnt good.
Ive just started again 3 weeks ago and my acne is worse than ever.
and she changed my minocycline to lymecyline, saying she couldn’t see any reason why it would get any worse, and it might improve things, and keeping me on dianette. now my skin is TERRIBLE
I was on Mino for around 8 months and I was the clearest I’ve ever been. Then a few months after I stopped taking the antibiotic twice a day, my mild acne came back and turned much much worse.
What’s even scarier is the fact that once the antibiotics cause your skin to get worse, unhappy patients go back to their dermatologist (the very same dermatologists that made their problem worse in the first place) and the derm prescribes them stronger antibiotics! It’s a never ending cycle of futile acne treatment that causes more harm then good.
My doctor put me on mino again but I’m seeing another doctor soon to see if I can get Accutane, because I don’t trust the mino.
I dont think Ill ever do Antibiotics again. Its all my one derm EVER wanted to give me. Its not good for you I dont think.
An inherit problem of acne is that sufferers are desperate. Everyday they have acne is a day other people will see it. Sufferers want to it gone ASAP (I know I did!) The problem with this is that it took many years of unhealthy eating to become sick enough to get acne in the first place. Antibiotics, and the Dermatologists that prescribe them, throw out the notion that your acne can be cured within weeks with a prescription drug. It doesn’t work that way!
The fact is, dermatologists prescribing acne sufferers with antibiotics is an effort in futility. It will do nothing to cure your acne and in most cases will make things worse. Not to mention, all the other health implications that antibiotics can cause. (See ‘Another Antibiotic Hits the Dust’  & ‘New Ramp Antibiotics May Be Fatal’ )
Synthetic vs. Natural
There are foods in nature which naturally help strengthen the immune system by destroying bad bacteria. These include coconut oil, garlic, vegetables high in vitamin C, as well as many different herbs and spices. The difference between these ‘natural antibiotics’ and ‘synthetic’ ones is the difference between night and day. Natural antibiotics don’t destroy healthy gut flora, and bacteria do not become resistant to them simply because they don’t go against the natural immune system process your body goes through. Look to these natural alternatives for a temporary way to alleviate the symptoms associated with acne.
Antibiotics Fact Sheet
- Antibiotics destroy healthy bacteria that are necessary for healthy skin.
- Antibiotics only treat a symptom of acne (superfluous bacteria,) and not the true cause.
- Bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics, acne comes back worse then before.
- Doctors over prescribe antibiotics to acne sufferers that don’t need them. (See ‘Free Antibiotics: Wrong Prescription For Cold And Flu Season, Experts Say’ )
- Antibiotics are never a risk correct treatment for acne. Acne can always be cured naturally without the risk of it coming back much more persistently in the future.
- Many natural treatments are much more effective and safer than medical antibiotics.
So, have you taken antibiotics to treat acne in the past? Care to share your experiences with us?
George McCumiskey, ND
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, In vitro selection criteria for probiotic bacteria of human origin: correlation with in vivo findings, Vol. 73, No. 2, 386S-392s, February 2001, http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/73/2/386S
- Dr. Mercola, Antibiotics Kill Your Body’s Good Bacteria, Too, Leading to Serious Health Risks, http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/06/18/antibiotics-bacteria.aspx?aid=CD12
- Shirley Lipschutz-Robinson, Antibiotic Resistance and Side Effects – Natural, Safe, Effective Alternatives, http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/antibiotics.htm
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Antibiotic Resistance Questions & Answers, http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/antibiotic-use/anitbiotic-resistance-faqs.html
- Tetracycline (Antibiotic) Reviews, http://www.acne.org/tetracycline-antibiotic-reviews/20/page6.html
- Is it possible for antibiotics to make it worse?, http://www.acne.org/messageboard/antibiotics-worse-t116580.html
- Antibiotics make you worse?, http://www.acne.org/messageboard/Antibiotics-worse-after-t132906.html
- “Another Antibiotic Hits the Dust,” http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/05/27/another-antibiotic-exits-the-consumer-marketplace.aspx
- “New ‘Ramp’ Antibiotics May Be Fatal,” http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/07/05/ramp-antibiotics.aspx
- “Free Antibiotics: Wrong Prescription For Cold And Flu Season, Experts Say”, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090116111137.htm
FOCUS! Your Ultimate Guide to Clear Skin
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