Paula Begoun
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 Oral retinoids such as accutane and Soriatane can have a considerable effect on psoriasis by reducing hyper, abnormal skin cell growth, along with producing normal growth and triggering antiinflammatory activity in the skin.
Cyclosporin, Pimecrolimus, and Tacrolimus are medications, known as immunosuppressive agents, that slow the overproduction of psoriatic skin cells. |
Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D.
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 We were shocked to learn that you have become pregnant while taking accutane. This acne medicine can cause very serious birth defects in a fetus.
That is why the manufacturer recommends every woman have a pregnancy test before she starts on this drug and use effective contraception throughout therapy. Every time a pill is removed from its packaging, a symbol reminds the patient not to take this drug during pregnancy.
Please discuss this serious matter with your physician and your partner. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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 Drug therapy with a synthetic, prescription form of vitamin A (page 595) (known as accutane, isotretinoin, and 13-cis retinoic acid) has been reported to be more effecrive than treatment with 50,000 IU per day of beta-carotene.14 However, because of the potential toxicity of the vitamin A-like drug, it may be preferable to treat leukoplakia with beta-carotene, which is much safer.
Before the research on beta-carotene was published, vitamin A was used to treat leukoplakia. |
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Alan R. Gaby, M.D.
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 In severe cases, the drug accutane (another vitamin A derivative) is sometimes used. However, this drug can cause birth defects (if taken by pregnant women), as well as other significant side effects.
DR. WRIGHT'S CASE STUDY
Jason Jeffries didn't look happy, and didn't say much, so his mother spoke first.
"You can see Jason has a bad case of acne," she said. "It started when he was 12, and he's 15 now. We've been the antibiotic route—he's been using that antibiotic cream and taking oral antibiotics, and they just barely controlled it. And I know continuous antibiotics aren't good for anyone. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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 How To Implement:
• If accutane will not be prescribed, supplement with 100,000-300,000 IU of emulsified vitamin A liquid drops (refer to Appendix A: Vitamin A Precautions).
• If a vitamin D analog drug is not available, supplement with 6000 IU of vitamin D3 (monthly blood tests are necessary to guard against hypercalcemia and kidney damage).
Step Six: Pancreatic Enzyme Therapy Rationale:
A pilot study published in June 1999 indicated that aggtessive nutritional therapy dramatically prolonged survival of pancreatic cancer patients. |
Lita Lee, Lisa Turner and Burton Goldberg
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 Unfortunately, most acne sufferers use synthetic forms of vitamin A including Retin-A (topical) and accutane (oral). According to the Physicians' Desk Reference, accutane is known to cause birth defects and has been associated with a number of severe reactions, including inflammatory bowel disease, decreased night vision, corneal opacities, and clinical hepatitis.
PSORIASIS
Psoriasis is characterized by excessive cell replication. In the affected areas, cells reproduce at 1,000 times the normal rate, exceeding even the rate in skin cancer. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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| Your doctor may consider several drug therapies including Retin-A, accutane, or Propecia.
V FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact the American Academy of Dermatology, (202)842-3555.
PRODUCT AVAILABILITY
Chromium, zinc (methionate), Complete B-Complex, pantothenic acid (vitamin b5 powder and caps), vitamin b5 caps, alpha and gamma vitamin E succinate, Super Alpha Lipoic Acid w/Biotin, MSM, and the Life Extension multi-nutrient formula, may be ordered by calling (800)544-4440 or by ordering on line at www.lef.org. |
| The trade name for 13-ris-retinoic acid is accutane. For more information or status of this study, please visit the website www.clinicaltrials.gov, and search for the key word: FORTE.
Relieving Breathlessness
Most emphysema treatment is based on the concept that it can be treated but not cured. The administration to emphysema sufferers of theophylline and ipratropium bromide in combination has produced improvements in maximal oxygen consumption and maximal minute ventilation, and it has reduced several measures of breathlessness. |
| This theory is contradicted by studies showing that vitamin C, tocopheryl succinate, and accutane (vitamin A analog) enhanced the growth inhibitory effect of radiation and certain chemotherapy agents on tumor cells in culture and in vivo (Prasad et al. 1998; 1999b). This demonstrated that antioxidants do not protect cancer cells against the growth-inhibitory effect of conventional therapy and may in fact enhance the growth inhibitory effects on tumor cells. |
| Concerns for Cancer Patients
Cancer patients often take high potencies of vitamin A dmgs, such as Vesanoid (all-trans retinoic acid), accutane (13-cis-retinoic acid) or vitamin A supplements. These vitamin A dmgs have potent anti-proliferative, differentiation-inducing, and apoptosis-promoting effects against cancer cells.
Retinoic acid (a potent vitamin A drug) has been shown to suppress osteoblast activity (bone-building cells) and promote formation of osteoclasts (cells that remove old bone) in vitro (test tube studies). |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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 Other tumors were injected with beta-carotene; another natural food pigment called canthaxanthin; and a vitamin A-like drug, accutane.
Complete Partial
Treatment Regressions (%) Regressions (%)
Algae 30 70
Beta-carotene 20 80
Canthaxanthin 15 85
Accutane 0 70
Controls 0 0
Thus, the best results were seen in the algae-treated group, with astonishing 100 percent regressions, of which 30 percent were total (12).
©^ferences
1. Kitagawa I and Kobayashi M. [Antitumor natural products isolated from marine organisms]. Gan To Kagaku Ryoho.l989;16:l-8.
2. Mynderse JS, et al. |
Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon
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 Drug/Nutrient Interactions
Acne Medicine Accutane
Because accutane is related to vitamin A, taking these two compounds together could increase toxicity. Avoid this combination.
Vitamin A
Alcohol
Research in baboons indicates that beta carotene can increase the liver damage caused by chronic alcohol intake.
Alcohol has numerous effects on the body. Some of these, such as changes in liver and intestinal function, may impact several nutrients. One consequence of long-term alcohol abuse is brain damage— Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. |
Patrick Holford
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 A number of cases of toxicity and birth defects have been reported for a synthetic relative of vitamin A, isotretinoin, sold as the drug accutane. These effects have been wrongly extended to natural vitamin A. Five cases of birth defects have been reported in babies born to women taking large amounts of retinol (247,500 to 495,000 IU per day); however, no clear cause-and-effect relationship has ever been established in any of these cases. |
Ralph Moss, PhD
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 After 32 months, only 2 patients (4 percent) in the accutane group had second primary tumors, compared with 12 (24 percent) in the placebo group. Some of those in the placebo group had multiple cancers appear. Of the 14 second cancers, 13 (or 93 percent) occurred in the head and neck, esophagus or lung, the Houston researchers said.
Daily treatment with high doses of accutane was effective in preventing second primary tumors in patients who had been treated for squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck, although it did not prevent recurrences of the original tumors. |
| The group receiving accutane had "significantly fewer second primary tumors." After 32 months, only 2 patients (4 percent) in the accutane group had second primary tumors, compared with 12 (24 percent) in the placebo group. Some of those in the placebo group had multiple cancers appear. Of the 14 second cancers, 13 (or 93 percent) occurred in the head and neck, esophagus or lung, the Houston researchers said. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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| A woman taking accutane should contact her physician immediately if she accidentally becomes pregnant (PDR 2002).
Diet and Nutrition in Acne Treatment
As stated earlier, Western medicine no longer considers acne to be a food-related condition, and physicians seldom ask patients to change their diets as a means of treating acne. However, some alternative therapists do make changes in the patient's diet as part of treatment. Experts from both schools of thought concede that chocolate, fats, and other foods do not cause acne, but they are unsure if these foods aggravate the condition. |
the Editors of PREVENTION Magazine Health Books
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 Other side effects often associated with accutane are extremely dry skin, nosebleeds, dry eyes, muscle aches and elevated triglycerides and cholesterol.
Accutane therapy lasts for 16 to 20 weeks, and is 80 percent effective for severe acne, says Dr. Coskey.
Post-Menopausal Bleeding when to see your doctor
• You have any bleeding at all after menopause—light or heavy.
• You are on hormone replacement therapy, and your bleeding is not on the cycle your doctor told you to expect.
What Your Symptom Is Telling You
. |
Sheldon Saul Hendler
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 There is also emerging evidence of Accutane's usefulness in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome, a premalig-nant condition with leukemia-like characteristics. accutane has, in addition, been able to shrink dramatically and, in some cases, completely eradicate oral leukoplakia, precancerous lesions found on the lips and inside the mouth.
Both preformed vitamin A and beta-carotene, either in combination or alone, are capable of shrinking and sometimes eradicating these leukoplakias, particularly common among smokers. |
Thomas J. Moore
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 While accutane is not officially reported to cause the two major blood disorders—aplastic anemia or agranulocytosis— there is evidence it may damage the bone marrow. From 10 to 25 percent of accutane patients show reduced numbers of red and white blood cells, but abnormally large numbers of the clot-causing platelets. If that were not enough of a warning sign, the manufacturer acknowledges reports of many symptoms that could indicate a bone marrow disorder, including bruising, abnormal menstruation, anemia, respiratory infection, and bleeding gums. |
Dr. Mary Dan Eades
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| Or you may need to take the accutane form (by mouth) under the close supervision of your physician. As with accutane, the drug in Retin-A (tretinoin) should not be taken during pregnancy. In addition, it leaves the skin extremely vulnerable to sun damage.
• Vitamin E when taken along with vitamin A can substantially reduce the dose of vitamin A required to reduce acne outbreaks. |
Stephen Fried
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 Consider accutane (isotretinoin), the Roche drug for severe acne that is so X-rated for pregnant women that Koren calls it "the worst teratogen on the market today." accutane is interesting because it was approved by the FDA in 1982 with the knowledge that it was teratogenic, and it has always been labeled that way, although there have been some disputes about the strength of that label warning and the company's candor about the defects that led to it. But Koren still questions whether a strong label warning can solve the problem. |
Thomas J. Moore
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| The acne medication accutane is the classic example.
In its capacity to cause birth defects, accutane has few equals, including thalidomide. The manufacturer warns the risk of a deformed infant is "extremely high."54 It has caused babies to be born with grossly enlarged skulls, with undersized or absent ears, and mishappen eyes, cleft palates, and distorted faces. Other infants had malfunctioning thyroid or thymus glands. Even when the infants look normal, the manufacturer warns, they may have an IQbelow 85. |
Larry Trivieri, Jr.
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 The CDC recently released a report that some women become pregnant while taking the acne drug accutane, despite the fact that the drug causes severe birth defects and despite the fact that the drug contains a warning symbol to that effect on its packaging. According to the CDC, many women were unable to determine what the symbol meant.The CDC advises women taking accutane to use two forms of birth control, be tested for pregnancy each month, and register with a survey that monitors the experiences of women who use the drug. |
Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D.
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 If you do not respond to them, you may be helped by antibiotics (either taken by mouth or applied directly to the skin); Retin-A cream (tretinoin); sanding or other surgical procedures if there are scars or pockmarks on your face; or glycolic acid, currently very popular with some dermatologists. accutane (isotretoin, taken orally) is extremely effective for acne, but it should never be taken within three months of a planned pregnancy (and about 50 percent of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned) because of the fetal abnormalities it so frequently causes. |
American Medical Publishing
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| Is it worth unleashing a drug as deadly and as rife with problems as is accutane? Once again, we see the overwhelming public attitude that just about anything and everything can be "cured" by simply taking a "magic pill." There are a lot of profit hungry drug manufacturers ready and willing to exploit this attitude in exchange for enormous sums of money. The fact that people will be killed, sickened, or born with horrible life-long birth defects seems almost beside the point. |
| You will notice all the "PR speak" in the above story about accutane. The drug's maker, Roche, blandly states that it is "doing everything it can" to prevent further birth defects and that it is "working with the FDA" to resolve the problem. Roche also said it is "concerned."
But apparently not concerned enough to simply pull the drug off the market. That would mean billions in lost sales revenue. Roche feels that a few deformed and dead babies are a small price to pay to bolster their bottom line and keep the faces of teenagers as clean as a glossy fashion magazine. |
| One of the major problems with the current warning signs being used on accutane is that women do not recognize it. The symbol is a pregnant woman depicted in a circle with a slash through it. Many women reported not knowing what this meant or referred to. Many women assumed it had something to do with birth control.
_ w> -
The CDC is now recommending that drug manufacturers and marketers make certain that drug package text and symbols are clear and cannot increase risk to consumers. |
Schuyler W. Lininger, Jr. DC
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 Moreover, unlike the permanent actions of synthetic prescription versions of vitamin A (such as accutane), the acne will return several months after real vitamin A is discontinued. Therefore, vitamin A is generally a poor treatment for acne and should be taken only under the supervision of a health professional if at all.
An isolated trial using pantothenic acid (p. 340) reported good results.7 In that trial, people with acne were given 2.5 grams of pantothenic acid 4 times per day (for a total of 10 grams per day)—a remarkably high amount. |
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