Actually, cystic acne collides with nearly all lifestyles it contacts, but consider that doctors often prescribe such acne-blasting but terribly unsafe and expensive medications like Accutane to minimise the amount of effort and pain surrounding cystic acne afflictions. These treatments, while effective, can lead to side effects like long-term stomach lining erosion, birth defects, and ulcerative colitis, and suicidal tendencies. Understandably, many cystic acne sufferers have turned to natural treatments for cystic acne so that they can avoid the damaging effects of products like Accutane.
The decision to go natural isn’t always so easy, though.
Cure or Not?
- Many people consider Accutane to be a cure for cystic acne, but this is only true in a certain way. Accutane will obliterate cystic acne for six months while you are taking the medicine and another six when you are not, and then another cycle has to start. If Accutane was really a cure for cystic acne, ongoing treatment would not be necessary because the cystic acne would not resurface.
- Natural treatments for cystic acne are not cures either, but they seem to be much less effective than Accutane at removing the cysts that give cystic acne its name. Glycolic acid is a common natural treatment for cystic acne because it comes from fruit and supposedly removes the surface level damage. But that is the problem. Products like glycolic acid only take off minor cosmetic aspects of acne. The cysts stay below the skin and are not affected.
Birth Control and Cystic Acne
- Accutane requires that its users be on birth control pills because the chances of having an abnormal pregnancy, should the patient become pregnant, are extremely high. For some, this is not a difficult requirement to meet, and for others, this requirement is already met before they even set foot into the doctor’s office. But many who live a natural life style would like to avoid using birth control if possible, and many with certain religious convictions also have reasons to stay away from birth control pills.
- Natural alternatives to birth control can be just as effective as medicinal birth control, like, for instance, the Creighton model of natural family planning, a method frequently using by Catholics to avoid a pregnancy. But the downside to using a method rather than medicine to treat your cystic acne is that sometimes staying true to the method can be a difficult task. How many people have trouble taking a birth control pill from a purse pack, though? One way (the pill) uses medicine while the other (natural family planning) uses discipline, and we all know how hard the latter is to come by.
- If you are thinking about treating your cystic acne but living a natural lifestyle, consider searching hard for an alternative to both birth control and natural family planning that still suits your needs. One possible alternative is invasive birth control (condoms, for instance), but often this is an uncomfortable and not totally effective method.
Just remember to make the choice that is best for you.
