A Question of Chemistry: how does accutane work？

Have you ever suffered from acne in your youth age? Have you ever taken Accutane to treat annoying acne? How does Accutane work? Let’s learn together.

What’s Accutane?

Accutane is a medication called Isotretinoin which is generally used for severe nodular, pustular acne. The drug maker named it Accutane for building an eye-catching brand. Beating other treatments, accutane is the most powerful one among the existing medications. As the family of medicines called retinoids, accutane, interestingly, is a high-dose vitamin A treatment in pill form, similar to vitamin A.

How does Accutane work?

By altering DNA transcription, accutane shrinks your skin oil to a large extent (around 80%), enabling sloughed-off cells less sticky and reducing skin bacteria, the culprit of acne, which lives in skin oil. Besides, accutane slows down the pace of skin-producing skin cells and avoids clogged pores. 

Taking accutane is related to a long course which generally takes you 4 to 5 months. Whether you have inflammatory or non-inflammatory acne, accutane leads to a long-term remission of severe acne, because it is found that approximately 95% of people who finish a course gain partial or complete clearance of acne in about two weeks.

You have probably heard the slogan: once you take it, there is no breaking out forever. This may sound exaggerated, but it certainly will never go back to where it was before taking it.

What are the side effects of Accutane?

Though Accutane is efficient and amazing, most dermatologists won’t advise you to take Accutane unless you have tried all the other treatments.

As an oral medication, Accutane can affect the entire body. Super dry skin during a few days of the course is the most common side effect. Then, you will enquire about a prescription steroid cream to treat flakiness if moisturizer doesn’t work.

A series of researches proved that accutane may stress the organ since it is metabolized through the liver. To decrease the deleterious effect, doctors casually advise you to cut down alcohol intake. What’s more, accutane may be responsible for depression, though there is no direct evidence can prove it.

EXTREME CAUTION! This medication is prohibited for pregnant women or women who are preparing to get pregnant. Never take Accutane while pregnant or never become pregnant while taking it. Even one dose of Accutane can result in miscarriage and severe birth effects. If females have to take the medication, two pregnancy tests should be passed before they start taking Accutane and over two forms of birth control should be carried. It’s worth noting that accutane, proved by clinical research, has a definitive link to a dramatically high risk of birth defects.

In all, since taking Accutane can bring you a batch of severe and life-long after-effects, you are supposed to take it after other treatments have failed.

Tips for taking Accutane

1. Have a high-fat diet. Considering that accutane is a fat-soluble molecule, only when you take in an adequate amount of fat can the medication be better absorbed into the blood. Referring to the research so far, ingesting 20 grams of fat is recommended when you take a daily dose of Accutane. Otherwise, you may relapse after completing the entire course.

2. If you miss a dose, do not take two doses at one time. Skip the missed dose and use your next dose. If you overdose, seek your doctor for help, or you may have headaches, dizziness, vomiting, stomach pain, etc.

3. Skip sunscreen. This medication can lead to an extremely high sensitivity to the sun, thus you better not directly expose yourself to the sunshine, especially when taking Accutane in the summer.

4. No waxing. During the course of the medication, waxing can leave permanent scars on your skin. For six months after you finish the course, you are not advised to do any waxing.

Conclusion

We have learned “how does accutane work” in this article. Accutane works mainly by reducing skin oil production and it is the most efficient treatment for managing acne. However, it can bring a sequence of severe and life-long after-effects. Thus, accutane is always suggested to take after exhausting other treatments. The most important thing is pregnant women or women who are able to be pregnant should not take even one dose of Accutane.