Accutane Effects After 20 Plus Years...destruction!
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I Took Accutane ore than 20 years ago...for moderate Acne. I Experienced the so called Usual Side effects...Dry Lips chapped lips and joint pain..along with severely irritated Stomach...(Sudden allergy to Diary)and other Problems I was ASSURED would subside...as soon as i stopped taking the ACCUTANE... Well....Lets just say....The effects do gradually subside....and the Acne is better. Something else I discovered is.....Slowly....The Joint pain returns...only much more severely...the Stomach problems get worse...and eventually your stomach might even begin to bleed...and feel as though it was burned by acid.. Then..Maybe you will need an x ray...for some small accident..you May have suffered...At the Young age of 24....possibly on accout of a Dizzy Spell....(Associated?...)Maybe..You fall off a Ladder...?...Or ...step off a curb wrong?...and your ankle joint rolls over..and about snaps...because your joints get weaker and weaker? ...Maybe the doctor reading your Simple X rays...will notice the Bone spurs on your Joints...ie;...Elbows..Fingers SPINAL COLUMN! and realize WHY at your Young Age..YOU have Arthritis...comparable to an 85 Year old Lady...with Severe Arthritis and osteoporosis?... When you go to the Gastroenterologist...(to find out Why your stomach bleeds...and your Digestive system is in ruin..)at the age of say...28 or 30 ....The other patients in the waiting room..may..look at you..like you should NOT Be there...or....like you should be deliviering paperwork or something...One of them..may even ask you Why the Hell YOU are there...at YOUR Young age...the office is for the Old..and worn out... MAYBE..like myself...that may be the day...YOU ..also begin to ask yourself...Hmmmm Why AM I here?...What the "F" IS wrong with me?...

Possibly..the Doctor may even, at first seem a lil put off or even stumped. Until He gets around to the interview questions....portion of the visit.. And begins to find...that you cannot eat anything...you once did...without Stomach problems...Extreme Gas.. Night sweats.... Bloating... Diarrhea... Cramps... Constipation rectal Bleeding.....about every complaint the 65 to 95 year olds he treats have.. The Day he finally puts the Camera on a Cable up your Rectom...and discovers the Ulcers in your Duodenum...and..possibly some other places..in your entrails...He will begin to realize..You have ulcerative Colitis...or maybe the Evben MORE rewarding Crohns Disease.. Some years later.....say...when you are 47...as I am Now...and it is coming more acceptable..that your system SHOULD be..breaking down...such as..Your FAILING VISION...(THAT STARTED TO GO BAD..IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAKING THE Accutane...)... You see...People are not as surprised when you are near 50..and falling apart.. But the last 20 plus years...that I have Been Falling apart..literally...day by day....Is enough to Surprise...and RUIN.... I Merely WiSH...I Could Stop just ONE person...from taking this S*** in a bottle....Called Accutane.. or Am nEsteem....Nice..how the Filthy Bastards Put a Word Like ESTEEM...in the Name they Now Hide the Poison behind...I Wish I could hold down Each and EVERY Executive..of the Drug Company...that HAD the FACTS and overlooked the Medical Reports.of what this POISON Did to Test Subjects...over 20 Years ago... THEY make the Tobacco Company executives look a lil LESS Criminal...as these A Holes...Put this POISON on the Market...for CHILDREN...and have it classified as a drug and Medicine...supposed to used to treat disease...(NOT Cause MORE)....at LEAST the Tobacco people...sold theirs as Cigarettes. To adults...for the Most part.. What have YOU Experienced?..

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I feel the same what do we do?is there some type of attorney set up because let me tell you, I would rather of had acne, I was a kid, my parents trusted these doctors and now this is what we get?

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I feel exactly this same way, I eat normally, but have issues related to ulcers, what can we do?

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Re: Breezy (# 9)

Please stay away from this drug. My daughter has a kidney tumor, last one ovary, about to loose the second one due to a dermoid cyst, 9 miscarriages, loss of twins at 5 months gestation, gall bladder removed. It could kill you.

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Re: D (# 40)

Hi. Yes, it is good to talk to one another. You are the only other person I have come across with the anal fissure issue. I had this as well and it was very dangerous. I was backed up and my body was shacking the doctors told me it was anxiety, but the fissure was developed when I pushed hard enough to void. The shaking stopped and never came back. They also said I caused the fissure. I too don’t have any abnormal tests ever. I am completely healthy. I don’t have anything wrong with me and I have never had anything serious. The episode above is the most serious. However, I do have a thyroid issue, it stops working every few years and I take medication for a month and it returns to normal function. The next thing I am going to describe is hard to articulate and it could be very long so if anyone wants more clarification, let me know. I have the joint pain, nose bleeds, mouth pain, head pain and stomach and voiding issues along with balding issues. I think it is all because of hair growing wrong and sideways and becoming tangled under my skin. Sounds crazy and how could this be. I can say that hair disease is a side affect of accutane and it does effect the sabacios glands and oil of skin. I have experienced hair on my head, face and annal area twisted and pulling under my skin and it was very prevalent in these areas as well as in my eyebrows and eyes and hands and feet. It has been getting better with Vaseline and hot baths and exfoliating my entire body. Has been over three years of slowly getting better and is almost gone. Joint pain is also subsiding at same time. Stomach too and I don’t know why or how. It has been really 30 years and I did notice during my last course of accutane, a discoloration and deformity of the skin around my mouth and eyes developed and never went away for 20 years and it is now gone.

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I am sorry to hear of everyone's continued ailments from Accutane. I too am a survivor who still deals with many of the side effects 30 years later. I only took the drug once for a 3 month period, but that was enough to cause me rectal fissures, vaginal dryness, joint/muscle pain, tingling in my head, eye floaters, etc. I also have developed Osteoporosis. Today, I take lots of supplements to alleviate these symptoms but the joint/muscle pain have been the most difficult to manage. It also seemed like over the years the symptoms would ebb and flow in severity. Now however at 59, the joint aching/stiffness/popping is chronic. And other things have seemed to develop, like stomach issues, so I've gone gluten & dairy free; Numbness in my feet in the morning, get dehydrated often, etc. I have seen numerous doctors and specialists who don't know what is going on. Most of my diagnostics come back in the normal range. And since I do not care to take other drugs to alleviate these pains, I have opted for supplements prescribed by a Naturopath.

I also tried other alternative products like Chinese herbs, Acupuncture, Indian herbs, Panchakarma; Unfortunately, none of them have helped me much. Some of the supplements that I do take and believe have helped are magnesium, omega fish oil, curcumin, vit D, melatonin for sleep. I'm glad to have found this website and to be able to communicate with others in the same situation. Maybe we will be able to help each other.

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Re: Patti (# 19)

Nobody knows anything about this for sure. The truth is most likely in the middle. It is not helpful for anyone to think they know what others are feeling and experiencing and calling people whiners or any names is a infantile. I do think it is natural to wonder if this medication, which has damaged us on this thread, is responsible for everything and anything gone or going wrong with our health. When I read Robert’s experience, I know he and I are suffering some of the same very strange side effects and it is comforting to not feel so alone. I am getting better too and that is a fact. This medication did serious damage but it seems to be getting better some 20 years later. Can’t prove it but it is my truth.

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Re: John (# 20)

Wow is all I can respond to your comments. I hope you don't have to experience what most of these people are living with.

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Re: Patti (# 18)

Patti, Please let Us all know if the antibiotic treatment was a long term success ? I'm suffering from lower-back pain and have diagnosed degenerative discs dysfunction. i took isotretinoin over 2 years ago and started to feel back pain about a year ago and really hope this could help!

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Re: Charles (# 35)

I can’t thank you enough for telling me about that. I wrote it down and of course I will get it. Really, you may be the only person I have ever communicated with who can understand anything. Do you have headaches or did you when you lost hair? I am happy to try this new thing because I keep having severe deficiencies and I take the supplement for a few months and stop it and I am magically normal. I was very anemic, vitamin D deficiency and B. Also my thyroid slowed way down and after a few months it medication, I stopped taking it and thyroid normal now for 10 months. Makes sense that my digestive system is not absorbing and I have no appetite because of a lot of pain in my upper and lower abdomen all the time. Noises all the time and issues with bowels. Anyway, I guess it is slowly sinking in that I took poison. I was not sure until I read more of what is here on this site. It sounds so familiar that it can not be a coincidence. I know it is accutane now. Is anyone out there older than 49 and took this drug in like 1985 or 86? Did you go bald ever? Do things get worse? How do I know if my liver is ok? How do I get a doctor to listen and believe and help? Thanks so much for the tip.

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Re: Sarah (# 34)

Triphala will help the digestive system eliminate pathogens and give a huge boost in nutritional uptake from all foods...

My hair has been progressively falling out since accutane...started triphala over 1.5 years ago and within a month, my hairline stopped receding... The damage was done, but the hair I have left is healthy, and accutane related skin disorders gone.

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Re: Charles (# 33)

Hi. Thanks. I have not tried anything herbal other than marijuana. I have a lot more to say about my suffering too. It is just depressing and hard to describe. The most terrible part, this last three years have been harder than words can say. Without my wife, I would have died. I had a severe blockage that nobody checked because they didn’t believe that I was really sick. My whole body shook for weeks until it came loose but caused an anal fissure which the doctor accused me of causing. On top of that I lost big chunks of hair with infections on my scalp any eyebrows and they told me I did that to myself too. My wife is the only one who believed me. Things are better, hair is back, no infections, but still the hair is not growing right or grew wrong under my scalp and it hurts a lot still. I’m afraid it will come back like before or just never really go away. I have more too but this is enough for now. Thanks

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Re: Sarah (# 32)

The expense was more of the torment and suffering that even a devil wouldn't deserve...and 15 years of my life completely wrecked and riddled with horrors, physical and mental...

The herbal solutions are real and work for healing the maladies accutane caused, as much as they can...and it takes time and relief of stressors, physical and mental, as well as love and understanding...

Ashwagandha Can Treat More than 50 Medical Conditions

Triphala for Ulcerative Colitis: A Case Study

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Re: Charles (# 31)

What do you mean? You took accutane and found relief from side effects over 20 years later but it was very expensive?

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The most rewarding thing for me now is helping others find relief, and attempting to change the root of the problem...money.

Fear and lust/greed stem from the inequality of money, basic income rights the severity of this without compromising the wealthy.

Ashwagandha and triphala, with turmeric doses and exercise changed my life.

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Re: Breezy (# 9)

You sound exactly like me. My acne was horrific and it effected how successful I was or was not. No confidence and disfigured really. Took it young. I’m not positive, but it seems I am suffering now at 48. I took it three times. The acne never came back as bad after the first time I took it and I wish I had stopped then. I might wish I just lived with the acne, it is a toss up because I have been through HELL for three years now and my doctors blamed me for it. Told me hair doesn’t grow like that and diagnosed me as pulling my own hair out and lying to them about it. I don’t want to scare you but I went bald for a year, eyebrows too. Severe digestive issues and pain pain pain with no answers.

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Hello,

I took three courses of this drug. 40mg per day for 12 months when 15. Another 6 months at 20 and a last time for 3 months in 1997 when I was 29. I am 48 now and experiencing many of the same symptoms discussed in this thread. In retrospect, I have been having these symptoms for over 10 years and blaming it on other things. Severe sweats, severe constipation with annal fissures, joint pain, discoloration of skin on face with buckling or gathering of skin tissue around mouth and ears. Hair growing where it shouldn’t and in an unusual way. More recently, about three years ago, one side of my scalp went bald and developed an infection. My lips also became gathered with a severe infection that was open and raw for 14 months. Very painful headaches, problems with digestive system with severe sweats and attacks of dizziness. I went to two doctors and was accused of hurting myself and pulling out my own hair and then lying about it. I could not sleep. I was in constant pain accompanied by a feeling that my hair was being pulled.

The good news is I am almost normal three years later with no help from doctors. I still don’t know why it is going away. I have all my hair back, my face looks the best it ever has, my hair stopped growing in strange places and is not growing sideways through my skin any longer. I got through it with a wife to pay the bills because I couldn’t work, Vaseline, hot baths, marijuana, 80mg Tylenol 3 times a day and a positive attitude. I had to massage and untangle the hair in my scalp and face with my fingers. This never broke my skin and it always relieved the pain in the area I worked on and no hair ever came out, it was just coming untangled under my skin. Sorry if this makes no sense but I can’t explain it any other way. It seems to be almost gone and this is not the whole story, I still have some troubling symptoms going on in my entire digestive track and nobody can find anything wrong with me. I stopped asking doctors about it because I am afraid they will misdiagnose me with some other psychiatric disorder.

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Re: Lee (# 11)

I hear lasers can work good...What kind of laser did you use?

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Re: Breezy (# 9)

I have also used it off and on for 20 years it has worked out well for me.I never took it for 6 months straight that can hurt peoples body and cause many side effects.i do think the advised dosage is wrong.I would take a low does for less then a month and would avoid pain and side effects.

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How much of it did you take?I have took it every 2+ years low dose for about a month and so far so good.I have however heard of lots of bad side effects taking it 3 times a day at high doses can really harm a persons body.

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I am 48. I first took accutane at 15 for one year in 1984 then again at 21 for 6 months and another 3 months at 28. The third course started years of mental health and stomach issues that came on suddenly during the time I was taking it. I also formed deep sores on my head that remained until 3 years ago when the skin on my head and around my eyebrows and lips was matted or tangled under the shin and caused deformation of my head and face. Annal fissures and sweats that I can not explain with words

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