Hello - I have had extensive experience with acne and I have discovered a powerful tool to combat it and prevent scarring :

But first to understand the cure , u must know the cause :

Acne is caused when certain hormones known as androgens circulate in greater than normal amounts . That is why during the teen years , when hormones are working furiously, acne is common. these androgens can also be triggered by other things like stress. a recent study found that people under stress had 25% more acne . Now these androgens hit the oil glands which are most numerous on the face, back and chest. These oil glands then swell . Bacteria just love to feast furiously on these swollen oil glands. this is bacteria that normally resides on the skin surface. the bacteria continue to multiply and cause the skin to to inflame with pus and erupt. these eruptions are the pimples or "acne". so the trick with acne then becomes to somehow manipulate this process to prevent the eruptions and worse to break the skin surface which causes scars. A very good way of manipulating this process is to kill off this bacteria when they start to feast so that the skin doesn't erupt to form a pimple. The bacteria can be kiled off by drugs we all know as
"antibiotics" Now there are many antibiotics out there but some of the best ones for skin infections like acne are : minocycline and secondly doxycycline.

From personal experience I have seen my acne stop swelling and subsiding. If only I had had this knwledge earleir when I was younger, I could have prevented several of my scars......

Another very important thing with acne is to keep the face oil free by washing though not excessively since this can aggravate the condition. Or just rubbing the face dry. and DO Not pinch any pimple ever as this will scar.

I hope that my expereince can atleast help someone else out there. So for all of u who are desperate with this plague, I urge u to try minocycline .
this is much safer than a drug like accutane. And shud be easy to get a prescription for from ur doc.

Minocycline , more than anything else is like a cure while one is going thru a bout of acne.

I took doxycycline once and ended up in the ER, unable to stop vomiting.

Hi, I was on Minocycline and I was on Doxycycline. I had a bad experience my right lower lip in the corner of the bottom part turned a bluish purple color.I guess its a possible side effect. If I would be a teenager it could have turned my teeth grey my dentist told me.I am trying an alternative route.

If the acne that one has, is there because of bacteria attacking the oil glands on the face, then antibiotics will definitely help. as suggested in in the beginning of this thread by me, minocycline - an antibiotic of the tetracycline class, will definitely help . this antibiotic targets bacteria in the skin and is generally well tolerated by people. Ofcourse any medication can have side effects so one has to check to see whether one might have any existing conditions that might contradict its use. that is where the doctor and the pharmacist's notes come in.

Doxycycline, another antibiotic of the tetracycline class, may also help but it can lead to an upset stomach in some people. However if u take it with food, then the liklihood of it causing stomach problems is much lower. also if u take doxy, u have to take stomach supplements called probiotics to prevent the doxy from destroying the "good bacteria of the stomach". these probiotics are harmless supplements available at any grocery or health food store.

Another antibiotic, which belongs to the macrolid class of antibiotics, is azithromycin or zithromax-(the brand name). this will also help kill the bacteria
that causes pimples to erupt.

As suggested in some previous posts, antibiotics should not be taken without
medical supervision . That is well and good. however under supervision and taken in low doses, these antibiotics can really help one deal with a bout of acne in many cases. And often the antibiotics that need to be taken are at mild levels...not strong ones.

It is worth trying if someone is having trouble getting their acne under control.
Ofcourse there are many reasons biochemically which may lead to acne. But the point is, often the acne become these skin eruptions because of the bacteria feasting on the excess oil . so whatever the reason causing the oil glands to become overactive, if one can get rid of the bacteria, it will help prevent the acne from growing in several cases if not all.

Often, just having the acne is not the end of the story. even a relatively small bout of it can leave one with permanent scars in some people. thus for these people it might be worth trying low dose antibiotics to help deal with the scarring type of acne (provided they have no other health conditions which forbid the use of these meds)

Hope my input can help some one out there.