Introduction
You’d be dead wrong if you regard steroid acne which you now have, as some kind of temporary and trivial adverse consequence caused by some medication you’ve just taken or other cause. But you’d be absolutely right if your acne breakout as a sign that your quality of life will change from good to bad. You shouldn’t take lightly but instead you should quickly look for a treatment for your condition, Read on to find out more.
A brief review of steroid treatments
If you’ve been infected with steroid acne, there’s really nothing you can do about it except to find the most appropriate and effective steroid treatment so you can free yourself from this irksome and discomforting invasion of your life.
You’d be a hundred percent right if you instantly think of the Corticosteroids group of treatments, especially one of them in particular called prednisone.
These types of treatments are usually sought after for the treatment of all types of inflammatory conditions that also includes inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
But there’s a catch because when you start taking medications for treating steroid induced conditions you will ultimately end up developing a type of acne everyone knows as “steroid acne.”
For instance, if you have IBD and you start taking prednisone, it may do wonders for your condition, but you’d be left with one of the side effects of the medication in the steroid acne you inherit from using prednisone.
In this respect, it would be to your advantage to study the side effects of the prednisone treatment.
Prednisone and its side effects
One reason for the popularity of this steroid treatment is that it’s not expensive to buy. Also it’s known as a highly effective treatment for keeping ulcerative coitis under firm control.
However, despite its efficacy, prednisone is capable of causing many side effects some of which can prove very serious and can cause great discomfort to the sufferer. They can include:
- Slow healing of wounds
- Acne
- Weakness of muscles
- Nausea and vomiting
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath
- Headaches
- Fast weight gain
- Eye pain and blurred vision
- Rapid or irregular heartbeat
- Coughing up blood
- Chest pain
- Bloody or tarry stools
- Increased urination
- Seizures
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Changed personality or behavior
If you are suffering from inflammatory bowel disease IBD, you need to know that the aim of an IBD treatment now is for controlling inflammation without using steroids or use them for only a short period of time.
The main types of Steroid Acne
Many people believe that steroid acne is a condition that’s confined to adolescents, but the truth is that the condition can affect anyone who is taking steroids irrespective of age.
It does nevertheless tend to occur more in teenagers and adults. Steroid acne may appear on the chest, face, or back in two main types: Acne vulgaris and Malassezia folliculitis.
Let’s have a look at each of these steroid acne types:
- Acne vulgaris – this type of steroid acne is regarded as the main type of acne that occurs most frequently and is treated with a high-dose prednisone treatment given only within two weeks from the start of the treatment.
Its appearance on those infected is usually in uniform lesions which usually occur mostly in people who have a high vulnerability to acne prior to starting their treatment.
- Malassezia folliculitis – this type of steroid acne is caused by a certain type of fungus which occurs mainly around and inside your hair follicles.
It has been estimated that between seventy five percent to ninety eight percent of people have this type of fungus present on their skin.
There’s nothing wrong with the presence of this type of acne on your skin, but its tendency to overgrow its itchy effect to your chest and the trunk part of your body is anything but normal.
It’s also worthwhile to note that steroid acne will begin to dissipate the moment your treatment with prednisone is discontinued.
Types of treatments for steroid acne
To suffer from steroid acne or acne in general for that matter, without any prospect of a cure, would indeed be a miserable existence.
Fortunately effective treatment for each type of acne is available but many other factors have to be considered (such as severity of the acne or use of other medications), before they can actually be used for treating the type of acne involved.
The following are some of the treatments available for treating steroid acne:
Accutane (isotretinoin) – this is normally not recommended for the treatment of acne in people suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) because it may cause the onset of diarrhea and rectal bleeding.
Instead of using Accutane as the treatment, topical cleansers and anti-acne treatments such as benzoyl peroxide may be used instead as the first stage of acne treatment.
Treating moderate to severe steroid acne
If you happen to be suffering from moderate to severe steroid acne, the most appropriate and common prescription treatments may include oral antibiotics as listed below:
If you are suffering from the pain and discomfort of fungal acne, your best bet for an effective treatment can include the following treatments:
- Shampoo containing ketoconazole
- Oral antifungals such as itraconazole
- Topical antifungals
An important reminder when you happen to be using prednisone for treating your steroid acne is this:
Once you start using prednisone for treating your steroid acne condition, you may not quickly stop your treatment due to the possible occurrence of withdrawal symptoms.
Actually, it may take weeks and even months for the predenisone treatment to wear off even after you stop using it for treating your acne breakout.
Additional points to ponder
Whenever you have any prednisone related concerns the thing for you to do is to hold consultations with either a gastroenterologist or a dermatologist with proven record in the treatment of people with IBD.
It’s true that despite the very difficult living environment that you must endure when you are infected with steroid acne, its consoling to know that the acne will begin to dissipate and ultimately disappear once your steroid intake begins to decline.
You also have the intermediary types of treatments such as antibiotics and topical treatments that you can use to help clear you skin of acne.
Bottom line
When you are deeply involved in your quest for attaining the perfect physique during your bodybuilding cycles, there’s nothing more irritating and discouraging that to be suddenly invaded by an outbreak of steroid acne. To be honest, it would be a disaster if you stopped taking steroids but you do have other treatments available as discussed in this article. Hopefully you will use them as you continue with your bodybuilding.