Accutane's mechanism of action explained
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/T9QJ8DO1TLI41VBPN

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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#1Jul 14, 2008

Judged:Brilliant1
I believe that I have discovered Accutane’s mechanism of action and I will lay my evidence on the table and the reader be the judge. This specific information about the mechanism of action might someday lead to a treatment for Accutane induced cellular damage. After all, it’s much more difficult to fix something when you do not know what is wrong. I’ve provided the scientific studies to back up my hypothesis and used analogies in order to make the biological concepts easier to understand. I’ve explained everything in such a way that it’s very straightforward, even for people without a background in molecular biology.

Today, most people that are scientifically savvy about Accutane know that it decreases cell proliferation (in the bone, skin, gut, mucous membranes, and areas of the brain), which is why it’s used in chemotherapy, but up until now, nobody knows exactly how it does this. All throughout the history of Accutane, Hoffman-La Roche has always used the lame excuse in the Physician’s Desk Reference that “the exact mechanism of action is unknown.” Liam Grant, the chairperson of the Roaccutane Action Group, said it best at the FDA Meeting of the Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee held on September 19, 2000,

“Roche have stated publicly for the past 17 years in every country -- because we followed the PR statements from Roche and they're all the same, and they haven't changed, by the way, since 1983 -- we do not know the mechanism by which this drug works. Therefore, there's no proof that Accutane causes depression or psychiatric disorders. And they have no shortage of medical people and others who will go up with this statement. So, here we have a product. We know it causes the side effects, but why do they cause them? Well, that's not our problem. We don't know how it works. Therefore, don't ask me about the psychiatric side effects and don't ask me about all the many, many, many physical side effects. The Roaccutane Action Group as an organization now have to go out and are now spending our money because we know, of course, that the mechanism can be determined.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/00/transcripts/3639t2.rtf

As Liam Grant just said, the mechanism of action can be determined. Roche has possessed this technological capability for quite a long time, and it is entirely possible that they already know the mechanism but they just aren’t telling anybody because it would incriminate them. There are a few other organizations besides Roche that have the technology needed to decipher Accutane’s mechanism of action such as the Life Extension Foundation in Ft Lauderdale, FL and the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. But their services might not be needed because I believe that I have already discovered the mechanism of action.

Below, I’m going to include two quotes from the scientific section of www.accutaneaction.com that hint at Accutane’s mechanism of action, but don’t specifically say the actual mechanism because the group doesn’t know about the telomere (pronounced TEE-LOW-MEER) research that I have discovered. I’m convinced Roche has known about this research for the past 25 years, they've known ever since they developed different retinoids (like Accutane) to be used in chemotherapy, they’ve just been keeping it hushed up, because if this information ever got out, you’d have several million people around the world that are now pissed off because they unknowingly took a dangerous chemotherapy drug (for their benign/harmless condition of acne) that has inflicted serious damage to their body at the cellular level. Do you think that Roche wants people to know that Accutane reduces cell division / proliferation in several different areas all over the human body? Not a chance, because then nobody would ever want to take Accutane and they'd be out billions of dollars.
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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#2Jul 14, 2008

This information about telomeres definitely offers an explanation for why the terrain inside my nasal passage, my skin, my eyes, my cracked lips, and even my genitalia have resembled the surface of a desert for the past 9 years ever since my senior year of high school when I finished my one and only 5 month course (80 mg/day) of Accutane in December of 1998, which ended up being the worst mistake of my entire life. I didn’t have severe cystic acne or pancreatic cancer or leukemia. I had a bad case of teenage acne. For years I’ve suffered from agonizing body-wide dryness and dehydration all because of Accutane. As a result of what happened to me, I’ve become a reluctant expert on Hoffman-La Roche’s criminal history and Accutane’s history and pharmacology. What’s amazing is that the research about telomeres was published back in 2001, so basically it has taken six years for somebody like me to come along, discover it buried in the chemotherapy archives, and put two and two together. Once you understand the concepts behind telomere biology, you’ll better understand the quotes below from the scientific section of www.accutaneaction.com and how Accutane causes programmed cell death and inhibits the proliferation of rapidly dividing cells.

Accutane has been on the market for 25 years and for that entire time Hoffman-La Roche has specifically stated in the Physician’s Desk Reference that the exact mechanism of action of Accutane is unknown. They don’t mention that Accutane is a systemic chemotherapy agent that reduces cellular proliferation of the sebaceous glands in the skin all over the body (which is why it’s so effective against acne), and also does the same thing to the cells lining the digestive tract and mucous membranes (causing a lot of dryness). To corroborate my previous statement, take a look at what scientist James Crandall says in a study that can be found on PubMed. He is stating point blank this is how Accutane works and this is what’s causing the side effects.

"Retinoic acid (active form of Accutane) induces differentiation and reduces proliferation of stem and progenitor cells. It works on acne by inducing similar events in basal sebocytes. These same actions also lead to 13-cis-retinoic's (Accutane’s) side effects, and these are directed towards proliferating cells in the adult such as in the skin, gut and bone."

"A wide ranging effect of retinoic acid is to inhibit proliferation in dividing cells, and this accounts for its frequent consideration as an anti-cancer agent."

https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/101/14/5111

Crandall is hinting at Accutane’s mechanism of action but he doesn’t specifically say the actual mechanism because I don’t think he knows about the telomere (pronounced TEE-LA-MEER) research that I have discovered. Recently, I’ve discovered research that shows that all-trans retinoic acid (abbreviated ATRA which is the final biologically active metabolite that Accutane turns into) down-regulates the telomerase enzyme (pronounced TEE-LA-MER-AZE) and induces telomere shortening and cell death. This I believe is the mechanism of action. Accutane causes telomere shortening leading to permanently arrested cell division / proliferation.
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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#3Jul 14, 2008

So why is telomere shortening a bad thing to have? Here’s a quick rundown of telomere biology. Cells all over the body are replaced by means of cell division, and there is a limit on the number of times that they may successfully divide. This is known as the Hayflick Limit. Most cells in the body divide about 50 times before they stop dividing and die a natural death. The mechanism that controls this cell division lies within the telomere / telomerase, which is a cap like structure on the end of all the different twenty three pairs of chromosomes. Chromosomes are the helical structures of DNA that are found inside the nucleus of all cells in our body which carry our genetic code. The telomere chain and its length can be thought of as a string of beads (repeating code at the end of every DNA strand), with one bead falling off the string each time a cell divides. Therefore, the telomere shortens up a little bit every time a cell divides, and again this places a limit on the number of times a cell can replicate itself, known as the Hayflick Limit. Once these beads run out and disappear, the cell stops dividing and undergoes programmed cell death (AKA apoptosis). The constant process of telomeres getting shorter eventually leads to the death of the cell and over time this cumulative cell death leads to one of the major components of the aging process. However, there exists a specialized enzyme called telomerase which acts to repair damage to the telomere, maintain its stability, and extend the length of the telomere beads, thereby overcoming the Hayflick Limit. Germ line cells (bacteria) and cancerous cells continually express telomerase in such a way that they never run out of telomere beads and therefore remain immortal. Telomerase is naturally expressed more in cells in the body that are the most rapidly dividing (the immune system, skin, bone, digestive tract, mucous membranes), because these cells undergo more cell division throughout a person’s lifetime and therefore need to have their string of beads repaired and relengthened more often. Right now I’d like to include a relevant quote from Dr. Aubrey De Grey’s new book titled Ending Aging, that can be found at Amazon.com or any major bookstore. Dr. De Grey is a world famous Biogerontologist, which in a nutshell means he studies the aging process,

“If it weren’t for telomerase, this gradual shortening would eventually lead to the complete loss of the telomeres in cells that replicate frequently during the lifespan, and thus the gradual erosion of the genes themselves. Telomerase periodically relengthens the telomere before it becomes critically short.”(De Grey, 294)

10% of cancer cells use an alternative process to continue their cell division known as alternative lengthening of telomeres, but 90 % of cancer cells mutate and activate the telomerase enzyme in such a way that it continually rebuilds the telomere chain so that these cells never run out of cell divisions and therefore become immortal. This is one of the major defining hallmark characteristics of cancer. Cells divide and grow out of control and don’t die off like they are supposed to. The telomere Hayflick Limit is a cellular mechanism that is in place to specifically protect us from renegade cells growing wildly out of control (AKA cancer). The following quote from Dr. Aubrey De Grey’s Ending Aging explains what would happen if cancerous cells were deprived of telomerase or alternative lengthening of telomeres,

“Either way, without a way to renew their telomeres, the single-minded multiplication of potential cancer cells rapidly grinds to a halt as it reaches the end of its telomere “rope,” and we wind up with a tiny (and generally short-lived) lump in our bodies instead of a life-threatening, malignant condition.”(De Grey, 295)
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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#4Jul 14, 2008

Judged:Brilliant1
From what I’ve observed, generally, the people who suffer the latent side effects of Accutane have the OPPOSITE problem that people with cancer have. With cancer patients, there’s too much bad cell division going on, but with Accutane sufferers, there’s too little normal necessary bodily cell division or sometimes none at all because the chemotherapy drug Accutane has caused critical telomere shortening, inducing growth arrest and cell death in various areas of the body where cell division is supposed to be ongoing. The bad thing about Accutane is that there's a huge amount of individual variability when it comes to the side effects. For some people, it takes multiple courses of Accutane to induce permanent side effects, but for others all it takes is one course to put their bodies past the critical point of no return. Different people get different combinations of side effects and they are very unpredictable, because through influencing DNA transcription (which is what all retinoid/vitamin A drugs do), it causes random groups of cells all over the body to differentiate and shut-down when they are not supposed to. This is why it is used in chemotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs kill rapidly dividing/proliferating cancerous cells, but they also kill the healthy rapidly dividing/proliferating cells of the body along with the cancer. Accutane binds to the vitamin A nuclear receptors RAR and RXR on the surface of the nucleus inside every cell in the entire body and changes the cell’s gene expression and protein transcription. This is why it has an extremely long-list of side effects involving every tissue and every organ in the human body. The cells that are the most vulnerable to this effect are the ones that need to divide (undergo mitosis) more often.

I believe that the people who are suffering from chronic latent side effects are those whose individual biochemistry was the most susceptible to Accutane’s strong telomere shortening influence. The severity of Accutane long-term side effects all depends on how far the course of Accutane down-regulated the telomerase enzyme and shortened the telomere length. Here’s another quote from Dr. Aubrey De Grey’s book that explains what would happen if telomerase was completely down-regulated,

“Deleting telomere elongation capacity throughout the body would also be life-threatening, because it would mean that our regular, proliferating cells (like those in the skin or the lining of the gut) would suddenly have iron limits on their ability to reproduce themselves and thus replenish tissue. From the moment that we denuded our cells of telomerase, a clock would be ticking. With each division the telomere would shorten by a notch from whatever it had been when we took telomerase out. We would be under the specter of a rather horrible death, as our stem cells went offline one by one under replicative senescence (see Chapter 10): with each failure of a stem cell responsible for supplying key functions, the tissue would fail to be renewed and would slowly degenerate.”(De Grey, 297)

Accutane and ATRA (all-trans retinoic acid or Vesanoid) are very similar drugs, they are both retinoids, they have very similar side effect profiles and pharmacokinetics and they are almost chemically identical. Interestingly, Roche states a 14% incidence of depression for 10 mg of Vesanoid, with the knowledge that this is exactly what 40 mg of Accutane interconverts into. To clarify, here are the generic names and chemical names for these two drugs that are both manufactured by Hoffman-La Roche.

Accutane (used for Acne)
Isotretinoin
13-cis retinoic acid

Vesanoid (used for Leukemia)
Tretinoin
All-trans retinoic acid or retinoic acid
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United States

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#5Jul 14, 2008

Judged:Interesting1
Since a certain percentage of Accutane metabolizes into ATRA (about 30%), and since the ATRA metabolite is how Accutane exerts its pharmacological actions on the body, there’s no doubt that if ATRA causes telomere shortening then Accutane also causes telomere shortening. If Accutane truly does cause telomere shortening and down regulation of the telomerase enzyme (and I believe that it does), this could mean huge significant implications for maintaining adequate cell proliferation all over the body during a person’s lifetime. Accutane, being a potent chemotherapy drug, attacks and damages the cells in our body that are supposed to remain dividing and proliferating for our entire lifetime. If cells have shorter telomere lengths (shorter telomeres), they get closer to the Hayflick Limit and can’t divide / proliferate as much or they go on to experience growth arrest and cell death (apoptosis). This is how Accutane reduces acne, and why in some cases, the acne doesn’t come back, and the patient is left with permanent dry skin, dry mucous membranes, digestive problems, and other various permanent side effects. During the course of treatment and after, Accutane has increased the cell division / turnover rate so drastically, that these cells have ran out of cell divisions and are driven into their Hayflick Limit. This can be illustrated by observing what happens when somebody eats polar bear liver (contains extremely high toxic levels of vitamin A similar to Accutane) and their skin starts to peel off all over their body in thick giant sheets from the increased cell turnover rate, also a potential side effect of Accutane. The cell division rate (beads falling off the string) has been increased so fast and telomerase has been down-regulated so much that it cannot repair the telomere chain (the beads on the string) before the cells lose all of their cell divisions (beads) and enter growth arrest (Hayflick limit). Here’s an excellent definition of the Hayflick Limit,

“Dr. Leonard Hayflick discovered that mammalian cells divide only a fixed number of times. This "Hayflick Limit" was later proven to be caused by telomeres on the ends of chromosomes that shorten with each cell-division. When the telomeres are gone, the DNA can no longer be copied, cell division ceases, and cells enter replicative senescence or old age.”
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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#6Jul 14, 2008

Judged:Disagree2Brilliant1
Do some research online and on Wikipedia about telomerase, telomere shortening, and the Hayflick limit, and how they play a role as one of the major components of the aging process. Another interesting observation is that people with the premature aging disorder Progeria have shortened telomeres. So imagine what is going to happen when this information gets out that Hoffman-La Roche and the American Academy of Dermatology have given a drug that causes a form of premature aging to millions of teenagers and young adults with acne? People need to understand that stopping Accutane doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re in the clear. There are several reports by people (including myself), who claim that some of their side effects, particularly the worst kinds, didn’t emerge until years after they stopped Accutane. This drug has a chronic latent effect on people’s bodies, which is also how it permanently cures some people’s acne (with lots of collateral damage of course). There’s going to be a massive backlash when this information gets out, even with people who took a low dosage and got good results from their course of Accutane and (so far) haven’t developed any complications or chronic health problems. My impression, after conducting endless hours of research, is that there are thousands of people out there with really bizarre and unusual chronic health problems as a result of their exposure to Accutane, but they just haven’t investigated and made the connection yet. As a result of taking Accutane, their bodies are now more vulnerable to injury, reduced healing ability, sickness, and disease because they have shorter telomeres. Any individual who has ever taken Accutane needs to know about this so they can take proactive steps to avoid injury, avoid eating liver or high doses of vitamin A, lead a healthy/low-stress lifestyle, get a lot of sleep, and protect the health of their body.

This discovery of mine also opens up the possibility of testing for abnormal telomere shortening in people with chronic long-term Accutane side effects. There are specialized tests that can assess telomere/telomerase shortening. One of them is called the terminal restriction fragment southern blot TTAGGG telomere length assay. But there are only a few laboratories in the country with the technology to test telomeres/telomerase, and one of them is at Roche.

Once Accutane’s mechanism of action gets out, nobody will ever want to take it, and those who have already taken it will have to live with the consequences of knowing that they‘ve exposed themselves to a powerful cell-proliferation reducing chemotherapy drug that has damaged their body at the cellular/DNA level and depending on the extent of the damage, possibly shortened their life expectancy. In these individuals like myself, the cells in certain areas of the body like the skin, nasal passage, or digestive tract have a reduced ability to divide and proliferate, which is why the mucous membranes, the nasal passage, eyes or lips become very dry, and certain areas of the digestive tract also lose this ability, so then it sustains damage and develops into inflammatory bowel disease. After all, the digestive tract can be thought of as a tube (your body is hollow) that is technically “outside of the body” because the mucosal barrier with secretory IgA is what protects us from pathogens and the harsh substances of digestive metabolism. Just like the skin, the lining of the digestive tract is a barrier that separates our bodies from the outside world. This protective barrier becomes dysfunctional and gets diminished after Accutane because the cells can’t divide as much. This is how Accutane can destroy your gut.
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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#7Jul 14, 2008

I always knew that Accutane’s mechanism of action would reveal itself by examining the way that retinoids are used in chemotherapy. When retinoids are used for chemotherapy, at least they make an attempt to tell patients how the stuff works and warn them about the side effects. This study below is the smoking gun for Accutane's mechanism of action, because ATRA (all-trans retinoic acid or Vesanoid) is the active metabolite that 13-cis retinoic acid (Accutane) turns into. Nobody besides me has made this connection yet. Nobody has posted any information about retinoids and how they cause telomere shortening on the Roaccutane action group forum. Here's a quote from the abstract of a study that can be found at this link,

Retinoids down-regulate telomerase and telomere length in a pathway distinct from leukemia cell differentiation

https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=34517

"A second pathway of hTERT regulation, identified in the RAR-responsive, maturation-resistant NB4-R1 cell line, results in a down-regulation of telomerase that develops slowly during two weeks of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) treatment. This pathway leads to telomere shortening, growth arrest, and cell death, all events that are overcome by ectopic expression of hTERT.”

Here's another interesting quote from the scientific abstract of a study. I’ve provided the link to this study below,

Telomerase targeting by retinoids in cells from patients with myeloid leukemias of various subtypes, not only APL

https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://www.nature.com/leu/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/2404127a.html

"These results support the idea that, by hTERT targeting, retinoids can induce telomere shortening and cell death and their integration in therapy protocols for myeloid leukemias refractory to maturation should be considered."

hTERT (AKA human telomerase reverse transcriptase) is what maintains the telomeres of eukaryotic chromosomes. In the quote above, it says it right there in black and white, retinoids can induce telomere shortening and cell death. This is how Accutane reduces adult stem cell proliferation in the bone marrow, how it reduces cell division and causes severe dryness of the mucous membranes (eyes, lips, mouth, nose, GI tract, urethra), how it reduces cell proliferation in the “embryonic-like” regions of the brain (the hippocampus and subventricular zone), how it can cause necrosis or abnormalities of gastrointestinal tissue leading to inflammatory bowel disease, how it (and vitamin A toxicity) induces premature growth plate closure in the bones of adolescents, how it occasionally causes permanent hair loss, and finally how it reduces acne, sometimes permanently. Accutane has the most significant damaging effect on any group of cells in the body where cell division / proliferation needs to be constantly sustained throughout a person’s entire lifetime, which are areas where cell division is the most rapid, ongoing, and abundant.
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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#8Jul 14, 2008

To sum all of this up, the evidence we currently have is that long term treatment with ATRA (all-trans retinoic acid), which is almost chemically identical to Accutane, causes “telomere shortening, growth arrest, and cell death.” The cells that the researchers tested in the studies I listed above were cancerous cell lines, but if ATRA causes these effects in cancerous cell lines, then it is highly likely that it will do the same thing to our body’s own dividing/proliferating cells such as the cells in the bone, skin, digestive tract, and even the hippocampus and subventricular zone in the brain. This is the “big link” hypothesis. Besides the Crandall study on the hippocampus, to my knowledge, I don’t know of any specific studies that have been conducted on how it affects the body’s own rapidly dividing cells, but given the nature of some people’s symptoms and side effects, telomere shortening is an obvious possibility.

Another significant observation that can be picked up from this research is that if ATRA causes telomere shortening, and that this is also the mechanism of action for how vitamin A toxicity causes many side effects and reduces cell division, this could explain why lots of people have reported that consuming high amounts of vitamin A or foods rich in vitamin A after their course of Accutane worsens their side effects, especially the problems related to dryness. In other words, this could explain why for some people, the side effects get a lot worse after they stop Accutane, because the dietary vitamin A they need to stay alive might be slowly killing them because Accutane has shortened their telomeres too far. A search on the internet reveals an abundance of information about vitamin A and retinoid compounds being inhibitors of telomerase.

Vitamin D3, Vitamin A and The Prevention of Tumor Cell Immortality
https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://grouppekurosawa.com/blog/2006/01/vitamin-d3-vitamin-and-prevention-of.htm

Vitamin A Cancer Adjuvant Therapy from the Life Extension Foundation
http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-027h.shtml

http://www.telomere.net/ https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/features/telomeres/

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Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#9Jul 14, 2008

In my opinion Roche stating that “the exact mechanism of action is unknown” for the past 25 years is just a ruse to distract people from learning the information that the systemic cell division reducing effect of retinoic acid is specifically what’s responsible for making their acne go away and causing a lot of the side effects. James Crandall’s statement “A wide ranging effect of retinoic acid is to inhibit proliferation in dividing cells, and this accounts for its frequent consideration as an anti-cancer agent” is good enough for me as an explanation for the mechanism of action. Being a systemic chemotherapy agent, Accutane does NOT know the difference between cancer and your body’s own rapidly dividing cells. With the knowledge that many parts of the human body (such as the skin, digestive tract, bone, lungs, mucous membranes, bladder, urinary tract, and sexual organs) rely on rapid and plentiful cell division/proliferation to sustain their proper function throughout a person’s lifetime, this information about retinoic acid having a “chemotherapy like” cell division reducing effect becomes extremely important. Because it means that if you take too much Accutane for too long of a period of time, you are essentially slowing down or stopping cell division in areas of your body where cells are supposed to remain dividing for your entire lifetime. In my opinion this is what is causing a lot of the chronic long term side effects, these people basically have the opposite problem that people with cancer have. As I’ve talked about in depth above, a potential explanation for the mechanism of action could involve human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the chief regulator of cell division in our rapidly dividing cells. It has already been shown that retinoic acid down-regulates hTERT in cancerous cells, which is sufficient evidence to call for an investigation of its effects on hTERT in the human leukocytes, enterocytes, keratinocytes and sebocytes. So to prove Accutane's mechanism of action, here's what you do. With skin biopsies, test telomerase and the telomere lengths of the basal sebocytes before and after a four month course of Accutane. Roche is going to have a cow when they read this.
silverado
Bremerton, WA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#10Jul 16, 2008

NCC.

This information about telomeres is facinating. It really does explain why accutane causes damage in every part of the body.

I have read this entire post and I think everyone else should read it also so they know what they are getting into.

Scary.
jhayar13
Pasig, Philippines

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#11Jul 21, 2008

is this a scientific study? has any medicinal body accepted these explanations? just asking....
Diva
Ottawa, Canada

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#12Jul 21, 2008

wow.
NCC
Trinidad, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#13Jul 21, 2008

My hypothesis about Accutane’s mechanism of action is very controversial, but there’s lots of evidence to back it up, everything can be found up above in the scientific studies I’ve provided. Basically I just connected the dots on a few things. I discovered how the retinoid ATRA (also known as all-trans retinoic acid or Vesanoid) works against cancer, and given the fact that Accutane converts into ATRA (which is the biologically active form), therefore whatever ATRA does to the body Accutane’s effect is very similar. Both drugs are used in chemotherapy against cancer, they are almost chemically identical and have very similar side effect profiles. The core of my hypothesis is that since ATRA and probably Accutane both cause telomere shortening of cancer cells, then it is highly likely that they will have the same effect on our bodies own rapidly dividing cells (skin, lungs, digestive system, bone, hair) which is how it works to reduce acne and also how it causes so many side effects all over the body. Today it has become obvious to all of the scientific community that Accutane induces apoptosis (programmed cell death) causing reduced cell division/proliferation, but they haven’t arrived at a consensus about how it does this. I believe that I have discovered the mechanism of action for how it reduces acne and causes a lot of the side effects. It down-regulates the telomerase enzyme and shortens the telomere length so the cells can divide as much anymore. You cannot count on Roche being truthful about anything related to Accutane’s mechanism of action. For the past 25 years they’ve stated in the Physician’s Desk Reference that the mechanism of action is unknown. This is their way of sidestepping issues regarding all of the harm Accutane causes to the human body and to distract people from learning more about how Accutane does what it does.
NCC
Trinidad, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#14Jul 21, 2008

A full copy of the Crandall study I listed above can be found at this link,

https://web.archive.org/web/20110830234000/http://www.accutaneaction.com/Studies/2004_Crandall%20et%20al.pdf
NCC
Trinidad, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#15Jul 21, 2008

There's a typo in my recent post above. It says "so the cells can divide as much anymore" but it should say "so the cells CAN'T divide as much anymore."
Belle
Charleroi, Belgium

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#16Jul 27, 2008

It is an impressive explanation, hard to follow sometimes for a non-scientific person like myself, but I do get the bottom line.

I'm (almost) happy that hair loss is my only side effect, until now at least.

NCC, you don't say much about duration of course and side effects. I did see that you said that for some persons the side effects can last very long or even be permanent, depending on how your vulnerable or not you body is to this treatment.
In your theory, how bad/permanent can side effects get after a two week treatment?

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us, and good luck with your health.
NCC
Minneapolis, MN

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#17Jul 31, 2008

I've read hundreds, maybe even over a thousand testimonials and while it is less likely to get permanent side effects from two weeks of Accutane, it is still possible. The only way to find out is to never take it again and see what happens. From what I've read, the people who are a lot more likely to get permanent side effects (especially side effects related to dryness) are the ones who take Accutane for an extended period of time (over several months or multiple courses) The side effects are identical to what would happen if you took very high doses of vitamin A for a long period of time, inducing a condition called chronic hypervitaminosis A. The threshold for dose and duration of Accutane causing permanent side effects is different depending on the individual. I took it 10 years ago at 80 mg per day for five months and stopping the treatment did little to alleviate my side effects (painful dry and irritated eyes, dry nasal passage, dryness all over my body). These side effects are still with me today, including several others that manifested in the years after finishing Accutane (to name a few would be Type 1 Diabetes diagnosed a year and a half ago, problems with digestion and circulation, urinary discomfort and pain of varying degrees aka interstitial cystitis, dryness and hypersensitivity of my genitalia to the point where I can’t wear boxers anymore and sexual experiences with the ladies have become very rare) Some of my side effects wax and wane, but they never completely go away. I don’t have the time to go into detail about everything right now, but I will in the future.
Belle
Gerpinnes, Belgium

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#18Jul 31, 2008

thx for your answer, I definitely won't EVER take it again!!

I'm really sorry to hear all the worries you have, I hope that you have the necessary support of people around you

hugs from Belgium
Josh
Chico, CA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#19Aug 12, 2008

Judged:Brilliant1Clueless1Agree1
The question when taking any drug is: Does the benefits outweigh the side effects? So why would it be any different with accutane? If you put up with acne like this: http://www.medscape.com/content/1997/00/40/88... a large portion of you life, you tried everything and nothing worked, would it be worth it to take accutane and be relieved of this nightmare for the side effects?... I think it would be...

Living life with sh!t all over you face isnt living. I have an aunt that took accutane back in 87. She has no problems. She is 42 and she sometimes gets mistaken for my wife (im 28) when we go out to places. She doesnt look prematurely aged at all.
Josh
Chico, CA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#20Aug 12, 2008

Judged:Brilliant3Clueless2Funny1
So your telling me in the 25 years accutane has been around hundreds of labs with millions of dollars in equipment, the FDA and thousands of educated doctors who have prescribed the drug don't know the mechanism of what stops the sebum production in the skin, but you, through your internet research nonetheless, has uncovered the secret? Ok.

Belle
Sautin, Belgium

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#21Aug 12, 2008

Josh,
the point is - I think - that they know very well how it works, but if they would reveal it, they would have to take the drug of the market.
So in order not to loose the huge benefits, they prefer to act stupid, at the cost of the unlucky ones who do suffer from the side effects.
At least that's how I understood it.
NCC
Trinidad, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#22Aug 14, 2008

Josh wrote:
So your telling me in the 25 years accutane has been around hundreds of labs with millions of dollars in equipment, the FDA and thousands of educated doctors who have prescribed the drug don't know the mechanism of what stops the sebum production in the skin, but you, through your internet research nonetheless, has uncovered the secret? Ok.
Yup, that's what I'm sayin. I discovered how Accutane and high dose vitamin A works against cancer (it down-regulates telomerase and shortens the telomere length) so I just developed my hypothesis that it affects telomerase in our bodies own rapidly dividing cells. Several reputable scientists like James Crandall have stated that Accutane causes side effects by reducing cell-division/proliferation all over the body, hence its role against cancer in chemotherapy. Here’s the Crandall study I’m referring to,

https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.accutaneaction.com/Studies/2004_Crandall%20et%20al.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=387382

"Retinoic acid (active form of Accutane/Roaccutane) induces differentiation and reduces proliferation of stem and progenitor cells. It works on acne by inducing similar events in basal sebocytes. These same actions also lead to 13-cis-retinoic's side effects, and these are directed towards proliferating cells in the adult such as in the skin, gut and bone."

"A wide ranging effect of retinoic acid is to inhibit proliferation in dividing cells, and this accounts for its frequent consideration as an anti-cancer agent."

Well, they need to be asking the question of how it's causing the cell death (apoptosis) all over the body, and Roche needs to come clean instead of playing stupid in the Physician’s Desk Reference by saying the “exact mechanism of action is unknown” for the past 25 years. During an Accutane documentary that was broadcast in Switzerland last year, United States attorney Mike Papantonio was quoted saying,

"The interesting thing about this drug it's that it was never intended for something like clearing up pimples. This was a drug that was intended for chemotherapy. Roche could not make enough money with it just with chemotherapy, so they said: Let's expand it. Let's sell it to more people. And they ended up selling it to people with acne."

www.accutaneaction.com

https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.accutaneaction.com/Press/index.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.accutaneaction.com/swiss_tv/061114swisstv.html

The Ro/Accutane Action Group Forum
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/davec//index.cgi

NCC
Trinidad, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#23Aug 14, 2008

I agree that in a very small number of cases of severe cystic acne, Accutane might be justified. But this is not the case because the vast majority (over 80 %) of Accutane prescriptions are going to people with mild to moderate teenage type acne. All you have to do is compare the total number of Accutane prescriptions to the small percentage of people with severe cystic acne and it becomes obvious.

For everyone that has taken Accutane in the past or is considering it in the future, you all owe it to yourselves to learn more about Accutane’s history/pharmacology/politics and its possible long term health complications. The good news is that I’ve done a huge amount of research and made it real easy for all of you. I’ve created a well-referenced comprehensive report on Accutane’s history and pharmacology that has been circulating the internet, and I’ve posted some of it in various places here on this forum. Here are the following threads where my posts can be found.

Accutane Side Effects Exposed: Side Effects of the Miracle Drug
Page 78 and 79 in the following link
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/TK0HVONNQAV28V6AS

Accutane please Help (scared)
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/TFHUI67VP5TMQCS7A

Attention scrorpio70 and all others on Accutane
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/TCO9UIESQULQ8MBBK

Roche branded worst corporate criminal of the 1990's
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/TUOOI1DDF8LBQUOU1

Accutane and vitamin A toxicity
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/TOLRT2OVHPC7TK188

Man’s best friend?
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/T0BEK1GQA2O4QQE04

The sexual side effects of Accutane by Dr. Kevin Pezzi
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/TEC80HU3ALCDO04BL

Accutane injuries, extrapolation results
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/accutane/TVDQGNJO2E7BF4HLU
Belle
Gerpinnes, Belgium

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#24Aug 18, 2008

Hi NCC,

in all your research, did you also happen to find a REMEDY for the hair loss problem ?
NCC
Trinidad, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#25Aug 20, 2008

If I remember correctly, you only took it for a short duration (two weeks), therefore it is probably more likely that you’ll recover, only time will tell. Just don’t ever take it again, and avoid eating really high doses of vitamin A in your diet or supplements. I haven’t personally suffered from any huge hair loss, just hair thinning and dryness. If you want to read a discussion about Accutane induced hair loss and possible treatments, I’d suggest reading through the RoAccutane Action Group Forum Website, there’s a recent thread about potential treatments for Accutane hair loss.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/davec//index.cgi

Hair loss Thread
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/davec//index.cgi?board=treatr&action=display&num=1204653497

Paul
Boca Raton, FL

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#26Aug 20, 2008

That's good to hear about your aunt, Josh.

I took 80mg/day for 6 months and from time to time I worry about looking really old in a few years.

If your aunt looks like she's under 30 at 42, then there's hope for the rest of us accutane users.:)

I'm truly sorry to hear about your experience NCC. I wish you luck.

__
Paul Michaels
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
www.AcneTreatmentJournal.com
Jennifer
Bellevue, WA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#27Oct 25, 2008

Thank you NCC for sharing this information. I don't know why the poster "Josh" finds this so hard to believe when we, as a nation, just woke up from decades of tobacco company deception. There are greedy, selfish people in the world. Corruption is wide-spread. We need to not be so gullible in trusting the so-called "authorities."

As per my experience with accutane - I took 20 mg for 3 months several years ago.(It was when I was about 24 and had been perfectly healthy all of my life. I am 30 now, and in a permanent state of tenuous health.) About a year after taking Accutane I started having terrible bone alignment/joint problems - my back, neck, shoulders, wrists, and ankles crack constantly now with the slightest movements all the time, and I have spent several years in constant pain with alignment issues. My chiropractors have been continually amazed at how unstable and weak my joints are. I have also needed two root canals and even my apparently healthy teeth give me random shooting pain (I didn't have perfect teeth before accutane, but they are terrible now). I also have had weird blood vessel and immune issues. Fortunately, and strangely, these problems have been somewhat alleviated by taking magnesium supplementation for a year now (I'm not deficient in Mg and first started taking it for migraines, but it seems to have helped the joints & teeth). I wonder if magnesium has any impact on telomerase action?

The other really odd side effects have been: my hair turning 90% grey and growing really, really fast - a half a centimeter every week or two; big age spots on my face when I turned 28; and of course, very dry skin and constantly peeling lips, which are helped a little by fish oil supplementation.

I die my hair every two weeks now; have bleached my skin to get rid of the age spots; and use super-duty moisturizers every few hours to help with the dryness. I look twenty+ years older than I am if I don't keep these things up.

I commend you on being a truthspeaker. Please keep it up. Maybe they'll come up with a cure for us someday.
NCC
Broomfield, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#28Nov 2, 2008

Jenn, I would strongly suggest you check out this forum to learn more, it was set up by people who are experiencing long-term side effects.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110831172604/http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/davec//index.cgi
NCC
Broomfield, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#29Nov 2, 2008

This find of mine is extremely significant and action needs to be taken to clarify exactly Accutane's mechanism of action, any agent that reduces cell division in the body has a pro-aging effect on the body. More people need to hear the message and wake up. Oh and don't listen to Josh, he's a naive dumbass, getting his Accutane off the internet.....
NCC
Broomfield, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#30Nov 2, 2008

It always amazes me that there is a huge number of people out there experiencing severe permanent side effects, and the drug is still on the market.
acnehurts
Calgary, Canada

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#31Nov 3, 2008

ile take a shorter life with no acne then a longer life with it..
NCC
Broomfield, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#32Nov 3, 2008

Your acne will go away with time, it's called getting older. Wait it out, don't accelerate the process by taking Accutane. Use your head for a minute and ponder this over. Do you think it is better to have extra oily supple skin or chronic life-long dry rough skin which is a potential outcome of Accutane. Take a look around, how many people do you see in their 50’s to 70’s who have oily skin or acne? Having oily supple skin is a sign of youth because as the body ages, the skin inevitably dries out. Dr. Susan Lark, a respected and renowned anti-aging doctor states,“remember when you were younger and your skin just glowed naturally? Well the reason for that glow was the natural oil in your skin. Scientists call it sebum. And it helps prevent “trans-epidermal water loss”– which is a fancy term for losing all the moisture in your skin.” Just something to think about.

Accutane can permanently reduce the size and amount of oil produced, which has happened to me and many others. But in light of the information above, do you really want to take Accutane and permanently slam shut every sebaceous gland all over your body and maybe even the sebaceous meibomian glands inside the eyelids that perform the crucial function of secreting oil into your tear film.
xquis3t
Adelaide, Australia

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#33Nov 6, 2008

Yes, I agree somewhat. However 13-Cis-Retinoic-Acid does not itself signal RARs or RXRs (Retinoid Receptors), it is sebocyte specific apparently, as the sebocytes isomerize 13-Cis-Retinoic-Acid into All-Trans-Retinoic-Acid. 13-Cis-Retinoic-Acid itself does not signal nuclear retinoid receptors (RXR's and RARs). I have not heard any reports that taking All-Trans-Retinoic-Acid (orally) works for Acne like 13-Cis-Retinoic-Acid works for acne.

As you said, NCC: only 30% of 13-Cis-Retinoic-Acid metabolizes into All-Trans-Retinoic-Acid. see the sebocyte specific nature of 13-Cis-Retinoic-Acid: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10951254... $=relatedarticles&logdbfro m=pubmed

All-Trans-Retinoic-Acid taken orally, I have never heard this works for acne.
NCC
Broomfield, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#34Nov 6, 2008

Two of ATRA's side effects are dry eyes and dry skin, so it would work with acne, but Roche hasn't studied it against acne because they've been too busy making a killing (pardon the pun)selling Accutane. Read about the side effect profile of ATRA in the links I've put below, it is very similar to Accutane (they both cause retinoid toxicity).

http://www.chemocare.com/bio/tretinoin.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATRA

xquis3t
Adelaide, Australia

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#35Nov 6, 2008

I am not sure, I have seen a scientific study that showed that all-trans-retinoic-acid (ATRA) did not suppress sebum secretion, and only 9-cis-retinoic-acid and 13-cis-retinoic-acid apparently did this.
xquis3t
Adelaide, Australia

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#36Nov 7, 2008

Sorry, I will go on, but apparently Vitamin A causes also dry skin, yet does not work for Acne, it may be the same for ATRA. I have yet to hear that oral ATRA works for acne. I am not sure that taking oral ATRA will work for acne, even though it may give dry skin, if taking toxic doses of Vitamin A gives dry skin, but maybe it does not necessarily work for Acne.

Did someone else patent oral ATRA aside from 'Roche'? Is that what you are saying
xquis3t
Adelaide, Australia

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#37Nov 7, 2008

here: http://cat.inist.fr/... , it says that oral ATRA would probably be ineffective against acne.

ps. sorry about the multiple posts, there is no edit function that I know of.
xquis3t
Adelaide, Australia

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#38Nov 7, 2008

and sorry again, but not even 9-cis-retinoic-acid was suggested to be effective against acne in that link that I just posted.
Josh
Sacramento, CA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#39Nov 7, 2008

Ohh crapsticks, NCC is back...
Mike
Calgary, Canada

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#40Dec 14, 2008

After spending several hours cruising pubmed articles (both your references and others), I've decided my acne isn't a large enough problem to mess with a player as big as telomerase. Definitely not bad enough to bust out a chemo treatment. I'll save that for something slightly more important, maybe cancer?

Even if Accutane works, toying with anything that controls cell growth and replication (across the board! Not just in 1 or 2 cell types!) is too large a risk for me.

You just educated (rather, directed to research) someone out there who was pretty close to signing up for treatment. Thanks.

Mike
Calgary, Canada

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#41Dec 14, 2008

Josh wrote:
So your telling me in the 25 years accutane has been around hundreds of labs with millions of dollars in equipment, the FDA and thousands of educated doctors who have prescribed the drug don't know the mechanism of what stops the sebum production in the skin, but you, through your internet research nonetheless, has uncovered the secret? Ok.
It's mighty expensive to do the research to build a concrete case to take Accutane off the market, but I'm sure you're right. Someone would have easily spent all that money to do so and profit with nothing other then doing a good deed for the general population. Big Pharma is all doing the right thing...

Read the research and make your own decision. Don't bank on someone else making them all for you.
NCC
Littleton, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#42Dec 14, 2008

Designing studies to prove Accutane's mechanism of action would definitely exceed 1 million dollars, plus these types of studies would incriminate them because they would reveal how Accutane does its dirty work. You should learn more about the pharmaceutical industry's collusion with the FDA and Accutane's history before making blanket statements about them. Here's the rest of Attorney Mike Papantonio's quote I included in one of my previous posts in this thread.

"If you, today, were to ask Roche: Explain to me what is the mechanism, the bio mechanism of this drug. You know what? They wouldn’t be able to tell you. They don’t know. This drug has been on the market since 1982 and they have not spent one dime, not one single dime, trying to figure out how it works, how it goes about causing these side effects. You have 152, about 152 side effects. People would never make the choice to use this drug. Never. Once they understand how dangerous it is, there’s no logic, there’s no reasoning person that would say: I’m going to take Accutane to clear up pimples."
NCC
Littleton, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#43Dec 14, 2008

Clarification up above, I meant to say "these tpes of studies would incriminate Roche"
Ann
New York, NY

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#44Dec 15, 2008

Judged:Brilliant1Clueless1
NCC back again...:(
Josh
Oroville, CA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#45Dec 15, 2008

Judged:Clueless1
Yeah Ann, hes like a bad smell in a car, never goes away. hey ann, how is your skin doing by the way? havent talked to you in a while
Josh
Oroville, CA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#46Dec 15, 2008

Judged:Clueless2Offtopic1Mean1
Yeah, NCC is like a bad spell in a car, it never goes away.

Hey Ann, how is your skin doing by the way? i havent talked to you in a while. i hope everything is going good with it.
Ann
New York, NY

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#47Dec 16, 2008

Judged:Clueless2
Hey Josh, my skin is fine but I get small acne every now and then, but nothing major.

Accutane helps me so much:)! I enjoy my life everyday with my clear skin!

How is yours?
Hope you are doing great!
Jenny
United States

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#48Dec 16, 2008

Has anyone used Chemone's Iso. for a full coarse treatment???
Josh
Oroville, CA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#49Dec 18, 2008

Judged:Clueless2
Im doing good ann. I dont take it that much anymore, just 60 MG a week, and it comes and goes, but nothing very serious at all. Very tolerable. Accutane rocks.

Im glad your doing good :)
Ann
New York, NY

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#50Dec 18, 2008

Judged:Clueless1
Yea, love Accutane!
NCC
Littleton, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#51Dec 21, 2008

Josh wrote:
Yeah Ann, hes like a bad smell in a car, never goes away. hey ann, how is your skin doing by the way? havent talked to you in a while
The more Accutane you take, the more it increases your cellular turnover rate, driving the rapidly multiplying cells in your body toward their Hayflick Limit. Just remember who you heard it from first.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1226943
Richard
Seattle, WA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#52Feb 14, 2009

Is there something one can take, like telemerase, that would help to reverse the condition?
Richard
Seattle, WA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#53Feb 20, 2009

NCC wrote:
<quoted text>
The more Accutane you take, the more it increases your cellular turnover rate, driving the rapidly multiplying cells in your body toward their Hayflick Limit. Just remember who you heard it from first.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1226943
NCC, there must be something to reverse these side effects, been 10 years and counting...
Suzanne
Annapolis, MD

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#54Feb 23, 2009

Do you know of anyone suffering permanent spine effects from accutane, chronic pain or associated symptoms from taken accutane at a itme of spinal growth.
Melissa
Scottsdale, AZ

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#55Feb 24, 2009

NCC: I would like to commend you on your hypothesis and also ask about your science background. As a scientist myself (microbiologist), I was given the option of taking Accutane for moderately severe acne. I had refused to do so for years but was seriously considering it. After reading even Roche's description of the mechanism (blocking transcription) I was very concerned. Moreso, I was concerned even about lack of oil and its resulting increased aging effects. I decided that the potential for life-long side effects is not worth clear skin. My question however is, since telomerase is expressed primarily only in stem cells in humans, why have there not been more reports of premature death due to Accutane use? Do Accutane users have lower rates of cancer later in life? Do people who have used Accutane die at younger ages? It seems like this would be a corresponding effect (although maybe not from cancer, since the drug causes apoptosis). Please get your information out to the scientific community!!!
NCC
Grand Junction, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#56Mar 1, 2009

Judged:Brilliant1
To the above responses, yes more research must be conducted to get to the bottom of Accutane's mechanism of action. This will provide insight into why the side effects can persist for so long after people stop taking it. Reputable scientists have already said that Accutane reduces stem cell proliferation all over the body, which is likely the reason for how it causes many kinds of long term latent side effects. As for Melissa's questions above, there's no way of knowing any of that for sure right now, but the FDA has said many times that Accutane side effects are hugely under-reported, so I wouldn't be surprised if all your questions turned out to be true. Melissa, I would like to get in touch with you via email and get some of your microbiology smarty pants feedback on my research work.
Melissa
Scottsdale, AZ

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#57Mar 2, 2009

NCC - feel free to contact me via email at [email protected]

When doctors again recommended Accutane to me a few months ago I began almost compulsively researching the drug. If I'm not mistaken, Accutane has been on the market since the mid-80s which may not even be enough time to fully know all the long-term effects. Not to mention, with any drug it is impossible to know all potential side effects without knowing the mechanism of action (for which I believe you have a very plausible hypothesis). Please email me; I would love to discuss this with you.
peteyboy
Lidcombe, Australia

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#58Mar 6, 2009

Judged:Brilliant1Disagree1
I think this is an argument that will never end, because both sides are biased.

NCC had health complications which he attributes solely to accutane. This led him to search for only the worst reports on accutane and overlook those that suggests otherwise. He therefore has a skewed view on the issue. The most unreliable sources are usually personal or 'expert' opinions from people, even though they might be scientists as long as they don't have evidence to back things up. Like for NCC, did a scientist actually extract his cells and checked that his telomere length was shorter than people his age? Probably not. Until that happens, that statement is just theory, or worse, conjecture. Well-designed controlled trials base conclusions on unbiased evidence, and should be the ones we rely on.

Those that dismiss the idea of accutane being harmful are those are currently on the drug. Everyone on it will wish that it is both effective and harmless. Suggesting otherwise will be useless because they don't WANT it to be true. WHo likes to hear that it's a heart attack waiting to happen when they are eating delicious cheesecake for their birthday? Citing isolated cases where side effects did not occur also count for very little, because it is not representative of the whole statistics. Even in heavy smokers, there will be a small number who live healthily to a ripe old age.

The point is, the whole truth is still undiscovered. What we know now is that accutane is a strong drug with possibly severe side effects, but there is a high chance it will work. If people are willing to suffer the possible risks for clear skin, it is their choice.
Octavia
Salt Lake City, UT

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#59Mar 8, 2009

NCC, thank you for this illuminating and very frightening information. Six months ago, I took a very low dose of accutane: 2 months at 10 mg e/o day and it cleared my pores completely. I suffer from comedonal acne and it was the only thing that worked. I wasn't able to continue my prescription as I had a hard time getting it, but recently was able to start up again. I've almost complete one month of 10 mg per day.
I am stopping NOW. I have taken, in total, about 520 mg of accutane over a 7 or 8 month period. That's about the amount that someone taking an 80mg/day dose would take in one week.
I have a couple of questions:
1.) the fact that it succeeded in clearing my pores - does that mean that "telomere-shortening " did in fact occur?
2.) In your opinion, do you think I am at risk for major consequences down the road?
3.) Is there anything we can do to repair the damage?
Thanks!
- O
Octavia
Salt Lake City, UT

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#60Mar 8, 2009

One more thing, NCC, do you think regular stem cell injections could help offset the telomerase shortening? I'm referring to having your own adult stem cells isolated from, say, your abdomenal fat, and regularly injected into your blood stream.

Although this is most likely cost-prohibitive for many right now, I'm really curious if you think this could be of benefit for countering accutane damage.

Thanks!

Melissa
Scottsdale, AZ

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#61Mar 8, 2009

Peteyboy:

As with any drug, it is nearly impossible to say without a doubt that any specific side effect is a direct effect of a drug. There is no way to know if the long-term side effects previous Accutane users experience are due to the drug itself or are just coincidental. I suspect that some can be attributed to Accutane and some cannot. Until a mechanism of action is TESTED, there is no way to know. Drug companies are under no obligation to discover a mechanism of action for their drugs. I think this is the point you are missing. NCC is not saying that he KNOWS that Accutane shortens telomeres. He is hypothesizing, and I believe, advocating that real, unbiased research (in a lab) needs to be conducted to investigate his theory. I believe that his whole purpose is to show the necessity to conclusively elucidate Accutane's mechanism of action, IN ORDER to understand how its side effects work and possibly provide relief to sufferers. You said that there is a "high chance" of Accutane working. I don't think there is any controversy over its effectiveness; it is very clear that Accutane works. Yes, it is someone's choice, but do you think that everyone is really aware of the risks associated with the drug?
NCC
Colorado Springs, CO

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#62Mar 11, 2009

Octavia, I think you’re fine, you took a low dosage (10 mg) so there’s no need for you to freak out. Are you still experiencing any side effects after you stopped taking it (severe dry skin, dry eyes, etc)? If you’re still experiencing side effects say 5-10 years from now, then I would start to get concerned. Right now, just lead a healthy lifestyle, adopt a healthy diet, and wait for more information to be uncovered about Accutane’s long term effects on the body. I’m currently on the case. If you’d like to know more about my research give me your email and I’ll send you my report I’ve created.

Melissa, great explanation above. You’ve summarized my intentions perfectly.
Spider
Falls Church, VA

Reply »|Report Abuse|Judge it!|#63Mar 25, 2009

NCC I wish we could meet in person. You have done far more extensive research than me. I too was going to school for business and reluctantly my hobby now is surfing medical journals. Whenever I think I have new groundbreaking information, I find out that scientists already know this and have document these adverse reactions with the hippocampus, adrenal cortex (cortisol), etc.

And to think 2 million a year and still counting. I am so fortunate I only took it for a month. I thought my transient ischemic attack, eyes going blind, and tinnitus (ringing) in my ears for over a year now was bad...Come to find out...Alot have it worse!

Shoot me an email. We can exchange war stories...isotretinoin war stories...

[email protected]
Spider
Falls Church, VA