acne
 

Hi all ...

Another question: Does anyone else have acne brought on, I believe, from Carbidopa/Levadopa?

As a teenager I had severe acne which finally went away with two bouts of Accutane. It's a powerful, powerful drug, but left me acne free for the first time in years. Now it's back (not horribly so, but enough to mention it) and the only thing that's changed is that I started Carbidopa/Levadopa.

Has anyone else experienced this?

No acne brought on by c/l here....

Eric

Acne versus Boils
 

Proudest mama, it's possible that what you're seeing are fungal boils rather than acne. The late, great Rick Everett declared that levodopa elevates the blood sugar. I found his testimony extremely credible and based on sound evidence. Elevated blood sugar helps fungal infection to thrive (fungus loves sugar). A fungal skin infection will appear fluorescent yellow-green under an ultraviolet (Wood's) light.

You could try taking cinnamon (1/4 teaspoon twice daily as tea or stirred into coffee for example) and/or chromium picolinate (glucose tolerance factor, 200 mcg once or twice daily with food) to help keep your blood sugar at a normal level and see if the "acne" clears. Be careful with cinnamon, as it can even cause hypoglycemia if too much is taken. Sun exposure will usually help clear skin infection, no matter what its cause. If you have iodine tincture or Betadine on hand, you could dab a bit of that on the "acne" once or twice daily. Iodine is antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antiparasitic.

My dear husband, who like you is on levodopa, occasionally has tiny break-outs of boils, and I heal them quickly by applying manuka honey cream to them several times daily. Last year, when I had access to a herbalist, I obtained a combined tincture of calendula (marigold) and hypericum (St. John's Wort), and found that this topical treatment was incredibly healing as well. I also made a paste of Epsom salts and a tiny bit of water and applied small amounts of that to the boils; they drained immediately. Epsom salt paste is an excellent anti-inflammatory but is rather drying; that's the downside.

Good luck with that! I hope you'll let us know whether your problem resolved and how.

many thanks
 

Thanks, thanks, thanks for the insight. I hadn't thought about it possibly being something other than acne. I'll try some of your suggestions and see if it works. Thanks, again!