Steroid Acne: Causes, Treatment and Prevention Tips

In this article, you’ll learn and discover about steroid acne, the causes of treatment, and prevention tips.

What is steroid acne?

Steroid acne is the name given to an acne-like skin condition that occurs in people with high levels of circulating corticosteroids. They may have Cushing disease or are being treated with systemic steroid medications.

Severe acne is also a side effect of the use of anabolic steroids.

There are two forms of steroid acne:

• Acne vulgaris
• Malassezia folliculitis

Steroid acne is distinct from steroid rosacea, which is due to the long-term application of topical corticosteroids.

What are the symptoms of steroid acne?

Steroid acne most often shows up on your chest. Fortunately, there are several effective ways to eliminate chest acne.

It can also show up on the face, neck, back, and arms.

Symptoms can include:

• open and closed blackheads and whiteheads (comedones)
• small red bumps (papules)
• white or yellow spots (pustules)
• large, painful red lumps (nodules)
• cyst-like swellings (pseudocysts)

You may also have secondary effects from picking or scratching the acne.

These can include:

• red marks from recently healed spots
• dark marks from old spots
• scars

If the steroid acne is of the acne vulgaris type, the spots may be more uniform than with ordinary, non-steroid acne.

If the steroid acne is of the fungal type (malassezia folliculitis), most of the acne spots will be the same size. Comedones (whiteheads and blackheads) are not usually present.

Prevention Tips: Preventing Steroid Acne

If you want to avoid acne, you can follow the tips listed below:

Follow Instructions

Believe it or not, a lot of people refuse to follow their doctor’s instructions when taking medication. They believe that they know better than everyone else. This is undoubtedly a fallacy. If you’re taking any type of medication, you need to make sure that you’re listening to your doctor. They know better than you do. By following their instructions, you’ll be able to greatly reduce the likelihood that you’ll experience the negative side effects associated with steroids. This includes that hideous steroid acne! Never increase or decrease your dosage without speaking with your doctor in advance.

Never Mix

While you’re at it, you should know that there are grave risks associated with mixing medications. In some cases, your doctor might recommend that you combine two medications. That is really the only time that you should be doing so. Otherwise, you might get yourself into serious trouble. With that being said, you should never mix your medications. Doing so is very risky and it’ll increase the risks involved! Unless your doctor tells you to mix two medications, you shouldn’t!

Stop Using

Steroids are great, but they’re incredibly risky too. If you use steroids for a long period of time, there is a good chance that the risks are going to be increased. It is vital to understand the risks involved. Speak with your doctor and find out what the long-term effects of steroid use are going to be. Once you’ve learned about these risks, there is a good chance that you’re going to be encouraged to give up the steroids. Take steps to stop using and that steroid acne will actually disappear on its own!

Using The Right Dosage

At the end of the day, using the wrong dosage of steroids can be very dangerous. This is definitely a big no-no. If you’re using too much, you can pretty much guarantee that you’re going to develop steroid acne. The specific dosage that you should be taken depends on numerous factors, including your specific condition and weight. If you’re going to buy steroids, you need to make sure that you’re going to be using these medications correctly. Speak with your doctor and figure out what the most appropriate dose will be for you! This is the best way to ensure that you’re going to be using the medications safely and that the risks involved will be decreased to the minimum.

Treatment

Ted Gulezian a writer from Livestrong and he has recommended 5 great ways to treat steroid acne

Cleanliness

Keep your body clean by washing your skin at least one to two times a day with a cleanser such as soap. Washing the skin a couple of times a day will help remove any oils on the skin before they clog your pores.

Organic Makeup

Use skincare and cosmetic products on your skin that contain no extra oils. Look for products that are water-based and non-comedogenic. Daily application of such skin care products should help heal any blemishes and prevent future acne breakouts.

Retinoids

Talk to your doctor about using retinoids to heal your acne. They are usually applied to the acne area at night before going to bed. Retinoids come from Vitamin A and will help unclog your pores and prevent inflammation from acne.

Cut Down On the Sugar Intake

Eat a low glycemic diet that contains a low amount of sugars to help keep your blood sugar levels low. This will help stop new acne from occurring. Also, consider taking a zinc supplement of 30 mg twice a day to help reduce the effects of acne.

Oral Antibiotics

Speak with your doctor or dermatologist about taking oral antibiotics for moderate to severe cases of acne. The antibiotics will help your body to kill the bacteria under your skin and reduce the inflammation of acne.