Best Answer:  Acne with Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5)
Having Severe Acne Really is No Fun
Cassandra James, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Oct 31, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
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Post a commentFrom the age of 14 onwards, I was plagued with terrible acne. By the time I was 35, after 20 years of suffering, I still had severe breakouts on my face, arms, back and chest. I had spent thousands of dollars on visits to the dermatologist, numerous acne creams - both over the counter and prescription - and antibiotics and other medications. All to no avail. My skin was still awful, it was embarrassing to wear short sleeved shirts or clothes that showed my neck and chest, and forget about swimming. In a million years, I would never have gone out in public in a swim suit as my skin was so ugly.
Then one day, about 7 years ago, I was browsing around the internet and decided to do a search for 'Acne Treatments'. I read the usual stuff about antibiotics, Accutane, herbal remedies and various over the counter ointments and creams. "Been there, done that, tried that, doesn't work", I thought. I clicked to the next page and my eyes fell upon an article on a study that had been done in Singapore with a group of people of Chinese descent who had acne.

The participants were aged from 10 to 30 years old. The study talked about how Dr. Lit-Hung Leung (the doctor responsible for the study) had given the participants 10 grams of Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5) every day in 4 divided doses. They were also given a cream to use which contained 20% Pantothenic Acid. Within a few weeks, almost every participant in the study had reduced their acne significantly or cured it altogether. They also noticed an enormous difference in oil production (sebum) on their skin and markedly smaller pores.

After reading the article, I looked on line and discovered that Pantothenic Acid is a water-soluble vitamin. What this means is that you can take just about as much as you want without any overdose problems as, whatever your body doesn't need, is simply eliminated in your urine. Obviously, from everything I read online, there was no danger in trying the large doses of the vitamin. So, I tried it.

I went to the drugstore and bought a huge bottle of Pantothenic Acid and took my first dose. I started off by taking 10 grams (twenty 500mg pills) every day. Within 3 days of beginning the treatment, I began to notice my pores were smaller. The amount of oil my skin was producing was also less. As you could normally run a small car off the amount of oil my skin produced daily, this in itself was a huge development. Then, within the week, new acne stopped appearing all over my body and old acne began to heal.

One month later, I had completely clear skin. Clear skin on my face, my chest, my arms and my back. After over 20 years of severe acne, you can only imagine how this made me feel. For the first time, I could wear sleeveless blouses, low necks and swimsuits!

I have since continued to take the Pantothenic Acid. After about 6 months of staying with the 10grams a day amount, I gradually decreased it down to 4 grams (8 500mg pills) and that's what I continue to take daily as a maintenance dose to maintain my clear skin. I do notice if I forget to take the pills for a few days, my skin begins to erupt again. Going right back to taking the pills gets rid of the acne quickly though.

A quick tip - I order my Pantothenic Acid tablets from several websites as I have found it's much cheaper to buy from these sources than from a drug store, especially if you buy several bottles at one time as they often then give free shipping.

Best Answer:  No. But with vitamin b6 it will boost your immune system. Helps to avoid viral infections.