Accutane and diabetes

[James]

I see their are more out there like me. I took accutane when i was 17 or so and the drew blood evey month. After about 6 months the lab called me and told me to stop taking the meds since i was showing signs of liver damage. Im 26 now and have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes but might be put into type 1 catagory. No one in my family both sides has diabetes. Im sure it was this drug.

[e-mail]

[screwball]

James, for scientific purposes, are you overweight and consume large quantities of sugar by any chance?

[Ricky]

I had just turned 15 when i started taking accutane. On my sixteenth birthday i was diagnoosed with diabetes. No one in my family has had diabetes as far back as my great great grandparents including all of my aunts and uncles related by blood. I was and still am in peak physical condition and an avid athlete and neither ate junk food or candy. There is no doubt in my mind that this drug cuased me to have diabetes

[Joey]

Ricky are you gonna die of diabetes or u can cure it?

[Ricky]

Joey wrote:

Ricky are you gonna die of diabetes or u can cure it?

What?

[Patrick]

I took Accutane at the age of 12. I am 24 and was diagnosed 3 weeks ago with Type 1 and a half diabetes. Before you react, do your homework. The pancreas still produces some insulin. I have no doubt that Accutane is the culprit. Check out the manufacturers (Roche) own Medication Guide. "Accutane may cause blood sugar problems including diabetes". It can also cause panreatitis which attacks the pancreas where the insulin comes from. Problem is that nobody has connected all the dots. I have been active,never obese,eat healthy and work out on a regular basis.

[Ron]

Patrick and others posting. I too took accutane back in the early eighties. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes within 12 months of taking the drug. I have no family history as well and was in very good physical condition. I think it is important that we continue to ask questions cause all my doctors said that there was no connection at that time. I am certain that it caused my diabetes. The fact that the makers of accutane now as of 8/2005 have to put a warning on their product info that accutane may cause diabetes tells me that we all need to keep pushing the issue!They managed to hide the connection for 20 years.

Patrick wrote:

I took Accutane at the age of 12. I am 24 and was diagnosed 3 weeks ago with Type 1 and a half diabetes. Before you react, do your homework. The pancreas still produces some insulin. I have no doubt that Accutane is the culprit. Check out the manufacturers (Roche) own Medication Guide. "Accutane may cause blood sugar problems including diabetes". It can also cause panreatitis which attacks the pancreas where the insulin comes from. Problem is that nobody has connected all the dots. I have been active,never obese,eat healthy and work out on a regular basis.

[Ron]

by the way, I think it is worth noting that the onset of juvenile(type 1) diabetes generally takes place prior to the age of 20. I was 26 at the time I was diagnosed.

[Glyco Patrick]

I signed up to help tane users wake up to the spell that pharmacea (mixer of poisons) will cast upon your whole being. Many on this forum will complain of all the chronic pain and symptoms they experience and then the other side of the mouth say how beautiful their skin is. And then condemn me as paranoid. Hey wake up or in 20 more years you will find even more problems with this ignorance and diabetes, back pain, dry lips, bloody noses will seem like a picnic. ALL DRUGS HAVE SIDE EFFECTS. But then maybe sitting at a dialysis machine with your silky smooth face is what you're after. We reap what we sow. Anybody suggesting the amount of clean water our bodies require each day? This would clear up most conditions. Half your body wgt in oz. Coffee, tea, pop doesn't count in fact each 6 oz of caffeine you consume requires 12 oz of water to replenish what you lose.
Revelations:::: And by her(Babylon the bitch) sorceries (greek word pharmecea) were the nations decieved. Not much of that going on right??? If I were to cut burn or poison someone, I go to jail. If I get a md license (lie-sins) I'm protected. Hope this post gets you angry and start to question the so-called experts. False prophets (profits) come to kill , steal and destroy!!!! Done preaching. If my friend ever gets the stones to come on the board and share his nightmare, maybe that will shake some complacency.
glycostory.com/patmos

[Jon]

I was taking Accutane for 3-4 months at the age of 15. I don't have any history of any one in my family with Type 1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes while taking accutane at my physical when i turned 16. Before my taking of Accutane, I was in perfect physical shape. There is not a doubt in my mind that diabetes was caused by the accutane. Does any one have an information of any research between Accutane and diabetes????

[sasson]

I just googled "accutane and diabetes," and went to the first 2 websites that came up.

This a quote taken from that website:

"Patients with increased tendency to develop hypertriglyceridemia include those with diabetes mellitus, obesity, increased alcohol intake and familial history."

And from 2nd website:

"Some patients receiving Accutane have experienced problems in the control of their blood sugar. In addition, new cases of diabetes have been diagnosed during Accutane therapy, although no causal relationship has been established."

[Katie]

Well, no one in my family has diabetes and I have never taken Acutane, but I'm a type I diabetic. Type I diabetes isn't genetic, type II is. Also, you can be in perfect physical shape and be a type I diabetic. It has nothing to do with body weight, age, or diet. It's an autoimmune disease where your body recognizes the insulin producing cells in your pancreas a foreign body and kills them. Type I and type II diabetes are two totally different diseases with similar symptoms.

I'm not saying there is no connection with accutane and diabetes, but being diagnosed in your teens and 20s is very average for a type I diabetic.

On a different note, I want to go on accutane and I know that it can effect your kidneys and eyes. Should I risk it being a diabetic? Would doctors even consider putting me on it? I certainly don't want to increase my chances of kindey damage or eye problems more than they already are...but I'm so sick of my skin I don't know what else to do.

[Kristina]

Katie wrote:

Well, no one in my family has diabetes and I have never taken Acutane, but I'm a type I diabetic. Type I diabetes isn't genetic, type II is. Also, you can be in perfect physical shape and be a type I diabetic. It has nothing to do with body weight, age, or diet. It's an autoimmune disease where your body recognizes the insulin producing cells in your pancreas a foreign body and kills them. Type I and type II diabetes are two totally different diseases with similar symptoms.
I'm not saying there is no connection with accutane and diabetes, but being diagnosed in your teens and 20s is very average for a type I diabetic.
On a different note, I want to go on accutane and I know that it can effect your kidneys and eyes. Should I risk it being a diabetic? Would doctors even consider putting me on it? I certainly don't want to increase my chances of kindey damage or eye problems more than they already are...but I'm so sick of my skin I don't know what else to do.

I am in the same boat. I have been type one for 25 years and have been suffering from bad adult cystic acne. I would love to go on accutane to clear it once and for all but am getting soooo many conflicting reports. Did you get anymore info?

[Shauna]

I took Accutane in 1996. No family history of Diabetes (types 1 or 2), but I developed gest. diabetes and within one year of delivery diagnosed with Type I (insulin deficiency, not resistance). Think I might be MODY, but haven't done tests to confirm/rule out. While I can't prove the Accutane/diabetes connection, this may explain why an otherwise healthy, fit woman in her 30's developed diabetes with no other known risk factors.

If you're considering Accutane, think LONG-TERM...you can't undue the damage, and if the drug maker is stating the risks (like diabetes), BELIEVE THEM.

[Ryan]

i got appendicitis a month after my accutane treatment and got type 1 diabetes 3 month later.

[Big-D]

I took accuetane in my late twenties and came down with Type-1 Diabetes at age 48. No one on my mothers or fathers side has ever had any type of diabetes. I was well over the age for Type-1 and I was in very good shape. I have also developed Eczema. Something else no one in my family tree has ever had.

[Shawna]

I was on accutane not once, but twice within a 3 year period and after about a year of completing accutane I got pregnant. I now have a 5 year old child that was diagnosed at the age of 3 yrs. with type 1 diabetes. I was just curios if they had any ties to one another? Maybe someday we will find out for sure. But for now it is not worth the life long struggle of four shots a day and testing just as much to have clear skin. If I could go back I would change that. And then maybe my son would not have been diagnosed with this tough disease.

[Mark]

I took Accutane when I was approximately 18 years old about fifteen years ago, and now I have suffered from much worse symptoms including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), leaky gut syndrome, seborrhea dermititis, and folliculitis.

I have been searching for a long time for possible treatments, and I have sworn off going to an AMA allopathic practitioner of conventional medicine ever again.

One solution I have found so far include taking probiotic supplements containing acidophilus and bifidus for several months to replenish the intestinal flora. Another recommended idea is to take grapefruit seed extract to kill other intestinal microbes including candida albicans and yeast more directly. To repair the intestinal lining and mucosa, take the aminco acide L-Glutamine from the health food store. To restore the beta cells in the pancreas, take both gymnema sylvestre and bitter melon from India. It has been stated that gymnema sylvestre could actually double the number of beta producing cells in the pancreas in several months and has even permitted patients to gradually taper off taking insulin supplementation over time. For those suffering from insulin resistance or syndrome x, it also has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity.

I have already ordered some gymnema sylvestre myself and plan to start taking it according to Ayurvedic medical practice. Do an Internet search yourself for these supplements and swear off ever going to the AMA again for medical issues.

By the way, it is too late for me to join any class action lawsuits against the Accutane manufacturer, as I am certain is the case for most of you. We all have no choices but to live with our new medical issues created by taking the medication.

If you would like to write me an email, send me a letter at [e-mail].

[Tammy]

I was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. We suspect I have been living with it at some level now for quite a number of years. Diabetes does not run in my family. At 42, very healthy and active, I have been trying to figure out what could have caused this. In the mid 80's I took Accutane and the lasting side effect has been hair loss. Since my diagnosis a month ago and starting on insulin, by hair is already starting to show signs of new growth and my eye lashes are getting thicker and longer than they have been since my teenage years. I am convinced Accutane is what has eventually caused my diabetes. For those considering Accutane, it is not worth the risk. We don't know what other damage this drug may have done to our bodies.

[John]

My daughter took accutane and about a year later was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. False cause? Perhaps. No family history.

As parents we said "no" dozens of times but finally relented because of her screaming and hysteria. I guess to a teen, nothing matters but clear skin, being popular, and all that, future costs be damned. Too bad!

Stuff should be pulled off the market until evidence is presented that it is not a cause of this disease.

Philosophy of drug companies--identify and describe every imaginable side effect, but after drug approval, let the profits roll, and act like a turtle in further examining its safety.