What is Pantothenic Acid?

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Pantothenic Acid, also known as the B vitamin B5, is found in a variety of foods, such as peanuts, whole grains, cashews, eggs. It is especially abundant in vegetables, such as broccoli and avocados and even fruits like bananas.

Pantothenic Acid plays many roles in the human body, ranging from joint health, wound healing, and the body’s ability to tap into stored fat deposits in the absence of food.

Pantothenic Acid, is a supplement that has been recognized (but not fully understood) for a long time. However, information about it’s skin care applications started making it’s rounds in acne fighting forums around the Summer of 2000.

The most effective brand of Pantothenic Acid can be purchased from Amazon. Just read the reviews, and you will see that not all brands of Pantothenic Acid are the same.

It all started about 5 years prior, in 1995, when Dr. Lit-Hung Leung performed a study that showed a correlation between high doses of vitamin B5 and a reduction in acne and a shrinking of the pores. It took almost 5 years for this study to reach those outside of the scientific community. Still today, not everyone is aware of this study or it’s stunning, potentially life-altering, results.

Although the study was aimed at stopping acne, much can be learned by those wanting to gain control their excessively oily skin. There are two reasons why Dr. Lit-Hung Leung’s study worked:

Propionibacterium is the bacteria that causes acne. It lives in and around the sweat glands and sebaceous glands and feeds on the oil secreted through these glands. That is why oily skin is traditionally very prone to acne breakouts. Scientists have known for a long time that if you eliminate the oil, you starve the Propionibacterium.
Dr. Lit-Hung Leung’s study showed that a mega-dose of Pantothenic Acid reduced the amount of oil being secreted through the glands in the skin. This is how Accutane works. It dries out almost every bit of oil in your skin (this is why dry skin and cracked lips are so common with Accutane users) and your acne magically disappears.

But, B5 (Pantothenic Acid) is different from Accutane. It’s water-soluble, meaning that it’s not stored in the body. If your body doesn’t use the B5, it’s eliminated from the body – primarily through the urine. Overdosing on B5 is rare, and certainly not life-threatening. The worst symptom of “overdosing” on B5 is diarrhea, but even that is rare.

How does B5 (Pantothenic Acid) work and Benefits?

Not all of the details are known, but those of the skin care researchers on the cutting edge of science have a pretty good idea: It is believed that those with excessively oily skin (in general) have a tiny genetic defect that causes the body to be terribly INEFFICIENT in using Pantothenic Acid in the production of a certain coenzyme in the body called Coenzyme-A.

I’m going to get a little bit technical here, but please hear me out. I promise it will be worth it.

Coenzyme-A is used for an array of functions in the body, including the most important function: to produce sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) that are required for human reproduction.

But, Coenzyme-A is also used to process fats for energy production – both stored fats, and those circulating through the bloodstream. Without Coenzyme-A, fats that cannot be used for energy will be expelled from the body. This happens both in your feces and through your skin (by way of your sebaceous glands).

This is the real cause of oily skin. Remember: Oil is nothing more than fat in liquid form.

If there is not enough Coenzyme-A to go around, it creates a dilemma for the body’s distribution of this valuable Coenzyme. But, given the important roles Coenzyme-A plays in the body, it has to prioritize the needs of the body as a whole.

All things considered, the role that Coenzyme-A plays in reproduction is MOST important. This means that that it will use Coenzyme-A to produce sex hormones before it will use Coenzyme-A metabolize fats in the bloodstream.

Therefore, if there is not enough Coenzyme-A to go around, fats will not be converted to energy and they will exit the body via the colon and the skin – resulting in excessively oily skin.

Coenzyme-A

So, the trick is having enough Coenzyme-A to go around, right? How do we do that?

Well, Coenzyme-A is composed of Cysteamine, Pantothenic Acid, and Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). Of these three substances, Pantothenic Acid is the only one that cannot be produced by the body.

This means that is MUST be consumed in your diet.

Pantothenic Acid can be purchased locally, but try to get the Timed Release brand by Kal. I’m sure it varies in price from area to area, but I can purchase it from the local health food store very inexpensively. It’s much cheaper if you order it from Amazon.com.

Pantothenic Acid Dosage

Do not be fooled by cheap knock-offs.If you are going to take Pantothenic Acid, be sure to do it right!

The most effective brand of Pantothenic Acid can be purchased from Amazon. Just read the reviews, and you will see that not all brands of Pantothenic Acid are the same.

Earlier, in Part 2 of this 3 Part “Oily Skin Remedy” we discussed why those of us with naturally oily skin need to supplement with Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5).

If you haven’t read Part 1 and 2, I suggest you do so before taking any Pantothenic Acid. It’s important to know the “why” and the “how” before you start putting supplements in your mouth.

As for the dosage, I’ll cut right to the chase…

If you are following my oily skin remedy presented on this website, you will need to take at least 5 grams of Pantothenic Acid per day, split up into 3 or 4 doses throughout the day. The study performed by Dr. Lit-Hung Leung, used 10 grams per day, split into 2.5 gram doses throughout the day.

The good news: Pantothenic Acid is pretty cheap.

You can often find it at local vitamin and health-food stores for less than $15 per bottle. If you order it, it is even less expensive. Personally, I find that the “timed release” variety works best for me. I usually don’t have a problem with swallowing larger pills, so I am okay with the 1 gram pills. If you have trouble swallowing the 1 gram pills, try taking the 500 milligram pills, instead.

Although you can purchase Pantothenic Acid at your local vitamin or health food store (Vitamin Shoppe, Vitamin Cottage, Whole Foods, etc), I order mine from Amazon.com. After some careful research led me to a brand of Timed Release Pantothenic Acid made by Kal, I have been happy ever since.

I suggest you start with about 8 grams per day of Pantothenic Acid. It will be easy to split this amount into 4 parts:

2 grams when you wake up
2 grams before you eat lunch
2 grams before you eat dinner
2 grams before bed

The 8 gram dosage will also be good to test your tolerance. If you experience any diarrhea, reduce your dose to 4 grams for a while until you get used to it. Then, if everything goes well on the 4 grams for a few days, start adding about a gram per day until you are at 8 grams again.

NOTE: Do not stop taking the Pantothenic Acid if you experience a symptom of “overdose” – simply reduce the dosage. Your body will get used to the larger dosage if you start slowly and build up a tolerance for the supplement.

The goal is to get up to 10 grams, or as close as possible without experiencing any negative side effects. After you have been on 10 grams for a couple of months, you will know whether or not the Pantothenic Acid is working for you.

You will start to see a noticeable difference in your skin. You will no longer have that shiny, greasy look that you are so used to seeing… you won’t have to “blot” your face so much, and friends and family will sometimes even go out of their way to tell you how healthy your skin looks.

Your face may actually be a bit dry at times!

This is why you must NOT forget about my recommendations about drinking more water.

Before now, your skin was being lubricated by oil! If your skin is no longer secreting as much oil, your face will dry out unless you replace that moisture with something else. Your skin must stay hydrated, or it will become itchy, blotchy, red and inflamed.

Yes, you could use lotions, and you may need to. But, the best way to hydrate your skin is from the INSIDE, with water. Drink enough water and you will be fine.

Read back over my recommendations of who much water to drink and why. Water is such a powerful part of this puzzle, that it can actually do a lot for controlling your oily skin all by itself – even without the Pantothenic Acid.

But, if you COMBINE these two (the extra water and the Pantothenic Acid) you will be giving your oily skin a double-knockout blow.

Give it at least 1 month, and you will see a dramatic transformation of your skin. Once you get a taste of what it’s like to have “normal”, healthy, beautiful skin, you will never want to go back to anything else.

NOTE: If you read the Internet message boards, you will read that some people suggest also supplementing with a B-Complex vitamin. Some people will say that they ONLY started seeing results after they starting taking the B-Complex vitamin. What’s more interesting is that you can also find people who say that they ONLY started seeing results when they STOPPED taking the B-Complex. For me, I was able to take the Pantothenic Acid without any additional supplementation, and it worked just fine.

Question:

I have never had really bad acne (not since being a teenager). I am 36 years old and a female. I have been taking the recommended 8 grams of Panthothenic Acid for about 3 weeks. A few days ago, my face started breaking out like crazy. What’s going on? Why is this happening? Should I stop taking the B5?

Answer:

This is a common complaint with people taking Pantothenic Acid. Acne tends to flare up a little before the real breakthrough occurs. Keep taking the Pantothenic Acid for another week and you should see some great results.

It sounds as if you were not really taking the Pantothenic Acid for acne, but Pantothenic Acid CAN be used (and has been used) to treat acne.

Interestingly, my dermatologist told me the same thing when they put me on Accutane as a teenager. I can hear his voice like it was yesterday. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but it will get better,” he said.

It was true. My acne and oily skin DID get better when I was on Accutane.

But, at what cost? I see television ads all the time, listing off the numerous gastrointestinal ailments that I could now suffer from due to taking Accutane. I wish that I had known about Pantothenic Acid back then, I would have taken that instead of putting my health at risk.

But, I digress.

The point I’m trying to make is this: Just as Accutane shuts down the sebum production of the skin, so does higher doses of Pantothenic Acid. The biggest difference is that Pantothenic Acid does so in a more natural way than Accutane.

Because of this, your acne can flare up a little. I tend to think that it’s sort of a “last stand” for the bacteria that causes acne (called propionibacterium acnes). You see propionibacterium acnes has one main food source: the oil in your skin. As this food source goes away, this acne-causing bacteria goes into survival mode and reproduces like crazy.

But, since there is less oil to feed on, it is a very short-lived flurry.

Keep the faith. Keep taking the Pantothenic Acid. You will come out on the other side with clear, smooth skin… and happy that you stuck to your clear skin regiment.

If you have any more questions, just let me know.