Very little, if any, research points to vitamins, herbs, or minerals of any kind or in any combination as having an effect on breakouts. What little research does exist shows zinc to be a valid option to consider. A handful of studies have compared oral antibiotics to zinc, with zinc showing some benefit. A study reported in Dermatology (2001, volume, 203, issue 2, page 40) evaluated “the place of zinc gluconate in relation to antibiotics in the treatment of acne. Zinc was compared to minocycline [an antibiotic] in a multicenter randomized double-blind trial. 332 patients received either 30 milligrams elemental zinc or 100 milligrams minocycline over 3 months. The primary endpoint was defined as the percentage
of the clinical success rate on day 90 ” The study concluded that “Minocycline and zinc
gluconate are both effective in the treatment of inflammatory acne, but minocycline has a superior effect evaluated to be 17% in our study.”
In conjunction with other treatments, zinc may prove to have even better results. But zinc is not a benign supplement. High doses of zinc can be toxic. Avoid taking more than 100 mg of zinc per day from a supplement (Source: www. drweil. com). It is also recommended that you take a daily multivitamin, because increased levels of zinc mean that the body requires more copper and manganese. There is only a very fine line between safe and unsafe amounts of oral supplementation of zinc (Source: Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, January 2006, pages 3-18).
Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) is touted as being effective for acne. However, there is only one study supporting this notion and it dates from the early 1980s (Source: International Journal of Dermatology, 1981, volume 20, pages 278-285). There is no current research showing this to be an effective treatment.
Vitamin A is another oral supplement thought to be helpful for acne. In one study showing it to have a positive impact, the participants were given 300,000 IU per day. Considering that the usual recommended daily amount is 10,000 IU, the 300,000 IU dose is a large enough amount of vitamin A to be possibly toxic and is not recommended. At this time there is no reliable research pointing to any oral supplement other than zinc as being helpful in the treatment of acne.