Tretinoin: Because Prevention Is Better Than Cure

The skin is an important organ to keep young and healthy, because a lot follows from it:

Protect, preserve, prevent

Jennifer Myers (now 43) began prescription retinoids not for beautifying but to treat a terrible case of cystic acne, starting with Duac and Benzaclin, then Tazorac, then Renova, then Retin-A Micro, then Retin-A cream and gel, eventually landing on Atralin, which transformed her skin. Quite a journey!

As you might imagine, the acne was physically painful and emotionally damaging during her late teens and early 20s, and the long search for something that worked required patience, distress tolerance, and persistence.

She wants to make clear that while she inherited her facial features, she did not inherit clear skin; quite to the contrary, she inherited severe acne from her mother—and her clear, smooth complexion today is earned through decades of consistency.

Consequently, she finds it frustrating that the skincare market overwhelms people into buying “shiny” new products; she encourages ignoring trends and sticking to what already works for at least 12 weeks, ideally one to two years, before judging results, because meaningful changes from tretinoin take months; in her case, it took a full year before she had the “new face” she maintains today, and many people quit too early because they expect overnight transformation.

In terms of what it will and won’t do: it improves skin turnover (which is its main mechanism of action), boosts collagen, smooths texture, brightens skin, and delays premature visible signs of aging, but it does not erase wrinkles, eliminate pores, or reverse established structural changes.

Aside from that, she attributes part of her result to diet, avoiding sugar, not smoking, and of course protecting against UV exposure.

Why is she telling us this? She wants to model what healthy, non-modified, naturally aging skin in one’s 40s can look like—she does not aim to look younger than she is, only to look like a well-cared-for 43-year-old woman.

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Want to learn more?

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Undo The Sun’s Damage To Your Skin ← because while prevention is much better than cure, tretinoin can help with this, too

Take care!