Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) is commonly supplemented in large doses to reduce oil production and help rid your skin of acne. It works like Accutane, in the sense that it reduces oil production. Vitamin B5, however, works by helping your body to metabolize the fats in your body that later turn into sebum. Accutane actually shrinks the oil glands to block the oil from coming through to your face. Since vitamin B5 addresses the underlying problem, it is, in fact, the more efficient solution.

During your natural metabolism process, your body uses coenzyme-A to break down fats. When your body lacks enough coenzyme-A, not all of the bodies fats can be broken down, and your body has to get rid of them some how, so they are ejected through your oil glands on your skin in the form of sebum (oil). By creating more coenzyme-A, these extra fats can be broken down with the rest, and oil production will be greatly reduced.

Coenzyme-A is made up of three things: Cysteine, ATP and Pantothenic Acid. Your body takes care of cysteine and ATP by producing it by itself, so vitamin B5 is the only thing that you have to take in through food. By taking vitamin B5 supplements, more coenzyme-A is produced, fats are broken down better, and less oil ends up on your skin. Without too much oil on your face, when a pore gets clogged, the p. acnes bacteria will have nothing to feed upon and can’t thrive to cause acne in the first place.

Intensive treatments with vitamin B5 works to clear acne for more than 90% of the people who take it, it’s a very effective medication. Since it’s all natural and water soluble, it’s much safer than Accutane, which only works for 70%-80% of the people who take it. It’s also more efficient than Accutane, because it eliminates the problem, instead of covering it up by shrinking the glands and trapping the fats inside the body.
To address a vitamin B5 deficiency, you have to take large amounts of it, up to around 12 grams of pantothenic acid powder per day. Always divide the doses into 4 times per day, spreading them out as much as possible. The only known side effect of pantothenic acid is stomach complaints which can be avoided by drinking a big glass of water when taking the supplement. The only other thing to watch out for is that pantothenic acid can deplete your body of other B vitamins, so a B-50 complex should be taken with it.

Since vitamin B5 has to be taken in large doses to see results, that means you can forget trying to get enough by eating foods high in it, or through a multivitamin or B vitamin complex. You can even forget about taking pantothenic acid pills, since that means you would have to take 20+ pills every day. There’s only really one reasonable way to take the amount of vitamin B5 you will need to treat acne, which is pantothenic acid powder.

Pantothenic acid pills can’t be found in most stores, much less the powder form of it. Some health food stores might have it. You might be able to talk to someone at your local store and have them order it for you, though it’s usually marked up quite a bit. The easiest and cheapest way to get pantothenic acid powder is to just order it online. A Google search will uncover many websites, such as Amazon.com, which sell pantothenic acid powder at a great price.