Tretinoin Explained : Literally EVERYTHING You Need To Know!

 

What is Tretinoin?

Tretinoin (also known as all-trans retinoic acid) is a pharmaceutical derivative of vitamin A. Retinoic acid is a necessary component of human biology that facilitates growth and development.

It can be found in foods like salmon, egg yolks, grassfed butter and cream, cod liver oil, and my personal favorite — beef liver (sarcasm). If you’ve never tried it, I can’t say I recommend. Quick story about that (feel free to skip ahead).

So….. beef liver is the most nutrient dense food on planet earth. 100 grams of that stuff has 53,400 IU of Vitamin A! To give you some perspective, think about carrots a.k.a. the thing people always harp on about having a ton of vitamin A. Well, 100 grams of carrots only contain 40 IU of Vitamin A.

• Beef liver (100 g) = 53,400 IU of Vitamin A
• Carrots (100g) = 40 IU of Vitamin A

Isn’t that NUTS? So of course when impulsive me found out about how nutritious this delicious succulent treat was, I decided to buy 7 POUNDS of it!

Note: at this point, I had never tried beef liver in my life.

Got home, cooked up a nice hefty chunk, set up the dinner table, put on some romantic music, lit some candles  — I did the whole shebang. I took my first bite and nearly vomited. It was awful.

You can only imagine how mortified I was knowing I had 6 more pounds of that stuff in the fridge. Long story short: I froze it for 14 days to kill off pathogens, cut it into little bite sized pieces, and swallowed the whole 6 pounds raw. Oh yeah, that’s a thing.

Anyway… about tretinoin.

It is considered one of the most powerful retinoids available. The most recognized prescription name for it is Retin-A, but there are other brands too: Atralin, Refissa, Tretin-X, Renova, Avita etc. All of these require a doctor’s prescription. However, you can buy Tretinoin 0,1 creams online through Reliable RX Pharmacy.

Weaker retinoids can be found over the counter and will be listed as retinyl palmitate, retinol, or retinaldehyde in a product’s ingredient list.

NOTE: as of 2017, Differin a.k.a. adapalene can be purchased without a doctor’s referral! It’s the first FDA-approved, prescription strength retinoid available over the counter. You can read more about it here.

Tretinoin’s bioavailability isn’t the best, meaning it isn’t easily absorbed by the skin. In fact, upwards of 80% of it remains on the skin’s surface. As an aside, tretinoin cream has been shown to penetrate a little bit better than tretinoin gel (by about 5%). (1)

Fun fact: Accutane, which is the most powerful acne medication in the world, is simply an oral form of retinoic acid (vitamin A). Hence the pharmaceutical name Isotretinoin.