In particular, dermatological effects such as itching, rashes and intense flushing are often seen with niacin.

FORBES: Will Merck's Failure With Tredaptive Impact How Drugs Are Approved in Europe?

Dermatological injections of Vitamin C are also popular among women hoping to keep their skin looking young.

CNN: Vitamin cafes: Japan's latest health injection

Wang, director of dermatological surgery and dermatology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center site in Basking Ridge, N.

WSJ: The Myths of Daily Sunscreen

Devin's doctors were also baffled, she said, surmising he might have a dermatological problem or a lack of calcium.

CNN: Advances in kids' early aging disease

In adults, impetigo is usually the result of injury to the skin often by another dermatological condition such as dermatitis.

CNN: Impetigo

Brian Keller, a dermatopharmacologist and executive vice president of San Francisco-based Bio Zone Laboratories, which manufactures custom private-label dermatological products, offered one possible reason.

CNN: Try a placenta or bird poop facial

Merck sought to solve the niacin flushing problem by coming up with a drug that prevented the dermatological effects from occurring, and discovered laropiprant with this in mind.

FORBES: Will Merck's Failure With Tredaptive Impact How Drugs Are Approved in Europe?

But Dr. Robin Ashinoff, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at New York University's Langone Medical Center, says she doesn't know of any studies on the dermatological benefits of placenta.

CNN: Try a placenta or bird poop facial

Even a researcher working on dermatological diseases, who determined that different levels of metabolite were appropriate, was threatened with suit because Prometheus suspected she had used their levels in her research, Singer said.

FORBES: Mayo Clinic Case Asks If A Doctor's Method Can Be Patented