Learn What Causes Acne?
What Are The Causes Of Acne?
Acne is by no means a rare condition.For most people, it is another of life’s little trials. Seemingly few will escape.Lots of people find it difficult enough coping with what growing up throws at them and then along comes acne.If you understand what causes acne, you have taken the first, vital step to learning how to minimize it’s effect.
What causes acne?
The first step to understanding the root cause of acne is to understand how the skin on your face is structured.The surface of your skin can have millions of tiny hairs growing up through millions of tiny openings called pores.The pores lead down to small oil producing glands called sebaceous glands. It is these that produce the oil known as sebum.
In normal, non-acne skin, the sebum produced helps to keep your skin smooth, moisturized, and healthy.The pores allow it to reach the surface of the skin after the glands have produced it.By helping to remove dead skin cells and bacteria, sebum helps keep the skin clean and moist at the same time. It is sort of like nature’s way of getting rid of the “garbage” that inevitably gathers on your skin.
Whenever this natural process is disturbed, acne develops.This happens when the body has to learn to deal with an increase in hormone production, adolescence for example. During this learning process, though, fluctuations in hormone and other levels can cause imbalances that lead to all sorts of situations including the development of acne.
How acne actually forms
When your body produces extra hormones, it causes the sebaceous glands under the skin to produce much more sebum than before.The ability of the pores on your skin to remove dead skin cells can also be adversly affected by these hormones. The result is a clogged pore in which bacteria, dead skin cells, and sebum combine into a mixture that leads to swelling, inflammation, infection, and skin tenderness.
What happens next is you begin to form various types of acne lesions on your skin; these can include whiteheads, blackheads, and pimples. It is these common lesions that make up what we know as acne, that troublesome rite of passage that causes so much pain and difficulty for some people.
Living and dealing with acne
While there is no way to 100% get rid of acne problems, there are a number of things you can do to make living with it and dealing with it easier. These include:
• Cleanse your skin – Use a gentle facial cleanser twice per day to help get rid of excess oils, dead skin cells, and bacteria.Be careful not to irritate your skin by rubbing or scrubbing your skin. This can lead to more acne.
• Apply anti-acne medication – Not all medications require a prescription. There are excellent options available over the counter.These medications perform a variety of tasks on your skin, by helping to reduce the amount of sebum produced and limiting the quantity of bacteria on your skin, the process of removing dead skin cells will be improved.
• Moisturize your skin – Avoid letting your skin get too dry and you will find your acne problems diminishing.The last thing you want to do is to add more oil to your skin, so a light in texture, oil-free moisturizer is ideal.
Now that you know the causes of acne you are in a position to make informed choices.You have taken an important first step in minimizing your acne problems. Now you have the right information, put it to use!
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