What Is Acne - Discovering Essential Knowledge About Your Skin Enemy
Acne is basically an infectious skin disorder and is so common that most people have it in a period of their life. So learning some about acne will help you cope with it and with its side effects. You will get to know from this article what acne is, what causes acne, how it affect us, and what we can do in preventing or in getting rid of acne. The more you learn about it, the easier your possible acne treatment will be.
In order to reply the question of 'what is acne', first of all we must learn some about skin structure. There are folliculer units in the skin. Each unit consists of a hair follicle and a sebaceous gland. This gland secretes an oily product, called sebum, through the sebaceous duct to the surface of the skin.
What causes acne
Androgenic hormone determines the size of the sebaceous glands. In puberty, this hormone level begins to rise which in turn causes a marked increase in the size of sebaceous glands and excessive sebum secretion. This excessive oil mixes with naturally-occuring dead skin cells. This mixture easily plugs sebaceous duct opening.
When an opening is clogged, oily secretion begins to accumulate behind the blockage and creates a swelling by expanding the duct. This accumulated material is the perfect breeding ground for a special bacteria, P. Acnes which causes acne.
This is the first step of acne which is called 'whitehead'. Then leaking oil from the pore faces with air and starts to oxidize and eventually turns a brownish-black color. The result is small black dot and hence the name is 'blackhead'. If the proliferation of bacteria arouses body immune response, white blood cells attack bacteria and compose red lumps called 'pimples'.
If acne treatment is accomplished before it goes beyond pimples phase, the recovery will be perfect and there will not be any acne scarring. Otherwise pimples may be filled with yellowish liquid like substance called pus. This pus-filled region is usually painful and tender to the touch and is considered acne cyst. Unfortunately cyst usually leaves acne scarring.
Is acne a teenage disease?
Acne usually occurs in teenager and is known as a puberty disease. Almost 90% of teens will get at least one small flare period of it during adolescence. However statistics shows that over 60% of adults over the age of twenty suffer from acne exacerbation at least once. People that have acne prone type skin may get this lesion throughout their lives.
Stress causes acne
Having an acne makes a teenager think he/she looks bad. In addition peers like to joke about the lesion. Stress is a major trigger for an exacerbation. When a teen is teased about his/her acne condition, stress can actually make the problem worse. Basic knowledge about this lesion will help teen eliminate the stress.
As an outline, acne is a problem not only for adolescent but also for adult so everyone can suffer from it anytime. Androgenic hormone level and stress are the two main acne causing factors. By the adolescence, regular skin cleansing must be begun to wipe off the plugging mixture of oil and death skin cells. Control the lesion before it progresses to the cystic phase if you do not like to have acne scarring on your face.
In order to reply the question of 'what is acne', first of all we must learn some about skin structure. There are folliculer units in the skin. Each unit consists of a hair follicle and a sebaceous gland. This gland secretes an oily product, called sebum, through the sebaceous duct to the surface of the skin.
What causes acne
Androgenic hormone determines the size of the sebaceous glands. In puberty, this hormone level begins to rise which in turn causes a marked increase in the size of sebaceous glands and excessive sebum secretion. This excessive oil mixes with naturally-occuring dead skin cells. This mixture easily plugs sebaceous duct opening.
When an opening is clogged, oily secretion begins to accumulate behind the blockage and creates a swelling by expanding the duct. This accumulated material is the perfect breeding ground for a special bacteria, P. Acnes which causes acne.
This is the first step of acne which is called 'whitehead'. Then leaking oil from the pore faces with air and starts to oxidize and eventually turns a brownish-black color. The result is small black dot and hence the name is 'blackhead'. If the proliferation of bacteria arouses body immune response, white blood cells attack bacteria and compose red lumps called 'pimples'.
If acne treatment is accomplished before it goes beyond pimples phase, the recovery will be perfect and there will not be any acne scarring. Otherwise pimples may be filled with yellowish liquid like substance called pus. This pus-filled region is usually painful and tender to the touch and is considered acne cyst. Unfortunately cyst usually leaves acne scarring.
Is acne a teenage disease?
Acne usually occurs in teenager and is known as a puberty disease. Almost 90% of teens will get at least one small flare period of it during adolescence. However statistics shows that over 60% of adults over the age of twenty suffer from acne exacerbation at least once. People that have acne prone type skin may get this lesion throughout their lives.
Stress causes acne
Having an acne makes a teenager think he/she looks bad. In addition peers like to joke about the lesion. Stress is a major trigger for an exacerbation. When a teen is teased about his/her acne condition, stress can actually make the problem worse. Basic knowledge about this lesion will help teen eliminate the stress.
As an outline, acne is a problem not only for adolescent but also for adult so everyone can suffer from it anytime. Androgenic hormone level and stress are the two main acne causing factors. By the adolescence, regular skin cleansing must be begun to wipe off the plugging mixture of oil and death skin cells. Control the lesion before it progresses to the cystic phase if you do not like to have acne scarring on your face.
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