Acne: A Basic Understanding
Posted: Thứ Ba, 19 tháng 3, 2013 by Unknown in
Acne: A Basic Understanding
Statistics indicate that
as high as 80% of the entire American population has ever had acne. Acne
afflicts all genders, sexes and ages making it a universal skin disorder. As a
form of skin disease, the good news is that acne is not transmittable.
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Although acne is not contagious from
person-to-person, it can spread to the whole face and can severely affect all
the skin tissues that have pilosebaceous units. It is not true that acne just
affects those going through puberty. Even infants or individuals who may be well
over their forties, can develop this skin disorder. Acne infantilis is the term
used for acne that grows on newborn babies, on the other hand acne rosacea is
related to middle-aged people.
Acne has different
classifications, according to the severity of the infection.
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Comedo is the form where all severe acne cases
originate. This is characterized by red swelling or small lesions on your skin.
Whiteheads and blackheads are two forms of comedo. Conversely, blackhead is an
open comedo. The coloration is due to the accumulation of dark skin pigments
called melanin, plus hardened sebum and other skin debris and particles. This is
the basic structure of whiteheads, however, the only difference is the
coloration and these are deeply situated into the skin layers.
If you
have sandpaper-like skin around the tissue of your mouth and on the surface of
your forehead, chin and cheeks, you probably have papules. Pus-filled lesions
are also termed as pustules.
Nodules on the other hand are similar with
pustules. However, nodules are firmer and are larger acne growing deep in the
skin. Inflammation may develop your pustules into containing semi-liquid or
liquid materials composed of white blood cells (which are dead because of the
acne-infecting bacteria named as Propionibacterium acnes), dead skin cells and
active or inactive bacteria. This can result into more serious acne called
cysts. In such situations, you may need the assistance of a skin dermatologist
or physician.
What is the cause of acne? It is quite difficult to
exactly determine what may have caused your acne infection as reasons differ
case to case. Studies indicate that the skin disorder may be brought about by
many factors, including poor diet, stress, weather elements, and hormone changes
or may be genetically influenced.
Medically speaking, acne starts from
the formation of hardened sebum, or the oily substance secreted to the skin
through the sebaceous glands. This then will be permeated with acne-infecting
bacteria, which in return will trigger the immune system to release white blood
cells to obstruct the attack of the bacteria. As this happens, dead white blood
cells and bacteria will accumulate in the hair follicles mixed with skin debris
and dead skin particles, which then will inflame the lesions.
Most mild
case acne may be treated with over the counter acne medications. They are
generally topical drugs, which you apply on your skin for acne treatment. They
may come in the form of soaps, lotions, gels and creams. Conversely, systematic
acne medications are taken orally. The most common of which are the
antibiotics.
Knowing that you are not the only one inflicted with acne at
some point in life or another helps in that there will always be new research
and new products coming on stream. Continue to read up on acne research and help
your fight against it.