Basic Understanding about Acne

Statistics indicate that eighty percent of the entire American population has had acne problem. Acne afflicts all genders, sexes and ages making it a universal skin disorder. Good news about this skin disease is that acne is not transmittable.

Although acne is not contagious, it still can spread to the whole face and affected entire skin tissues that have pilosebaceous units. It is not true that acne is able to affect those going through puberty. Even infants or individuals, who may be well over their forties, can still develop acne problem. 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.

Comedo is the form where all severe acne cases originate. This can be characterized by red swelling or small lesions on your skin. Whiteheads and blackheads are another 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. 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 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 much similar with pustules. Nodules are firmer and is 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 resulting with more serious acne problem called cysts. In such situations, you may need the assistance of a skin dermatologist, physician, facial professional or Doctor.

What is actually the cause of acne? This question is quite difficult to determine. What may have caused acne infection? There are a lot of reasons behind and each case differs from each other. Studies indicate that acne 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 can be treated with over the counter acne medications, solutions, treatments and remedies. 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.