To be Able to Treat and Avoid Acne You Should Recognize What ...

To effectively deal with an outbreak of acne you need to understand what causes acne. Outbreaks of acne affect nearly everyone. So, this information is essential. But once your realize the reason for an acne outbreak you may take steps to prevent acne and deal effectively with further outbreaks.

Sometimes pores in your skin have a hair follicle while many pores will not have hair follicles. Connecting to these pores are sebaceous glands that manufacture skin oil, or sebum. This oil helps keep your skin flexible. The pore is the channel through which the sebum reaches the surface to lubricate the skin.

What is Acne?

The uncomplicated explanation is that acne is a bacterial infection in a plugged pore. It typically manifests itself as a blackhead or perhaps a whitehead. The skin surrounding this infection can become irritated and turn red.

The infection actually begins a number of days before it becomes obvious. By the time you see a pimple or zit, the bacteria has multiplied and prompted the skin irritation and inflammation to grow large enough to become obvious.

What Causes Acne?

Now, what causes that bacterial infection in a blocked up pore?

There is a reason that acne begins at some stage in adolescence as the body shows signs of maturity. Part of the maturing process involves the release of hormones like testosterone. Both young women and men begin releasing testosterone in the course of adolescence. This causes many organs to have to adjust to this new stimulus. And, it?s the sebaceous glands just below the skin that interest us.

These sebaceous glands manufacture a substance called sebum, or skin oil. It enters skin pores and travels to the surface where it helps lubricate the skin, keeping it soft. But, for a while these sebaceous glands can?t deal well with the testosterone and become enlarged and begin overproducing sebum.

One more factor involves stress hormones. Maturing and testing your limits throughout the teenage years can often be a major cause of stress. So, these additional hormones just increase the sebum production, making matters even worse.

While all this appears pretty bad, time is on your side. After several years, usually about your early twenties, your outbreaks of acne end. The reason is that the sebaceous glands have gotten use to the continuing stimulus of testosterone. The sebaceous glands return to their ordinary size and sebum production also returns to normal. Your acne goes away by itself.

During the adjustment period, your sebaceous glands continue to be enlarged and produce excess sebum. All this sebum eventually finds it way to your skin. Here it encounters dead skin cells. Your skin is always renewing itself. Old, dead skin cells rub off your skin and fall away. So, when the sebum encounters these small dead skin cells a glob is formed. These globs can block up the pores.

Here is where the trouble begins. The glob of dead skin cells and sebum contain bacteria from the surface. It blocks off a pore. As more sebum is produced it begins to back up since the pore?s exit to the surface is blocked. The bacteria love this warm, oily environment and begin multiplying. After a while they affect the surrounding skin and produce irritation.

If the obstruction is near the opening of the pore, air can reach the plug and darken it. This is a blackhead. If the pore?s exit is entirely blocked off, no air can get to the glob and it continues to be light in color or a whitehead, or a pimple or zit.

This knowledge about what causes acne can help you take the proper measures to prevent or deal with breakouts of acne.

Source: http://healthnews.askafriend.com/depression/to-be-able-to-treat-and-avoid-acne-you-should-recognize-what-causes-acne/

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