It was not all that long ago that acne was seen as something that was untreatable, as something that just had to be coped with as part of growing up. It was also widely treated as something rather trivial, which has always been a frustration to sufferers of cases of acne serious enough to cause great discomfort and pain. Presumably these common perceptions were spread by people who had never suffered from acne – strange when it is estimated that 80% of us suffer from it at some point in our lives.

Another common misconception is that acne is an adolescent condition, coinciding with puberty. While this is true in itself, it is not the only peak in the condition that people experience. Because acne is driven by hormones, it can flare up at different times during one’s life, for example during pregnancy, times of stress and the menopause.

Many of us grew up with a third misconception, namely that acne comes from eating greasy food, chocolate or other high-sugar products. While there is no doubt that a healthy diet and lifestyle can help with many conditions, including acne, there is scant evidence directly linking the aforementioned foods to the onset of acne.

The accepted scientific thinking on the cause of acne is overproduction of sebum, an oily, waxy substance whose purpose is to stop the skin from drying out. Sebum is secreted from the sebaceous glands near the surface of the skin. When the tiny outlet gets blocked, usually with a mixture of with sebum and dead skin, the newly produced sebum has nowhere to go, and the area around the blockage will effectively start inflating causing a whitehead, or simply block up causing a blackhead. Either way, the blockage is ripe for bacterial infection, and results in the familiar pustules and cysts that are commonly known as acne.

So the primary means of preventing acne is to return the overproducing sebum to normal levels. This can be done with the vitamin A derivate retinol. Because of potential side effects such as increased sunlight sensitivity, there is still the need for professional medical involvement with this treatment for acne.

As the bacterial infection is the real cause of acne (rather than simply whiteheads and blackheads), treatment of acne will need to involve some means of killing the offending microbes. A very effective method is laser/light treatment. Again, this is a procedure that must be carried out by a professional.

As we can see, acne is not simply something that we have to live with, and it is certainly not something that we have much say in bringing about. Of course, keeping clean will go some way towards preventing the bacterial infection, but avoiding bacteria is almost futile as it will return almost as soon as it has been cleaned off. And while keeping healthy will help you to keep your body in balance and keep stress levels down, an unhealthy diet is certainly not the direct cause of acne it was once believed to be. Acne is not contagious, either. If you suffer from acne, it starts almost entirely in your hormonal make-up, and that changes as you progress through life.

Fortunately, though, there are now ways of lessening the effects of this painful condition.

Author Bio: Discussing acne treatment and other skin condition issues has helped Tracey become a subject authority. She writes for many publications and helps patients find treatment options with expert skin treatment clinics.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
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