What is Acne ? A Brief users Guide for Parents, Teens and the rest of us.

What is Acne ? A Brief users Guide for Parents, Teens and the rest of us.

Acne is a disease in which the hair follicles on your skin become clogged and infected. This results in one of the three types of acne lesions to form.

The production of excess sebum is the culprit. It causes the follicles to become blocked. The medical community is still uncertain as to what triggers this excess production. Sebum is produced by the sebaceous oil gland and everybody needs a small amount to achieve healthy skin. Sebum helps protects the skin from harmful bacteria by washing it away.

Types of Acne Lesions:

The three types of acne lesions are whiteheads & blackheads (also known as closed and open comedones respectively), papules & pustules, and cysts.

Whiteheads as the name suggests, look like white bumps. They form under the skin and never

reach the surface. This makes them very hard to eliminate. Blackheads grow upward and break the skins surface. This enlarged follicle and the oxidation of the dead cells, sebum, and bacteria have a black color, hence the name.

Papules form when a whitehead burst and the bacteria spreads to the surrounding tissues under the skin. This causes your body’s immune system to increase its fight on the infection making the inflammation worse. They appear as small, firm, red bumps. Pustules form as the body’s immune system continues to fight the infection by sending pus to the area. They appear similar to a papules with the addition of a yellowish white head.

Cysts are the third and final type of acne lesion. They form when a pustule worsens and expands further down under the skins surface. They appear red or purple and are very painful. This is the most serious of all types of acne lesions.

Types of Acne:

Acne can not only be classified by the types of acne lesions, but further broken down by acne type; depending on what types of lesions you have. People whose acne consists of whiteheads and blackheads would have what is called comedonal acne. A mix of blackheads, whiteheads, papules and pustules acne lesions is called acne vulgaris and is the most common type of acne. The third type of acne is called cystic acne and it is when someone has all three types of acne lesions with numerous cysts.

Who Can Get Acne:

While most people associate acne with teens, anybody can experience some type of acne at any age. That said certain groups of people are more likely to experience acne. They include teens, people under stress, people who have a family history of the disease, people taking certain drugs and adult women.

Treating acne depends on the type and severity of your acne. Treatment also depends on how dry or oily your skin is, if you are male or female, if you are taking any medications, if you are pregnant or might be soon. These various factors affect your treatment options and can make any one size fits all acne treatment method ineffective.

Lucky their are numerous acne treatment options, so while you might not find one that works the first time, do not give up just try another. Do to the numerous acne treatments available today doctors can control most acne outbreaks; with greater success the earlier treatments are started. Hopping your acne will go away will not work, your local pharmacy is filled with many over the counter medications you can try, or visit your doctor who can prescribe more powerful treatments if needed.

The most popular way to treat mild to moderate acne is by using a topical treatment. These treatments can be in the form of a gel, cream, lotion or on a pad. They are applied to the surface of your skin, hence the name topical. The two main over the counter topic treatments are Salicylic acid and Benzoyl peroxide. Prescription Salicylic acid and Benzoyl peroxide are also available in stronger doses if required. Doctors my also prescribe ointments containing sulfur, tetracycline, erythromycin or a retinoid. Many times you will need to use a combination of the above treatments for best results.

Salicylic acid and retinoids are used to treat the clogged hair follicles that are causing the acne lesions. They penetrate the pores and help the dead skin cells dissolve. Benzoyl peroxide, sulfur, tetracycline and erythromycin are antibacterial ointments used to treat the inflammation and kill the bacteria in the blocked follicles.

For people with moderate to server acne, in addition to topical treatments they my also require some type of oral medication to treat their acne. The three types of oral medications are antibiotics, hormones, and isotretinoins. All three require a prescription.

Tetracycline, erythromycin, clindamycin, and doxycycline are the most common prescribed antibiotics. They work by being absorbed through the digestive system, then into the blood, and then into the hair follicles where they kill bacteria and reduce inflammation. This option would be used when topical antibiotic treatments were unsuccessful.

Hormones are an option available to treat teenage girls and women with acne. They are usually taken in the form of a birth control pill. They work by increasing the level of female hormones in the bloodstream. This helps reduce the production of androgen, which will then reduce the production of sebum.

For severe acne, isotretinoin is often used. It is a powerful drug that treats acne by stopping all of the changes in the skin that causes acne. It kills bacteria, reduces sebum production, and slows the growth of skin cells.

All of the above acne treatment options should be reviewed carefully prior to use. As with any type of medication they all present some type of risk or side effect. For the over the counter treatments read the product labels and warnings to see if the product is right for you. For prescription acne treatments discuss with your doctor all of the potential sides effects you may experience.

Mark MacKay is a researcher, marketer, and former Acne sufferer. For more information on Acne Myths, Causes, Types of Acne, Acne Treatments, Skin Care, Adult Acne, Teen Acne, Acne Discussion forum, latest research articles and much more visit Mark’s Acne Treatments Explained web site now

Source: http://www.articlecodex.com

Permalink: http://expert-talk.com/tips/641/what-is-acne-a-brief-users-guide-for-parents-teens-and-the-rest-of-us-324641.htm

Comments

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the article, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Related Tips and Advices

Related Tags