What Is Acne?

Nearly everyone suffers from acne infliction, in fact statistics states that roughly 80% of the entire American population is inflicted with the skin disease. This makes you a possible target. The good thing is that acne is not transmittable.

Contagious will not define acne but it can severely affect the entirety of the face and all the skin tissues that have pilosebaceous units. Moreover, acne afflicts all genders, sexes and ages making it a universal skin disorder.

Acne is said to apply only to puberty-related issues, but this is not entirely true. Meaning, even infants or individuals who may be well over their forty’s, are still likely to 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.

According to the severity of the infection, acne has different classifications.

Comedo is the form where all severe acne cases originate. This is the simplest kind of acne 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.

Moreover, your pus-filled lesions are termed as pustules. Nodules on the other hand are similar with pustules but these are firmer and 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.

If in case further infections occurred to this present acne condition, you may need the assistance of a skin dermatologist or physician. It is far from telling what cysts may develop when it becomes more severe.

From where does acne develop? It is quite difficult to exactly determine what may have caused acne infection. But to be sure, this is usually a case to case basis. Studies may show that the skin disorder may be brought by many factors, including poor diet, stress, weather elements, and hormone changes or may be genetically influenced. Presently, these are all subjects for refutation but may serve as good foundations for further research and observation.

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 cases of acne may be treated with over the counter acne medications, which are in general, topical drugs. You apply topical drugs 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.