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ACNE CAUSES
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Acne is the presence of small rashes - or else pimples - mainly in the face, but also in the neck, chest, shoulders and upper back. Before looking at the acne causes, you should know that acne is a long lasting disease (many adults suffer from acne until the age of 30 or even more), which hopefully is not serious for the physical health,but unfortunately, it could cause a major hurt to the mental health of some people. However there is a hope. While acne is not curable it is treatable. Of course in order to treat acne we should first understand how it starts.
So what are the main acne causes? In order to answer to that question, let's have a look at the skin's basics. The entire surface of the skin consists of tiny holes commonly called pores or sebaceous hair follicles, which contain several sebaceous glands. The hair follicles are being provisioned by the sebaceous glands with an oily substance called sebum. Sebum is actually the oil that keeps your skin moist and pliable. As your skin renews itself, the old cells die, mix with your skin's natural oils, and are sloughed off.
As far as the sebaceous glands produce the right amount of sebum, everything works fine. However, when these galnds get over-stimulated and start to produce much more sebum than the necessary, the hair follicles are getting choked and the sebum, together with died cells and bacteria are being accumulated and evntually trapped inside the follicle. This accumulation of sebum, died cells and bacteria, forms a sort of plug which begins to swell as your skin continues its normal oil production. The result of the aforementioned process is the formation of the hated pimples.
There are several factors which are related to acne developement, however the root cause of why some people get acne and some do not is yet not fully known.
- Family/Genetic history. The tendency to develop acne runs in families. For example, school-age boys with acne often have other members in their family with acne as well. A family history of acne is associated with an earlier occurrence of acne and an increased number of retentional acne lesions.
- Hormonal activity, such as menstrual cycles and puberty. During puberty, an increase in male sex hormones called androgens cause the glands to get larger and make more sebum.
- Inflammation, skin irritation or scratching of any sort will activate inflammation. Anti-inflammatories are known to improve acne.
- Stress, through increased output of hormones from the adrenal (stress) glands, although modern tests have said otherwise and point to this not being a cause.
- Hyperactive sebaceous glands, secondary to the three hormone sources above.
- Bacteria in the pores. Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is the anaerobic bacterium that causes acne. In-vitro resistance of P. acnes to commonly used antibiotics has been increasing.
- Use of anabolic steroids.
- Any medication containing lithium, barbiturates or androgens.
- Exposure to certain chemical compounds. Chloracne is particularly linked to toxic exposure to dioxins, namely Chlorinated dioxins.
- Exposure to halogens. Halogen acne is linked to exposure to halogens (e.g. iodides, chlorides, bromides, fluorides)
- Chronic use of amphetamines.