The Causes of Acne and other Acne Myths
September 12, 2008Even though the main cause of acne can be hereditary or hormonal, this we know for fact, there are many outside factors that trigger acne or influence your case of acne’s severity. There are many theories behind the outside causes of acne, and we still don’t know for sure how exactly all these things affect us. It doesn’t help that many of these speculations are circulated via word of mouth, and even distributed in major publications. With all the rumors, its hard to hear through all the noise to discover what is really true. Hopefully this article will clear things up for you, and more importantly, clear things up for your skin as well.
Not just dirt and oil!
The most common thing you hear is that dirt and oil are responsible for acne. While it is true that those who have high production levels of oils are more likely to suffer from acne, not everyone with oily skin has acne. In fact, many people with dry skin suffer worse cases of acne. Before the advent of acne medications many people were instructed to clean their skin religiously. With modern science we now know this little tidbit of information to be untrue. At the very most, you want to be cleaning your face twice a day. And when doing so, one should be as gentle as possible with their skin. Over cleaning or scrubbing on your face too hard and too often can greatly irritate your skin. This practice will result in more frequent outbreaks.
Your diet doesn’t cause acne
The second most used scapegoat is your diet. It’s easy to blame what you eat for your acne. This is exactly why this rumor has spread so effectively. For hundreds of years people have been blaming things like acne on their diets.
The most common diet culprit is chocolate. Even though chocolate is fatty, it does not have an effect on your acne. The grease we find in our food are not the same oils that are body naturally produces through our sebaceous glands. This pretty much debunks the greasy food myth.
We’re still unsure about how beef and milk effect our skin. One thing we do know is that it’s not actually the food itself or whats naturally in it. Rather, many believe the cause lies in what is given to the cattle or what is added to the end product. There is a possibility that the beef you eat and the milk you drink was strengthened with the help of hormones. Again, we’re still unsure how these hormones effect us. But hormones are one thing we know cause acne for sure. I know I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that these hormones have an effect on us as well.
Stress can make Acne more severe
There is strong evidence to support the theory that stress can’t cause acne. What we do know is that stress can definitely worsen the severity of one’s acne. When we stress out our hormones sometimes get caught in the crossfire. An easy way to counteract stress and to reduce signs of acne is regular exercise and a full eight hours of sleep.
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Tags: acne, acne causes, cause of acne, greasy food, oily skin, sebaceous glands, skin
2 Responses to “The Causes of Acne and other Acne Myths”
No one knows the cause of ACNE. A friend of mine is a doctor.All we know is that its sebaceous glands and the excess oil.. That much we do know. But we dont know why. And unless we know why -> we cant say we know the cause. That’s why there is no cure for ACNE. If only we knew why we would have cured it.
yes we can suppress, reduce or even eliminate it.. but no..we dont know the cause.. if we knew.. we would have a cure
Cheers
Olga Lednichenko
http://olgalednichenko.wordpress.com/
By Olga Lednichenko on Sep 12, 2008
From what I’ve researched, Acne is in large part hormonal and also due to production of sebum which clogs the pores and creates pimples.
There are many contributing factors to acne, but from what I’ve discovered on sites like http://campusacnetruth.org/html/acne_treatments.html is that one factor that is not generally acknowledged or considered in acne treatments is the difference in the skins of males and females.
In dealing with my own acne, I have tried many products which ignore the gender differences in acne while using potentially harmful ingredients such as parabens (which have been banned in Europe due to their link to cancer).
Has anyone come across a treatment that is paraben-free and accounts for the gender differences in regard to acne?
By Kenneth on Sep 15, 2008