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Cause of acne
Acne happens when hair follicles, also know as pores, become blocked. There may be one or more reasons for this and even though these reasons are not yet fully understood, there are certain aspects that affect both teenagers and adults.
These can include hormones, vitamin deficiency, poor diet, stress and even genetics where acne can run in a family.
Other factors could include how your body normally rids itself of its dead skin cells and influences that may be working against this regularity (for example climate and other environmental forces or overall body health at the time) and your hormones and their effect on your own body’s sebum production (especially for females).
Then, the normal dead skin cells that combine with your body’s own natural sebum oil as it drains through the skin’s surface become clogged in these blocked pores. This substance becomes somewhat sticky, further clogging the passageway.
After this, bacteria begin to grow around these clogged areas and as a normal reaction, your body’s white blood cells attack the bacteria, this causes the redness and swelling.
Finnally, the resulting growths during this 14-day to 21-day battle are called microcomedones. Microcomedones then turn into comedones, which are usually referred to as pimples, blemishes or acne.
What causes acne? The cause of Acne
There are four basic types of acne; whiteheads, blackheads, pimples and nodules. Whiteheads are when the sebum (oil) and resulting bacteria are trapped below the skin’s surface and you can actually see a white head appear above the skin.
Blackheads are when the sebum and resulting bacteria are only partially trapped, slowly draining out the surface and turning black because of your skin’s melanin or pigmentation..
Finally there are the smaller pimples and the larger, deeper, boil-like lesions, referred to as nodules. |
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