Acne Myth No. 7
Dirt Is a Cause for Acne – WRONG
The fact that dirt or dust could cause acne is one of those grandma’s beliefs! As you will see, it’s nothing more than a common belief, or a groundless myth about this annoying skin disorder.
Common people have always believed only in what they could see, touch, taste etc. That’s why they have only recently started to understand that their health may be put in danger by lots of un-seen elements like microbes, germs, bacteria and so. Only recently they have started to wash themselves properly although they couldn’t see dirt on their hands!
In the same way common people attributed dirt the role of causing acne. But, as scientists have showed, this belief is groundless. So that you could understand that dirt couldn’t be a cause for such a sensitive skin disorder, you must find out the mechanism behind acne: the skin disorder is practically caused by the skin’s sebaceous glands’ excessive production of oil.
In the acne sufferers’ bodies the sebaceous glands become extremely excited by such factors as stress, hormones, excessive heat and others and they start to excessively produce sebum. Sebum represents the natural oil that the sebaceous glands produce and then release into your hair’s follicles.
However, although sebum is the most important inner element that is related to acne, you must know that it originally had a normal, un-harming reason of existence in your body. It represents a natural moisturizer for your skin and for your hair. The people whose skin lacks of sebum suffer from dry hair and skin – and that’s also a disorder.
So, the only important thing about sebum is that it must be produced by the sebaceous glands in normal quantities. When you lack of sebum or when you experience an excess of sebum – in both cases you are suffering from a skin disorder. In some cases the factors that cause acne and dry skin are the same. It depends on each body’s way of “understanding” them and eventually on the way they will affect the skin’s sebaceous glands’ production of sebum.
So, in the case of acne, the excess sebum production is being released into the skin’s pores and there it starts to harden and forms a plug. Normally the help of a bacterium called P. Acnes that is present in the pores can break down sebum into fatty acids and consume it. But, when the hardened plug of sebum is clogging the pores, you’ll eventually get a black- or a whitehead.
It is sometimes possible the sebum to combine with dead skin cells and dirt inside the skin’s pores, so that they become infected and form pimples. But that doesn’t mean that dirt is a cause of acne, or that the blackheads are called that way because they contain dirt. It is the presence of the melanin that turns the sebum black, as a result of its being exposed to the air at the surface of the pores (It oxidizes.).
So, you’ve understood that dirt is not a cause for acne and you’ve as well found out a little bit more about this skin disorder and the inner mechanism that produces it.
You should finally know that the first thing that you must do if you’ve got acne is to wash your face or all the prone areas once or twice a day with mild soap and water. Although grandma will happily say that this is going to remove the dirt and you’ll eventually get rid of acne, you must understand that’s not all. Washing your body and your hair could cut down the excess oils that could harm your skin, but in just few cases that will be enough. Acne is a disorder and must be treated as such! Luckily there are lots of treatments and ways of getting rid of the un-esthetic skin disorder!