Acne Myth No. 8

Hormones Are Related to Acne – RIGHT
The fact the hormones have something to do with acne is not longer a myth, it’s reality. Acne is directly related to hormones, as these ones are some of the most sensitive and important elements from the human body, which influence or cause a lot of disorders and health problems, if imbalanced.
As you’ve just read, hormones have something to say about acne too. The high levels of the androgen and testosterone hormones are some of the most frequent facts that lead to acne and to other disorders too. The hormonal imbalances between the androgen and estrogen female specific hormones are known to affect the health of your skin. On the other hand, testosterone, the male specific hormone, has its own influence on acne and other (skin) disorders. However, you must know that these hormones are found in all people, men and women, but in different quantities, which determines their gender specificity.
As hormones are the regulators of our body’s every function, such as growth, sleep and many others, your skin’s health depend also on these elements. If they are in a normal balance, you’re a healthy person with no skin problems; but if they are not in balance, you can easily become an acne sufferer.

The skin problems caused by hormones generally start once the child becomes a teenager. The puberty period starts when the child is nine or ten years old, when the adrenal glands start to secrete androgen and dihydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS). Then testosterone and dehydrotestosterone (DHT) join in at the onset of the puberty.
All these hormones tend to stimulate the skin’s sebaceous glands to produce more sebum. As boys have more male hormones, the teen acne tends to affect and to be more severe in males.
You should also know that treating teen acne is a difficult thing, as the teenagers’ hormones are in continual fluctuation. They could firstly respond to certain medication and antibiotics, but then they could also stop reacting to them. That is why the doctors have to continually change the medications, for accommodating the hormonal changes.
Anyway, this hasn’t been the only period when hormones could cause acne. Starting with the age of 19-24 years old, young people can experience this skin disorder too. They will get specific acne lesions on the lower face, mainly on the chin and the jaw line, although the lesions could affect also the people’s chest and back. In fact there is even a name for the acne that appears on your back: it’s back-acne!
However, you should know that there are women who are mainly affected by adult hormonal acne starting with their mid 20s or 30s. They are usually experiencing constant breakouts the week before their period. The doctors’ advice for these women is to see a dermatologist, as the problem is not temporary, as it might look like.
Treating acne caused by hormonal imbalances is somehow difficult, as the imbalances aren’t constant. However, in the case of women the doctors could prescribe birth control pills for suppressing the androgens, or small amounts of corticosteroids when the inflammation is severe. In some cases the corticosteroids could actually aggravate the skin disorder.

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!

Acne Myth No. 6 - Part IV

Stay Away from Skin Products that Are “Oil Free”, as well as from Those Containing Lanolin!
Although this is not some sort of battle against the producers of cosmetics, but against acne, you should know that these fellows are somehow tricky. As the products containing oil have been recently discovered as being harmful for your skin, the nowadays cosmetics’ labels proclaim them as “oil free” products. So, if you have read only the previous post you’ll buy these recent “non-harmful” products, priding yourself of being an intelligent customer. But, it is very possible for you to still not get rid of acne!
Why’s that? – you will rightfully ask yourself.
The problem is that the cosmetics producers have been driven by good intentions, but they unfortunately fell out of the frying-pan into the fire. When the recent researches have showed that the oil from the cosmetic products is harmful for acne sufferers, the producers have not eliminated the oil from their products; they have substituted it with some synthetic chemicals. As you may have already guessed these synthetic elements that have substituted the oil from cosmetics are much more harmful than the excess sebum found on the skin clogging the pores. So, although that they are “oil free” is practically true for the new cosmetic products, this hasn’t made them better for your skin; on the contrary their synthetic chemical elements are even more harmful if you suffer from acne.

So, what should you do, if even the “oil free”-labeled products are in fact harmful? Return to the oily cosmetics? Well, that would be it! But, you should first know how to make the difference between good and bad oils.
As you have read, there are two types of oils used in the cosmetic industry: the good ones and the bad ones. The good ones are called “non-penetrating” oils; these are the mineral oil, the sunflower oil and others and they are called “non-penetrating” because they don’t penetrate your skin, being this way less harmful for it than the oils that are strong penetrators causing comedones.
But be careful in choosing your cosmetics! Try not to confound the “non-penetrating” oils to natural oils. Remember the mineral and the sunflower oils as the most used good oils. They are natural elements, and they are good oils too.
On the other hand, there are also other natural oils, which are on the contrary very harmful for your skin. This is the case of Lanolin, which is a bad oily substance and which is unfortunately used very often in the cosmetics industry. Lanolin can be found in many lotions, cremes and sunscreens and has been discovered to trigger acne.
Lanolin is a fatty acid that is produced from the sheep’s wool. It has been thought that Lanolin is promoting smooth skin, but the researches have showed that its skin-penetrating effect makes it a direct cause for acne.
In addition to Lanolin, the ones who suffer from acne should be careful not to use products containing Isopropyl Myristate, which is very aggressively penetrating the skin, although it had been claimed to be an element that makes the skin smoother. It is now said that this element could be in fact used as a rust-remover.
In the end, you must also find out that the cosmetic dyes have proved to worsen the acne condition because of their comedogenous nature and that the stronger the cosmetics’ fragrances are the worse they you’ll affect your skin disorder.

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