Why You Need To Understand The Cause Of Acne To Skin

Acne is a skin condition characterized by whiteheads, blackheads, and inflamed red pimples or zits. By understanding the cause of acne to skin, you will have a clearer picture over the various methods of acne control for skin. It helps you to understand how different acne treatments work.

The cause of acne is complicated with many factors contributing to its creation. Genetics and hormones have been identified to have the most influence. Essentially, the cause of acne to skin can be broken down into a four-step process. Each step interacts with one another to cause blackheads, whiteheads and pimples, all associated with acne.

1. Overactive Oil Glands
   Sebaceous glands are oil glands located in your skin. They produce sebum, an oily substance, consisting chiefly of fat and cell debris. Hormones, particularly the male hormone called androgen, regulate the oil production in the sebaceous glands. Women have these hormones too but much less.
   
   Normally, the sebum or oil flows freely through skin pore to the surface and keep your skin moist. However, the hormonal changes during puberty usually cause the sebaceous glands to become overactive. Stress is also known to lead to the increase of hormones that stimulate the sebaceous glands. Whatever the reason, the result is more sebum than usual.
2. Blockage Of The Skin Pores
   The overflow of oil from the overactive oil glands alone is not the cause of acne to skin. If the oil flows normally to the skin surface, oily skin occurs. But the oil can just as easily be trapped within the skin pores if the pores become blocked. This is exactly what comedo--a plug forms by shed dead skin cells that have bunched together--does. It works like the cork of a bottle to clog the outflow of the oil. This is when acne starts to develop.
3. Overgrowth Of Normal Skin Bacteria
   The trapped oil will result in the proliferation of the Propionibacterium acnes or p. acnes, for short. P. acnes is normally a harmless bacterium residing in your skin. It feeds on the fatty acids in the sebum secreted by sebaceous glands. When a skin pore is clogged, p. acnes overgrows and secretes chemicals that break down the wall of the pore. It becomes easy for other harmful bacteria to attack the skin, forming acne lesion or inflammation.
4. Inflammation
   The bacteria infection will trigger the immune system of your body to go into defense. Your body will try to contain the harmful bacteria or the irritating by-products they have produced. The end result is the swelling and inflammation experienced as pimples and zits.

The androgens hormone is the main cause of acne to skin. Acne starts to develop when changes in androgens result in overproduction of skin oil. Couple with the clogging of skin pores and the overgrowth of skin bacteria, it results in the inflamed skin of pimples. By understanding the process and cause of acne, you're now better able to control acne.