Do I need to treat my acne?

This question is often asked by people with one or two pimples at a time. Of course, the decision to treat the pimples is entirely up to each individual. Some people have many acne lesions and do not seem to mind while others are full of worries even with one pimple, especially on their nose.

Let us put it this way. If you get one new acne lesion per month with each lesion leave behind a scar, you will have 12 new scars per year. Therefore, it would be wise to treat the acne in order to prevent new acne lesions from forming and clear existing one so as to minimize the occurrence of permanent scarring.

Treating acne is definitely a lot easier than treating acne scars. And by the way, no matter what people tell you, one can never really get rid of acne scar, one can only lessen its appearance. Treatments are available to make the raised tissue around the scar flatter but I have yet to know any treatment that can raise sunken tissues effectively. And the cost of such treatment is prohibitive. So it is better to prevent the occurrence of acne scars than to treat acne scars. Therefore, it is indeed wise to treat acne from preventing any acne scar to form later on.

Wherever possible, avoid squeezing your acne lesions at this might lead to permanent scarring. Picking or squeezing at acne lesions also leads to a longer existence of your lesion and not to mention the associated pain that developed at the acne spots.

Anyway, by observing factors such as the duration and severity of your acne lesions, whether they are itchy and painful, the duration you have acne, your past response to acne treatment and the tendency of scarring and hyper pigmentation can greatly guide you in seeking treatment. It will help your dermatologist to decide the appropriate treatment for your acne condition too.

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Why antibiotic doesn't work forever for your acne?

The typical acne treatment, especially those that are being categorized as mild and moderate acne, is by using topical medications. It can either be purchased from your local pharmacy stores either through off the shelf or prescribed by your dermatologist.

However, for those with severe acne, it seems that the application treatment gels or creams do not do anything to improve the condition of one's acne. Most of the time, acne sufferers with severe acne condition will be recommended to go for antibiotic. Normally, this is the last resort in the medication profession to treat acne, Why? Because antibiotic, such as Accutane, does has its shares of harm in treating acne . Its side effects can be devastating and that is the reason why your dermatologist will use it to treat your acne for a short term period.


Antibioitics, as with most topical treatments, not only kill off P. acnes bacteria but also other friendly bacteria such as those pro biotic bacteria in your GI tract. Antibiotics work, where topical medications failed, because they contain stronger dosage of bacteria killing effects. Even though it works, its effect is never everlasting. In most cases, acne will return after the antibiotics treatment has been stopped for some times.

You would never cured it using this method as it is only treating the symptom of your acne condition, not the cause. That being said, it doesn't mean one should not resort to antibiotic to treat one acne condition which is severe. As a temporary counter measure, yes, we should try this treatment when typical acne treatments do not show any improvement in treating acne. Furthermore, in severe case of acne, the possibility of getting acne scar if nothing is done to treat it (and please believe me, acne need to be treated, it won't go away by itself) is high and believe me, treating acne scar is much much more difficult than treating any type of acne. In short, acne scar condition is almost non reversible. One can only lessen the effect of the scar, and never to get rid of it.

Prolonged usage of antibiotics will make your acne bacteria immune or resistance to its after some time as persistent exposure to the antibiotics will make our body develop a strain of acne bacteria that it resistant to it. When this happens, it is deemed that the antibiotic is futile in combating acne.

Remember that I did mention that antibiotics not only kill P.acnes bacteria but also other friendly bacteria in your G I tract? These friendly bacteria helps a lot in assisting us to absorb nutrients from the food we take. They also prevent fungus and many parasites to occupy the linens of our digestive system. I guess you can imagine what will happen to your overall health with the prolonged intake of antibiotics (to treat your acne) that completely kill off all your friendly flora bacteria. Now, you will not only get the severe acne condition again but also get a lot of chronic infections, among others include stomach ulcers, as an overall poor health system acts as a floodgate to lot and lot of diseases.        

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Why do we need to continuously treat our acne?

I bet this question will pop up on any acne sufferer who has acne pimples for a while. Do we really need to treat acne until it decides to go away? Do we really need to apply those topical acne gel or cream diligently? Couldn't we have some control over its popping up all over our face and body? Can't it be cured?

Well, if you read my post on the What is the true cause of acne?, you would know that there is indeed a solution to keep acne at bay. In the Is acne contagious? post, we know that acne bacteria can thrive only if they are being nurtured with the right environment. The act of applying acne gels or creams to the acne zits or spots meant to kill the bacteria that are proliferate there.

So you see, as long as we keep on applying the topical solution to the affected acne prone skin to kill off those acne bacteria, acne won't get a chance to develop. The moment we stop doing so, the acne development process will restart and acne will return will soon. This is unavoidable since we are treating the symptom, and not the actual root cause of acne.

That's why we often heard that acne is treatable but not possible to cure. We are not tackling the actual root cause of acne which is hormonal imbalanced and  toxins accumulation. Therefore, if one is really committed to keep acne away away for good, we need to tackle these two causes. But most acne sufferers just don't have the patience, faith  and time to travel this route as it really takes a long time to take effect. Even the time duration of seeing the effect of acne subsiding by the application of topical medications (a week or two) is too slow for them. After all, when one has acne, one is very anxious and embarrassed and want to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Most acne sufferers want instant result. Apply the medication today and see the acne pimples vanish the next morning. Believe me, this is not going to happen. The expectation of instant gratification in anything we do including getting rid of acne makes us concentrate on using medications to treat acne.       

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Is acne contagious?

I guess this question will be on the mind of every acne sufferers. Is acne contagious? Could acne be transferred from one person to another simply by touching or making contact with the acne prone area? Or is it possible acne can be transferred from one spot of the skin to another spot simply by touching both areas with a hand or finger?

In my previous post on The True Cause of Acne, we know that acne is caused by hormones imbalanced and congestion of toxins from our blood. Hormones imbalanced causes our sebaceous glands to excrete an immense amount of sebum. Congestion of toxins coupled with excessive skin shedding in the pilosebaceous unit (hair follicles) provides a conducive area for the acne bacteria to breed and multiply. With the presence of bacteria, the excessive sebum will become hardened and finally form what we known as acne.

That's why you often heard people said acne bacteria aggravates acne condition. It is only with the right condition (excessive sebum and a congestion of the toxins from our internal body system) that acne bacteria can thrive and cause acne to spread.

Therefore, simply touching one area of your skin free acne with your hand or finger laden with acne bacteria won't simply make that area infected with acne pimples. And do you know that some area of our skin (even with an enormous amount of acne bacteria population) won't have acne? Have you noticed your hand, fingers, and feet simply won't have acne?

So that means perfect skin person has acne bacteria on their skin but without the proper environment, acne won't get a chance to proliferate. Even though the acne bacteria are there, acne pimples are no where in sight. That's why I often say acne bacteria don't cause acne.








       

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What is the true cause of acne?

Whether one is looking to treat or to cure acne (yes, that right, I did mention the word cure), it would be a lot easier to do so if we understand what causes it.

Most of you might answer bacteria. Unfortunately, bacteria doesn't cause acne, even though it might aggravate acne. If bacteria causes acne, then how do you answer when there is certain place in our skin that acne just won't grow no matter how much acne bacteria you transfer to it.

Some of you might say genetic plays a big role. True to a certain extent but that it not the actual cause either. If it is, then one whole family would suffer acne. Do all your brothers and sisters have acne? And when there are two or three members in the family who are prone to acne, they said it is genetic. Have they ever paused and think that there might be something else that causes acne? Maybe there is some external trigger that causes acne. Something like one's lifestyle or the environment one live in.

Aha, now some of you might say overactive oil glands. Very close, as most of the acne sufferers were in their teens. In this stage of life, one's sebaceous oil glands secrete lot and lot of oil  and cause blockage to the follicles and eventually the accumulation of the hardening of oil there is known as acne.


Hmmm, seem like we have our answer there. Or is it? Let me ask you one question. Why do our sebaceous oil glands are so active in that stage of our lives? Why do pimple, acne, blackheads, zits, or whatever you like to call it, pop up at those unwelcome period?

Well, the answer lies in the imbalance of hormones. As hormones control the amount of sebum excreted by the sebaceous glands, an imbalanced hormones condition would make one's skin very oily. That's why most people will oily skin have acne. Most people but not all. Why? To have acne, we would need another ingredient. And this ingredient is none other than the congesting toxins in the sebaceous units originating from our blood and lymph. 

So now you know that an imbalanced hormone condition coupled with blood toxins cause acne.
 

     

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Birth Control Pills to Treat Your Acne

Birth control pills for acne? It's won't come as a surprise if we fully understand how acne begin in the first place. Caused by a blockage of pores in the hair follicles by excessive shedding of dead skin and secretion of sebum, acne pimple begin to take shape.

What causes an abnormally high amount of sebum secretion by the glands in our skin? It is mainly due to the excessive amount of male hormone, androgen and testosterone presence. When one is in teenage years, the female and male hormones are normally out of balance. And yes, the male hormones also made themselves present in a female body.

Birth control pill is used to bring back some stability of these hormones in the woman's body. Women normally experience great hormone fluctuation before their menstrual period. When these hormones are regulated and become more balance, acne outbreaks would not only become less severe but also less frequent.

A visit to a dermatologist for those with severe case of acne would normally lead to the prescription of isotretinoin. This medication, usuall come in the brand Accutane, is a risky drug to treat acne.       


To say that Accutane is risky to a pregnant woman is an understatement. It is a well known fact that Accutane causes great harm to one's fetus. Therefore, federal regulation are in placed to confirm one is not pregnant before taking Accutane. Also, screening of pregnancy is required for each refill of Accutane medication.

That's why your doctor normally prescribed birth control pill be taken together with Accutane to minimize the chance of getting pregnant during one's acne treatment using Accutane. However, as with all other acne medications, once you stop taking them, acne will come back to haunt you and might even be more severe than before.

One final note I must stress that when birth control pills are used to control one's acne, its effectiveness on its main function, ie. to avoid pregnancy, is greatly reduced due to the presence of Accutane. It still have its effect but it pays to get another birth control method in place to further reduce the probability of getting a baby.      

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How to prevent acne: is it possible?

I guess everyone who have acne would look for ways to prevent it. But is that possible?

To answer that question, you got to know why acne occur in the first place. It is not due to dirt or, the stuff you eat (though there're lots of debates going around about this point). It is mainly due to the hormonal change in our bodies. For teenagers, this hormone change is unavoidable. So is acne that come together with it.

Next, you may ask, "Since everyone experiences hormonal changes in their bodies, why not everyone get acne?" Interesting question. I guess by now, you already known that everyone of us is different. That includes our bodies. For most of us, our sebaceous glands will secrete more oil as a reaction to our hormonal changes while a small number of us do not show such symptom.

And when too much oil (sebum) is produced and coupled with the abnormal amount of dead skin shedding , our hair follicles will be blocked. When this takes place, it only a matter of days that acne lesions will pop up on our skin.

Though acne can't be prevented, it can be minimized. Taking steps to minimize the acne occurrence in our skin will save us tons of problem in dealing with our skin appearance later on in our life. So let take a look at ways to do so.

Remember I said earlier on, acne is not caused by dirt. So there is no need to wash your face repetitively daily. It won't make your pimples go away. Instead, it would only worsen your skin condition and makes it more acne-prone as over washing makes it drier. When your skin become too dry, the sebaceous glands will secrete more sebum and as a result, more acne breakouts will occur. Usually washing your face two times a day is sufficient in keeping your skin hygiene.

And do pat dry your skin after washing instead of rubbing with rough towel. Why? Surely you don't want to give your existing acne a chance to infect the skin area which is free of acne.

Some skincare companies give the misconception that hard scrub is good for our skin. Hope that you didn't tag along the same line. Remember our skin (especially the part that is on the face) is very delicate. To keep it clean, you don't have to scrub it vigorously. Such action would only "puncture" and injure it which would pose more problem to your acne condition.

Remember the age old saying that it is not wise to squeeze your pimples? Guess it is true that such an action would result in more breakouts. Squeezing or picking your pimples pushes the acne bacteria deeper into your skin and bacteria can also be transferred from your fingers to the respective skin area. Squeeze too hard and you increase the risk of having an acne scar. So it is best to leave your acne lesions alone unless you know what and how to do it properly.


As most of us have a mild case of acne, over the counter acne treatment would do fine. Get something mild (usually those medications contain benzoyl peroxide and go for the lowest concentration available) and give it a few weeks to work. Use it sparingly in the beginning to give your skin a chance to adapt it. More application of the treatment will only aggravate your acne breakouts and pose the treatment unsuitable for your skin. The moral of the story, more is not always better!
     

   

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