Home Remedies for Acne

What causes acne is not fully understood yet but what is understood is that you can take steps in your every day life to prevent the development or at least decrease the prevalence of acne.  Many of the things that you can do will only take a few minutes a day, or are common sense, but when you put them all together you can wave goodbye to your acne problem for good.

Useful tips for preventing acne include:

● Wash your face twice daily.  Once in the morning and once before bed.

● If you have oily skin, use an astringent daily to remove the excess oil.

● Use oil free moisturizers after washing your skin.

● Keep your hair off your face.  The oil in your hair may cause acne.

● Take a multi-vitamin every day.

● Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.

● Remove all make up before going to bed.

● Use water based make up.

● Avoid sun exposure

● Exercise to help encourage good blood flow

● Avoid spreading by not squeezing or popping acne

As you can see, these are some simple ideas that when you read over them seem like common sense.  Unfortunately, more of us do not head this advice so it is difficult to prevent acne.  If you currently have acne, follow these tips for one month and then compare the health of your skin.  You’ll be surprised how much you can transform you skin in relatively little time by following these really simple tips.

Acne symptoms usually go way beyond a small red bump that most people call a pimple.  While most of us only associate these red bumps with acne there are many symptoms, some of which you may overlook or not directly associate with the acne that you do recognize.  It’s important to realize that not every person is going to experience the same set of acne symptoms.  In addition, acne may not present the same way with each break out.

Symptoms of acne include but are not limited to:

# Cysts
# Nodules
# Pustules
# Blackheads
# Whiteheads
# Papules

You can experience symptoms of acne just about anywhere on your body.  While the face and neck region are usually the most common areas you can also see the symptoms of acne on the chest, shoulders, upper arms, and back.  Acne can occur, but is not as common on the legs, arms, and torso.

Inflamed Acne

There are two types of acne, with the more noticeable of the two being inflamed acne.  Inflamed acne is more visible because it causes redness and swelling in and around the affected area.  This type of acne may involve all of the symptoms listed above as well as oozing from the areas as well as crusting as they heal.  Inflamed acne can range in severity from very mild to very severe.  It is those who suffer from inflamed acne that often experience the most pain as well as the most scarring and associated low self esteem.

Non Inflamed Acne

Non inflamed acne is usually less noticeable because they are not red, irritated, and painful.  Non inflamed acne usually is associated with bumps on the surface of the skin.  The non inflamed acne usually presents with blackheads and white heads but does need to be treated or it could turn into inflamed acne.

There are a lot of myths out there about what really causes acne.  The fact of the matter is that many of the myths are misleading.  The primary cause of acne is the abnormal development of a cell that leads to the hair follicle becoming plugged.  The plugged follicle then ruptures and all of the oil and debris leaks into the skin where it causes swelling and redness.  While this is what acne is, there are several different theories of what causes it to happen.

Bacteria are a common culprit and the most frequent cause of acne.  It is normal for some bacteria to be on the skin but the bacteria are capable of producing irritants in the form of enzymes that can dissolve the oil from the glands in the skin, making irritation worse and perhaps causing acne to form.

It is also thought that hormones are also responsible for acne.  ‘Androgens’ are a type of hormones, present in both men and women, and they are responsible for enlarging the sebaceous glands in the skin.  The hormone also causes the glands to produce more oil, which can lead to the plugging of the cells.  The bacteria in the skin feed on the increased oil, causing  widespread acne problem in some people.

Estrogens are female hormones that may contribute to acne problems.  The amount of estrogen that is secreted changes during the menstrual cycle, which is why many women struggle with acne around the time of her period.

Genetics is thought to be a contributing factor associated with acne.  There has not yet been a scientific link, but many doctors recognize that acne runs in families regardless of what the individual tries to do to avoid the skin condition.  Studies are currently being conducted to determine why acne runs in some families but not in others.

There are many people that think eating certain foods or not washing enough cause acne.  While eating healthy and washing regularly definitely help to promote healthy skin, these things alone will not necessarily keep you from suffering from acne.  The production of hormones and the presence of bacteria are not something that you can control, neither is a genetic predisposition.