The first step to solving any problem is being well-informed. You must arm yourself with knowledge in order to find the best approach. Knowledge will give you the power to control your problem, to deal with it, to solve it. First you must know what you're dealing with in order to know how to fight it. So, what is acne? Acne is a skin disease that involves the oil glands of the skin. These glands produce an oily liquid called sebum. In certain conditions ( a high level of hormones, for example ) the oil glands under the skin grow, making more sebum than normal and when this sebum mixes with dead cells and clogs the skin's pores, acne begins.
Acne is the most common skin disorder. Study shows that more than three-quarters of 12 to 30 year-old will get acne at some point in their lives. Most affected are teenagers, because of the hormonal changes that come with puberty, especially adolescent boys and young men, because they have higher levels of androgens. That's way they are also more likely to develop severe acne.
But acne is not just a teenage problem. Some people in their forties and fifties still get acne, mostly women, because women ( of all ages ) tend to experience more hormonal imbalances than man throughout their adulthood life. Also women must deal with this condition in the days just before their menstrual period.
Acne appears most frequently on the face, but can also appear on the neck, on the chest, on the shoulders, on the back, usually in those areas with the highest number of oil glands. Is also good to know that acne can be irritated or made worse by certain factors: wrong eating habits, a high level of stress, tight clothing that may irritate the skin, touching your face with your hands dirty, using oily cosmetics or products that contain irritating substances, washing your face too often or scrubbing your skin too hard, taking medications which contain hormones etc.Acne is not a dangerous disease, but is a visible condition, that can leave the skin with unaesthetic and, in some cases, serious scars, producing mental and emotional effects and affecting a person's self-confidence.
The good news is that you can do a lot to treat your acne using cosmetic or medical products available without a prescription or using a lot of natural treatments. However, for tougher cases , you must consult a physician for the right treatment .
