Acne Causes

What Causes Acne?

There has been a significant amount of research done on acne and it’s causes. The question ‘what causes acne‘ is actually quite vague since there are so many different forms of acne, that may be occurring for a number of different reasons. Since the exact cause of acne is unknown, dermatologists can only confirm that acne can occur due to a number of different factors.

What Causes Blackheads

Before knowing what possible factors may be contributing to acne, it is important to understand what is occurring beneath the skin to cause the acne disorder. Skin has millions of oil pores known as pilosebaceous follicles, which essentially consists of a hair, a hair shaft (the pore) and an oil gland. Under normal circumstances, the pilosebaceous follicle contributes to keeping skin from drying by secreting oil (sebum) up through the hair shaft. Acne occurs when the oil gland secretes an excess amount of oil, which causes a blockage of the entire follicle known as a comedo (aka whiteheads and blackheads, known as comedones for plural).

What Causes Pimples

Blockage of the pores alone, however, is not enough to cause pimples. Pimples, also called ‘papules’ or ‘pustules’, occur when a certain bacteria, known as the ‘Propionobacterium acnes’ bacteria, multiplies within the oil that is secreted into the hair shaft beneath the comedo. Any time your body senses a presence of bacteria, white blood cells arrive to attack the source, in attempt to fight the infection, and the result is inflammation of the infected hair follicle. To the human eye, this is seen as an acne pimple.

Causes of Acne

While there is no one known reason for this process to occur, researchers have narrowed down a list of possible factors that may contribute to acne:

• Hormones
  Hormones (known as androgens) are the root cause for the over stimulation of the oil glands that leads to acne.
• Stress
  Stress can facilitate hormone production which can stimulate oil glands to produce more oil.
• Genetics
  It has been proven that acne is most often inherited through the family.
• Menstrual Cycle
  Some women experience acne at certain times in their menstrual cycle.
  
• Cosmetics
  Anything from makeups to lotions and soaps can contain oil that can worsen acne when used on acne-prone skin.
• Diet
  Some foods may be contributing factors to acne.

This page was added on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 5:09 am to About Acne.