Acne Essay, Research Paper

Almost everyone has acne at one time or another in life. Acne is a skin condition that can cause pimples such as, white heads and black heads to appear on the face, chest, back, neck, and shoulders. Most teenagers have acne for about five years, but for others it clears up much faster. Not only teenagers go through acne, but women that did not experience acne during puberty, can also get acne in there twenties and thirties. Women can also get minor acne before there menstrual period. All of us are affected by acne at one point in time or another, and some less than others, but all of us experience it and just have to deal with it because the best remedy for getting rid of acne is time.

Acne begins in the upper part of the hair follicle, where sebaceous glands discharge sebum, an oily substance that keeps skin from drying out. During puberty, the sebaceous glands enlarge dramatically. If pores near these glands become clogged with dead skin cells or oily cosmetics, the sebum accumulates underneath, causing inflammation in the surrounding skin. The acne is further aggravated when bacterial enzymes break down the sebum into irritating substances that add to the inflammation and swelling. If several follicles in the same area become inflamed, scarring can also occur. There are several forms of acne, but the most common is vulgaris, found mostly in teenagers, whose hormonal changes cause a large increase in the size of the sebaceous glands and in sebum production.

As stated before the best remedy for acne is time, and just letting acne go away on its own is the best. People with moderate cases of acne may use topical antibiotics, and also take small doses of antibiotics given orally over long periods of time. Other therapies that have been found effective include the topical use of retinoic acid or benzoyl peroxide. Most experts agree that greasy or oily cosmetics should not be used, and that water-based cosmetics should be used instead. The best way to cleanse your skin is by washing often with plain soap and water. Use a washcloth, and work the soap into your skin gently for a minute or two, and then rinse well. But make sure that you use a clean washcloth every day because bacteria thrives on wet and warm wash clothes, which in end can actually cause more acne. Acne should not be picked or squeezed because this may result in scarring.

After calling the Portland Information Guide and doing a lot more extra research on the Internet, I have learned how acne actually comes about. Before I thought that acne just happened due to the fact of over-active hormones during puberty, but I learned that there was much more to acne than just that. Another thing that I learned was hot to better take care of my face and to lessen the amount of acne that I will get. Before I knew that washing your face was good, but I wasn?t aware that there were actual perscriptions for acne that are taken orally in a pill form. Another thing that I learned was that antibiotics also could help decrease the amount of acne. All in all I though that this call and research was very valuable to me because now I am a teenager and that?s when I will need this information the most, and I am glad that I made the call and did the research.

Sources on Internet for Research:

1. WWW.Lycos.COM

2. WWW.WebMD.COM

3. WWW.Yahoo.COM