What Causes Acne

Though most of us at one point or another suffer from acne, few of us really have an understanding of acne. We spend millions of dollars annually buying products that promise to give us clear skin so that we won't be embarrassed in public. Yet those of us spending the money on acne products often find our complexions aren't any clearer than they were before we purchased these acne products. A lot of this can be traced to us not truly understanding acne. We need to gain a better understanding of what causes acne so that we can gain a better understanding of how to prevent acne.

One of the popular beliefs about acne going around is that it is the result of poor hygiene. While poor hygiene may in fact contribute to some people suffering from acne, many people with very good hygiene still suffer from acne. In each case of acne, there are a variety of contributing factors that work together to result in the acne. There is not one single thing a person does that can buy itself cause acne, unless there are already other contributing factors in place.

One factor we know to be very associated with the development of acne is hormones. All you need to do as look at those years when people tend to have the most hormonal activity and you will note that there is a very strong correlation to those years when people tend to have the most acne problems.

One theory behind why hormones may be a factor in the development of acne is that the sebaceous glands secret excessive amounts of oil during times of heavy hormonal activity. This oil, which is also consider a factor in most acne cases, coincides with the blockage of these sebaceous glands where bacterial infections begin. Most of the treatment remedies on the market today attempt to deal with this excess oil.

You can kind of see from this how if the excess oil were not one of the contributing factors to your acne problem, these treatments would all be useless. Not only that, but the damage caused to the skin as a side effect of their use could be a contributing factor to acne too. This is why many people have begun trying out natural remedies that deal with contributing factors to acne without causing any additional problems.

Many people have decided that the best thing they can do is treat the problems at the lowest contributing factor levels. Living a healthy lifestyle would be one such treatment example. Instead of attacking the oil caused by excess hormones, a healthy lifestyle might help balance out the hormones so that the oil never happens. Additionally, it might provide for better skin health and immune function at the skin level.