An Insight into Teenage Acne

Being a teenager can be trying and frustrating. In addition to worrying about what grade you made on the algebra test you took last week or who you’re going to the end of term disco with, you may have to deal with the embarrassment of acne. That’s right, acne...the dreaded four-letter-word many teens hate. Why is it that right before you go on that big date or the day before you take the yearbook pictures, you have a breakout? Dealing with an occasional zit every now and then isn’t so bad, but living with zits every day can take a huge toll on your self-esteem. Let’s take a look at what acne is, the myths about what causes acne and what you can do to get rid of it with the correct skin care products.

What is acne?

Acne is a skin disease that affects the follicles, or tiny pores that cover your face and body. A follicle is a tiny duct in the skin where hair grows. Inside each follicle, at the bottom of the hair, is a sebaceous gland that produces oil called sebum. When your body produces too much sebum, the pores become sticky and clogged with oil and dead skin, resulting in the bacteria on your skin becoming infected and inflamed. This inflammation is the birth of acne. Acne also is hereditary. If your parents had acne, then chances are you’ll have it too.

Remember, you are not alone. Almost every teen in the world gets spots. The National Centre for Health Statistics report that only 28 percent of kids age 12 to 17 have clear skin.

Types of Acne

White heads are formed when a plug of sebum closes up the pore and forms a tiny bump with a white centre. Blackheads are clogged pores with a dark centre. A lot of people think the dark centre in a Blackhead is dirt, which is not true. The dark colour you see is a result of the pores being opened up and exposed to air.

Before getting treated for your acne problem one should know the cause of acne. There are mainly two reasons as to why teens are more prone to acne. The first reason being nature sending all the nutrition required by the testes and the ovaries during the teen years to insure there will be adequate sexual maturation in order to guarantee the perpetuation of the species. In cases where the diet does not have enough of the important micronutrients, such as Vitamin A and Vitamin B-2 to insure the conversion of the basic cholesterol molecule to both sex hormones and healthy oil for the skin, the sex hormones will take control and the skin will suffer.

The second reason is that the typical teenager’s diet consists primarily of processed foods which are woefully deficient in the basic micro nutrients required to create both hormones and healthy skin, thus their diet is setting them up to have skin that is going to be nutritionally deprived and highly prone to develop severe acne.

Now that you have learned a little about teenage acne, it depends a lot on the individual to take care of himself and his acne problem. One should always avoid following myths about acne and improve on their daily habits to get rid of acne. A good start is also to purchase skin care products to protect our skin. Skin care products will also help us to protect our skin from being greasy and give our skin essential oils and nutrients to help the skin breathe and also clean itself.

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