Affordable Acne Treatments

As is the case with many conditions there is a lot of information available about acne and what causes it and this information is a mixture of both fiction and fact. So, let us take a look at some of those things that are being circulated and see if we can sort out the fiction from the fact.

Food

There is no direct connection between eating such things as greasy cheeseburgers and chocolate or drinking excessive soft drinks and getting acne spots. What is true is that what we eat plays an important role in the way the body functions and thus it does have a minor role to play in whether getting acne is more or less likely.

For example, eating greasy foods does not directly turn into increased oil production from the sebaceous glands which contributes to acne, although foods which do cause a rise in oil production would of course have an effect. However, iodized salt is as yet the only food substance that has been demonstrated to have any measurable effect and it only worsens existing acne but does not cause it.

Hygiene

The odds of developing an acne spot increase when a pore gets blocked and bacteria get trapped inside. What this means is that hygiene habits that work to close the pores can play a role. However this effect is only very small and the dead skin cells and bacteria which become trapped and cannot work their way out of the pore to the surface are influenced only to a small degree by an absence of regular face washing.

Nevertheless, once acne arrives good skin care is especially important and mild cleansing twice a day with soap and water helps in treating acne and encouraging healthy skin in general. Cleanliness is a good idea for a number of reasons although it helps most in treating acne because it provides a good surface for medications to do their work most efficiently.

Pimples are strongly influenced by excess skin oil (sebum) production that is triggered in the main by hormones and abrasive cleansers that are applied roughly do not merely clear away any excess oil but also damages the the ability of the skin to deal with it.

Stress

Because stress has a tendency to weaken the body’s immune system and influence its hormone levels it might be thought that stress would play a part in the onset of acne. However, there is no evidence to suggest that stress produces acne, but there is evidence to suggest that it might play a small role after acne has arrived.

One of the problems with assessing the role of stress is that people who suffer from chronic stress also also suffer from additional health problems which complicate things. Do not forget too that here we are talking about clinical stress and not simply the worries which we all have as part of the ups and downs of day to day living.

Medication

Many people are tempted to raise the dosage of an over-the-counter medication believing that if a little medicine does a little bit of good then a lot will do a lot of good. Regretably, this is not so and it both wastes medicine and might actually harm the skin. Always follow the instructions on any medicine and if any medicine is not showing signs of working within a reasonable period of time then it is a good idea to consult your dermatologist.

It is also worthy of note that there is no such thing as the best acne medicine. Each of us is different and a medication that proves to be the best acne medication for one person will not necessarily do the trick for someone else.