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Acne treatments
Up till now, there has been no medicine available to cure acne completely.
But there are good medicines which can get rid of existing acne and
prevent the formation of new acne. One must remember that acne is
a skin disorder caused by mostly internal factors, so a good understanding
of what it takes to relieve acne is key.
The basic treatment of acne involves interfering with the way acne
develops. As we know, acne occurs when the androgen hormones cause sebaceous
glands to grow and produce more sebum (oily substance).
With increased sebum production, many other changes take place in the
cell lining of hair follicle to which sebaceous glands are attached.
These changes include a quicker shedding of cell wall lining, thus increasing
the amount of dead cell in the follicle. These dead cells and increased
amounts of sebum obstruct the hair follicle and attract bacteria living
in the skin to attack these hair follicles, causing inflammation and
forming acne.
A normal hair follicle.
This primary acne is called comedones. Given the way acne is formed,
acne treatments involve one or more of the methods of reducing sebum
production, reducing acne causing bacterium P.acnes, and normalizing
shedding of skin cells.
To decide upon an effective treatment for the acne patient, the physician
should take into consideration the patients’ medical history
and examine the acne lesions carefully to determine their exact nature.
Some internal body chemistry like pregnancy,
medications, medical problems, rashes, endocrinological, menstrual,
psychological and occupational issues may all play a role in producing
acne.
Regardless of the treatment the acne sufferer has been prescribed,
there are certain guidelines which must be followed during treatment
of acne so that the inflammation does not increase due to outer factors.
Ironically, one should not pop, squeeze or pick at the acne. This
is the most common habit found in acne patients and it only results
in spreading the infection to other, non-infected sites of skin. Aside
from spreading the infection, picking and squeezing the acne might
worsen the common acne into a more severe form, cysts,
which is a deep infection under the skin and has the potential of
causing permanent scarring of the skin.
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The acne patient should wash the face at least twice in a day, with
some gentle medicated soap and warm water to keep the skin fresh from
extra sebum. Refrain from vigorous washing or scrubbing of acne as
it will definitely cause the acne to worsen. After washing, a topical
exfoliant (one of the most recommended being Benzoyl
Peroxide) should
be used to remove the dead layer of skin while the skin is wet. Doing
so will allow a toner to cleanse the pores and healthy skin. After
cleansing with a toner, one should use a restoring cream to kill any
bacteria and prevent the acne from returning. If you are looking for
a three-step kit like this now, which is what many dermatologists recommend,
take a look at Tru-derma. If
you continue to use this three step process every day, there is a good
chance you may never have acne again.
Cosmetics should be used with utmost care. Preference should be given
to non -comedogenic cosmetics. In fact, use of cosmetics by people suffering
from acne should be avoided as much as possible.
In treatment of acne, as stated above, attention is paid to obstruct
the factors which cause acne stimulation. Thus oral antibiotics
and topical solutions are used in treating acne.
Common acne may be controlled with the help of topical solutions, but
to control inflammatory acne, systemic antibiotics
are required. The antibiotics
that have proved to be most effective include tetracycline, doxycycline,
minocycline and erythromycin. These drugs penetrate the follicle, even
sebaceous glands and decrease the colonization of bacteria P.acnes.
In women and girls, oral contraceptives may be a useful therapy in
treating acne and these contraceptives tend to remove the hormonal imbalance
which is the most common cause of acne in women. Oral contraceptives
reduce the level of androgen hormones and thus prevent it from stimulating
the sebaceous glands into producing an increased amount of sebum.
Treatment of acne in pregnant patients requires extra caution as many
medications have the potential to cause severe damage to the fetus.
All the medications for acne have advantages and disadvantages. That’s
why acne medication should always be done under the supervision of some
professional skin specialist, physician or dermatologist.
Any discomfort or side effect should be immediately reported to the
treating doctor. Usually, treatment of acne should be relatively painless
and comfortable. If this is not the case, then it should be immediately
brought to the attention of the physician and the causative agent should
be modified.
Other Resources:
http://www.skincarephysicians.com/acnenet/treatmnt.html
http://www.acne.net/
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