What Is Acne And Where Does It Come From? by George Hutton

There are no shortage of conditions which can have a dramatic effect on your well being and happiness. From simple, one or two day ailments to life long and debilitating maladies, there's plenty to choose from. There is one, however, that few people escape from. Some have it worse than others, and some have it much longer than others. I'm talking, of course, about acne.

What exactly is the cause of acne? In your skin, there are these things called pilosebaceous units, which are like little self contained machines that grow hair, and regulate your skin moisture. If, for whatever reason, something goes haywire inside this little machine, of which you have millions, you can get a pimple.

The pilosebaceous unit contains a few components. The first is called the hair follicle, and is where the hair on your skin grows. The hair follicles don't necessarily have hair growing in each one, but they're still there. Think of the hair follicle as where the root of your hair goes into your skin. Sort of similar to a small shaft, or a minuscule well.

Now, off to the sides of this shaft, or well, are some glands, called sebaceous glands which produce a kind of oil, called sebum. The reason your body makes this oil is to keep your skin healthy. This of course, is a requirement, as if it didn't happen, your skin would dry out and you would incur many different kinds of health problems. The glands produce the oil, which fills out onto your skin. This small well, or pore, is shared by both the hair follicle and the gland that produces the oil. During the time when everything is humming right along, there's no problem.

The problems happen when the top of the hair follicle becomes plugged for some reason. And medical science hasn't come to a definitive reason why this happens. But when the top becomes plugged, the sebum is still being produced, and it has nowhere to go. The pressure in the closed of pore builds, which makes a pimple. One idea is that when you go through puberty, your glands make a lot more oil that normal, and can cause your pores to clog, which causes the most acne. It also explains why we can have really oily skin during puberty.

There have been several factors which have been identified as possible causes for the hole getting plugged up. Puberty, diet, and stress. and of course, dirty skin, are believed to be the four most common. Most over the counter remedies for acne only address the surface conditions of the skin, and not the underlying reasons behind the cause. Only when you understand the underlying reasons can you effectively get rid of your acne for good.