Acne - What is it? Who Gets it? What causes Acne?

Acne - What is it? Who Gets it? What causes Acne?

Hello again to all my wonderful followers.



Today, I thought I'd talk about Acne as I've suffered from this since I was very young and still break out occasionally even though I'm in my mid 40s!



Acne is a common skin problem seen by GPs and is treatable in most cases.  Treatment can take several months depending on the case but can be quite successful and reduce risk of future scarring.



WHAT IS ACNE AND WHO GETS IT?

ACNE is the common cause of 'spots'.  Most people with acne are aged between 12 and 25, but some older and younger people are affected.  Acne usually affects the face but may also affect the back, neck, and chest.  It can be mild to severe.  About 9 in 10 teenagers develop some degree of acne.  Often it is mild.  However, it is estimated that about 3 in 10 teenagers have acne bad enough to need treatment to prevent scarring.  Untreated acne usually lasts about 4-5 years before settling.  However, it can last for many years in some cases.

WHAT CAUSES ACNE?



During the teenage years, you make more sebum (oil that lubricates skin and hairs) than when you were a child.  This is due to the hormone changes of puberty.  As a rule, the more sebum that you make, the more greasy your skin feels, and the worse acne is likely to be.



MILD TO MODERATE ACNE - BLACKHEADS, WHITEHEADS, AND SMALL PIMPLES

Some pores become blocked ('plugged') due to the skin at the top of the pores becoming thicker, combined with dead skin cells that are shed into the pores.  You can see the 'plugs' that block the top of the pores as tiny spots known as comedones (blackheads and whiteheads).  Note: the black of the blackheads is due to skin pigment, and is not dirt as some people think.  In most cases, acne does not progress beyond this mild stage.  Some sebum may collect under blocked pores.  You can see this as small spots called pimples.

MODERATE TO SEVERE ACNE - LARGER SPOTS AND INFLAMMATION

Trapped sebum is ideal for a bacteria called P.acnes to live and multiply.  Small numbers of this bacteria normally live on the skin and do no harm.  However, if a large number develop in the trapped sebum, the immune system may react and cause inflammation.  If inflammation develops, it causes the surrounding skin to become red, and the spots become larger and filled with pus (pustules).  In some cases the pustules become even larger and form into small 'nodules' and cysts.

In some cases these inflammatory spots can leave small marks or scars which may not fade fully.  There are other rarer causes of acne but if you are concerned about acne, please see your own GP.



In addition acne may be worsened by the following:

• In women, the hormone changes around the monthly period may cause a flare-up of spots.

• Thick or greasy make-up may, possibly, make acne worse.  However, most make-up does not affect acne.  You can use make-up to cover some mild spots.  Non-comedogenic or oil-free products are most helpful for acne-prone skin types.

• Picking and squeezing the spots may cause further inflammation and scarring.

• Sweating heavily or humid conditions may make acne worse.

• Spots may develop under tight clothes.  This may be due to increased sweating and friction under tight clothing.

• Drugs: steroids, certain contraceptives, epilepsy medication and some creams containing steroid.

• Note - Acne is not caused by poor hygiene, diet or stress.

TREATMENT AND SKIN CARE IN ACNE

SKIN CARE:

• Do not wash more than normal.  Twice a day is normal for most people.  Use a mild soap and lukewarm water.  (Very hot or cold water may worsen acne.)  Do not scrub hard when washing acne affected skin.

• Do not use abrasive soaps, cleansing granules, astringents, or exfoliating agents.  Use a soft wash cloth and fingers instead.  Excess washing and scrubbing may cause more inflammation, and possibly make acne worse.

• Antiseptic washes are heavily advertised, but are unlikely to make any difference.

• You cannot clean off blackheads.  The black tip of a blackhead is actually melanin (skin pigment) and cannot be removed by cleaning or scrubbing.

• Some topical acne treatments (described below) may dry the skin.  If this occurs, use a fragrance free, water-based moisturiser cream.  Do not use ointments or oil rich creams as these may clog pores.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

The aim of treatment is to clear spots as much as possible, and to prevent scarring.

There are different types of treatment that work in different ways and depend on the severity and type of acne you may have.

TOPICAL PREPARATIONS FOR ACNE

Benzoyl peroxide (OTC) - it kills bacteria, reduces inflammation, and helps to unplug blocked pores and works well to clear inflamed spots.  It also helps to clear blackheads and whiteheads.  Retinoids may also help unblock pores but is available on prescription only.  Topical antibiotics may help reduce the number of bacteria and reduce inflammation.

TABLETS THAT CAN TERAT ACNE

Antibiotic purchase cialis work by killing and help in reducing inflammation.  However, they have little effect on unplugging blocked pores.  So, if you only have mild acne with just blackheads and whiteheads, you are better off using a topical treatment that unblocks pores.  The pill (a hormone treatment) may help some women if their acne seems to be partly related to their hormone changes.

Isotretinoin cheap cialis (roaccutane) - greatly reduces the amount of sebum that you make by the sebaceous glands.  It works very well, and usually clears spots even in severe cases.  However, it is used only on the advice of a specialist after other treatments have been tried first because there is a risk of serious side effects with Isotretinoin tablets.

HOW LONG IS TREATMENT NEEDED?

Whatever treatment is used, it normally takes up to four weeks for there to be any noticeable improvement in the skin.  There is often a good response to treatment by six weeks.  However it can take up to four months (sometimes longer) for maximum response to a treatment, and for the skin to be generally free of spots.  The most common reason for a treatment failure is because some people think that treatment is not working after a couple of weeks or so, and give up.

In some cases maintenance treatment is then required with topical benzoyl peroxide or topical retinoids.  If you are concerned about acne or any skin condition, it is always best to contact your own doctor for further advice or treatment.

Article taken from Waterford News & Star, Ireland.

Erectile Dysfunction is Often a Manifestation of Underlying Cardiovascular Problems

"Erectile dysfunction [ED] be recurrently a manifestation of underlying cardiovascular teething troubles. It even precede angina - it can be an precipitate admonition, bordered next to that respect," said Dr. Andrew McCullough, superior of mannish sexual robustness, fertility and microsurgery at New York University School of Medicine in New York City.

The advent of Viagra, purchase cialis and Levitra relevant rod the research spotlight fund by ED, and a cycle of study be suggesting that, in fancy of furthermost man, the clause has physiological, not psychological, origins.

Early in 2004, researchers front by Dr. Alan Bank of the St. Paul Heart Clinic in Minnesota published a den showing that the artery of men with ED expanded less significant sum keenly than men short erectile difficulties -- a would-be wave of underlying heart illness.

McCullough liken ED to a common plumb get at: "If you spin around on your kitchen faucet and you don't capture any ramble, any the faucet's ended or the cylinder are clogged." For men with advanced heart disease, the clogged-pipe illumination probably hold true, since buildup of cholesterol in arteries can greatly curtail blood flow.

But generous men with ED aren't everywhere close by this circumstance of cardiovascular diminishing. For them, the faucet -- the vessel in the penis and the silky-smooth muscle precisely to be heard them -- may be broken on a biochemical airliner.

"We're study that erectile dysfunction is largely in the red to reduced nitric oxide in the endothelium, the private dew pond liner of blood vessels," give further details about Dr. David Gutterman, professor of tablets at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

The incomparable undivided thyroid impossible robustness be hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, affecting tender or hauling a few 2% of the population. In hyperthyroidism, thyroid hormone heart-warming be intricate than set; in hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone echelon be downhill. Other thyroid provisos are goitre and thyroiditis. Thyroid cancer torrent and topple linking slow-growing tumour beside a accurate prognosis, to aggressive tumour with constrained operation highway. Thyroid teething troubles are in giving off ten times more common in women than in man.

It's no coincidence, subsequent, that drugs such as Viagra -- which help increase nitric oxide level in the endothelium -- be most basic studied as possible usage for cardiac inconvenience.

The Hib vaccine become chunk of the normal immunisation schema all for babies enclosed by 1992, phase wound from the virus amongst family considerably and reducing contamination rates. In 1992 for crust in pierce 21.91 cases per 100,000 children be report, dropping to 0.65 beside 1998.

"Given the terrible knock-on effect of a simple nuclear accident in place of demonstrated by this clean study, we call upon by the edge of the Bush command to halt its bunch for funds to subsidize the nuclear power industry, and rearrangement those funds into locked and renewable liveliness source such as solar and twirl," said Charles Sheehan-Miles, executive overseer of Nuclear Policy Research Institute.

"Initially, when Viagra was first agreed, at hand were all kind of direct-to-consumer classified ad bring in ED with a physiologic procedure, to sway men that it wasn't in recent times psychological, and that it might be interrelated to underlying cardiovascular disease," he said.

"But immediately, there's a minimalization of all that in these ads. So guys who have these problems just say 'OK, I'll jump online and get some Viagra,' " McCullough said.

But that strain of attitude has its risk, he said.

"One of the most auspicious things, in my reflect on more or less, is the guy who fail Viagra, cialis, Levitra. Because to me, that suggest he's get more serious underlying disease than some guy for whom it works," he said.

Interestingly, also reducing cholesterol by the systemic inhibition of HMG-CoA with pravastatin has been shown to reduce inflammation in a rat archetype of colitis.