by K Lochery

Created on: February 12, 2009   Last Updated: February 25, 2009

Why do so many teenagers find themselves coping with the painful little pink bulges called pimples? Because their hormones have predestined them to do battle with that terror of proms and puberty, acne vulgaris, sometimes known as pimples. One of the most frequent skin diseases that occur in the general population, acne usually strikes the body when an individual hits puberty. However, acne often last right into adulthood. On the positive side, there is usually no need to worry about doctor bills when acne pops up. You can handle acne in your own home. The first step is to know what acne is and is not.

Scientific research has shown that while there is a lot of inevitability in acne, there is also lots of room for action. To begin with, you should understand that acne is not a result of sweating, too much exercise or dirt. Sweat is mostly salt and water, with a little bit of other stuff the body doesn't need thrown in for flavour. The part of you that forms the pimple is not a sweat gland. The sebaceous gland is culprit. Sebaceous glands are attached to the roots of the hairs in your skin. They secrete oil and lubricate the hairs on your body and the skin around them. Acne happens when a sebaceous gland makes too much oil. The oily stuff starts to clog the tube that allows it an outlet onto the skin, and when that tube is plugged up, things go wrong. The oil accumulates under the plug, the skin expands and blood is obstructed as well. The oil hardens into a cap of white or back stuff, forming the blackhead or whitecap so familiar to teenage mirrors, and the skin becomes very irritated by the enzymes in the oil underneath the cap. A pimple has appeared!
Now that you know what a pimple really is, you can understand that because each sebaceous gland is a part of the body's endocrine system, which controls every gland and hormone you'll ever have, the eruption of sex hormones in puberty will always be a source of trouble for your skin. These hormones interfere with the correct and useful workings of the sebaceous gland. There is nothing that can be done about this, and that is fine, because these changes just represent just the body growing into adulthood. However, when acne spreads and begins to cause scarring, something definitely needs to be done.

Don't make your situation worse with a poor diet. There is no evidence that says that a diet filled with oily, salty and sugary foods will create severe acne, but it definitely will not help, and it will also slow recovery. Vitamins A and E are important to your body at all times, and supplements are usually a good idea in puberty. Acne also responds very well to several common medications. One of them is isotretinoin. The overuse of steroids has not been scientifically proven to cause acne in the shoulders and chest, but there is a ton of circumstantial evidence indicating otherwise. While dirty skin doesn't cause acne, it can make it worse. Eat well, take your vitamins, keep clean, and see your doctor when the problem keeps growing or sticks around too long that's how you handle a pimple!

Learn more about this author, K Lochery.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.