The 11 Kinds of Acne Classified According to Causes

If you have been plagued with acne at some point in your life, you are probably obsessed with washing your face all the time - making sure that it's clean to keep away the acne Ironically, people who are prone to acne are actually quite particular with cleanliness. They often wash their faces and making sure that their body is clean. By doing this, they are hoping that the affliction will eventually go away.

The 11 Kinds of Acne

There are actually different kinds of acne The word is a catch-all term for all types of acne There are general kinds of acne that you might call cystic acne adult acne and so on; but to be really specific and to classify acne according to its causes, the 11 classes are as follow:

1. Acne Cosmetic. This is the acne that is cause by use of cosmetics. The use of cosmetics alone does not cause acne It is actually the kind of cosmetics and the prolonged use of cosmetics that irritates the skin. Your pores react negatively to the ingredients and acne results.

2. Acne Conglobata. This is the type of acne that is largely caused by hereditary factors. If your parents suffered from severe acne you will probably suffer the same. Oftentimes, this type of acne results to severe scarring on the area affected. The unfortunate thing about this acne is that you can hardly do anything about it.

3. Acne Detergents. This acne is caused by soaps, detergents and cleansers which irritate the skin.

4. Acne Excoriee. This is the type of acne that is caused by skin picking which then spreads the germs on other parts of the body.

5. Acne Fulminans. This is the serious type of acne that is accompanies by flu-like symptoms when the lesions erupt. The sufferer may also experience loss of appetite, skin scaring and high WBC count. Men seem to suffer more from this type of acne.

6. Acne Keloidalis. It is the African race that suffers much from this acne The lesions and inflammations generally appear on the neck.

7. Acne Mallorca. This is the type of acne that is caused by excessive sun exposure.

8. Acne Mechanica. The kind of acne that results from skin irritation caused by exposure of bare skin to various irritants like clothing fabrics and bag straps.

9. Acne Medicametosa. This is the type of acne that occurs as a side effect to medications. There are oral contraceptives that could cause acne too. Anti-psychotic medications and mood stabilizers can also cause acne.

10. Acne Neonatorium or baby acne This is caused by the excessive sebum secretion in children. This results from the transfer of hormones from the mother to the infant.

11. Acne Pomade. This is the kind of acne that results from the skin's irritation to hair products. The irritating ingredients, specifically oils, eventually irritate the forehead causing acne to form.

Knowing what type of acne you have will certainly help in determining the treatment for it. If your acne is caused by irritants like fabrics, hair gels and makeup, you can avoid using the products that cause your acne Your physician can help you determine the cause of your acne and seek proper treatment for it.

The author is an online medical researcher and webmaster of Best Acne Products [http://www.10acneproducts.com] and Natural Acne Treatment. Visit site for related article: "Natural Acne Treatment [http://www.10acnetreatments.com/olive_leaf_extract.html] - Olive Leaf Extract". Also, don't forget to download your 70-page Acne eBook for FREE.

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About Acne - What can you do to cure or alleviate acne?

Acne gives the combination of symptoms like greasy skin, white heads, black heads, pimples, inflammation and scar formation. Acne mostly affects young people in the age 14 - 25, but also sometimes older persons, like women in their menopause. Most teenagers experience outburst of acne, some only little, but for others acne may develop into a serious skin ailment with great cosmetic impact.


THE SKIN ANATOMY

To understand the acne process, some knowledge about skin anatomy and physiology is essential:

The skin has there layers: The outer layer called epidermis consists of epithelial cells. Under this lies the dermis consisting of connective tissue. At the bottom there is a layer called the hypodermis consisting mostly of fat cells.

The skin has narrow pores extending from the surface down to the top of the sub-dermis, called hair follicles. A hair extend from a growth zone in the bottom of each hair follicle and out at the skin surface. Around the hair in the dermis, there are small glands called sebaceous glands. These glands produce a fatty substance, sebum, which empty through the follicle opening and lubricates the hair and the skin.


THE ACNE PROCESS

Acne starts by the glands in the hair follicles increasing their sebum production. This will in the beginning only cause greasy skin. Eventually the sebum in the entrance of the follicles mixes with dead epithelial cells. This mix reacts chemically to forms hard props, comedones that close the pore entrances. According to the color of the comedones, they are called black heads or white heads.

Then the closed hair follicle gets filled with sebum and swell. The swollen follicle then gets infected by bacteria. The bacteria and the accumulated sebum cause the follicle and the surrounding skin to get inflamed, forming a pimple.  At last the inflamed follicle burst and empties its content.  Eventually the affected area heals. Sometimes the inflammation reaches deep into the skin surrounding the follicle and destroys skin tissue. This will cause more or less distinct scars that may reside permanently. Typically an affected person will have follicles in all these stages of the process at any given time.


THE CAUSES OF ACNE

The increased hormone production in the puberty stimulates to increased sebum production. The male hormone, testosterone, seem to contribute most. Also girls begin to produce more testosterone in the puberty. Also in other periods, altered hormone production may give acne, for example by women in the menopause.

Since not all teens get acne in any degree, the increased hormone level cannot be the whole cause of the increased sebum production. The follicles of affected persons must for some reason react stronger upon the higher hormone level.

Dietary factors, like eating too much fat, too much sugar or the wrong kind of fat may aggravate acne by some individuals. Lack of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids may also contribute to development of acne.

Poor digestion, lazy colon and constipation aggravate acne in some individuals, probably due to productions of toxins in the intestines. Lazy colon may be caused by dietary faults, like lack of fiber.

Very frequent washing and use of strong soaps aggravate acne, and does not alleviate the condition as many think. Rubbing, scrubbing or squeezing the skin may also aggravate acne.

Here are some other factors that may contribute in causing acne or aggravating the condition.

- Stress
- Some contraceptive agents
- Environmental or domestic pollution.
- Humid environments.
- Some antidepressants.
- Testosterone and anabolic steroids used for treatment or by body-building.
- Use of some types of greasy cosmetic products.
- Some antiperspirant products.
- Exposing the skin for chlorine or other halogens, or medicines containing halogens.
- Women may get aggravated acne 2-7 days before menstruation.


WHAT CAN YOU DO YOURSELF TO AVOID OR TO TREAT ACNE

Sometimes Acne is so severe that special medical treatment is required, and sometimes the causes of acne necessitate medical treatment. But you can do much yourself also. Here are listed things you can do yourself to prevent or treat acne:

1. Some advices about diet that may help prevent and cure acne:

- Do not consume a great amount of fat.
- The fat you add to the food should be natural oils. Olive oil is ideal, but use other types of oils too, like walnut oil, sunflower oil and soy oil. However, do not use only soy oil as many tend to do. Using only soy oil will give you too much of some fatty acids and too less of others.
- Eat much fish, seafood and not so much meat.
- Eat food with a high fiber content to regulate the digestion, like vegetables, whole cereals, full corn bread and fruit.


2. Here are some things you should avoid.

- Do not use greasy or heavy cosmetics that clog your skin and are difficult to wash away.
- Do not use strong irritating antiperspirants.
- Do not wash with strong soap or cleaners that dry up your skin and take away all the natural oily protection in your skin.
- If you perform body-building, do not use anabolic steroids or other hormonal supplements.
- Use clothes that allow air to reach your body surface to avoid collection of humidity and overheating of your skin.


3. Use of rinsing milk or solutions

You can rinse your skin with mild products especially made to dissolve the plugs in your pores, and to make the environment in your skin unfriendly to bacteria causing infection. Some of these products are just products to wash your skin with one ore more times a day; others should be on during night and flushed away in the morning.

Salicylic acid is a mild ingredient often used in these products to dissolve the comedones. The products usually also contain ingredients that work antibacterial and stimulate the skin's own cleaning activities, like Tea tree oil or Echinacea extract.

4. Use of gels and creams to treat acne and protect your skin

After the rinsing, you should apply some treatment gel, cream or lotion onto your skin to achieve these effects:

- To make your skin soft and elastic.
- To protect your skin against the environment.
- To acts further to dissolve the clogging of your pores.
- To soothe and alleviate inflammation.
- To kill the bacteria causing infection or make an environment hostile for the bacteria.
- To stimulate the skin to clean itself.
- To stimulate the skin to heal.
- To be used as a isolating layer between the skin itself and cosmetics

In order to protect, make the skin soft and further dissolve the comedones, many products contain natural plant oils that are easily absorbed into the epidermis, like Tea tree oil, Rose hip oil, Lavender oil and Olive oil.

Ingredients used in products to reduce inflammation and to stimulate healing may be: Aloe Vera extract, Viola Tricolour extract, Rose hip oil, Vitamin E and Vitamin A.

Tea tree oil and Grapefruit seed extract are natural antibacterial agents used in many of these products. In other products artificial compounds like Benzoyl peroxide are used.


5. Oral supplements to fight the acne process and nourish the skin

Supplements taken by mouth to nourish your skin may be useful. The purpose of these supplements is more or less the same as that of nourishing creams.

- To make the sebum more fluid so it drains more easily.
- To stimulate the substance exchange and cleaning processes in your skin,
- To stimulate your skin to heal,
- To give your skin building nutrients necessary to heal.

Ingredients often used in these supplements to stimulate the cleaning and healing processes in the skin are: Vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B3, B6, C, D, E, Folic acid,  Beta carotene, Bioflavonoids, Magnesium, Copper, Zinc, selenium, anti-oxidants from Green tea, Metylsulfonyl methane.

Nutrient found in these products used as material to rebuild damaged skin and to give a sebum with better consistency are: Evening primrose oil, Olive oil, Flax seed oil, Borage oil, Soy oil, Wheat germ oil and Lecithin.

Gum guggul extract used in oral products has an anti-biotic effect, and helps against spreading of the acne infection and thus helps against scar formation.