Acne Myths

Posted: October 11th, 2009 | Author: acne-scar-cream | Filed under: Acne Scar Cream Tips | No Comments »

Acne Myths – the nonsense people will try to put across as truth

Fallacy #1: Washing your face time after time will speed up the acne removal

The Truth:

 Once or twice is the daily limit, before you’ll be doing more harm than good. Washing can irritate the pores of the skin, and rather than cleansing, the net effect will be blocked pores i.e. your acne might get worse!! Dirt does not cause acne. And don’t believe all that you see on television commercials – it’s not impurities on the skin that block the pores from the outside…acne results from the walls of a pore sticking together deep down in the skin system, and this starts the acne formation. Some people scrub their skin with a washcloth, in the belief that they can abrade away the skin blemishes – the opposite can happen…more irritation leads to more acne. Having clean skin is a healthy thing to do, whether or not you have acne – but the best way is gentle washing, using bare hands, and only once or twice a day.

Falacy #2: More  stress = More acne

The Truth:

 Managing your stress is a good thing to aim for, whether you have acne or not. A body weighed down by stress will be less healthy in general – but that doesn’t mean that you’ll get acne if you are stressed, or that it will be worse for a stressed person than a relaxed person. It’s possible that some hormonal changes might occur in response to stress, and this in theory might trigger acne, but nobody has provided any statistical proof of that. Whatever the relationship between acne and stress, if any, a well-chosen system of acne treatment will have such a powerful positive effect that the question of stress will become a moot point. In other words, stress itself isn’t a big deal – some medications prescribed to deal with stress can trigger acne as a side effect, but the stress itself is not the cause of the acne. Don’t feel bad about your stress (if you have any) – channel that nervous energy into finding the best course of acne treatment.

Falacy #3: Playing with your own private parts, or having sex with someone before marriage, triggers acne

The Truth:

 This is a very handy myth for parents and authority figures to disseminate – it works for some in dissuading young people from having sex before tying the knot, but in reality it is nothing more than an antiquated myth, dating as far back as the 17th century. There is no scientific evidence to back the view that any form of sexual activity is a valid contributing factor in breakouts of acne. There is a loose connection – the high levels of androgens (male sex hormones) that begin in the teen years can be a trigger for severe cases of acne. It is likely that the desire for sexual activity (and sex itself) contributes nothing directly to acne – if there is a trigger, it’s the higher levels of androgens, and they would be there regardless of whether the person masturbates or has sex with another.

Falacy #4: Getting lots of sunshine onto the acne will return the skin to a healthy state

The Truth:

 This one tricks a lot of people, because a bit of reddening of the skin can make the skin seem more evenly toned i.e. the red from the sun and the red from the acne marks can blend in together. The truth, though, is that reddening the skin is damaging the skin. The skin is in a weakened state as a result – this is a bad thing to do when your aim is to create a healthy skin environment. The skin damage resulting from sun burn causes irritation, and that can make your acne worse, rather than better. After the initial pleasant sun response (“My acne is going away…”), people will often have to endure their skin responding with an acne breakout as it heals from the sun damage – more, rather than less, acne could be the result in the weeks following a bit of sun worship. Don’t stay out of the sun altogether – just do it in moderation – we need sunshine to get our vitamin D.

Falacy #5: Bad diet leads to acne:

The Truth:

 This can’t be dismissed as a myth completely – the truth is that we don’t know with any certainty. The fact is that some indigenous cultures do not experience acne at all across their entire population, and we don’t know the reason for that with any scientific confidence. All developed societies have widespread acne, so there is a significant difference – people have leapt to the conclusion that it is the diet that explains this phenomenon, but we need more research before there can be any definitive conclusions drawn. Scientists are looking to see if a specific diet might be a way to prevent outbreaks of acne, or to control it more easily if there is an outbreak. At the moment, that is purely conjecture, so please don’t let anyone try to give you a different version of reality. People with healthy diets still get acne. If it is the diet in indigenous societies that leads to zero incidence of acne , trying to replicate the hunter/gatherer way of life would be an impossible ask – our entire dietary regime has shifted radically from the time when that was the norm for our forebears.

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