Skin Infections

Skin sensitivity is not the same thing as allergy. For example, if your hands become irritated after repeated use of a strong cleansing agent, but not irritated after repeated use of the same agent in a weaker solution, you are sensitive rather than allergic to it. The allergic individual reacts to very tiny amounts of materials to which he is allergic. Skin sensitivity varies greatly among individuals. Some skins are sensitive to a multiplicity of things; others too few if any.  

SKIN INFECTIONS Exposed as it is, the skin is subject to invasion by many types of micro- organisms, including bacteria that may be harmless and other bacteria, that may cause boils or impetigo; viruses that cause fever blisters; parasites responsible for scabies; fungi that cause such problems as athlete's foot; and the organism of syphilis, the spirochete, which produces syphilitic lesions. A boil is a swollen, inflamed area on the skin produced by bacteria- bacteria that often are present on the skin but unable to do any damage unless resistance has been lowered by such things as irritating friction, cuts, poor health, bad nutrition, or diabetes.

A carbuncle, which may be produced by the same type of bacteria involved in boils, is more serious than a boil because it involves inflammation not only of the skin but of deeper tissues and is accompanied by a general feeling of illness. Boils and carbuncles respond readily to medical treatment, which may include use of penicillin or another antibiotic and/or incision and drain- age if necessary. In addition, the physician will try to determine the basic cause and treat or eliminate it if possible. (Diabetes may be heralded by the appearance of boils and other skin infections.) Anyone with a carbuncle should see a doctor. So should anyone who has a number of boils at one time or suffers from repeated outbreaks. Boils and carbuncles can be serious matters.

Organisms from a boil or carbuncle may enter the blood, with grave and even fatal consequences. This is particularly true of a boil or carbuncle on the nose or upper lip, because in these areas there is an easier access route for the organisms to reach the brain. If you have a small boil that is not on nose or upper lip, it is usually safe for you to try the following: Wash the boil and surrounding area with soap and water several times a day. Lightly dab on 70 percent alcohol afterward. Cover, not too tightly, with an antiseptic gauze pad to prevent irritation. In addition, hourly for ten minutes at a time, apply hot compresses. Make the compresses by soaking an antiseptic gauze pad in hot water containing as much table salt as will dissolve in it. This not only helps relieve pain but stimulates the boil to come to a head and drain. Cover with a fresh dry pad. If the boil does not get better within a few days, see your physician. Do not attempt to open a boil yourself or let an amateur surgeon friend try. 

Acne- Skin pimples- skin blackheads- skin white heads- membarane conditions- how to care for the skin?

ACNE

Acne, with its pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads, is a disorder that affects almost all teen-agers and some adults. Severity varies greatly. Acne may sometimes take the form of only a few blackheads. On the other hand, there may be many blackheads plus pustules and cysts or inflamed sacs deep in the skin. The exact cause of acne is still not clear, although much is known about the problem. As sexual maturation approaches in both sexes, glandular activity increases, and, as part of this, there is a stepping up in the outpourings of the sebaceous glands of the skin. In girls, this may be particularly pronounced at the time of menstrual periods. The sebaceous glands, which keep the skin moist and soft, pour an oily substance, sebum, onto the skin surface through hair follicles. Normally, the sebum is liquid and passes readily through the follicles.

However, if the flow is hampered-through some obstruction of the pathway or through over-thickening of the sebum itself-an inflammation may follow. Acne can be looked upon as a disorder of body chemistry, even though its manifestations appear on the skin. Adolescent acne accompanies a natural but sudden increase in the production of sex hormones and other glandular changes. Activity of the sebaceous glands is stepped up, too. Usually, acne disappears in later adolescence or early adulthood, even though sex hormone activity continues. The sebaceous glands function more efficiently after the rapid adolescent glandular changes have passed. Blackheads, or comedons, develop when excess oil accumulates in the pores. Their blackness represents not so much dirt as the discoloring effect of air on the fatty material in the clogged pore. If inflammation occurs, as it often does, a pimple results. Acne is a problem that, in effect, often feeds on itself. An unsightly pimple is something the owner wishes to have disappeared.

The seemingly simple and beguiling solution is to squeeze the pimple. But the squeezing, while it may reduce, immediately, the size of the elevation, breaks a membrane-a kind of inner capsule around the pimple below the skin surface. As a result, infectious material, previously contained within the pimple through the good offices of the membrane, now may spread to surrounding tissue. And, of course, infectious material squeezed out of the pimple spreads over the skin surface. One consequence may be more pimples.