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.
