Causes of Acne

Posted by John

April 24, 2010

In this post we discuss what the causes of acne are and how the symptoms of acne occur

Nearly all cases of acne are the result of changes in hormone levels. In this post we are going to discuss what happens in the skin that causes the symptoms to appear as this helps in understanding how the acne treatments work and therefore helps you find the best one. If you would like to know what is causing the change in hormones you can visit our Why do I have acne? post which will also shoot down some acne myths.

So now we accept that hormone changes are causing acne, let’s see how.

Stage 1 – Changes in hormones mean that the sebaceous gland in the hair follicle starts to produce more sebum. We are not sure why, but this is how it all starts. You can see from this picture the hair follicle is made up of a hair, sebaceous gland, and a pore (the hole that is on the surface of the skin). The sebaceous gland normally produces oil that is known as Sebum. The skin and hair needs this oil in order to function properly but during times of hormone change an excess of this of oil (or Sebum) is produced.

Stage 2 – The second stage in the Acne process is when a blockage occurs in the skin. This blockage happens in a number of ways, one way is by the build up of dead skin cells that stop the Sebum (or oil) being released to the surface of the skin. Another way that the blockage happens is that the size of the pore is small so that the oil can not be released to the surface quickly enough. And finally, this blockage can occur simply because the sebum has quite a high viscosity meaning that it is sticky and therefore when it sits in the follicle it stays there and stops the release of more sebum when it is produced.

Stage 3 – Now that there is a blockage stopping oil from being released to the surface of the skin, this means that when more oil is produced it has nowhere to go so a build up of pressure occurs. As this diagram shows this causes a swelling which is when a spot or pimple starts to occur. The more oil that is produced when this blockage is there the larger this spot or pimple will be.

Stage 4 – Within the pore there is now a build up of sebum that is staying where it is and it is in this sebum “reservoir” that bacteria finds a perfect breading ground so it starts to multiply.

Stage 5 – As the bacteria starts to grow and increase in numbers the body’s immune system will try to fight off these bacteria and so will release white blood cells that normally kill the bacteria that is causing the infection. This release of white blood cells (commonly called pus) means that there is an increase of more substance into an already blocked hair follicle which makes the problem worse as now there is a build up of pus and sebum. This is when the worst symptoms of acne start to occur.

So there we have it, the progression of acne from hormone change to the worst symptoms of acne. As we can see from these stages it is important to treat acne when it gets to Stage 1 as this will stop the development of pimples and keep the skin clear.

Luckily there are treatments, both natural and scientific, that effectively stop this progression and help those pimples that have already formed. For more information on how they do this you can read our post on Benzoyl Peroxide and Salicylic Acid or got to the full reviews of our top products to read what natural ingredients they have and how they work to clear acne: