How Acne and Pimples are Formed

Let’s first see how this annoying acne develop.

Acne is actually a disorder that happens in pilosebaceous unit.  Pilosebaceous unit consists of a hair follicle, a hair and sebaceous gland (gland that produces sebum – skin oil, that prevents skin from drying and cracking).

Hormones in our body regulate oil production.

During puberty, hormones trigger sebaceous glands to produce more oil.  Excessive oil production usually continues through puberty and stops by the age of 20.  However, for some reasons, in some people sebaceous glands continue to trigger over production of skin oil.  Excessive sebum production clogs pores disrupting normal function of the unit.

Our body renews skin cells every 3 weeks (21 days ).  We remove dead skin cells with normal face washing.  However, face skin care products, environmental pollution, medication, overexposure to sun and many other factor could interfere with healthy removal of dead skin cells.  Dead skin cells give our skin that dull uneven tone; they also contribute to clogged pores.

Clogged pores trap bacteria inside pilosebaceous unit and acne starts developing.

Acne causing bacteria

A bacteria called Propionibacterium acnes naturally lives on our skin.  It uses sebum as a nutrient for growth. Thus, when our oil glands produce too much oil , these acne causing bacteria starts multiplying very fast and grows in huge numbers.   Too much bacteria attracts white blood cells and they start doing their usual job: killing bacteria .  This “war” between white blood cells and bacteria produce pus and inflammation and just like that a new painful,  red,  pussy acne appears .