Are pimples really acne?

“My son doesn’t have acne! He just has those regular teenage pimples, you know, that all kids get!” “I don’t have acne. I just have these hormonal breakouts that happen at that time of the month.” “I don’t know why my daughters have those awful-looking acne pimples. I never had acne. Plenty of blackheads and those bumps beneath the skin, but no acne, thank heaven!” “I have never had acne…I get congested pores, but who doesn’t?”

When you refer to yourself as an Acne Specialist, you hear it all. To many, “acne” really is the worst of four letter words. Better to call them “pimples” because it sounds more innocent. Occasional outbreaks, complexion problems, blackheads, congested pores, whiteheads, bumps, pimples. I hate to be the one to break the news, but they are all acne (unless they are something even more dramatic, but that’s another article).

Acne is a hereditary condition in which the sebaceous pores shed an excess of dead skin cells. The body just can’t keep up! These excess dead skin cells mix with sebum (oil) produced in our pores and make tiny little plugs that gradually (and I do mean gradually, as it can take up to 90 days!) work their way to the surface and become visible.

Acne may be non-inflamed, inflamed, or a combination of both. If it is inflamed, these plugs will cause your pores to form pimples and sometimes cysts. If you have the non-inflamed type, they will form blackheads, whiteheads (not to be confused with pustules or “classic” pimples) and bumps. While this type of acne is less noticeable, the skin feels bumpy and just doesn’t look healthy.

Without those extra dead skin cells, you won’t get pimples, you won’t get blackheads, or occasional bumps, or hormonal outbreaks. You can have really oily skin and yet be perfectly smooth IF you don’t have the hereditary tendency for shedding excess skin cells within the pores.

Many people think acne is caused by bacteria. Truth is, everyone’s skin harbors a bacteria that is important to the well-being of our skin. It eats dead skin cells and sebum. It has the unfortunate name of propionibacterium acne, or p. acnes, for short. It was given the “acne” portion of its name by a scientist in the 1890s who first found it in the pus of a pimple and concluded it was the cause of acne.

You can use all the methods of pimple treatments out there for killing that bacteria, but unless you get rid of the excess dead skin cells, you’re still going to have acne. It will generally be the non-inflamed kind, so the pimples will be mostly gone, until you stop taking the antibiotic prescribed to you for getting rid of the pimples, and then the inflammation will return and so will the pimples!

Kat Leverette, founder of Oakland’s Urban Skin Solutions and one of the top ten Acne Specialists in the world, likes to say, “If tetracycline can cure venereal disease in ten days, then why, after taking it for three years, do you still have acne?”

This doesn’t even begin to address all the problems you are potentially creating for your body and the world by being on antibiotics for that long.

So how do you get rid of excess dead skin cells? Exfoliation. Wait! Before you grab your apricot kernels and start scrubbing, you need to know I refer to exfoliation within the pores! Your washcloth or scrubbing brush can’t reach inside the pore. All the scrubbing in the world isn’t going to help. In fact, it will only make it worse by irritating your skin, which prevents healing.

There are specific non-prescription products available to do just that! But it is best to have the guidance and supervision

of an Acne Specialist when using them.

Give me a call today and let’s get started. 661-805-9575