During the high school years, acne is the most common skin problem. Almost
everybody has acne to some degree between the ages of 12 and 20, but some people get it
much worse than others. Many times, you can make a mild case of acne much worse by
trying to make it better. The cause of acne is too much of an oily substance called sebum
that is produced in large amounts in teenage years. When dead skin cells or dirt clog up
hair follicle pores in the skin, a blackhead forms blocking sebum from coming out.
When excess sebum collects in other places under the skin, a whitehead forms instead of
Probably the only time that you can "fix" a pimple is when a blackhead or white
head forms with a very clearly defined border that is slightly raised. The right way to
extract them is to use a small extractor, which is a simple tool that you can buy in any
drug store; it lets you pop it cleanly without irritating the skin. Before doing it, you
should wash your hands and disinfect the tool with alcohol.
Most pimples form very close to the surface of he skin, but sometimes they are a
different type of "cystic" acne, which form further down below the skin surface. That is
one reason that it is important not to irritate pimples, because it can push them down
further and spread infection to larger areas of the skin. The two pictures below show the
difference between cystic and non-cystic acne. Except for very "ripe" blackheads and
pimples, the best thing to do to make them go away as quickly as possible is to leave
There are also a lot of myths about what causes acne. Eating chocolate and
drinking sugary soda does not cause acne at all. Neither does eating greasy food, at least
not directly. The only way that greasy foods like pizza can cause acne is if you get the
grease on your face, because it can then clog pores just like sebum d...