Acne is something that affects millions of people around the world, but even with the numerous advances in science - the problem of acne still contains many secrets and mysteries. Can there ever be a single cure that will work for everyone? This article will attempt to look at some of those mysterious goings on and root out the answer to "can there be a single acne cure?"



The first mystery centres around the pores in your skin. For reasons that nobody really understands these can sometimes get blocked. The oil or sebum in the skin, usually seeps to the surface but when these pores are blocked the oil can't get out and so this causes a blackhead or a whitehead to appear.

These whiteheads and blackheads actually start out as microcomedones and these in turn become comedones or a skin blemish. Interestingly enough, when the sebum is trapped below the surface of the skin - a whitehead is formed. The blackhead comes about because the sebum has risen to the skin's surface and turned black due to the skin's pigment (melanin).

Now, the blackhead or whitehead can either spew out its contents onto the surface of the skin (yeuch!), or it can rupture beneath causing skin redness and inflammation - commonly known as the zit!

There are two types of inflammatory acne - the papule and the pustule. A papule comes about when there is a rupture in the follicular wall, this leads to the pore becoming inflamed because of the onrush of white blood cells. A pustule will form later on when these very same white blood cells rush to the surface of the skin giving us the more common definition of a zit or pimple.

Now we know how our best buddy the zit comes about, lets take a look at some of the acne myths that pervade our society.

Myth 1) Washing more will mean less zits. Actually, that's not strictly true because, as we've just discussed, zits aren't produced by dirt or by not keeping your face clean. In actual fact, if you wash your face too frequently then you're more likely to get even more spots as you're irritating the pores which may then become clogged!

Myth 2) Masturbation can cause acne. Er, no it can't, this is one of those playground stories of which we really should all know better by now.

Myth 3) Stress can cause acne. In theory, because your hormones may be affected by stress then it is possible that this could lead to acne. It's a bit of a tenuous link though and you're better off not worrying about it which will of course keep stress levels down anyway!

Myth 4) Your diet and acne. It would seem that eating more chocolate or bad foods could lead to acne but the truth is we really don't know. Take a look at other cultures and societies where they don't experience acne at any level. Some "less advanced" indigenous societies don't experience acne and this may be to do with their more primitive diets or it may be something that they're eating which staves off acne. Simply put, more research needs to be done in this area and perhaps in the future, a certain diet regime will be enough for us to get rid of acne once and for all.

I hope this article has cleared up some of the myths regarding acne and now you can feel rest assured that acne is a problem that's not your fault and therefore not worth the time of day worrying about.