What are boils?

A boil is an infected hair follicle; boils are grown deep into the skin's layers. They can be found on the face, neck, breasts, butt, and even at times your genital area. Boils are very painful. When you get a boil the pain can make your life miserable. It becomes very hard to concentrate on anything else besides the pain, it is extremely painful to have anything touch the boil - especially the clothes that you wear. Getting dressed is even a challenge. Usually with treatment a boil can be cured within a week.

What is the cause of a boil?

Boils are usually caused by bacteria. There are times that the boil may break open and cause the bacteria to spread to any nearby skin and then that can cause new boils to form. A painful red bump will appear and is filled with puss the boil can usually become very painful within a 24 hour period. Some people think that you get boils due to poor hygienic habits but this is not the case sure it can happen because of this but it is rarely the case. Usually boils are caused by stress, illness, allergies, poor eating habits.

Treating a boil

There are often times when a boil will go away on its own without any treatment at all. But there are times when your doctor will need to lance the boil to let the infection drain out and clear. He may also need to treat the boil with antibiotics to keep it from becoming more infected and start to spread to other parts of your skin. During this time you must keep your skin clean. Warm soaks will help and will also help to relive any pain that you may have. A heating pad will also help to relive pain, do not pick at the boil at all for it could become worse. You need to call your doctor right away if you get a high fever, chills, or flu like symptoms, or is the boils start to spread to other parts of your body.