![]() ![]() Usually it's something like 4% to 10% that's present in cleansers, in spot treatment pads, in creams, and in various other formulations.ĭr. So if you stroll down the acne treatment section in your local grocery store, you'll find benzoyl peroxide in various concentrations. It's in a lot of over-the-counter acne treatment products. One of my favorites is a medicine called benzoyl peroxide. And if you've got some acne, then there is some over-the-counter stuff that's fairly helpful. This is just stuff we found that is good for our patients. Johnson: Yes, we have no commercial interests. Tarbox: Here on "Skincast" we are not sponsored, but we are going to mention specific trade products because it makes it easier for patients to find them and I think that it's a little bit less complicated than people scouring an ingredient list looking for a specific and very technical chemical name.ĭr. And our best treatments are those that can affect more than one of those factors at the same time.ĭr. So the treatments for acne affect some of those factors that cause the acne to begin with. Johnson: I think it's helpful to understand why acne shows up because then we can understand how the treatments work. So if you've ever had a splinter and it got inflamed and red and irritated, you know how much our skin doesn't like things that don't belong there. ![]() Tarbox: Whenever you have that backup of oil, it can actually break open the edges of the hair follicle and then that skin oil and possibly those bacteria and the dead skin cells get into the part of our skin that's not supposed to have foreign bodies in it. A lot of the hormones make your oil glands crank out more oil and they make your skin a bit stickier so it makes the whole thing worse.ĭr. And hormones play a big role as you might guess. Johnson: And you might wonder why this tends to get worse around adolescence. So they actually make our skin cells more sticky to each other so it plugs up the hair follicle more, and that actually makes a little reservoir of oil that these bacteria can use as a food source.ĭr. Tarbox: That's actually one of the things I like to think through as kind of fascinating that these bacteria, which are called Propionibacterium acnes - they're named after the condition that they cause - are almost like little farmers of the oil that they eat. So bacteria come to eat it, and then that creates an inflammatory reaction from your immune system and that sort of really gets the whole ball rolling down the hill.ĭr. Johnson: Who likes to eat sebum? Bacteria like to eat sebum. And so since the sebum can't get out of the hair follicle because the hair follicle is blocked up, the hair follicle gets all kind of filled up with this sebum.ĭr. The special term for this kind of oil is sebum. And the hair follicles are often connected to oil glands, and the oil glands produce oil. So one of the first things that happens is that the hair follicle gets kind of blocked up with sticky skin cells. So, in dermatology, we consider acne a disease of the hair follicle unit. And actually, I remember being a teenager sitting in my dermatologist's office and looking with fascination at the posters on the wall about the causes of acne. But when I, you know, became a dermatologist, we learned about what causes acne. I still get the occasional pimple even though I'm 40. I had pretty bad acne when I was a young lad. Acne is a common skin condition that affects most people at some point in their lifetime, and utilizing a few simple techniques you could really help minimize the impact of this condition on your skin.ĭr. Tarbox: So today we're going to go over acne basics. I'm a pediatric dermatologist and general dermatologist with the University of Utah.ĭr. I'm an associate professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in beautiful sunny Lubbock, Texas, and I love helping people take better care of their skin. My name is Michelle Tarbox, and I am a dermatologist and a dermatopathologist. It is the most expensive garment you will ever wear so you want to take great care of it. Tarbox: Hello and welcome to "Skincast." This is the podcast that helps you understand how to best take care of the skin you're in.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |