how to get rid of acne between eyebrows
imagine waking up the morning of prom, oryour wedding day, or a big job interview… and sure enough, you look in the mirror tofind your forehead is covered in zits! it’s happened to lots of us. acne, or acne vulgaris, is the most commonskin disease in humans. it affects about 80% of people at some pointin their lives. most people get acne between the ages of 11and 30, but sometimes older people continue to struggle with it, too. acne happens when follicles and pores becomeclogged with dead skin cells and oils. and … it sucks.
but by studying how acne forms, doctors havedeveloped ways to prevent and treat it. it all starts with your skin: a complex organmade up of two layers and lots of nerves, blood vessels, and glands. your skin cells regenerate about once a month,so you constantly have dead skin cells sloughing off, and new skin cells rising to the surface. this whole skin-replacement thing isn’tmuch of a problem, on its own. but lots of these dead skin cells come outthrough your pores. and pores make things more complicated. skin pores are essentially just openings fortiny hairs.
hair follicles, the root ends of the hairs,are embedded in your skin and surrounded by clusters of sebaceous glands, special glandsthat produce sebum. sebum is that oily, waxy stuff that comesout of your pores. it helps keep your skin waterproof and moisturized:it keeps excess water out of your body, and it keeps water already inside you from gettingout through your skin. so, sebum is important. but things can go very wrong if your sebumproduction gets out of whack. when your body doesn’t produce enough sebum,your skin can dry out, making you more susceptible to bacterial or fungal infections.
but if your body produces too much sebum,it can build up inside your pores, trap dead skin cells, and cause a blockage. increased sebum production is one of the majorfactors involved in the development of acne. increased keratin production is another one. keratin is a protein produced by your hairfollicles. it gives structure to each strand of hair,as well as the top layer of your skin. but when the hair follicles produce too muchkeratin, the extra protein binds together dead skin cells, so they can’t just shedout of the pore like they normally would. you end up with a blockage that then trapsmore dead skin cells, plus sebum.
once the pore is officially clogged, it becomesa breeding ground for colonies of bacteria — especially propionibacterium acnes. that’s a species of commensal bacteria,which basically means it’s friendly. it naturally lives on your skin, and it’snot harmful … most of the time. the commensal bacteria that make up your microbiomeprobably even help prevent other, more harmful bacteria from colonizing on your skin. so having colonies of propionibacterium acnesliving on you isn’t a bad thing. you want them there — as long as they stayon the surface of your skin. when the bacteria find their way deep intoskin pores where they don’t belong, that’s
when they can cause an infection. and infections often cause inflammation. when you get an infection, your immune systemresponds by increasing blood flow to the area and sending extra immune cells and enzymesto fight off the infection. different combinations of symptoms cause differentkinds of acne, with names you’ve probably heard before:blackheads, whiteheads, pimples,pustules … technically, they all mean different things. the scientific term for a clogged pore isa comedo, which actually used to mean a parasitic worm.
people started using the term to refer toa clogged pore because the stuff that comes out when you squeeze it looks kind of likea worm. when the main symptom is just that the poreis clogged, without much inflammation, that’s either a blackhead or a whitehead. blackheads are what it’s called when thecomedo is open. the trapped sebum and dead skin cells becomeoxidized, which turns the surface of the clogged material into a dark color, kind of like howsilver tarnishes. when the comedo closes, skin cells grow overthe top of the plug and stop this oxidation from happening, so the whitish color of thesebum shows through.
that’s called a whitehead. when there’s a comedo plus an infectionthat causes inflammation, that’s a different kind of acne: pimples! the typical reddish bumpy kind are more specificallycalled papules. if the inflammation gets really bad, sometimesthe bumps start leaking fluid or bacteria-filled pus. those kind are categorized as pustules, andthey’re usually a much brighter red, or sometimes white from the oozing fluid. the most severe kind of acne is generallycalled cystic acne.
that’s when the infection takes root inthe deepest layers of the skin. sometimes the infection causes more solidbumps to form, called nodules. and sometimes the infection causes pus-filledbumps, called cysts. so that’s how acne happens. but what causes it in the first place? what makes healthy pores become clogged, infected,and sometimes ooze-y? again, there are a few different factors involved. genetics seem to be important, for one thing. so if your parents had acne, you’re morelikely to have it too.
hormones also have a huge influence on acne— specifically, androgen hormones, like testosterone, which influence the developmentof both the male and female reproductive systems. which explains why acne is so much more ofa problem during puberty. androgen hormones are linked to sebum production. so during puberty, when the hormones are highlyactive, there’s an increase in sebum production. increased stress has been thought to increasehormone production, as well. so if you find yourself breaking out the daybefore a big test, that’s probably why. when you’re stressed, you produce more hormones,which then increases your sebum production. since sebum is an oil, a lot of people saythat greasy foods will cause acne.
sometimes you’ll also hear that dairy makesit worse, or even more specific foods, like chocolate. but the truth is, scientists aren’t reallysure how or whether diet and acne are connected. there have been lots of studies investigatingthis, and some do suggest a possible link. but others don’t. we need more comprehensive, controlled trialswith plenty of subjects before we can come to any real conclusions. doctors do acknowledge that there’s anecdotalevidence, and they say that if changing your diet has helped with your acne, then it makessense for you to stick with it.
there just isn’t enough evidence to supportthe idea that diet has a role in acne in general. but we do know that exposure to other topicaloils, like some cosmetics or moisturizers, can cause acne by blocking your pores withextra oils and trapping sebum. it’s easy to avoid the problem, though — justlook for products that say they’re non-comedogenic, which means that they shouldn’t clog yourpores. but the natural oil on your face isn’t reallya problem. you’ll often hear that you should wash yourface a lot to help prevent acne, but acne isn’t caused by dirt or by the natural oilthat’s already on the surface of your skin. and washing your face too much can actuallyirritate your skin, making acne worse.
to treat acne, the goal is to reduce the factorsthat come together to cause breakouts. the one thing you shouldn’t do is pop azit. the big risk is that you’ll push the infectionout of the hair follicle and into the surrounding skin, instead of out to the surface. plus, you’ll irritate the area, causingmore inflammation and making the acne take longer to heal. you might also spread bacteria to non-affectedpores. instead, treatments try to lower sebum production,stop dead cells from clumping together in the pore as much, prevent bacterial growth,and lower inflammation.
treatments can range from mild to aggressive,depending on how severe the symptoms are. for mild acne like blackheads and whiteheads,you can usually use topical over-the-counter medications. one of the most effective is benzoyl peroxide,a chemical compound that’s really good at killing bacteria. it decomposes into super reactive forms ofoxygen, which bind to and destroy the molecules the bacteria need to survive. another common treatment is salicylic acid,which doesn’t kill the bacteria, but stops them from replicating.
it can also break down skin cells and keratinto help unclog the pores inflammatory acne, like papular pimples orcystic acne, sometimes needs stronger treatment to reduce the inflammation. that usually means prescription meds. ###antibiotics — the kind that are alsoused to treat other bacterial infections, from strep throat to urinary tract infections— can be used to treat acne. they stop bacterial growth and reduce inflammation. another kind of treatment involves retinoids,which are compounds related to vitamin a. retinoids work by binding to skin cell receptorsto remove dead skin cells and encourage healthy
skin cell growth. so retinoids work really well to unclog poresfull of dead skin cells. they’re anti-inflammatory, too. in severe cystic acne cases, stronger retinoidsactually work at the deeper layers of skin to reduce the size of the oil glands so theyproduce less sebum. and since hormones are a big factor in sebumproduction, using birth control or corticosteroids can regulate female hormones and reduce theamount of androgen hormones being produced. fewer androgen receptors at work means lesssebum production, which means less acne. sometimes, severe, cystic acne will leavescarring, but there are ways to reduce it.
these procedures don’t necessarily treator prevent the acne itself, but they can reduce the bumps and scars left over from bad breakouts. dermabrasion uses a gentle sanding tool towear down layers of the skin that have scarred over from cystic acne, but it only works forpeople with lighter skin. this procedure has mostly been replaced bylaser resurfacing, which uses laser pulses to remove skin layer by layer until the scarhas smoothed out. then there are chemical peels, which use compoundslike salicylic acid or retinoic acid to perform what’s basically a controlled injury tothe top layer of skin, killing the top layer of cells.
the dead skin cells peel off, revealing healthyskin cells underneath. luckily, most people grow out of the acne-riddenyears of puberty, though some people will continue to have acne well into their 40sand 50s. but even though a bad breakout might makeyou self-conscious, it’s normal, it’s treatable, and it’s not life-threatening. so take care of your skin, talk to your doctorabout prescription treatments if you want them, and trust that your acne will probablyget better with age. and then you get to look forward to wrinkles! thanks for watching this episode of scishow,brought to you by our patrons on patreon.
if you want to help support this show, justgo to patreon.com/scishow. and don’t forget to go to youtube.com/scishowand subscribe!
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