What Causes Spots
Sometimes it is good to go right back to basics and ask the simple question “what causes spots?”
Like most things once you understand what causes spots it is far easier to work out how to tackle the problem. Which acne treatments work best and how to avoid any spot treatments that are really not going to do you much good.
Much has been written about what causes spots but just what is accurate and which bits of the theory can you use.
The formation of spots is really quite easy
Firstly your body starts to create excess sebum
The sebum mixes with dead skin cells and blocks pores or hair follicles
Your body reacts to the blocked pore and creates pus to tackle the foreign body
The sebum is also great food for bacteria
The feasting bacteria starts to increase
The increased levels of bacteria irritate your skin causing inflammation
You get another out break of acne
This means that what causes spots breaks down to three basic things
- Excess Sebum
- Blocked pores and follicles
- Bacteria
Lets examine each of those three
What Causes Spots – Excess Sebum
Sebum is absolutely necessary for healthy skin. It keeps your skin supple and waterproof.
Sebum is created by the sebaceous glands that are found just below your skin, most of the time healthy levels are produced and your skin remains clear. But Sebum is one of the prime factors when considering what causes spots. The reason is that sometimes your body is triggered into producing too much sebum.
The main reason for excess sebum production is an imbalance in hormones, particularly the male hormone testosterone (despite its name testosterone is actually naturally present in both men and women).
Hormonal imbalance occurs at many stages in the human life cycle but is particularly prevelant during puberty which is why acne is often thought of as a teenage condition.
Your hormones can also be sent into imbalance at other stages of your life. For women pregnancy and the menopause are key times, as is the monthly cycle.
The best things you can do to help control excess sebum is to maintain a healthy diet which will help your body to cope with hormonal change and use a treatment regime that will help control and remove sebum.
What Causes Spots – Blocked Pores and Follicles
Each day you produce new skin cells and the old ones are shed. If the dead skin cells are removed from your skin they cause no issues, but they can be one of the factors to consider if they block a skin pore. Then they become part of what causes spots.
Once a pore is blocked sebum will gather and your bodies immune system will start to react in the same way as it would if the blockage came from outside the body. White blood cells will surround the skin cell and pus will be formed to try to remove the blockage.
In this way spots form under your skin days before you see them.
Tackle this by gently exfoliating your skin at least once a week. You can also use a face pack to draw impurities out of the skin.
What Causes Spots – Bacteria
Although you may not like the idea the whole surface of your skin is home to thousands of bacteria. Most of the time you live quite happily with them and they cause you no problems.
But when you provide them with a banquet or sebum they feast and start to reproduce.
Once the levels increase your skin starts to be irritated by them and you will notice redness and inflammation. this can be particularly prevelant around spots.
The combination of spot formation and inflammed skin is what we recognise as acne vulgaris.
Tackle this by using appropriate treatments to kill bacteria and return the surface of your skin to balance.
The important thing to consider when thinking about what causes spots and how to tackle them is trying to create a balance.
Clean Sebum too thoroughly and your skin will be encouraged to produce more
Harsh anti bacterial cleaners can irritate your skin
What Causes Spots – My favourite solution
I used to recommend creams and lotions and cleansing products as my favourite acne solution, but just lately I have been impressed by the results obtained using acne light therapy. Managing bacteria and reducing sebum present on your skin is made easy by the regular use of blue and red light.
Blue light kills bacteria
While red light soothes the skin and promotes healing
Light is really easy to use and can be applied close to the skin to intensively treat small areas.
Or by using a stand the light can be applied to larger areas while you get on working at your desk or watching TV
15 minutes each day will be enough to bring visible results in a short time and very significant results in under 4 weeks
The thing that I really like about acne light therapy is that it is easy and clean to use. There is very good evidence that suggests that it is an effective treatment. The levels of blue light used are very safe to expose your skin to and it is an effective treatment for larger areas such as with back acne.
Light therapy does not require you to use lots of lotions and creams which can become less effective over time. It is a natural treatment and although the initial outlay is fairly high there are no ongoing costs. Over a lifetime of acne treatment light therapy would probably be a very cost effective solution.
Once you know what causes spots it becomes so much easier to choose an effective treatment that will clear up your spots and make sure you get fewer future problems.
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