Acne Medicine to Treat Acne

Acne medicine can help treat your skin to control acne and help prevent further acne outbreaks. You can get most acne medicine without a prescription at local drug stores and use it safely at home.

Acne medicine acts to relieve the causes of acne blemishes. So, let’s see how these blemishes originate.

Acne is usually first observed during puberty when the body starts producing testosterone. This hormone irritates the sebaceous glands and causes them to become enlarged. These glands produce skin oil or sebum. Once enlarged they produce an excess of sebum which enters your pores and emerges onto the skin.

This excess skin oil mixes with tiny dead skin cells, forming a glob that can plug up a pore. These plugged up pores become blackheads or whiteheads. But, things get worse from here. Bacteria from the skin multiple within the plugged up pore. Additional sebum is produced by the sebaceous glands, but has nowhere to go so the pore becomes enlarged. The bacteria attack adjoining cells and produce an infection.

A pimple is a plugged up pore with an infection.

What Acne Medicine Does

There are three tasks we need to accomplish to eliminate pimples and keep them away:

• Remove excess skin oil
• Kill bacteria
• Remove dead skin cells

Because pores become plugged up before you notice them, treatment should be applied to all areas of the skin where acne lesions are likely to appear. Treatments should be used at least once and preferably twice a day to best effect.

Remove Excess Skin Oil

You can remove excess skin oil by cleansing your face and other affected areas with a non-alkaline skin cleanser. Bacteria like an alkaline environment, so this starts in the right direction by robbing them of their preferred environment.

Many soaps are alkaline, so you need to be careful about what you buy. You can find bar soaps and liquid cleansers that are non-alkaline. Several popular options are Cetaphil Cleanser and Walgreens Gentle Skin Cleanser.

When cleansing your skin you should be gentle and avoid scrubbing the area with a wash cloth. This can irritate any lesions and even drive infections deeper into the skin, making things worse.

Kill Bacteria

You should apply a medication to kill bacteria on the surface and in open pores.

The most recommended products contain benzoyl peroxide. You can obtain this acne medicine in various over-the-counter or non-prescription formulations. It normally comes in the form of creams or gels that contain benzoyl peroxide in concentrations of 2.5%, 5% or 10%. Many studies indicate that the higher concentrations are not more effective than the 2.5% concentration.

After cleansing your skin, towel off gently and allow it to dry. Then apply the benzoyl peroxide gel. The key to treating skin with acne is to be gentle. So, gently rub the gel onto your skin and let it absorb into the skin.

Remove Dead Skin Cells

Exfoliation is the removal of old dead skin cells from the surface of the skin. Again, various non-prescription formulations of salicylic acid, alpha hydroxy acid, or glycolic acid are available. They come in creams or gels.

Again, this gel should be applied gently over the surface of the skin.

Several popular products incorporate a combination of ingredients such as Proactiv Solution with benzoyl peroxide, moisturizers and exfoliants and Exposed Acne Treatment with benzoyl peroxide, alpha hydroxy acid, beta hydroxy acid. These combination of ingredient products are usually more expensive than generic over-the-counter products, especially those with single ingredients.

Other Acne Medicines

• Retinol is a form of vitamin A. It is used as retinoic acid to remove dead skin cells from the skin. Some people are sensitive and retinoic acid can cause redness and peeling, if not flaking and inflammation of the skin. In addition, rapid exfoliation of the skin leaves the new skin susceptible to damage from ultra-violet radiation from the sun.
• Accutane (generic name: isotretinoin) is an oral prescription medication that helps reduce the production of sebum by the sebaceous glands. Many people see the elimination of acne in 15 to 20 weeks. But, isotretinoin can cause birth defects and so is only prescribed for severe acne including deep cysts.
• Oral prescription antibiotics can temporarily help to reduce the population of acne bacteria. But, eventually the bacteria become resistant and further infections of the pores can occur.
• Contraceptives can help reduce androgens (male sex hormones). Women with acne often have higher levels of androgens, including testosterone. The effect of reducing testosterone in women helps reduce the size of the sebaceous gland and thus the production of sebum.

Whatever acne medicine you choose, you should know that your acne will eventually go away by itself as your body adjusts to the new hormones it is producing.

Alternatives to traditional medicines are also effective in treating acne. You may want to consider Blue Light Acne Treatment as well as Laser Acne Removal.