Acne (the medical term is acne vulgaris) is something that pretty much all of you will have to deal with at some stage in your life. It happens most commonly during the teenage years so that you have the pleasure of being hormonally unbalanced and also having an embarrassing skin problem. Teriffic eh? For others acne can be a problem that follows you into adulthood. Some 85% of the people reading this already have or will suffer from acne at some stage in their lives. But what exactly causes this annoying skin complaint and what can you do to treat it?

Acne is normally seen as a very common thing with easily identifiable causes and cures. This isn't really the case and acne is a more complicated matter than many of you reading this may think. The problem starts with skin pores becoming blocked with dead skin cells and your skin secreting more oil (called sebum) than it actually needs. The blocked skin pores are the perfect growing environment for certain types of bacteria. This type of bacterial infection then causes your skin to become inflammed and sore. Other skins pores become infected and within a few days you can have a total acne outbreak.

A commonly held belief is that acne is caused by excessive oil and grease from your skin. This then clogs up your skin pores and causes blackheads, zits and pimples. Here's an interesting fact - the oil that many people believe causes acne actually moves through the blocked pore and out onto your skin. This then gives you the double whammy of having both acne and oily skin. The fact remains, however, that the oil itself is not the actual cause of your spots and pimples.

So what causes acne? There are numerous different causes for this annoying and embarrassing skin problem. Amongst these are genetics, stress, hormonal activity (puberty and the menstrual cycle), excessive dead skin cells and the use of steroids to list just a few. You'll have noticed that poor diet wasn't listed. Why? Because there's no definitive link between poor diet and acne. Eating lots of junk food will make you fat but it might not cause zits.

The acne and pimples themselves are not the only thing to worry about. Excessive acne that's left untreated can leave the skin scarred and pitted for life. Don't just ignore the problem when it appears and pray that it will simply vanish - it won't. There's no point in letting yourself wide open to the long term psychological scars for the sake of taking some simple steps right now.

So how can you go about treating your acne? Well that's where there's good news - there are plenty of treatments for your acne both natural and otherwise. Proper exfoliation should be the first treatment to look at - this simply means keeping your skin clean. Next comes the medicinal treatments like anti-biotics (both oral and topical) and treatments like Retin-A (Retinoic Acid) and Azelaic acid. You can also look at the light/photo therapy treatments and even go as far as laser treatment (lasers can also be used to remove acne scars). Nature can play its part here too with Vitamin-A and Teatree oil being popular alternative treatments. Living a healthy lifestyle is also one often overlooked "treatment". Cut out the junk food, get exercise and drink plenty of fresh water. Give your body the "fuel" it needs to repair your skin and prevent those bacterial infections in the first place.

You can conquer your acne. Take steps today to cure or prevent it. Your skill will thank you in the long run.