Acne vulgaris is the most common skin disorder in North America. It affects an estimated 85 percent of adolescents and is increasingly common among people over 25 years of age. It can cause both physical and psychological scars, having a negative impact on social lives, employment, and self-esteem.

Four factors are primarily responsible for acne formation. For reasons that remain poorly understood, hair follicles get blocked with an overabundance of normal skin cells known as keratinocytes. These cells, which collectively form keratin, a tough component of skin, join a fatty substance called sebum to create a plug in the follicle.

The glands that produce sebum, known as sebaceous glands, enlarge during adolescence. Areas of the body with the greatest number of sebaceous glands include the face, neck, chest, upper back, and upper arms. The resultant increase in fatty sebum provides a favorable environment for the overgrowth of a normal organism living on the skin, a bacterium called Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes). The thriving bacteria attract body chemicals that cause local inflammation. The net result is often a skin lesion popularly known as a pimple.

First, let us look at the conventional medical treatment of acne, which I file under “the cure is worse than the disease”. The standard medical treatment of acne is usually with antibiotics, hormones such as oral contraceptives, or a very hideous drug called Accutane.

The most common antibiotics are erythromycin, minocycline and tetracycline. Antibiotics work by killing the P. acnes, but do not address the other aspects of how acne develops. Antibiotics also kill the beneficial intestinal bacteria needed to maintain health. Long-term antibiotic use, as is prescribed for acne, lowers immune function and could increase susceptibility to infection. There are many adverse side effects including liver damage and yellowing of teeth, increased susceptibility to sun-damage, increased bacterial resistance. Wyeth Laboratories is facing millions in damages from kids suffering from liver damage, arthritis and debilitation, due to the long-term use of Minocin, an antibiotic used for acne treatment.

Accutane can cause serious side effects. Your doctor will ask you to read and sign a form or forms indicating you understand some of the serious risks of Accutane. Accutane can cause birth defects (deformed babies) if taken by a pregnant woman or if a woman gets pregnant within 1 month after taking it. Some patients, while taking Accutane or soon after stopping Accutane, have become depressed or developed other serious mental problems including becoming suicidal some have even gone through with it. Accutane can increase the pressure in your brain. This can lead to permanent loss of sight, or in some cases, death. Some patients taking Accutane have had seizures (convulsions) or stroke. I wonder at what point a person realizes that getting rid of acne is not worth risking their life?

I look at acne as a normal part of a young person’s life thus treating it is not always necessary unless it really limits a person’s life in some way. By limiting, I mean that you just cannot function at a normal capacity because of debilitating pain or scarring and so on. I know that, for some teenagers, debility may mean that they just do not like the way they look or how they think they look when they have acne, but that is another issue.

There are some great homeopathic remedies used to treat mild cases of acne, and for severe cases, constitutional homeopathic treatment is recommended.
For mild cases of acne, the following remedies may help. They are 100% safe and certainly more cost effective. Take a 6CH potency 2 times per day try it for a couple of weeks and see if it helps. If it does not, then try another one.

Antimonium Crudum – When there are many pus-filled eruptions.

Carbo Animalis - For pimples that have a lot of redness to them.

Hepar Sulph - Pimples that tend to bleed easily.

Sulphur - Dry scaly skin, worse from heat, itching similar to nettle rash.

Try not to be so hard on yourself, because this too shall pass.