Acne Topics:

Back Acne: Treatments

What causes back acne anyway?

No one factor causes back acne. As physicians understand it, back acne happens when oil (sebaceous) glands come to life around puberty, when these glands are stimulated by male hormones that are produced in the adrenal glands of both boys and girls. The oil glands, which are located just beneath the skin, continuously produce and secrete oil through openings in the skin. The oil lubricates and protects the skin. Under certain circumstances, cells that are close to the openings of the oil glands block the openings. This causes a buildup of oil underneath the skin. Bacteria, which live in everyone's skin but generally mind their own business, feast on this oil, multiply, and cause the surrounding tissues to become inflamed.

If the inflammation is right near the surface, you get a pustule; if it's deeper, a papule (pimple); deeper still and it's a cyst. If the oil breaks though to the surface, the result is a " whitehead." If the oil becomes oxidized (that is, acted on by oxygen in the air), the oil changes from white to black, and the result is a "blackhead."

To start with, hands off. Popping pimples is never the way to go — especially pimples as painful as yours seem — since it can lead to infection or long-term scarring. And despite what the photo retouchers at Men's Health, Cosmo, and the like might have you believe, "backne" (acne on one's back) is a common affliction. Acne results from an overproduction of sebum (oil) from the sebaceous glands.

Just as the face, chest, arms, and back are particular hot spots for sebaceous glands, so, too, are they particular hot spots for acne. Within acne, there are two different genres: non-inflammatory and inflammatory. Non-inflammatory acne includes blackheads and whiteheads and is often the less visible type of acne. Inflammatory acne, on the other hand, includes pimples, red pustules, and larger lesions that are formed when sebaceous glands flare up.

Exactly why some people get acne-pimples and some do not is not fully known. It is known to be partly hereditary. Several factors are known to be linked to acne-pimples: Stress Hormonal activity Hyperactive sebaceous glands Accumulation of dead skin cells Bacteria in the pores Skin irritation or scratching of any sort Anabolic steroids Any medication containing halogens (iodides, chlorides, bromides), lithium, barbiturates, or androgens Exposure to high levels of chlorine compounds, particularly chlorinated dioxins, can cause severe, long-lasting acne, known as Chloracne