Acne the medical term Acne Vulgaris is a skin condition that commonly afflicts people during their teenage years. Acne pre-dominantly affects the face and appears as that lesions can take several different forms: blackheads, whiteheads and cysts. Although acne in most case is a skin condition, it can also show up on the back, neck, shoulders and chest. Whilst it is most common in teenagers, adults can also suffer with acne. Acne is not an infection that occurs on a particular race or gender as it affects male and female and all races equally.

What Is Acne?

Acne is a dermatological term that includes clogged pores, pimples and lumps or cysts that appear on the face, neck, chest, back, shoulders, and upper arms. Acne occurs most commonly in teenagers, but is not restricted to any age group, affecting even adults in their forties. This disease has many varieties, and although none are life threatening, the more severe cases of acne can be disfiguring, leaving permanent scars on effected areas.

The physical changes in body tissue – or lesions – which acne causes are described in five ways: comedos, papule, pustule, nodule and cyst.  These terms denote range or severity with comedo (also known as blackheads and whiteheads) at one end and nodules or cysts at the other.

As stated above, acne is most common among teenagers, affecting teens between the ages 12 and 17. Usually, mild cases can be cleared up with over-the-counter treatments and the acne goes away by the early twenties. It also should be noted that although acne affects both girls and boys equally, there are some distinctions. Young men are more likely to have severe, long-term acne while women can have reoccurring or intermittent acne well into adulthood due to hormonal changes and cosmetics.

Now that we have summarized just what acne is, we can move on. Easy acne solution is a guide to acne: what types are there, how to treat it, and current myths circulating about it. The hope is that the reader will come away having gained a clearer understanding of acne in its various forms, and how it can be combated against and to reduce its impact upon the lives of those suffering from it. This is by no means an exhaustive guide on the subject nor is it a clinical journal, but is at the very least, an introduction and a source upon which to do further study into the causes and cures of acne in all its forms.