To fight acne you have to understand how it works...
There are 3 things that cause acne:
- Skin oils
- P. acne bacteria
- Skin shedding/cell division
Though there are 3 things that cause acne, you can get rid of your case by taking care of any one of them.
Usually skin oils (sebum) seeps from the bottom of a pore to the surface of the skin, taking sloughed skin cells in the pore and bacteria with it (providinglubrication to the surface of the skin). However, abnormal cell division (shedding) inside the pore can clog it, closing the path for the sebum to escape. Thebacteria that is inside the pore (and normally taken out by the sebum), doesn't get to the surface (since the sebum can't take it out) and thrives inthis environment... multiplying and multiplying. After a while your body's immune response kicks in, and that's why the swelling occurs (not because ofexcess oils).
Peoples' bodies react to acne in different ways. Everyone knows that person who doesn't take care of their skin yet never gets pimples
. Youknow why? Maybe their skin cells divide normall all the time. Maybe they don't produce enough sebum to allow the bacteria to thrive if it does get blocked.Maybe it DOES get blocked, but their immune response is so small that there's little/no swelling so you don't notice a pimple anyway.
I didn't have many pimples, but the ones I had were BIG. I tried washing my face 3x a day with benzoyl peroxide day and night (all the concentrations)and Retin-A. Eventually I figured out that since I wasn't getting that many of them (and it was the size of the pimples that was bothering me), it hadsomething to do with the amount of bacteria and my immune response. So I started taking Doxycycline (oral antibiotic used for acne), and sure enough... i'mclear. I'll get one every 3 weeks or so that will literally clear up in 2 days. Your body may become used to the antibiotic after a while, so to combatthis you'll have to use it with benzoyl peroxide (research suggests that body adaptation is decreased/eliminated using this technique).
If your problem is your skin oil, you're better off washing your face a lot... if that doesn't help... you'll have to go the Accutane route.Accutane has the potential to cure your acne forever, but comes with many side effects. It essentially works by stopping sebum production.
If you've figured out that your problem is your skin shedding, you'll want Retin-A which induces the cells to divide faster. This is also the ONLYCLINICALLY PROVEN method for decreasing the appearance of wrinkles too... so that's an added benefit.
It sounds cliche, but different things work for different people. I'd recommend starting out with "the method" detailed in acne.org... and ifthat doesn't work to go the prescription route (all the drugs I mentioned besides Benzoyl peroxide are prescription).
Edit:
To reduce the size of a pimple in a short amount of time (without popping it) you'll want to just treat it like any other swelling. Ice and aspirinshould make it decrease a small amount, but until your body does what it does... it won't dissapear fully.
and no, you don't need pics. Probablynot a lot of help... but want to know if there are other PFS sufferers on here.
