Everyone has had acne sometime in their life, but how do we know acne from something more serious, Recently one of the contributors of shipacne had just that, a carcinoma disguised as what he thought was a pimple. The other day Glenn came to work with about a two inch scar on his neck with approximately nine stitches, and I was in shock and had asked what happened.

Heres the story, about seven months ago he had what looked like a small pimple on his neck, and he popped it, and of course it reacted like a normal zit popping out that nasty stuff, and that was it, but later it continued to gradually grow, Glenn said that after looking at it carefully, he noticed a couple of hairs in the vicinity and figured it was just an ingrown hair, so he plucked the two hairs and of course the swelling went down back to a normal size but it did not decrease.

After a while the pimple started to look more like a sore, it gradually grew slowly , but not to anything abnormal, it finally took Glenn seven months and he decided to go see a dermatologist, and  of course the dermatologist asked why he had not gone to see him sooner, and of course Glenn said… well it acted and seemed like it was just a pimple, but it wasn’t , it was the beginning of a pre-cancerous growth, the surgery was performed and the growth removed and the test results of the biopsy fortunately turned out to be negative.

So if you have some kind of persistent growth that looks like a pimple make sure you check it out, it could be something more serious.

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Acne is extremely common, but few people actually understand what it is, and a lot of myths and wives tales surround what causes it. Most commonly affecting teenagers and young adults, acne cases can range from mild breakouts to very severe ones. Regardless of the severity of the case, however, all acne should be treated as soon as possible, as it can play a major role in self-esteem, especially amongst teenagers.

Acne is actually caused by particles of dirt entering the pores and clogging them, causing ideal breeding grounds for bacteria. This build-up then manifests itself as a whitehead on the surface of the skin.

Foods such as French fries, chocolate and other greasy foods are generally associated with outbreaks. However, this is merely a myth since no real scientific link has actually placed greasy food as a cause of acne. However, in some cases, it was shown that certain foods caused the initial acne to get progressively worse. So, as a general rule of thumb, avoid eating certain kinds of food that you think may cause you to break out. Understand, however, that this does not apply to everyone and you might be one of the few who can eat greasy foods and still get away with it.

Another belief is that frequent washing has a beneficial effect, reducing the chances of acne and lessening it once it appears. This is not true. In fact, it has shown to increase acne outbreaks, if anything. Repeated washing can lead to dryness and irritation of the skin, which leads to a prevalence of acne breakouts. Because of this, people should only wash twice daily using only a mild soap; anything more will result in skin irritation.

The average person’s reaction to a pimple is to pop it, thereby removing the whitehead and the source of the infection. However, this is not the case. What actually happens when the pimple is popped is that the bacteria, dead skin cells and pus get deeper into the skin, leading to even more redness and quite possibly scarring. Read more…

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