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AcneNet
This Month
December 1999
Tip of the Month
Cigarette smoking is bad for your health in a
number of ways, but does it cause acne? An AcneNet website visitor posed
this question after reading that cigarette smoking has damaging effects
on the skin of a smoker.
Tobacco smoking does indeed have damaging effects
on the skin over a period of years. Chemicals that are absorbed into the
body from tobacco smoke in the lungs set off complex reactions in the
body. One result of these reactions is damage to connective tissue that
underlies and supports the skin. The damaged connective tissue deforms
and causes visible wrinkling of the skin. Long-term cigarette smokers
are often identifiable by their "old-looking" skin.
Thus, while tobacco smoking has no known effects
in causing acne, it will over time contribute to a deterioration in the
skin’s appearance. Since this is one of the last things a person with
acne should want, a smoker with acne may consider smoking cessation as
part of an overall program of skin improvement.
Fact of the Month
The support and understanding of family and
friends can contribute to the overall well-being of a person with acne,
and may even contribute to the success of treatment. Certainly the
unfailing support of family members can ameliorate the psychological and
emotional distress of acne.
Lack of support from family members or friends is
often due to their lack of knowledge, or to beliefs in myths about acne.
For example:
- The false belief that acne is caused by poor
personal hygiene—i.e., the person with acne should just
"clean up his/her act".
- The equally false belief that acne is a
"punishment" for some sort of behavior that the family
member or friend finds offensive.
- The myth that acne is caused by eating the
"wrong" foods (click on Why
and how acne happens for more information about the causes
of acne).
Sometimes support begins to dwindle as family
members just "wear out" when severe acne goes on for years
with repeated treatments and relapses. The acne sufferer, family members
and friends all wish that the acne would just go away and stop draining
their emotional resources.
In these instances a family conference with the
acne patient’s dermatologist may help to refocus a family’s
psychological energies and restore the support needed by the patient. If
mistaken beliefs in myths about acne contribute to family
misunderstanding, they should be discussed with the dermatologist.
Psychological and emotional support should be
regarded as a part of overall treatment of the person with acne.
Question of the Month
Each month we pose a question that is answered the
following month. This month’s question:
Does prolonged exposure to sunlight, like a day at
the beach, make acne better or worse?
We’ll have the answer, and a discussion of the
answer, on AcneNet next month.
Answer to last month’s Question of the Month
Last month’s question was:
Are there any vitamins I can give my 5-year-old
daughter to prevent her from eventually getting acne? My husband and I
both had acne when we were in high school.
Answer: Vitamins have no known role in the
prevention of acne.
Other than an effect on overall health including
condition of the skin, none of the vitamins is known to be effective in
preventing acne. It is understandable why parents who had experience
with acne would want to prevent the disease in their daughter. A good
beginning is to teach the little girl the fundamentals of good skin care
(click on Why and how acne happens).
Good skin care and avoidance of heavy cosmetic use could be good
preventive measures as the girl grows toward the teen years. The family
history of acne might be discussed with the child’s pediatrician, in
the event an acne treatment program may be indicated later if acne
begins to develop.
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