There is no other disease so rich in folklore as acne because it is so common and has been around for so long. Even ancient Egypt’s celebrated boy king, Tutankhamen, is reported to have been buried with vials of acne medication. For generations, myths have furnished convenient means of parental control: "If you do such and such, you’ll get acne." And sure enough, mother was nearly always right!
Beyond threats and fears, the myths have also provided over simplified answers and a false sense of understanding. Almost every acne sufferer has accumulated a stockpile of ideas, explanations, hopes, theories, and treatment tips. If this book is to help you, you must discard all of them. Forget everything you ever heard about acne from friends, parents, aunts, grandmothers, magazine or newspaper articles, cosmetics or acne preparation ads, and even from some doctors. Much of it is wrong, or at a minimum, only partly true.
Some of the popular, almost universal, myths that get in the way of truly understanding acne are:
- Chocolate and greasy foods cause acne.
- Dirty skin and hair dangling on the forehead cause acne.
- Sexual frustration and sexual thoughts cause acne.
- Acne is only a teenage disease.
- Acne scars will disappear with time.
- I don’t have acne, just "complexion problems."
- No treatment works.
- The right cosmetics will improve my acne.
- Acne is simply the manifestation of psychological problems.
These and other myths about acne may be so ingrained that even the most intellectually flexible people refuse to throw them out. Unless you discard the myths, you cannot possibly understand what really causes acne. Without that understanding, chances are that everything you do to treat your acne will only make it worse.
Many potent acne myths stem from a misreading of actual personal experience. Acne tends to follow a curve i.e., beginning at a certain age, gradually worsening, reaching a peak, more or less improving with age, and then gradually burning itself out. The condition also flares and wanes repeatedly during the course of the disease.
The Acne Age Curve
Figure 1. Acne may begin earlier in the female and continue on longer. The condition may improve while on birth control pills (BCP’s) but flare up 3-4 months after the pills are discontinued. Make-up can also be an aggravating factor.
Anything that occurs on the upswing is believed to be a "cause". Anything that occurs on the downswing, as the disease is spontaneously abating, is hailed as a "cure" no matter how coincidental or farfetched. Hence, there is probably no other disease with so many alleged causes and cures. In Chapter 10, "Treatments and Tortures," we tackle a number of equally ingrained "cures." But first, let’s take a careful, critical look at nine common acne myths.
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