When I was a kid, I was plagued by acne, as I’m sure most teens are. It has left some marks on my face, though I wish it hadn’t. I also remember all the admonishments of adults, “don’t eat chocolate!”, “don’t drink this/that or the next”… none of it worked.

My parents even took me to the doctor for anti-biotic treatement but I think that didn’t work well either. It was as much a hormonal thing as bacterial. But there were other incidental causes that over the counter drugs or prescription treatments couldn’t fix. Enter Acnetix, a product that seems to be yet another supplement with unproven claims to do wonders. But I doubt it will.

However, being aware of its causes certainly will help. And there are a whole plethora of causes, some of which you can’t do much about. But the most important are Family/Genetic history, Hormonal activity, Hyperactive sebaceous glands. Not much you can do about those. But the other causes can be treated: Inflammation, skin irritation or scratching of any sort will activate inflammation;Stress; Accumulation of dead skin cells; and Bacteria in the pores.

So I guess you can do some obvious things to limit the situation getting worse: keep your skin clean; avoid transferring bacteria TO your face from your hands; get plenty of sleep and limit other sources of stress; avoid unnecessarily irritating your skin with cosmetics, dirty fingers or whatever; drink plenty of fresh water to hydrate yourself properly; and see a doctor to manage the problem.

Most teens will grow out of it, so take heart!