The Cause

The cause of acne can be many things - acne is, in fact, the world's most common skin disease. You know you have it when your skin develops blackheads, whiteheads, or red or yellow spots and becomes greasy. These are the classic signs and it doesn't matter how many you have for your doctor to confirm it as acne. Acne doesn't care who you are, what color your skin is or how old you are. However, it is far more likely that, as you approach puberty, your skin will start to change enough to kick-start the 'acne process'. What most people don't know is that you don't always grow out of it: 15 per cent of women in their 40s are still troubled by acne, although for men is it less likely to carry on for so long.

It's a cruel fact that acne feels most at home on your face, but it can also crop up on your neck, back, chest or shoulders. This is because the oil-producing glands (the sebaceous glands) on your skin are most concentrated here.

There has been extensive research into acne, and dermatologists blame four main factors in the skin:

Firstly, the body seems to become extremely sensitive to the male hormones (the androgens) in the body. Women as well as men have male hormones but, because men have higher levels, they are often more affected. However, there do not have to be large amounts of these male hormones to get the oil-producing glands over-working, which makes them pump out more oil - called sebum.