Through my Anatomy class and what I have been reading, acne is caused by p.acne (bacteria) flourishing inside the hair follicles, or somesay the subaceous glands. But that alone won't cause acne because the body has to react to the invasion via: langerhan's cell, antibodies, etc. only once the immune system has been stimulated thus causing an inflamatory response, only then a lesion will form. Now the inflamatory response is a response from the immune system. I cannon account for every acne sufferers but through years of suffering i realized this. My friends got sick more then I did and when they were sick they missed avg to 4- 10 days of school; and this was a normal pattern for them. As an acne sufferer I try to keep healthy; no fast food, no soda, limit carbs, plenty of lean meats, vegetable, meats, and omega 3 supps. I do accomplish my goals of being healthy and rarely get sick and when i do I recover in one day. But i have persistent acne, and my friends dont. If you read this far thank you and here is my point: is it possible that person with strong immune system could have more acne (or persistent acne) than people with weaker immune system? I think my answer is yes, but what do you guys think?
Through my Anatomy class and what I have been reading, acne is caused by p.acne (bacteria) flourishing inside the hair follicles, or somesay the subaceous glands. But that alone won't cause acne because the body has to react to the invasion via: langerhan's cell, antibodies, etc. only once the immune system has been stimulated thus causing an inflamatory response, only then a lesion will form. Now the inflamatory response is a response from the immune system. I cannon account for every acne sufferers but through years of suffering i realized this. My friends got sick more then I did and when they were sick they missed avg to 4- 10 days of school; and this was a normal pattern for them. As an acne sufferer I try to keep healthy; no fast food, no soda, limit carbs, plenty of lean meats, vegetable, meats, and omega 3 supps. I do accomplish my goals of being healthy and rarely get sick and when i do I recover in one day. But i have persistent acne, and my friends dont. If you read this far thank you and here is my point: is it possible that person with strong immune system could have more acne (or persistent acne) than people with weaker immune system? I think my answer is yes, but what do you guys think?
i think its a load of bull, recently i havent been eating to healthy, fastfoods, chocolates, cookies, processed junk etc. and i have no severe breakouts. I'm sick right now because im eqating this way and my immune system is really low.
Acne has to do with what you put on your face, be it chemicals, products, crap you dont need on your face that clogs your pores, dries you out etc. it has nothing to do with your immune system.
I haven't been ill in years either, not so much as a cold. Before that I was much unhealthier and got ill quite often and although I had acne it was nowhere near as bad... in fact I would kill to have that skin now. So what if I start being unhealthy again, my acne will go away??
I think so. I am a very healthy person, but have had problem skin for 15 years. There are people in my family with smooth skin, but poor health. I wonder if dermatologist really understand what causes acne. There are too many holes in the theories of diet, health and infection. I suspect that the cause could be different for all of us. I have only had acne as an adult. Just recently I started getting cyst. 
I think that it is hormonal. I am on an oral antibiotic now and am skeptical. 
You're making a faulty assumption when you think that a good immune system should lessen your acne.
When P. acnes gets trapped inside a pore, it starts feeding on fatty acids that are in your sebum. P. acnes is an aerotolerant anaerobe which means it flourishes in a nonoxygenated environment but it can tolerate, and live, in an oxygenated environment (many people think it can't live in oxygen, but they're wrong). The bacteria release chemokines and cytokines which your immune system recognizes and sends white blood cells to the area. The leakage of plasma into the affected area causes the swelling. Macrophages phagocytize, eat up and digest, the bacteria creating what we now as pus. You get pimples and your friends don't is because your body overproduces a form of testosterone known as DHT, dihydrotestosterone. This causes an excess of sebum to be created and it also makes it stickier. This isn't the sole reason though. There are other proteins that cause acne, ex. IGF. These other proteins that cause acne are usually linked to the way your body metabolizes glucose. This is why there are varying types of acne.
If you overexpress DHT, or other proteins that cause acne, and had a weakened immune system your acne would likely be worse. A strong immune system likely destroys many P. acnes before they can grow and become an imflamed pimple. A weak immune system would create opportunistic infections and allow them to run rampant.
Yes,jamikaman123,there is scientific evidence to back up what you are saying.
In his book HEALING ADULT ACNE,dermatologist RICHARD G. FRIED discusses how people with acne typically have immune systems that "work too well". There are even a few drugs out there for acne that are supposed to block the immune response.(I cant think of them off the top of my head but Dr. Richard G. Fried does mention them in his book)
Another thing though, is that while your immune system may seem to work in overdrive,your liver seems to not work as good as someone without acne.The liver gets overworked and it cant rid the body of all the toxins and so they come out through your pores.
Through my Anatomy class and what I have been reading, acne is caused by p.acne (bacteria) flourishing inside the hair follicles, or somesay the subaceous glands. But that alone won't cause acne because the body has to react to the invasion via: langerhan's cell, antibodies, etc. only once the immune system has been stimulated thus causing an inflamatory response, only then a lesion will form. Now the inflamatory response is a response from the immune system. I cannon account for every acne sufferers but through years of suffering i realized this. My friends got sick more then I did and when they were sick they missed avg to 4- 10 days of school; and this was a normal pattern for them. As an acne sufferer I try to keep healthy; no fast food, no soda, limit carbs, plenty of lean meats, vegetable, meats, and omega 3 supps. I do accomplish my goals of being healthy and rarely get sick and when i do I recover in one day. But i have persistent acne, and my friends dont. If you read this far thank you and here is my point: is it possible that person with strong immune system could have more acne (or persistent acne) than people with weaker immune system? I think my answer is yes, but what do you guys think?
No it is because you are allergic! Some people say "Diet is a myth! and it does not cure acne" is BULL SHIT! If you are eating something that your immune system finds dangerous or hazordous or if our immune system is weakened by this hazordous chemical. Some people react to childhood antibotics injection and it shows up when they are older. Recent studies showed people developing add/adhd through injection given when they were children. It is something similar to acne as well. Developing a stronger immune system takes time as well. It takes about 6 months until allergy causing chemical is found and is avoided for the future!
Injecting childrens with bacterias to avoid diseases in the future is stupidity at best!
You're making a faulty assumption when you think that a good immune system should lessen your acne.
When P. acnes gets trapped inside a pore, it starts feeding on fatty acids that are in your sebum. P. acnes is an aerotolerant anaerobe which means it flourishes in a nonoxygenated environment but it can tolerate, and live, in an oxygenated environment (many people think it can't live in oxygen, but they're wrong). The bacteria release chemokines and cytokines which your immune system recognizes and sends white blood cells to the area. The leakage of plasma into the affected area causes the swelling. Macrophages phagocytize, eat up and digest, the bacteria creating what we now as pus. You get pimples and your friends don't is because your body overproduces a form of testosterone known as DHT, dihydrotestosterone. This causes an excess of sebum to be created and it also makes it stickier. This isn't the sole reason though. There are other proteins that cause acne, ex. IGF. These other proteins that cause acne are usually linked to the way your body metabolizes glucose. This is why there are varying types of acne.
If you overexpress DHT, or other proteins that cause acne, and had a weakened immune system your acne would likely be worse. A strong immune system likely destroys many P. acnes before they can grow and become an imflamed pimple. A weak immune system would create opportunistic infections and allow them to run rampant.
Have you cured your acne or cured anyone else's acne?
I searched the web to find relevant discussion to this topic. I have had persistent acne for about 5 years and I get sick about once every year and a half. To me it seems that it could be an evolutionary adaption. Our skin has variable sensitivity to outbreaks and therefore has retained acne sensitive areas in a genetically programmed pattern subject to the forces if evolution. The variety of protein felt by the immune system may be much greater in a person with heavy acne.
I think it could well be extreme coincidence that many people with strong immune systems have acne (I myself am one of them). But maybe strong isn't the right word - maybe 'incorrectly trained' is a better description. Acne isn't caused by P. acnes, but rather by inflammatory events that occur prior to P. acnes colonization, which means there is still immune system involvement in the initialization of acne. The question in dermatology right now is what the initializing event is - what is causing the immune system to react?
I guess it's possible that some sort of microbe (maybe a bacteria) is the cause, but it seems unlikely that it's P. acnes or any other topical microbe, for a few reasons. 1: acne is initialized under sterile topical conditions. 2: skin microbiota isn't drastically different between those with and without acne (except for differences in P. acnes populations, which are not initializers).
Acne seems to be closely linked with diet and digestive health in many cases. Therefore I would not be surprised if there is some strain of bacteria that stimulates the immune system to display a type IV response on our faces and bodies, or maybe a food antigen in some cases that elicits a similar response. Most of the immune system is localized around the digestive tract, after all. Maybe it's possible that these bacteria train our immune systems to fight similar pathogenic bacteria or keep a higher titer of antimicrobial molecules, thus granting partial immunity to novel diseases/faster response times. That would be cool. But it would also be annoying, cuz I'd much rather get sick for a few days a year than have acne all year
I dont get sick very often but I do remember getting sick more often with the flu and stuff when I didn't have acne. It's only been like 2 1/2 years since I've had acne, but then again I think the only thing I've ever been sick with a few times in my life is the flu and like low blood sugar.
I think it could well be extreme coincidence that many people with strong immune systems have acne (I myself am one of them). But maybe strong isn't the right word - maybe 'incorrectly trained' is a better description. Acne isn't caused by P. acnes, but rather by inflammatory events that occur prior to P. acnes colonization, which means there is still immune system involvement in the initialization of acne. The question in dermatology right now is what the initializing event is - what is causing the immune system to react?
I guess it's possible that some sort of microbe (maybe a bacteria) is the cause, but it seems unlikely that it's P. acnes or any other topical microbe, for a few reasons. 1: acne is initialized under sterile topical conditions. 2: skin microbiota isn't drastically different between those with and without acne (except for differences in P. acnes populations, which are not initializers).
Acne seems to be closely linked with diet and digestive health in many cases. Therefore I would not be surprised if there is some strain of bacteria that stimulates the immune system to display a type IV response on our faces and bodies, or maybe a food antigen in some cases that elicits a similar response. Most of the immune system is localized around the digestive tract, after all. Maybe it's possible that these bacteria train our immune systems to fight similar pathogenic bacteria or keep a higher titer of antimicrobial molecules, thus granting partial immunity to novel diseases/faster response times. That would be cool. But it would also be annoying, cuz I'd much rather get sick for a few days a year than have acne all year
The immune system is based around the lymphatic system not the digestive tract and it can not be altered for this reason. In other words we can not "train our immune system to work better". The inflammation in acne is an over/incorrect immune system response to the benign bacteria and unfortunately this is largely genetic with some other complexities behind it.. You can not restructure how your genetics work, as much as most of us would like to play God.
I think it could well be extreme coincidence that many people with strong immune systems have acne (I myself am one of them). But maybe strong isn't the right word - maybe 'incorrectly trained' is a better description. Acne isn't caused by P. acnes, but rather by inflammatory events that occur prior to P. acnes colonization, which means there is still immune system involvement in the initialization of acne. The question in dermatology right now is what the initializing event is - what is causing the immune system to react?
I guess it's possible that some sort of microbe (maybe a bacteria) is the cause, but it seems unlikely that it's P. acnes or any other topical microbe, for a few reasons. 1: acne is initialized under sterile topical conditions. 2: skin microbiota isn't drastically different between those with and without acne (except for differences in P. acnes populations, which are not initializers).
Acne seems to be closely linked with diet and digestive health in many cases. Therefore I would not be surprised if there is some strain of bacteria that stimulates the immune system to display a type IV response on our faces and bodies, or maybe a food antigen in some cases that elicits a similar response. Most of the immune system is localized around the digestive tract, after all. Maybe it's possible that these bacteria train our immune systems to fight similar pathogenic bacteria or keep a higher titer of antimicrobial molecules, thus granting partial immunity to novel diseases/faster response times. That would be cool. But it would also be annoying, cuz I'd much rather get sick for a few days a year than have acne all year
The immune system is based around the lymphatic system not the digestive tract and it can not be altered for this reason. In other words we can not "train our immune system to work better". The inflammation in acne is an over/incorrect immune system response to the benign bacteria and unfortunately this is largely genetic with some other complexities behind it.. You can not restructure how your genetics work, as much as most of us would like to play God.
Yes, the inflammation of acne could be an incorrect response to benign bacteria. But I'm not convinced it's simply genetic; while there's surely a predisposition, rising rates of acne indicate an interaction with the environment.
Also, which bacteria is acne a response to? It doesn't seem likely that it's a response to P. acnes or another topical bacterium, because the lesions are initially sterile, and the increased presence of P. Acnes is linked to increased sebum production, not the other way around. This is why I suggested it could be a reaction to a gut microbe. Recent research indicates that the gut microbiome has a much larger influence on our immune systems than previously thought by conventional science, with most immune cells in the body being present in the intestines ( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916122214.htm ). Lymph nodes are really just harbors. Most of the action happens in tissues that interface with the environment (where antigenic particles are most likely to be), and the most extensive interfaces are the skin and the digestive tract.
I think it could well be extreme coincidence that many people with strong immune systems have acne (I myself am one of them). But maybe strong isn't the right word - maybe 'incorrectly trained' is a better description. Acne isn't caused by P. acnes, but rather by inflammatory events that occur prior to P. acnes colonization, which means there is still immune system involvement in the initialization of acne. The question in dermatology right now is what the initializing event is - what is causing the immune system to react?
I guess it's possible that some sort of microbe (maybe a bacteria) is the cause, but it seems unlikely that it's P. acnes or any other topical microbe, for a few reasons. 1: acne is initialized under sterile topical conditions. 2: skin microbiota isn't drastically different between those with and without acne (except for differences in P. acnes populations, which are not initializers).
Acne seems to be closely linked with diet and digestive health in many cases. Therefore I would not be surprised if there is some strain of bacteria that stimulates the immune system to display a type IV response on our faces and bodies, or maybe a food antigen in some cases that elicits a similar response. Most of the immune system is localized around the digestive tract, after all. Maybe it's possible that these bacteria train our immune systems to fight similar pathogenic bacteria or keep a higher titer of antimicrobial molecules, thus granting partial immunity to novel diseases/faster response times. That would be cool. But it would also be annoying, cuz I'd much rather get sick for a few days a year than have acne all year
The immune system is based around the lymphatic system not the digestive tract and it can not be altered for this reason. In other words we can not "train our immune system to work better". The inflammation in acne is an over/incorrect immune system response to the benign bacteria and unfortunately this is largely genetic with some other complexities behind it.. You can not restructure how your genetics work, as much as most of us would like to play God.
Yes, the inflammation of acne could be an incorrect response to benign bacteria. But I'm not convinced it's simply genetic; while there's surely a predisposition, rising rates of acne indicate an interaction with the environment.
Also, which bacteria is acne a response to? It doesn't seem likely that it's a response to P. acnes or another topical bacterium, because the lesions are initially sterile, and the increased presence of P. Acnes is linked to increased sebum production, not the other way around. This is why I suggested it could be a reaction to a gut microbe. Recent research indicates that the gut microbiome has a much larger influence on our immune systems than previously thought by conventional science, with most immune cells in the body being present in the intestines ( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916122214.htm ). Lymph nodes are really just harbors. Most of the action happens in tissues that interface with the environment (where antigenic particles are most likely to be), and the most extensive interfaces are the skin and the digestive tract.
Acne still isn't close to being an autoimmune disease though remember. Also a lot of people are experiencing acne in this day and age, perhaps more than ever before, but only 5% of those with acne have an inflammatory type. All acne starts the same way, how much inflammation a person has in response to the process is unique to the individual.