subject: Why Washing Your Face Won't Cure Your Acne [print this page] There are a number of myths surrounding how to prevent and cure acne, and washing ones face is perhaps the top myth of all. To put it simply, if you have acne, the reason for this has very little to do with how clean your face is.
This is how you get acne: excessive peaks in your insulin cause the formation of the hormone dihydroxytestosterone (DHT), DHT then causes your oil glands to swell and produce excessive oil and the combination of the swollen oil gland and the excessive oil blocks the pore of the skin, resulting in the dermal layer rupturing. Bacteria infect this ruptured layer and the immune system sends in thousands of white blood cells to kill them. The white blood cells are the puss of a whitehead pimple.
Here is an analogy: if you want your car to run well, do you wash the car each morning and night, or do you ensure that the engine has enough oil and the radiator has enough water? This is a very simple analogy, but it is exactly the analogy you should consider when you treat your acne.
A car with a bad engine is displayed by the car puffing out smoke, running poorly or back-firing. A person who has acne is displaying poor internal health. And washing the skin will do nothing to making the internal health of your body any better.
What about dirt? What about makeup? Sure, having a dirty face or having your face caked with makeup will make it easier for the pores of your skin to become clogged. But the effect of the dirt or the makeup on the pores of your skin is nothing compared to the thousands of swollen oil glands you experience every time your insulin rises dramatically.
How to prevent acne is greatly detailed great in the book The Zafino Method. The major thrust of the method is to maintain the right internal health. And the key part to that is to ensure that your insulin levels never experience rapid rises or extreme peaks.
Many people believe that bacteria are to blame for acne, so they wash their faces with Clearasil, Proactiv or other forms of benzoyl peroxide to try to kill the bacteria that live on and in their skin. The reality is that bacteria do not cause acne directly.
And the reason is simple: bacteria will only infect the skin if it is ruptured. Just like if you were to cut yourself. If the skin is not ruptured, the bacteria will live completely harmlessly on the skin and in the pores of the skin. In other words, if you ensure that your skin never becomes ruptured by excessive over production of oil there will be no chance the bacteria will cause an infection.
To repeat: bacteria do not cause acne. They are harmless. There is no point trying to wash away or kill the bacteria. Providing that you maintain a healthy dietary lifestyle, one that ensures that your insulin does not peak excessively, then you will not be damaging your skin and thus you are protecting your skin from bacterial infection.
Preventing acne is about the right diet. Washing ones face will do little to prevent acne.
