Video:What Causes Cystic Acne?

Transcript:What Causes Cystic Acne?

Hi this is Dr. Debra Jaliman, a board certified dermatologist here in New York City and author of the book Skin Rules: Trade Secrets from a Top New York Dermatologist here for About.com to talk about what causes cystic acne.

Cystic Acne is a Severe Skin Condition

Cystic Acne is the most severe form of acne, but like all forms of acne it's caused the same way. What causes acne? Acne is caused by high testosterone levels which are the male hormone in the body. Now everybody has testosterone in their system, but when the testosterone levels get too high, it can exacerbate acne.

Clogged Pores Cause Cystic Acne

The other causes of acne are that the dead skin cells don't exfoliate properly and they clog your pores. So if you have dead skin cells on the surface that don't exfoliate normally and they clog your pores and then you have too much sebum in the pore and the sebum is actually the oil produced by the sebaceous gland or oil gland, you have a combination of the sebum, the dead skin cells, they clog the pore and then a lot of bacteria comes in and that's the bacteria called proprioni bacterium acnes, or 'P' acnes. This whole combination comes and then you have inflammation and the inflammatory cells come and a whole flood of inflammatory cells. You can get a large cyst.

Some People are Prone to Cystic Acne

Nobody knows why some people get cystic acne as opposed to just pimples, but it does run in families so people tend to get these large cysts. The unfortunate thing about these cysts is they can scar. So that's the frustrating thing about cystic acne and why it requires treatment immediately before you start to get scarring.

If you have any other questions about cystic acne please go to About.com for further information.