The first step in the spread of acne represents another irony, namely that the spread of acne is partly caused by the body’s own defense mechanism against the invasion of P. acnes. What happens is that, in fighting off this bacterial attack, your body sends to the scene extra blood carrying white corpuscles and various antibodies. This accounts for much of the redness of inflammation. To some extent this reaction is effective as that particular pimple eventually goes away.

However, the extra ?curative? blood has an unfortunate side effect: It swells the surrounding areas, squeezing the pores, making them more susceptible to clogging and tending to turn partially blocked pores into full-fledged comedones that harbor the bacteria that have been breeding nearby. Thus, while curing one acne pimple, the inflammation actually facilitates the formation of many more.

As you can see, the process of the formation of acne is clear: Dry cells mixed with sebum block the pores; sebum builds up behind the clog; bacteria infect the buildup; and the eventual ?curative? inflammation spreads the condition.

The goals of the Acne Cure program, then, become obvious. It has to:

1. Avoid the clogging

2. Remove both the clogs and the excess collected sebum from already clogged pores

3. Kill the bacteria inside and outside those pores

4. Stop the inflammation so as to avoid spreading the condition.

In principle, taking these four steps should be simple enough. An in practice it is … once you know how. But learning how to implement such a program is not at all simple. This task was complicated by two factors. The first is that the cause of and cure for acne are surrounded by any number of myths and old wives? tales, often fervently believed but mostly wrong.

The other, is that the dozens of commercial acne products-marketed with huge sums to tout their efficacy-foster a state of misinformation, or at least incomplete information, about acne. Many of the advertised products work up to, a point and therefore have their convinced advocates. But none works for all sufferers all the time because each attacks only one or at most two of the four causes of acne. Thus, they are effective only when user’s acne happens to be caused primarily by the condition the specific medication attacks.