Just in case you need one more reason to quit smoking, did you know that smoking increases the potential to develop acne in adulthood? According to research published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, a specific type of acne in adult women is tied directly to smoking.
Dr. Bruno Capitanio and his colleagues at Rome’s Istituti Fisioterapici Ospitalieri studied 226 adult women with acne. They first assessed how long the women had been suffering with acne, and then identified the type of acne lesions. They found two types of acne: CPAA, short for “comedonal post-adolescent acne,” the most common form of acne in adult women, and papulopustular post-adolescent acne. You can easily see the difference in the photos to the left. CPAA looks like the acne experienced by many teens. Obvious by its name, the papulopustular acne has pustules, or raised pimples.
The research revealed a startling fact. Of the 192 women with comedonal post-adolescent acne, 72.9% of them were smokers. Strangely, there were fewer smokers in the more severe type of acne, the papulopustular acne. “According to our results, CPAA appears as the most frequent clinical form of post-adolescent acne and seems to be strictly correlated with cigarette smoking,” the authors write.
We meet many men and women of all ages who suffer with acne. In addition to specific skincare products for active acne, the most effective forms of therapy for acne scars are laser skin treatments. The Fraxel laser we use is approved by the FDA to safely and gently reduce the appearance of acne scars. One or more treatments with the Fraxel in our Shreveport plastic surgery office can improve acne scars up to about 50% but to this date, nothing will completely remove them.
To your health and beauty,
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