Who was that bacteria I saw you with last night?
It’s really strange how some lines stay with you. Not that I am old enough to remember the original version of the words, “Who was that lady I saw you with last night?” - it was first used in 1887 by Joseph Weber and Lew Fields in a vaudeville routine - but it just seems to be something I grew up with. Rather like acne. Along with some four-fifths of all teenagers, I had some acne. Most of the others in my class had it around the same time and no-one really thought very much about it. Back then - no, way back then - people didn’t make a big deal about spots. Today, everyone on the planet seems to go through severe emotional and psychological traumas when their faces light up with a few zits. It seems to be the norm for the spotless teenagers to torture those who have the spots on each day.
The words I started with are the basis of the continuous barrage of advertising copy. If you have spots coming in the evening, you rub this product on your face and the next day, the spots are gone. As if. . . There are many different remedies for dealing with acne. The first starts with the idea that people grow out of the problem so you don’t need to do anything, rising to the administration of accutane which is the final nuclear deterrent when all else has failed. In between, scientists are working on identifying the cause of acne. We all get the theory that when your body is growing, the hormonal balance gets out of whack and causes your hair follicles to get blocked up with dead skin cells. The question is which bacteria cause the follicles to be infected and/or inflamed. The most popular candidate is Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes). Some new research from Denmark published this month, dismisses the idea that an undiscovered bacterium is responsible. Their work shows major colonies of P. acnes on the skin and in the follicles of healthy teenagers. When a spot is forming, there seems to be an average of fifteen different bacteria involved including P. acnes, Staphylococcus epidermidis and other well-known species. It therefore appears that P. acnes may be blamed because it is already present in the follicles and that one of the other bacteria may actually be responsible for the infection or inflammation.
If the bacteria most closely connected with the infection can be identified, a more specific remedy can be produced. Until then, people will have to make do with the existing treatments. If all the standard medications fail, that leaves accutane which is almost always effective. Young men may use this drug without undue risks, but we remind all young women not to use this drug unless they take the iPledge and all appropriate measures to prevent pregnancy. |
