If you suffer from acne, you know it's more than just a few pimples. Its emotional impact is beyond skin deep. Even as the most common skin condition in the world, acne can make you feel isolated, unattractive, and depressed. But now for some good news - as a medical condition we can help you bring it under control with the right combination of active ingredients, allowing you to enjoy life free from this burden.

Fortunately, your skin has remarkable resilience. It’s the body's largest organ and has amazing capabilities including regulating your temperature and fighting infections. And your skin can clear when you are treating it with the Proactiv+ system.

So how does acne start? There are four steps that create the red bump, whitehead or blackhead you see on your skin. It begins with a clogged pore. Skin cells are in a constant state of renewal. As old cells die, they are sloughed off to reveal fresh skin every thirty days. But if you are acne prone, these dead cells mix with oil becoming sticky. Instead of sloughing off, they clog your pores, trapping oil and bacteria inside.

The next step involves the overproduction of oil, or sebum. Your androgen hormones stimulate the release of oil from the sebaceous glands attached to your pores. During puberty or times of emotional stress, androgen activity increases, causing greater oil production and more clogged pores. As oil continues to be produced, it is trapped behind the plug, collecting and building pressure inside the pore.

With a plentiful supply of oil, the p.acnes bacteria naturally growing on your skin starts to feed and breed, which is the third step of the acne process.

Finally, as the bacteria digest the oil, they release inflammatory byproducts that leak out of the follicle. Your body recognizes these byproducts as foreign and mounts an immune reaction. Red and white blood cells hightail it to this "infection,"causing swelling, redness and inflammation. The end result is the throbbing, red, tender bump you know as a pimple.

The four-step acne process doesn't happen overnight. Hidden from sight, it slowly occurs over the course of several weeks, long before a breakout becomes visible on your face. Fortunately with Proactiv + you have a chance to stop mild to moderate acne breakouts before they surface. Even though nothing, including prescription medicine, can cure acne, with daily use of Proactiv +, you can treat and help prevent your acne blemishes. Starting now.