Is There Any Benefit to Having Acne?

Acne is an unfortunate part of life for many teens, but there is a silver lining. A 2016 study outlined in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology suggests that young people who suffer from acne will probably have younger-looking skin when they get older. The science behind this claim comes from the cellular level: Telomeres are the parts of the nucleotides located on the ends of each of your chromosomes, and they can be used to measure the biological age of cells. Telomeres get shorter as you age, but if you had acne as a kid, the study found, your telomeres will shorten at a slower rate, compared to someone who never had acne.

Breakout hits from our youth:

• Chocolate and greasy foods are often blamed for skin breakouts, but there is little evidence that certain foods have an effect on the development of acne.
• People of all races and ethnicities get acne. An estimated 80 percent of people between the ages of 11 and 30 have had an acne outbreak at some point.
• Drug treatment for acne typically focuses on relieving the abnormal clumping of cells in the follicles, the presence of bacteria, and the effects of increased oil production and inflammation.