Symptoms:
Excessively oily skin.


Cause:
The sebaceous glands, which secrete oil onto the skin, produce more oil than they should. The excess oil clogs pores. Heredity is a major cause, but diet and hormones affect it. Oil gland secretions can be increased by stress, hormonal activity changes, hot weather, pregnancy, or taking certain types of birth control pills.

The forehead, nose, chin, and upper back tend to have more sebaceous glands; hence can be the sites of the most problems. Oily skin is most common among teenagers.

Treatment:
• Keep your skin clean. Beware of certain cosmetics; they aggravate a problem which might not otherwise exist.

• Wash twice a day with soap; it was made to remove oil. Hot soapy water is even better. Ivory soap is a more drying soap than many others. Scrub the skin with soap and water.

• Some people put mud masks on to remove oil.

• Avoid smoking; it increases the size of your skin pores and weakens the skin generally.

Fortunately, oily skin tends to age better than dry skin, producing less wrinkles. So count yourself fortunate in one way.