Acne and the true art of its management

Abstract

Acne is one of the oldest diseases within dermatological pathology. Doing some research in Wikipedia and other sources, I found that Aristotle mentioned that Greek physicians used the term Ίονθοι (Ionthoi) when referring to acne and also Hippocrates used it without specifying its meaning, but apparently the word was related to puberty, since this term meant ¨first growth of the beard¨. The same source points out that the Romans called acne varus and around the 2nd century A.D., the Greek word άκμή (acmé) is found, which was somehow associated with the term Ίονθοι and finally in the 3rd century A.D. Cassius explains that due to the occurrence of the picture at puberty, i.e. at άκμή, people called it άκμάς. However in all this historical explanation apparently typographical and interpretative errors of translations are found. Finally, according to the Royal Spanish Academy the term acne comes from the Greek word ἄχνη.