Speaker 1: Hey there everyone, it's me Josh. For this week's s
Speaker 1: Y s K Selects. I've decided to bring us all
Speaker 1: down into the disgusting world of acne on the microscopic level. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's kind of gross, and yeah, no one wants it,
Speaker 1: but we all get it from time to time, some
Speaker 1: of us more than others. And it's great to know
Speaker 1: what's going on down there, because I gotta admit it
Speaker 1: is fascinating. So enjoy this episode on acne. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Stuff You should know, a production of My Heart Radios
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant that makes this stuff.
Speaker 1: You should know. That's right, doesn't it? It does. When
Speaker 1: we're in this room, one thing happens anger. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say magic, angry magic. Yeah, good, get out of
Speaker 1: the hat. I haven't seen that yet. The angry Magician. No,
Speaker 1: that's a great idea. Yeah, there you go. Angry comics. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there are plenty of them, and for good reason too. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: do you remember a while back we were writing a
Speaker 1: lot of articles that seem to share a common theme
Speaker 1: a skincare Yeah, I remember that too. I didn't write
Speaker 1: too many of those. I wrote a lot of skin
Speaker 1: care articles, Yeah, I did. Um, And I learned that
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by the skin. That's good. Yeah, it turned
Speaker 1: out to be very good. Like, Um, you don't want
Speaker 1: to take too many showers in a day. You don't
Speaker 1: want the water you use in your shower to be
Speaker 1: too hot. Um. Like, I learned these things definitively. Um. Also,
Speaker 1: the skin on your lips um is three layers thick,
Speaker 1: whereas the rest of the skin on your face is
Speaker 1: about sixteen layers thick. And they're actually translucent, which is
Speaker 1: why your lips are reddish, because it's just the mucous
Speaker 1: membrane underneath showing through. Ye look at that. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: you don't want to lick your lips too much because
Speaker 1: you're saliva contains the digestive ends i'me. Which starts to
Speaker 1: break down the very thin and fragile skin on your lips. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I got chapped lips a lot from licking them. Stop
Speaker 1: licking your lips. I'm constantly just I have oral stuff.
Speaker 1: Bite my nails, bite my cheeks, bite my lip, all
Speaker 1: that stuff, all that good fun, stressy stuff. But you
Speaker 1: don't smoke cigarettes though, good for you. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: I chewed my face off instead of doing that. It's
Speaker 1: a good looking face, thank you. Um Well, anyway, Chuck,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say all that to say that
Speaker 1: I will be um very interested in what we're talking
Speaker 1: about today, which is acting. I'm glad you are. I
Speaker 1: am too, although I've never really got acne, so I'm
Speaker 1: a little less like enthused. It's so unfair. Let's look
Speaker 1: at this right here right now. Yeah, I have a
Speaker 1: big old white head rush to my nose. It won't
Speaker 1: go away. Like I was pressing it with my pinkies
Speaker 1: like I could, I could pop? Is it? I get him.
Speaker 1: That's a tough spot, though. Josh is talking about the
Speaker 1: area right under the nostril and so paints that no
Speaker 1: man's land the nose kind of prohibits access like you want. Well,
Speaker 1: it's not just that it's very very sensitive and like
Speaker 1: I was pressing it in like my eyes are watering
Speaker 1: and it's still wouldn't pop. So I'll have to have
Speaker 1: you me do it. Yeah. Yeah, but um, I guess
Speaker 1: that's method podcasting. Following in your footsteps, Chuck, so um
Speaker 1: you want to talk about acne first. I guess we
Speaker 1: should talk about the skin a little bit, right, And
Speaker 1: in the process of how, well, let's talk about the skin.
Speaker 1: Did you like Tom's description? I did, Actually, I think
Speaker 1: most people know by now it's the largest organ. But um,
Speaker 1: Tom takes a step further in a very buffalo bill way,
Speaker 1: and he says that if you skinned and all human,
Speaker 1: there would be enough material to make a four by
Speaker 1: five foot area rug of skin was in found. I'm
Speaker 1: glad he didn't say how many like skin suits or
Speaker 1: lamp shades it would make, because that'd be really creepy.
Speaker 1: Area was creepy enough? Yeah, so, yeah, ten pounds of
Speaker 1: skin on the on an adult body, right, and then um,
Speaker 1: most of the skin, there's three layers. Is the epidermis,
Speaker 1: the dermis, and the subcutaneous layer, right, and the sub
Speaker 1: cutaneous layer. I think the dermist is the fattiest layer
Speaker 1: and the subcutaneous layers like the nastiest layer. It's like, um,
Speaker 1: just have you ever seen hell razor? Yeah? Remember the
Speaker 1: woman as she was coming back regenerating. She regenerated from
Speaker 1: like the inside out. So at one point she's just
Speaker 1: like muscles and blood just above that is the subcutaneous layer.
Speaker 1: I think the epidermis is kind of gross too, though,
Speaker 1: because it's all dead. It is dead. This is one
Speaker 1: of the things that fascinates me about skin, All the
Speaker 1: skin I'm looking at right now on your like, I
Speaker 1: can see dead, dead as disco, you know. We Yeah,
Speaker 1: so chuck your Your skin grows like beneath that outer layer,
Speaker 1: and it grows as kratina sites, which are new skin cells. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it just your your skin is a constant uh,
Speaker 1: it's constant motion, pushing that dead skin up, up and
Speaker 1: up and out through the pores where they flake off
Speaker 1: into your bed, making your mattress heavier. Right from like
Speaker 1: the moment it's born, when a cell divides, it starts
Speaker 1: making its way outward, and it takes what does it
Speaker 1: take about a month for a skin cell to be
Speaker 1: born and then make it out to the outer later layer.
Speaker 1: It sounds about right right to the tune of forty
Speaker 1: to sixty million skin cells per day. Yeah, forty thousand
Speaker 1: a minute. That's crazy. Are reaching the surface, right, um.
Speaker 1: And so they reach the surface and they don't just
Speaker 1: fall right off. Um. Along the process, they die and
Speaker 1: there they become cornified um, which is and become kratina
Speaker 1: sites or cornea sites. Sorry. Um. And when they each
Speaker 1: the surface, they they provide a function for a while.
Speaker 1: They mix with sea bum, which is the oil we
Speaker 1: produce that I really really produce oily skin. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: uh some fats, what kind uh lipids josh leno leic acid. Okay,
Speaker 1: So they mix all together and they form water proof
Speaker 1: skin that keeps out water. That's huge. Is why we
Speaker 1: don't soak up water when we walk around in the rain, exactly.
Speaker 1: And it keeps bacteria, which is why the skin is
Speaker 1: your first organ of um resistance for immunity. That's right. Um,
Speaker 1: So you've got all this process going on. Skin cells
Speaker 1: eventually do fall off and jump off and are sloughed off,
Speaker 1: and then um, beneath all that you have the subcutaneous layer,
Speaker 1: and that's where the hair starts growing, right. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: where you're gonna find your hair follicle, which looks sort
Speaker 1: of like just a little uh little tube with a
Speaker 1: little uh, a little rounder end. I would say it
Speaker 1: looks like a sperm, a sperm going in drop sure
Speaker 1: maybe uh. And that is where the hair begins to
Speaker 1: grow from the bottom up and it grows out of
Speaker 1: this follicle and collects on the way out see them,
Speaker 1: and which we said was oil. That's why I like,
Speaker 1: when you don't take a shower, your hair is gonna
Speaker 1: look all oily. Yeah. And actually men I think have
Speaker 1: more see them than women. Yeah, and teenagers have lots
Speaker 1: of see them. Yeah, it's almost equal for among the
Speaker 1: genders and in tegers. Yeah, because that's why you get
Speaker 1: acne most often an adolescence, because we're taking you up
Speaker 1: through where acne starts, which is really see them right. Well,
Speaker 1: that has a lot to do with it. At least
Speaker 1: the hair follicle is connected to a sebaceous glaian like
Speaker 1: you said, which is why your hair seems oily when
Speaker 1: it comes out. Um. And so you've got this whole um.
Speaker 1: You have this whole house of cards I guess just
Speaker 1: waiting to screw up. Well, they're trying to squeeze through
Speaker 1: this little poor right together, those dead skin cells that
Speaker 1: migration they make. The way get out is through the poor,
Speaker 1: through the follicle, through the sebaceous gland right right. So
Speaker 1: when you have a lot of them coming together at once,
Speaker 1: all these dead skin cells are trying to get through
Speaker 1: the same door. It's like um three stooges syndrome from
Speaker 1: the Simpsons, remember Mr burns Head everything, but nothing could
Speaker 1: kill him because they couldn't all get through the door
Speaker 1: of his health. That's exactly right. So when you have
Speaker 1: too many skin cells, things start getting blocked and things
Speaker 1: back up behind it, and you've got trouble. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that's one way it can happen. Uh, And they
Speaker 1: don't know why that the body would overproduce skin cells,
Speaker 1: but hey, it happens. Yeah, do we need to know why? Exactly.
Speaker 1: Another thing that can happen You can have too much
Speaker 1: see them, like we talked about and and puberty, and
Speaker 1: puberty is when that's going to happen. Most likely bacteria,
Speaker 1: specifically propione Bacterium Acnes p acnes. That's uh found in
Speaker 1: acne lesions and and every type of acne that we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about they're all lesions, right and and
Speaker 1: um then inflammation right, Yeah, the bacteria causes inflammation. When
Speaker 1: there's back up and there's bacteria, you're gonna get inflammation. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Tom put it like these were different things that could happen,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure they are, but it also seems to
Speaker 1: happen like a sequence of event. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: all of them. You've got too many skin cells backing up, right,
Speaker 1: so the sea bum backs up behind it. Well, this
Speaker 1: bacteria loves to eat sea bum, which causes an infection
Speaker 1: which makes you in front. Yeah. I saw it as
Speaker 1: a sequence of events to alright, so chuck. There is
Speaker 1: a very long standing debate over what is worse a
Speaker 1: white head or a black head. What's the difference between
Speaker 1: the two. Well, one is an open comy dough and
Speaker 1: one is a closed comy dough. Do you know what
Speaker 1: a comedo is? I do. It's blockage. Okay, do you
Speaker 1: know what the word is coming down? Is plural? What
Speaker 1: do you mean? What word is? The word is Latin
Speaker 1: for glutton Okay, yeah, and it was. It's named after
Speaker 1: a worm. You know how when you like do you
Speaker 1: pop as it and the stuff comes out and it's
Speaker 1: like kind of a thin worm like tube. Well, there
Speaker 1: was a apparently a worm that looked very similar to
Speaker 1: that that loved to feed, a parasitic worm that loved
Speaker 1: to feed on humans that was considered particularly gluttonous. So
Speaker 1: the blockage came to be called the commodo, which means glutton. Wow,
Speaker 1: isn't that weird and gross? Yeah? And true. Yeah, pretty
Speaker 1: much everything about this we're looking at acting on this
Speaker 1: sub dermal level. Yes, it's gross. It is kind of gross. Uh.
Speaker 1: So white heads, you might think, like I just woke
Speaker 1: up and there's a white head on my nose. That
Speaker 1: just happened last night. Not true. It could have been
Speaker 1: a couple of months in the making before you finally
Speaker 1: see it like you might. You know, Emily calls them
Speaker 1: underground construction when you can feel it and you know
Speaker 1: it's coming but you can't see it or do anything
Speaker 1: about it yet. Yeah, that's infection, essentially underground construction. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at some point, your your skin still started backing up.
Speaker 1: They didn't make their way out of the poor and
Speaker 1: you're in trouble. So white heads anyway, have an open
Speaker 1: commie dough black head. I'm sorry, closed commie dough black
Speaker 1: heads are open and the black that you're seeing is
Speaker 1: just melon and it's just our skin pigment. It's oxidized,
Speaker 1: it's not dirt. The reason it's black is because, um,
Speaker 1: it's been exposed to air, whereas with a closed comito, um,
Speaker 1: there is no exposure to air. So everything stays white
Speaker 1: just beneath the surface of the skin. And I had
Speaker 1: you you stopped me in the hall earlier and said,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't tell the difference between like a
Speaker 1: white head and a pustule what I found because you
Speaker 1: did find something, well that the American Academy of Dermatology
Speaker 1: says that it's really confusing, So like, don't feel bad,
Speaker 1: it is confusing, Thank you a They're they're all lesions.
Speaker 1: But I think a white head, what we typically see
Speaker 1: as a pimple and a z it is the pustule,
Speaker 1: because in here it says the a D says a
Speaker 1: white head is typically a raised bump that's the same
Speaker 1: color as the rest of your skin, whereas the ZiT
Speaker 1: as clearly has pus the pus. But apparently that's not
Speaker 1: the hallmark of a white head. So I'm even more
Speaker 1: confused now, Thank you A a D. Thanks for nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I thought a white head meant it was the
Speaker 1: white you know, pimpley's it looking thing. So it says
Speaker 1: hear that the same color as the rest of your skin. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: well let's go with that. Though, I mean that the
Speaker 1: white head is uh just it's just pressing your skin up,
Speaker 1: so it's a raised bump. Whereas if it looks white,
Speaker 1: if there's like a clearly a white part, what has
Speaker 1: happened is you're this this white head or black head
Speaker 1: um has collapsed under the skin and all that bacteria
Speaker 1: ridden see bum is now causing an infection. That's what
Speaker 1: a z it is. That's right, also called a pustule.
Speaker 1: That's a pustule. There's also a papule. And they are
Speaker 1: a little small bumps um, a little firm, small bumps,
Speaker 1: and they don't have any kind of white right center, right,
Speaker 1: but they do feel like sandpaper apparently if you rub
Speaker 1: your fingers across them. Yeah, I get like little dry
Speaker 1: skin bumps in the back of my arm. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's the same thing. That's not I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Okay, No, that's UM. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's got a name. What is that called? What's what's
Speaker 1: really severe dry skin called xema? Yeah, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a mild alright, Maybe I have exema. There are nodules
Speaker 1: which are larger and hard. Uh, it's um. A nodule
Speaker 1: is the kind of thing where you mash it and
Speaker 1: you mash it and nothing ever happens, and then it
Speaker 1: comes back and comes back because you're just breaking it
Speaker 1: down and stays in there. That was That was definitely
Speaker 1: a nodule, wasn't it. Yeah? Because I would I would
Speaker 1: be like and then like it would go away. First
Speaker 1: it would go and then it would come back. That
Speaker 1: thing was there for a while. Yeah. Man, it kept
Speaker 1: coming back and then it'd stay for a really long
Speaker 1: time and to come back. And I was wearing like
Speaker 1: Turtle nick I brought Turtle Nicks back inadvertently, you are
Speaker 1: Dick laughing to change chuck chuck uh, and then superative nodules, Josh.
Speaker 1: You may think her sister boils and they might look
Speaker 1: like that, but sists have different traits, one of which
Speaker 1: is uh. The ability to contain a trapped gas, which
Speaker 1: I thought was pretty interested, is nuts and pretty awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that means that's not assist. I'll bet that guy
Speaker 1: stinks to high heaven when it's finally released. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine yeah again baby acne? Uh? Yeah? Um? What is
Speaker 1: it called? Mila? Milia? Milia, sorry, Mela is the niece.
Speaker 1: I think the point here was you can get acne
Speaker 1: from cradle to the grave. Yes, sadly. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: most people, Um, tompsited something like eight of people get
Speaker 1: um acne, and we should say everything we just said
Speaker 1: was a form of acne. Vulgaris. Yeah, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: think we said that. Vulgaris is the Latin. I think
Speaker 1: for um common right, Um, most of us get it.
Speaker 1: It's eat out attend. People get it at some point
Speaker 1: in their life, he said, Um, most people, it starts
Speaker 1: stirring puberty and ends after puberty. For other people like me,
Speaker 1: it keeps going on here there. And I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I take care of my face. Dude, I've got a
Speaker 1: regimen and it's still I mean, I can imagine it
Speaker 1: would be much worse if I didn't take care of Simpson.
Speaker 1: You are you over regimenting? No, I know what I'm doing, Okay.
Speaker 1: I'm going to see a dermatologist soon. I need to
Speaker 1: find one, but I'm gonna go see one just to
Speaker 1: make sure I'm doing everything right. Yeah, there's not other
Speaker 1: steps I can take, but no, I mean I'm I
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing, okay, Because the only reason I
Speaker 1: say that is later in the article they point out
Speaker 1: that over washing, and I remember that as a kid.
Speaker 1: I I I think I went through a brief period
Speaker 1: where I got like a ZiT or two in high school,
Speaker 1: and so I got out like the buff puff and
Speaker 1: then neut regina for the first time ever and just
Speaker 1: scrub the crap out of my face. Started bleeding, started
Speaker 1: breaking out, and I was like, well, I don't get it.
Speaker 1: I'm watching my face and it's breaking out. But all
Speaker 1: these years later, I have an explanation. You're agitating your skin. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, Um, I just have sensitive skin. Yeah, um yeah,
Speaker 1: But no, I don't use like soap or harsh stuff face.
Speaker 1: It's I take care of it. So a milia Back
Speaker 1: to the baby's. Babies can get milia. It's around the
Speaker 1: eyes or nose, little white bumps. It's really common. If
Speaker 1: you're a new parent and your kid has this, don't
Speaker 1: worry about it. In fact, the doctor is probably gonna
Speaker 1: tell you the same thing, like, don't even do anything.
Speaker 1: It'll clear up on its own, right in most cases. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you can actually get that as an adult as well.
Speaker 1: Really sometimes, Yeah, milia. It's far more common in infants
Speaker 1: and I mean like newborns to um. The cause generally
Speaker 1: is that the skin cells are already dividing and dying off.
Speaker 1: But um, the sebacious clans aren't developed enough to carry
Speaker 1: the skin cells to the surface. So basically when the
Speaker 1: doctor says just way to'll clear upon its own, he's saying,
Speaker 1: just wait, your baby will grow introduce more sebacious clans
Speaker 1: to handle this, and that's that. Well, that's good news.
Speaker 1: It's great news. Uh pre pubertal acne uh forms and children.
Speaker 1: This is this is basically when you're producing your your androgens,
Speaker 1: your sex hormones before you should be Yeah, like from
Speaker 1: drinking milk. Is that what we'll do it too? Probably
Speaker 1: bovine growth hormone would do it. And that is that
Speaker 1: is when it's pre puberty, and that's in younger children,
Speaker 1: and that's something you probably should go to a doctor about, yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's I think they take it more as like
Speaker 1: a sign like, okay, you you've got this other stuff
Speaker 1: coming down the pike to like breasts and you're six,
Speaker 1: you know kind of thing. So it's just a big
Speaker 1: androgen dump in your body and your sabacious glance go oh,
Speaker 1: we're supposed to start working now, I guess. And even
Speaker 1: the box little Timmy's only eight, right, I said six.
Speaker 1: Does it happen that young? I don't know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it could. Yeah, I would imagine the younger, the more
Speaker 1: potentially problematic it is. That's the kid who ends up
Speaker 1: having the mustache when he's like in the third grade.
Speaker 1: With the six year old boy with the breasts and
Speaker 1: the mustache. What'd you call him? Timmy? Timmy? Actually I
Speaker 1: have a friend named Timmy. But my other friend, Jim.
Speaker 1: You actually know, Jim did have a mustache when he
Speaker 1: was like in the eighth grade. Yeah, it was pretty funny, Yeah,
Speaker 1: swarthy Jim. Yes. Um? So what else, Chuck? Oh, there's rosasia.
Speaker 1: This is the one that that is pretty awful on
Speaker 1: Google images. Really yeah. Yeah. It can affect the nose,
Speaker 1: and you know it's everything from just redness of the
Speaker 1: nose too, horribly misshapen, bumpy nose. They can get really bad.
Speaker 1: Is that the nose where you see like divit's missing
Speaker 1: from people's noses rosa. Yeah, I got it. Can't it
Speaker 1: can't get that bad. But it occurs in bouts, right,
Speaker 1: so you have, um, you can kind of tell that
Speaker 1: you're about to have about of rosasia because you find
Speaker 1: that you flush more easily and it's because your veins
Speaker 1: and the veins in your face are dilating more more,
Speaker 1: um wider. I guess that's it. Yeah, it's just triggers acne. Well,
Speaker 1: it triggers acne vulgaris or or a lot like acne vulgaris,
Speaker 1: they said. And then I also got the impression from
Speaker 1: Tom that it's problematic that uh, and that people suspect
Speaker 1: that maybe you're like a raging alcoholic because your nose
Speaker 1: looks like that, like you have the gym blossoms, but
Speaker 1: it's really just rose asia. Yeah, and if you look
Speaker 1: up pictures of it, it looks like a gin blossom
Speaker 1: or worse. There's I don't encourage anyone to type in
Speaker 1: like pustules into Google images because it's like that body
Speaker 1: parts come up that are have these things on them
Speaker 1: and might not be something you want to see, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Well kind of body parts. Oh,
Speaker 1: they just they had pictures of of like just out
Speaker 1: of nowhere, just like feat penises with bumps on them,
Speaker 1: And I don't recommend it. Okay, Well that's fair warning
Speaker 1: if I've ever heard it. Anybody who does go Google image,
Speaker 1: what rose asia? Any any of them? Really you've been
Speaker 1: warned by himself. You're a dummy if you do it, yes,
Speaker 1: or you're on your own at least um. So those
Speaker 1: are generally the different types of acne, right, and their causes. Um,
Speaker 1: but we missed at least one. Chuck pizza. Pizza causes acne. No,
Speaker 1: it doesn't. I know it doesn't. That was play acting.
Speaker 1: I know. Um that is a is a And I
Speaker 1: actually did a little more research on this and diet
Speaker 1: and acne. Um. That's sort of been one of the
Speaker 1: old things. They say it's like greasy food and a
Speaker 1: lad to acne, but most doctors say that that's pretty
Speaker 1: much a myth end of story. Although this this one
Speaker 1: thing I found says that theoretically there could be some impact,
Speaker 1: like diet has a direct effect on your insulin level,
Speaker 1: and that insulin is the master hormone and it has
Speaker 1: to do with hormone you know, production in a way.
Speaker 1: So in theory, insulin spikes could affect acne. And also
Speaker 1: things that you eat. It can affect it in a
Speaker 1: good way if you eat positively like veggies and fruits
Speaker 1: and seafood h and potentially if you eat good foods
Speaker 1: that are rich and like omega three fats, like fish oil,
Speaker 1: it can be an anti inflammatory and so part of
Speaker 1: the problem is inflammation. In theory, it could help with
Speaker 1: that too. But you want to watch um like shellfish,
Speaker 1: they're they're high and iodide because that apparently can inflame
Speaker 1: actival garis. Yeah. So here as we say that it
Speaker 1: doesn't impact acne, we're saying it does. Right. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: just can't believe that what you eat doesn't have any
Speaker 1: impact on the function of your cells. That's what I think.
Speaker 1: It's got to have some impact. Um Genetics is another
Speaker 1: big one that is I think probably UM it's overestimated
Speaker 1: the impact it has. Yes, the the genes that you
Speaker 1: inherit from your parents and how they express um, the
Speaker 1: proteins that tell your sabaceous clean is the function in
Speaker 1: this way or that way or whatever. It's going to
Speaker 1: have an effect, but not as much as you know,
Speaker 1: if your dad broke out a lot, you're not necessarily
Speaker 1: going to write or vice versa. I don't know about
Speaker 1: my parents in acne. I don't either. It's a conversation
Speaker 1: that you normally have with your parents, you know. More,
Speaker 1: it's like, um, it was your dad bald, right, right,
Speaker 1: that's the big question. That's all I think we care
Speaker 1: about as men. Dirt is not gonna affect if you
Speaker 1: have a dirty face. I mean, it's not great for
Speaker 1: your skin probably, but pimples and zis happened from the
Speaker 1: inside out, So dirt on top of your epidermis isn't
Speaker 1: going to really affect that, they say, and then make
Speaker 1: up this one, I don't know. I could see makeup
Speaker 1: definitely making you break out. Yeah, yeah, the wrong kind
Speaker 1: quite using that kind, Well, there's different kinds. There's a
Speaker 1: hYP hypoallergenic, which means low allergenic. There's a non comedogenic,
Speaker 1: which supposedly says like this won't make your break out,
Speaker 1: so possibly cheap makeup. Yeah, and if you have Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you have skin issues already, then you should probably
Speaker 1: be aware of the types of makeup that you're getting.
Speaker 1: If you're a young lady or if you're a dude
Speaker 1: that's into that um and leaving makeup on without removing
Speaker 1: it at the end of the day, that can definitely
Speaker 1: cause you to break out because you're going ahead and
Speaker 1: blocking the pores from the outside in causing backups. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Stevie Knicks said that on might have been Oprah, yeah verbatim,
Speaker 1: I was quoting he really now, she said. They asked
Speaker 1: her why she always looks so great, and she said
Speaker 1: that she's through all, Like even her drug days of
Speaker 1: being on tour, she never ever failed to take her
Speaker 1: makeup off at the end of the night. Stevie Nicks
Speaker 1: did drugs. Oh yeah, back in the day, big time,
Speaker 1: I know. So, she said, even if she was on
Speaker 1: a bender, she would still manage to take her cup off.
Speaker 1: That is that's pretty good. Yeah, well she's the Belladonna
Speaker 1: and job stop and things like jo stop. Um. So, chuck,
Speaker 1: let's say you want to get rid of the acne
Speaker 1: that you do have, right right there, I'm good. You
Speaker 1: almost all those toffled over. Um. There's really just two
Speaker 1: things that regular old acne vol garris and not persistent,
Speaker 1: not a superative nodule type acne, but just plain old
Speaker 1: acne vol garris um can be treated with. One is
Speaker 1: benzol peroxide and one is salacilic acid. Right, yeah, And
Speaker 1: those are pretty much it. Almost all of the over
Speaker 1: the counter acne treatments that you're going to find anywhere
Speaker 1: are going to have one or both of those, probably
Speaker 1: just one and Anyone who's ever seen like an oxy
Speaker 1: commercial has heard the word benzol peroxide. You know what
Speaker 1: were those pads? Were the oxy pants? Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: another company that had the pads. Sea Breeze came in
Speaker 1: like that was like an astringent. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: there are pads. I guess it was Oxypox come in
Speaker 1: like a little yeah, I'm taking care of And then
Speaker 1: you would look at it and say, look at all
Speaker 1: that stuff. The commercial benzoyl peroxide specifically kills the p
Speaker 1: agnos bacteria and it'll dry out your face, which can
Speaker 1: be bad. Yeah. You know what people drink that um,
Speaker 1: moisture in your face is what breaks you out. Uh,
Speaker 1: your face being too dry can break you out as much,
Speaker 1: if not more. Yeah. Um, you want to keep your
Speaker 1: face moisturized cuts down and breakouts, kid, you know. Uh
Speaker 1: tea tree oil. Emily uses tea tree a lot to
Speaker 1: dry out a pimple and that's a good natural way
Speaker 1: to do so. Cell is silic acid. Um basically goes
Speaker 1: in and it's like um liquid plumber for your pores.
Speaker 1: Like it just goes in and destroys everything that's in
Speaker 1: that blockage and there you go It also takes off
Speaker 1: a healthy amount of the horny layer, which is the
Speaker 1: most external layer of your dead skin cells. Horny layer. Really,
Speaker 1: look at you. Uh. The other thing that you can do,
Speaker 1: I mean those are medications you can take. What you
Speaker 1: really want to do is so gently wash your face
Speaker 1: with soap and warm water. Yeah, but again, you can't
Speaker 1: just use any soap. I mean maybe you can if
Speaker 1: you have like completely insensitive skin. Yeah, then sure, maybe
Speaker 1: you can. And you'll find out pretty quick what kind
Speaker 1: of soaps you can and can't use. Well, most of
Speaker 1: the soap you get and the story is pretty crappy anyway, right,
Speaker 1: Like you you get what you pay for it with soap,
Speaker 1: especially with face soap. It's worth the extra few bucks. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you're exercising, you want to shower right afterwards. You
Speaker 1: don't want to let sweat be on your skin for
Speaker 1: too long. Yeah, you got backnee, your sebacious. The reason
Speaker 1: backnee is so prevalent because that that part of your
Speaker 1: body is lousy with sebaceous clians. Where is it head
Speaker 1: or face? Back and chest? I think so those are
Speaker 1: three areas because yeah, SIT's SIT's what about the butt?
Speaker 1: That's something entirely different. Those are Those are just red
Speaker 1: bumps that no one knows what they are. Okay, uh,
Speaker 1: they recommend loose clothing, and they recommend chilling out its
Speaker 1: not being so stressed. Be a Type L personality, which
Speaker 1: is L the long allele on the s l C
Speaker 1: six A four gene, which UM basically creates this protein
Speaker 1: that ferries serotonin out of the snaps. It basically turns
Speaker 1: it off, which is so that if you have the
Speaker 1: L ale it makes you you're a more laid back
Speaker 1: person because you have more of this transport protein. If
Speaker 1: you have the S version of of that gene, then
Speaker 1: you make less of the transport, meaning the serotonin stays
Speaker 1: in the snaps longer, which makes you high, strong, and
Speaker 1: kind of angry because it activates your amygdala. So Type
Speaker 1: A personality and Type B is actually Type S and
Speaker 1: Type L sounds like somebody destroted blog post. Isn't that
Speaker 1: cool though? Yeah? That is cool. Yeah, I like to
Speaker 1: think I'm a L, but I'm probably less L than
Speaker 1: I really want to admit. I don't know. Somebody posted
Speaker 1: a comment on on Facebook when I put that blog
Speaker 1: post up, and they're like, not everything can be explained,
Speaker 1: so succinctly. But the point of the blog post was
Speaker 1: is like this one explains this soccinctly. Yeah, you just
Speaker 1: remove the comment and went about your day, abandoned from
Speaker 1: Facebook forever. What else can you do? Let's say you
Speaker 1: got at me check and what can you do to
Speaker 1: treat it um? You can take antibiotics, either oral or topical.
Speaker 1: All right, and topical meaning like their current event type antibiotics.
Speaker 1: What about a chemical peel that works too? I would
Speaker 1: think that would not be a good thing if you
Speaker 1: were breaking out. Is it's a good idea If you're
Speaker 1: going to do that too, again, show out the extra
Speaker 1: money and go to a professional who can tell you, now,
Speaker 1: this is the chemical peel I've done on your face,
Speaker 1: this is what's safe, this is what your skin can handle.
Speaker 1: And then you know, here's a product that that will
Speaker 1: do the same thing at home. So don't go to
Speaker 1: the place where they have to add on the subway.
Speaker 1: John's upstairs chemical peel and chicken processing plant an espresso.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done a chemical peel? Really interesting? Yes,
Speaker 1: I've been known to get it. You come out like
Speaker 1: it is your face all red and stuff. No, it
Speaker 1: feels red, but it's more also like very refreshing, Like
Speaker 1: it's just it's so nice to just kind of rubbed
Speaker 1: like the back of your fingers along your face afterwards,
Speaker 1: because your skin is just like what you're doing is
Speaker 1: just tearing that horny layer right off. You're getting closer
Speaker 1: and closer to that new layer of skin cells is
Speaker 1: just like but it's still epidermis, right, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you'd be in big trouble at the door
Speaker 1: down to the dermis, Like that's a that's a third
Speaker 1: degree burn. I think you know the second movie apparently
Speaker 1: birth control pills can can help treat acne. Yeah there.
Speaker 1: If you watch the ads form a lot of them
Speaker 1: will say like and prevents breakouts like an extra bonus, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it probably cuts down on the androgens, which cuts
Speaker 1: down on the production of um C bump, which cuts
Speaker 1: down on pimples. Yeah. I didn't know they had ads
Speaker 1: for birth control pills. Sure do they? Am? I just
Speaker 1: am I living in the in uh Amish country here?
Speaker 1: Why am I not seeing these? There's this one ad
Speaker 1: I saw years ago. Yeah, it was really weird. Um
Speaker 1: first they had this version of it was like the
Speaker 1: cartoon version of this ad and then like that one
Speaker 1: went away, and then they had a live action version
Speaker 1: of the same ad, same everything, same everything, But for
Speaker 1: some reason they did a cartoon version, then they did
Speaker 1: a live action version. They released them one after another,
Speaker 1: but they were they were supposedly in no way related,
Speaker 1: and it was like, I think that company was like,
Speaker 1: just how much are you paying attention? Right? How much
Speaker 1: TV are you watching? Yeah? Yeah, And at the time
Speaker 1: I was watching a lot of TV. So I noticed, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what about lasers? You can get them lasered, right, And
Speaker 1: I guess that's if you have If it's really bad,
Speaker 1: then they can actually laser your sebaceous glands. They say
Speaker 1: not to squeeze them though, which I think is kind
Speaker 1: of laughable. What do you mean, like not pop them yourself?
Speaker 1: They is Tom sheave pal. You can take that with
Speaker 1: a grain of salt. Yeah, I mean show me someone
Speaker 1: who it doesn't pop their own zits. And and it says,
Speaker 1: in't here to make an appointment with the dermatologists so
Speaker 1: they can pop your pimples, right, really well, that's the
Speaker 1: only thing too, when you get like a chemical peel
Speaker 1: or a facial or whatever. The the the U not
Speaker 1: an estheticist? Oh estheticianian. Um, we'll pop all the zits
Speaker 1: on your face. And what's crazy is like, when you
Speaker 1: do it right, it doesn't hurt these gloves. I guess, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean like this, the pressure they apply is
Speaker 1: minute and they're doing it like off to the sides
Speaker 1: of the ZiT and like you you're like, that was it.
Speaker 1: It didn't hurt at all. Like I didn't cry at all.
Speaker 1: So it's it's kind of good too, not necessarily good
Speaker 1: to the derma tall. Just you could go do an
Speaker 1: esthetician and they'll do the same all the same things.
Speaker 1: You'll learn a bunch just by paying attention while they
Speaker 1: do it. I could Emily would never let me do that.
Speaker 1: Why because she loves to do it herself. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean she could have been an that. She has
Speaker 1: that gene to where she just gets a lot of
Speaker 1: satisfaction out of making that white snake come out. In fact,
Speaker 1: she's a little disappointed at my lack of pimple production
Speaker 1: in life. Yes, she would love me, you guyserfect match.
Speaker 1: Actually you mean loves me. She does it. Um, she
Speaker 1: does it a lot too. She's kind of hooked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of girls are into that for some reason.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to know Emily is not nuts and that
Speaker 1: that's a normal behavior. For some reason too, I've never
Speaker 1: been a guy who's into that. Yeah, it's always girls
Speaker 1: for some reason. I don't understand. Maybe they're more into skin,
Speaker 1: skin care or gross stuff coming out of your skin. Maybe.
Speaker 1: So well, let's say, all right, yeah, seventeen million people
Speaker 1: in America every day on a given day have is it?
Speaker 1: Is that? Right? Yeah? I think more than that. There
Speaker 1: you go, alright, alright? Which one? Well, I mean it's
Speaker 1: acne is the big word. Pimple. I just like Sam pimple. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't like saying pimple. I think it's a gross word.
Speaker 1: You like pustule. I prefer pustule over pimple. I don't
Speaker 1: like it either. Yeah. Where we Yeah, we were on
Speaker 1: We were featured in the comic strip Zits. Remember that
Speaker 1: was very nice? Yeah? Yeah, and then you know what
Speaker 1: I need to find out? And I don't think they're
Speaker 1: black heads. Emily calls them seeds because that it's like
Speaker 1: a little watermelon seed, almost like a little white spike
Speaker 1: comes out. I wonder what that is. I didn't find
Speaker 1: that in here. I guarantee it's the same thing you think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, I think there's a very limited amount of acne.
Speaker 1: It just happens and it just kind of looks different
Speaker 1: or comes out in different ways, or if it sits
Speaker 1: in there long enough, it comes seed. You're um, well
Speaker 1: that's acne. If you want to learn more about it
Speaker 1: and see some cool cutaway illustrations of the skin. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a good party. Actually yeah. Um. You can
Speaker 1: type in acne A C N E in the search
Speaker 1: bar at how stuff works dot com and now, friends,
Speaker 1: it's time for list of your medal. If I told
Speaker 1: you to hold on one second, would would you? Would
Speaker 1: you indulge me? Would you do me a kindness? Yes? Okay, Josh.
Speaker 1: We have an audio book that has just been released
Speaker 1: called The super Stuffed Guide to Happiness, available on iTunes.
Speaker 1: I know you have to shell out. We promise, we
Speaker 1: think it's worth it. Um On iTunes, you just search
Speaker 1: super Stuff Guide to Happiness, right and it'll bring that
Speaker 1: one up. It'll bring up our first audiobook to um,
Speaker 1: the super Stuff Guide to the Economy. You can get
Speaker 1: them both there. But um, check out The super Stuff
Speaker 1: Guide to Happiness. It's awesome. Interviews in depth investigation of
Speaker 1: what is happiness? What makes us happy? How do we
Speaker 1: study happiness? Great sound design. My niece starts the whole
Speaker 1: thing off with a nice quote from the Dali Llama.
Speaker 1: It's just a great little whirlwind ride that you want
Speaker 1: to listen to over and over again, all for the
Speaker 1: price of a of a latte that's your favorite. You're lucky.
Speaker 1: It's your favorite coffee place that you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: probably go through your your couch cushions to come up
Speaker 1: with the difference to get the latte. This thing is
Speaker 1: so cheap, that's true. Yeah. So um, there's our plug
Speaker 1: and uh, it's time now for listener mail. Josh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call this email from an author that we actually referenced. Okay,
Speaker 1: he listens to the show. A uh mengalalaba, Josh, Chuck
Speaker 1: and Jerry, I hope you're having a good day. About
Speaker 1: three weeks ago, I was flying from Minnesota to yangone
Speaker 1: mean mar how you pronounce it? Yeah? Me and more.
Speaker 1: But it's post hounta Berba look at you. I really
Speaker 1: had a pretty surreal moment involving your podcast. After downing
Speaker 1: as much free booze as I could, I was listening
Speaker 1: to episodes of your podcast, trying to Fall Asleep over
Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean. Imagine my surprise when I was coming
Speaker 1: out of my nap. To the end of How Shrunken
Speaker 1: Heads Work, you were finishing the story of your dentist
Speaker 1: friend when Josh said, you've also received a Juma and
Speaker 1: Other Stories by Tyler Davis, which is a self published
Speaker 1: book and pretty awesome. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Thanks
Speaker 1: for much, but so much for the shout out from
Speaker 1: Tyler David. Yeah, yeah, okay, it is good. Well, I've
Speaker 1: been meaning to write an email and thank you guys
Speaker 1: for a while. We've been busy settling in the internet.
Speaker 1: Here isn't exactly the Information super Highway. It's more like
Speaker 1: an Amish buggy. I'm teaching English and an international high school,
Speaker 1: and I've already taught my kids what hinky means. I
Speaker 1: have no idea if that's how do you define that specifically?
Speaker 1: I would say hinky means uh, suspicious. Okay, see, I
Speaker 1: would say stranger than usual. Yeah, okay, so it could
Speaker 1: be three. There's three definititions. That's right. That's what hinky
Speaker 1: means is everything. It's like smurt Yeah, what the cuss.
Speaker 1: I had time to write you today because I'm homesick
Speaker 1: from food poisoning, which reminds me you to do a
Speaker 1: podcast and whether or not you can poop your own
Speaker 1: skeleton grow. I feel awful You and the rest of
Speaker 1: the gang at how stuff works keep me entertained, educated
Speaker 1: and in high spirits. Thanks again, Tyler Davis. Well, thank you, Tyler.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the books too. You have yours. I think
Speaker 1: he sent us to Yeah Juma and other stories. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got it. If you want, you can go onto
Speaker 1: the Stuff you Should Know Facebook page and post an
Speaker 1: Amazon link or something like that to your book if
Speaker 1: you like um. And also, I want to take this
Speaker 1: time to correct myself. We've got several corrections. A fail safe, Yeah,
Speaker 1: fail safe is not something that you put that that's
Speaker 1: designed into something to prevent it from failing, like one
Speaker 1: prong being bigger on a two pronged plug. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's I guess, parts of the design that make it
Speaker 1: so when it does fail, it fails as safely as possible.
Speaker 1: So there's a bunch of different systems, may be that
Speaker 1: are redundant that that provides safety when it does fail, right,
Speaker 1: like the one guy said the lawnmower that you have
Speaker 1: to hold the thing to keep it going. Like if
Speaker 1: you have a heart attack and fall over, it will
Speaker 1: cease to run. Right, that's a fail safe. So you
Speaker 1: have failed, but you are safe from the mower running exactly,
Speaker 1: but you don't care because you're having a heart attack. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anything else bread but bread butter slide up now that
Speaker 1: you know. I think the MythBusters are great, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad that they've had this incredible juggernaut run that they've
Speaker 1: had so far and continue to have. But I don't
Speaker 1: I just don't say yes. I don't think you can say, well,
Speaker 1: the MythBusters proved it. Well, shut up. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you have to also include one, maybe two um peer
Speaker 1: reviewed studies as well. That's show that this is right.
Speaker 1: Here's what I think, and I was not able to
Speaker 1: articulate it. I think you spread the butter side up
Speaker 1: so it's sitting face up, and when it falls off
Speaker 1: the you know, the table stomach high counter, then it
Speaker 1: only has time to rotate half a turn and it
Speaker 1: will fall side down. If the counter were eight ft high,
Speaker 1: it might rotate fully and land it butter side up.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with weight. In other words,
Speaker 1: I disagree. I disagree. I just don't see how it
Speaker 1: can have nothing to do with wit, especially if you
Speaker 1: have If one side is clearly heavier than the other
Speaker 1: and the butter spread evenly across, then it's not going
Speaker 1: to turn back over. You. If it does turn back over,
Speaker 1: then there was more butter on one side that caused
Speaker 1: the bread to flip over again. It's just not It
Speaker 1: just makes calm, it's common sense. You're gonna battle this one.
Speaker 1: I am. So that's why I didn't bring that one up.
Speaker 1: Fail safe. I mean, when you're wrong, you're wrong, you know,
Speaker 1: all right? Boy? That was good? Well yeah, if you
Speaker 1: have any corrections, we don't want to hear but to
Speaker 1: acne um. If you have any corrections for us, or
Speaker 1: you just want to say hi, you can tweet to
Speaker 1: us any time you like. S y s K podcast
Speaker 1: is our Twitter handle. Where on Facebook, Facebook dot com
Speaker 1: slash Stuff you Should Know, or you can go on
Speaker 1: any of the other Facebook Stuff you should Know sites.
Speaker 1: They're fan driven. They're awesome too, agreed, Or you can
Speaker 1: send us a regular old email at stuff podcast at
Speaker 1: how Stuff works dot com. Stuff you Should Know is
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