Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know
Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
Speaker 1: that makes this stuff. You should know. That's right, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: It does. When we're in this room, one thing happens anger.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say magic, angry magic, right, good, because
Speaker 1: get out of the hat. I haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 1: The angry magician. No, that's a great idea. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: you go. The angry comics. Ye. Yeah, there are plenty
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, 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 NICs, 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, there's 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. Ye look at that. Yeah, And you don't
Speaker 1: want to lick your lips too much because You're saliva
Speaker 1: contains a digestive enzyme which starts to break down the
Speaker 1: very thin and fragile skin on your lips. I got
Speaker 1: chopped lips a lot from licking them. Stop licking your lips.
Speaker 1: I'm constantly just I have oral stuff. Bite my nails,
Speaker 1: bite my cheeks, bite my lip, all that stuff, all
Speaker 1: that good fun, stressy stuff. But you don't smoke cigarettes,
Speaker 1: so good for you. Yeah, I guess I chewed my
Speaker 1: face off instead of doing that. It's a good looking face,
Speaker 1: thank you. Um. Well, anyway, Chuck, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: say all that to say that I will be um
Speaker 1: very interested in what we're talking about today, which is acting.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you are. I am too, although I've never
Speaker 1: really got at me, so I'm a little less like enthused.
Speaker 1: It's so unfair. Let's look at this right here, right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a big old white head rust to my nose.
Speaker 1: It won't go away. Like I was pressing it with
Speaker 1: my pinkies like I can. I can pop as it
Speaker 1: I get them. That's a tough spot, though. Josh is
Speaker 1: talking about the area right under the nostril 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 like my eyes are water ring
Speaker 1: and it still wouldn't pop. So I'll have to have
Speaker 1: you do it. Yeah, yeah, But um, I guess that's
Speaker 1: method podcasting, following in your footsteps, Chuck, So, um, you
Speaker 1: want to talk about acne first, I guess we should
Speaker 1: talk about the skin a little bit, right And in
Speaker 1: 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: think most people know by now it's the largest organ.
Speaker 1: But um, Tom takes a step further in a very
Speaker 1: buffalo bill way, and he says that if you skinned
Speaker 1: an adult human, there would be enough material to make
Speaker 1: a four by five foot area rug of skin waistin founds.
Speaker 1: I'm glad he didn't say how many like skin suits
Speaker 1: or lamp shades that would make, because that'd be really creepy.
Speaker 1: Creepy enough, So, yeah, ten pounds of skin on the
Speaker 1: on an adult body, right, and then um, most of
Speaker 1: the skin. There's three layers. Is the epidermis, the dermis,
Speaker 1: and the subcutaneous layer. Right in the sub cutaneous layer.
Speaker 1: I think the dermist is the fattiest layer and the
Speaker 1: subcutaneous layers like the nastiest layer. It's like, um, she
Speaker 1: just have you ever seen hall Razor, remember the woman,
Speaker 1: and she was coming back regenerating. She regenerated from like
Speaker 1: the inside out. So at one point she's just like
Speaker 1: muscles and blood. Just above that is the subcutaneous layer.
Speaker 1: I think the epidermisis kind of grows too, though, because
Speaker 1: it's all dead. It is dead. This is one of
Speaker 1: the things that fascinates me about skin. All the skin
Speaker 1: I'm looking at right now, and you're like that I
Speaker 1: can see dead. Dead is disco you know. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: chuck your Your skin grows like beneath the outer layer
Speaker 1: and it grows as crat in the sights which your
Speaker 1: new skin cells. Yeah, and it just your your skin
Speaker 1: is a constant Uh, it's constant motion pushing that dead
Speaker 1: skin up, up and up and out through the pores
Speaker 1: where they flake off into your bed, making your mattress
Speaker 1: heavier from like the moment it's born, when it cell divides,
Speaker 1: it starts making its way outward and it takes what
Speaker 1: does it take about a month for a skin cell
Speaker 1: to be born and then make it out to the
Speaker 1: outer later layer. That sounds about right right to the
Speaker 1: tune of forty to sixty million skin cells per day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: forty thousand 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 reach
Speaker 1: the surface, they provide a function for a while. They
Speaker 1: mix with sebum, which is the oil we produce that
Speaker 1: I really really produce. Yeah, and uh some fats what
Speaker 1: kind uh lipids Josh leno leic acid. Okay, So they
Speaker 1: mix all together and they form waterproof skin that keeps
Speaker 1: out water. That's huge, is why we don't soak up
Speaker 1: water when we walk around in the rain exactly, and
Speaker 1: keeps bacteria, which is why the skin is your first
Speaker 1: organ of um resistance for immunity. That's right. Um, So
Speaker 1: you've got all this process going on. Skin cells eventually
Speaker 1: 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 inward towards drop.
Speaker 1: Sure maybe uh. And that is where the hair begins
Speaker 1: to grow from the bottom up, and it grows out
Speaker 1: of this follicle and collects on the way out. See them,
Speaker 1: and which we said was oil. That's why, like when
Speaker 1: you don't take a shower, your hair is gonna look
Speaker 1: all oily. And actually men I think have more see
Speaker 1: them than women. Yeah, and teenagers have lots of see them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's almost equal for amongst the genders. And in Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's why you get acne most often. An adolescence
Speaker 1: because we're taking you up through where acne starts, which
Speaker 1: is really see them right. Well, that has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with it. At least. The hair follicle is
Speaker 1: connected to a sebaceous gland, like you said, which is
Speaker 1: why your hair seems oily when it comes out. Um.
Speaker 1: And so you've got this whole um, you have this
Speaker 1: whole house of cards I guess, just waiting to screw up. Well,
Speaker 1: they're trying to squeez through this little poor soe those
Speaker 1: dead skin cells that migration they make. The way they
Speaker 1: get out is through the poor, through the follicle, through
Speaker 1: the sebaceous gland. Right. So when you have a lot
Speaker 1: of them coming together at once, all these dead skin
Speaker 1: cells are trying to get through the same door. It's like,
Speaker 1: um three stooges syndrome from the Simpsons. Remember Mr Burns
Speaker 1: had everything, but nothing could kill him because they couldn't
Speaker 1: all get through the door of his health. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1: So when you have too many skin cells, things start
Speaker 1: getting blocked and things back up behind it, and you've
Speaker 1: got trouble. Yeah, I mean that's one way it can happen. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they don't know why that The body would overproduce
Speaker 1: skin cells. But hey, it happens. Yeah, do we need
Speaker 1: to know why exactly. Another thing that can happen. You
Speaker 1: can have too much sebum, like we talked about in
Speaker 1: and puberty. In puberty is when that's gonna happen. Most
Speaker 1: likely bacteria, specifically propione Bacterium Acnes p acnes. That's uh
Speaker 1: found in acne lesions and in every type of acne
Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about. They're all lesions, right
Speaker 1: and and um then inflammation right, Yeah, the bacteria causes inflammation.
Speaker 1: When 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 see bum, which causes an infection
Speaker 1: which makes you infernt. Yeah. I saw it as a
Speaker 1: sequence of events to alright, So Chuck, there is a
Speaker 1: very long standing debate over what is worse a white
Speaker 1: head or a black head. What's the difference between the two. Well,
Speaker 1: one is an open comie dough and one is a
Speaker 1: closed comy dough. Do you know what a comito is? Okay,
Speaker 1: do you know what the word is? Coming down? Is plural?
Speaker 1: What do you mean what the word is? The word
Speaker 1: is Latin for gluttony. Yeah, and it was. It's named
Speaker 1: after a worm. You know how when you like, do
Speaker 1: you poposit and the stuff comes out and like 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 block came to be called the commodo, which means
Speaker 1: glutton Wow, isn't it weird and gross? And true? Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much everything about this we're looking at acting on
Speaker 1: this sub dermal level. Yes, it's gross. It is kind
Speaker 1: of gross. Uh So white heads, you might think, like
Speaker 1: I just woke up and there's a white head on
Speaker 1: my nose. That just happened last night. Not true. It
Speaker 1: could have been a couple of months in the making
Speaker 1: before you finally see it, like you might. You know,
Speaker 1: Emily calls them underground construction when you can feel it
Speaker 1: and you know it's coming, but you can't see it
Speaker 1: or do anything about it yet, that's infection, essentially underground construction. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at some point your your skin cells 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: comy dough black head. I'm sorry, closed comy 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 being 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'd 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 is the pustule, because
Speaker 1: in here it says the A D says a white
Speaker 1: head is typically a raised bump that's the same color
Speaker 1: as the rest of your skin, whereas the zip as
Speaker 1: clearly has pus the pus. But apparently that's not the
Speaker 1: hallmark of a white head. So I'm even more confused. Now,
Speaker 1: Thank you a D. Thanks for nothing. Yeah, because I
Speaker 1: thought a white head meant it was the white you know, pimples.
Speaker 1: It looking thing says here that the same color is
Speaker 1: the rest of your skin. Okay, well, well let's go
Speaker 1: with that though, I mean that the white head is
Speaker 1: uh just it's just pressing your skin up, so it's
Speaker 1: a raised bump. Whereas if it looks white, if there's
Speaker 1: like a clearly a white part, what has happened is
Speaker 1: your this this white head or black head um has
Speaker 1: collapsed under the skin and all that bacteria ridden sea
Speaker 1: bum is now causing an infection. That's what a ZiT is,
Speaker 1: that's right, also called a pustule. That's a pustule. There's
Speaker 1: also a papule, and they are a little small bumps um,
Speaker 1: little firm, small bumps and they don't have any kind
Speaker 1: of white right center, but they do feel like sand
Speaker 1: paper apparently if you rub your fingers across them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get like little dry skin bumps in the back
Speaker 1: of my arm. I don't know if that's the same thing.
Speaker 1: That's not. I don't think so. Okay, No, that's um,
Speaker 1: I mean it's or it's got a name. What is
Speaker 1: that called? What's what's really severe dry skin called exima? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a mild alright, Maybe I have exima.
Speaker 1: Their nodules which are larger and hard. Uh, it's um.
Speaker 1: A nodule is the kind of thing where you mash
Speaker 1: it and you mash it and nothing ever happens, and
Speaker 1: then it comes back and comes back because you're just
Speaker 1: breaking it down and it stays in there. That was
Speaker 1: That was definitely a nodule, wasn't it. Yeah, Because I
Speaker 1: would I would be like and then like it would
Speaker 1: go away, or first it would go and then it
Speaker 1: would come back. That thing was there for a while. Yeah, Man,
Speaker 1: it kept coming back, and they did stay for a
Speaker 1: really long time and to come back, and I was
Speaker 1: wearing like turtle necks. I brought turtlenecks back intain flapping
Speaker 1: was uh, and then superative nodules. Josh, you may think
Speaker 1: her sister boils, and they might look like that, But
Speaker 1: cists have different traits, one of which is uh. The
Speaker 1: ability to contain a trapped gas, which I thought was
Speaker 1: pretty interested, is nuts and pretty awesome. So that means
Speaker 1: that's not a cyst. I'll bet that guest stinks too
Speaker 1: high heaven when it's finally released. Can you imagine? Yeah
Speaker 1: again baby acne? Uh? Yeah, um, what is it called? Mila? Milia? Milia? Sorry,
Speaker 1: Mela is the niece. I think the point here was
Speaker 1: you can get acne from cradle to the grave. Yes, sadly, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean most people. Um, Tom cited something like eight
Speaker 1: of people get um acne, and we should say everything
Speaker 1: we just said was a form of acne. Vulgaris. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think he said that vulgaris is a Latin
Speaker 1: I think for um common yeah, right, Um, most of
Speaker 1: us get it. 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 ac your puberty. For other people
Speaker 1: like me, it keeps going on here there and I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I take care of my face. Dude, I got a
Speaker 1: regiment 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: Here 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, that'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
Speaker 1: school and so I got out like the buff puff
Speaker 1: and then neut regina for the first time ever and
Speaker 1: just scrub the crap out of my face. Started bleeding
Speaker 1: started breaking out, and I was like, well, I don't
Speaker 1: get it. I'm watching my face and it's breaking out.
Speaker 1: But all these years later, I have an explanation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're agitated your skin. Yeah, I think, um, I just
Speaker 1: have sensitive skin. Um. Yeah, but no, I don't use
Speaker 1: like soap or harsh stuff right face. It's like, I
Speaker 1: take care of it. So milia. Back to the babies.
Speaker 1: Babies can get milia. It's around the eyes or nose,
Speaker 1: little white bumps. It's really common. If you're a new
Speaker 1: parent and your kid has this, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: In fact, the doctor is probably gonna tell you the
Speaker 1: same thing, like, don't even do anything. It'll clear up
Speaker 1: on its own, right in most cases. Uh. And you
Speaker 1: can actually get that as an adult as well. Really,
Speaker 1: sometimes you have milia. It's far more common in infants
Speaker 1: and I mean like newborns too. Um. The cause generally
Speaker 1: is that the skin cells are already dividing and dying off.
Speaker 1: But um, the sebacious claims aren't developed enough to carry
Speaker 1: the skin cells to the surface. So basically, when the
Speaker 1: doctor says just way, they'll clear upon its own, he's saying,
Speaker 1: just wait, your baby will grow produce more sabacious claims
Speaker 1: to handle this, right. 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
Speaker 1: androgen's your sex hormones before you should be Yeah, like
Speaker 1: from drinking milk. Is that what we'll do it too?
Speaker 1: Probably bovine growth hormone would do it. And that is
Speaker 1: that is when it's pre puberty, and that's and 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. It's 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 you're
Speaker 1: gonna block little Timmy's only eight, right, I said six?
Speaker 1: It does it happen that young? I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: sure it could. Yeah. I would imagine the younger, the
Speaker 1: more potentially problematic it is. That's the kid who ends
Speaker 1: up having the mustache when he's like in the third grade.
Speaker 1: The six year old boy with the breasts and the mustache.
Speaker 1: Would you call him Timmy? Actually I have a friend
Speaker 1: named Timmy. But my other friend, Jim. You actually know,
Speaker 1: Jim did have a mustache when he was like in
Speaker 1: the eighth grade. Yeah, it was pretty funny, Yeah, swarthy Jim. Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: so what else, Chuck, Oh, there's rosatsia. This is the
Speaker 1: one that that is pretty awful on Google images. Really yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it can affect the nose, and you know, it's everything
Speaker 1: from just redness of the nose too, horribly misshapen, bumpy nose.
Speaker 1: They can get really bad. Is that the nose where
Speaker 1: you see like divi it's missing from people's noses. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it can't, it can't get that bad. But it occurs
Speaker 1: in bouts. Right, so you have, um, you can kind
Speaker 1: of tell that you're about to have about of rose
Speaker 1: asia because as you find that, you flush more easily,
Speaker 1: and it's because your veins and the veins in your
Speaker 1: face are dilating more more, um wider. I guess that's it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's triggers acne. Well, it triggers acne vulgaris or or
Speaker 1: a lot like acne vulgaris, they said. And then I
Speaker 1: also got the impression from Tom that it's problematic that uh,
Speaker 1: and that people suspect that maybe you're like a raging
Speaker 1: alcoholic because your nose looks like that, like you have
Speaker 1: the gym blossoms. But it's really just rosation. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: if you look up pictures of it, it looks like
Speaker 1: a gin blossom or worse. There's I don't encourage anyone
Speaker 1: to type in like plus dules into Google images because
Speaker 1: it's like that body parts come up that are have
Speaker 1: these things on them and might not be something you
Speaker 1: want to see, you know what I'm saying, Well kind
Speaker 1: of body parts. Oh, they just they had pictures of
Speaker 1: of like just out of nowhere, just like feet, penises
Speaker 1: with bumps on them. And I don't recommend it. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well that's fair warning if I've ever heard it. Anybody
Speaker 1: who does go Google image what rosatsia? Any of them? Really,
Speaker 1: then you've been warned by Chuck himself. You're a dummy
Speaker 1: if you do it, yes, or you're on your own
Speaker 1: at least. Um. So those are generally the different types
Speaker 1: of acne, right, and their causes. Um, but we missed
Speaker 1: at least one. Chuck Pizza, Pizza causes acne. No, it
Speaker 1: does it. I know it doesn't. That was play acting. Um,
Speaker 1: that is a is a And I actually did a
Speaker 1: little more research on this and diet and acne. Um.
Speaker 1: That's sort of been one of the old things they
Speaker 1: say it's like a greasy food and elite to acne.
Speaker 1: But most doctors say that that's pretty much a myth
Speaker 1: end of story. Although this this one thing I found
Speaker 1: says that theoretically there could be some impact, like diet
Speaker 1: has a direct effect on insulin level, and that insulin
Speaker 1: is the master hormone and it has to do with
Speaker 1: hormone you know, production anyway, So in theory, insulin spikes
Speaker 1: could affect acne. And also things that you eat, it
Speaker 1: can affect it in a good way if you eat
Speaker 1: positively like veggies and fruits and seafood, and potentially if
Speaker 1: you eat good foods that are rich and like omega
Speaker 1: three fats like fish oil, it can be an anti
Speaker 1: inflammatory and so part of the problem is inflammation. In theory,
Speaker 1: it could help with that too. But you want to
Speaker 1: watch um like shellfish, they're they're high and I had
Speaker 1: died because that apparently can inflame activul garis Yeah, So
Speaker 1: here as we say that it doesn't impact acne, r
Speaker 1: saying it does, right, Yeah, I just can't believe that
Speaker 1: what you eat doesn't have any impact on the function
Speaker 1: of your cells. That's what I think. It's got to
Speaker 1: have some impact. Um Genetics is another big one that
Speaker 1: is I think probably um it's over estimated the impact
Speaker 1: it has. Yes, the the genes that you inherit from
Speaker 1: your parents and how they express, um, the proteins that
Speaker 1: tell your sabacious clans to function in this way or
Speaker 1: that way or whatever. It's going to have an effect,
Speaker 1: but not as much as you know, if your dad
Speaker 1: broke out a lot, you're not necessarily going to write
Speaker 1: or vice versa. I don't know about my parents in
Speaker 1: Acne's not a conversation that you normally have with your parents,
Speaker 1: you know. More it's like, um, it was your dad bald.
Speaker 1: That's the big question. That's what I don't care about.
Speaker 1: As men. Dirt is not gonna affect if you have
Speaker 1: a dirty face. I mean, it's not great for your
Speaker 1: skin probably, but pimples and zip's happened from the inside out,
Speaker 1: So dirt on top of your epidermist isn't gonna really
Speaker 1: affect that. They say and then make up this one.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I could see makeup definitely making your
Speaker 1: break out. Yeah, the wrong kind quite using that kind. Well,
Speaker 1: there's different kinds. There's a hYP hypoallergenic, which means low allergenic.
Speaker 1: There's a non comedogenic which supposedly says like this won't
Speaker 1: make you break out, so possibly cheap makeup. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: if you have Yeah, if you have skin issues already,
Speaker 1: then you should probably be aware of the types of
Speaker 1: makeup that you're getting. If you're a young lady or
Speaker 1: if you're a dude that's into that um and leaving
Speaker 1: makeup on without removing it at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: that can definitely cause you to break out because you're
Speaker 1: going ahead and blocking the pores from the outside in
Speaker 1: causing backups. Yeah, Stevie Nicks said that on might have
Speaker 1: been Oprah. Yeah verbatim, I was quoting really now, she said.
Speaker 1: They asked her why she always looks so great, and
Speaker 1: she said that she's through all Like even her drug
Speaker 1: days of being on tour, she never ever failed to
Speaker 1: acker makeup off at the end of the night. Stevie
Speaker 1: Nicks the 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 macup off.
Speaker 1: That is that's pretty good. Yeah, Well she's the Belladonna. Um,
Speaker 1: So chuck, let's say you want to get rid of
Speaker 1: the acne that you do have. Right right there, I'm good. Um,
Speaker 1: there's really just two things that regular old acne vol
Speaker 1: garris and not persistent, not a superative nodule type acne,
Speaker 1: but just plain old acne volgaras um can be treated with.
Speaker 1: One is benzol peroxide and one is salacilic acid. Right,
Speaker 1: and those are pretty much it. Almost all of the
Speaker 1: over the counter acne treatments that you're going to find
Speaker 1: anywhere are going to have one or both of those,
Speaker 1: probably just one. And anyone who's ever seen like an
Speaker 1: oxy commercial has heard the word benzol peroxide. Know what
Speaker 1: were those pads? Were the oxy pants? Uh? Yeah, there
Speaker 1: was another company because 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 oxypos come in
Speaker 1: like a little like yeah, I'm taking careless And then
Speaker 1: you would look at it and say, look at all
Speaker 1: that stuff. The commercial Ben's oil peroxide specifically kills the
Speaker 1: p agnos bacteria and it'll dry out your face, which
Speaker 1: can be bad. Yeah. People, that um moisture in your
Speaker 1: face is what breaks you out. Uh, your face. Being
Speaker 1: too dry can break you out as much, if not more. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: you want to keep your face moisturized. Cuts down a
Speaker 1: breakout kid, you know. Uh, tea tree oil. Emily uses
Speaker 1: tea tree a lot to dry out a pimple, and
Speaker 1: that's a good natural way to do. So cell is
Speaker 1: silic acid. Um basically goes in and it's like um
Speaker 1: liquid plumber for your pores. Like it just goes in
Speaker 1: and destroys everything that's in that blockage and there you go.
Speaker 1: It also takes off a healthy amount of the horny layer,
Speaker 1: which is the most external layer of your dead skin cells.
Speaker 1: Horny layer. Really, look at you. Uh. The other thing
Speaker 1: that you can do, I mean those are medications you
Speaker 1: can take. What you really want to do is to
Speaker 1: gently wash your face with soap and warm water. But again,
Speaker 1: you can't just use any soap. I mean maybe you
Speaker 1: can if you have like completely insensitive skin. Yeah, uh
Speaker 1: then sure maybe you can. And you'll find out pretty
Speaker 1: quick what kind of soaps you can and can't use. Well,
Speaker 1: most of the soap you get and the store is
Speaker 1: pretty crappy anyway, right, Like, you you get what you
Speaker 1: pay for it with soap, especially with face soap. It's
Speaker 1: worth the extra few bucks. Uh. If you're exercising, you
Speaker 1: want to shower right afterward. You don't want to let
Speaker 1: sweat be under skin for too long. Yeah, you got ackney.
Speaker 1: You're subacius. The reason backney is so prevalent because that
Speaker 1: that part of your body is lousy with sebaceous clans.
Speaker 1: Where is it head or face, back and chest? I
Speaker 1: think so those are three areas because yeah, zit's it's
Speaker 1: what about the butt? That's something entirely different. Those are
Speaker 1: Those are just red bumps that no one knows what
Speaker 1: they are. Okay. Uh. They recommend loose clothing, and they
Speaker 1: recommend chilling out not being stressed. Be a type L personality,
Speaker 1: which is L. The long allele on the SLC six
Speaker 1: A four gene, which UM basically creates this protein that
Speaker 1: ferry serotonin out of the synaps basically turns it off,
Speaker 1: which is so that if you have the L allal,
Speaker 1: it makes you you're a more laid back person because
Speaker 1: you have more of this trans support protein. If you
Speaker 1: have the S version of of that gene, then you
Speaker 1: make less of the transport, meaning the serotonin stays in
Speaker 1: the snaps longer, which makes you high, strong and kind
Speaker 1: of angry because it activates your amygdala. So type A
Speaker 1: personality Type B is actually type S and type L.
Speaker 1: It sounds like somebody destrote a blog post. Isn't that cool? Though? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That is cool. I like to think I'm a L,
Speaker 1: but I'm probably less L than I really want to admit.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Somebody posted a comment on on Facebook
Speaker 1: when I put that blog post up, and they're like,
Speaker 1: not everything can be explained so succinctly. But the point
Speaker 1: of the blog post was is like this one explains
Speaker 1: it tocinctly. Yeah, you just remove the comment and went
Speaker 1: about your day and A banned him from Facebook forever.
Speaker 1: What else can you do? Let's see you guy at
Speaker 1: me check and what can you do to treat it? Um?
Speaker 1: You can take antibiotics, either oral or topical al and
Speaker 1: topical meaning like their current event type antibiotics. What about
Speaker 1: a chemical peel that works too? I would think that
Speaker 1: would not be a good thing if you were breaking out.
Speaker 1: Is it's a good idea If you're going to do
Speaker 1: that to again, show out the extra money and go
Speaker 1: to a professional who can tell you, now, this is
Speaker 1: the chemical peel I've done on your face. This is
Speaker 1: what's safe, this is what your skin can handle. And
Speaker 1: then you know, here's a product that that will do
Speaker 1: the same thing at home. So don't go to the
Speaker 1: place where they have to add on the subway. John's
Speaker 1: Upstairs Chemical peel and Chicken processing Plant espresso. Have you
Speaker 1: ever done a chemical peel? Really interesting? Yes, I've been
Speaker 1: known to get it. You come out like it is
Speaker 1: your face all red and stuff. No, it feels red,
Speaker 1: but it's more also like very refreshing, Like it's just oh,
Speaker 1: it's so nice to just kind of rub like the
Speaker 1: back of your fingers along your face afterwards, because your
Speaker 1: skin is just like what you're doing is just tearing
Speaker 1: that horny layer right off. You're getting closer and closer
Speaker 1: to that new layer of skin cells is just like
Speaker 1: but it's still it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you'd be in big trouble. Of themis like that's a
Speaker 1: that's a third degree burn. I think you know a
Speaker 1: second Apparently 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: downs on the production of um sea bump, which cuts
Speaker 1: down on pimples. Yeah. I didn't know they had ads
Speaker 1: for birth control pills? Sure did they? Am? I just
Speaker 1: am I living in the in uh Amish country here?
Speaker 1: Why am I not seeing any There's this one and
Speaker 1: I saw several years ago. Yeah, it was really weird.
Speaker 1: Um first they had this version of it was like
Speaker 1: the cartoon version of this ad, and then 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 and then they
Speaker 1: did 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? How much TV
Speaker 1: are you watching? Yeah? Yeah, And at the time I
Speaker 1: was watching a lot of TV. So I noticed, what
Speaker 1: about lasers? You can get them lasered, right, And I
Speaker 1: guess that's if you have if it's really bad, then
Speaker 1: they can actually laser your sebaceous glands. They say not
Speaker 1: to squeeze them though, which I think is kind of laughable.
Speaker 1: What do you mean, like not pop them? Yourself. They
Speaker 1: is tom sive pal. You can take that with a
Speaker 1: grain of salt. Yeah, I mean show me someone who
Speaker 1: it doesn't pop their own zets and and it says,
Speaker 1: in't here to make an appointment with the dermatologists so
Speaker 1: they can pop your pimples. Really well, that's the only
Speaker 1: thing too, when you get like a chemical peel or
Speaker 1: a facial or whatever the the the U not anestheticist,
Speaker 1: oh estheticiansan um will pop all the zips on your face.
Speaker 1: And what's crazy is like, when you do it right,
Speaker 1: it doesn't hurt. I guess yeah, but I mean like this,
Speaker 1: the pressure they apply is minute and they're doing it
Speaker 1: like off to the sides of the zip and like
Speaker 1: you you're like, that was it. It didn't hurt at all.
Speaker 1: Like I didn't cry at all. So it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of good too, not necessarily good. At the Dirham Tall.
Speaker 1: Just you could go do an esthetician and they'll do
Speaker 1: the same all the same things. You'll learn a bunch
Speaker 1: just by paying attention while they do it. I couldn't.
Speaker 1: Emily would never let me do that. Why because she
Speaker 1: loves to do it herself. Oh yeah, I mean she
Speaker 1: could have been an that she has that gene to
Speaker 1: where she just gets a lot of satisfaction out of
Speaker 1: making that white snake come out. Yeah. In fact, she's
Speaker 1: a little disappointed at my lack of pimple production in life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she would love me, you guys, actually you me loves me.
Speaker 1: She does it. Um, she does it a lot too.
Speaker 1: She's kind of hooked. Yeah, a lot of girls are
Speaker 1: into that for some reason. I'm glad, I know, always
Speaker 1: not nuts and that that's a normal for some reason too.
Speaker 1: I've never been a guy who's into that. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: always girls for some reason. I don't understand. Maybe they're
Speaker 1: more into skin, skin care or gross stuff coming out
Speaker 1: of your skin. Maybe. So well, let's say, all right, yeah,
Speaker 1: seventeen million people in America every day on a given
Speaker 1: day have is it? Is that? Right? Yeah? I think
Speaker 1: more than that. You go, alright, alright? Which one? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's acting as the big word pimples. I
Speaker 1: just like saying pimple. I don't like saying pimple. I
Speaker 1: think it's a gross word. You like pustule, I prefer
Speaker 1: pustule over. I don't likes it either. Yeah. Where we yeah,
Speaker 1: we were on we were featured in the like strip zits.
Speaker 1: Remember that was very nice? Yeah, yeah, and then you
Speaker 1: know what I need to find out. And I don't
Speaker 1: think they're black heads. Emily calls them seeds because that
Speaker 1: it's like a little watermelon seed almost. It's like a
Speaker 1: little white spike comes out. I wonder what that is.
Speaker 1: I didn't find that in here. I guarantee it's the
Speaker 1: same thing you think. Yeah, all right, I think there's
Speaker 1: a very limited amount of acne. It just happens and
Speaker 1: it just kind of looks different or comes out in
Speaker 1: different ways, or if it sits in there long enough,
Speaker 1: it comes seed. I know you're talking about. 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 part 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 meal. 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 the audio book that has just been
Speaker 1: released called The super Stuffed Guide to Happiness available on iTunes.
Speaker 1: I know you have to show out three. We promise,
Speaker 1: we think it's worth it. Um on iTunes, you just
Speaker 1: search super Stuff Guide to Happiness, right, and it'll bring
Speaker 1: that 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 Happy is. It's awesome interviews, in depth investigation
Speaker 1: of what is happiness? What makes us happy? How do
Speaker 1: we study happiness? Great sound design. My niece starts the
Speaker 1: whole thing off with a nice quote from the Dalai Lama.
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 a 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 reference. Okay,
Speaker 1: he listens to the show. Uh Mengalaba Josh, Chuck, and Jerry,
Speaker 1: I hope you're having a good day. About three weeks ago,
Speaker 1: I was flying from Minnesota to yangone mean mar how
Speaker 1: you pronounced it? Yeah, me and Mare, but it's post
Speaker 1: Unta ba look at you. I really had a pretty
Speaker 1: surreal moment involving your podcast. After downing as much free
Speaker 1: booze as I could, I was listening to episodes of
Speaker 1: your podcast trying to fall asleep over the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 1: Imagine my surprise when I was coming out of my nap.
Speaker 1: To the end of How Shrunken Heads Work, you were
Speaker 1: finishing the story of your dentist friend. When Josh said,
Speaker 1: you've also received a Juma and Other Stories by Tyler Davis,
Speaker 1: which is a self published book and pretty awesome. I
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. Thanks for much, but so much for
Speaker 1: the shout out from Tyler David. Yeah, okay, it is good. Well,
Speaker 1: I've been needing to write an email and thank you
Speaker 1: guys 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 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. How do you define that specifically? I
Speaker 1: would say hinky means uh, suspicious? Okay, see, I would
Speaker 1: say stranger, unusual. Yeah, okay, so it could be three.
Speaker 1: There's three definitions. That's right, That's what hinky means everything.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, what the cuss? I had time to
Speaker 1: write you today becase I'm homesick from food poisoning, which
Speaker 1: reminds me you should do a podcast and whether or
Speaker 1: not you can poop your own skeleton. Girl, I feel
Speaker 1: awful you and the rest of the gang. How stuff
Speaker 1: works to keep me entertained, educated and in high spirits.
Speaker 1: Thanks again, Tyler Davis, but thank you Tyler. Thanks for
Speaker 1: the books too. You have your so I think he
Speaker 1: sent us to Yeah Aduma and other stories. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you want, you can go onto the Stuff you should
Speaker 1: Know facebook page and post an Amazon link or something
Speaker 1: like that to your book if you like um. And also,
Speaker 1: I want to take this time to correct myself. We've
Speaker 1: got several corrections. A fail safe Yeah, fail safe is
Speaker 1: not something that you put that that's designed into something
Speaker 1: to prevent it from failing. Like one prong being bigger
Speaker 1: on a two pronged plug. It's it's I guess parts
Speaker 1: of the design that make it so when it does fail,
Speaker 1: it fails as safely as possible. So there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different systems maybe that are redundant that that provides
Speaker 1: safety when it does fail. Like the one guy said
Speaker 1: the lawnmower, that you have to hold the thing to
Speaker 1: keep it going. Like if you have a heart attack
Speaker 1: and fall over, it will cease to run. Right, that's
Speaker 1: a failsafe. So you have failed, but you are safe
Speaker 1: from the mower exactly, but you don't care because you're
Speaker 1: having a heart attack. Anything else. Bread but the bread
Speaker 1: butter side up, No, that you know. I think the
Speaker 1: MythBusters are great, and I'm glad that they've had this
Speaker 1: incredible juggernaut run that they've had so far and continue
Speaker 1: to have. But I don't I just don't say yes.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can say, well, the MythBusters proved it. Well,
Speaker 1: shut up. Yeah. I think you have to also include one,
Speaker 1: maybe two um peer reviewed studies as well. That's show
Speaker 1: that this is right. Here's what I think, and I
Speaker 1: was not able to articulate it. I think you spread
Speaker 1: the butter side up, so it's sitting face up, and
Speaker 1: when it falls off the you know, the table stomach
Speaker 1: high counter, then it only has time to rotate half
Speaker 1: a turn and it will fall side down. If the
Speaker 1: counter were eight feet high, it might rotate fully and
Speaker 1: then it's butter slide up. It's nothing to do with weight.
Speaker 1: In other words, I disagree. I just don't see how
Speaker 1: it can have nothing to do with white, especially if
Speaker 1: you have if one side is clearly heavier than the
Speaker 1: other and the butter spread evenly across, then it's not
Speaker 1: going to turn back over. You if if it does
Speaker 1: turn back over, then there was more butter on one
Speaker 1: side that caused the bread to flip over again. It's
Speaker 1: just not it just makes calm, it's common sense. You're
Speaker 1: gonna battle this one, I am. So that's why I
Speaker 1: didn't bring that one up. They'll safe. I mean, when
Speaker 1: you're wrong, you're wrong, you know, all right? Boy? That
Speaker 1: was good? Well? Yeah, if you have any corrections, we
Speaker 1: don't want to hear about your acne um. If you
Speaker 1: have any corrections for us, or you just want to
Speaker 1: say hi, you can tweet to us any time you like.
Speaker 1: S Y s K podcast is our Twitter handle where
Speaker 1: on Facebook Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know,
Speaker 1: or you can go on any of the other Facebook
Speaker 1: stuff you Should Know side their fan driven They're awesome too, agreed,
Speaker 1: Or you can send us a regular old email at
Speaker 1: stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be sure
Speaker 1: to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Speaker 1: Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
Speaker 1: promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by
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