September 20, 2011 • 41 mins
Over the course of our lives, 80 percent of us will experience acne. Ultimately, acne comes down to one thing, a blockage in the sebaceous gland. Learn what makes a blackhead black, and everything else about zits, in this pus-filled episode of SYSK.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
(00:23):
that makes this stuff. You should know. That's right, doesn't it?
It does. When we're in this room, one thing happens anger.
I was gonna say magic, angry magic, right, good, because
get out of the hat. I haven't seen that yet.
The angry magician. No, that's a great idea. Yeah, there
(00:44):
you go. The angry comics. Ye. Yeah, there are plenty
of them. Yeah, and for good reason too. Yeah. Yeah. Um.
Do you remember a while back we were writing a
lot of articles that seem to share a common theme
a skincare Yeah, I remember that too. I didn't write
(01:04):
too many of those. I wrote a lot of skin
care NICs, Yeah I did. Um, And I learned that
I'm fascinated by the skin. That's good. Yeah, it turned
out to be very good. Like, um, you don't want
to take too many showers in a day. You don't
want the water you use in your shower to be
too hot. Um, Like I learned these things definitively. Um. Also,
(01:28):
the skin on your lips, um, there's three layers thick,
whereas the rest of the skin on your face is
about sixteen layers thick. And they're actually translucent, which is
why your lips are reddish, because it's just the mucous
membrane underneath. Ye look at that. Yeah, And you don't
want to lick your lips too much because You're saliva
(01:49):
contains a digestive enzyme which starts to break down the
very thin and fragile skin on your lips. I got
chopped lips a lot from licking them. Stop licking your lips.
I'm constantly just I have oral stuff. Bite my nails,
bite my cheeks, bite my lip, all that stuff, all
that good fun, stressy stuff. But you don't smoke cigarettes,
(02:09):
so good for you. Yeah, I guess I chewed my
face off instead of doing that. It's a good looking face,
thank you. Um. Well, anyway, Chuck, I just wanted to
say all that to say that I will be um
very interested in what we're talking about today, which is acting.
I'm glad you are. I am too, although I've never
(02:30):
really got at me, so I'm a little less like enthused.
It's so unfair. Let's look at this right here, right now. Yeah,
I have a big old white head rust to my nose.
It won't go away. Like I was pressing it with
my pinkies like I can. I can pop as it
I get them. That's a tough spot, though. Josh is
talking about the area right under the nostril that no
(02:52):
man's land the nose kind of prohibits access, like you want, Well,
it's not just that. It's very, very sensitive and like
I was pressing it like my eyes are water ring
and it still wouldn't pop. So I'll have to have
you do it. Yeah, yeah, But um, I guess that's
method podcasting, following in your footsteps, Chuck, So, um, you
(03:13):
want to talk about acne first, I guess we should
talk about the skin a little bit, right And in
the process of how, well, let's talk about the skin.
Did you like Tom's description? I did? Actually, I think
think most people know by now it's the largest organ.
But um, Tom takes a step further in a very
buffalo bill way, and he says that if you skinned
(03:33):
an adult human, there would be enough material to make
a four by five foot area rug of skin waistin founds.
I'm glad he didn't say how many like skin suits
or lamp shades that would make, because that'd be really creepy.
Creepy enough, So, yeah, ten pounds of skin on the
on an adult body, right, and then um, most of
(03:55):
the skin. There's three layers. Is the epidermis, the dermis,
and the subcutaneous layer. Right in the sub cutaneous layer.
I think the dermist is the fattiest layer and the
subcutaneous layers like the nastiest layer. It's like, um, she
just have you ever seen hall Razor, remember the woman,
and she was coming back regenerating. She regenerated from like
(04:16):
the inside out. So at one point she's just like
muscles and blood. Just above that is the subcutaneous layer.
I think the epidermisis kind of grows too, though, because
it's all dead. It is dead. This is one of
the things that fascinates me about skin. All the skin
I'm looking at right now, and you're like that I
can see dead. Dead is disco you know. Yeah, so
(04:38):
chuck your Your skin grows like beneath the outer layer
and it grows as crat in the sights which your
new skin cells. Yeah, and it just your your skin
is a constant Uh, it's constant motion pushing that dead
skin up, up and up and out through the pores
where they flake off into your bed, making your mattress
(04:59):
heavier from like the moment it's born, when it cell divides,
it starts making its way outward and it takes what
does it take about a month for a skin cell
to be born and then make it out to the
outer later layer. That sounds about right right to the
tune of forty to sixty million skin cells per day. Yeah,
forty thousand a minute. That's crazy. Are reaching the surface right, um.
(05:20):
And so they reach the surface, and they don't just
fall right off. Um. Along the process they die and
there they become cornified um, which is and become kratina
sites or cornea sites. Sorry. Um. And when they reach
the surface, they provide a function for a while. They
mix with sebum, which is the oil we produce that
I really really produce. Yeah, and uh some fats what
(05:45):
kind uh lipids Josh leno leic acid. Okay, So they
mix all together and they form waterproof skin that keeps
out water. That's huge, is why we don't soak up
water when we walk around in the rain exactly, and
keeps bacteria, which is why the skin is your first
organ of um resistance for immunity. That's right. Um, So
(06:07):
you've got all this process going on. Skin cells eventually
do fall off and jump off and are sloughed off,
and then um, beneath all that, you have the subcutaneous layer,
and that's where the hair starts growing. Right, Yeah, that's
where you're gonna find your hair follicle, which looks sort
of like just a little uh, little tube with a
little uh, a little rounder end. I would say it
(06:30):
looks like a sperm, a sperm going inward towards drop.
Sure maybe uh. And that is where the hair begins
to grow from the bottom up, and it grows out
of this follicle and collects on the way out. See them,
and which we said was oil. That's why, like when
you don't take a shower, your hair is gonna look
(06:51):
all oily. And actually men I think have more see
them than women. Yeah, and teenagers have lots of see them. Yeah,
it's almost equal for amongst the genders. And in Yeah,
because that's why you get acne most often. An adolescence
because we're taking you up through where acne starts, which
is really see them right. Well, that has a lot
(07:12):
to do with it. At least. The hair follicle is
connected to a sebaceous gland, like you said, which is
why your hair seems oily when it comes out. Um.
And so you've got this whole um, you have this
whole house of cards I guess, just waiting to screw up. Well,
they're trying to squeez through this little poor soe those
dead skin cells that migration they make. The way they
(07:33):
get out is through the poor, through the follicle, through
the sebaceous gland. Right. So when you have a lot
of them coming together at once, all these dead skin
cells are trying to get through the same door. It's like,
um three stooges syndrome from the Simpsons. Remember Mr Burns
had everything, but nothing could kill him because they couldn't
all get through the door of his health. That's exactly right.
(07:55):
So when you have too many skin cells, things start
getting blocked and things back up behind it, and you've
got trouble. Yeah, I mean that's one way it can happen. Uh.
And they don't know why that The body would overproduce
skin cells. But hey, it happens. Yeah, do we need
to know why exactly. Another thing that can happen. You
can have too much sebum, like we talked about in
(08:17):
and puberty. In puberty is when that's gonna happen. Most
likely bacteria, specifically propione Bacterium Acnes p acnes. That's uh
found in acne lesions and in every type of acne
that we're going to talk about. They're all lesions, right
and and um then inflammation right, Yeah, the bacteria causes inflammation.
(08:40):
When there's back up and there's bacteria, you're gonna get inflammation. Yeah.
Tom put it like these were different things that could happen,
and I'm sure they are, but it also seems to
happen like a sequence of event. It's kind of like
all of them. You've got too many skin cells backing up, right,
so the sea bum backs up behind it. Well, this
bacteria loves to eat see bum, which causes an infection
(09:01):
which makes you infernt. Yeah. I saw it as a
sequence of events to alright, So Chuck, there is a
very long standing debate over what is worse a white
head or a black head. What's the difference between the two. Well,
one is an open comie dough and one is a
(09:22):
closed comy dough. Do you know what a comito is? Okay,
do you know what the word is? Coming down? Is plural?
What do you mean what the word is? The word
is Latin for gluttony. Yeah, and it was. It's named
after a worm. You know how when you like, do
you poposit and the stuff comes out and like it's
(09:45):
like kind of a thin worm like tube. Well, there
was a apparently a worm that looked very similar to
that that loved to feed, a parasitic worm that loved
to feed on humans that was considered particularly gluttonous. So
the block came to be called the commodo, which means
glutton Wow, isn't it weird and gross? And true? Yeah,
(10:06):
pretty much everything about this we're looking at acting on
this sub dermal level. Yes, it's gross. It is kind
of gross. Uh So white heads, you might think, like
I just woke up and there's a white head on
my nose. That just happened last night. Not true. It
could have been a couple of months in the making
before you finally see it, like you might. You know,
Emily calls them underground construction when you can feel it
(10:29):
and you know it's coming, but you can't see it
or do anything about it yet, that's infection, essentially underground construction. Yeah,
at some point your your skin cells started backing up.
They didn't make their way out of the poor and
you're in trouble. So white heads anyway, have an open
comy dough black head. I'm sorry, closed comy dough. Black
(10:51):
heads are open and the black that you're seeing is
just melon and it's just our skin pigment. It's oxidized,
it's not dirt. The reason it's black is being because, um,
it's been exposed to air, whereas with a closed comito, um,
there is no exposure to air, so everything stays white
just beneath the surface of the skin. And I had
you you'd stopped me in the hall earlier and said,
(11:12):
you know, I can't tell the difference between like a
white head and a pustule what I found because you
did find something well that the American Academy of Dermatology
says that it's really confusing, So like, don't feel bad,
it is confusing, thank you. A They're they're all lesions.
But I think a white head what we typically see
as a pimple, and a Z is the pustule, because
(11:35):
in here it says the A D says a white
head is typically a raised bump that's the same color
as the rest of your skin, whereas the zip as
clearly has pus the pus. But apparently that's not the
hallmark of a white head. So I'm even more confused. Now,
Thank you a D. Thanks for nothing. Yeah, because I
(11:57):
thought a white head meant it was the white you know, pimples.
It looking thing says here that the same color is
the rest of your skin. Okay, well, well let's go
with that though, I mean that the white head is
uh just it's just pressing your skin up, so it's
a raised bump. Whereas if it looks white, if there's
like a clearly a white part, what has happened is
(12:20):
your this this white head or black head um has
collapsed under the skin and all that bacteria ridden sea
bum is now causing an infection. That's what a ZiT is,
that's right, also called a pustule. That's a pustule. There's
also a papule, and they are a little small bumps um,
(12:41):
little firm, small bumps and they don't have any kind
of white right center, but they do feel like sand
paper apparently if you rub your fingers across them. Yeah,
I get like little dry skin bumps in the back
of my arm. I don't know if that's the same thing.
That's not. I don't think so. Okay, No, that's um,
I mean it's or it's got a name. What is
(13:01):
that called? What's what's really severe dry skin called exima? Yeah,
it's a it's a mild alright, Maybe I have exima.
Their nodules which are larger and hard. Uh, it's um.
A nodule is the kind of thing where you mash
it and you mash it and nothing ever happens, and
then it comes back and comes back because you're just
(13:23):
breaking it down and it stays in there. That was
That was definitely a nodule, wasn't it. Yeah, Because I
would I would be like and then like it would
go away, or first it would go and then it
would come back. That thing was there for a while. Yeah, Man,
it kept coming back, and they did stay for a
really long time and to come back, and I was
(13:44):
wearing like turtle necks. I brought turtlenecks back intain flapping
was uh, and then superative nodules. Josh, you may think
her sister boils, and they might look like that, But
cists have different traits, one of which is uh. The
ability to contain a trapped gas, which I thought was
(14:05):
pretty interested, is nuts and pretty awesome. So that means
that's not a cyst. I'll bet that guest stinks too
high heaven when it's finally released. Can you imagine? Yeah
again baby acne? Uh? Yeah, um, what is it called? Mila? Milia? Milia? Sorry,
(14:25):
Mela is the niece. I think the point here was
you can get acne from cradle to the grave. Yes, sadly, yeah,
I mean most people. Um, Tom cited something like eight
of people get um acne, and we should say everything
we just said was a form of acne. Vulgaris. Yeah, yeah,
I don't think he said that vulgaris is a Latin
(14:47):
I think for um common yeah, right, Um, most of
us get it. Attend people get it at some point
in their life, he said, Um, most people, it starts
stirring puberty and ends ac your puberty. For other people
like me, it keeps going on here there and I mean, like,
I take care of my face. Dude, I got a
(15:08):
regiment and it's still I mean, I can imagine it
would be much worse if I didn't take care of Simpson.
Here are you over regimenting? No, I know what I'm doing. Okay.
I'm going to see a dermatologist soon. I need to
find one, but I'm gonna go see one just to
make sure I'm doing everything right. Yeah, that's not other
(15:28):
steps I can take. But no, I mean I'm I
know what I'm doing, Okay, because the only reason I
say that is later in the article they point out
that over washing and I remember that as a kid.
I I I think I went through a brief period
where I got like a ZiT or two in high
school and so I got out like the buff puff
and then neut regina for the first time ever and
just scrub the crap out of my face. Started bleeding
(15:51):
started breaking out, and I was like, well, I don't
get it. I'm watching my face and it's breaking out.
But all these years later, I have an explanation. Yeah,
you're agitated your skin. Yeah, I think, um, I just
have sensitive skin. Um. Yeah, but no, I don't use
like soap or harsh stuff right face. It's like, I
(16:11):
take care of it. So milia. Back to the babies.
Babies can get milia. It's around the eyes or nose,
little white bumps. It's really common. If you're a new
parent and your kid has this, don't worry about it.
In fact, the doctor is probably gonna tell you the
same thing, like, don't even do anything. It'll clear up
on its own, right in most cases. Uh. And you
can actually get that as an adult as well. Really,
(16:34):
sometimes you have milia. It's far more common in infants
and I mean like newborns too. Um. The cause generally
is that the skin cells are already dividing and dying off.
But um, the sebacious claims aren't developed enough to carry
the skin cells to the surface. So basically, when the
doctor says just way, they'll clear upon its own, he's saying,
(16:55):
just wait, your baby will grow produce more sabacious claims
to handle this, right. That's that. Well, that's good news.
It's great news. Uh. Pre pubertal acne uh forms and children.
This is this is basically when you're producing your your
androgen's your sex hormones before you should be Yeah, like
(17:16):
from drinking milk. Is that what we'll do it too?
Probably bovine growth hormone would do it. And that is
that is when it's pre puberty, and that's and younger children,
and that's something you probably should go to a doctor about. Yeah,
because it's I think they take it more. It's like
a sign like, okay, you you've got this other stuff
coming down the pike to like breasts and you're six,
(17:40):
you know kind of thing. So it's just a big
androgen dump in your body and your sabacious glance go. Oh,
we're supposed to start working now, I guess, and you're
gonna block little Timmy's only eight, right, I said six?
It does it happen that young? I don't know. I'm
sure it could. Yeah. I would imagine the younger, the
(18:00):
more potentially problematic it is. That's the kid who ends
up having the mustache when he's like in the third grade.
The six year old boy with the breasts and the mustache.
Would you call him Timmy? Actually I have a friend
named Timmy. But my other friend, Jim. You actually know,
Jim did have a mustache when he was like in
the eighth grade. Yeah, it was pretty funny, Yeah, swarthy Jim. Yes, Um,
(18:25):
so what else, Chuck, Oh, there's rosatsia. This is the
one that that is pretty awful on Google images. Really yeah, yeah,
it can affect the nose, and you know, it's everything
from just redness of the nose too, horribly misshapen, bumpy nose.
They can get really bad. Is that the nose where
(18:47):
you see like divi it's missing from people's noses. Yeah,
it can't, it can't get that bad. But it occurs
in bouts. Right, so you have, um, you can kind
of tell that you're about to have about of rose
asia because as you find that, you flush more easily,
and it's because your veins and the veins in your
face are dilating more more, um wider. I guess that's it. Yeah,
(19:11):
it's triggers acne. Well, it triggers acne vulgaris or or
a lot like acne vulgaris, they said. And then I
also got the impression from Tom that it's problematic that uh,
and that people suspect that maybe you're like a raging
alcoholic because your nose looks like that, like you have
the gym blossoms. But it's really just rosation. Yeah, and
(19:31):
if you look up pictures of it, it looks like
a gin blossom or worse. There's I don't encourage anyone
to type in like plus dules into Google images because
it's like that body parts come up that are have
these things on them and might not be something you
want to see, you know what I'm saying, Well kind
of body parts. Oh, they just they had pictures of
(19:52):
of like just out of nowhere, just like feet, penises
with bumps on them. And I don't recommend it. Okay,
Well that's fair warning if I've ever heard it. Anybody
who does go Google image what rosatsia? Any of them? Really,
then you've been warned by Chuck himself. You're a dummy
(20:14):
if you do it, yes, or you're on your own
at least. Um. So those are generally the different types
of acne, right, and their causes. Um, but we missed
at least one. Chuck Pizza, Pizza causes acne. No, it
does it. I know it doesn't. That was play acting. Um,
that is a is a And I actually did a
(20:36):
little more research on this and diet and acne. Um.
That's sort of been one of the old things they
say it's like a greasy food and elite to acne.
But most doctors say that that's pretty much a myth
end of story. Although this this one thing I found
says that theoretically there could be some impact, like diet
(20:58):
has a direct effect on insulin level, and that insulin
is the master hormone and it has to do with
hormone you know, production anyway, So in theory, insulin spikes
could affect acne. And also things that you eat, it
can affect it in a good way if you eat
positively like veggies and fruits and seafood, and potentially if
(21:21):
you eat good foods that are rich and like omega
three fats like fish oil, it can be an anti
inflammatory and so part of the problem is inflammation. In theory,
it could help with that too. But you want to
watch um like shellfish, they're they're high and I had
died because that apparently can inflame activul garis Yeah, So
(21:41):
here as we say that it doesn't impact acne, r
saying it does, right, Yeah, I just can't believe that
what you eat doesn't have any impact on the function
of your cells. That's what I think. It's got to
have some impact. Um Genetics is another big one that
is I think probably um it's over estimated the impact
it has. Yes, the the genes that you inherit from
(22:04):
your parents and how they express, um, the proteins that
tell your sabacious clans to function in this way or
that way or whatever. It's going to have an effect,
but not as much as you know, if your dad
broke out a lot, you're not necessarily going to write
or vice versa. I don't know about my parents in
Acne's not a conversation that you normally have with your parents,
(22:27):
you know. More it's like, um, it was your dad bald.
That's the big question. That's what I don't care about.
As men. Dirt is not gonna affect if you have
a dirty face. I mean, it's not great for your
skin probably, but pimples and zip's happened from the inside out,
So dirt on top of your epidermist isn't gonna really
(22:49):
affect that. They say and then make up this one.
I don't know. I could see makeup definitely making your
break out. Yeah, the wrong kind quite using that kind. Well,
there's different kinds. There's a hYP hypoallergenic, which means low allergenic.
(23:11):
There's a non comedogenic which supposedly says like this won't
make you break out, so possibly cheap makeup. Yeah, and
if you have Yeah, if you have skin issues already,
then you should probably be aware of the types of
makeup that you're getting. If you're a young lady or
if you're a dude that's into that um and leaving
(23:32):
makeup on without removing it at the end of the day,
that can definitely cause you to break out because you're
going ahead and blocking the pores from the outside in
causing backups. Yeah, Stevie Nicks said that on might have
been Oprah. Yeah verbatim, I was quoting really now, she said.
They asked her why she always looks so great, and
(23:53):
she said that she's through all Like even her drug
days of being on tour, she never ever failed to
acker makeup off at the end of the night. Stevie
Nicks the drugs, Oh yeah, back in the day, big time,
I know. So she said, even if she was on
a bender, she would still manage to take her macup off.
That is that's pretty good. Yeah, Well she's the Belladonna. Um,
(24:16):
So chuck, let's say you want to get rid of
the acne that you do have. Right right there, I'm good. Um,
there's really just two things that regular old acne vol
garris and not persistent, not a superative nodule type acne,
but just plain old acne volgaras um can be treated with.
(24:39):
One is benzol peroxide and one is salacilic acid. Right,
and those are pretty much it. Almost all of the
over the counter acne treatments that you're going to find
anywhere are going to have one or both of those,
probably just one. And anyone who's ever seen like an
oxy commercial has heard the word benzol peroxide. Know what
(25:02):
were those pads? Were the oxy pants? Uh? Yeah, there
was another company because the pads sea breeze came in
like that was like an astringent. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
there are pads. I guess it was oxypos come in
like a little like yeah, I'm taking careless And then
you would look at it and say, look at all
that stuff. The commercial Ben's oil peroxide specifically kills the
(25:26):
p agnos bacteria and it'll dry out your face, which
can be bad. Yeah. People, that um moisture in your
face is what breaks you out. Uh, your face. Being
too dry can break you out as much, if not more. Yeah, um,
you want to keep your face moisturized. Cuts down a
(25:47):
breakout kid, you know. Uh, tea tree oil. Emily uses
tea tree a lot to dry out a pimple, and
that's a good natural way to do. So cell is
silic acid. Um basically goes in and it's like um
liquid plumber for your pores. Like it just goes in
and destroys everything that's in that blockage and there you go.
It also takes off a healthy amount of the horny layer,
(26:11):
which is the most external layer of your dead skin cells.
Horny layer. Really, look at you. Uh. The other thing
that you can do, I mean those are medications you
can take. What you really want to do is to
gently wash your face with soap and warm water. But again,
you can't just use any soap. I mean maybe you
(26:32):
can if you have like completely insensitive skin. Yeah, uh
then sure maybe you can. And you'll find out pretty
quick what kind of soaps you can and can't use. Well,
most of the soap you get and the store is
pretty crappy anyway, right, Like, you you get what you
pay for it with soap, especially with face soap. It's
worth the extra few bucks. Uh. If you're exercising, you
(26:54):
want to shower right afterward. You don't want to let
sweat be under skin for too long. Yeah, you got ackney.
You're subacius. The reason backney is so prevalent because that
that part of your body is lousy with sebaceous clans.
Where is it head or face, back and chest? I
think so those are three areas because yeah, zit's it's
(27:18):
what about the butt? That's something entirely different. Those are
Those are just red bumps that no one knows what
they are. Okay. Uh. They recommend loose clothing, and they
recommend chilling out not being stressed. Be a type L personality,
which is L. The long allele on the SLC six
(27:43):
A four gene, which UM basically creates this protein that
ferry serotonin out of the synaps basically turns it off,
which is so that if you have the L allal,
it makes you you're a more laid back person because
you have more of this trans support protein. If you
have the S version of of that gene, then you
(28:04):
make less of the transport, meaning the serotonin stays in
the snaps longer, which makes you high, strong and kind
of angry because it activates your amygdala. So type A
personality Type B is actually type S and type L.
It sounds like somebody destrote a blog post. Isn't that cool? Though? Yeah?
That is cool. I like to think I'm a L,
but I'm probably less L than I really want to admit.
(28:25):
I don't know. Somebody posted a comment on on Facebook
when I put that blog post up, and they're like,
not everything can be explained so succinctly. But the point
of the blog post was is like this one explains
it tocinctly. Yeah, you just remove the comment and went
about your day and A banned him from Facebook forever.
What else can you do? Let's see you guy at
(28:46):
me check and what can you do to treat it? Um?
You can take antibiotics, either oral or topical al and
topical meaning like their current event type antibiotics. What about
a chemical peel that works too? I would think that
would not be a good thing if you were breaking out.
(29:07):
Is it's a good idea If you're going to do
that to again, show out the extra money and go
to a professional who can tell you, now, this is
the chemical peel I've done on your face. This is
what's safe, this is what your skin can handle. And
then you know, here's a product that that will do
the same thing at home. So don't go to the
place where they have to add on the subway. John's
(29:31):
Upstairs Chemical peel and Chicken processing Plant espresso. Have you
ever done a chemical peel? Really interesting? Yes, I've been
known to get it. You come out like it is
your face all red and stuff. No, it feels red,
but it's more also like very refreshing, Like it's just oh,
(29:53):
it's so nice to just kind of rub like the
back of your fingers along your face afterwards, because your
skin is just like what you're doing is just tearing
that horny layer right off. You're getting closer and closer
to that new layer of skin cells is just like
but it's still it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
you'd be in big trouble. Of themis like that's a
(30:14):
that's a third degree burn. I think you know a
second Apparently birth control pills can can help treat acne. Yeah. There.
If you watch the ads form a lot of them
will say like and prevents breakouts like an extra bonus, yeah,
because it probably cuts down on the androgens, which cuts
downs on the production of um sea bump, which cuts
(30:37):
down on pimples. Yeah. I didn't know they had ads
for birth control pills? Sure did they? Am? I just
am I living in the in uh Amish country here?
Why am I not seeing any There's this one and
I saw several years ago. Yeah, it was really weird.
Um first they had this version of it was like
the cartoon version of this ad, and then that one
(31:00):
went away, and then they had a live action version
of the same ad, same everything, same everything. But for
some reason they did a cartoon version and then they
did a live action version. They released them one after another,
but they were they were supposedly in no way related,
and it was like, I think that company was like,
just how much are you paying attention? How much TV
(31:21):
are you watching? Yeah? Yeah, And at the time I
was watching a lot of TV. So I noticed, what
about lasers? You can get them lasered, right, And I
guess that's if you have if it's really bad, then
they can actually laser your sebaceous glands. They say not
to squeeze them though, which I think is kind of laughable.
(31:43):
What do you mean, like not pop them? Yourself. They
is tom sive pal. You can take that with a
grain of salt. Yeah, I mean show me someone who
it doesn't pop their own zets and and it says,
in't here to make an appointment with the dermatologists so
they can pop your pimples. Really well, that's the only
thing too, when you get like a chemical peel or
a facial or whatever the the the U not anestheticist,
(32:06):
oh estheticiansan um will pop all the zips on your face.
And what's crazy is like, when you do it right,
it doesn't hurt. I guess yeah, but I mean like this,
the pressure they apply is minute and they're doing it
like off to the sides of the zip and like
you you're like, that was it. It didn't hurt at all.
Like I didn't cry at all. So it's it's kind
(32:27):
of good too, not necessarily good. At the Dirham Tall.
Just you could go do an esthetician and they'll do
the same all the same things. You'll learn a bunch
just by paying attention while they do it. I couldn't.
Emily would never let me do that. Why because she
loves to do it herself. Oh yeah, I mean she
could have been an that she has that gene to
where she just gets a lot of satisfaction out of
(32:48):
making that white snake come out. Yeah. In fact, she's
a little disappointed at my lack of pimple production in life. Yeah,
she would love me, you guys, actually you me loves me.
She does it. Um, she does it a lot too.
She's kind of hooked. Yeah, a lot of girls are
into that for some reason. I'm glad, I know, always
not nuts and that that's a normal for some reason too.
(33:09):
I've never been a guy who's into that. Yeah, it's
always girls for some reason. I don't understand. Maybe they're
more into skin, skin care or gross stuff coming out
of your skin. Maybe. So well, let's say, all right, yeah,
seventeen million people in America every day on a given
day have is it? Is that? Right? Yeah? I think
(33:33):
more than that. You go, alright, alright? Which one? Well,
I mean it's acting as the big word pimples. I
just like saying pimple. I don't like saying pimple. I
think it's a gross word. You like pustule, I prefer
pustule over. I don't likes it either. Yeah. Where we yeah,
(33:56):
we were on we were featured in the like strip zits.
Remember that was very nice? Yeah, yeah, and then you
know what I need to find out. And I don't
think they're black heads. Emily calls them seeds because that
it's like a little watermelon seed almost. It's like a
little white spike comes out. I wonder what that is.
I didn't find that in here. I guarantee it's the
(34:17):
same thing you think. Yeah, all right, I think there's
a very limited amount of acne. It just happens and
it just kind of looks different or comes out in
different ways, or if it sits in there long enough,
it comes seed. I know you're talking about. Um, well
that's acne. If you want to learn more about it
and see some cool cutaway illustrations of the skin, Yeah,
(34:40):
that was a good part actually. Yeah. Um you can
type in acne A C N E in the search
bar at how stuff works dot com. And now, friends,
it's time for list of your meal. If I told
you to hold on one second, would would you would
you indulge me? Would you do me a kindness? Yes? Okay, Josh,
we have an the audio book that has just been
(35:01):
released called The super Stuffed Guide to Happiness available on iTunes.
I know you have to show out three. We promise,
we think it's worth it. Um on iTunes, you just
search super Stuff Guide to Happiness, right, and it'll bring
that one up. It'll bring up our first audiobook to um,
the super Stuff Guide to the Economy. You can get
(35:21):
them both there. But UM check out the super Stuff
Guide to Happy is. It's awesome interviews, in depth investigation
of what is happiness? What makes us happy? How do
we study happiness? Great sound design. My niece starts the
whole thing off with a nice quote from the Dalai Lama.
It's just a great little whirlwind ride that you want
to listen to over and over again, all for the
(35:42):
price of a of a latte that's your favorite. You're lucky.
It's your favorite coffee place that you're gonna have to
probably go through your your couch cushions to come up
with a difference to get the latte. This thing is
so cheap, that's true. Yeah. So UM, there's our plug
and uh it's time now for listener mail. Josh, I'm
gonna call this email from an author that we actually reference. Okay,
(36:05):
he listens to the show. Uh Mengalaba Josh, Chuck, and Jerry,
I hope you're having a good day. About three weeks ago,
I was flying from Minnesota to yangone mean mar how
you pronounced it? Yeah, me and Mare, but it's post
Unta ba look at you. I really had a pretty
surreal moment involving your podcast. After downing as much free
(36:28):
booze as I could, I was listening to episodes of
your podcast trying to fall asleep over the Pacific Ocean.
Imagine my surprise when I was coming out of my nap.
To the end of How Shrunken Heads Work, you were
finishing the story of your dentist friend. When Josh said,
you've also received a Juma and Other Stories by Tyler Davis,
which is a self published book and pretty awesome. I
(36:50):
couldn't believe it. Thanks for much, but so much for
the shout out from Tyler David. Yeah, okay, it is good. Well,
I've been needing to write an email and thank you
guys for a while. We've been busy settling in the Internet.
Here isn't exactly the Information super Highway. It's more like
an Amish buggy teaching English and an international high school.
(37:12):
And I've already taught my kids what hinky means. I
have no idea. How do you define that specifically? I
would say hinky means uh, suspicious? Okay, see, I would
say stranger, unusual. Yeah, okay, so it could be three.
There's three definitions. That's right, That's what hinky means everything.
(37:32):
It's like, yeah, what the cuss? I had time to
write you today becase I'm homesick from food poisoning, which
reminds me you should do a podcast and whether or
not you can poop your own skeleton. Girl, I feel
awful you and the rest of the gang. How stuff
works to keep me entertained, educated and in high spirits.
Thanks again, Tyler Davis, but thank you Tyler. Thanks for
(37:56):
the books too. You have your so I think he
sent us to Yeah Aduma and other stories. Yeah, if
you want, you can go onto the Stuff you should
Know facebook page and post an Amazon link or something
like that to your book if you like um. And also,
I want to take this time to correct myself. We've
got several corrections. A fail safe Yeah, fail safe is
(38:19):
not something that you put that that's designed into something
to prevent it from failing. Like one prong being bigger
on a two pronged plug. It's it's I guess parts
of the design that make it so when it does fail,
it fails as safely as possible. So there's a bunch
(38:40):
of different systems maybe that are redundant that that provides
safety when it does fail. Like the one guy said
the lawnmower, that you have to hold the thing to
keep it going. Like if you have a heart attack
and fall over, it will cease to run. Right, that's
a failsafe. So you have failed, but you are safe
from the mower exactly, but you don't care because you're
(39:02):
having a heart attack. Anything else. Bread but the bread
butter side up, No, that you know. I think the
MythBusters are great, and I'm glad that they've had this
incredible juggernaut run that they've had so far and continue
to have. But I don't I just don't say yes.
(39:24):
I don't think you can say, well, the MythBusters proved it. Well,
shut up. Yeah. I think you have to also include one,
maybe two um peer reviewed studies as well. That's show
that this is right. Here's what I think, and I
was not able to articulate it. I think you spread
the butter side up, so it's sitting face up, and
(39:46):
when it falls off the you know, the table stomach
high counter, then it only has time to rotate half
a turn and it will fall side down. If the
counter were eight feet high, it might rotate fully and
then it's butter slide up. It's nothing to do with weight.
In other words, I disagree. I just don't see how
(40:09):
it can have nothing to do with white, especially if
you have if one side is clearly heavier than the
other and the butter spread evenly across, then it's not
going to turn back over. You if if it does
turn back over, then there was more butter on one
side that caused the bread to flip over again. It's
just not it just makes calm, it's common sense. You're
(40:30):
gonna battle this one, I am. So that's why I
didn't bring that one up. They'll safe. I mean, when
you're wrong, you're wrong, you know, all right? Boy? That
was good? Well? Yeah, if you have any corrections, we
don't want to hear about your acne um. If you
have any corrections for us, or you just want to
say hi, you can tweet to us any time you like.
S Y s K podcast is our Twitter handle where
(40:52):
on Facebook Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know,
or you can go on any of the other Facebook
stuff you Should Know side their fan driven They're awesome too, agreed,
Or you can send us a regular old email at
stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be sure
(41:13):
to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by
the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
(00:23):
that makes this stuff. You should know. That's right, doesn't it?
It does. When we're in this room, one thing happens anger.
I was gonna say magic, angry magic, right, good, because
get out of the hat. I haven't seen that yet.
The angry magician. No, that's a great idea. Yeah, there
(00:44):
you go. The angry comics. Ye. Yeah, there are plenty
of them. Yeah, and for good reason too. Yeah. Yeah. Um.
Do you remember a while back we were writing a
lot of articles that seem to share a common theme
a skincare Yeah, I remember that too. I didn't write
(01:04):
too many of those. I wrote a lot of skin
care NICs, Yeah I did. Um, And I learned that
I'm fascinated by the skin. That's good. Yeah, it turned
out to be very good. Like, um, you don't want
to take too many showers in a day. You don't
want the water you use in your shower to be
too hot. Um, Like I learned these things definitively. Um. Also,
(01:28):
the skin on your lips, um, there's three layers thick,
whereas the rest of the skin on your face is
about sixteen layers thick. And they're actually translucent, which is
why your lips are reddish, because it's just the mucous
membrane underneath. Ye look at that. Yeah, And you don't
want to lick your lips too much because You're saliva
(01:49):
contains a digestive enzyme which starts to break down the
very thin and fragile skin on your lips. I got
chopped lips a lot from licking them. Stop licking your lips.
I'm constantly just I have oral stuff. Bite my nails,
bite my cheeks, bite my lip, all that stuff, all
that good fun, stressy stuff. But you don't smoke cigarettes,
(02:09):
so good for you. Yeah, I guess I chewed my
face off instead of doing that. It's a good looking face,
thank you. Um. Well, anyway, Chuck, I just wanted to
say all that to say that I will be um
very interested in what we're talking about today, which is acting.
I'm glad you are. I am too, although I've never
(02:30):
really got at me, so I'm a little less like enthused.
It's so unfair. Let's look at this right here, right now. Yeah,
I have a big old white head rust to my nose.
It won't go away. Like I was pressing it with
my pinkies like I can. I can pop as it
I get them. That's a tough spot, though. Josh is
talking about the area right under the nostril that no
(02:52):
man's land the nose kind of prohibits access, like you want, Well,
it's not just that. It's very, very sensitive and like
I was pressing it like my eyes are water ring
and it still wouldn't pop. So I'll have to have
you do it. Yeah, yeah, But um, I guess that's
method podcasting, following in your footsteps, Chuck, So, um, you
(03:13):
want to talk about acne first, I guess we should
talk about the skin a little bit, right And in
the process of how, well, let's talk about the skin.
Did you like Tom's description? I did? Actually, I think
think most people know by now it's the largest organ.
But um, Tom takes a step further in a very
buffalo bill way, and he says that if you skinned
(03:33):
an adult human, there would be enough material to make
a four by five foot area rug of skin waistin founds.
I'm glad he didn't say how many like skin suits
or lamp shades that would make, because that'd be really creepy.
Creepy enough, So, yeah, ten pounds of skin on the
on an adult body, right, and then um, most of
(03:55):
the skin. There's three layers. Is the epidermis, the dermis,
and the subcutaneous layer. Right in the sub cutaneous layer.
I think the dermist is the fattiest layer and the
subcutaneous layers like the nastiest layer. It's like, um, she
just have you ever seen hall Razor, remember the woman,
and she was coming back regenerating. She regenerated from like
(04:16):
the inside out. So at one point she's just like
muscles and blood. Just above that is the subcutaneous layer.
I think the epidermisis kind of grows too, though, because
it's all dead. It is dead. This is one of
the things that fascinates me about skin. All the skin
I'm looking at right now, and you're like that I
can see dead. Dead is disco you know. Yeah, so
(04:38):
chuck your Your skin grows like beneath the outer layer
and it grows as crat in the sights which your
new skin cells. Yeah, and it just your your skin
is a constant Uh, it's constant motion pushing that dead
skin up, up and up and out through the pores
where they flake off into your bed, making your mattress
(04:59):
heavier from like the moment it's born, when it cell divides,
it starts making its way outward and it takes what
does it take about a month for a skin cell
to be born and then make it out to the
outer later layer. That sounds about right right to the
tune of forty to sixty million skin cells per day. Yeah,
forty thousand a minute. That's crazy. Are reaching the surface right, um.
(05:20):
And so they reach the surface, and they don't just
fall right off. Um. Along the process they die and
there they become cornified um, which is and become kratina
sites or cornea sites. Sorry. Um. And when they reach
the surface, they provide a function for a while. They
mix with sebum, which is the oil we produce that
I really really produce. Yeah, and uh some fats what
(05:45):
kind uh lipids Josh leno leic acid. Okay, So they
mix all together and they form waterproof skin that keeps
out water. That's huge, is why we don't soak up
water when we walk around in the rain exactly, and
keeps bacteria, which is why the skin is your first
organ of um resistance for immunity. That's right. Um, So
(06:07):
you've got all this process going on. Skin cells eventually
do fall off and jump off and are sloughed off,
and then um, beneath all that, you have the subcutaneous layer,
and that's where the hair starts growing. Right, Yeah, that's
where you're gonna find your hair follicle, which looks sort
of like just a little uh, little tube with a
little uh, a little rounder end. I would say it
(06:30):
looks like a sperm, a sperm going inward towards drop.
Sure maybe uh. And that is where the hair begins
to grow from the bottom up, and it grows out
of this follicle and collects on the way out. See them,
and which we said was oil. That's why, like when
you don't take a shower, your hair is gonna look
(06:51):
all oily. And actually men I think have more see
them than women. Yeah, and teenagers have lots of see them. Yeah,
it's almost equal for amongst the genders. And in Yeah,
because that's why you get acne most often. An adolescence
because we're taking you up through where acne starts, which
is really see them right. Well, that has a lot
(07:12):
to do with it. At least. The hair follicle is
connected to a sebaceous gland, like you said, which is
why your hair seems oily when it comes out. Um.
And so you've got this whole um, you have this
whole house of cards I guess, just waiting to screw up. Well,
they're trying to squeez through this little poor soe those
dead skin cells that migration they make. The way they
(07:33):
get out is through the poor, through the follicle, through
the sebaceous gland. Right. So when you have a lot
of them coming together at once, all these dead skin
cells are trying to get through the same door. It's like,
um three stooges syndrome from the Simpsons. Remember Mr Burns
had everything, but nothing could kill him because they couldn't
all get through the door of his health. That's exactly right.
(07:55):
So when you have too many skin cells, things start
getting blocked and things back up behind it, and you've
got trouble. Yeah, I mean that's one way it can happen. Uh.
And they don't know why that The body would overproduce
skin cells. But hey, it happens. Yeah, do we need
to know why exactly. Another thing that can happen. You
can have too much sebum, like we talked about in
(08:17):
and puberty. In puberty is when that's gonna happen. Most
likely bacteria, specifically propione Bacterium Acnes p acnes. That's uh
found in acne lesions and in every type of acne
that we're going to talk about. They're all lesions, right
and and um then inflammation right, Yeah, the bacteria causes inflammation.
(08:40):
When there's back up and there's bacteria, you're gonna get inflammation. Yeah.
Tom put it like these were different things that could happen,
and I'm sure they are, but it also seems to
happen like a sequence of event. It's kind of like
all of them. You've got too many skin cells backing up, right,
so the sea bum backs up behind it. Well, this
bacteria loves to eat see bum, which causes an infection
(09:01):
which makes you infernt. Yeah. I saw it as a
sequence of events to alright, So Chuck, there is a
very long standing debate over what is worse a white
head or a black head. What's the difference between the two. Well,
one is an open comie dough and one is a
(09:22):
closed comy dough. Do you know what a comito is? Okay,
do you know what the word is? Coming down? Is plural?
What do you mean what the word is? The word
is Latin for gluttony. Yeah, and it was. It's named
after a worm. You know how when you like, do
you poposit and the stuff comes out and like it's
(09:45):
like kind of a thin worm like tube. Well, there
was a apparently a worm that looked very similar to
that that loved to feed, a parasitic worm that loved
to feed on humans that was considered particularly gluttonous. So
the block came to be called the commodo, which means
glutton Wow, isn't it weird and gross? And true? Yeah,
(10:06):
pretty much everything about this we're looking at acting on
this sub dermal level. Yes, it's gross. It is kind
of gross. Uh So white heads, you might think, like
I just woke up and there's a white head on
my nose. That just happened last night. Not true. It
could have been a couple of months in the making
before you finally see it, like you might. You know,
Emily calls them underground construction when you can feel it
(10:29):
and you know it's coming, but you can't see it
or do anything about it yet, that's infection, essentially underground construction. Yeah,
at some point your your skin cells started backing up.
They didn't make their way out of the poor and
you're in trouble. So white heads anyway, have an open
comy dough black head. I'm sorry, closed comy dough. Black
(10:51):
heads are open and the black that you're seeing is
just melon and it's just our skin pigment. It's oxidized,
it's not dirt. The reason it's black is being because, um,
it's been exposed to air, whereas with a closed comito, um,
there is no exposure to air, so everything stays white
just beneath the surface of the skin. And I had
you you'd stopped me in the hall earlier and said,
(11:12):
you know, I can't tell the difference between like a
white head and a pustule what I found because you
did find something well that the American Academy of Dermatology
says that it's really confusing, So like, don't feel bad,
it is confusing, thank you. A They're they're all lesions.
But I think a white head what we typically see
as a pimple, and a Z is the pustule, because
(11:35):
in here it says the A D says a white
head is typically a raised bump that's the same color
as the rest of your skin, whereas the zip as
clearly has pus the pus. But apparently that's not the
hallmark of a white head. So I'm even more confused. Now,
Thank you a D. Thanks for nothing. Yeah, because I
(11:57):
thought a white head meant it was the white you know, pimples.
It looking thing says here that the same color is
the rest of your skin. Okay, well, well let's go
with that though, I mean that the white head is
uh just it's just pressing your skin up, so it's
a raised bump. Whereas if it looks white, if there's
like a clearly a white part, what has happened is
(12:20):
your this this white head or black head um has
collapsed under the skin and all that bacteria ridden sea
bum is now causing an infection. That's what a ZiT is,
that's right, also called a pustule. That's a pustule. There's
also a papule, and they are a little small bumps um,
(12:41):
little firm, small bumps and they don't have any kind
of white right center, but they do feel like sand
paper apparently if you rub your fingers across them. Yeah,
I get like little dry skin bumps in the back
of my arm. I don't know if that's the same thing.
That's not. I don't think so. Okay, No, that's um,
I mean it's or it's got a name. What is
(13:01):
that called? What's what's really severe dry skin called exima? Yeah,
it's a it's a mild alright, Maybe I have exima.
Their nodules which are larger and hard. Uh, it's um.
A nodule is the kind of thing where you mash
it and you mash it and nothing ever happens, and
then it comes back and comes back because you're just
(13:23):
breaking it down and it stays in there. That was
That was definitely a nodule, wasn't it. Yeah, Because I
would I would be like and then like it would
go away, or first it would go and then it
would come back. That thing was there for a while. Yeah, Man,
it kept coming back, and they did stay for a
really long time and to come back, and I was
(13:44):
wearing like turtle necks. I brought turtlenecks back intain flapping
was uh, and then superative nodules. Josh, you may think
her sister boils, and they might look like that, But
cists have different traits, one of which is uh. The
ability to contain a trapped gas, which I thought was
(14:05):
pretty interested, is nuts and pretty awesome. So that means
that's not a cyst. I'll bet that guest stinks too
high heaven when it's finally released. Can you imagine? Yeah
again baby acne? Uh? Yeah, um, what is it called? Mila? Milia? Milia? Sorry,
(14:25):
Mela is the niece. I think the point here was
you can get acne from cradle to the grave. Yes, sadly, yeah,
I mean most people. Um, Tom cited something like eight
of people get um acne, and we should say everything
we just said was a form of acne. Vulgaris. Yeah, yeah,
I don't think he said that vulgaris is a Latin
(14:47):
I think for um common yeah, right, Um, most of
us get it. Attend people get it at some point
in their life, he said, Um, most people, it starts
stirring puberty and ends ac your puberty. For other people
like me, it keeps going on here there and I mean, like,
I take care of my face. Dude, I got a
(15:08):
regiment and it's still I mean, I can imagine it
would be much worse if I didn't take care of Simpson.
Here are you over regimenting? No, I know what I'm doing. Okay.
I'm going to see a dermatologist soon. I need to
find one, but I'm gonna go see one just to
make sure I'm doing everything right. Yeah, that's not other
(15:28):
steps I can take. But no, I mean I'm I
know what I'm doing, Okay, because the only reason I
say that is later in the article they point out
that over washing and I remember that as a kid.
I I I think I went through a brief period
where I got like a ZiT or two in high
school and so I got out like the buff puff
and then neut regina for the first time ever and
just scrub the crap out of my face. Started bleeding
(15:51):
started breaking out, and I was like, well, I don't
get it. I'm watching my face and it's breaking out.
But all these years later, I have an explanation. Yeah,
you're agitated your skin. Yeah, I think, um, I just
have sensitive skin. Um. Yeah, but no, I don't use
like soap or harsh stuff right face. It's like, I
(16:11):
take care of it. So milia. Back to the babies.
Babies can get milia. It's around the eyes or nose,
little white bumps. It's really common. If you're a new
parent and your kid has this, don't worry about it.
In fact, the doctor is probably gonna tell you the
same thing, like, don't even do anything. It'll clear up
on its own, right in most cases. Uh. And you
can actually get that as an adult as well. Really,
(16:34):
sometimes you have milia. It's far more common in infants
and I mean like newborns too. Um. The cause generally
is that the skin cells are already dividing and dying off.
But um, the sebacious claims aren't developed enough to carry
the skin cells to the surface. So basically, when the
doctor says just way, they'll clear upon its own, he's saying,
(16:55):
just wait, your baby will grow produce more sabacious claims
to handle this, right. That's that. Well, that's good news.
It's great news. Uh. Pre pubertal acne uh forms and children.
This is this is basically when you're producing your your
androgen's your sex hormones before you should be Yeah, like
(17:16):
from drinking milk. Is that what we'll do it too?
Probably bovine growth hormone would do it. And that is
that is when it's pre puberty, and that's and younger children,
and that's something you probably should go to a doctor about. Yeah,
because it's I think they take it more. It's like
a sign like, okay, you you've got this other stuff
coming down the pike to like breasts and you're six,
(17:40):
you know kind of thing. So it's just a big
androgen dump in your body and your sabacious glance go. Oh,
we're supposed to start working now, I guess, and you're
gonna block little Timmy's only eight, right, I said six?
It does it happen that young? I don't know. I'm
sure it could. Yeah. I would imagine the younger, the
(18:00):
more potentially problematic it is. That's the kid who ends
up having the mustache when he's like in the third grade.
The six year old boy with the breasts and the mustache.
Would you call him Timmy? Actually I have a friend
named Timmy. But my other friend, Jim. You actually know,
Jim did have a mustache when he was like in
the eighth grade. Yeah, it was pretty funny, Yeah, swarthy Jim. Yes, Um,
(18:25):
so what else, Chuck, Oh, there's rosatsia. This is the
one that that is pretty awful on Google images. Really yeah, yeah,
it can affect the nose, and you know, it's everything
from just redness of the nose too, horribly misshapen, bumpy nose.
They can get really bad. Is that the nose where
(18:47):
you see like divi it's missing from people's noses. Yeah,
it can't, it can't get that bad. But it occurs
in bouts. Right, so you have, um, you can kind
of tell that you're about to have about of rose
asia because as you find that, you flush more easily,
and it's because your veins and the veins in your
face are dilating more more, um wider. I guess that's it. Yeah,
(19:11):
it's triggers acne. Well, it triggers acne vulgaris or or
a lot like acne vulgaris, they said. And then I
also got the impression from Tom that it's problematic that uh,
and that people suspect that maybe you're like a raging
alcoholic because your nose looks like that, like you have
the gym blossoms. But it's really just rosation. Yeah, and
(19:31):
if you look up pictures of it, it looks like
a gin blossom or worse. There's I don't encourage anyone
to type in like plus dules into Google images because
it's like that body parts come up that are have
these things on them and might not be something you
want to see, you know what I'm saying, Well kind
of body parts. Oh, they just they had pictures of
(19:52):
of like just out of nowhere, just like feet, penises
with bumps on them. And I don't recommend it. Okay,
Well that's fair warning if I've ever heard it. Anybody
who does go Google image what rosatsia? Any of them? Really,
then you've been warned by Chuck himself. You're a dummy
(20:14):
if you do it, yes, or you're on your own
at least. Um. So those are generally the different types
of acne, right, and their causes. Um, but we missed
at least one. Chuck Pizza, Pizza causes acne. No, it
does it. I know it doesn't. That was play acting. Um,
that is a is a And I actually did a
(20:36):
little more research on this and diet and acne. Um.
That's sort of been one of the old things they
say it's like a greasy food and elite to acne.
But most doctors say that that's pretty much a myth
end of story. Although this this one thing I found
says that theoretically there could be some impact, like diet
(20:58):
has a direct effect on insulin level, and that insulin
is the master hormone and it has to do with
hormone you know, production anyway, So in theory, insulin spikes
could affect acne. And also things that you eat, it
can affect it in a good way if you eat
positively like veggies and fruits and seafood, and potentially if
(21:21):
you eat good foods that are rich and like omega
three fats like fish oil, it can be an anti
inflammatory and so part of the problem is inflammation. In theory,
it could help with that too. But you want to
watch um like shellfish, they're they're high and I had
died because that apparently can inflame activul garis Yeah, So
(21:41):
here as we say that it doesn't impact acne, r
saying it does, right, Yeah, I just can't believe that
what you eat doesn't have any impact on the function
of your cells. That's what I think. It's got to
have some impact. Um Genetics is another big one that
is I think probably um it's over estimated the impact
it has. Yes, the the genes that you inherit from
(22:04):
your parents and how they express, um, the proteins that
tell your sabacious clans to function in this way or
that way or whatever. It's going to have an effect,
but not as much as you know, if your dad
broke out a lot, you're not necessarily going to write
or vice versa. I don't know about my parents in
Acne's not a conversation that you normally have with your parents,
(22:27):
you know. More it's like, um, it was your dad bald.
That's the big question. That's what I don't care about.
As men. Dirt is not gonna affect if you have
a dirty face. I mean, it's not great for your
skin probably, but pimples and zip's happened from the inside out,
So dirt on top of your epidermist isn't gonna really
(22:49):
affect that. They say and then make up this one.
I don't know. I could see makeup definitely making your
break out. Yeah, the wrong kind quite using that kind. Well,
there's different kinds. There's a hYP hypoallergenic, which means low allergenic.
(23:11):
There's a non comedogenic which supposedly says like this won't
make you break out, so possibly cheap makeup. Yeah, and
if you have Yeah, if you have skin issues already,
then you should probably be aware of the types of
makeup that you're getting. If you're a young lady or
if you're a dude that's into that um and leaving
(23:32):
makeup on without removing it at the end of the day,
that can definitely cause you to break out because you're
going ahead and blocking the pores from the outside in
causing backups. Yeah, Stevie Nicks said that on might have
been Oprah. Yeah verbatim, I was quoting really now, she said.
They asked her why she always looks so great, and
(23:53):
she said that she's through all Like even her drug
days of being on tour, she never ever failed to
acker makeup off at the end of the night. Stevie
Nicks the drugs, Oh yeah, back in the day, big time,
I know. So she said, even if she was on
a bender, she would still manage to take her macup off.
That is that's pretty good. Yeah, Well she's the Belladonna. Um,
(24:16):
So chuck, let's say you want to get rid of
the acne that you do have. Right right there, I'm good. Um,
there's really just two things that regular old acne vol
garris and not persistent, not a superative nodule type acne,
but just plain old acne volgaras um can be treated with.
(24:39):
One is benzol peroxide and one is salacilic acid. Right,
and those are pretty much it. Almost all of the
over the counter acne treatments that you're going to find
anywhere are going to have one or both of those,
probably just one. And anyone who's ever seen like an
oxy commercial has heard the word benzol peroxide. Know what
(25:02):
were those pads? Were the oxy pants? Uh? Yeah, there
was another company because the pads sea breeze came in
like that was like an astringent. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
there are pads. I guess it was oxypos come in
like a little like yeah, I'm taking careless And then
you would look at it and say, look at all
that stuff. The commercial Ben's oil peroxide specifically kills the
(25:26):
p agnos bacteria and it'll dry out your face, which
can be bad. Yeah. People, that um moisture in your
face is what breaks you out. Uh, your face. Being
too dry can break you out as much, if not more. Yeah, um,
you want to keep your face moisturized. Cuts down a
(25:47):
breakout kid, you know. Uh, tea tree oil. Emily uses
tea tree a lot to dry out a pimple, and
that's a good natural way to do. So cell is
silic acid. Um basically goes in and it's like um
liquid plumber for your pores. Like it just goes in
and destroys everything that's in that blockage and there you go.
It also takes off a healthy amount of the horny layer,
(26:11):
which is the most external layer of your dead skin cells.
Horny layer. Really, look at you. Uh. The other thing
that you can do, I mean those are medications you
can take. What you really want to do is to
gently wash your face with soap and warm water. But again,
you can't just use any soap. I mean maybe you
(26:32):
can if you have like completely insensitive skin. Yeah, uh
then sure maybe you can. And you'll find out pretty
quick what kind of soaps you can and can't use. Well,
most of the soap you get and the store is
pretty crappy anyway, right, Like, you you get what you
pay for it with soap, especially with face soap. It's
worth the extra few bucks. Uh. If you're exercising, you
(26:54):
want to shower right afterward. You don't want to let
sweat be under skin for too long. Yeah, you got ackney.
You're subacius. The reason backney is so prevalent because that
that part of your body is lousy with sebaceous clans.
Where is it head or face, back and chest? I
think so those are three areas because yeah, zit's it's
(27:18):
what about the butt? That's something entirely different. Those are
Those are just red bumps that no one knows what
they are. Okay. Uh. They recommend loose clothing, and they
recommend chilling out not being stressed. Be a type L personality,
which is L. The long allele on the SLC six
(27:43):
A four gene, which UM basically creates this protein that
ferry serotonin out of the synaps basically turns it off,
which is so that if you have the L allal,
it makes you you're a more laid back person because
you have more of this trans support protein. If you
have the S version of of that gene, then you
(28:04):
make less of the transport, meaning the serotonin stays in
the snaps longer, which makes you high, strong and kind
of angry because it activates your amygdala. So type A
personality Type B is actually type S and type L.
It sounds like somebody destrote a blog post. Isn't that cool? Though? Yeah?
That is cool. I like to think I'm a L,
but I'm probably less L than I really want to admit.
(28:25):
I don't know. Somebody posted a comment on on Facebook
when I put that blog post up, and they're like,
not everything can be explained so succinctly. But the point
of the blog post was is like this one explains
it tocinctly. Yeah, you just remove the comment and went
about your day and A banned him from Facebook forever.
What else can you do? Let's see you guy at
(28:46):
me check and what can you do to treat it? Um?
You can take antibiotics, either oral or topical al and
topical meaning like their current event type antibiotics. What about
a chemical peel that works too? I would think that
would not be a good thing if you were breaking out.
(29:07):
Is it's a good idea If you're going to do
that to again, show out the extra money and go
to a professional who can tell you, now, this is
the chemical peel I've done on your face. This is
what's safe, this is what your skin can handle. And
then you know, here's a product that that will do
the same thing at home. So don't go to the
place where they have to add on the subway. John's
(29:31):
Upstairs Chemical peel and Chicken processing Plant espresso. Have you
ever done a chemical peel? Really interesting? Yes, I've been
known to get it. You come out like it is
your face all red and stuff. No, it feels red,
but it's more also like very refreshing, Like it's just oh,
(29:53):
it's so nice to just kind of rub like the
back of your fingers along your face afterwards, because your
skin is just like what you're doing is just tearing
that horny layer right off. You're getting closer and closer
to that new layer of skin cells is just like
but it's still it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
you'd be in big trouble. Of themis like that's a
(30:14):
that's a third degree burn. I think you know a
second Apparently birth control pills can can help treat acne. Yeah. There.
If you watch the ads form a lot of them
will say like and prevents breakouts like an extra bonus, yeah,
because it probably cuts down on the androgens, which cuts
downs on the production of um sea bump, which cuts
(30:37):
down on pimples. Yeah. I didn't know they had ads
for birth control pills? Sure did they? Am? I just
am I living in the in uh Amish country here?
Why am I not seeing any There's this one and
I saw several years ago. Yeah, it was really weird.
Um first they had this version of it was like
the cartoon version of this ad, and then that one
(31:00):
went away, and then they had a live action version
of the same ad, same everything, same everything. But for
some reason they did a cartoon version and then they
did a live action version. They released them one after another,
but they were they were supposedly in no way related,
and it was like, I think that company was like,
just how much are you paying attention? How much TV
(31:21):
are you watching? Yeah? Yeah, And at the time I
was watching a lot of TV. So I noticed, what
about lasers? You can get them lasered, right, And I
guess that's if you have if it's really bad, then
they can actually laser your sebaceous glands. They say not
to squeeze them though, which I think is kind of laughable.
(31:43):
What do you mean, like not pop them? Yourself. They
is tom sive pal. You can take that with a
grain of salt. Yeah, I mean show me someone who
it doesn't pop their own zets and and it says,
in't here to make an appointment with the dermatologists so
they can pop your pimples. Really well, that's the only
thing too, when you get like a chemical peel or
a facial or whatever the the the U not anestheticist,
(32:06):
oh estheticiansan um will pop all the zips on your face.
And what's crazy is like, when you do it right,
it doesn't hurt. I guess yeah, but I mean like this,
the pressure they apply is minute and they're doing it
like off to the sides of the zip and like
you you're like, that was it. It didn't hurt at all.
Like I didn't cry at all. So it's it's kind
(32:27):
of good too, not necessarily good. At the Dirham Tall.
Just you could go do an esthetician and they'll do
the same all the same things. You'll learn a bunch
just by paying attention while they do it. I couldn't.
Emily would never let me do that. Why because she
loves to do it herself. Oh yeah, I mean she
could have been an that she has that gene to
where she just gets a lot of satisfaction out of
(32:48):
making that white snake come out. Yeah. In fact, she's
a little disappointed at my lack of pimple production in life. Yeah,
she would love me, you guys, actually you me loves me.
She does it. Um, she does it a lot too.
She's kind of hooked. Yeah, a lot of girls are
into that for some reason. I'm glad, I know, always
not nuts and that that's a normal for some reason too.
(33:09):
I've never been a guy who's into that. Yeah, it's
always girls for some reason. I don't understand. Maybe they're
more into skin, skin care or gross stuff coming out
of your skin. Maybe. So well, let's say, all right, yeah,
seventeen million people in America every day on a given
day have is it? Is that? Right? Yeah? I think
(33:33):
more than that. You go, alright, alright? Which one? Well,
I mean it's acting as the big word pimples. I
just like saying pimple. I don't like saying pimple. I
think it's a gross word. You like pustule, I prefer
pustule over. I don't likes it either. Yeah. Where we yeah,
(33:56):
we were on we were featured in the like strip zits.
Remember that was very nice? Yeah, yeah, and then you
know what I need to find out. And I don't
think they're black heads. Emily calls them seeds because that
it's like a little watermelon seed almost. It's like a
little white spike comes out. I wonder what that is.
I didn't find that in here. I guarantee it's the
(34:17):
same thing you think. Yeah, all right, I think there's
a very limited amount of acne. It just happens and
it just kind of looks different or comes out in
different ways, or if it sits in there long enough,
it comes seed. I know you're talking about. Um, well
that's acne. If you want to learn more about it
and see some cool cutaway illustrations of the skin, Yeah,
(34:40):
that was a good part actually. Yeah. Um you can
type in acne A C N E in the search
bar at how stuff works dot com. And now, friends,
it's time for list of your meal. If I told
you to hold on one second, would would you would
you indulge me? Would you do me a kindness? Yes? Okay, Josh,
we have an the audio book that has just been
(35:01):
released called The super Stuffed Guide to Happiness available on iTunes.
I know you have to show out three. We promise,
we think it's worth it. Um on iTunes, you just
search super Stuff Guide to Happiness, right, and it'll bring
that one up. It'll bring up our first audiobook to um,
the super Stuff Guide to the Economy. You can get
(35:21):
them both there. But UM check out the super Stuff
Guide to Happy is. It's awesome interviews, in depth investigation
of what is happiness? What makes us happy? How do
we study happiness? Great sound design. My niece starts the
whole thing off with a nice quote from the Dalai Lama.
It's just a great little whirlwind ride that you want
to listen to over and over again, all for the
(35:42):
price of a of a latte that's your favorite. You're lucky.
It's your favorite coffee place that you're gonna have to
probably go through your your couch cushions to come up
with a difference to get the latte. This thing is
so cheap, that's true. Yeah. So UM, there's our plug
and uh it's time now for listener mail. Josh, I'm
gonna call this email from an author that we actually reference. Okay,
(36:05):
he listens to the show. Uh Mengalaba Josh, Chuck, and Jerry,
I hope you're having a good day. About three weeks ago,
I was flying from Minnesota to yangone mean mar how
you pronounced it? Yeah, me and Mare, but it's post
Unta ba look at you. I really had a pretty
surreal moment involving your podcast. After downing as much free
(36:28):
booze as I could, I was listening to episodes of
your podcast trying to fall asleep over the Pacific Ocean.
Imagine my surprise when I was coming out of my nap.
To the end of How Shrunken Heads Work, you were
finishing the story of your dentist friend. When Josh said,
you've also received a Juma and Other Stories by Tyler Davis,
which is a self published book and pretty awesome. I
(36:50):
couldn't believe it. Thanks for much, but so much for
the shout out from Tyler David. Yeah, okay, it is good. Well,
I've been needing to write an email and thank you
guys for a while. We've been busy settling in the Internet.
Here isn't exactly the Information super Highway. It's more like
an Amish buggy teaching English and an international high school.
(37:12):
And I've already taught my kids what hinky means. I
have no idea. How do you define that specifically? I
would say hinky means uh, suspicious? Okay, see, I would
say stranger, unusual. Yeah, okay, so it could be three.
There's three definitions. That's right, That's what hinky means everything.
(37:32):
It's like, yeah, what the cuss? I had time to
write you today becase I'm homesick from food poisoning, which
reminds me you should do a podcast and whether or
not you can poop your own skeleton. Girl, I feel
awful you and the rest of the gang. How stuff
works to keep me entertained, educated and in high spirits.
Thanks again, Tyler Davis, but thank you Tyler. Thanks for
(37:56):
the books too. You have your so I think he
sent us to Yeah Aduma and other stories. Yeah, if
you want, you can go onto the Stuff you should
Know facebook page and post an Amazon link or something
like that to your book if you like um. And also,
I want to take this time to correct myself. We've
got several corrections. A fail safe Yeah, fail safe is
(38:19):
not something that you put that that's designed into something
to prevent it from failing. Like one prong being bigger
on a two pronged plug. It's it's I guess parts
of the design that make it so when it does fail,
it fails as safely as possible. So there's a bunch
(38:40):
of different systems maybe that are redundant that that provides
safety when it does fail. Like the one guy said
the lawnmower, that you have to hold the thing to
keep it going. Like if you have a heart attack
and fall over, it will cease to run. Right, that's
a failsafe. So you have failed, but you are safe
from the mower exactly, but you don't care because you're
(39:02):
having a heart attack. Anything else. Bread but the bread
butter side up, No, that you know. I think the
MythBusters are great, and I'm glad that they've had this
incredible juggernaut run that they've had so far and continue
to have. But I don't I just don't say yes.
(39:24):
I don't think you can say, well, the MythBusters proved it. Well,
shut up. Yeah. I think you have to also include one,
maybe two um peer reviewed studies as well. That's show
that this is right. Here's what I think, and I
was not able to articulate it. I think you spread
the butter side up, so it's sitting face up, and
(39:46):
when it falls off the you know, the table stomach
high counter, then it only has time to rotate half
a turn and it will fall side down. If the
counter were eight feet high, it might rotate fully and
then it's butter slide up. It's nothing to do with weight.
In other words, I disagree. I just don't see how
(40:09):
it can have nothing to do with white, especially if
you have if one side is clearly heavier than the
other and the butter spread evenly across, then it's not
going to turn back over. You if if it does
turn back over, then there was more butter on one
side that caused the bread to flip over again. It's
just not it just makes calm, it's common sense. You're
(40:30):
gonna battle this one, I am. So that's why I
didn't bring that one up. They'll safe. I mean, when
you're wrong, you're wrong, you know, all right? Boy? That
was good? Well? Yeah, if you have any corrections, we
don't want to hear about your acne um. If you
have any corrections for us, or you just want to
say hi, you can tweet to us any time you like.
S Y s K podcast is our Twitter handle where
(40:52):
on Facebook Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know,
or you can go on any of the other Facebook
stuff you Should Know side their fan driven They're awesome too, agreed,
Or you can send us a regular old email at
stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be sure
(41:13):
to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by
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