May 25, 2019 • 42 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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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there everyone, it's me Josh. For this week's s
Y s K Selects. I've decided to bring us all
down into the disgusting world of acne on the microscopic level. Yes,
it's kind of gross, and yeah, no one wants it,
but we all get it from time to time, some
of us more than others. And it's great to know
(00:22):
what's going on down there, because I gotta admit it
is fascinating. So enjoy this episode on acne. Welcome to
Stuff You should know, a production of My Heart Radios
How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
(00:44):
Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant 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. Yeah, good, get out of
(01:05):
the hat. I haven't seen that yet. The angry Magician. No,
that's a great idea. Yeah, there you go. Angry comics. Yeah, yeah,
there are plenty of them, 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
(01:26):
a skincare Yeah, I remember that too. I didn't write
too many of those. I wrote a lot of skin
care articles, 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
(01:48):
too hot. Um. Like, I learned these things definitively. Um. Also,
the skin on your lips um is 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
(02:09):
membrane underneath showing through. Ye look at that. Yeah. And
you don't want to lick your lips too much because
you're saliva contains the digestive ends i'me. Which starts to
break down the very thin and fragile skin on your lips. Yeah.
I got chapped lips a lot from licking them. Stop
licking your lips. I'm constantly just I have oral stuff.
(02:29):
Bite my nails, bite my cheeks, bite my lip, all
that stuff, all that good fun, stressy stuff. But you
don't smoke cigarettes though, 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
(02:52):
about today, which is acting. I'm glad you are. I
am too, although I've never really got acne, 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 rush to my nose. It won't
go away. Like I was pressing it with my pinkies
like I could, I could pop? Is it? I get him.
That's a tough spot, though. Josh is talking about the
(03:14):
area right under the nostril and so paints that no
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 in like my eyes are watering
and it's still wouldn't pop. So I'll have to have
you me do it. Yeah. Yeah, but um, I guess
that's method podcasting. Following in your footsteps, Chuck, so um
(03:39):
you 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
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 and all human,
(04:01):
there would be enough material to make a four by
five foot area rug of skin was in found. I'm
glad he didn't say how many like skin suits or
lamp shades it would make, because that'd be really creepy.
Area was creepy enough? Yeah, so, yeah, ten pounds of
skin on the on an adult body, right, and then um,
most of the skin, there's three layers. Is the epidermis,
(04:23):
the dermis, and the subcutaneous layer, right, and the sub
cutaneous layer. I think the dermist is the fattiest layer
and the subcutaneous layers like the nastiest layer. It's like, um,
just have you ever seen hell razor? Yeah? Remember the
woman as she was coming back regenerating. She regenerated from
like the inside out. So at one point she's just
(04:45):
like muscles and blood just above that is the subcutaneous layer.
I think the epidermis is kind of gross 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 on your like, I
can see dead, dead as disco, you know. We Yeah,
so chuck your Your skin grows like beneath that outer layer,
(05:10):
and it grows as kratina sites, which are 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 heavier. Right from like
the moment it's born, when a cell divides, it starts
making its way outward, and it takes what does it
(05:32):
take about a month for a skin cell to be
born and then make it out to the outer later layer.
It 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.
And so they reach the surface and they don't just
fall right off. Um. Along the process, they die and
(05:52):
there they become cornified um, which is and become kratina
sites or cornea sites. Sorry. Um. And when they each
the surface, they they provide a function for a while.
They mix with sea bum, which is the oil we
produce that I really really produce oily skin. Yeah, and
uh some fats, what kind uh lipids josh leno leic acid. Okay,
(06:17):
So they mix all together and they form water proof
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 it keeps bacteria, which is why the skin is
your first organ of um resistance for immunity. That's right. Um,
So you've got all this process going on. Skin cells
eventually do fall off and jump off and are sloughed off,
(06:39):
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
looks like a sperm, a sperm going in drop sure
(07:02):
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 I like,
when you don't take a shower, your hair is gonna
look all oily. Yeah. And actually men I think have
more see them than women. Yeah, and teenagers have lots
(07:24):
of see them. Yeah, it's almost equal for among the
genders and in tegers. 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 to do with it. At least
the hair follicle is connected to a sebaceous glaian like
you said, which is why your hair seems oily when
(07:44):
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 squeeze through
this little poor right together, those dead skin cells that
migration they make. The way get out is through the poor,
through the follicle, through the sebaceous gland right right. So
(08:06):
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 Head everything, but nothing could
kill him because they couldn't all get through the door
of his health. That's exactly right. So when you have
too many skin cells, things start getting blocked and things
(08:26):
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
see them, like we talked about and and puberty, and
puberty is when that's going to happen. Most likely bacteria,
(08:50):
specifically propione Bacterium Acnes p acnes. That's uh found in
acne lesions and and 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. When
there's back up and there's bacteria, you're gonna get inflammation. Yeah.
(09:11):
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 sea bum, which causes an infection
which makes you in front. Yeah. I saw it as
(09:32):
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 comy dough and
one is a closed comy dough. Do you know what
a comedo is? I do. It's blockage. Okay, do you
(09:54):
know what the word is coming down? Is plural? What
do you mean? What word is? The word is Latin
for glutton Okay, yeah, and it was. It's named after
a worm. You know how when you like do you
pop as it and the stuff comes out and it's
like kind of a thin worm like tube. Well, there
(10:15):
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 blockage came to be called the commodo, which means glutton. Wow,
isn't that weird and gross? Yeah? And true. Yeah, pretty
much everything about this we're looking at acting on this
(10:35):
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 and you know
(10:56):
it's coming but you can't see it or do anything
about it yet. Yeah, that's infection, essentially underground construction. Yeah,
at some point, your your skin still 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
commie dough black head. I'm sorry, closed commie dough black
(11:17):
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 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 stopped me in the hall earlier and said,
(11:38):
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 it is the pustule,
(12:01):
because 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 ZiT
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 a D. Thanks for nothing. Yeah,
(12:23):
because I thought a white head meant it was the
white you know, pimpley's it looking thing. So it says
hear that the same color as 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
(12:45):
happened is you're this this white head or black head
um has collapsed under the skin and all that bacteria
ridden see bum is now causing an infection. That's what
a z it 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, a little firm, small bumps,
(13:09):
and they don't have any kind of white right center, right,
but they do feel like sandpaper 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, I'm sure
it's got a name. What is that called? What's what's
really severe dry skin called xema? Yeah, it's a it's
(13:33):
a mild alright, Maybe I have exema. There are 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 breaking it
down and stays in there. That was That was definitely
(13:53):
a nodule, wasn't it. Yeah? Because I would I would
be like and then like it would go away. First
it would go and then it would come back. That
thing was there for a while. Yeah. Man, it kept
coming back and then it'd stay for a really long
time and to come back. And I was wearing like
Turtle nick I brought Turtle Nicks back inadvertently, you are
(14:15):
Dick laughing to change chuck chuck uh, and then superative nodules, Josh.
(14:44):
You may think her sister boils and they might look
like that, but sists have different traits, one of which
is uh. The ability to contain a trapped gas, which
I thought was pretty interested, is nuts and pretty awesome. Yeah,
so that means that's not assist. I'll bet that guy
stinks to high heaven when it's finally released. Can you
imagine yeah again baby acne? Uh? Yeah? Um? What is
(15:10):
it called? Mila? Milia? Milia, sorry, 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, tompsited something like eight of people get
um acne, and we should say everything we just said
(15:31):
was a form of acne. Vulgaris. Yeah, yeah, I don't
think we said that. Vulgaris is the Latin. I think
for um common right, Um, most of us get it.
It's eat out attend. People get it at some point
in their life, he said, Um, most people, it starts
stirring puberty and ends after puberty. For other people like me,
(15:52):
it keeps going on here there. And I mean, like,
I take care of my face. Dude, I've got a
regimen and it's still I mean, I can imagine it
would be much worse if I didn't take care of Simpson.
You are you over regimenting? No, I know what I'm doing, Okay.
I'm going to see a dermatologist soon. I need to
(16:12):
find one, but I'm gonna go see one just to
make sure I'm doing everything right. Yeah, there's not other
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
(16:34):
then neut regina for the first time ever and just
scrub the crap out of my face. Started bleeding, 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. You're agitating your skin. Yeah,
I think, Um, I just have sensitive skin. Yeah, um yeah,
(16:54):
But no, I don't use like soap or harsh stuff face.
It's I take care of it. So a milia Back
to the baby's. 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
(17:14):
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 sometimes, Yeah, milia. It's far more common in infants
and I mean like newborns to um. The cause generally
is that the skin cells are already dividing and dying off.
(17:34):
But um, the sebacious clans aren't developed enough to carry
the skin cells to the surface. So basically when the
doctor says just way to'll clear upon its own, he's saying,
just wait, your baby will grow introduce more sebacious clans
to handle this, and that's that. Well, that's good news.
It's great news. Uh pre pubertal acne uh forms and children.
(17:59):
This is this is basically when you're producing your your androgens,
your sex hormones before you should be Yeah, like 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 in younger children,
and that's something you probably should go to a doctor about, yeah,
(18:19):
because it's I think they take it more as like
a sign like, okay, you you've got this other stuff
coming down the pike to like breasts and you're six,
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 even
the box little Timmy's only eight, right, I said six.
(18:44):
Does it happen that young? I don't know, I'm sure
it could. Yeah, I would imagine the younger, the more
potentially problematic it is. That's the kid who ends up
having the mustache when he's like in the third grade.
With the six year old boy with the breasts and
the mustache. What'd you call him? Timmy? Timmy? Actually I
(19:05):
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? So what else, Chuck? Oh, there's rosasia.
This is the one that that is pretty awful on
Google images. Really yeah. Yeah. It can affect the nose,
(19:26):
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 you see like divit's missing
from people's noses rosa. Yeah, I got 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 rosasia because you find
(19:49):
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, it's just 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
(20:13):
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 rose asia. Yeah, and 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 pustules into Google images because it's like that body
parts come up that are have these things on them
(20:34):
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 of like just out
of nowhere, just like feat 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,
(20:56):
what rose asia? Any any of them? Really you've been
warned by himself. You're a dummy 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,
(21:17):
it doesn't. I know it doesn't. That was play acting.
I know. Um that is a is a And I
actually did a 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 greasy food and a
lad to acne, but most doctors say that that's pretty
much a myth end of story. Although this this one
(21:41):
thing I found says that theoretically there could be some impact,
like diet has a direct effect on your insulin level,
and that insulin is the master hormone and it has
to do with hormone you know, production in a way.
So in theory, insulin spikes could affect acne. And also
(22:02):
things that you eat. It can affect it in a
good way if you eat positively like veggies and fruits
and seafood h and potentially if 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,
(22:23):
they're they're high and iodide because that apparently can inflame
actival garis. Yeah. So here as we say that it
doesn't impact acne, we're 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
(22:44):
big one that is I think probably UM it's overestimated
the impact it has. Yes, the the genes that you
inherit from your parents and how they express um, the
proteins that tell your sabaceous clean is the function in
this way or that way or whatever. It's going to
have an effect, but not as much as you know,
(23:06):
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. I don't either. It's a conversation
that you normally have with your parents, you know. More,
it's like, um, it was your dad bald, right, right,
that's the big question. That's all I think we care
about as men. Dirt is not gonna affect if you
(23:29):
have a dirty face. I mean, it's not great for
your skin probably, but pimples and zis happened from the
inside out, So dirt on top of your epidermis isn't
going to really affect that, they say, and then make
up this one, I don't know. I could see makeup
definitely making you break out. Yeah, yeah, the wrong kind
(23:51):
quite using that kind, Well, there's different kinds. There's a
hYP hypoallergenic, which means low allergenic. There's a non comedogenic,
which supposedly says like this won't make your break out,
so possibly cheap makeup. Yeah, and if you have Yeah,
if you have skin issues already, then you should probably
(24:13):
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 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 Knicks said that on might have been Oprah, yeah verbatim,
(24:38):
I was quoting he really now, she said. They asked
her why she always looks so great, and she said
that she's through all, Like even her drug days of
being on tour, she never ever failed to take her
makeup off at the end of the night. Stevie Nicks
did 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 cup off.
(25:00):
That is that's pretty good. Yeah, well she's the Belladonna
and job stop and things like jo stop. Um. So, chuck,
(25:35):
let's say you want to get rid of the acne
that you do have, right right there, I'm good. You
almost all those toffled over. 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 vol garris um can be treated with. One is
(25:58):
benzol peroxide and one is salacilic acid. Right, yeah, 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. You know what
(26:20):
were those pads? Were the oxy pants? Yeah, there was
another company that had the pads. Sea Breeze came in
like that was like an astringent. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
there are pads. I guess it was Oxypox come in
like a little yeah, I'm taking care of And then
you would look at it and say, look at all
that stuff. The commercial benzoyl peroxide specifically kills the p
(26:45):
agnos bacteria and it'll dry out your face, which can
be bad. Yeah. You know what people drink 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 and breakouts, kid, you know. Uh
(27:08):
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, which is the
(27:29):
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 so gently wash your face
with soap and warm water. Yeah, but again, you can't
just use any soap. I mean maybe you can if
(27:51):
you have like completely insensitive skin. Yeah, 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 story 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.
(28:11):
If you're exercising, you want to shower right afterwards. You
don't want to let sweat be on your skin for
too long. Yeah, you got backnee, your sebacious. The reason
backnee is so prevalent because that that part of your
body is lousy with sebaceous clians. Where is it head
or face? Back and chest? I think so those are
(28:31):
three areas because yeah, SIT's SIT's 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 its
(28:51):
not being so stressed. Be a Type L personality, which
is L the long allele on the s l C
six A four gene, which UM basically creates this protein
that ferries serotonin out of the snaps. It basically turns
it off, which is so that if you have the
(29:13):
L ale it makes you you're a more laid back
person because you have more of this transport protein. If
you have the S version of of that gene, then
you 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 and Type B is actually Type S and
Type L sounds like somebody destroted blog post. Isn't that
(29:38):
cool though? Yeah? That is cool. Yeah, I like to
think I'm a L, but I'm probably less L than
I really want to admit. 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 this soccinctly. Yeah, you just
remove the comment and went about your day, abandoned from
(30:01):
Facebook forever. What else can you do? Let's say you
got at me check and what can you do to
treat it um? You can take antibiotics, either oral or topical.
All right, and topical meaning like their current event type antibiotics.
What about a chemical peel that works too? I would
(30:23):
think that would not be a good thing if you
were breaking out. Is it's a good idea If you're
going to do that too, 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
(30:45):
the place where they have to add on the subway.
John's upstairs chemical peel and chicken processing plant an 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
(31:06):
feels red, but it's more also like very refreshing, Like
it's just it's so nice to just kind of rubbed
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 epidermis, right, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(31:28):
I think you'd be in big trouble at the door
down to the dermis, Like that's a that's a third
degree burn. I think you know the second movie 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,
(31:49):
because it probably cuts down on the androgens, which cuts
down on the production of um C bump, which cuts
down on pimples. Yeah. I didn't know they had ads
for birth control pills. Sure do they? Am? I just
am I living in the in uh Amish country here?
Why am I not seeing these? There's this one ad
I saw years ago. Yeah, it was really weird. Um
(32:11):
first they had this version of it was like the
cartoon version of this ad and then like that one
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, then they did
a live action version. They released them one after another,
but they were they were supposedly in no way related,
(32:33):
and it was like, I think that company was like,
just how much are you paying attention? Right? How much
TV are you watching? Yeah? Yeah, And at the time
I was watching a lot of TV. So I noticed, Yeah,
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
(32:57):
not to squeeze them though, which I think is kind
of laughable. What do you mean, like not pop them yourself?
They is Tom sheave pal. You can take that with
a grain of salt. Yeah, I mean show me someone
who it doesn't pop their own zits. And and it says,
in't here to make an appointment with the dermatologists so
they can pop your pimples, right, really well, that's the
only thing too, when you get like a chemical peel
(33:19):
or a facial or whatever. The the the U not
an estheticist? Oh estheticianian. Um, we'll pop all the zits
on your face. And what's crazy is like, when you
do it right, it doesn't hurt these gloves. I guess, yeah,
but I mean like this, the pressure they apply is
minute and they're doing it like off to the sides
(33:39):
of the ZiT 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 of good too, not necessarily good
to the derma 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 could Emily would never let me do that.
Why because she loves to do it herself. Oh yeah,
(34:00):
I mean she could have been an that. She has
that gene to where she just gets a lot of
satisfaction out of making that white snake come out. In fact,
she's a little disappointed at my lack of pimple production
in life. Yes, she would love me, you guyserfect match.
Actually you mean loves me. She does it. Um, she
does it a lot too. She's kind of hooked. Yeah,
(34:21):
a lot of girls are into that for some reason.
I'm glad to know Emily is not nuts and that
that's a normal behavior. For some reason too, 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
(34:44):
in America every day on a given day have is it?
Is that? Right? Yeah? I think more than that. There
you go, alright, alright? Which one? Well, I mean it's
acne is the big word. Pimple. I just like Sam pimple. Okay,
I don't like saying pimple. I think it's a gross word.
(35:04):
You like pustule. I prefer pustule over pimple. I don't
like it either. Yeah. Where we Yeah, we were on
We were featured in the comic 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
(35:25):
black heads. Emily calls them seeds because that it's like
a little watermelon seed, almost like a little white spike
comes out. I wonder what that is. I didn't find
that in here. I guarantee it's the 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
(35:45):
in there long enough, it comes seed. You're um, well
that's acne. If you want to learn more about it
and see some cool cutaway illustrations of the skin. Yeah,
that was a good party. 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,
(36:08):
it's time for list of your medal. 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 audio book that has just been released
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I know you have to shell out. We promise, we
think it's worth it. Um On iTunes, you just search
(36:31):
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It's just a great little whirlwind ride that you want
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(37:15):
and uh, it's time now for listener mail. Josh, I'm
gonna call this email from an author that we actually referenced. Okay,
he listens to the show. A uh mengalalaba, 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 pronounce it? Yeah? Me and more.
(37:38):
But it's post hounta Berba look at you. I really
had a pretty surreal moment involving your podcast. After downing
as much free 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
(37:59):
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. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Thanks
for much, but so much for the shout out from
Tyler David. Yeah, yeah, okay, it is good. Well, I've
been meaning to write an email and thank you guys
(38:19):
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. I'm teaching English and an international high school,
and I've already taught my kids what hinky means. I
have no idea if that's how do you define that specifically?
I would say hinky means uh, suspicious. Okay, see, I
(38:42):
would say stranger than usual. Yeah, okay, so it could
be three. There's three definititions. That's right. That's what hinky
means is everything. It's like smurt Yeah, what the cuss.
I had time to write you today because I'm homesick
from food poisoning, which reminds me you to do a
podcast and whether or not you can poop your own
skeleton grow. I feel awful You and the rest of
(39:06):
the gang at how stuff works keep me entertained, educated
and in high spirits. Thanks again, Tyler Davis. Well, thank you, Tyler.
Thanks for the books too. You have yours. I think
he sent us to Yeah Juma and other stories. Yeah, yeah,
I got it. 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
(39:28):
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 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. Yeah, it's
(39:50):
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 of different systems, may be that
are redundant that that provides safety when it does fail, right,
like the one guy said the lawnmower that you have
to hold the thing to keep it going. Like if
(40:12):
you have a heart attack and fall over, it will
cease to run. Right, that's a fail safe. So you
have failed, but you are safe from the mower running exactly,
but you don't care because you're having a heart attack. Yeah,
anything else bread but bread butter slide up now that
you know. I think the MythBusters are great, and I'm
(40:32):
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. 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
(40:52):
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 when it falls off
the you know, the table stomach high counter, then it
only has time to rotate half a turn and it
(41:15):
will fall side down. If the counter were eight ft high,
it might rotate fully and land it butter side up.
It has nothing to do with weight. In other words,
I disagree. I disagree. I just don't see how it
can have nothing to do with wit, especially if you
have If one side is clearly heavier than the other
and the butter spread evenly across, then it's not going
(41:37):
to turn back over. You. 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 gonna battle this one.
I am. So that's why I didn't bring that one up.
Fail 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 but to
(42:00):
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 on Facebook, Facebook dot com
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any of the other Facebook Stuff you should Know sites.
They're fan driven. They're awesome too, agreed, Or you can
(42:21):
send us a regular old email at stuff podcast at
how Stuff works dot com. Stuff you Should Know is
a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart radio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey there everyone, it's me Josh. For this week's s
Y s K Selects. I've decided to bring us all
down into the disgusting world of acne on the microscopic level. Yes,
it's kind of gross, and yeah, no one wants it,
but we all get it from time to time, some
of us more than others. And it's great to know
(00:22):
what's going on down there, because I gotta admit it
is fascinating. So enjoy this episode on acne. Welcome to
Stuff You should know, a production of My Heart Radios
How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
(00:44):
Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant 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. Yeah, good, get out of
(01:05):
the hat. I haven't seen that yet. The angry Magician. No,
that's a great idea. Yeah, there you go. Angry comics. Yeah, yeah,
there are plenty of them, 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
(01:26):
a skincare Yeah, I remember that too. I didn't write
too many of those. I wrote a lot of skin
care articles, 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
(01:48):
too hot. Um. Like, I learned these things definitively. Um. Also,
the skin on your lips um is 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
(02:09):
membrane underneath showing through. Ye look at that. Yeah. And
you don't want to lick your lips too much because
you're saliva contains the digestive ends i'me. Which starts to
break down the very thin and fragile skin on your lips. Yeah.
I got chapped lips a lot from licking them. Stop
licking your lips. I'm constantly just I have oral stuff.
(02:29):
Bite my nails, bite my cheeks, bite my lip, all
that stuff, all that good fun, stressy stuff. But you
don't smoke cigarettes though, 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
(02:52):
about today, which is acting. I'm glad you are. I
am too, although I've never really got acne, 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 rush to my nose. It won't
go away. Like I was pressing it with my pinkies
like I could, I could pop? Is it? I get him.
That's a tough spot, though. Josh is talking about the
(03:14):
area right under the nostril and so paints that no
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 in like my eyes are watering
and it's still wouldn't pop. So I'll have to have
you me do it. Yeah. Yeah, but um, I guess
that's method podcasting. Following in your footsteps, Chuck, so um
(03:39):
you 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
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 and all human,
(04:01):
there would be enough material to make a four by
five foot area rug of skin was in found. I'm
glad he didn't say how many like skin suits or
lamp shades it would make, because that'd be really creepy.
Area was creepy enough? Yeah, so, yeah, ten pounds of
skin on the on an adult body, right, and then um,
most of the skin, there's three layers. Is the epidermis,
(04:23):
the dermis, and the subcutaneous layer, right, and the sub
cutaneous layer. I think the dermist is the fattiest layer
and the subcutaneous layers like the nastiest layer. It's like, um,
just have you ever seen hell razor? Yeah? Remember the
woman as she was coming back regenerating. She regenerated from
like the inside out. So at one point she's just
(04:45):
like muscles and blood just above that is the subcutaneous layer.
I think the epidermis is kind of gross 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 on your like, I
can see dead, dead as disco, you know. We Yeah,
so chuck your Your skin grows like beneath that outer layer,
(05:10):
and it grows as kratina sites, which are 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 heavier. Right from like
the moment it's born, when a cell divides, it starts
making its way outward, and it takes what does it
(05:32):
take about a month for a skin cell to be
born and then make it out to the outer later layer.
It 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.
And so they reach the surface and they don't just
fall right off. Um. Along the process, they die and
(05:52):
there they become cornified um, which is and become kratina
sites or cornea sites. Sorry. Um. And when they each
the surface, they they provide a function for a while.
They mix with sea bum, which is the oil we
produce that I really really produce oily skin. Yeah, and
uh some fats, what kind uh lipids josh leno leic acid. Okay,
(06:17):
So they mix all together and they form water proof
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 it keeps bacteria, which is why the skin is
your first organ of um resistance for immunity. That's right. Um,
So you've got all this process going on. Skin cells
eventually do fall off and jump off and are sloughed off,
(06:39):
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
looks like a sperm, a sperm going in drop sure
(07:02):
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 I like,
when you don't take a shower, your hair is gonna
look all oily. Yeah. And actually men I think have
more see them than women. Yeah, and teenagers have lots
(07:24):
of see them. Yeah, it's almost equal for among the
genders and in tegers. 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 to do with it. At least
the hair follicle is connected to a sebaceous glaian like
you said, which is why your hair seems oily when
(07:44):
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 squeeze through
this little poor right together, those dead skin cells that
migration they make. The way get out is through the poor,
through the follicle, through the sebaceous gland right right. So
(08:06):
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 Head everything, but nothing could
kill him because they couldn't all get through the door
of his health. That's exactly right. So when you have
too many skin cells, things start getting blocked and things
(08:26):
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
see them, like we talked about and and puberty, and
puberty is when that's going to happen. Most likely bacteria,
(08:50):
specifically propione Bacterium Acnes p acnes. That's uh found in
acne lesions and and 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. When
there's back up and there's bacteria, you're gonna get inflammation. Yeah.
(09:11):
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 sea bum, which causes an infection
which makes you in front. Yeah. I saw it as
(09:32):
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 comy dough and
one is a closed comy dough. Do you know what
a comedo is? I do. It's blockage. Okay, do you
(09:54):
know what the word is coming down? Is plural? What
do you mean? What word is? The word is Latin
for glutton Okay, yeah, and it was. It's named after
a worm. You know how when you like do you
pop as it and the stuff comes out and it's
like kind of a thin worm like tube. Well, there
(10:15):
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 blockage came to be called the commodo, which means glutton. Wow,
isn't that weird and gross? Yeah? And true. Yeah, pretty
much everything about this we're looking at acting on this
(10:35):
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 and you know
(10:56):
it's coming but you can't see it or do anything
about it yet. Yeah, that's infection, essentially underground construction. Yeah,
at some point, your your skin still 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
commie dough black head. I'm sorry, closed commie dough black
(11:17):
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 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 stopped me in the hall earlier and said,
(11:38):
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 it is the pustule,
(12:01):
because 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 ZiT
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 a D. Thanks for nothing. Yeah,
(12:23):
because I thought a white head meant it was the
white you know, pimpley's it looking thing. So it says
hear that the same color as 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
(12:45):
happened is you're this this white head or black head
um has collapsed under the skin and all that bacteria
ridden see bum is now causing an infection. That's what
a z it 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, a little firm, small bumps,
(13:09):
and they don't have any kind of white right center, right,
but they do feel like sandpaper 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, I'm sure
it's got a name. What is that called? What's what's
really severe dry skin called xema? Yeah, it's a it's
(13:33):
a mild alright, Maybe I have exema. There are 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 breaking it
down and stays in there. That was That was definitely
(13:53):
a nodule, wasn't it. Yeah? Because I would I would
be like and then like it would go away. First
it would go and then it would come back. That
thing was there for a while. Yeah. Man, it kept
coming back and then it'd stay for a really long
time and to come back. And I was wearing like
Turtle nick I brought Turtle Nicks back inadvertently, you are
(14:15):
Dick laughing to change chuck chuck uh, and then superative nodules, Josh.
(14:44):
You may think her sister boils and they might look
like that, but sists have different traits, one of which
is uh. The ability to contain a trapped gas, which
I thought was pretty interested, is nuts and pretty awesome. Yeah,
so that means that's not assist. I'll bet that guy
stinks to high heaven when it's finally released. Can you
imagine yeah again baby acne? Uh? Yeah? Um? What is
(15:10):
it called? Mila? Milia? Milia, sorry, 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, tompsited something like eight of people get
um acne, and we should say everything we just said
(15:31):
was a form of acne. Vulgaris. Yeah, yeah, I don't
think we said that. Vulgaris is the Latin. I think
for um common right, Um, most of us get it.
It's eat out attend. People get it at some point
in their life, he said, Um, most people, it starts
stirring puberty and ends after puberty. For other people like me,
(15:52):
it keeps going on here there. And I mean, like,
I take care of my face. Dude, I've got a
regimen and it's still I mean, I can imagine it
would be much worse if I didn't take care of Simpson.
You are you over regimenting? No, I know what I'm doing, Okay.
I'm going to see a dermatologist soon. I need to
(16:12):
find one, but I'm gonna go see one just to
make sure I'm doing everything right. Yeah, there's not other
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
(16:34):
then neut regina for the first time ever and just
scrub the crap out of my face. Started bleeding, 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. You're agitating your skin. Yeah,
I think, Um, I just have sensitive skin. Yeah, um yeah,
(16:54):
But no, I don't use like soap or harsh stuff face.
It's I take care of it. So a milia Back
to the baby's. 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
(17:14):
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 sometimes, Yeah, milia. It's far more common in infants
and I mean like newborns to um. The cause generally
is that the skin cells are already dividing and dying off.
(17:34):
But um, the sebacious clans aren't developed enough to carry
the skin cells to the surface. So basically when the
doctor says just way to'll clear upon its own, he's saying,
just wait, your baby will grow introduce more sebacious clans
to handle this, and that's that. Well, that's good news.
It's great news. Uh pre pubertal acne uh forms and children.
(17:59):
This is this is basically when you're producing your your androgens,
your sex hormones before you should be Yeah, like 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 in younger children,
and that's something you probably should go to a doctor about, yeah,
(18:19):
because it's I think they take it more as like
a sign like, okay, you you've got this other stuff
coming down the pike to like breasts and you're six,
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 even
the box little Timmy's only eight, right, I said six.
(18:44):
Does it happen that young? I don't know, I'm sure
it could. Yeah, I would imagine the younger, the more
potentially problematic it is. That's the kid who ends up
having the mustache when he's like in the third grade.
With the six year old boy with the breasts and
the mustache. What'd you call him? Timmy? Timmy? Actually I
(19:05):
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? So what else, Chuck? Oh, there's rosasia.
This is the one that that is pretty awful on
Google images. Really yeah. Yeah. It can affect the nose,
(19:26):
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 you see like divit's missing
from people's noses rosa. Yeah, I got 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 rosasia because you find
(19:49):
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, it's just 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
(20:13):
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 rose asia. Yeah, and 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 pustules into Google images because it's like that body
parts come up that are have these things on them
(20:34):
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 of like just out
of nowhere, just like feat 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,
(20:56):
what rose asia? Any any of them? Really you've been
warned by himself. You're a dummy 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,
(21:17):
it doesn't. I know it doesn't. That was play acting.
I know. Um that is a is a And I
actually did a 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 greasy food and a
lad to acne, but most doctors say that that's pretty
much a myth end of story. Although this this one
(21:41):
thing I found says that theoretically there could be some impact,
like diet has a direct effect on your insulin level,
and that insulin is the master hormone and it has
to do with hormone you know, production in a way.
So in theory, insulin spikes could affect acne. And also
(22:02):
things that you eat. It can affect it in a
good way if you eat positively like veggies and fruits
and seafood h and potentially if 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,
(22:23):
they're they're high and iodide because that apparently can inflame
actival garis. Yeah. So here as we say that it
doesn't impact acne, we're 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
(22:44):
big one that is I think probably UM it's overestimated
the impact it has. Yes, the the genes that you
inherit from your parents and how they express um, the
proteins that tell your sabaceous clean is the function in
this way or that way or whatever. It's going to
have an effect, but not as much as you know,
(23:06):
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. I don't either. It's a conversation
that you normally have with your parents, you know. More,
it's like, um, it was your dad bald, right, right,
that's the big question. That's all I think we care
about as men. Dirt is not gonna affect if you
(23:29):
have a dirty face. I mean, it's not great for
your skin probably, but pimples and zis happened from the
inside out, So dirt on top of your epidermis isn't
going to really affect that, they say, and then make
up this one, I don't know. I could see makeup
definitely making you break out. Yeah, yeah, the wrong kind
(23:51):
quite using that kind, Well, there's different kinds. There's a
hYP hypoallergenic, which means low allergenic. There's a non comedogenic,
which supposedly says like this won't make your break out,
so possibly cheap makeup. Yeah, and if you have Yeah,
if you have skin issues already, then you should probably
(24:13):
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 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 Knicks said that on might have been Oprah, yeah verbatim,
(24:38):
I was quoting he really now, she said. They asked
her why she always looks so great, and she said
that she's through all, Like even her drug days of
being on tour, she never ever failed to take her
makeup off at the end of the night. Stevie Nicks
did 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 cup off.
(25:00):
That is that's pretty good. Yeah, well she's the Belladonna
and job stop and things like jo stop. Um. So, chuck,
(25:35):
let's say you want to get rid of the acne
that you do have, right right there, I'm good. You
almost all those toffled over. 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 vol garris um can be treated with. One is
(25:58):
benzol peroxide and one is salacilic acid. Right, yeah, 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. You know what
(26:20):
were those pads? Were the oxy pants? Yeah, there was
another company that had the pads. Sea Breeze came in
like that was like an astringent. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
there are pads. I guess it was Oxypox come in
like a little yeah, I'm taking care of And then
you would look at it and say, look at all
that stuff. The commercial benzoyl peroxide specifically kills the p
(26:45):
agnos bacteria and it'll dry out your face, which can
be bad. Yeah. You know what people drink 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 and breakouts, kid, you know. Uh
(27:08):
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, which is the
(27:29):
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 so gently wash your face
with soap and warm water. Yeah, but again, you can't
just use any soap. I mean maybe you can if
(27:51):
you have like completely insensitive skin. Yeah, 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 story 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.
(28:11):
If you're exercising, you want to shower right afterwards. You
don't want to let sweat be on your skin for
too long. Yeah, you got backnee, your sebacious. The reason
backnee is so prevalent because that that part of your
body is lousy with sebaceous clians. Where is it head
or face? Back and chest? I think so those are
(28:31):
three areas because yeah, SIT's SIT's 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 its
(28:51):
not being so stressed. Be a Type L personality, which
is L the long allele on the s l C
six A four gene, which UM basically creates this protein
that ferries serotonin out of the snaps. It basically turns
it off, which is so that if you have the
(29:13):
L ale it makes you you're a more laid back
person because you have more of this transport protein. If
you have the S version of of that gene, then
you 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 and Type B is actually Type S and
Type L sounds like somebody destroted blog post. Isn't that
(29:38):
cool though? Yeah? That is cool. Yeah, I like to
think I'm a L, but I'm probably less L than
I really want to admit. 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 this soccinctly. Yeah, you just
remove the comment and went about your day, abandoned from
(30:01):
Facebook forever. What else can you do? Let's say you
got at me check and what can you do to
treat it um? You can take antibiotics, either oral or topical.
All right, and topical meaning like their current event type antibiotics.
What about a chemical peel that works too? I would
(30:23):
think that would not be a good thing if you
were breaking out. Is it's a good idea If you're
going to do that too, 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
(30:45):
the place where they have to add on the subway.
John's upstairs chemical peel and chicken processing plant an 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
(31:06):
feels red, but it's more also like very refreshing, Like
it's just it's so nice to just kind of rubbed
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 epidermis, right, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(31:28):
I think you'd be in big trouble at the door
down to the dermis, Like that's a that's a third
degree burn. I think you know the second movie 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,
(31:49):
because it probably cuts down on the androgens, which cuts
down on the production of um C bump, which cuts
down on pimples. Yeah. I didn't know they had ads
for birth control pills. Sure do they? Am? I just
am I living in the in uh Amish country here?
Why am I not seeing these? There's this one ad
I saw years ago. Yeah, it was really weird. Um
(32:11):
first they had this version of it was like the
cartoon version of this ad and then like that one
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, then they did
a live action version. They released them one after another,
but they were they were supposedly in no way related,
(32:33):
and it was like, I think that company was like,
just how much are you paying attention? Right? How much
TV are you watching? Yeah? Yeah, And at the time
I was watching a lot of TV. So I noticed, Yeah,
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
(32:57):
not to squeeze them though, which I think is kind
of laughable. What do you mean, like not pop them yourself?
They is Tom sheave pal. You can take that with
a grain of salt. Yeah, I mean show me someone
who it doesn't pop their own zits. And and it says,
in't here to make an appointment with the dermatologists so
they can pop your pimples, right, really well, that's the
only thing too, when you get like a chemical peel
(33:19):
or a facial or whatever. The the the U not
an estheticist? Oh estheticianian. Um, we'll pop all the zits
on your face. And what's crazy is like, when you
do it right, it doesn't hurt these gloves. I guess, yeah,
but I mean like this, the pressure they apply is
minute and they're doing it like off to the sides
(33:39):
of the ZiT 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 of good too, not necessarily good
to the derma 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 could Emily would never let me do that.
Why because she loves to do it herself. Oh yeah,
(34:00):
I mean she could have been an that. She has
that gene to where she just gets a lot of
satisfaction out of making that white snake come out. In fact,
she's a little disappointed at my lack of pimple production
in life. Yes, she would love me, you guyserfect match.
Actually you mean loves me. She does it. Um, she
does it a lot too. She's kind of hooked. Yeah,
(34:21):
a lot of girls are into that for some reason.
I'm glad to know Emily is not nuts and that
that's a normal behavior. For some reason too, 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
(34:44):
in America every day on a given day have is it?
Is that? Right? Yeah? I think more than that. There
you go, alright, alright? Which one? Well, I mean it's
acne is the big word. Pimple. I just like Sam pimple. Okay,
I don't like saying pimple. I think it's a gross word.
(35:04):
You like pustule. I prefer pustule over pimple. I don't
like it either. Yeah. Where we Yeah, we were on
We were featured in the comic 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
(35:25):
black heads. Emily calls them seeds because that it's like
a little watermelon seed, almost like a little white spike
comes out. I wonder what that is. I didn't find
that in here. I guarantee it's the 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
(35:45):
in there long enough, it comes seed. You're um, well
that's acne. If you want to learn more about it
and see some cool cutaway illustrations of the skin. Yeah,
that was a good party. 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,
(36:08):
it's time for list of your medal. 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 audio book that has just been released
called The super Stuffed Guide to Happiness, available on iTunes.
I know you have to shell out. We promise, we
think it's worth it. Um On iTunes, you just search
(36:31):
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
them both there. But um, check out The super Stuff
Guide to Happiness. 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
(36:52):
thing off with a nice quote from the Dali Llama.
It's just a great little whirlwind ride that you want
to listen to over and over again, all for the
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 the difference to get the latte. This thing is
so cheap, that's true. Yeah. So um, there's our plug
(37:15):
and uh, it's time now for listener mail. Josh, I'm
gonna call this email from an author that we actually referenced. Okay,
he listens to the show. A uh mengalalaba, 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 pronounce it? Yeah? Me and more.
(37:38):
But it's post hounta Berba look at you. I really
had a pretty surreal moment involving your podcast. After downing
as much free 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
(37:59):
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. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Thanks
for much, but so much for the shout out from
Tyler David. Yeah, yeah, okay, it is good. Well, I've
been meaning to write an email and thank you guys
(38:19):
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. I'm teaching English and an international high school,
and I've already taught my kids what hinky means. I
have no idea if that's how do you define that specifically?
I would say hinky means uh, suspicious. Okay, see, I
(38:42):
would say stranger than usual. Yeah, okay, so it could
be three. There's three definititions. That's right. That's what hinky
means is everything. It's like smurt Yeah, what the cuss.
I had time to write you today because I'm homesick
from food poisoning, which reminds me you to do a
podcast and whether or not you can poop your own
skeleton grow. I feel awful You and the rest of
(39:06):
the gang at how stuff works keep me entertained, educated
and in high spirits. Thanks again, Tyler Davis. Well, thank you, Tyler.
Thanks for the books too. You have yours. I think
he sent us to Yeah Juma and other stories. Yeah, yeah,
I got it. 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
(39:28):
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 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. Yeah, it's
(39:50):
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 of different systems, may be that
are redundant that that provides safety when it does fail, right,
like the one guy said the lawnmower that you have
to hold the thing to keep it going. Like if
(40:12):
you have a heart attack and fall over, it will
cease to run. Right, that's a fail safe. So you
have failed, but you are safe from the mower running exactly,
but you don't care because you're having a heart attack. Yeah,
anything else bread but bread butter slide up now that
you know. I think the MythBusters are great, and I'm
(40:32):
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. 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
(40:52):
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 when it falls off
the you know, the table stomach high counter, then it
only has time to rotate half a turn and it
(41:15):
will fall side down. If the counter were eight ft high,
it might rotate fully and land it butter side up.
It has nothing to do with weight. In other words,
I disagree. I disagree. I just don't see how it
can have nothing to do with wit, especially if you
have If one side is clearly heavier than the other
and the butter spread evenly across, then it's not going
(41:37):
to turn back over. You. 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 gonna battle this one.
I am. So that's why I didn't bring that one up.
Fail 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 but to
(42:00):
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 on Facebook, Facebook dot com
slash Stuff you Should Know, or you can go on
any of the other Facebook Stuff you should Know sites.
They're fan driven. They're awesome too, agreed, Or you can
(42:21):
send us a regular old email at stuff podcast at
how Stuff works dot com. Stuff you Should Know is
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