December 14, 2015 • 50 mins
Acne isn't just a teenage rite of passage. Grown-up women with jobs and bank accounts struggle with chronic pimples as well. Cristen and Caroline examine why adult acne happens, how birth control affects it and other treatment options.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom never told you from house toports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen
and I'm Caroline, and today we're talking about our zips. Yeah, ours,
just ours, only the zits on the faces of Kristen
(00:23):
and Caroline. Yeah. So I know you've all been waiting
for this, So strap on your seatbelts and get ready
for a wild ride as we just complain about how
we are women in our thirties who break out. Here's
the thing too, about this whole being women in our
thirties breaking out if it No one warned us about
(00:46):
adult acne. No, they did not know. I was. I
still at thirty two. I am still fully under the impression,
even though I am a woman in my thirties with acne,
I'm still fully under the impression that acne is nothing
but a thing that adol since suffer from, and then
you get to overcome it, and then you come out
the other side with beautiful clear skin and you live
happily ever after. And maybe you do live happily ever after,
(01:10):
but you might also have acne at the same time.
It's all been such a lie. It's yes, my whole
life is a lie Disney movies and acne, So I
wanna make a Pixar film out of that. Oh yeah,
that's so sad, because I want anthropomorphized my hormonal acne.
Please hangs out on my jawline. Yeah, these two on
my cheeks. I never so it's really weird. And we'll
(01:31):
get into it more in the episode, which is not
going to just be as complaining, I promise, But I
have two giant ones on my cheek right now, which
is crazy because when I was younger, even when I
was going through puberty, I never ever ever broke out
on my cheeks ever, only ever broke out in the
tea zone. And so now that I am in my
thirties and I have an I U D. I am
(01:53):
breaking out in like the strangest, most awful places and
I hate it well. And and the whole thing about
adult acne is how it is so different, like you mentioned,
from the acne that we experienced in adolescents in our
teen years, and doctors are still puzzled by the whole thing.
But you know what would be really nice as if
(02:15):
people could start warning us at an earlier age. This
is part of growing up. Acne is a fact not
just of middle school and high school. But you're what
what are we in school now? Uh? Work school and
career school run up school the worst. Uh. So let's
talk about adult acne, and obviously we're going to focus
(02:37):
on adult acne and women, because ladies, if you suspected it,
it's true, it is more likely to happen to us.
And if you are also suspecting that has to do
with hormones, you are probably correct, as we will talk about.
But here's the thing, and let this be a comfort
to all of you out there, like Caroline and me
who are juggling all sorts of retine creams and moisturizers
(03:00):
and clendomias and lotions in the morning and potions at night,
that acne is a fact of life for grown ass ladies.
That's right. And maybe it's stress, maybe it's pollution, maybe
it's a food sensitivity or something. Maybe you're touching your
face too much, but like Kristen said, like people just
aren't really sure why. And of course hormones too. We'll
(03:23):
talk about hormones. We've got to talk about hormones. But
you're in good companies. So there was a twelve study
in the General of Women's Health that looked at nearly
three thousand women between the ages of ten and seventy. Pause,
news flash, my mother who is sixty seven? How old
(03:43):
am I out? Yeah, she's sixty seven. She gets the
occasional ZiT too. Just prepare yourself. Anyway, they looked at
all these women between ten and seventy and found that
more than a quarter had clinical acne, while an additional
had wild acne. Yeah, and if we break down those ages,
this gave me more comfort as well. Within that group
(04:07):
of three thousand women, forty percent of those between twenty
one and thirty had clinical acne, twenty six percent of
women thirty one to forty had clinical acne. And yeah,
twelve percent of women forty one to fifty also had
clinical acne. So it doesn't necessarily disappear as we get older. Yeah,
(04:28):
and the luck keeps on coming. Women are far more
likely than men to have adult acne. The study found
that a disproportionate number of women develop adult acne compared
to men. So that's comforting or not, I don't know,
but you're in good company. Yeah, and there are two
(04:49):
primary types of acne. You'll either have continuing acne, which
is the stuff that started in puberty and just won't
leave you alone, or late on set, which is adult
acne that just arrives after you've you know, finally gotten
old enough to like drink, you can rent a car,
you can do everything, and then acne comes in and
(05:09):
it's like, oh, hey, hey, since you're all grown up now,
I'm also going to move in here, just gonna plant
myself right on either side of your chin for like
a week every month and just don't mind me, no
big deal. Well yeah, and then it just once it's
moved in, it gets comfortable and won't you know, try
to be adventurous and find something else to do with
(05:30):
its time. And so adult onset acne, this, this late
onset stuff is actually most common among menopausal women. So
just so many things to look forward to. Yeah, and
there are all sorts of hormone related issues that are
really common in women that can be related to acne
or promote acne as well, such as it being a
(05:52):
common side effect a polycystic ovarian syndrome, which will come
back to because Pico's was actually how helpful for doctors
determining more effective treatments for adult acne because it is
such a prominent symptom of that, and we looked into
whether acne shifts depending on ethnicity and really across the board,
(06:16):
it just happens. Now there there are questions as to
whether it is as proportional a problem for say, are
our pasty white Caucasian skin as it is for people
of color, because there does seem to be a little
bit of a variation. But if you're looking at dermatological issues,
it's the number one thing, regardless of where you are
in the world that people have treated. Yeah, and of
(06:39):
course once you have dealt with acne, that's not like
the end, that's not the end of the equation. No,
you have to deal with something called post inflammatory pigmentation,
which is those red spots that can linger for months
or even years after your pimples go away. And the
degree to which you suffer from this is genetic. You
(07:01):
can make it worse by squeezing or picking at those pimples.
And the highest rates though you know, we taked Kristen
mentioned a cross ethnic rates of of acne and adult
acne um. The higher rates of this post inflammatory pigmentation
are found among people of color and generally speaking. When
(07:22):
it comes to adult acne as opposed to the acne
we develop around puberty, it does tend to land in
different places. So you'll find adult acne on places like
the jawline, the chin, and the neck. Just just look
at my face. Yeah, that's where it is. Kristen. By
the way, listeners, Caroline is not riddled with it that
(07:42):
she is making herself out to be. She always has
a lovely complexion with Yes, my this broadcast is brought
to you by Makeup Forever. Thanks, that'll be if if
you guys just want to send me a check to
make up for all the concealer I buy, that would
be great. And so that jawline, chin and neck place
meant that you find with adult acne is compared with
(08:03):
teenage acne, which tends to pop up on the forehead,
the cheeks, and the nose. I really, I am so
grateful that I don't get like nose stuff like I
did as a teenager. Yeah, so there's a plus side.
It's if you've got to have it yet, it's migrated.
It's gone south to my chin. Well. What I've learned
(08:25):
though about treating adult acne and in our migrating black
heads and pimples. Is that the go to accutane treatment,
which is accutane is the brand name for is Retino,
and it only is effective on that teenage acne. And
this is coming from a fantastic article on adult acne
(08:48):
over at Racked magazine. UM and doctors aren't entirely sure
why accutane is only temporarily relieves adult acne, but surprised it.
I mean that only goes to show how it is
such a different beast. And that's another thing that scientists
are still figuring out, like how, wait, why why is
(09:08):
this changing? They know that it probably has something to
do with hormones, because hormones are the culprit for all
of our acne. I mean, calling it hormonal acne is
a little bit of a misnomer because I mean, it's
the fuel of all of our pimples. Really yeah, but
because it gets that tag because some of our adult
(09:32):
acne responds better to birth control and other like specifically
hormonal medications better, hence the name. But there definitely is
a lot more to it than just hormones, although of course,
as Kristen said, hormones are at the root of all
this stuff. Uh, so she mentioned Kristen mentioned the Racked
article that we read. It was very super informative and
we recommend that you read it should be over in
(09:52):
our source post on stuff mom never told you dot com.
But there's it's gross. I mean there's a lot of
gross stuff when it comes to getting pimples, and it's unavoidable.
It's your skin, it's turning on you. So should we
talk then about just how a pimple forms regardless of
how old you are. This is what happens when a
zip moves in where it's a little suitcase. Yes it's
(10:13):
a little white suitcase, little jaunty hat, and we're like
cut again. Oh that's just me all the time. Uh So, anyway,
you've got your hormones that are blowing up during puberty,
and that stimulates the glands and your skin to pump
out more oil or sea bum, which I don't know.
To me, that's a gross word. I don't know if
(10:34):
it is because of the connection in my brain with pimples,
but I just automatically think sea bomb and gross. Anyway,
So you've got your skin pumping up more oil. But
then when dirt, skin flakes or makeup cloggs those pores,
that extra sea bum gets locked in the hair follicle.
So if that pessioles sea bum clogging up your poor
does not have any contact with air, then it's gonna
(10:56):
stay white and you have a white head. Okay, cool,
But then and if the top of the poor remains
open and air does come in contact with it, and
the sea bum turns dark, which is kind of a
horrifying chemical process to think, for sure, all of us
is horrified. Yes, and of course the result is a blackhead.
(11:19):
But we haven't even gotten to zits yet. Because in
order for a ZiT or pimple, whatever your preferred label is,
and wonder for one of those to happen, you need
a bacteria called the propione bacterium, which sounds like a
friendly Italian bacteria. So now I'm imagining the pimple that
(11:41):
previously had this little jaunty hat in the suitcase. Now
now it's on a vespa is it very little striped shirt? Yes,
and it's riding up saying chow. Yes, I did just
steal an eddie as ord joke for our pimple episode.
You're welcome, well, our vesper writing Propio Bacterium acnes lives
on the skin surface and it like rides a little
(12:03):
vespa up to that clogged poor and it's like, oh, hey,
you know what I really like to eat for lunch.
Not a pizza or a pasta, but the sea bum
sitting around in that clogged poor. So instead of eating
the pizza's just sucking up the grease on the pizza.
And I'm making myself sick, but I'm kind of enjoying
the fact that we're now illustrating all this with pizza
(12:24):
and Italian Sorry, our apologies are our Italian listeners are
very frustrated right now. Um, but that bacteria, the propione
Bacterium acnes, is what leads to infection, causing the skin
to get red and painful and leads to the full
blown pimple. So basically, zit's happened because our pores get
(12:50):
clogged and then our skin bacteria has a feast. God,
I kindly, I didn't know you were so grossed out
by sea bumb Come on, you know what it is.
You know what I bet it is. Remember what is it?
Remember a long time ago when we did that episode
on Vagina dentata, Yes, and in it we explained because
(13:10):
you know, we explained all of the mythology behind, like
why people are so afraid of vaginas and teeth and
like getting their penises chopped off in the vagina, and
then we talked about the actual medically proven times that
people find teeth in other parts of the body, and
it's always accompanied by like when you when you do
hear these stories of like teeth or hair or whatever
(13:32):
being found in like a cyst, it's always accompanied by um,
subacious glands, sebaceous oil, sea bum. Yeah. I'm glad I
haven't eaten yet. Honestly, I just think a little butter pats.
Is that not helping? No? And now I know I
don't know if I can eat butter again, which is
(13:52):
probably good. I am lactose sensitive. It's so just a
little butter buckets, Caroline. Oh god, that's actually like a
really cute term of endearment. Hey, my little butter bucket
not anymore. Yeah, I know, we just ruined that for
me calling your boyfriend nackney face. So that, though, is
how zs happen. But let zero in on this hormonal
(14:15):
factor because this really does seem to be the key
when it comes to this acne that tends to follow
ladies faces around for essentially the rest of our lives.
Because what's happening to feed that sebum production that can
clog your pores and cause your little butter buckets come
(14:37):
on develop is not estrogen, No, no, no, friends, Estrogen
actually kind of a rad hormone in a lot of ways.
What's going on is a surge of androgens, which is
the class of neurochemicals that includes two star stirone. Well.
The thing about androgen's too, though, is that they can
alter the development of skin cells around the hair follicles
(14:59):
in the skin, and it seems like androgen's really just
sort of amp up that holds it forming process that
we just walked you through. Um, Because the skin cells
on your face that would normally shed and just blow
away like dust in the wind. Is that song and
everybody's head now, okay, cool, Um, they end up becoming
(15:19):
abnormally sticky, and they end up clogging up the hair follicle.
So everybody like I just heard the hum of a
thousand Clara Sonic brushes going um. You also, thanks to
androgen's get an increased amount of that propioni bacteria macnees
sorry Italians, uh, and of course more skin inflammation. And
(15:42):
it's worth noting that androgen's are present in men and
women alike, and a majority women with acne have normal
androgen levels. But with pretty much every dermatological source we
read for this podcast, it recommended that if you're experiencing
adult acne and you're a woman, then hormone testing is recommended,
(16:05):
especially if you have acne accompanied by things like excessive
facial or body hair deepening, voice, irregular periods, and all
that jazz. And it made me wonder why my dermatologist
has never recommended any hormone testing. Yeah, I wondered that too,
But like Kristen said, it doesn't mean that you necessarily
(16:26):
have so many androgen's. You really just could be that
sensitive to normal levels of androgen's. I'm actually pretty speaking
of hormone testing, I'm actually pretty interested. I'm going to
a new Indo chronologist at the end of December to
talk to her about my Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which essentially causes
all sorts of hormone wackiness because it slows your thigh
(16:48):
right down, which is part of the endocrine system, and
so I will be interested to see if she thinks
testing along those lines will be helpful, and if she
thinks that my endocrine system could having some sort of
negative effects on my skin, or if I should just
stop rubbing bacon on it. That could be a thing too. Oh,
the bacon treatments not working so well. You know a
(17:10):
lot of people on the internet recommend coconut oil, and
I was just like, I just you know, I like
bacon so because then you can eat it afterwards, right
then you can make a snack. That's very effect. I
don't actually like coconuts, so I went right for the bacon. Well.
In speaking of androgen's we should also mention that this
helps explain why some trans men undergoing testosterone therapy may
(17:33):
develop mild to severe acne. There was an article about
this in Life Science not too long ago, because there
are now more studies being conducted um and the doctors
found that a lot of times testosterone therapy related acne
will lesson after six months. But within this study they
(17:56):
were looking at trans men who had had a really,
really hard time with major acne flare ups that weren't
going away. But the good news is is that as
a Life Science article underscored, a majority of the transman
in this study didn't have any trouble with acne at all.
But if you are having issues with acne, then it's
(18:17):
those those androgens, and they're sebum scala wagging. Yeah, that
that's a thing. I hate that scala wagging. Yea. And
of course when it comes to hormonal acne, we probably
think about our periods. It's very common for women to
(18:39):
develop acne as a side effect of say p MS
in the time leading up to menstruation. And yes, indeed,
pimples do happen when your period is a common oh yeah,
but that's not the only like hormonal fluctuation that many
women experience that can lead to acne. Because it's like, basically,
(19:01):
when it comes to hormones and acne, we are not
going to get a break really ever, because during our
reproductive years, periods will lead to regular flare ups for
a lot of women. But then even when you're not
having a period, because say you're pregnant, that doesn't guarantee
that your acne will go away either. It's a total crapshoot.
(19:22):
If you are expecting, uh, it's it's totally random whether
you will end up with glowing, that pregnancy glow you
know that everyone talks about, or pimples or absolutely no
skin changes. And it's seriously between those three, it's it's
an equal opportunity, like you're gonna get sits or not,
(19:42):
or have a glow or not. But it's worth mentioning
that ret retinoids, things like accutane, retina, those are off
the table if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. They are
not good for libaby. And as we mentioned, even after
our reproductive or has passed and we enter into paramenopause,
(20:03):
acne comes back around again because during that period our
estrogen drops, but the androgen levels stay the same. So
estrogen actually helps, I guess, kind of regulate our stephen
production a little bit more. But estrogens the bouncer, Yeah,
thanks a lot, estrogen. That's the thing. I feel like
estrogen gets such a bad rap all the time. Whereas
(20:26):
you know what, Andrew is not the point any fingers
at any hormones, but she is literally pointing a finger.
But I'm pointing a finger to the corner of this
recording studio through the androgen sang out where I'm assuming
with their hats and their vespas. Yeah. There, I imagine
they're all like clumped together, like looking over their shoulders
at you, like sadly revving their little vespa engines, the
(20:47):
little packs of cigarettes rolled up in their shirt sleeves.
Those androgens. Um. So yeah, acne happens for a lot
of women during menopause as well. So have we depressed
all of our listeners at this point? I don't know, No,
you know what. I bet there's like a whole fluid
y'all out there who were like, what are they talking about?
Because they are the lucky few who either like they
(21:10):
went through the hormonal stuff when they were in puberty
and they are in the clear now, like literally clear
skin now uh, or maybe they have not had acne.
Maybe it hasn't struck yet. It's true that could be
the case. But there's also I feel like a lot
of misconception about how common this is, because you included
(21:34):
my friend Caroline's pointing at me now, yes I'm pointing
at you now I'm no longer pointing at the androwgen
gang in the corner. But there have been so many
women I've known who have beautiful complexions and not a
visible poor insight and yes, I'm still pointing at you, who,
come to find out, also have issues with with skin.
(21:57):
And so I feel like this is so much more
more common than we might assume as we're sitting there
staring at ourselves in like the giant magnified mirror, looking
in horror at our black heads and white heads and pimples.
Oh yeah, so many like skin soothing masks. I have
one of those Tweezer men zip poper things. I'm you know,
(22:17):
and I bet, I bet there are people out there,
like aestheticians and women who do facials and all of
that jazz who were like, oh my god, a lay
person trying to pop around pimples. I know, I know
it's horrifying. I know this might be a team I question, Caroline,
but do you derive a certain sense of satisfaction from
popping a pimple? Yes? And I don't. I don't go crazy.
(22:40):
I don't try to, like, I don't want to gross
anybody out. I don't. I don't try to like go
crazy on things that look like maybe they're not ready
for their time to come. But yeah, I do you
know I can't be walking around with the white head. Yeah,
I'm the same way, I really enjoy popping a pimple.
And let's not even get into the realm of relationship
(23:03):
intimacy when you find yourself or the person you might
be marrying soon popping each other's pimples, because I know
for some people that's completely disgusting, um, but in my relationship,
it totally happens, and we're not grossed out about it.
And the look of horror on Caroline's days right now
is so strong. It's not pure horror. It's horror mixed
(23:26):
with hysterical disbelief, and I do mean the floating womb
type of hysteria. It is one of the when when
it happens. I mean, it doesn't happen all the time.
We're not sitting talk about face pimples sometimes. I mean,
I'll be honest. Are there times when my fiancee walks
up to me with like a gleam in his eye
(23:47):
and has seen a pimple on my face that he
really wants to pop? Yes, because he also enjoys bopping pimples.
And this is just a bonus, I guess of relationships.
I'm blushing so hard right now, by the way, and
this is but it's the least sexy thing I could
be sharing. Um, And I do worry sometimes in these
(24:08):
moments when we're collectively delighted over each other's pimples, that
is this intimacy gone too far? Are we sacrificing all
of the magic only for the temporary joy of a
pimple popped? I don't. I don't have an answer for you.
(24:29):
Only that's only something that you can know, Kristen, I
take it this is not a boyfriend dog girlfriend dog
situation to know. Well, the thing is, my boyfriend has
perfect skin, and he always has. I don't know. He's
got perfect vision and perfect skin, and I'm the one
who like had it was like wearing glasses in sixth grade,
(24:50):
couldn't see already and breaking out all over the place.
So I don't know what his secret is other than
he's one of those lucky guys who doesn't break out.
Who We need to get those two in the podcast
and share their side of the stories. But in the meantime, listeners,
we're going to take a quick break and we'll come
right back with some very entertaining facts about how people
(25:13):
used to treat their acne, which did not include your
Beyonce popping around pimples for you. So, Caroline, there is
a delightful aspect to this conversation. And it's not it's
(25:35):
not sebum, it's not our litle Italian bacteria running around,
but old school acne remedies, because the thing about it
is our concerns over our acne, especially as women, is
nothing new. I mean, think about going back to Edwardian
and Victorian eras how important a woman's complexion was, because
(26:00):
you wouldn't be wearing all the same kind of makeup
obviously that we have today. That it's magic, but even
before that, you had thick makeup being more associated with
prostitutes and actresses who were for a long time considered
basically a step away from prostitutes. So having a clear
complexion was of the utmost importance for so many of
(26:21):
these women. Well, yeah, especially for the Victorian women who
thought that black heads were flesh worms crawling out of
their skin. Yeah, we found this historical note over XO
vein and I love flash hate the imagery of that.
It's kind of hilarious. Um. But they would remedy in
similar ways as we might today. They would steam, but
(26:44):
they would also do sulfur treatments. They would alternate steam
and sulfur to clear out all those flesh worms. Come on, well,
now I'm picturing the little cockney worm from the movie Labyrinth.
Hello did you just say hello? Now? I said hello
and seen. Um. It's it's worth noting that in nineteen two,
(27:09):
sears was selling Dr Roses arsenic complexion waivers and the
ad is hysterical mainly and I mean this in the
funny way, not the uterous way. Um, mainly because they
super duper emphasize how safe this arsenic is, ladies, so
take it for those flesh worms. Unlike that poisonous our
(27:30):
snic right, these are snake waivers are totally fine. And
and judging by the number of advertisements that came up
in my very scientific Google image search, because yes, I
wanted to see how this was advertised, it was pretty popular,
this whole arsenic wafer complexion. So all I'm saying is maybe,
and maybe I'm gonna get my hands on Dr Roses
(27:52):
going a little eBay hunt. No, look, I get it,
like when you struggle with adult hormone anal cystic acne,
like you will try anything. And and I have literally
read women's testimonials saying such when you start googling and
land on message boards and things like that for women
(28:13):
talking about acne. I mean, these people will literally try anything,
and that includes things that are known to harm your skin.
So it's not so surprising that arsenic complexion wafers were
all the jam back in the day. Well yeah, I mean,
like and speaking to that, it's not just vanity of like,
oh well, my skin doesn't look good. I can't possibly
(28:35):
go out in public. But also the pain of cystic acne.
That's something that we didn't even get into, where if
you have really intensistic acne, even just hair brushing against
your face. Oh yeah, see this one right here. I'm
pointing to one on my cheek. It's like it's it's
shrinking down a little bit now, but when it first
popped up, it was really painful. I had to sleep
(28:56):
on the other side of the pillow face. My face
had to be facing. It doesn't matter anyway, it hurt. Well,
you know what else hurt? Chastity pimples. How about that
for a segue, Caroline, I love it. Um. I enjoyed
this highlight from twentieth century acne history that apparently into
the nineteen thirties, zits were called chastity pimples, especially if
(29:19):
they were on girls, because they were associated with both
abstinence and also masturbation. So there's always been this like
strange moralizing of acne as well, because for a long
time we i mean, it's always been considered kind of
dirty and by extension, a reflection of your moral character.
(29:42):
If we're going back into progressive Edwardian especially Victorian times,
if we're getting super waspy, Yeah, that's that is the
assumption that we tend to make about people with acne
that they are just not You're just not doing a
good enough job cleaning your face. And it's like, oh
my god, as any person who struggles with acne will
tell you, trust me, I am cleaning my face well.
(30:04):
And also the misunderstanding that, oh, if I wash my
face more, it's gonna get worse. Friend, you clearly don't
know how sebum works. Just pumps out when you strip
it all away. You've got to have some oil colon,
because then it just makes your face angry. Your face
is like, oh, you're gonna take on my oil? Huh huh. Well,
here's some more I'm gonna do a butter buffet coming
(30:25):
back dip some truth in that. I really feel like
I'm ruining butter for you. It's fine, nothing can truly
ruin better for me, even this conversation. But that whole
moralizing of acne, I think still affects us today because
some of the articles we were reading noted how this
is not a life threatening condition. You can live to
(30:47):
be as old as you want with it's on your face.
So why why do we worry so much about it?
Why are we selling out all this money? Why are
we going to these doctors? What's going on? Well, because
it has a psychological impact on us as well, not
to mention, yes, the pain aspect and discomfort, but there's
also the perception. We know that people look at us
(31:10):
differently if we have especially visible acne. And still I
think that lingering association of acne with dirtiness, Yeah, And
I mean I don't even know if you could call
it lingering. I still think it's like full fledged, a
full fledged assumption by a lot of people. Well, and
if we look at tabloid culture today and how female
(31:31):
celebrities especially are scrutinized. Reading up for this podcast, maybe
think a of proactive commercials where suddenly you know you
have like, oh, Jessica Simpson has acne. Okay, I guess
I feel better. I guess I'll buy these products. But
then you have all of the celebrity tabloid editions where
(31:52):
it starts without makeup, and it's always hyper close ups
to show that, hey, look, doesn't she look terrible? Look
at her, you know, discolored face and bags in her
eyes and her hormonal acne. Yeah, if you zoomed out
just a little, it should probably look like a normal human. Yeah, yeah, anyone,
anyone's face blown up looks a little strange. Um. But Caroline,
(32:13):
do you think that we are combating this culture at
all by the whole no makeup selfie trend? You do
see more celebrities, female celebrities choosing to take photos of
their acne. I know, Lord, for instance, is a big
fan of the no makeup selfie. I don't know. I
mean a bunch of beauty bloggers do that too. Show
(32:35):
more and more. I feel like they're coming out and
showing there before skin. Um, and I don't know if that,
I don't know what effect that really has. You can
be like, oh yeah, Wow, you've also got bad skin,
just like me. You're just like whomever. Uh, but then
look at how great you are covering it up. So yeah,
(32:56):
I'm kind of like, Okay, well, that's great to know
how to cover it up effectively. But call me back
when you've got a solution. Yeah, call me back when
it's okay if I don't cover it up. Yes, I
mean I'm not very good about covering up my acne
every day. I Um, I don't know, Like foundation feels
so heavy on my face that I just can't do it,
(33:18):
and especially since I have to paint my face on
so meticulously for making videos. Yeah, she completely doesn't have
a face. It's really weird, no face at all. It's
very strange. Point. Um, I just see I just see
the buffalo check shirt floating in front of me. Well,
what can we do with the faces that we do have?
Unlike me? Well, okay, so luckily birth control oral contraceptives
(33:46):
do help. They block androgen's which, as you would imagine
from our preceding conversation, do curb acne. Uh. And oral
contraceptives like yes and yasmin or two that were named
I used to be on there of those, I was
on Yasmin from the time I was eighteen too, I
think twenty nine, and my skin was pretty, It was fine,
(34:08):
you know whatever. It was fine, the occasional pimple, the
occasional period breakout or whatever. But when I switched from
the pill to the Skyla i u D which is
like Morena's little sister, my skin exploded. And that essentially
brings us up to today if you have the Caroline
trivia history um and so Kristin and I were both
(34:28):
really curious about that because we both use i u
D s and it's like, well, if one birth control
knocks pimpils out of the park, then why isn't this
other one? And it has a lot to do with
the hormone progestine. So Skyla, for instance, does not have estrogen.
It has the progestine leave on adjustal, which is derived
from testosterone, and acne is one of several possible side effects.
(34:53):
And of course, so if you have a copper i
u D which is non hormonal, it will not then
affect your hormonal acne, so you don't have to worry
about that. But I remember shortly after I got my
io D going to my dermatologist and being like, help, maybe,
what's going on with me? Why am I breaking out
like a teenager? And she said did it start about
ninety days after you got your iu D? And I
said yes, And she said I see it in every
(35:14):
patient who comes in with an I E D, that
if they are switching from the pill to the iu D,
that they end up experiencing hormonal acne. Not that the
iu D causes it necessarily, more that I think if
you were already prone to it for whatever hormonal or
environmental reason, that the iu D then because it doesn't
have estrogen, because it has a progestine that's made from testosterone,
(35:39):
that it's just going to sort of be a little
boost to your natural acne inclinations. Well, and that explains
why I now have issues with hormonal acne as well,
because I've had my Marina iu D going on six
years now, and because of that, partially uh I now
go to a dermatologist who has described me retine cream
(36:02):
and retin a cream has been kind of like the
wonder drug of adult acne um. And the way retin
a cream works is by causing our skin cells to
divide more rapidly and making them less likely to clog,
so in that whole zip production, it's sort of um
makes it harder for all that gunk to get stuck
(36:25):
in those clogged pores as well, And the American Academy
of Dermatology said in acne patients of any age, dermatologists
considered topical retinoids, which are medications that contained vitamin A derivatives,
the first line therapy for mint to moderate inflammatory acne
accompanied by blackheads and white heads. So basically it's the
(36:47):
go to thing. Yeah, well, I have not tried retina
as an adult. It was one of the thousands upon
hundreds of millions of products I tried as a teenager
when I was breaking out so badly. But back then
it was super harsh on my skin, and my skin
was always red and inflamed. I didn't have anyone telling
me like they do in every women's magazine now that like,
if you're going to use a retinal product to maybe
(37:10):
break it up, maybe use it every other day or
every two days, rather than using it every single day
right out of the gate um I have started using.
He has an extremely overprized retinal night cream that I
got at Sephora, which and we'll see how that goes.
So I have no idea. Yeah. I mean that's the
thing about retina. It whether you are gradually doing it
(37:32):
or not, it will make your skin worse before it
gets better. So that's a fun thing when you go
to the dermatologist because you're so fun up with your
acne and you want to do something about it, and
she'll be like, oh, this will make it perfect, but
first you're gonna look even worse for like six weeks.
Don't worry. But my newest the newest item in my
(37:52):
acne arsenal is sperano lactone. Yeah. So this is a diuretic.
Actually was first developed in the fifties late fifties and
used to treat hypertension and patients with heart failure. But
those ever vigilant doctors noticed mainly because women were telling
them that it was helpful for alleviating polycystic ovarian syndrome
(38:14):
symptoms but also helping clear up these women's skin. Yeah. So,
the way it works is by affecting the way androgens
are produced, and essentially it blocks the receptors and androgen
cells that tell skin glands to produce more sea bum
and contribute to acne and the way I think it
(38:35):
was Racked Magazine described it was that it also mops
up excess testosterone. CA well, no, because I wrote that
down on my notes too, because I thought it was
so freaking disgusting. Oh, I just thought it was such
a delightful image of like this little janitor. I love
how we have such completely different perceptions. Let's bring in
(38:57):
more acne characters. All right, let's let's bring back the
mustachio janitor from Futurama. He can be sweezing spiralactone. Yeah,
he's mopping it up. Or or it could be I
guess the mops and brooms from Fantasia, the magical magical
testosterone mop. But you know what I've bed, If one
of our talented illustrator listeners could could make this cast
(39:23):
of characters like cute and adorable, then maybe acne wouldn't
seem so bad. You know, we just we could teach
how zits are formed with you know, just like fun, cute,
little little adorable people. Yes, send those to us right away.
I need them. But okay, well, so the thing with
this medicine, though, is that it's still has not been
(39:44):
approved by the FDA for acne prevention use, but my
dermatologist actually prescribed it to me. I did a little
bit of research and realized that because it was originally
a hypertension drug and I have incredibly low blood pressure anyway,
that it was not such a good idea for me.
(40:05):
And of course there are other side effects potential side
effects anyway, like the lower blood pressure I just mentioned.
Also potassium retention, increased your nation minstrel irregularities, and breast tenderness,
and some people all the internet also reported weight gain
and decreased muscle mass, saying that if you're an athlete,
you might want to just be careful if you're on it. Yeah,
(40:25):
before I was prescribed, I had to get in e
k G to make sure that my blood pressure could
withstand it, and I passed with flying colors. Not to brag,
hashtag blast. What's your what's your normal blood pressure? I
don't know, like stressed over trying to relax? Okay, Yeah,
(40:46):
mine's mind's typically like a hundred over sixty or something,
So I felt like I just couldn't really afford to
have it drop any lower. But I don't know, maybe
if if any of you out there, I really have
low blow pressure and take this medicine. Just let me
know question, Well, do you have any interest in blue
light therapy because this seems like the newest hottest thing
(41:07):
because the way blue light therapy and apparently there's red
light therapy as well, the way it works is by
supposedly killing those propioni bacteria magnes. It wipes out our
vestpi gang. It doesn't get rid of your androgen's just
those pesky bacteria with the Italian accents. Um. Yeah, you're
supposed to sit under this blue light one time a
(41:29):
week for about six to eight weeks. And I did
a little googling because I definitely treated this research like
it was my own for my own personal problems. And
I was like, wait, wait, wait, you can get a
blue light thing at Sephora. And I started reading about it,
and a bunch of people, like a bunch of people
said yes, it worked, wonders. A whole other slew of
people said it did nothing. And then there was another
(41:50):
group of people who said it actually made their acne worse.
And so I tried to google some more stuff about it.
I'm sure that it works. It's supposed to sort of
help dry up that bacteria dry up that acne um,
but I didn't find anything in my very cursory glance
at Google that was like, yes, definitely, definitely do this,
(42:10):
and here's why it definitely works. I'm skeptical of it. Yeah,
it seems kind of like woo woo science stuff, but hey,
I as someone who has gone to an acupuncturist to
fight migrants. If it works for you, it works for you. Well.
And let's talk about some lifestyle tips as well as
we wrap up, because these don't cost the thing, just
(42:32):
like love and are really just healthy overall. And a
lot of this stuff many of our listeners have probably
heard before, but we'll talk about why it matters. The
first thing, regulating stress. The fact that my blood pressure
is stressed over trying to relax over always anxious um
(42:53):
promotes acne because the stress hormone cortisol gets broken down
when I get really stressed. Out into Androwgen's and they're
the andrew Gens again, and we all know what andrew
Gen's do. They ramp up those butter buckets. That's right,
gross um, But don't even think that popping out for
a smoke break is going to help you to relax
(43:15):
and reduce those breakouts. According to the Journal of the
American Academy of Dermatology, smoking itself can spark a breakout.
They found an association between smoking an adult acne, specifically
white heads and blackheads in women. But if you do
want to comfort eat, you can do some of that.
(43:36):
But the greasy food thing is not the issue. It's
not the grease. If we go back to our acne pizza,
that grease on the pepperonis isn't the problem. It's more
the crust, I know. According to the Mayo Clinic, studies
have found the dietary factories including dairy products and car
(43:58):
rich foods like some of my favorite things bread, bagels,
and chips may trigger acne. And NPR look deeper into
this issue and scientists seem to think that it's the
high glycemic foods like white bread, pasta, crackers, that highly
refined um food that leads to blood sugar spikes, which
(44:20):
then promotes the acne because blood sugar and tinkers with
our hormones, that of course will trigger see them over production. Yeah,
and and several different things we looked at in terms
of the difference between adult acne versus teenage acne. A
lot of these sources talked about the issue of drier skin.
So as you get older, your oil production slows your
(44:44):
your skin kind of even down in that regard. But
it is that drier skin issue that can contribute to acne.
I know, I've noticed with my own skin that when
the weather turns cold, the humidity get zapped out of
the air. I break out right at the change of
the seasons because it is that that dryness. But if
you'll drink in, that's also going to dry your skin out.
(45:05):
So wine and pizza night has been ruined for me. Yeah,
we'll replace it with um water and um water and
broccoli night. We could just juice. Go back to our
juicing podcast. That's what we'll do there, we go um. Yeah.
Alcohol of course contains sugar, and so that can tinker
(45:27):
with our skin and our hormones, and of course it
dehydrates us. And when it comes to skincare basics, staying
hydrated is really important, getting enough sleep, making sure that
all those moisturizers and potions that we're putting on our
face are non chomotogenic, meaning they won't clog our pores.
(45:47):
What else, Caroline, a lot of things you'll see online
recommend switching to those free detergents meaning scent free, die
free that are supposed to irritate sensitive skin less. You
should definitely be switching out your pillowcases and your towels
like every couple of days. I know that sounds ridiculous,
but when all that bacteria and skin cells and oil
(46:09):
gets trapped in all those fibers, you're just rubbing it
back into your skin. So do yourself a favor and
change them every couple of days. Well, now, listeners, do
you have tips on adult acne? And is this ringing
true for you as well? Mom Stuff at how stuff
works dot com is where you can send all of
your dermatological thoughts. You can also tweet us at Mom's
(46:33):
Stuff podcasts or messages on Facebook. And if anything, I
think that we just really need to take advantage of
the camaraderie of Lady Acne, because y'all it's a fact
of life. And now we have some letters to share
with you from you. I have a letter here from
(46:59):
Rachel and fonds to our episode on Lube. She says, Hey,
see and see I love the show and how you
both inform and entertained listeners At the same time, I
was really excited to see that you were going to
talk about lube this episode and was not disappointed at
your take on the subject. I never understood why lube
was considered so controversial, since in my experience as assist woman,
lube only helps and makes things more fun, whether I'm
(47:21):
with a partner or alone. I'm kind of the mom
friend in my group, and one of my unofficial hats
as the mom friend, is talking with my friends, some
of whom are a few years younger than me, about
sex positivity. I'm always advocating lube, so much so that
if anyone has a question about it, I'm the one
to turn to. Kind of a funny and unexpected role
to have, but I fully embrace it. I've used a
(47:43):
bunch of different lubes, but my go to is liquid
H two oh. It's a little pricey twelve dollars usually,
but you get so much use out of it and
it lasts a long time. It's glycerin and pair of
and free and vegan as well. Really, anything in the
liquid line of products I trust. The Slickid Sassy gel
is good for anal lubricant because it's thicker but it's
(48:03):
still water based. Since I used silicone toys a lot,
I just stick with water based leabes to be safe.
You don't want to grab the wrong bottle and the
heat at the moment. Another thing I wanted to mention
was flavored lubes. From what I understand, flavored lube is
only to be used for oral sex or external stimulation
because the chemicals that make the flavoring aren't or if
it's friendly. It depends by brand, of course, but it's
(48:25):
worth looking into a lub's ingredients before you buy it.
Those are all my thoughts on lube and the episode.
You were really comprehensive and I heard some things I've
never learned about before, So thank you for that. Keep
up the great work on the show, and Rachel, you
keep up the great work being you. Thank you well.
I've got a letter here from Lily about our hashtag
blessed episode or our episode if you're listening to it
(48:48):
before dinner. She writes, HI, longtime listener here to chime
in on the Lucky Girl Blessed discussion in the most
recent episode. I'm in college and still at an age
where I and most of my friends are heavily financially
supported by parents. When I see someone I went to
school with postal holiday or vacation picture or a picture
in an expensive restaurant with a hashtag lucky girl or blessed,
(49:08):
I actually find it quite refreshing because they're acknowledging how
lucky they are to get those travel opportunities. You talked
about lucky Girl and blessed as annoying because they make
light of the amount of hard work people put into
achieving things. I see that, but I also think it's
greating when people make it sound like they've achieved things
purely off their own backs rather than through familial help
(49:29):
and support. To me, the use of lucky serves to
acknowledge that, almost serving as a privilege check. I love
the podcast, so thanks Lily, and I think that that
is a completely valid perspective on that, because yeah, we
need to acknowledge where where our success comes from, whether
it's from ourselves or others. And if you have letters
(49:50):
to share with us, Mom stufft House Stuffworks dot Com
is our email address and for links all of our
social media as well as all of our blogs, videos
and podcasts with our sources, including this one, so you
can learn more about adult acne head on over to
stuff mom Never told You dot com for more on
(50:13):
this and thousands of other topics. Isn't how Stuff Works
dot com
Welcome to stuff Mom never told you from house toports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen
and I'm Caroline, and today we're talking about our zips. Yeah, ours,
just ours, only the zits on the faces of Kristen
(00:23):
and Caroline. Yeah. So I know you've all been waiting
for this, So strap on your seatbelts and get ready
for a wild ride as we just complain about how
we are women in our thirties who break out. Here's
the thing too, about this whole being women in our
thirties breaking out if it No one warned us about
(00:46):
adult acne. No, they did not know. I was. I
still at thirty two. I am still fully under the impression,
even though I am a woman in my thirties with acne,
I'm still fully under the impression that acne is nothing
but a thing that adol since suffer from, and then
you get to overcome it, and then you come out
the other side with beautiful clear skin and you live
happily ever after. And maybe you do live happily ever after,
(01:10):
but you might also have acne at the same time.
It's all been such a lie. It's yes, my whole
life is a lie Disney movies and acne, So I
wanna make a Pixar film out of that. Oh yeah,
that's so sad, because I want anthropomorphized my hormonal acne.
Please hangs out on my jawline. Yeah, these two on
my cheeks. I never so it's really weird. And we'll
(01:31):
get into it more in the episode, which is not
going to just be as complaining, I promise, But I
have two giant ones on my cheek right now, which
is crazy because when I was younger, even when I
was going through puberty, I never ever ever broke out
on my cheeks ever, only ever broke out in the
tea zone. And so now that I am in my
thirties and I have an I U D. I am
(01:53):
breaking out in like the strangest, most awful places and
I hate it well. And and the whole thing about
adult acne is how it is so different, like you mentioned,
from the acne that we experienced in adolescents in our
teen years, and doctors are still puzzled by the whole thing.
But you know what would be really nice as if
(02:15):
people could start warning us at an earlier age. This
is part of growing up. Acne is a fact not
just of middle school and high school. But you're what
what are we in school now? Uh? Work school and
career school run up school the worst. Uh. So let's
talk about adult acne, and obviously we're going to focus
(02:37):
on adult acne and women, because ladies, if you suspected it,
it's true, it is more likely to happen to us.
And if you are also suspecting that has to do
with hormones, you are probably correct, as we will talk about.
But here's the thing, and let this be a comfort
to all of you out there, like Caroline and me
who are juggling all sorts of retine creams and moisturizers
(03:00):
and clendomias and lotions in the morning and potions at night,
that acne is a fact of life for grown ass ladies.
That's right. And maybe it's stress, maybe it's pollution, maybe
it's a food sensitivity or something. Maybe you're touching your
face too much, but like Kristen said, like people just
aren't really sure why. And of course hormones too. We'll
(03:23):
talk about hormones. We've got to talk about hormones. But
you're in good companies. So there was a twelve study
in the General of Women's Health that looked at nearly
three thousand women between the ages of ten and seventy. Pause,
news flash, my mother who is sixty seven? How old
(03:43):
am I out? Yeah, she's sixty seven. She gets the
occasional ZiT too. Just prepare yourself. Anyway, they looked at
all these women between ten and seventy and found that
more than a quarter had clinical acne, while an additional
had wild acne. Yeah, and if we break down those ages,
this gave me more comfort as well. Within that group
(04:07):
of three thousand women, forty percent of those between twenty
one and thirty had clinical acne, twenty six percent of
women thirty one to forty had clinical acne. And yeah,
twelve percent of women forty one to fifty also had
clinical acne. So it doesn't necessarily disappear as we get older. Yeah,
(04:28):
and the luck keeps on coming. Women are far more
likely than men to have adult acne. The study found
that a disproportionate number of women develop adult acne compared
to men. So that's comforting or not, I don't know,
but you're in good company. Yeah, and there are two
(04:49):
primary types of acne. You'll either have continuing acne, which
is the stuff that started in puberty and just won't
leave you alone, or late on set, which is adult
acne that just arrives after you've you know, finally gotten
old enough to like drink, you can rent a car,
you can do everything, and then acne comes in and
(05:09):
it's like, oh, hey, hey, since you're all grown up now,
I'm also going to move in here, just gonna plant
myself right on either side of your chin for like
a week every month and just don't mind me, no
big deal. Well yeah, and then it just once it's
moved in, it gets comfortable and won't you know, try
to be adventurous and find something else to do with
(05:30):
its time. And so adult onset acne, this, this late
onset stuff is actually most common among menopausal women. So
just so many things to look forward to. Yeah, and
there are all sorts of hormone related issues that are
really common in women that can be related to acne
or promote acne as well, such as it being a
(05:52):
common side effect a polycystic ovarian syndrome, which will come
back to because Pico's was actually how helpful for doctors
determining more effective treatments for adult acne because it is
such a prominent symptom of that, and we looked into
whether acne shifts depending on ethnicity and really across the board,
(06:16):
it just happens. Now there there are questions as to
whether it is as proportional a problem for say, are
our pasty white Caucasian skin as it is for people
of color, because there does seem to be a little
bit of a variation. But if you're looking at dermatological issues,
it's the number one thing, regardless of where you are
in the world that people have treated. Yeah, and of
(06:39):
course once you have dealt with acne, that's not like
the end, that's not the end of the equation. No,
you have to deal with something called post inflammatory pigmentation,
which is those red spots that can linger for months
or even years after your pimples go away. And the
degree to which you suffer from this is genetic. You
(07:01):
can make it worse by squeezing or picking at those pimples.
And the highest rates though you know, we taked Kristen
mentioned a cross ethnic rates of of acne and adult
acne um. The higher rates of this post inflammatory pigmentation
are found among people of color and generally speaking. When
(07:22):
it comes to adult acne as opposed to the acne
we develop around puberty, it does tend to land in
different places. So you'll find adult acne on places like
the jawline, the chin, and the neck. Just just look
at my face. Yeah, that's where it is. Kristen. By
the way, listeners, Caroline is not riddled with it that
(07:42):
she is making herself out to be. She always has
a lovely complexion with Yes, my this broadcast is brought
to you by Makeup Forever. Thanks, that'll be if if
you guys just want to send me a check to
make up for all the concealer I buy, that would
be great. And so that jawline, chin and neck place
meant that you find with adult acne is compared with
(08:03):
teenage acne, which tends to pop up on the forehead,
the cheeks, and the nose. I really, I am so
grateful that I don't get like nose stuff like I
did as a teenager. Yeah, so there's a plus side.
It's if you've got to have it yet, it's migrated.
It's gone south to my chin. Well. What I've learned
(08:25):
though about treating adult acne and in our migrating black
heads and pimples. Is that the go to accutane treatment,
which is accutane is the brand name for is Retino,
and it only is effective on that teenage acne. And
this is coming from a fantastic article on adult acne
(08:48):
over at Racked magazine. UM and doctors aren't entirely sure
why accutane is only temporarily relieves adult acne, but surprised it.
I mean that only goes to show how it is
such a different beast. And that's another thing that scientists
are still figuring out, like how, wait, why why is
(09:08):
this changing? They know that it probably has something to
do with hormones, because hormones are the culprit for all
of our acne. I mean, calling it hormonal acne is
a little bit of a misnomer because I mean, it's
the fuel of all of our pimples. Really yeah, but
because it gets that tag because some of our adult
(09:32):
acne responds better to birth control and other like specifically
hormonal medications better, hence the name. But there definitely is
a lot more to it than just hormones, although of course,
as Kristen said, hormones are at the root of all
this stuff. Uh, so she mentioned Kristen mentioned the Racked
article that we read. It was very super informative and
we recommend that you read it should be over in
(09:52):
our source post on stuff mom never told you dot com.
But there's it's gross. I mean there's a lot of
gross stuff when it comes to getting pimples, and it's unavoidable.
It's your skin, it's turning on you. So should we
talk then about just how a pimple forms regardless of
how old you are. This is what happens when a
zip moves in where it's a little suitcase. Yes it's
(10:13):
a little white suitcase, little jaunty hat, and we're like
cut again. Oh that's just me all the time. Uh So, anyway,
you've got your hormones that are blowing up during puberty,
and that stimulates the glands and your skin to pump
out more oil or sea bum, which I don't know.
To me, that's a gross word. I don't know if
(10:34):
it is because of the connection in my brain with pimples,
but I just automatically think sea bomb and gross. Anyway,
So you've got your skin pumping up more oil. But
then when dirt, skin flakes or makeup cloggs those pores,
that extra sea bum gets locked in the hair follicle.
So if that pessioles sea bum clogging up your poor
does not have any contact with air, then it's gonna
(10:56):
stay white and you have a white head. Okay, cool,
But then and if the top of the poor remains
open and air does come in contact with it, and
the sea bum turns dark, which is kind of a
horrifying chemical process to think, for sure, all of us
is horrified. Yes, and of course the result is a blackhead.
(11:19):
But we haven't even gotten to zits yet. Because in
order for a ZiT or pimple, whatever your preferred label is,
and wonder for one of those to happen, you need
a bacteria called the propione bacterium, which sounds like a
friendly Italian bacteria. So now I'm imagining the pimple that
(11:41):
previously had this little jaunty hat in the suitcase. Now
now it's on a vespa is it very little striped shirt? Yes,
and it's riding up saying chow. Yes, I did just
steal an eddie as ord joke for our pimple episode.
You're welcome, well, our vesper writing Propio Bacterium acnes lives
on the skin surface and it like rides a little
(12:03):
vespa up to that clogged poor and it's like, oh, hey,
you know what I really like to eat for lunch.
Not a pizza or a pasta, but the sea bum
sitting around in that clogged poor. So instead of eating
the pizza's just sucking up the grease on the pizza.
And I'm making myself sick, but I'm kind of enjoying
the fact that we're now illustrating all this with pizza
(12:24):
and Italian Sorry, our apologies are our Italian listeners are
very frustrated right now. Um, but that bacteria, the propione
Bacterium acnes, is what leads to infection, causing the skin
to get red and painful and leads to the full
blown pimple. So basically, zit's happened because our pores get
(12:50):
clogged and then our skin bacteria has a feast. God,
I kindly, I didn't know you were so grossed out
by sea bumb Come on, you know what it is.
You know what I bet it is. Remember what is it?
Remember a long time ago when we did that episode
on Vagina dentata, Yes, and in it we explained because
(13:10):
you know, we explained all of the mythology behind, like
why people are so afraid of vaginas and teeth and
like getting their penises chopped off in the vagina, and
then we talked about the actual medically proven times that
people find teeth in other parts of the body, and
it's always accompanied by like when you when you do
hear these stories of like teeth or hair or whatever
(13:32):
being found in like a cyst, it's always accompanied by um,
subacious glands, sebaceous oil, sea bum. Yeah. I'm glad I
haven't eaten yet. Honestly, I just think a little butter pats.
Is that not helping? No? And now I know I
don't know if I can eat butter again, which is
(13:52):
probably good. I am lactose sensitive. It's so just a
little butter buckets, Caroline. Oh god, that's actually like a
really cute term of endearment. Hey, my little butter bucket
not anymore. Yeah, I know, we just ruined that for
me calling your boyfriend nackney face. So that, though, is
how zs happen. But let zero in on this hormonal
(14:15):
factor because this really does seem to be the key
when it comes to this acne that tends to follow
ladies faces around for essentially the rest of our lives.
Because what's happening to feed that sebum production that can
clog your pores and cause your little butter buckets come
(14:37):
on develop is not estrogen, No, no, no, friends, Estrogen
actually kind of a rad hormone in a lot of ways.
What's going on is a surge of androgens, which is
the class of neurochemicals that includes two star stirone. Well.
The thing about androgen's too, though, is that they can
alter the development of skin cells around the hair follicles
(14:59):
in the skin, and it seems like androgen's really just
sort of amp up that holds it forming process that
we just walked you through. Um, Because the skin cells
on your face that would normally shed and just blow
away like dust in the wind. Is that song and
everybody's head now, okay, cool, Um, they end up becoming
(15:19):
abnormally sticky, and they end up clogging up the hair follicle.
So everybody like I just heard the hum of a
thousand Clara Sonic brushes going um. You also, thanks to
androgen's get an increased amount of that propioni bacteria macnees
sorry Italians, uh, and of course more skin inflammation. And
(15:42):
it's worth noting that androgen's are present in men and
women alike, and a majority women with acne have normal
androgen levels. But with pretty much every dermatological source we
read for this podcast, it recommended that if you're experiencing
adult acne and you're a woman, then hormone testing is recommended,
(16:05):
especially if you have acne accompanied by things like excessive
facial or body hair deepening, voice, irregular periods, and all
that jazz. And it made me wonder why my dermatologist
has never recommended any hormone testing. Yeah, I wondered that too,
But like Kristen said, it doesn't mean that you necessarily
(16:26):
have so many androgen's. You really just could be that
sensitive to normal levels of androgen's. I'm actually pretty speaking
of hormone testing, I'm actually pretty interested. I'm going to
a new Indo chronologist at the end of December to
talk to her about my Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which essentially causes
all sorts of hormone wackiness because it slows your thigh
(16:48):
right down, which is part of the endocrine system, and
so I will be interested to see if she thinks
testing along those lines will be helpful, and if she
thinks that my endocrine system could having some sort of
negative effects on my skin, or if I should just
stop rubbing bacon on it. That could be a thing too. Oh,
the bacon treatments not working so well. You know a
(17:10):
lot of people on the internet recommend coconut oil, and
I was just like, I just you know, I like
bacon so because then you can eat it afterwards, right
then you can make a snack. That's very effect. I
don't actually like coconuts, so I went right for the bacon. Well.
In speaking of androgen's we should also mention that this
helps explain why some trans men undergoing testosterone therapy may
(17:33):
develop mild to severe acne. There was an article about
this in Life Science not too long ago, because there
are now more studies being conducted um and the doctors
found that a lot of times testosterone therapy related acne
will lesson after six months. But within this study they
(17:56):
were looking at trans men who had had a really,
really hard time with major acne flare ups that weren't
going away. But the good news is is that as
a Life Science article underscored, a majority of the transman
in this study didn't have any trouble with acne at all.
But if you are having issues with acne, then it's
(18:17):
those those androgens, and they're sebum scala wagging. Yeah, that
that's a thing. I hate that scala wagging. Yea. And
of course when it comes to hormonal acne, we probably
think about our periods. It's very common for women to
(18:39):
develop acne as a side effect of say p MS
in the time leading up to menstruation. And yes, indeed,
pimples do happen when your period is a common oh yeah,
but that's not the only like hormonal fluctuation that many
women experience that can lead to acne. Because it's like, basically,
(19:01):
when it comes to hormones and acne, we are not
going to get a break really ever, because during our
reproductive years, periods will lead to regular flare ups for
a lot of women. But then even when you're not
having a period, because say you're pregnant, that doesn't guarantee
that your acne will go away either. It's a total crapshoot.
(19:22):
If you are expecting, uh, it's it's totally random whether
you will end up with glowing, that pregnancy glow you
know that everyone talks about, or pimples or absolutely no
skin changes. And it's seriously between those three, it's it's
an equal opportunity, like you're gonna get sits or not,
(19:42):
or have a glow or not. But it's worth mentioning
that ret retinoids, things like accutane, retina, those are off
the table if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. They are
not good for libaby. And as we mentioned, even after
our reproductive or has passed and we enter into paramenopause,
(20:03):
acne comes back around again because during that period our
estrogen drops, but the androgen levels stay the same. So
estrogen actually helps, I guess, kind of regulate our stephen
production a little bit more. But estrogens the bouncer, Yeah,
thanks a lot, estrogen. That's the thing. I feel like
estrogen gets such a bad rap all the time. Whereas
(20:26):
you know what, Andrew is not the point any fingers
at any hormones, but she is literally pointing a finger.
But I'm pointing a finger to the corner of this
recording studio through the androgen sang out where I'm assuming
with their hats and their vespas. Yeah. There, I imagine
they're all like clumped together, like looking over their shoulders
at you, like sadly revving their little vespa engines, the
(20:47):
little packs of cigarettes rolled up in their shirt sleeves.
Those androgens. Um. So yeah, acne happens for a lot
of women during menopause as well. So have we depressed
all of our listeners at this point? I don't know, No,
you know what. I bet there's like a whole fluid
y'all out there who were like, what are they talking about?
Because they are the lucky few who either like they
(21:10):
went through the hormonal stuff when they were in puberty
and they are in the clear now, like literally clear
skin now uh, or maybe they have not had acne.
Maybe it hasn't struck yet. It's true that could be
the case. But there's also I feel like a lot
of misconception about how common this is, because you included
(21:34):
my friend Caroline's pointing at me now, yes I'm pointing
at you now I'm no longer pointing at the androwgen
gang in the corner. But there have been so many
women I've known who have beautiful complexions and not a
visible poor insight and yes, I'm still pointing at you, who,
come to find out, also have issues with with skin.
(21:57):
And so I feel like this is so much more
more common than we might assume as we're sitting there
staring at ourselves in like the giant magnified mirror, looking
in horror at our black heads and white heads and pimples.
Oh yeah, so many like skin soothing masks. I have
one of those Tweezer men zip poper things. I'm you know,
(22:17):
and I bet, I bet there are people out there,
like aestheticians and women who do facials and all of
that jazz who were like, oh my god, a lay
person trying to pop around pimples. I know, I know
it's horrifying. I know this might be a team I question, Caroline,
but do you derive a certain sense of satisfaction from
popping a pimple? Yes? And I don't. I don't go crazy.
(22:40):
I don't try to, like, I don't want to gross
anybody out. I don't. I don't try to like go
crazy on things that look like maybe they're not ready
for their time to come. But yeah, I do you
know I can't be walking around with the white head. Yeah,
I'm the same way, I really enjoy popping a pimple.
And let's not even get into the realm of relationship
(23:03):
intimacy when you find yourself or the person you might
be marrying soon popping each other's pimples, because I know
for some people that's completely disgusting, um, but in my relationship,
it totally happens, and we're not grossed out about it.
And the look of horror on Caroline's days right now
is so strong. It's not pure horror. It's horror mixed
(23:26):
with hysterical disbelief, and I do mean the floating womb
type of hysteria. It is one of the when when
it happens. I mean, it doesn't happen all the time.
We're not sitting talk about face pimples sometimes. I mean,
I'll be honest. Are there times when my fiancee walks
up to me with like a gleam in his eye
(23:47):
and has seen a pimple on my face that he
really wants to pop? Yes, because he also enjoys bopping pimples.
And this is just a bonus, I guess of relationships.
I'm blushing so hard right now, by the way, and
this is but it's the least sexy thing I could
be sharing. Um, And I do worry sometimes in these
(24:08):
moments when we're collectively delighted over each other's pimples, that
is this intimacy gone too far? Are we sacrificing all
of the magic only for the temporary joy of a
pimple popped? I don't. I don't have an answer for you.
(24:29):
Only that's only something that you can know, Kristen, I
take it this is not a boyfriend dog girlfriend dog
situation to know. Well, the thing is, my boyfriend has
perfect skin, and he always has. I don't know. He's
got perfect vision and perfect skin, and I'm the one
who like had it was like wearing glasses in sixth grade,
(24:50):
couldn't see already and breaking out all over the place.
So I don't know what his secret is other than
he's one of those lucky guys who doesn't break out.
Who We need to get those two in the podcast
and share their side of the stories. But in the meantime, listeners,
we're going to take a quick break and we'll come
right back with some very entertaining facts about how people
(25:13):
used to treat their acne, which did not include your
Beyonce popping around pimples for you. So, Caroline, there is
a delightful aspect to this conversation. And it's not it's
(25:35):
not sebum, it's not our litle Italian bacteria running around,
but old school acne remedies, because the thing about it
is our concerns over our acne, especially as women, is
nothing new. I mean, think about going back to Edwardian
and Victorian eras how important a woman's complexion was, because
(26:00):
you wouldn't be wearing all the same kind of makeup
obviously that we have today. That it's magic, but even
before that, you had thick makeup being more associated with
prostitutes and actresses who were for a long time considered
basically a step away from prostitutes. So having a clear
complexion was of the utmost importance for so many of
(26:21):
these women. Well, yeah, especially for the Victorian women who
thought that black heads were flesh worms crawling out of
their skin. Yeah, we found this historical note over XO
vein and I love flash hate the imagery of that.
It's kind of hilarious. Um. But they would remedy in
similar ways as we might today. They would steam, but
(26:44):
they would also do sulfur treatments. They would alternate steam
and sulfur to clear out all those flesh worms. Come on, well,
now I'm picturing the little cockney worm from the movie Labyrinth.
Hello did you just say hello? Now? I said hello
and seen. Um. It's it's worth noting that in nineteen two,
(27:09):
sears was selling Dr Roses arsenic complexion waivers and the
ad is hysterical mainly and I mean this in the
funny way, not the uterous way. Um, mainly because they
super duper emphasize how safe this arsenic is, ladies, so
take it for those flesh worms. Unlike that poisonous our
(27:30):
snic right, these are snake waivers are totally fine. And
and judging by the number of advertisements that came up
in my very scientific Google image search, because yes, I
wanted to see how this was advertised, it was pretty popular,
this whole arsenic wafer complexion. So all I'm saying is maybe,
and maybe I'm gonna get my hands on Dr Roses
(27:52):
going a little eBay hunt. No, look, I get it,
like when you struggle with adult hormone anal cystic acne,
like you will try anything. And and I have literally
read women's testimonials saying such when you start googling and
land on message boards and things like that for women
(28:13):
talking about acne. I mean, these people will literally try anything,
and that includes things that are known to harm your skin.
So it's not so surprising that arsenic complexion wafers were
all the jam back in the day. Well yeah, I mean,
like and speaking to that, it's not just vanity of like,
oh well, my skin doesn't look good. I can't possibly
(28:35):
go out in public. But also the pain of cystic acne.
That's something that we didn't even get into, where if
you have really intensistic acne, even just hair brushing against
your face. Oh yeah, see this one right here. I'm
pointing to one on my cheek. It's like it's it's
shrinking down a little bit now, but when it first
popped up, it was really painful. I had to sleep
(28:56):
on the other side of the pillow face. My face
had to be facing. It doesn't matter anyway, it hurt. Well,
you know what else hurt? Chastity pimples. How about that
for a segue, Caroline, I love it. Um. I enjoyed
this highlight from twentieth century acne history that apparently into
the nineteen thirties, zits were called chastity pimples, especially if
(29:19):
they were on girls, because they were associated with both
abstinence and also masturbation. So there's always been this like
strange moralizing of acne as well, because for a long
time we i mean, it's always been considered kind of
dirty and by extension, a reflection of your moral character.
(29:42):
If we're going back into progressive Edwardian especially Victorian times,
if we're getting super waspy, Yeah, that's that is the
assumption that we tend to make about people with acne
that they are just not You're just not doing a
good enough job cleaning your face. And it's like, oh
my god, as any person who struggles with acne will
tell you, trust me, I am cleaning my face well.
(30:04):
And also the misunderstanding that, oh, if I wash my
face more, it's gonna get worse. Friend, you clearly don't
know how sebum works. Just pumps out when you strip
it all away. You've got to have some oil colon,
because then it just makes your face angry. Your face
is like, oh, you're gonna take on my oil? Huh huh. Well,
here's some more I'm gonna do a butter buffet coming
(30:25):
back dip some truth in that. I really feel like
I'm ruining butter for you. It's fine, nothing can truly
ruin better for me, even this conversation. But that whole
moralizing of acne, I think still affects us today because
some of the articles we were reading noted how this
is not a life threatening condition. You can live to
(30:47):
be as old as you want with it's on your face.
So why why do we worry so much about it?
Why are we selling out all this money? Why are
we going to these doctors? What's going on? Well, because
it has a psychological impact on us as well, not
to mention, yes, the pain aspect and discomfort, but there's
also the perception. We know that people look at us
(31:10):
differently if we have especially visible acne. And still I
think that lingering association of acne with dirtiness, Yeah, And
I mean I don't even know if you could call
it lingering. I still think it's like full fledged, a
full fledged assumption by a lot of people. Well, and
if we look at tabloid culture today and how female
(31:31):
celebrities especially are scrutinized. Reading up for this podcast, maybe
think a of proactive commercials where suddenly you know you
have like, oh, Jessica Simpson has acne. Okay, I guess
I feel better. I guess I'll buy these products. But
then you have all of the celebrity tabloid editions where
(31:52):
it starts without makeup, and it's always hyper close ups
to show that, hey, look, doesn't she look terrible? Look
at her, you know, discolored face and bags in her
eyes and her hormonal acne. Yeah, if you zoomed out
just a little, it should probably look like a normal human. Yeah, yeah, anyone,
anyone's face blown up looks a little strange. Um. But Caroline,
(32:13):
do you think that we are combating this culture at
all by the whole no makeup selfie trend? You do
see more celebrities, female celebrities choosing to take photos of
their acne. I know, Lord, for instance, is a big
fan of the no makeup selfie. I don't know. I
mean a bunch of beauty bloggers do that too. Show
(32:35):
more and more. I feel like they're coming out and
showing there before skin. Um, and I don't know if that,
I don't know what effect that really has. You can
be like, oh yeah, Wow, you've also got bad skin,
just like me. You're just like whomever. Uh, but then
look at how great you are covering it up. So yeah,
(32:56):
I'm kind of like, Okay, well, that's great to know
how to cover it up effectively. But call me back
when you've got a solution. Yeah, call me back when
it's okay if I don't cover it up. Yes, I
mean I'm not very good about covering up my acne
every day. I Um, I don't know, Like foundation feels
so heavy on my face that I just can't do it,
(33:18):
and especially since I have to paint my face on
so meticulously for making videos. Yeah, she completely doesn't have
a face. It's really weird, no face at all. It's
very strange. Point. Um, I just see I just see
the buffalo check shirt floating in front of me. Well,
what can we do with the faces that we do have?
Unlike me? Well, okay, so luckily birth control oral contraceptives
(33:46):
do help. They block androgen's which, as you would imagine
from our preceding conversation, do curb acne. Uh. And oral
contraceptives like yes and yasmin or two that were named
I used to be on there of those, I was
on Yasmin from the time I was eighteen too, I
think twenty nine, and my skin was pretty, It was fine,
(34:08):
you know whatever. It was fine, the occasional pimple, the
occasional period breakout or whatever. But when I switched from
the pill to the Skyla i u D which is
like Morena's little sister, my skin exploded. And that essentially
brings us up to today if you have the Caroline
trivia history um and so Kristin and I were both
(34:28):
really curious about that because we both use i u
D s and it's like, well, if one birth control
knocks pimpils out of the park, then why isn't this
other one? And it has a lot to do with
the hormone progestine. So Skyla, for instance, does not have estrogen.
It has the progestine leave on adjustal, which is derived
from testosterone, and acne is one of several possible side effects.
(34:53):
And of course, so if you have a copper i
u D which is non hormonal, it will not then
affect your hormonal acne, so you don't have to worry
about that. But I remember shortly after I got my
io D going to my dermatologist and being like, help, maybe,
what's going on with me? Why am I breaking out
like a teenager? And she said did it start about
ninety days after you got your iu D? And I
said yes, And she said I see it in every
(35:14):
patient who comes in with an I E D, that
if they are switching from the pill to the iu D,
that they end up experiencing hormonal acne. Not that the
iu D causes it necessarily, more that I think if
you were already prone to it for whatever hormonal or
environmental reason, that the iu D then because it doesn't
have estrogen, because it has a progestine that's made from testosterone,
(35:39):
that it's just going to sort of be a little
boost to your natural acne inclinations. Well, and that explains
why I now have issues with hormonal acne as well,
because I've had my Marina iu D going on six
years now, and because of that, partially uh I now
go to a dermatologist who has described me retine cream
(36:02):
and retin a cream has been kind of like the
wonder drug of adult acne um. And the way retin
a cream works is by causing our skin cells to
divide more rapidly and making them less likely to clog,
so in that whole zip production, it's sort of um
makes it harder for all that gunk to get stuck
(36:25):
in those clogged pores as well, And the American Academy
of Dermatology said in acne patients of any age, dermatologists
considered topical retinoids, which are medications that contained vitamin A derivatives,
the first line therapy for mint to moderate inflammatory acne
accompanied by blackheads and white heads. So basically it's the
(36:47):
go to thing. Yeah, well, I have not tried retina
as an adult. It was one of the thousands upon
hundreds of millions of products I tried as a teenager
when I was breaking out so badly. But back then
it was super harsh on my skin, and my skin
was always red and inflamed. I didn't have anyone telling
me like they do in every women's magazine now that like,
if you're going to use a retinal product to maybe
(37:10):
break it up, maybe use it every other day or
every two days, rather than using it every single day
right out of the gate um I have started using.
He has an extremely overprized retinal night cream that I
got at Sephora, which and we'll see how that goes.
So I have no idea. Yeah. I mean that's the
thing about retina. It whether you are gradually doing it
(37:32):
or not, it will make your skin worse before it
gets better. So that's a fun thing when you go
to the dermatologist because you're so fun up with your
acne and you want to do something about it, and
she'll be like, oh, this will make it perfect, but
first you're gonna look even worse for like six weeks.
Don't worry. But my newest the newest item in my
(37:52):
acne arsenal is sperano lactone. Yeah. So this is a diuretic.
Actually was first developed in the fifties late fifties and
used to treat hypertension and patients with heart failure. But
those ever vigilant doctors noticed mainly because women were telling
them that it was helpful for alleviating polycystic ovarian syndrome
(38:14):
symptoms but also helping clear up these women's skin. Yeah. So,
the way it works is by affecting the way androgens
are produced, and essentially it blocks the receptors and androgen
cells that tell skin glands to produce more sea bum
and contribute to acne and the way I think it
(38:35):
was Racked Magazine described it was that it also mops
up excess testosterone. CA well, no, because I wrote that
down on my notes too, because I thought it was
so freaking disgusting. Oh, I just thought it was such
a delightful image of like this little janitor. I love
how we have such completely different perceptions. Let's bring in
(38:57):
more acne characters. All right, let's let's bring back the
mustachio janitor from Futurama. He can be sweezing spiralactone. Yeah,
he's mopping it up. Or or it could be I
guess the mops and brooms from Fantasia, the magical magical
testosterone mop. But you know what I've bed, If one
of our talented illustrator listeners could could make this cast
(39:23):
of characters like cute and adorable, then maybe acne wouldn't
seem so bad. You know, we just we could teach
how zits are formed with you know, just like fun, cute,
little little adorable people. Yes, send those to us right away.
I need them. But okay, well, so the thing with
this medicine, though, is that it's still has not been
(39:44):
approved by the FDA for acne prevention use, but my
dermatologist actually prescribed it to me. I did a little
bit of research and realized that because it was originally
a hypertension drug and I have incredibly low blood pressure anyway,
that it was not such a good idea for me.
(40:05):
And of course there are other side effects potential side
effects anyway, like the lower blood pressure I just mentioned.
Also potassium retention, increased your nation minstrel irregularities, and breast tenderness,
and some people all the internet also reported weight gain
and decreased muscle mass, saying that if you're an athlete,
you might want to just be careful if you're on it. Yeah,
(40:25):
before I was prescribed, I had to get in e
k G to make sure that my blood pressure could
withstand it, and I passed with flying colors. Not to brag,
hashtag blast. What's your what's your normal blood pressure? I
don't know, like stressed over trying to relax? Okay, Yeah,
(40:46):
mine's mind's typically like a hundred over sixty or something,
So I felt like I just couldn't really afford to
have it drop any lower. But I don't know, maybe
if if any of you out there, I really have
low blow pressure and take this medicine. Just let me
know question, Well, do you have any interest in blue
light therapy because this seems like the newest hottest thing
(41:07):
because the way blue light therapy and apparently there's red
light therapy as well, the way it works is by
supposedly killing those propioni bacteria magnes. It wipes out our
vestpi gang. It doesn't get rid of your androgen's just
those pesky bacteria with the Italian accents. Um. Yeah, you're
supposed to sit under this blue light one time a
(41:29):
week for about six to eight weeks. And I did
a little googling because I definitely treated this research like
it was my own for my own personal problems. And
I was like, wait, wait, wait, you can get a
blue light thing at Sephora. And I started reading about it,
and a bunch of people, like a bunch of people
said yes, it worked, wonders. A whole other slew of
people said it did nothing. And then there was another
(41:50):
group of people who said it actually made their acne worse.
And so I tried to google some more stuff about it.
I'm sure that it works. It's supposed to sort of
help dry up that bacteria dry up that acne um,
but I didn't find anything in my very cursory glance
at Google that was like, yes, definitely, definitely do this,
(42:10):
and here's why it definitely works. I'm skeptical of it. Yeah,
it seems kind of like woo woo science stuff, but hey,
I as someone who has gone to an acupuncturist to
fight migrants. If it works for you, it works for you. Well.
And let's talk about some lifestyle tips as well as
we wrap up, because these don't cost the thing, just
(42:32):
like love and are really just healthy overall. And a
lot of this stuff many of our listeners have probably
heard before, but we'll talk about why it matters. The
first thing, regulating stress. The fact that my blood pressure
is stressed over trying to relax over always anxious um
(42:53):
promotes acne because the stress hormone cortisol gets broken down
when I get really stressed. Out into Androwgen's and they're
the andrew Gens again, and we all know what andrew
Gen's do. They ramp up those butter buckets. That's right,
gross um, But don't even think that popping out for
a smoke break is going to help you to relax
(43:15):
and reduce those breakouts. According to the Journal of the
American Academy of Dermatology, smoking itself can spark a breakout.
They found an association between smoking an adult acne, specifically
white heads and blackheads in women. But if you do
want to comfort eat, you can do some of that.
(43:36):
But the greasy food thing is not the issue. It's
not the grease. If we go back to our acne pizza,
that grease on the pepperonis isn't the problem. It's more
the crust, I know. According to the Mayo Clinic, studies
have found the dietary factories including dairy products and car
(43:58):
rich foods like some of my favorite things bread, bagels,
and chips may trigger acne. And NPR look deeper into
this issue and scientists seem to think that it's the
high glycemic foods like white bread, pasta, crackers, that highly
refined um food that leads to blood sugar spikes, which
(44:20):
then promotes the acne because blood sugar and tinkers with
our hormones, that of course will trigger see them over production. Yeah,
and and several different things we looked at in terms
of the difference between adult acne versus teenage acne. A
lot of these sources talked about the issue of drier skin.
So as you get older, your oil production slows your
(44:44):
your skin kind of even down in that regard. But
it is that drier skin issue that can contribute to acne.
I know, I've noticed with my own skin that when
the weather turns cold, the humidity get zapped out of
the air. I break out right at the change of
the seasons because it is that that dryness. But if
you'll drink in, that's also going to dry your skin out.
(45:05):
So wine and pizza night has been ruined for me. Yeah,
we'll replace it with um water and um water and
broccoli night. We could just juice. Go back to our
juicing podcast. That's what we'll do there, we go um. Yeah.
Alcohol of course contains sugar, and so that can tinker
(45:27):
with our skin and our hormones, and of course it
dehydrates us. And when it comes to skincare basics, staying
hydrated is really important, getting enough sleep, making sure that
all those moisturizers and potions that we're putting on our
face are non chomotogenic, meaning they won't clog our pores.
(45:47):
What else, Caroline, a lot of things you'll see online
recommend switching to those free detergents meaning scent free, die
free that are supposed to irritate sensitive skin less. You
should definitely be switching out your pillowcases and your towels
like every couple of days. I know that sounds ridiculous,
but when all that bacteria and skin cells and oil
(46:09):
gets trapped in all those fibers, you're just rubbing it
back into your skin. So do yourself a favor and
change them every couple of days. Well, now, listeners, do
you have tips on adult acne? And is this ringing
true for you as well? Mom Stuff at how stuff
works dot com is where you can send all of
your dermatological thoughts. You can also tweet us at Mom's
(46:33):
Stuff podcasts or messages on Facebook. And if anything, I
think that we just really need to take advantage of
the camaraderie of Lady Acne, because y'all it's a fact
of life. And now we have some letters to share
with you from you. I have a letter here from
(46:59):
Rachel and fonds to our episode on Lube. She says, Hey,
see and see I love the show and how you
both inform and entertained listeners At the same time, I
was really excited to see that you were going to
talk about lube this episode and was not disappointed at
your take on the subject. I never understood why lube
was considered so controversial, since in my experience as assist woman,
lube only helps and makes things more fun, whether I'm
(47:21):
with a partner or alone. I'm kind of the mom
friend in my group, and one of my unofficial hats
as the mom friend, is talking with my friends, some
of whom are a few years younger than me, about
sex positivity. I'm always advocating lube, so much so that
if anyone has a question about it, I'm the one
to turn to. Kind of a funny and unexpected role
to have, but I fully embrace it. I've used a
(47:43):
bunch of different lubes, but my go to is liquid
H two oh. It's a little pricey twelve dollars usually,
but you get so much use out of it and
it lasts a long time. It's glycerin and pair of
and free and vegan as well. Really, anything in the
liquid line of products I trust. The Slickid Sassy gel
is good for anal lubricant because it's thicker but it's
(48:03):
still water based. Since I used silicone toys a lot,
I just stick with water based leabes to be safe.
You don't want to grab the wrong bottle and the
heat at the moment. Another thing I wanted to mention
was flavored lubes. From what I understand, flavored lube is
only to be used for oral sex or external stimulation
because the chemicals that make the flavoring aren't or if
it's friendly. It depends by brand, of course, but it's
(48:25):
worth looking into a lub's ingredients before you buy it.
Those are all my thoughts on lube and the episode.
You were really comprehensive and I heard some things I've
never learned about before, So thank you for that. Keep
up the great work on the show, and Rachel, you
keep up the great work being you. Thank you well.
I've got a letter here from Lily about our hashtag
blessed episode or our episode if you're listening to it
(48:48):
before dinner. She writes, HI, longtime listener here to chime
in on the Lucky Girl Blessed discussion in the most
recent episode. I'm in college and still at an age
where I and most of my friends are heavily financially
supported by parents. When I see someone I went to
school with postal holiday or vacation picture or a picture
in an expensive restaurant with a hashtag lucky girl or blessed,
(49:08):
I actually find it quite refreshing because they're acknowledging how
lucky they are to get those travel opportunities. You talked
about lucky Girl and blessed as annoying because they make
light of the amount of hard work people put into
achieving things. I see that, but I also think it's
greating when people make it sound like they've achieved things
purely off their own backs rather than through familial help
(49:29):
and support. To me, the use of lucky serves to
acknowledge that, almost serving as a privilege check. I love
the podcast, so thanks Lily, and I think that that
is a completely valid perspective on that, because yeah, we
need to acknowledge where where our success comes from, whether
it's from ourselves or others. And if you have letters
(49:50):
to share with us, Mom stufft House Stuffworks dot Com
is our email address and for links all of our
social media as well as all of our blogs, videos
and podcasts with our sources, including this one, so you
can learn more about adult acne head on over to
stuff mom Never told You dot com for more on
(50:13):
this and thousands of other topics. Isn't how Stuff Works
dot com
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