Summer Shorts: Freckles

It's summer, and some folks are sprouting freckles left and right. But what are freckles anyway? How does sunlight produce them? Tune in to learn more about freckles, including the difference between freckles and moles.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?
From House stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Caroline and I'm Kristen and for this

(00:21):
this another installment of our Summer short series. We're talking
about freckles. And before you get up angrily and say
this has nothing to do with summer, think about it. It
It obviously does. When you are exposed to sunshine, my friends,
you get freckles. And I had asked Kristen, we were
talking about this topic, and I was like, you know,
I'm very pale, but I'm not very frankly. But in

(00:42):
the summer, I do get a lot of freckles on
my hands. What's up with that? I am pale as well,
and not all that frankly, although on my left arm
I do have two freckles right about an inch and
a half apart. And when I was a kid, this
is totally off topic. When I was a kid, I

(01:03):
would look at these freckles and tell myself, if anyone
ever I think I told my mom this, if anyone
ever claimed to be me, But she wasn't sure, look
for the two freckles. Thank god you told your mother that.
I know. She was like, okay, okay, child, good, good job, Kristen. Uh. So,
freckles are also in the news though, and not just

(01:25):
because of UV rays in the summertime. Right, Okay, So,
back when we did our Women in Aviation podcast, we
talked about Amelia Earhart and how there was this expedition
going out to try to find remains or clues or
artifacts whatever, and the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery
did find a combination of very interesting items that led

(01:48):
them to believe that she missed ear Heart had been
stranded on this island for a little while. And one
of the things that they found was Dr. C. H.
Berry's freckle ointment, which was market to women in the
nineteen thirties as a way to fade freckles. And it
contains twelve percent ammoniated mercury and point seven percent zinc oxide.

(02:10):
In other words, not really that's safe for you, but hey,
this is Dr C. H. Baby and the nineteen thirties.
And one of the reasons they think that this freckle
cream holds some kind of significance is because researcher Joe
Sernilia says that quote. It's well documented Amelia had freckles
and disliked having them. Yeah, sure, lock homes over there.

(02:35):
So yeah, you google Amelia Earhart and freckles, and it's
just page after page of the headline. Does freckle cream
point to disappeared so and so person? To be very specific, basically,
a lot of people are like, oh my god, freckle
cream Amelia are hard to make sense. Freckle cream. She
was there, she must have been flying with it. She
hated her freckles, that's to They were also like, I

(02:56):
doubt Pacific Islanders were all about removing their freckles. Now
it remains to be seen, of course, whether or not
this really was Amelia Earharts freckle cream. But in the meantime,
let's talk about what freckles actually are, because I don't know,
I don't know why people freak out about freckles so much.
I think that they're adorable, but then again, it might
be because you and I don't have a lot of them,

(03:19):
so you know, grass is always greener kind of thing. Um,
But the medical term for freckles are flds. I mean, yeah, well,
I just read it. I never know how to pronounce things. Now,
why don't you tell us, Caroline? Even though you can't
pronounce efilde or do a Greek accent neither, can I

(03:40):
please tell us what they are? Right? Basically, freckles are
just extra pigment. It's when the pigment and your skin
is not distributed evenly. And there's two types. Simple freckles
are small, harmless and found on areas of the body
that are exposed to the sun, usually the face. They
get darker in the summer and can come in a
range of colors depending on what you're own coloring is.

(04:01):
And then you have sunburn freckles, which are also called kristen.
You're the pronunciation person lenta gaines. There we go. They
don't fade in winter. They appear usually on the back
and shoulders. They tend to be larger than simple freckles
and sometimes have irregular borders. Now, speaking of the sun,
to answer your question, Caroline about why your hands get

(04:23):
so gush darned freckle in the summer, it's because when
the UV rays hit the sun are epidermist thickens and
melana sites produce more of that coloring. Melanin hence producing
more freckling. Right, Well, I actually have because I think
I have both kinds of freckles. I have the kind

(04:43):
that that are lighter and smaller and kind of pop
out when the sun hits them in the summer. But
on my left shoulder, I actually have some sun damage
from years ago, like ten years ago, that I just
got a bad sunburn, only on my left side. Don't
don't ask me. It involved a horse race. Anyway, I
got a sunburn on my left shoulder, and so now
I permanently have a whole bunch of freckles that are

(05:04):
a little bit larger than than your average little face freckles.
So be some. You've got some sunburn freckles, indeed, But
what you don't have going on is exodermo pigmentosum or
freckle disease. Oh that sounds is that dangerous? Well, it
causes increased sensitivity to UV light. It sounds like it
could be yeah, yeah, that's true. It could heighten your

(05:26):
risk of skin cancer. Um. Now, one thing that I
wanted to investigate in terms of freckles is why redheads
tend to have more freckles, And it turns out that
it's all because of the mutation in the gene MC
one R that gives them their naturally red hair. And
this is from research coming out of the max Plank

(05:47):
Society in Germany. They found that because of this gene mutation,
it also their genes carry a different kind of skin pigmentation.
It's called THEO melanin and stead of the dark melan
and their skin hair and eyes, and that not only
makes them more sensitive to sunlight, but it also in

(06:08):
many cases makes them more susceptible to developing freckles. That's
so funny. I had a h I had a ginger
friend who would never he was out. He had a
job like out in the summer outside and he never tanned.
He would just get a really really red nose and
just the freckles would just multiply. And it's all because
of the field milan in. Yeah, a little bit different now,

(06:30):
speaking of I thought this was a fun fact about freckles.
Speaking of genetics, they found that twins that have a
lot of freckles typically will have the same number of
freckles in very similar patterning. It's a long day of counting.
I know it pretty cool. I would if I had
a twin. I bet she or he would have my

(06:51):
two arm freckles, which would probably make it even harder
for my mom to the checks an impost sad good
thing about a twin. That is a good thing. And
you know, Kristen and I think freckles are cute, but
not everybody does. And so there are a lot of
ways out there to either fade freckles, hide them, prevent them.

(07:11):
And one of those creams that lightened skin contains hydro quinine,
but unfortunately creams with more than four percent of this
uh stuff may increase your cancer risk. So I'd choose
freckles frankly, but whatever. Yeah, bleaching the skin, it's not
something we typically advocate. There's also cryosurgery, which is when

(07:33):
a doctor will use liquid nitrogen to freeze freckles off
their laser treatments, photo facials, chemical peels, intense pulse light
therapy if you really hate your freckles all that much.
And of course the old wife still about lemon juice,
using lemon juice to lighten freckles, and there is some
science behind this, uh. The acid in lemon juice can

(07:58):
act as a bleat for your skin. Obviously, not as intensively,
just something like hydro quine on um. And supposedly if
you do apply lemon juice directly to your freckles for
a couple of months, you might see some lightning, but
that's only if you avoid any sun exposure on those areas.
Otherwise they're just gonna come right back. Yeah. And speaking

(08:21):
of sun exposure, if you want to prevent freckles, or
if you want to prevent yourself from getting more freckles
than you have already, common sense, avoid the sun and
were sunscreen. So I should be wearing sunscreen on my hands,
I guess, if you don't want them to be freckly
or ragged and old. But um, one thing about freckles, though,
is that they are usually not a sign of skin cancer.

(08:44):
You really don't need to go see the doctor about
your freckles unless, um, all of a sudden they're changing
shape and color dramatically. But usually it's more the skin
cancer is more associated with moles, right exactly, And those
are growth that have here in early childhood and the
first twenty years of life. And just like freckles, there's

(09:04):
no really, there's no nothing to be concerned about if
they don't change, if they do, you should definitely go
see a dermatologist. Yeah, and um, congenital nev, which are
moles that appear at birth actually might be more likely
to develop into melanoma than moles that develop after birth.
And then there are dysplastic nev, which your moles that

(09:25):
are larger than normal, which would be larger than a
pencil racer and irregular in shape. And usually oh Caroline's
pointed or two I have I have one on my foot. Yeah,
it's the size of a pencil racer. Did it come
from your mom? Because it's usually hereditary, and people with
these might have a greater chance of developing lignant melanoma.
I should go to the doctor. Have you gotten this

(09:46):
checked out? Oh yeah, I mean I've had it forever.
It's fine. It hasn't changed size or shape or color
or anything like that. I mean I have a few
other spots that I should definitely get checked out. Probably, No,
don't worry, not today. But I just happen to have
my foot on shoe your foot handy, I'm barefoot too.
Oh yeah, things like kind of day things that listeners

(10:08):
I'm sure wanted to know. Uh so freckles there you
have it the reason why we get them more in
the summertime because the UV rays hit our skin produce
more epidermis, which then kicks starts all of that pigmentation production,
and the pigment just clusters up sometimes. Please wear sunscreen, Yeah, sunscreen,

(10:28):
of course. If you don't want to get them in
just for long term skin health, you want to wear sunscreen, hats,
long sleeves to stay inside. Yeah. But the whole thing
about like removing freckles, getting like cryosurgery stuff. Man, I
really like the freckles. I stay embrace Embrace your freckles,
especially if you have a lot of them. I mean,
it makes you unique. I think they're like mine, like

(10:51):
my arm ones. I'll stop talking about my arm freckles now.
So that's all we have to say about freckles. If
you have some stories to share with us, I mean
people out there who do have a lot of freckles,
I mean, please tell us why if if you don't
like them, please let us know what you share, your
share your experience with us. Mom Stuff at Discovery dot

(11:11):
com is where you can send your letters. This email
is from Jennifer about the mommy War. She says, as
a working mother currently serving on active duty in the Army.
The mommy war is a moot point. I signed a
contract so my little bundle of joy wasn't an excuse
to not show up for work. A few decades ago,

(11:33):
pregnancy in uniform was an automatic ticket to leave the Army.
I'm glad it's not that way anymore. I can't wait
for my daughter to be able to understand and appreciate
the kick butt women I work with. I will say
that after two tours overseas, I found the first few
weeks of being a mom hard. At least, when someone
is shooting it you you can shoot back a little
screaming baby. Just try to do your best to figure

(11:54):
out what they want. The difference between a top, the
difference between a todd are and a terrorist. I negotiate
with toddlers. Thank you for your perspective, Jennifer. Yeah, thanks Jennifer,
and to everyone else who has written into us. Mom
Stuff at Discovery dot com is where you can send
your letters. You can also send us a shout out

(12:16):
on Facebook, Like us, follow us on Twitter at mom
Stuff podcast, and if you want to learn more about
sun safety and freckles, I highly recommend reading Freckles one
oh one, which you can find at how stuff works
dot com For more on this and thousands of other topics.
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(12:43):
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