SYSK Selects: How Acne Works

How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant that makes this stuff. You should know. That's right, doesn't it? It does. When we're in this room, one thing happens anger. I was gonna say magic, angry magic. Yeah, good, get out of the hat. I haven't seen that yet. The angry Magician. No, that's a great idea. Yeah, there you go. Angry comics. Yeah, yeah,

there are plenty of them, and for good reason too. Yeah. Yeah. Um, do you remember a while back we were writing a lot of articles that seem to share a common theme a skincare Yeah, I remember that too. I didn't write too many of those. I wrote a lot of skin care articles, Yeah, I did. Um, And I learned that I'm fascinated by the skin. That's good. Yeah, it turned out to be very good. Like, Um, you don't want to take too many showers in a day. You don't want the water you use in your shower to be

too hot. Um. Like, I learned these things definitively. Um. Also, the skin on your lips um is three layers thick, whereas the rest of the skin on your face is about sixteen layers thick. And they're actually translucent, which is why your lips are reddish, because it's just the mucous membrane underneath showing through. Ye look at that. Yeah. And you don't want to lick your lips too much because you're saliva contains the digestive ends i'me. Which starts to

break down the very thin and fragile skin on your lips. Yeah. I got chapped lips a lot from licking them. Stop licking your lips. I'm constantly just I have oral stuff. Bite my nails, bite my cheeks, bite my lip, all that stuff, all that good fun, stressy stuff. But you don't smoke cigarettes though, good for you. Yeah, I guess I chewed my face off instead of doing that. It's

a good looking face, thank you. Um Well, anyway, Chuck, I just wanted to say all that to say that I will be um very interested in what we're talking about today, which is acting. I'm glad you are. I am too, although I've never really got acne, so I'm a little less like enthused. It's so unfair. Let's look at this right here right now. Yeah, I have a big old white head rush to my nose. It won't go away. Like I was pressing it with my pinkies like I could, I could pop? Is it? I get him.

That's a tough spot, though. Josh is talking about the area right under the nostril and so paints that no man's land the nose kind of prohibits access like you want. Well, it's not just that it's very very sensitive and like I was pressing it in like my eyes are watering and it's still wouldn't pop. So I'll have to have you me do it. Yeah. Yeah, but um, I guess that's method podcasting. Following in your footsteps, Chuck, so um

you want to talk about acne first. I guess we should talk about the skin a little bit, right, And in the process of how, well, let's talk about the skin. Did you like Tom's description? I did, Actually, I think most people know by now it's the largest organ. But um, Tom takes a step further in a very buffalo bill way, and he says that if you skinned and all human, there would be enough material to make a four by

five foot area rug of skin was in found. I'm glad he didn't say how many like skin suits or lamp shades it would make, because that'd be really creepy. Area was creepy enough? Yeah, so, yeah, ten pounds of skin on the on an adult body, right, and then um, most of the skin, there's three layers. Is the epidermis, the dermis, and the subcutaneous layer, right, and the sub cutaneous layer. I think the dermist is the fattiest layer and the subcutaneous layers like the nastiest layer. It's like, um,

just have you ever seen hell razor? Yeah? Remember the woman as she was coming back regenerating. She regenerated from like the inside out. So at one point she's just like muscles and blood just above that is the subcutaneous layer. I think the epidermis is kind of gross too, though, because it's all dead. It is dead. This is one of the things that fascinates me about skin, All the skin I'm looking at right now on your like, I

can see dead, dead as disco, you know. We Yeah, so chuck your Your skin grows like beneath that outer layer, and it grows as kratina sites, which are new skin cells. Yeah, and it just your your skin is a constant uh, it's constant motion, pushing that dead skin up, up and up and out through the pores where they flake off

into your bed, making your mattress heavier. Right from like the moment it's born, when a cell divides, it starts making its way outward, and it takes what does it take about a month for a skin cell to be born and then make it out to the outer later layer. It sounds about right right to the tune of forty to sixty million skin cells per day. Yeah, forty thousand a minute. That's crazy. Are reaching the surface, right, um. And so they reach the surface and they don't just

fall right off. Um. Along the process, they die and there they become cornified um, which is and become kratina sites or cornea sites. Sorry. Um. And when they each the surface, they they provide a function for a while. They mix with sea bum, which is the oil we produce that I really really produce oily skin. Yeah, and uh some fats, what kind uh lipids josh leno leic acid. Okay, So they mix all together and they form water proof

skin that keeps out water. That's huge. Is why we don't soak up water when we walk around in the rain, exactly. And it keeps bacteria, which is why the skin is your first organ of um resistance for immunity. That's right. Um, So you've got all this process going on. Skin cells eventually do fall off and jump off and are sloughed off, and then um, beneath all that you have the subcutaneous layer,

and that's where the hair starts growing, right. Yeah, that's where you're gonna find your hair follicle, which looks sort of like just a little uh little tube with a little uh, a little rounder end. I would say it looks like a sperm, a sperm going in drop sure maybe uh. And that is where the hair begins to grow from the bottom up and it grows out of this follicle and collects on the way out see them, and which we said was oil. That's why I like, when you don't take a shower, your hair is gonna

look all oily. Yeah. And actually men I think have more see them than women. Yeah, and teenagers have lots of see them. Yeah, it's almost equal for among the genders and in tegers. Yeah, because that's why you get acne most often an adolescence, because we're taking you up through where acne starts, which is really see them right. Well, that has a lot to do with it. At least the hair follicle is connected to a sebaceous glaian like you said, which is why your hair seems oily when

it comes out. Um. And so you've got this whole um. You have this whole house of cards I guess just waiting to screw up. Well, they're trying to squeeze through this little poor right together, those dead skin cells that migration they make. The way get out is through the poor, through the follicle, through the sebaceous gland right right. So when you have a lot of them coming together at once, all these dead skin cells are trying to get through

the same door. It's like um three stooges syndrome from the Simpsons, remember Mr burns Head everything, but nothing could kill him because they couldn't all get through the door of his health. That's exactly right. So when you have too many skin cells, things start getting blocked and things back up behind it, and you've got trouble. Yeah, I mean that's one way it can happen. Uh, And they don't know why that the body would overproduce skin cells,

but hey, it happens. Yeah, do we need to know why? Exactly. Another thing that can happen You can have too much see them, like we talked about and and puberty, and puberty is when that's going to happen. Most likely bacteria, specifically propione Bacterium Acnes p acnes. That's uh found in acne lesions and and every type of acne that we're going to talk about they're all lesions, right and and um then inflammation right, Yeah, the bacteria causes inflammation. When

there's back up and there's bacteria, you're gonna get inflammation. Yeah. Tom put it like these were different things that could happen, and I'm sure they are, but it also seems to happen like a sequence of event. It's kind of like all of them. You've got too many skin cells backing up, right, so the sea bum backs up behind it. Well, this bacteria loves to eat sea bum, which causes an infection which makes you in front. Yeah. I saw it as

a sequence of events to alright, so chuck. There is a very long standing debate over what is worse a white head or a black head. What's the difference between the two. Well, one is an open comy dough and one is a closed comy dough. Do you know what a comedo is? I do. It's blockage. Okay, do you know what the word is coming down? Is plural? What do you mean? What word is? The word is Latin for glutton Okay, yeah, and it was. It's named after

a worm. You know how when you like do you pop as it and the stuff comes out and it's like kind of a thin worm like tube. Well, there was a apparently a worm that looked very similar to that that loved to feed, a parasitic worm that loved to feed on humans that was considered particularly gluttonous. So the blockage came to be called the commodo, which means glutton. Wow, isn't that weird and gross? Yeah? And true. Yeah, pretty much everything about this we're looking at acting on this

sub dermal level. Yes, it's gross. It is kind of gross. Uh. So white heads, you might think, like I just woke up and there's a white head on my nose. That just happened last night. Not true. It could have been a couple of months in the making before you finally see it like you might. You know, Emily calls them underground construction when you can feel it and you know it's coming but you can't see it or do anything

about it yet. Yeah, that's infection, essentially underground construction. Yeah, at some point, your your skin still started backing up. They didn't make their way out of the poor and you're in trouble. So white heads anyway, have an open commie dough black head. I'm sorry, closed commie dough black heads are open and the black that you're seeing is just melon and it's just our skin pigment. It's oxidized,

it's not dirt. The reason it's black is because, um, it's been exposed to air, whereas with a closed comito, um, there is no exposure to air. So everything stays white

just beneath the surface of the skin. And I had you you stopped me in the hall earlier and said, you know, I can't tell the difference between like a white head and a pustule what I found because you did find something, well that the American Academy of Dermatology says that it's really confusing, So like, don't feel bad, it is confusing, Thank you a They're they're all lesions.

But I think a white head, what we typically see as a pimple and a z it is the pustule, because in here it says the a D says a white head is typically a raised bump that's the same color as the rest of your skin, whereas the ZiT as clearly has pus the pus. But apparently that's not the hallmark of a white head. So I'm even more confused now, Thank you A a D. Thanks for nothing. Yeah, because I thought a white head meant it was the white you know, pimpley's it looking thing. So it says

hear that the same color as the rest of your skin. Okay, well, well let's go with that. Though, I mean that the white head is uh just it's just pressing your skin up, so it's a raised bump. Whereas if it looks white, if there's like a clearly a white part, what has happened is you're this this white head or black head um has collapsed under the skin and all that bacteria ridden see bum is now causing an infection. That's what a z it is. That's right, also called a pustule.

That's a pustule. There's also a papule. And they are a little small bumps um, a little firm, small bumps, and they don't have any kind of white right center, right, but they do feel like sandpaper apparently if you rub your fingers across them. Yeah, I get like little dry skin bumps in the back of my arm. I don't know if that's the same thing. That's not I don't think so. Okay, No, that's UM. I mean, I'm sure it's got a name. What is that called? What's what's

really severe dry skin called xema? Yeah, it's a it's a mild alright, Maybe I have exema. There are nodules which are larger and hard. Uh, it's um. A nodule is the kind of thing where you mash it and you mash it and nothing ever happens, and then it comes back and comes back because you're just breaking it down and stays in there. That was That was definitely a nodule, wasn't it. Yeah? Because I would I would be like and then like it would go away. First

it would go and then it would come back. That thing was there for a while. Yeah. Man, it kept coming back and then it'd stay for a really long time and to come back. And I was wearing like Turtle nick I brought Turtle Nicks back inadvertently, you are Dick laughing to change chuck chuck uh, and then superative nodules, Josh. You may think her sister boils and they might look like that, but sists have different traits, one of which is uh. The ability to contain a trapped gas, which

I thought was pretty interested, is nuts and pretty awesome. Yeah, so that means that's not assist. I'll bet that guy stinks to high heaven when it's finally released. Can you imagine yeah again baby acne? Uh? Yeah? Um? What is it called? Mila? Milia? Milia, sorry, Mela is the niece. I think the point here was you can get acne from cradle to the grave. Yes, sadly. Yeah, I mean most people, Um, tompsited something like eight of people get um acne, and we should say everything we just said

was a form of acne. Vulgaris. Yeah, yeah, I don't think we said that. Vulgaris is the Latin. I think for um common right, Um, most of us get it. It's eat out attend. People get it at some point in their life, he said, Um, most people, it starts stirring puberty and ends after puberty. For other people like me, it keeps going on here there. And I mean, like,

I take care of my face. Dude, I've got a regimen and it's still I mean, I can imagine it would be much worse if I didn't take care of Simpson. You are you over regimenting? No, I know what I'm doing, Okay. I'm going to see a dermatologist soon. I need to find one, but I'm gonna go see one just to

make sure I'm doing everything right. Yeah, there's not other steps I can take, but no, I mean I'm I know what I'm doing, okay, Because the only reason I say that is later in the article they point out that over washing, and I remember that as a kid. I I I think I went through a brief period where I got like a ZiT or two in high school, and so I got out like the buff puff and then neut regina for the first time ever and just

scrub the crap out of my face. Started bleeding, started breaking out, and I was like, well, I don't get it. I'm watching my face and it's breaking out. But all these years later, I have an explanation. You're agitating your skin. Yeah, I think, Um, I just have sensitive skin. Yeah, um yeah, But no, I don't use like soap or harsh stuff face. It's I take care of it. So a milia Back to the baby's. Babies can get milia. It's around the

eyes or nose, little white bumps. It's really common. If you're a new parent and your kid has this, don't worry about it. In fact, the doctor is probably gonna tell you the same thing, like, don't even do anything. It'll clear up on its own, right in most cases. Uh. And you can actually get that as an adult as well. Really sometimes, Yeah, milia. It's far more common in infants and I mean like newborns to um. The cause generally is that the skin cells are already dividing and dying off.

But um, the sebacious clans aren't developed enough to carry the skin cells to the surface. So basically when the doctor says just way to'll clear upon its own, he's saying, just wait, your baby will grow introduce more sebacious clans to handle this, and that's that. Well, that's good news. It's great news. Uh pre pubertal acne uh forms and children. This is this is basically when you're producing your your androgens, your sex hormones before you should be Yeah, like from

drinking milk. Is that what we'll do it too? Probably bovine growth hormone would do it. And that is that is when it's pre puberty, and that's in younger children, and that's something you probably should go to a doctor about, yeah, because it's I think they take it more as like a sign like, okay, you you've got this other stuff coming down the pike to like breasts and you're six, you know kind of thing. So it's just a big androgen dump in your body and your sabacious glance go oh,

we're supposed to start working now, I guess. And even the box little Timmy's only eight, right, I said six. Does it happen that young? I don't know, I'm sure it could. Yeah, I would imagine the younger, the more potentially problematic it is. That's the kid who ends up having the mustache when he's like in the third grade. With the six year old boy with the breasts and the mustache. What'd you call him? Timmy? Timmy? Actually I have a friend named Timmy. But my other friend, Jim.

You actually know, Jim did have a mustache when he was like in the eighth grade. Yeah, it was pretty funny, Yeah, swarthy Jim. Yes. Um? So what else, Chuck? Oh, there's rosasia. This is the one that that is pretty awful on Google images. Really yeah. Yeah. It can affect the nose, and you know it's everything from just redness of the nose too, horribly misshapen, bumpy nose. They can get really bad. Is that the nose where you see like divit's missing

from people's noses rosa. Yeah, I got it. Can't it can't get that bad. But it occurs in bouts, right, so you have, um, you can kind of tell that you're about to have about of rosasia because you find that you flush more easily and it's because your veins and the veins in your face are dilating more more, um wider. I guess that's it. Yeah, it's just triggers acne. Well, it triggers acne vulgaris or or a lot like acne vulgaris,

they said. And then I also got the impression from Tom that it's problematic that uh, and that people suspect that maybe you're like a raging alcoholic because your nose looks like that, like you have the gym blossoms, but it's really just rose asia. Yeah, and if you look up pictures of it, it looks like a gin blossom

or worse. There's I don't encourage anyone to type in like pustules into Google images because it's like that body parts come up that are have these things on them and might not be something you want to see, you know what I'm saying, Well kind of body parts. Oh, they just they had pictures of of like just out of nowhere, just like feat penises with bumps on them, And I don't recommend it. Okay, Well that's fair warning if I've ever heard it. Anybody who does go Google image,

what rose asia? Any any of them? Really you've been warned by himself. You're a dummy if you do it, yes, or you're on your own at least um. So those are generally the different types of acne, right, and their causes. Um, but we missed at least one. Chuck pizza. Pizza causes acne. No, it doesn't. I know it doesn't. That was play acting. I know. Um that is a is a And I actually did a little more research on this and diet and acne. Um. That's sort of been one of the

old things. They say it's like greasy food and a lad to acne, but most doctors say that that's pretty much a myth end of story. Although this this one thing I found says that theoretically there could be some impact, like diet has a direct effect on your insulin level, and that insulin is the master hormone and it has to do with hormone you know, production in a way. So in theory, insulin spikes could affect acne. And also

things that you eat. It can affect it in a good way if you eat positively like veggies and fruits and seafood h and potentially if you eat good foods that are rich and like omega three fats, like fish oil, it can be an anti inflammatory and so part of the problem is inflammation. In theory, it could help with that too. But you want to watch um like shellfish, they're they're high and iodide because that apparently can inflame actival garis. Yeah. So here as we say that it

doesn't impact acne, we're saying it does. Right. Yeah. I just can't believe that what you eat doesn't have any impact on the function of your cells. That's what I think. It's got to have some impact. Um Genetics is another big one that is I think probably UM it's overestimated the impact it has. Yes, the the genes that you inherit from your parents and how they express um, the proteins that tell your sabaceous clean is the function in

this way or that way or whatever. It's going to have an effect, but not as much as you know, if your dad broke out a lot, you're not necessarily going to write or vice versa. I don't know about my parents in acne. I don't either. It's a conversation that you normally have with your parents, you know. More, it's like, um, it was your dad bald, right, right, that's the big question. That's all I think we care about as men. Dirt is not gonna affect if you

have a dirty face. I mean, it's not great for your skin probably, but pimples and zis happened from the inside out, So dirt on top of your epidermis isn't going to really affect that, they say, and then make up this one, I don't know. I could see makeup definitely making you break out. Yeah, yeah, the wrong kind quite using that kind, Well, there's different kinds. There's a

hYP hypoallergenic, which means low allergenic. There's a non comedogenic, which supposedly says like this won't make your break out, so possibly cheap makeup. Yeah, and if you have Yeah, if you have skin issues already, then you should probably be aware of the types of makeup that you're getting. If you're a young lady or if you're a dude that's into that um and leaving makeup on without removing it at the end of the day, that can definitely cause you to break out because you're going ahead and

blocking the pores from the outside in causing backups. Yeah, Stevie Knicks said that on might have been Oprah, yeah verbatim, I was quoting he really now, she said. They asked her why she always looks so great, and she said that she's through all, Like even her drug days of being on tour, she never ever failed to take her makeup off at the end of the night. Stevie Nicks did drugs. Oh yeah, back in the day, big time,

I know. So, she said, even if she was on a bender, she would still manage to take her cup off. That is that's pretty good. Yeah, well she's the Belladonna and job stop and things like jo stop. Um. So, chuck, let's say you want to get rid of the acne that you do have, right right there, I'm good. You almost all those toffled over. Um. There's really just two things that regular old acne vol garris and not persistent, not a superative nodule type acne, but just plain old

acne vol garris um can be treated with. One is benzol peroxide and one is salacilic acid. Right, yeah, And those are pretty much it. Almost all of the over the counter acne treatments that you're going to find anywhere are going to have one or both of those, probably just one and Anyone who's ever seen like an oxy commercial has heard the word benzol peroxide. You know what were those pads? Were the oxy pants? Yeah, there was another company that had the pads. Sea Breeze came in

like that was like an astringent. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no, there are pads. I guess it was Oxypox come in like a little yeah, I'm taking care of And then you would look at it and say, look at all that stuff. The commercial benzoyl peroxide specifically kills the p agnos bacteria and it'll dry out your face, which can be bad. Yeah. You know what people drink that um, moisture in your face is what breaks you out. Uh, your face being too dry can break you out as much,

if not more. Yeah. Um, you want to keep your face moisturized cuts down and breakouts, kid, you know. Uh tea tree oil. Emily uses tea tree a lot to dry out a pimple and that's a good natural way to do so. Cell is silic acid. Um basically goes in and it's like um liquid plumber for your pores. Like it just goes in and destroys everything that's in that blockage and there you go It also takes off a healthy amount of the horny layer, which is the

most external layer of your dead skin cells. Horny layer. Really, look at you. Uh. The other thing that you can do, I mean those are medications you can take. What you really want to do is so gently wash your face with soap and warm water. Yeah, but again, you can't just use any soap. I mean maybe you can if you have like completely insensitive skin. Yeah, then sure, maybe you can. And you'll find out pretty quick what kind

of soaps you can and can't use. Well, most of the soap you get and the story is pretty crappy anyway, right, Like you you get what you pay for it with soap, especially with face soap. It's worth the extra few bucks. Uh. If you're exercising, you want to shower right afterwards. You don't want to let sweat be on your skin for too long. Yeah, you got backnee, your sebacious. The reason backnee is so prevalent because that that part of your body is lousy with sebaceous clians. Where is it head

or face? Back and chest? I think so those are three areas because yeah, SIT's SIT's what about the butt? That's something entirely different. Those are Those are just red bumps that no one knows what they are. Okay, uh, they recommend loose clothing, and they recommend chilling out its not being so stressed. Be a Type L personality, which is L the long allele on the s l C six A four gene, which UM basically creates this protein

that ferries serotonin out of the snaps. It basically turns it off, which is so that if you have the L ale it makes you you're a more laid back person because you have more of this transport protein. If you have the S version of of that gene, then you make less of the transport, meaning the serotonin stays in the snaps longer, which makes you high, strong, and kind of angry because it activates your amygdala. So Type A personality and Type B is actually Type S and

Type L sounds like somebody destroted blog post. Isn't that cool though? Yeah? That is cool. Yeah, I like to think I'm a L, but I'm probably less L than I really want to admit. I don't know. Somebody posted a comment on on Facebook when I put that blog post up, and they're like, not everything can be explained, so succinctly. But the point of the blog post was is like this one explains this soccinctly. Yeah, you just remove the comment and went about your day, abandoned from

Facebook forever. What else can you do? Let's say you got at me check and what can you do to treat it um? You can take antibiotics, either oral or topical. All right, and topical meaning like their current event type antibiotics. What about a chemical peel that works too? I would think that would not be a good thing if you

were breaking out. Is it's a good idea If you're going to do that too, again, show out the extra money and go to a professional who can tell you, now, this is the chemical peel I've done on your face, this is what's safe, this is what your skin can handle. And then you know, here's a product that that will do the same thing at home. So don't go to the place where they have to add on the subway. John's upstairs chemical peel and chicken processing plant an espresso.

Have you ever done a chemical peel? Really interesting? Yes, I've been known to get it. You come out like it is your face all red and stuff. No, it feels red, but it's more also like very refreshing, Like it's just it's so nice to just kind of rubbed like the back of your fingers along your face afterwards, because your skin is just like what you're doing is

just tearing that horny layer right off. You're getting closer and closer to that new layer of skin cells is just like but it's still epidermis, right, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you'd be in big trouble at the door down to the dermis, Like that's a that's a third degree burn. I think you know the second movie apparently birth control pills can can help treat acne. Yeah there.

If you watch the ads form a lot of them will say like and prevents breakouts like an extra bonus, Yeah, because it probably cuts down on the androgens, which cuts down on the production of um C bump, which cuts down on pimples. Yeah. I didn't know they had ads for birth control pills. Sure do they? Am? I just am I living in the in uh Amish country here? Why am I not seeing these? There's this one ad

I saw years ago. Yeah, it was really weird. Um first they had this version of it was like the cartoon version of this ad and then like that one went away, and then they had a live action version of the same ad, same everything, same everything, But for some reason they did a cartoon version, then they did a live action version. They released them one after another, but they were they were supposedly in no way related, and it was like, I think that company was like,

just how much are you paying attention? Right? How much TV are you watching? Yeah? Yeah, And at the time I was watching a lot of TV. So I noticed, Yeah, what about lasers? You can get them lasered, right, And I guess that's if you have If it's really bad, then they can actually laser your sebaceous glands. They say not to squeeze them though, which I think is kind of laughable. What do you mean, like not pop them yourself? They is Tom sheave pal. You can take that with

a grain of salt. Yeah, I mean show me someone who it doesn't pop their own zits. And and it says, in't here to make an appointment with the dermatologists so they can pop your pimples, right, really well, that's the only thing too, when you get like a chemical peel or a facial or whatever. The the the U not an estheticist? Oh estheticianian. Um, we'll pop all the zits on your face. And what's crazy is like, when you

do it right, it doesn't hurt these gloves. I guess, yeah, but I mean like this, the pressure they apply is minute and they're doing it like off to the sides of the ZiT and like you you're like, that was it. It didn't hurt at all. Like I didn't cry at all. So it's it's kind of good too, not necessarily good to the derma tall. Just you could go do an esthetician and they'll do the same all the same things. You'll learn a bunch just by paying attention while they

do it. I could Emily would never let me do that. Why because she loves to do it herself. Oh yeah, I mean she could have been an that. She has that gene to where she just gets a lot of satisfaction out of making that white snake come out. In fact, she's a little disappointed at my lack of pimple production in life. Yes, she would love me, you guyserfect match. Actually you mean loves me. She does it. Um, she

does it a lot too. She's kind of hooked. Yeah, a lot of girls are into that for some reason. I'm glad to know Emily is not nuts and that that's a normal behavior. For some reason too, I've never been a guy who's into that. Yeah, it's always girls for some reason. I don't understand. Maybe they're more into skin, skin care or gross stuff coming out of your skin. Maybe. So well, let's say, all right, yeah, seventeen million people in America every day on a given day have is it?

Is that? Right? Yeah? I think more than that. There you go, alright, alright? Which one? Well, I mean it's acne is the big word. Pimple. I just like Sam pimple. Okay, I don't like saying pimple. I think it's a gross word. You like pustule. I prefer pustule over pimple. I don't like it either. Yeah. Where we Yeah, we were on We were featured in the comic strip Zits. Remember that was very nice? Yeah? Yeah, and then you know what I need to find out? And I don't think they're

black heads. Emily calls them seeds because that it's like a little watermelon seed, almost like a little white spike comes out. I wonder what that is. I didn't find that in here. I guarantee it's the same thing you think. Yeah, all right, I think there's a very limited amount of acne. It just happens and it just kind of looks different or comes out in different ways, or if it sits in there long enough, it comes seed. You're um, well that's acne. If you want to learn more about it

and see some cool cutaway illustrations of the skin. Yeah, that was a good party. Actually yeah. Um. You can type in acne A C N E in the search bar at how stuff works dot com and now, friends, it's time for list of your medal. If I told you to hold on one second, would would you? Would you indulge me? Would you do me a kindness? Yes? Okay, Josh. We have an audio book that has just been released called The super Stuffed Guide to Happiness, available on iTunes.

I know you have to shell out. We promise, we think it's worth it. Um On iTunes, you just search super Stuff Guide to Happiness, right and it'll bring that one up. It'll bring up our first audiobook to um, the super Stuff Guide to the Economy. You can get them both there. But um, check out The super Stuff Guide to Happiness. It's awesome. Interviews in depth investigation of what is happiness? What makes us happy? How do we

study happiness? Great sound design. My niece starts the whole thing off with a nice quote from the Dali Llama. It's just a great little whirlwind ride that you want to listen to over and over again, all for the price of a of a latte that's your favorite. You're lucky. It's your favorite coffee place that you're gonna have to probably go through your your couch cushions to come up with the difference to get the latte. This thing is so cheap, that's true. Yeah. So um, there's our plug

and uh, it's time now for listener mail. Josh, I'm gonna call this email from an author that we actually referenced. Okay, he listens to the show. A uh mengalalaba, Josh, Chuck and Jerry, I hope you're having a good day. About three weeks ago, I was flying from Minnesota to yangone mean mar how you pronounce it? Yeah? Me and more. But it's post hounta Berba look at you. I really

had a pretty surreal moment involving your podcast. After downing as much free booze as I could, I was listening to episodes of your podcast, trying to Fall Asleep over the Pacific Ocean. Imagine my surprise when I was coming out of my nap. To the end of How Shrunken Heads Work, you were finishing the story of your dentist friend when Josh said, you've also received a Juma and Other Stories by Tyler Davis, which is a self published

book and pretty awesome. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Thanks for much, but so much for the shout out from Tyler David. Yeah, yeah, okay, it is good. Well, I've been meaning to write an email and thank you guys for a while. We've been busy settling in the internet. Here isn't exactly the Information super Highway. It's more like an Amish buggy. I'm teaching English and an international high school,

and I've already taught my kids what hinky means. I have no idea if that's how do you define that specifically? I would say hinky means uh, suspicious. Okay, see, I would say stranger than usual. Yeah, okay, so it could be three. There's three definititions. That's right. That's what hinky means is everything. It's like smurt Yeah, what the cuss. I had time to write you today because I'm homesick from food poisoning, which reminds me you to do a podcast and whether or not you can poop your own

skeleton grow. I feel awful You and the rest of the gang at how stuff works keep me entertained, educated and in high spirits. Thanks again, Tyler Davis. Well, thank you, Tyler. Thanks for the books too. You have yours. I think he sent us to Yeah Juma and other stories. Yeah, yeah, I got it. If you want, you can go onto the Stuff you Should Know Facebook page and post an Amazon link or something like that to your book if you like um. And also, I want to take this

time to correct myself. We've got several corrections. A fail safe, Yeah, fail safe is not something that you put that that's designed into something to prevent it from failing, like one prong being bigger on a two pronged plug. Yeah, it's it's I guess, parts of the design that make it so when it does fail, it fails as safely as possible.

So there's a bunch of different systems, may be that are redundant that that provides safety when it does fail, right, like the one guy said the lawnmower that you have to hold the thing to keep it going. Like if you have a heart attack and fall over, it will cease to run. Right, that's a fail safe. So you have failed, but you are safe from the mower running exactly, but you don't care because you're having a heart attack. Yeah, anything else bread but bread butter slide up now that

you know. I think the MythBusters are great, and I'm glad that they've had this incredible juggernaut run that they've had so far and continue to have. But I don't I just don't say yes. I don't think you can say, well, the MythBusters proved it. Well, shut up. Yeah, I think you have to also include one, maybe two um peer reviewed studies as well. That's show that this is right. Here's what I think, and I was not able to

articulate it. I think you spread the butter side up so it's sitting face up, and when it falls off the you know, the table stomach high counter, then it only has time to rotate half a turn and it will fall side down. If the counter were eight ft high, it might rotate fully and land it butter side up. It has nothing to do with weight. In other words,

I disagree. I disagree. I just don't see how it can have nothing to do with wit, especially if you have If one side is clearly heavier than the other and the butter spread evenly across, then it's not going to turn back over. You. If it does turn back over, then there was more butter on one side that caused the bread to flip over again. It's just not It just makes calm, it's common sense. You're gonna battle this one. I am. So that's why I didn't bring that one up.

Fail safe. I mean, when you're wrong, you're wrong, you know, all right? Boy? That was good? Well yeah, if you have any corrections, we don't want to hear but to acne um. If you have any corrections for us, or you just want to say hi, you can tweet to us any time you like. S y s K podcast is our Twitter handle. Where on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know, or you can go on any of the other Facebook Stuff you should Know sites.

They're fan driven. They're awesome too, agreed, Or you can send us a regular old email at stuff podcast at how Stuff works dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.