Are These Social Trends Harming Your Skin?
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About the Show
On this episode, Chuck Gaidica is joined by Dr. David Baird, chief dermatologist and director at Farmington Dermatologists. Together, they explore different skincare trends that claim to benefit your skin, but do they work and are they safe to practice? In this episode of A Healthier Michigan Podcast, we explore:
- What's the allure of skincare hacks that continue to surface on the internet?
- The basics of a good skincare routine
- Skincare trends such as: beef tallow, ice water facials, jade rollers, and facial steaming
- Best skincare resources
Transcript
Chuck Gaidica:
Can beef tallow really improve your skin? Does a jade roller really give you a glow? This is a Healthier Michigan Podcast, episode 138. And coming up we discuss different skincare trends that claim to benefit your skin, but do they work and are they safe to practice?
Can beef tallow really improve your skin? Does a jade roller really give you a glow? This is a Healthier Michigan Podcast, episode 138. And coming up we discuss different skincare trends that claim to benefit your skin, but do they work and are they safe to practice?
Welcome to a Healthier Michigan Podcast. This is the podcast that's dedicated to navigating how we can improve our health and wellbeing through small, healthy habits we can all start implementing. Right now I'm your host, Chuck Gaidica, and every other week we sit down with a certified expert to discuss topics that cover nutrition, fitness and a lot more. In this week on this episode, we're diving deep into skincare trends. Some would call them hacks. They seem to be trending on social media right now, and they have claims all over the place like anti-aging effects claims to prevent acne. With us today as dermatologist, Dr. David Baird. Good to have you with us, Doctor.
Dr. David Baird:
Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here today.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, we're glad you're with us. We know you grow up in the Detroit area and you had your undergrad degree from Hope College and then Wayne State Medical School in Detroit training in dermatology at Henry Ford. So you've won a lot of awards. You're the guy that's forgotten more about this than I even know. But what I do know is it's kind of like checking out at the grocery store. You see all these headlines, they still exist, the tabloid newspapers, this idea that even in the course of your practice over two dozen years, we continue to see these things come up like the latest diet. And so according to CNBC, there are obvious reasons, including the business side of why skincare is so important to us, why it rises to the level of interest because we're using our dollars to buy stuff. The skincare industry and the beauty industry brings in, get a load of this, $90 billion worldwide with American spending $722 on their appearance on average, including skincare every year.
So there's no question that we've got a lot of interest in this. Maintaining a healthy skin that I think is a little different than what some of these hacks may imply. It's not just about health. It's about how to do a cheaper, better, faster. We're getting product recommendations. You can go to TikTok, you can find a prominent source there for a lot of young people who are seeing certain things with the hashtag skincare. This is another astounding number, doc, 10.9 billion views on the platform. And so we've got all this information that's kind of circulating just like letters in the air. And so I want to go into some of this with you and discuss a couple. In your opinion, what is the general allure of skincare hacks that continues to surface on the internet?
Dr. David Baird:
It is interesting because I really think it's sort of a microcosm of our tech society, our modern American society. People want stuff quick, they want it cheap. They want immediate appeal, immediate results, and in a lot of cases, they don't want to put in the time and the effort that's necessary to achieve those. So these huge claims, for whatever reason, the human brain, it's appealing. And like I said, people just want that quick fix, that quick hack. That's why these things are very popular right now.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, and to be fair, whether you walk into a skincare place, I'm walking through Kohl's last night and there's another skincare franchise within the store. So a lot of this stuff can tend to be expensive. Even go pick out your favorite cologne, tell your kids for Christmas, this is what you want. It's 50 bucks for a bottle. So I can understand why people are looking for a better stretched dollar. And so part of it may just be they're trying to find a way to take olive oil and something else and mix it together and make it into some great lotion. And maybe there's nothing wrong with some of that stuff.
Dr. David Baird:
I would agree. But a lot of stuff I'm going to say today is just to have some healthy skepticism and you don't have to spend a lot of money on skincare products. There's some basics that you should know. And really it's pretty simple. You don't have to spend a ton of money at the department store and you do need to put a little effort into it. This is not just a magic wand that makes things happen for you. And there's time involved too because the skin takes roughly 40 days to turn over. So a lot of these claims, here's me a week after week of my treatment and it's a completely different picture that's not realistic.
So let's talk a little bit about some basics as far as skincare goes. Gentle cleanser, very important, once to twice a day something that's not abrasive and everybody's skin is a little different. So you have individuals that are different. You have the same person as they age, your skin changes. So some of this needs to be tailor-made to you as the individual and to your age, but basically gentle cleanser, sunscreen, moisturizer, non-comedogenic, one that's not going to clog your pores. And as we age and we get to be my age and a little gray on top, we start to talk maybe about adding in a retinoid or something along those lines to help replenish that skin and give it a little bit of a youthful appearance. That's where a little bit of money can come in with the addition of those. There's some over the counter ones. Your dermatologist can give you some prescription ones, but it's just a routine that you have to get into and it doesn't take a lot. It's kind of like brushing your teeth.
Chuck Gaidica:
Yeah, go back to that. Not clogging your pores thing because you mentioned a few things that I recognize some of what you said and not all of it because a lot of people will use the same lotion on their faces they use on their legs when it gets dry in the winter, let's say. Right? So I'm going to buy that 55 gallon drum with a pump on it, but I recognize that sometimes it's that kind of stuff that will clog pores and you wonder why you're now having a problem with your skin, right?
Dr. David Baird:
Correct. You really need to read labels in that case. A lot of the better moisturizers will say non-comedogenic, that is sort of the medical technical term for non-clogging of the pores. And you'll hear on a lot of these TikTok things that term being thrown around. So I think it's good to define that term and understand what that term is as a consumer or as a patient. So you're looking for that term, non-comedogenic and a lot of the ones nowadays you can use on your face, in your body, they are non-comedogenic and that's safe, but you do need to read the label.
Chuck Gaidica:
So when you look at the allure of these hacks online, these ways to get things done, what percentage would you say are really something that worked for you? You have any guesses what that may be? As we scan the countryside at these things.
Dr. David Baird:
You really can't because almost every one of these popular ones, they've not been studied scientifically. They'll throw in some technical terms to sound impressive, but you can't point to any definitive studies. And a couple of the ones we're about to discuss, I was actually able to find in the scientific literature somewhat you might term adjacent findings, but they don't pertain to the actual skin hack. And we'll talk a little bit about that, but it's very important to understand that people will kind of pick at the edge of these things. They sound like they know what they're doing, they sound like they're informed on the information, but they're really not. So you need to understand that.
Chuck Gaidica:
So let's go and let's talk about some of these individual things that seem to be trending. I think my favorite drive through french fries stopped using beef tallow several years ago and now this is one of the things that's trending. Take beef tallow, take fat, beef kind of like Crisco stuff and lather yourself up. What's the deal?
Dr. David Baird:
For these hacks I think it's probably best if we look at them and break it down into three. The way I like to do this, I like to go over the claims that we see online. I'd like to then discuss what we know from the science standpoint and then I'm going to just make a couple of quick suggestions on that. So with the beef tallow, as you said, it is beef fat typically used in soap, candles, lubricants, that sort of thing. I've watched a number of these videos and they're kind of entertaining to some degree, but the claims are moisturizing, non-comedogenic, that term we just discussed. Also great for acne, great for eczema, rosacea, quote/unquote all natural, contains vitamins and essential fatty acids. These are the claims you're going to see. So what do we know about beef tallow actually as just tallow in and of itself and what it does for the skin?
It does indeed have fatty acids, believe it or not. And there's one in there called linoleic acid, and this is one of the only things that I found some scientific support for the use of linoleic acid in certain dermatologic conditions. And there was a study in a journal called Experimental Dermatology, February of 2021. This study showed that linoleic acid by itself though, this is not as a part of the whole beef tallow hack, linoleic acid, does improve psoriasis eczema. Interesting. But there's a lot of other components to beef tallow obviously besides just linoleic acid. Many of the forms are indeed comedogenic, so they will clog your pores and I don't think you have to go to medical school to kind of come to that logical conclusion, right? I mean it's fat, it's beef fat, you're putting it on your face. What is that going to do? But clog your pores.
So many, there are some that are not. We'll talk about that in a second too. It is not FDA approved a lot of these other things. So the claims are anecdotal and not studied really outside of that singular study that I found on the linoleic acid side. What would I suggest on this? Don't use it. Okay, just don't do that. It doesn't make sense. It can be comedogenic, and if you want to try this, this is not one of those ones where I'm going to put a big X over it and say, "Hey, this is terrible. Don't do it." Right? If you want to try it, a little bit of advice, find a product that has very low list of ingredients. A lot of these things will have fragrances in them and other additives because you don't want to go around smelling like meat, you're putting beef fat on your face and that's not the best smell.
Chuck Gaidica:
You wouldn't leave a bowl of bacon grease or beef tallow out for a week. So if you're walking around, I'm gathering at some point it starts to go bad and it's on your face, right?
Dr. David Baird:
Yeah. So people with fragrance sensitivities could develop a contact allergy, something along those lines. So keep that in mind. An interesting fact that I found is grass-fed beef may have a better nutrient profile than the grain fed beef. So if you're looking for something that's quote/unquote natural and look for that grass-fed tallow. Again, get back to your reading of the labels as a consumer. I would tell you, you got to go non-comedogenic. If we do get patients that want to go with the all natural stuff, and really the plant-based oils tend to be more non-comedogenic. So if you're looking for something like that, look at avocado and grape seed oil. Those have some moisturizing effects. They're not going to clog your pores and you don't have to worry about smelling like meat.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, that's really good stuff, and you're mentioning this, it kind of reminds me that grandma used to say, "I used to take castor oil internally." And then, I mean there are some of these things that what's old could be new again, and maybe there's something to it, but I want to motor through the next couple so we don't run out of time with some of these ice water facials. Why ice water and does it even work?
Dr. David Baird:
Yeah, again, claims are kind of outrageous, decreased pigment, decreased wrinkles, the stuff that you would figure you would see on one of these hacks. I love what you said, "There's nothing new under the sun." Because I actually have this in my notes for this sort of thing. We do know that ice, when you sprain your ankle or you sprain your knee, it does have a temporary effect. It reduces puffiness, reduces swelling, but the way they're doing these online is they're sticking their face in an ice water bath and it's anywhere from 10 to 20 to 30 seconds. You can induce cold injuries to the skin. And interestingly enough, there's a physiologic effect when you stick your face in, especially cold water, this induces something called the dive reflex, which results in your heart slowing down, constricts peripheral vessels and people can actually pass out. So that's something to keep in mind. If you're doing that.
What do I suggest? Well, do not do this at all. If you have any of these flushing skin conditions, even just simple flushing, there's a condition called rosacea, which is very, very common. People have redness of the skin. This, again, use your logic, it's going to make your skin look more red. So don't do that. If you choose to do this, just be careful. Expose your skin less time than they're saying in the videos, which is 10, 20, 30 seconds. You don't want to go overboard on this one.
Chuck Gaidica:
Yeah, this is way different than a splash of cold water in the morning just to get the day started, right?
Dr. David Baird:
No doubt.
Chuck Gaidica:
All right, what is a jade roller? Is it literally just the stone, the mineral jade, and it's got some magic effect according to these things.
Dr. David Baird:
So if you've ever seen these and they're all over the place, you might've seen them in Kohl's for your visit the other day. It looks like literally looks a razor and on the end of the razor where you would have white, there is this roller. Okay, this again, the claims are kind of funny. It helps with sagging, increases collagen and elastin, different materials like you mentioned there might have some of these magical effects like jade versus sapphire versus crystals. You might find in Sedona. Some of these are actually just made out of stainless steel. What do we know about these? Again, this is something, believe it or not, that's not a new trend. Wealthy Chinese used it back in the 17th century and it may have been a show of wealth just because jewelry grade jade is very expensive. So that would obviously be a luxury item that's just rolling over your face.
So this is something that's been around for hundreds of years. If you look at it from that standpoint, again, there's no studies. All these claims are anecdotal, and when somebody starts telling you that this is going to increase collagen and elastin in the skin, those are deeper components. That's not an epidermal thing. It can't happen. So you're using your logic again on something like this. It feels kind of good, especially if it's cool. I've tried it. My daughter has a stainless steel roller. It might temporarily reduce some puffiness around the eyes because of the cooling effect. It feels good. This one's not going to hurt you, Chuck, so go ahead and do it.
Chuck Gaidica:
Okay. And it reminds me, the older I get, the more I realize I may need some ironing someday for wrinkles. So I suspect people think that if they're just moving it around enough, they're kind of ironing their face or something. So now this is an interesting one to me, facial steaming. I mean, this goes back, there's a place named Hot Springs, Arkansas, right? I mean you go to New York City back in the day and still today, "Let's go get a schvitz. Let's go sit in a place with steam and let it hit us." So part of that's breathing in and the healthfulness that comes from that. And even having a bowl of hot chicken noodles soup that comes into your nostrils. But is facial steaming something we should be practicing?
Dr. David Baird:
This is another one. You mentioned it. You go back to Roman times, right? You had the steam baths and this is an ancient, ancient practice, so really nothing new again under the sun here. Claims are that it removes clogged pores. You hear this detox thing a lot, and this is another one where they're saying it increases collagen and elastin, but we're not getting deeper than the epidermal layer. We do know that, and we know from our personal experience, this does increase blood flow to the face. There was a study on this one too. It's the only other one that I found a study on. It does help get topical medication through the epidermal layer. This study involved using nicotine patches, they heated the skin with steam, throw that nicotine patch on for those who were trying to quit smoking and the blood level of nicotine went up as opposed to just room temperature skin. So kind of interesting from that effect.
But a lot of people are just doing this to make their skin look better. It is pro-inflammatory, so when you're talking about these flushing skin conditions that we talked about with ice baths, this is going to make acne and rosacea worse because it makes that blood flow worse, the blood flow and it gets a little technical, but flushing actually can make those problems a little bit worse. A lot of caution in doing this one. I'm going to tell you the risks for scald burns, and there's even a video with some guy with his face over a tea kettle, if you can believe that, that I saw on TikTok, and it's not going to be a good idea. Obviously, if you get these done at the spas and you have the aestheticians, great. It feels good. When you have a facial, fine do it, but I'm not going to have you put your face over a bowl of boiling pasta. It's just not a good idea.
Chuck Gaidica:
Yeah. Well, as we wrap things up, what would you say, you kind of started with this idea of trying to search out truth when it comes to these hacks, kind of trust but verify. Where do we go? What are the resources we should be looking for to verify that these things even have some truth attached to them that they may help us?
Dr. David Baird:
There's two websites. One of my favorites that I use, it's the American Academy of Dermatology's website aad.org, and I'm going to direct you to my website, farmingtonderm.com. We do a monthly blog and talk a lot about general skincare, a lot of cosmetic procedures if you're interested. I think a lot of people that are doing this are more interested in the cosmetic appearance. So we do have a monthly blog there too, that will address some of this.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, good stuff. Dr. David Baird, it's good to have you with us, and thanks for taking us through some of these things that seem so fanciful. It's unbelievable, but maybe there's a little truth in some of them.
Dr. David Baird:
Very good. Thank you for having me.
Chuck Gaidica:
Oh, sure thing. We're glad you were with us, Dr. David Baird, who's a dermatologist in Farmington Hills. We're glad he was with us and we're glad you've been here as well. Thanks for listening to a Healthier Michigan Podcast. It's a podcast brought to you by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. If you like our show and you want to know more, check us out. You can go online at ahealthiermichigan.org/podcast. You can always leave us a review or a rating. You can also do that on Apple Podcast or Spotify. You can follow us on social media, on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, and you can always get new episodes, old episodes to take with you on a walk or something on your smartphone or even your tablet. Be sure to subscribe to us. Hit that button on Apple Podcast, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. I'm Chuck Gaidica. Be well.
Dr. David Baird:
Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here today.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, we're glad you're with us. We know you grow up in the Detroit area and you had your undergrad degree from Hope College and then Wayne State Medical School in Detroit training in dermatology at Henry Ford. So you've won a lot of awards. You're the guy that's forgotten more about this than I even know. But what I do know is it's kind of like checking out at the grocery store. You see all these headlines, they still exist, the tabloid newspapers, this idea that even in the course of your practice over two dozen years, we continue to see these things come up like the latest diet. And so according to CNBC, there are obvious reasons, including the business side of why skincare is so important to us, why it rises to the level of interest because we're using our dollars to buy stuff. The skincare industry and the beauty industry brings in, get a load of this, $90 billion worldwide with American spending $722 on their appearance on average, including skincare every year.
So there's no question that we've got a lot of interest in this. Maintaining a healthy skin that I think is a little different than what some of these hacks may imply. It's not just about health. It's about how to do a cheaper, better, faster. We're getting product recommendations. You can go to TikTok, you can find a prominent source there for a lot of young people who are seeing certain things with the hashtag skincare. This is another astounding number, doc, 10.9 billion views on the platform. And so we've got all this information that's kind of circulating just like letters in the air. And so I want to go into some of this with you and discuss a couple. In your opinion, what is the general allure of skincare hacks that continues to surface on the internet?
Dr. David Baird:
It is interesting because I really think it's sort of a microcosm of our tech society, our modern American society. People want stuff quick, they want it cheap. They want immediate appeal, immediate results, and in a lot of cases, they don't want to put in the time and the effort that's necessary to achieve those. So these huge claims, for whatever reason, the human brain, it's appealing. And like I said, people just want that quick fix, that quick hack. That's why these things are very popular right now.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, and to be fair, whether you walk into a skincare place, I'm walking through Kohl's last night and there's another skincare franchise within the store. So a lot of this stuff can tend to be expensive. Even go pick out your favorite cologne, tell your kids for Christmas, this is what you want. It's 50 bucks for a bottle. So I can understand why people are looking for a better stretched dollar. And so part of it may just be they're trying to find a way to take olive oil and something else and mix it together and make it into some great lotion. And maybe there's nothing wrong with some of that stuff.
Dr. David Baird:
I would agree. But a lot of stuff I'm going to say today is just to have some healthy skepticism and you don't have to spend a lot of money on skincare products. There's some basics that you should know. And really it's pretty simple. You don't have to spend a ton of money at the department store and you do need to put a little effort into it. This is not just a magic wand that makes things happen for you. And there's time involved too because the skin takes roughly 40 days to turn over. So a lot of these claims, here's me a week after week of my treatment and it's a completely different picture that's not realistic.
So let's talk a little bit about some basics as far as skincare goes. Gentle cleanser, very important, once to twice a day something that's not abrasive and everybody's skin is a little different. So you have individuals that are different. You have the same person as they age, your skin changes. So some of this needs to be tailor-made to you as the individual and to your age, but basically gentle cleanser, sunscreen, moisturizer, non-comedogenic, one that's not going to clog your pores. And as we age and we get to be my age and a little gray on top, we start to talk maybe about adding in a retinoid or something along those lines to help replenish that skin and give it a little bit of a youthful appearance. That's where a little bit of money can come in with the addition of those. There's some over the counter ones. Your dermatologist can give you some prescription ones, but it's just a routine that you have to get into and it doesn't take a lot. It's kind of like brushing your teeth.
Chuck Gaidica:
Yeah, go back to that. Not clogging your pores thing because you mentioned a few things that I recognize some of what you said and not all of it because a lot of people will use the same lotion on their faces they use on their legs when it gets dry in the winter, let's say. Right? So I'm going to buy that 55 gallon drum with a pump on it, but I recognize that sometimes it's that kind of stuff that will clog pores and you wonder why you're now having a problem with your skin, right?
Dr. David Baird:
Correct. You really need to read labels in that case. A lot of the better moisturizers will say non-comedogenic, that is sort of the medical technical term for non-clogging of the pores. And you'll hear on a lot of these TikTok things that term being thrown around. So I think it's good to define that term and understand what that term is as a consumer or as a patient. So you're looking for that term, non-comedogenic and a lot of the ones nowadays you can use on your face, in your body, they are non-comedogenic and that's safe, but you do need to read the label.
Chuck Gaidica:
So when you look at the allure of these hacks online, these ways to get things done, what percentage would you say are really something that worked for you? You have any guesses what that may be? As we scan the countryside at these things.
Dr. David Baird:
You really can't because almost every one of these popular ones, they've not been studied scientifically. They'll throw in some technical terms to sound impressive, but you can't point to any definitive studies. And a couple of the ones we're about to discuss, I was actually able to find in the scientific literature somewhat you might term adjacent findings, but they don't pertain to the actual skin hack. And we'll talk a little bit about that, but it's very important to understand that people will kind of pick at the edge of these things. They sound like they know what they're doing, they sound like they're informed on the information, but they're really not. So you need to understand that.
Chuck Gaidica:
So let's go and let's talk about some of these individual things that seem to be trending. I think my favorite drive through french fries stopped using beef tallow several years ago and now this is one of the things that's trending. Take beef tallow, take fat, beef kind of like Crisco stuff and lather yourself up. What's the deal?
Dr. David Baird:
For these hacks I think it's probably best if we look at them and break it down into three. The way I like to do this, I like to go over the claims that we see online. I'd like to then discuss what we know from the science standpoint and then I'm going to just make a couple of quick suggestions on that. So with the beef tallow, as you said, it is beef fat typically used in soap, candles, lubricants, that sort of thing. I've watched a number of these videos and they're kind of entertaining to some degree, but the claims are moisturizing, non-comedogenic, that term we just discussed. Also great for acne, great for eczema, rosacea, quote/unquote all natural, contains vitamins and essential fatty acids. These are the claims you're going to see. So what do we know about beef tallow actually as just tallow in and of itself and what it does for the skin?
It does indeed have fatty acids, believe it or not. And there's one in there called linoleic acid, and this is one of the only things that I found some scientific support for the use of linoleic acid in certain dermatologic conditions. And there was a study in a journal called Experimental Dermatology, February of 2021. This study showed that linoleic acid by itself though, this is not as a part of the whole beef tallow hack, linoleic acid, does improve psoriasis eczema. Interesting. But there's a lot of other components to beef tallow obviously besides just linoleic acid. Many of the forms are indeed comedogenic, so they will clog your pores and I don't think you have to go to medical school to kind of come to that logical conclusion, right? I mean it's fat, it's beef fat, you're putting it on your face. What is that going to do? But clog your pores.
So many, there are some that are not. We'll talk about that in a second too. It is not FDA approved a lot of these other things. So the claims are anecdotal and not studied really outside of that singular study that I found on the linoleic acid side. What would I suggest on this? Don't use it. Okay, just don't do that. It doesn't make sense. It can be comedogenic, and if you want to try this, this is not one of those ones where I'm going to put a big X over it and say, "Hey, this is terrible. Don't do it." Right? If you want to try it, a little bit of advice, find a product that has very low list of ingredients. A lot of these things will have fragrances in them and other additives because you don't want to go around smelling like meat, you're putting beef fat on your face and that's not the best smell.
Chuck Gaidica:
You wouldn't leave a bowl of bacon grease or beef tallow out for a week. So if you're walking around, I'm gathering at some point it starts to go bad and it's on your face, right?
Dr. David Baird:
Yeah. So people with fragrance sensitivities could develop a contact allergy, something along those lines. So keep that in mind. An interesting fact that I found is grass-fed beef may have a better nutrient profile than the grain fed beef. So if you're looking for something that's quote/unquote natural and look for that grass-fed tallow. Again, get back to your reading of the labels as a consumer. I would tell you, you got to go non-comedogenic. If we do get patients that want to go with the all natural stuff, and really the plant-based oils tend to be more non-comedogenic. So if you're looking for something like that, look at avocado and grape seed oil. Those have some moisturizing effects. They're not going to clog your pores and you don't have to worry about smelling like meat.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, that's really good stuff, and you're mentioning this, it kind of reminds me that grandma used to say, "I used to take castor oil internally." And then, I mean there are some of these things that what's old could be new again, and maybe there's something to it, but I want to motor through the next couple so we don't run out of time with some of these ice water facials. Why ice water and does it even work?
Dr. David Baird:
Yeah, again, claims are kind of outrageous, decreased pigment, decreased wrinkles, the stuff that you would figure you would see on one of these hacks. I love what you said, "There's nothing new under the sun." Because I actually have this in my notes for this sort of thing. We do know that ice, when you sprain your ankle or you sprain your knee, it does have a temporary effect. It reduces puffiness, reduces swelling, but the way they're doing these online is they're sticking their face in an ice water bath and it's anywhere from 10 to 20 to 30 seconds. You can induce cold injuries to the skin. And interestingly enough, there's a physiologic effect when you stick your face in, especially cold water, this induces something called the dive reflex, which results in your heart slowing down, constricts peripheral vessels and people can actually pass out. So that's something to keep in mind. If you're doing that.
What do I suggest? Well, do not do this at all. If you have any of these flushing skin conditions, even just simple flushing, there's a condition called rosacea, which is very, very common. People have redness of the skin. This, again, use your logic, it's going to make your skin look more red. So don't do that. If you choose to do this, just be careful. Expose your skin less time than they're saying in the videos, which is 10, 20, 30 seconds. You don't want to go overboard on this one.
Chuck Gaidica:
Yeah, this is way different than a splash of cold water in the morning just to get the day started, right?
Dr. David Baird:
No doubt.
Chuck Gaidica:
All right, what is a jade roller? Is it literally just the stone, the mineral jade, and it's got some magic effect according to these things.
Dr. David Baird:
So if you've ever seen these and they're all over the place, you might've seen them in Kohl's for your visit the other day. It looks like literally looks a razor and on the end of the razor where you would have white, there is this roller. Okay, this again, the claims are kind of funny. It helps with sagging, increases collagen and elastin, different materials like you mentioned there might have some of these magical effects like jade versus sapphire versus crystals. You might find in Sedona. Some of these are actually just made out of stainless steel. What do we know about these? Again, this is something, believe it or not, that's not a new trend. Wealthy Chinese used it back in the 17th century and it may have been a show of wealth just because jewelry grade jade is very expensive. So that would obviously be a luxury item that's just rolling over your face.
So this is something that's been around for hundreds of years. If you look at it from that standpoint, again, there's no studies. All these claims are anecdotal, and when somebody starts telling you that this is going to increase collagen and elastin in the skin, those are deeper components. That's not an epidermal thing. It can't happen. So you're using your logic again on something like this. It feels kind of good, especially if it's cool. I've tried it. My daughter has a stainless steel roller. It might temporarily reduce some puffiness around the eyes because of the cooling effect. It feels good. This one's not going to hurt you, Chuck, so go ahead and do it.
Chuck Gaidica:
Okay. And it reminds me, the older I get, the more I realize I may need some ironing someday for wrinkles. So I suspect people think that if they're just moving it around enough, they're kind of ironing their face or something. So now this is an interesting one to me, facial steaming. I mean, this goes back, there's a place named Hot Springs, Arkansas, right? I mean you go to New York City back in the day and still today, "Let's go get a schvitz. Let's go sit in a place with steam and let it hit us." So part of that's breathing in and the healthfulness that comes from that. And even having a bowl of hot chicken noodles soup that comes into your nostrils. But is facial steaming something we should be practicing?
Dr. David Baird:
This is another one. You mentioned it. You go back to Roman times, right? You had the steam baths and this is an ancient, ancient practice, so really nothing new again under the sun here. Claims are that it removes clogged pores. You hear this detox thing a lot, and this is another one where they're saying it increases collagen and elastin, but we're not getting deeper than the epidermal layer. We do know that, and we know from our personal experience, this does increase blood flow to the face. There was a study on this one too. It's the only other one that I found a study on. It does help get topical medication through the epidermal layer. This study involved using nicotine patches, they heated the skin with steam, throw that nicotine patch on for those who were trying to quit smoking and the blood level of nicotine went up as opposed to just room temperature skin. So kind of interesting from that effect.
But a lot of people are just doing this to make their skin look better. It is pro-inflammatory, so when you're talking about these flushing skin conditions that we talked about with ice baths, this is going to make acne and rosacea worse because it makes that blood flow worse, the blood flow and it gets a little technical, but flushing actually can make those problems a little bit worse. A lot of caution in doing this one. I'm going to tell you the risks for scald burns, and there's even a video with some guy with his face over a tea kettle, if you can believe that, that I saw on TikTok, and it's not going to be a good idea. Obviously, if you get these done at the spas and you have the aestheticians, great. It feels good. When you have a facial, fine do it, but I'm not going to have you put your face over a bowl of boiling pasta. It's just not a good idea.
Chuck Gaidica:
Yeah. Well, as we wrap things up, what would you say, you kind of started with this idea of trying to search out truth when it comes to these hacks, kind of trust but verify. Where do we go? What are the resources we should be looking for to verify that these things even have some truth attached to them that they may help us?
Dr. David Baird:
There's two websites. One of my favorites that I use, it's the American Academy of Dermatology's website aad.org, and I'm going to direct you to my website, farmingtonderm.com. We do a monthly blog and talk a lot about general skincare, a lot of cosmetic procedures if you're interested. I think a lot of people that are doing this are more interested in the cosmetic appearance. So we do have a monthly blog there too, that will address some of this.
Chuck Gaidica:
Well, good stuff. Dr. David Baird, it's good to have you with us, and thanks for taking us through some of these things that seem so fanciful. It's unbelievable, but maybe there's a little truth in some of them.
Dr. David Baird:
Very good. Thank you for having me.
Chuck Gaidica:
Oh, sure thing. We're glad you were with us, Dr. David Baird, who's a dermatologist in Farmington Hills. We're glad he was with us and we're glad you've been here as well. Thanks for listening to a Healthier Michigan Podcast. It's a podcast brought to you by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. If you like our show and you want to know more, check us out. You can go online at ahealthiermichigan.org/podcast. You can always leave us a review or a rating. You can also do that on Apple Podcast or Spotify. You can follow us on social media, on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, and you can always get new episodes, old episodes to take with you on a walk or something on your smartphone or even your tablet. Be sure to subscribe to us. Hit that button on Apple Podcast, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. I'm Chuck Gaidica. Be well.
