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Dr. Tarbox: Hello and welcome to "Skincast," the podcast for people who want to learn to take the very best care of the skin they're in. My name is Michelle Tarbox, and I'm an academic dermatologist at Texas Tech University of Health Sciences Center in beautiful, sunny Lubbock, Texas. And joining me is . . .

Dr. Johnson: Hi, everybody. This is Dr. Luke Johnson. I'm a pediatric dermatologist and general dermatologist with the University of Utah.

Dr. Tarbox: So I have to say one thing to you right now, Luke. Woo, it is hot. It is hot, and it is sunny. How about where you are?

Dr. Johnson: Oh, yeah, it was 104 degrees the other day.

Dr. Tarbox: So I thought we might talk about the unique challenges our skin face in the summer months and some things that we can do about that. Now, one of the things I like to discuss with my patients, when we're talking about summer skincare, is that we need to think about the huge job our skin has to do over the course of a long, hot summer. It has to keep us cool. It has to protect us from the environment, which includes the sun that can come to us from the outdoor exposure, the insects that we're increasingly exposed to when we're outdoors, and the plants we might come into contact as we venture out into nature. So our skin has a huge job to do. And in general, for your summer skin, you want to cleanse it gently. You want to moisturize it to restore moisture after the sun has stripped that away or the heat and the sweat has caused irritation over the course of the day.

Many people have like a summer regimen for their skin. I think simpler is often better. And using products that are hypoallergenic and gentle is generally a win-win situation, of course with a good and robust sun protection regimen, which we've discussed previously on the podcast.

And then I also want to talk about things people come in contact with uniquely in the summer. So I'm going to kind of categorize those into three things. And one will be a standalone episode by itself, because there's just so dadgum many of them. But the things we can come into contact in the summer are the three P's — plants, poisoning, which can be the sun or other chemicals, and parasites and other bugs.

So plants, we'll talk about first toxic plants, and, of course, the toxic plant that comes first to your mind is going to be poison ivy. And we talked about poison ivy a little bit before. But some things we haven't discussed is that it's actually becoming more populous because of climate change. So there are more favorable growth environments for this plant, and it's found everywhere in the United States, except for Alaska and Hawaii. Of course, it's more common in eastern and Midwestern states, and less common outside the United States, but it's found on every country, in every continent. And sprigs of poison ivy may also be present around the base of nursery plants.

So even if you live in an area that traditionally doesn't have a whole lot of poison ivy, you may still be exposed to it if you buy, say, a tree from the nursery and it came from a part of the country where it's more endemic. So exposure is relatively ubiquitous. But it also may be becoming more dangerous. So poison ivy is also potentially creating a greater concentration of the toxic oil that we call urushiol that's in the leaves that can cause the rash. So patients might have a more significant rash than they've previously experienced to poison ivy, and people who previously kind of flew under the radar might also develop symptoms.

About 80% of people will get a rash when they're exposed to poison ivy, and about 20% of people are lucky and just don't make that rash. But those numbers may change as the concentration of this toxic chemical can increase.

So leaves of three, it's better to let it be. Now, Luke, I know you've probably seen this more than I have. What does the rash of poison ivy look like, and what are the symptoms?

Dr. Johnson: Well, it actually looks a fair amount like eczema, because it's technically an allergic contact dermatitis. But it's usually just in one spot, the spot that touched against the poison ivy. And it can be a really vigorous response. So you can get blisters, or you can get little tiny, tiny baby blisters, which we call vesicles. And then you can have different reactions too if you do something like walk through a whole patch of poison ivy, or most of your body is affected, or there are reports of people who accidentally burn the poison ivy and then the smoke can cause major issues. But you want to look for a localized area that was probably brushing against the plant for some reason, especially if there's blisters in it, usually super itchy.

Also, Michelle, how come we always hear about the bad things that are getting more populous with climate change? It's always poison ivy and like wood beetles and ticks and things. How come it's not like parrots and cute animals and stuff that are expanding their territory?

Dr. Tarbox: I mean, you know, there might be some cute things that are having an easier time living in, you know, warmer climes. I'm not sure. I think we tend to notice the negative things more, and they get more attention. But, you know, it's possible that there are certain populations of daisies or butterflies or something that increase in general. But it seems like the hardier, more malicious plants always seem to benefit from adverse circumstances. And maybe that has to do with the character of the plants. They're just . . . you know, they've got grit and determination or something like that.

Dr. Johnson: Fair enough.

Dr. Tarbox: So how do you . . .

Dr. Johnson: Well, if you do get poison ivy, you might want to treat it. So our treatments are usually topical steroids. So topical means something you put on the skin. So if you don't have easy access to a doctor or somebody who can prescribe you one, then over-the-counter hydrocortisone will work all right. The ointment formulations tend to work better than the creams. So ointment is kind of gloopy, like Vaseline. So you might put that on your skin a couple of times a day. And then, if that's not cutting it, think you need something stronger, then get in touch with somebody like us.

Dr. Tarbox: Absolutely. And I think that, you know, if you've got symptoms you can't manage, sometimes patients will try unusual home remedies and things like that. It's much better to seek the advice of a medical professional early on in those circumstances.

So moving away from the plants, let's talk about some poisonings, specifically sun poisoning. So we all are probably familiar with a sunburn, where we get overexposure to UV radiation, and we can get redness or tenderness or itching. Usually lasts somewhere between 6 to 48 hours. It can cause permanent damage. It is a big deal because it can increase your risk of skin cancer. But in the acute period, it's pretty easy to manage. So you can put a little cool water or a cold compress. You can moisturize the skin using a non-petroleum or oil-based lotion. You can also take pain relievers, such as naproxen. You can take ibuprofen. Some people benefit from those things.

Sun poisoning is different. So sun poisoning is kind of an extreme sunburn that is bad enough to cause systemic symptoms. So besides the external effects of a sunburn, you can also have skin blistering. You can have headaches, nausea, dehydration, and dizziness, and it can actually last quite a long time. So unlike a sunburn, which has got a bit of a limited lifetime, sun poisoning can last up to a week, depending on the level of exposure. And so these might be treated with cold compresses, oral steroids, topical antibiotics, or lotions, depending on the severity of skin involvement. Have you ever had . . .

Dr. Johnson: It sounds miserable.

Dr. Tarbox: Oh, God, it's awful. Have you ever had a patient with sun poisoning?

Dr. Johnson: I'm honestly not sure I've ever even heard about sun poisoning before. So here, I'm learning something too.

Dr. Tarbox: Growing up in sunny Lubbock, Texas, I woke up to a personal story of sun poisoning. So my twin sister and I were at a place called Texas Water Rampage, which has a wave pool. As you might imagine, a wave pool is extremely efficient at washing sunscreen off of yourself. And when you're an enthusiastic teenager, who's having a good time, you maybe don't notice so well that you are getting severely sunburned. So both of us actually ended up with sun poisoning. So we had yellow blisters all over our poor little shoulders. I'm still waiting for the aftermath of that to show up. And we both had headaches, and nausea, and dehydration, and dizziness.

I remember it very well, because we shared a room growing up. And so we spent about three days in the summer just laying on our beds, our twin beds that were like on opposite side of the room, sort of moaning at each other across the room from the sun poisoning.

So definitely something that can happen and something that you want to avoid. And the way you avoid that is protecting your skin from the sun, making sure to stay hydrated, and using reasonable breaks from sun exposure. I like to tell my patients I don't want you in the direct sun longer than one to two hours at a time if possible and shorter if possible.

Dr. Johnson: So people often put aloe on sunburn, Michelle. Does that makes any sense?

Dr. Tarbox: That's a great question. There's some benefits to topical aloe vera straight from the plant, so long as you're not contact-allergic to that product. It does have some vitamins in it that are antioxidants, and it has some demulcent properties where it can actually help to moisturize injured and desiccated tissues.

It does get more complicated when it's a prepared aloe vera product. The proportion of aloe vera, actually, in the product varies greatly. A lot of them contain alcohol and are in gel formulation, which might actually cause more damage by stinging or by inadvertently dehydrating the skin. When you apply an alcohol-containing gel to the skin, it feels cooler temporarily because you have evaporative cooling occurring. And certainly, removing the heat from a burn is a good idea, but the alcohol potentially could cause more dehydration of the epidermis as well. So if you are an aloe vera, like, fan, I advocate straight from the plant instead of out of a bottle.

Dr. Johnson: Well, I'm not going to carry plants around with me on my cruise. Should I just be putting hydrocortisone on my sunburns?

Dr. Tarbox: I think hydrocortisone is more reliable and easier to obtain than some aloe vera preparations. But, you know, certainly you can look into being prepared ahead of time with something less complex, perhaps a prepared aloe vera that only has a few ingredients and is relatively simple and hypoallergenic.

Now, heat rash is also something that can occur, which is different than sunburn or sun poisoning. And we have seen an obscene amount of this in the past week, where our temperatures have climbed over 108 degrees.

So because of the hot and humid weather, here in Lubbock, Texas, not so humid, the skin's pores can become clogged with sweat. And so that actually causes trapping of the perspiration in the epidermis, and it makes a heat rash. This happens often in high friction areas, like underarms, elbow creases, inner thighs. I see it all the time under the breasts. The heat kind of gets also trapped in those areas. The heat rash can be treated with calamine lotion, straight aloe vera. You can also potentially use topical steroids for that. But heat rash is also something that's relatively frequent.

Do you see heat rash much where you're practicing?

Dr. Johnson: Sure. The medical term is miliaria. And it's common in little babies, because their sweat pores are such tiny, tiny little baby sweat pores, that they're easily just get blocked up. So it can happen in adults too, but it's more common, I think, if you're in a hot environment, if you're a little baby, and your sweat glands aren't working right anyway. Also, sometimes people over-swaddle or over-blanket their babies, and then they can get these little heat rashes.

Dr. Tarbox: I think that, you know, the miliaria can be in different kinds of forms. It could be miliaria pustulosa and make pustules. It can be miliaria rubra, which is red bumps around those inflamed hair follicles.

And we also can have that complicated by yeast overgrowth, which we see a lot of as well in practice, especially in skin folds, especially the groin and under the breasts. And when we have an overgrowth or a bloom of yeast, that can cause inflammation because our immune system is not fond of the yeast. It's not fond of the yeast because if the yeast gets in our blood vessels, it can be very serious for us. So our immune system is really serious about yeast. We get a lot of inflammation and erythema, which correlates to a lot of pain. It also, of course, can have that characteristic yeasty smell.

So if you have what you think is a heat rash and it smells like you're making bread, you may want to look for some anti-yeast treatments, which can be available over the counter. Products such as Nizoral shampoo can be used in the shower, or ciclopirox-containing creams can be used as a topical treatment.

Dr. Johnson: How is sun poisoning different than heat exhaustion?

Dr. Tarbox: That's a great question. You know, sun poisoning is kind of a little bit more complicated than heat exhaustion. They both overlap in a lot of ways, but there are a few things that can differentiate between the two. And I think that it really kind of is based off of the difference in the sort of skin directedness of sun poisoning.

Heat exhaustion is a more systemic presentation. The patients sweat a lot, they become very dehydrated, and they become incapable of regulating their temperature. So these patients can become lightheaded. They can actually have an increased heart rate, because their heart is basically trying to circulate the blood through their skin fast enough to dissipate enough heat to try to regulate the temperature. Thirst would typically be increased. Patients can also have even weakness with this.

This is a very important thing to look at sort of hydrating the person. The way I differentiate them is sun poisoning is like a sunburn that gets so bad that the inflammation it causes makes you sick. Heat exhaustion is a person who has lost so much water that their body is having trouble regulating its temperature, and the side effects are coming from that. Does that make sense?

Dr. Johnson: And sun poisoning is more related to actual sun exposure, whereas you could get heat exhaustion, or I suppose heat stroke, if you're not in the sun, if you're like in a hot garage or something.

Dr. Tarbox: That's true. Yeah. Sun poisoning requires the presence of actual direct sun exposure, whereas heat exhaustion and heatstroke can occur in the shade. And a heatstroke can have temperatures up to 104 or higher. The patients often have a dry, hot skin. They're confused, agitated, and may even have seizures or loss of consciousness.

Dr. Johnson: Stay in the shade, wear big hats, and drink a ton of water. I think this water thing is more important than I realized. I drink a lot of water, and I feel like I drink enough. But I feel like I actually should be drinking like twice as much water as I do, or even more than that, if I'm going to be out in the heat.

Dr. Tarbox: Especially with these extremely hot temperatures that people are experiencing, we're just not adapted for this as well. So I think that making sure that you're staying extremely well-hydrated. You want to make sure you have plenty of water available to you. Using those sun smarts, avoiding the sun from the peak hours, which is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and seeking shade as often as possible can help people continue to have fun in the sun, even in these hot, hot days.

Dr. Johnson: And don't push yourself. If you're feeling like it's too hot and it's time for a break, you don't need to prove to anybody that you can muscle it out for another 20 minutes in the sun. Just go sit down for a second.

Dr. Tarbox: I think that's great advice in general in life, Luke.

Dr. Johnson: Well, have a fun, healthy, and safe summer, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks to the University of Utah for supporting the podcast, and thanks to Texas Tech for lending us Michelle. And if you would like to learn more about dermatology, you can do so on our other podcast.

Dr. Tarbox: Our other podcast is called the "Dermasphere" podcast. It is about an hour long, and it is the podcast by dermatologists for dermatologists and the dermatologically curious. It can be found anywhere you listen to your podcasts. But also, we have our own social media pages under Dermasphere Podcast, and dermaspherepodcast.com is our website.

Dr. Johnson: All right, everybody. Stay cool.

Dr. Tarbox:Ho ho ho and happy holidays from Skincast. We at the Skincast crew are going to take a few weeks to celebrate with our families but we hope that you’ll turn back in in the new year to learn again how to take the very best care of the skin you’re in.

Dr. Johnson: L’chaim! Happy holidays, everybody. Enjoy this episode from our archives.

Dr. Tarbox: Hello and welcome to "Skincast," the podcast for people to learn about skincare. I'm Michelle Tarbox. I'm a dermatologist in beautiful sunny Lubbock, Texas. And I'm being joined by . . .

Dr. Johnson: I'm Luke Johnson, dermatologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dr. Tarbox: I like it. Dermatologists are medical doctors who specialize in the care of the skin and of the hair and the nails. We're going to talk about skincare in the COVID era. So, Luke, what do you think is the most important aspect of skincare in this very unusual time we're all living through?

Dr. Johnson: Well, everybody is washing their hands a lot more because of the Coronavirus, which I think is a good idea. But a lot of people have noticed that their poor hands just get so dry and chapped afterwards. We say they have irritant contact dermatitis. Dermatitis, inflammation of the skin, because of contact with an irritant, in this case water. And it's helpful to know what to do if your poor hands get all dry and chapped.

Dr. Tarbox: And that definitely can happen in this day and age when we're all having to clean our hands very frequently. I think now more than ever it's really important to have a good skin care regimen that helps protect the integrity or the intactness of your skin, because our skin is important. It helps to protect us from the world, from bacteria, and viruses, and chemicals, and so we need to take the very best care of it. So what's your favorite moisturizer, Luke?

Dr. Johnson: Well, I love just plain old petroleum jelly. The brand name is Vaseline, but you can buy just the generic brand petroleum jelly. It's great for so many reasons. I have written a small love letter to Vaseline. It doesn't rhyme or anything. But first of all, it's super cheap, especially if you buy the generic version. You can get a big tub of it for about $3. It does a great job moisturizing the skin. So, in dermatology, we talk about transepidermal water loss, the water loss through the skin, and petroleum jelly prevents 99% of it. Also, nobody gets allergic to petroleum jelly. Love it.

Dr. Tarbox: It's easy to find, most people have access to it, and it works very well. Now, I know some people aren't always comfortable using petroleum jelly for various reasons. So, if you're one of those people, and we just can't convince you with our passionate love of Vaseline, we can . . .

Dr. Johnson: It's great.

Dr. Tarbox: It is fantastic. But we can recommend some other things as well. For some patients who don't want to use Vaseline or petroleum jelly, the nut butters may be beneficial. So shea butter can be helpful. Some of my patients have liked a product called Waxelene, which is actually derived from beeswax and is sort of a crunchy granola replacement for Vaseline or petroleum jelly. But the important thing is just to use it regularly.

Dr. Johnson: Waxelene?

Dr. Tarbox: Waxelene. I know. That's what it's called. You can find that usually in health food stores or Whole Foods markets.

Dr. Johnson: What I tell my patients often is that I know Vaseline is not for everybody. It's kind of messy and greasy. So, if you don't like it, use something you like. So just find the thickest, greasiest thing that you kind of like putting on your skin. In general, things that you have to scoop out of a jar are going to be more effective than things that squirt out of a bottle.

Dr. Tarbox: I kind of love that analogy, and that's definitely true. So you want your lotion that you're going to use to moisturize your hands in this unusual time to be more like icing and less like chocolate syrup. So when we are talking about moisturizers, if you're wanting to use something that's more of a cream, there are several over-the-counter products that I think Luke and I can agree on are very helpful to the skin and are very minimally irritating, so they don't have any excess fragrances or harsh preservatives.

Dr. Johnson: Well, if people don't buy into Vaseline, I usually don't have anything specific in mind. But the point of all this is not just to make your hands feel better, though it will. But there is a little bit of concern amongst some dermatologists that if you've developed little cracks in your skin, that could actually be a portal of entry for the Coronavirus. So the Coronavirus likes to attach to certain proteins in order to get into cells and those proteins might be present in those cracks in your hand. We call those fissures. So helping them to heal up is important, and these moisturizers will help that happen.

Dr. Tarbox: Absolutely. Now, a lot of people are using hand soap to wash their hands. Your choice of soap is also very important. Some soaps are going to really strip the natural oils from the skin, and others may be irritating because of fragrance or chemical content. So using a soap that's designed to be gentle is a good choice. What's your favorite?

Dr. Johnson: Well, as far as I can tell, the party line among dermatologists across the world is white Dove bar soap. Everyone seems to really like it.

Dr. Tarbox: I like that one. I also like . . . Vanicream makes a bar soap as well that's very hypoallergenic. Another good product is CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser. This is a cleanser that won't foam. It doesn't have the ingredient that makes soaps foam, which is usually something called sodium lauryl sulfate, which can be a little bit more dehydrating to the skin. But you don't actually need the foam to cleanse. It's just something we associate with cleanliness. So that's a great product as well and it's very gentle.

Dr. Johnson: Though I'll admit at my home I use just random generic liquid soap because my hands don't seem all that sensitive, but I do put moisturizer on them afterward.

Dr. Tarbox: It's a good idea. There's also, of course, hand sanitizer that people are using. And remember that it has to have a certain percentage of alcohol in it for it to be effective against the Coronavirus. Now, alcohol is naturally dehydrating. That's one of the ways that it actually works against enveloped viruses like the coronavirus. But that same property where it can be dehydrating can make it a little bit hard on your skin.

Dr. Johnson: And of course, in general in terms of the Coronavirus, as you'll hear everywhere, if you can avoid touching your face, that's great. In dermatology, we learned that people just touch their faces all the time for no good reason. In fact, I think I touched mine over the past two minutes like five times. So just bear in mind that there could be dirt or other nasty things on your hands that you don't want to put on your face.

Dr. Tarbox: Yeah, I think that it's something that we all have to kind of monitor our subconscious activities with and really try to pay attention to that behavior and stop it before it potentially transmits a virus we really don't want to deal with.

Dr. Johnson: Well, we mentioned moisturizers in general earlier, but this is a special spot where my favorite Vaseline really outperforms. So something nice and greasy will help it heal. Wounds heal best when they're kept moist and greasy. So I've talked to a number of patients who have said, "Won't my wound heal better if I leave it to dry?" And it's interesting because the medical community used to feel that that was the case. But something like 20 years ago, we realized it's not. If it's moist, then the new skin cells can crawl across the surface more easily. So, if you remember hearing, "You should leave your wounds dry for them to heal," that's outdated knowledge. Now, keep them greasy with Vaseline.

Dr. Tarbox: I like to think of it like trying to regrow a dead patch in a yard. So, if you think about where you've got your grass and you want it to grow back over a place where the grass has been lost for some reason or another, is it going to grow better if you have a nice moist soil that's easy for the grass to grow back through? Or is it going to grow best if you have hard, dry dirt?

Dr. Johnson: I do not have a green thumb, but I'm guessing the moist one.

Dr. Tarbox: Exactly. So I think that that's a very important thing now.

Dr. Johnson: Just don't wear a mask.

Dr. Tarbox: Ah, ba-dum.

Dr. Johnson: No, a joke. I mean, I guess if you can avoid wearing a mask because you are staying at home or whatever, that's fine. But masks are pretty important to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, so they're a necessary evil. Avoiding other stuff that's on your face under the mask, specifically makeup. So I admit I don't wear a lot of makeup.

Dr. Tarbox: What?

Dr. Johnson: But it seems to me that if you are going to be wearing a mask anyway, then why put makeup on the part of your face that's going to be covered? It can exacerbate the problem. It also kind of messes up the masks and makes them harder to reuse if we end up needing to do that.

Dr. Tarbox: I agree. I've actually taken this whole time as a little permission to be a little less involved with my beauty routine. So while I'm paying very good attention to my skin health, and I'm trying to kind of baby that skin and be gentle with it, I'm really not using makeup hardly at all, because what's the point? It's underneath the mask and no one is going to see it. So I don't understand why I would do that anyway.

Dr. Johnson: How do you wash your mask, Michelle? Do you just throw it in the washing machine with everything else?

Dr. Tarbox: The masks that I've had, I've had some that have actually been made by people in my community, who are just wonderful, lovely volunteers. So, in my free time, I actually enjoy participating in community theater. And when this whole outbreak began, the seamstresses and costumers that are a part of the theater made this beautiful effort and sewed all of these fantastic masks out of 100% cotton and then took them to the hospitals and gave them to the doctors and nurses there. And I thought that was a wonderful thing that they did. I found that just washing them like you would wash normal clothes is a very appropriate way to take care of them.

Dr. Johnson: I like that one, and I like the Costco version of it. I don't remember what it's called. Kirkland brand Free and Clear, or something like that.

Dr. Tarbox: I found that the Tide cleansers are a little bit more harsh to the skin, and even their Tide Free and Clear still causes problems for me and some of my patients. So I tend to avoid that one.

Dr. Johnson: Sometimes it's not time to do laundry and I still want to wash my mask. So we've just washed them by hand just with a little bit of laundry detergent on our fingers, or wash them in the kitchen sink and then put them in the dish dryer to dry. That seems to work okay.

Dr. Tarbox: I think that's a great way to do that. And then you also want to make sure that if you are having to wear a mask every day, your skin can get really irritated. There are some adaptations that you can make. Some of the masks tie behind the headset instead of behind the ears. So potentially altering the style of mask you wear day to day might help protect that skin behind your ears. There are also little straps or buttons on headbands to clip behind the head that will hold the ear loops of the mask.

Dr. Johnson: And for anybody out there who's an aspiring dermatology nerd, there are medical, fancy terms for all this stuff. So the medical term for maskne is Acne Mechanica, and it can also occur with anything else that's sort of rubbing or lying on the skin. I know it's seen in military recruits who have to wear backpacks all the time, for example. And then the medical term for your poor sore earlobes after you've been wearing a mask all day is acanthoma fissuratum. There you go. We make up words to sound smarter than we are.

Dr. Tarbox: Science! So, before this outbreak, the most common place that I would see what we call maskne, what we technically call Acne Mechanica, was in my football players who were wearing chin straps and masks because they were playing football. And it being Texas, you see a lot of that.

Dr. Johnson: And the other thing I think is that's helpful to know is if you do get some of the acne stuff onto your mask, one of my favorite over-the-counter products is benzoyl peroxide. It's in a lot of acne treatment products. So look for that particular ingredient. It comes in a lot of different ways. It comes as little spot treatment pads or gels or cleansers. I kind of like it as a cleanser, because I figure you're washing your face anyway, might as well put some medicine in there, but it works fine as a spot treatment if you just have one or two spots.

Dr. Tarbox: It will bleach your towels.

Dr. Johnson: And potentially your clothing.

Dr. Tarbox: And if you have lighter colored hair, it can get your hair.

Dr. Johnson: And I want to agree with everybody that the Coronavirus sucks. I'm sick of it.

Dr. Tarbox: One hundred percent. It is not our favorite thing. If you are treating the acne, you want to be a little bit more gentle than you normally would be. So I wouldn't go for the mega acne control hot lava cream. Use the sensitive skin products right now. Take it a little bit easy on your skin.

Dr. Johnson: Yes, I'm very proud to be part of the University of Utah Department of Dermatology. It's a great place to live, Salt Lake City. It's great place to work. And if you are a super dermatology nerd and are interested in sort of some of the research behind it, Michelle and I have another podcast. It's called "Dermasphere" and it's really intended for dermatologists. Maybe you're a dermatologist. What do I know? But maybe you're just dermatologically curious. If so, you can check out "Dermasphere" on your podcast platform as well.

Dr. Tarbox: Well, we'll be releasing a new episode in two weeks and we hope to see you there. Thank you for learning with us about the skin today here at "Skincast."

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Most men don't spend much time thinking about their skin. For the most part, we don't talk about it with other guys or buy skincare products. But should we think about it just a little bit? We asked dermatologist Dr. Luke Johnson on the show to tell us how much men should care about their skin.

At the minimum, men should protect themselves from skin cancer. If you live in Utah or anywhere with a lot of elevation, you're at higher risk of developing some form of skin cancer because there is a thinner layer of protection between you and the sun. Skin cancer is more prevalent in men than in women, so it's essential to look out for signs such as changing moles.

Dr. Johnson also reinforces that whether you're young or in your 90s, now is an excellent time to start protecting your skin. Many skin cancers start mild, but many people tend to ignore it for years until it becomes painful, and sometimes people die from their skin cancer – these can often be avoided if taken care of early on. Your Skin Can Keep You Looking Young and Vigorous

Dr. Johnson says dermatologists don't age like the rest of us, and that's because they know exactly how to take care of their skin. Some research suggests that 80% of the appearance of facial aging is due to chronic sun exposure. The sunscreen you use for skin cancer protection is also going to make you look younger. Dr. Johnson recommends retinoids, which are found in products such as over the counter Differin gel, to reduce aging's appearance, Your Skin Can Make You More Comfortable

If you decide you want to care about your skin a little more, consider using moisturizers. Dr. Johnson says many men think moisturizers and lotions are the same things. They are not. Moisturizers add moisture to your skin and prevent all the moisture from leaving your skin. Moisturizers exist in many different forms. Some are thin and come out of a bottle, thick creams that get scooped out of a jar, ointments, oils, and butters. The thicker the moisturizer is, the more effective it is at keeping moisture in your skin. Both Dr. Johnson and Troy use Vaseline. Troy admitted he puts Vaseline on his hands and wears cotton gloves to bed to combat damage from hand sanitizing and dry air. How often should men have a skin exam?

Dr. Johnson's view is that everyone should do at least one full-body skin check. Men can get one in their 20s for risk assessment and to establish a baseline. After that, any new developments would be worth mentioning to someone, even if they do turn out to be benign.

Dr. Johnson recommends the wide-brimmed hats to protect your neck and ears, sunscreen of SPF 30 or greater applied generously and reapplied every 90 minutes or so, or long-sleeved UPF sun-protective clothing. Nine Evidence-Based Guidelines for a Good Life

Troy shared the article "Nine Evidence-Based Guidelines for a Good Life" he found in Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Scot and Troy talked about each one and how it applied to them. Here are the nine points that the article states will lead to a better life:

1. Exercise your body and brain every day.
2. Gratitude
3. See others' points of view (Scot jokingly disagrees)
4. People, not things, make you happy.
5. Work to earn to live. Don't live for your work.
6. "It's not all about me." (Scot is the exception to this one)
7. (Troy may have skipped number 7. Find it in this article.
8. Use conscious reasoning to make the changes you want slowly.
9. When stressed, process your worries consciously.

Scot talks about how eating more vegetables have noticeably improved how he feels, and Troy is trying his best to get psyched up for winter. Talk to Us

If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, email us at hello@thescoperadio.com.

Dr. Gellner: Your teenager's feet may seem like they're growing so fast you have to get new shoes on a monthly basis, but teen feet can often have weird skin issues that can leave you wondering what they've been walking on. I'll talk about three common foot skin issues in teens on today's Scope.

Announcer: Keep your kids healthy and happy. You are now entering "The Healthy Kids Zone" with Dr. Cindy Gellner on The Scope.

Dr. Gellner: So your child comes to you and asks you, what's this weird bump or rash on their foot? Many people instantly think that their child has athlete's foot. First thing to ask is, is the rash mainly between the toes and at the front of the foot? Is it just in one spot? Is that all over the bottom of the foot? If it's athlete's foot, it's going to be mostly between the toes and looks like a scaly, cracking rash and it can smell bad and it really itches. Often the toenails will all start to thicken and look a funky yellow color.

Athlete's foot is caused by a fungus, but it's actually pretty easy to treat. There are several over the counter antifungal creams that you can get, and you should use the cream at least twice a day for a month. Sometimes the toenails need prescription medication, and you may need to see a podiatrist to have that treated. Many of the medications to take orally to treat adult foot fungus aren't safe for teens. Fungus loves dark, wet areas, so if your teen keeps their feet dry, that helps too, and the odor should go away as the fungus goes away too.

It's called athlete's foot because it's thought to be spread by direct contact with contaminated surfaces in locker rooms. Have your teen wear shower shoes or sandals to help prevent this.

Now, what if the rash is all over the foot and there's peeling? Well, does your child's feet sweat a lot? Does the rash start like whitish bumps that then spread to itching and peeling? That's dyshidrotic eczema, and it's treated just like any other form of eczema with steroid creams.

Sometimes just over-the-counter hydrocortisone and keeping your child's feet aired out and dry does the trick. Other times your child might need a stronger steroid cream or to see a dermatologist to help get the wet feet situation under control. Using foot odor powders in your child's shoes will help with the smell, which is caused by sweat and bacteria, and you won't get hit in the face by a nasty foot smell as much when your child takes their shoes off.

And finally, what if your child has a painful bump just on one spot on the foot that just keeps getting bigger and bigger? It doesn't really smell, but, man, it hurts. Yep, that's a plantar wart. Those are tricky to treat because, unlike warts on your fingers that grow outward like bumps, plantar warts grow deep into the foot. That's why they hurt so much. There are several over-the-counter wart removers you can try and duct tape. You'd be surprised how many things dermatologists use duct tape for. But if it gets too big, your child may need to see a dermatologist or a podiatrist for a more intense treatment, including injecting medication at the root of the wart, deep in the foot.

Whatever your child's foot skin issues are, if something seems weird or you can't get the problem to go away, make an appointment for your child's provider to check it out.

Announcer: Have a question about a medical procedure? Want to learn more about a health condition? With over 2,000 interviews with our physicians and specialists, there's a pretty good chance you'll find what you want to know. Check it out at thescoperadio.com.

Announcer: Need reliable health and wellness information? Don't listen to the guy in the cube next to you. Get it from a trusted source, straight from the doctor's mouth. Here's this week's listener question on The Scope.

Interviewer: This is actually from several listeners with describing in detail their moles. Some have different colors, some have different shapes, some are in weird places. The basic question is, should I get this checked? What should we be looking for, and when should we go to a dermatologist?

Dr. Smart: That's a great question. I think a lot of people struggle with this because sometimes you'll go into your dermatologist, he'll look at it for two seconds, and say, "Nothing to worry about. What are you doing here?" Or that's how you feel, but you're still doing the right thing.

That's why dermatologists go to medical school, and years of training because sometimes it does take years of training to be able to identify that is nothing to worry about, and this, this one is. But unless you spend that five seconds in front of a dermatologist, you will never know. So any time, you're really noticing a mole or a spot that's growing or changing to the point where you are noticing it, then it's legitimate to have that chat.

Now if it's something that's been present for many, many years of your life, and it's changing very minimally, the chance that, that's something truly concerning is exceedingly low, nevertheless, it can be. So whenever you are noticing something like that, there's never a wrong answer, there's never a time when you should say, "Oh, I shouldn't go to my dermatologist for this because you don't know.

Interviewer: So you're saying if it's growing in size, if it's something that you notice, what about color, place?

Dr. Smart: The very classic things that every dermatologist will tell you this, there's the A, B, C, D, E's of growing and changing lesions. And A is asymmetry, B is border, C is color, D is diameter, and E is evolution. So if any of those things are happening to any given spot, if one side is getting bigger than the other, or its starting to get little projections, so that it's not symmetric, that's concerning. If the border is starting to become funny rather than smooth, then that's a possible issue.

If the color is changing. It used to be tan, used to be just this normal beige, and now all of a sudden now there's a little bit of red, and a little bit of dark brown, well that's an issue too. And then diameter, if it's getting past a certain size, or measurements, so if it's getting big then that's something to change. And evolution is just thrown in there just for a cover-all. If it's changing, then come get it looked at. But I think it's really simple, if something's concerning you, then there's no reason to lose sleep over it. It's easy to come get it checked out.

Announcer: You're listening to The Scope, powered by University of Utah Health Sciences. This is The Scope. Find us online at thescoperadio.com.