suncream, zits and wrinkles: rolling skincare thread?

I worry about that, too, but I found a local dermatologist who just does, how would you say it, medical dermatology? No cosmetic stuff that I could see. At least, nothing advertised in her office and she definitely didn't try to upsell me on any procedures. Just took care of four weird moles and that was that.

I went to see an internal medicine doc once because they thought there was something up with my gallbladder (turned out to be just good old reflux/GERD which I've had for most of my adult life so yay for me, I guess?) and I don't know if that doc did cosmetic stuff or just shared an office with someone who did but holy shit there was Botox and laser resurfacing procedures and all kinds of shit all over his office. And there was a hetero couple there and the man was making appointments on behalf of the woman to have some kind of cosmetic dermatology procedure. Ugh.

dermatology isn't the only medical field that's been overrun by the practice of hawking cosmetic procedures of questionable medical value, but it's probably the worst offender. y'all aren't ugly (of course not!)--stuff like that is just a huge moneymaker for doctor's offices. at one point my mother was considering adding botox services to her office but my sisters and i shamed her out of it. i have a lot of *thoughts* about this "medical" development.

i lied; i have no thoughts, only rage

The feeling that I was ugly vanished as soon as I remembered that I will never have enough money to afford whatever the really good stuff is, and I don't think spending money on that stuff is worthwhile anyway, and I would rather just forget about it and go across the street to the record store because guess who doesn't have lupus! <--- those were my exact thoughts upon leaving the dermatologist

I didn't know that the derma I saw didn't do cosmetic stuff, either. Like ENBB, I'm spotty and I hadn't had a full check in like ten years and I knew I needed to go. I had steeled myself to refuse to engage on the topic whatsoever, and I just lucked out.

I'm glad you don't have lupus, btw!

I'm not entirely against cosmetic dermatological procedures. I mean, if someone wants to do that and it makes them feel better about themselves then I'm not going to judge them for it. I have never had anything like that done and don't anticipate doing so but who knows how I'll feel 20 years down the line? What I do know is that I have no interest in any of it now and would rather not have anything pushed on me and make me feel more like shit about myself than I already do.

i mean, i have used prescription acne treatment in the past and probably will again. my point is less about the people who opt to get cosmetic procedures and more about the business of medicine side of it, which grosses me out.

Yep, me too.

i'm not judging them for it either
i just don't want to spend my own money on it or feel compelled to do so by an advertisement

Yeah, if I wanted laser skin resurfacing or whatever, that's great. It's when people go in for mole checks or because they think they have lupus and the response is, "You're fine, but have you considered Botox?" that I get the rage a la horseshoe. See also: "Hello, I am here because I have chronic intractable heartburn and would like medicine." "Okay. Have you considered weight loss surgery?" (That's why I won't go to a gastroenterologist who does weight loss surgery - when all you have is a hammer, all your fat patients look like big old nails.)

exactly

also, whenever i feel ugly, it helps me to remember that someone is making money off that feeling and to follow the trail to figure out which money-making enterprise was at the root of that particular moment of self-loathing.

Oh, that's a good strategy. The sleuthing distracts from the self-loathing until outrage kicks in.

haha it's like you really get me, Jenny <3

i have two emotions these days: angry and dancey

haha <3

I tried plenty of prescriptIon stuff for my skin but still permanently had one or two spots on my chin until I went to this US dermatologist last year. He was awesome and I only paid co-pay. Literally the only good experience I had with the u.s. Health"care" system. He had tons of "subtle" botox etc posters on the wall.

Out of curiosity, what didn't you like about the system? Was it all the red tape/cost BS or the actual care? I ask only because while I love the NIH in theory, the doctors ( 2 diff GPs both in London) I had while on it were horrible. The dentist I saw might actually have been worse. I hate admitting that because I wish it weren't so but the standard of care was a lot lower than what I've experienced here. That said, I have an excellent PCP here and I know that.

lol I meant NHS not NIH. I am putting together a grant app to the latter this afternoon so it's on my brainz.

Well, you don't want to get me started :)
Actual care was ok, I guess, although so ass-covering - they couldn't give me actual information about whether I should go home or not ("well you could, but you might die in the night, so it's up to you...") and just literally every single person talked to me like I was speaking another language (not just me either, my husband found this). like I'd ask a straightforward question like 'where can I get some water' 'how long will i be here' 'what is the address of this hospital so I can tell the car to get home' and they would not know (in the case of that last question) or just tell me a random sentence. Nothing was joined up, I had to give my insurance information repeatedly and they still fucked up absolutely everything, basically refused to send (very straightforward) test results to my doctor because they screwed up, arghghgh. No-one could ever tell you who in what department to talk to or anything.

The red tape side, man, I hope my life is never genuinely in the hands of those people. Absolutely appalling. Again, no-one could answer a question and you felt like you're completely on your own taking crazy pills. I spent literally a year not knowing whether they were going to charge me several tens of thousands of dollars because they just could not understand a single question I asked and gave completely irrelevant answers. (I was in overnight for observation, they billed insurance co. for intensive care unit, they refused, I questioned repeatedly whether a mistake had been made ad infinitum.)

To be fair I have not had any serious experience with NHS except my husband was very recently in for a similar thing and it took a lot less time (including follow-up testing, the same that I had) and people talked to him like a human. I'm sure it all depends on who you end up talking to. My GP in the US was a bit weird but I just picked a random place I could get to on the bus and never got around to changing it. Oh yeah that office insisted I had a SSN when I didn't and it turned out they were referring to a form where I'd written 'my husband's SSN: ' in big letters as it was his policy. He also prescribed me tons of drugs for a weird neck thing I had and gave me a referral for an Xray and I was like WHAT! Is it really serious enough to warrant all this? and he was like 'nah'.

Interesting thanks for elaborating! I find this stuff fascinating partly because it has to do a bit with part of my job and also just because of personal experience. Sounds like you were in a bad hospital which totally happens and is the pits. The red tape part of it all is just totally awful and inexcusable, you're right.

AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22227-rosacea-may-be-caused-by-mite-faeces-in-your-pores.html

i hate u

hahahahahahaaaahahaha omg

no no no no no no nooooooooooooooo

my face it is filled with shit ;_;

I think I won't read that article. a;lsdkjf;alksdjf

omg I wish I hadn't read it

I'm almost as scared of that closeup of rosacea-face as I am of the bugshit

O_O

i think it's interesting

there are mites and their poo everywhere, whatevs

not saying it isn't gross, just saying i like ~science~

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5258/5465902801_b766b897dd_z.jpg

^ this book changed my life in weird ways

i wonder if we need mites as much as they need us

maybe, but the tiny spiders dying and rotting in my pores thought is still giving me palpitations

^^^^

HOW DO I GET THEM OUT?

bleach imo

dudes, this is oooooold news. I am currently running a rosacea clinical trial that is using an anti-parasitic compound. It's working like a champ.

!!! That's kind of awesome.

Sorry guys I know it is sorta horrifying but also v interesting! I will admit that I made sure to wash extra well tonight. And yeah Kate, that is really neat.

kate, you have my attention

This is the study.
If you're interested in participating in clinical trials, you can search by disease and geographic area at clinicaltrials.gov.

I see it mentioned a couple of times upthread, and I know Julia loves her NutraSonic, but has anybody else purchased one? My pal (and ILX lurker) Courtney just got one and really likes it and I'm considering it.

Is that like a Clarisonic? I have the Olay knock-off and love it. Might shell out for the Clarisonic one day but it's so $$.

i skipped a wk of nutrisonic and cld tell the diff. (i use it twice weekly) ugggh dull peely face. before i tried it, i had tried every exfoliant ever (it seems) and nothing helped before. my skin is rly weird tho. (skin condition + wonky hormones = eek)

olay is supposed to be the same thing cheaper, from what i've heard. doesn't seem worth shelling out for the pricier ones if you like hwat u have!

xp Yeah, same general idea. I guess I meant has anybody else purchased one of these new fangled face brushes. Courtney got the Clarisonic. I'm not married to any one brand, although I like the idea of a device that is rechargable.

x-post - Yeah, I'm going to keep using the Olay until one day if/when it seems like it's no longer working. It's cheaper than the replacement brush heads for the other ones. It's very gentle so I use it every night. It's battery operated but I've had it about 4 months so far and haven't had to change them yet.

Oh, that's a plus.

I shall now bombard you with questions: Can you use it in the shower? If you use it at the sink, is it really messy? Does the brush spin or vibrate (I think that's what the Clarisonic is supposed to do - vibrate like how the Sonicare toothbrush does)?