10 Skin Truths Every Dermatologist Wants You to Know (Episode 100!)

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Ten absolute non-negotiables that people should really know and understand about their skin and the health of their skin. From our point of view as consultant dermatologists. Should we do that?

Ellie Rashid (1:11)

Let's do it.

Emma Craythorne (1:19)

Hello and welcome to the After Hours Skin Clinic. I'm Dr. Emma Craythorne, a consultant dermatologist and fellowship trained in skin and laser surgery.

Ellie Rashid (1:27)

And I'm Dr. Ellie Rashid, a consultant dermatologist with a PhD in regenerative dermatology.

Emma Craythorne (1:33)

We work at St. John's Institute of Dermatology and one Wellbeck here in central London.

Ellie Rashid (1:38)

But right here is our favourite clinic, where we unpack the evidence, challenge the trends and we answer the questions that don't necessarily fit into a 10 to 15 minute consultation.

Emma Craythorne (1:47)

This is the other side of dermatology, where we answer the questions you want to ask your dermatologist but don't have time. And if you don't have one, you do now.

Ellie Rashid (1:57)

Emma Craythorne and I have reached a major milestone. And the major milestone is that we are recording our 100th ever episode.

Emma Craythorne (2:07)

I thought you were maybe going to say it's our 100th birthday. And we're looking good for it.

Ellie Rashid (2:12)

This is a major achievement.

Emma Craythorne (2:14)

Cheers to us and Ella and Raconteur.

I thought that what we could talk about in the 100th episode is all of the really important skin truths that there are out there. You know, there's lots of misinformation around. There are lots of people giving advice and maybe the advice isn't necessarily targeted that person to receive it. So I wanted to try and come up with 10 absolute non-negotiables that people should really know and understand about their skin and the health of their skin. From our point of view as consultant dermatologists, should we do that?

Ellie Rashid (2:53)

Let's do it. Skin truths.

My number one skin truth is that you cannot get your pores to open and close. It's physiologically impossible and I want everyone to understand that before they go and run ice water all over their face and disrupt their skin barrier just to leave their pores alone. Their pores are essential structures in the skin. You can help improve the appearance of them by reducing the amount of debris and gunk that might get stuck in them and help to chemically exfoliate them, but not to think that you can do anything to open and close them.

Emma Craythorne (3:35)

Mine really has to be using your sunscreen every day. I'm actually going to caveat that with said, I want to explain what the importance is of sunscreen. I think everybody should understand the important rule that sunscreen has and decide for themselves whether that's what they want to do or not do. It is frustrating at no end to see a lot of misinformation that occurs about sunscreen, about it potentially being toxic or harmful or causing skin cancer in the first place. And I want to be very clear that the use of a sunscreen is our number one topical treatment that we have that will reduce the risk of you getting a skin cancer. And it will reduce the aging effect of the sun on the skin.

I'm not saying that you need to avoid the sun altogether. I'm not saying that you need to put sunscreen everywhere all over your body, but to be mindful of those areas that will build up this cumulative damage to UV.

And that is every single day, UVA can get on our skin and causes this cumulative damage. And I get it, it's only a tiny little bit in the middle of the winter. But if you're spending a lot of time outside, or you tend to live for a lot of years of your life, that cumulative exposure builds up. And that is what causes the increase of aging of the skin. So my number one really is to find the right sunscreen that you like to use every single day on these areas that are exposed where you want to keep the skin health as good as possible. Because the problem is that people often think that, aging is just related to my skin's got wrinkles and I'm looking older as a consequence. But it's not that. The skin doesn't work as well whenever it is getting older. It just doesn't work as well. So the idea is trying to keep it as healthy and as young as possible for the health of that skin, not just for the outward appearance of it. And the way to do that is actually putting a sunscreen on every single day.