Is bee venom a good anti-aging ingredient? Episode 163

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to The Beauty Brains Show, where real scientists answer your beauty questions. And now, here's Randy and Perry.

Randy Shuler (0:20)

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the showgram. Actually, welcome to episode 163 of The Beauty Brains Showgram.

I'm Randy Shuler, and today we're going to talk about bee venom as an anti-aging ingredient.

Perry Romanowski (0:33)

Hey, yeah.

Randy Shuler (0:34)

We'll explain.

Perry Romanowski (0:36)

There's two people on the show.

Randy Shuler (0:38)

No, no, I was going to introduce you. I'm doing the tease first.

Because I figure that, you know, if we don't capture their attention right away with a good tease, we lose some percentage of the audience.

Perry Romanowski (0:49)

Okay, go ahead. What are we teasing here?

Randy Shuler (0:51)

We're teasing bee venom as an anti-aging ingredient. We'll explain how dandruff shampoo might be good for your face, and we'll parse out the puzzling paradox of dry conditioner. But first, and here's where you come in, say hello to my fellow podcaster, Perry Romanowski.

Perry Romanowski (1:07)

Hey, Randy. It's good to be mentioned.

Randy Shuler (1:11)

Seriously, if you'd come to the rehearsals, we wouldn't have this problem.

Perry Romanowski (1:15)

I guess that's true. I'm still delirious from all the eclipse activity yesterday.

Randy Shuler (1:20)

And it's references like that that date the show.

The content is supposed to be evergreen. We can't talk about things in the news.

Perry Romanowski (1:29)

Well, we could talk about some things in the news, right? I mean, we do do a whole science news segment.

Randy Shuler (1:35)

Well, fair enough. Speaking of which, do you want to get right to that?

Perry Romanowski (1:40)

Yeah, we have seen a couple of interesting stories in the news.

That magazine that you're always quoted in had a story. You said Allure was not going to say anything about anti-aging anymore?

Randy Shuler (1:52)

Yeah, I thought that was interesting. So they came out with an editorial announcement this week that said they will no longer be using the word, quote, anti-aging.

And here's just a quick excerpt from the article. They said, it was actually starting with this issue, this month's issue, we're making a resolution to stop using the term anti-aging. Whether we know it or not, we're subtly reinforcing the message that aging is a condition that we need to battle. Think anti-anxiety medication, anti-virus software, anti-fungal spray. So it shouldn't be anti-aging. Now, I think it's an interesting sentiment. I get where they're coming from, because there is something a little pejorative about the term and a little bit unrealistic, too, because you can't stop aging. So I see where they're coming from, but the term is so ingrained in our culture, both on the consumer side and on the marketing side, I think it's going to be a real challenge to develop some kind of alternative language that really sticks with people. I mean, they're going to have to say something to describe what their products do or what the consumer need is.

And I think when they stop saying anti-aging and start talking about whatever they're going to say instead, when they see their web traffic start to drop off because they're not ranking well in anti-aging related searches, I wonder if they'll reconsider this.

Perry Romanowski (3:17)

Yeah, probably. It's interesting to say that anti-aging is bad because there are anti-aging associations or research groups, and that's in the name. But these groups, some of these groups, I've read a few books on this subject, it's an area of interest for me, but some of these groups want to look at aging as a disease.

And if you look at aging as a disease, then you would say anti-aging. We say like anti-cancer or anti-malaria, right? And so if you're thinking of aging as not a disease anymore, then I guess I could see you don't want to say anti-aging. Maybe you'd say something else.

Randy Shuler (4:04)

Well, I don't know where you'd draw that line because unlike, you know, let's say cancer or, you know, that can be cured, you can't stop aging. I mean, you can mitigate its effects, but aging mitigation process sounds a little bit clunky. So I'm not sure that's a good alternate name.

Perry Romanowski (4:21)

I don't know. Well, I'm not sure that you can't stop the process because if you break it down to like, what is the causes of aging, if you could reverse those things, then you essentially have, right?

Randy Shuler (4:37)

Well, okay, that's a pretty big hypothetical.

Perry Romanowski (4:39)

Oh, no, for example, they've looked at one of the things that causes aging is the shortening of the teleminers or telomeres. Well, you give me all these hard words.