I want you to pop your pimples

thinking that you have a hot date in a half an hour.

"Acne breakouts only happen on your face."

Not true.

"Face mapping can identify the cause of your acne."

This is not like reading your palm.

Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Love.

I'm a board-certified dermatologist in New York City.

I've been practicing for about five years,

and I specialize in both medical and aesthetic dermatology.

My name is Josh Zeichner.

I'm a board-certified dermatologist

and an associate professor of dermatology

at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City,

and I specialize in the treatment of acne,

rosacea, and cosmetic dermatology.

And today we will be debunking myths about acne.

"Eating greasy food causes acne."

So, theoretically, if you're eating very greasy food

and then you're immediately, like,

wiping your face with your hands,

you can clog your pores.

But for most people, if you're eating your food,

you're washing your hands, you're having good hygiene,

it's unlikely that the greasiness

of the actual food that you're eating

is going to have an effect on your skin.

Zeichner: Instead, it's the sugary food.

We know that foods that have a high glycemic index

cause acne breakouts in some people,

and it's thought that raising blood sugar

promotes inflammation and drives oil production.

So when you go to the restaurant

to go buy your milkshake and your burger,

it's not the burger, but rather the bun

and the milkshake that are causing the breakouts.

Love: I, in general, tell my patients

that by following a general healthy diet,

you're also following a healthy diet for your acne.

"If you drink eight glasses of water a day,

you'll have clear skin."

Zeichner: Stay well hydrated for your overall health,

but it is completely a myth that you need to drink

eight glasses of water for hydrated skin,

let alone clear skin.

There's no data showing that drinking

fewer than eight glasses of water

is associated with dry skin or acne breakouts either.

Love: I do think it matters what you eat, what you drink,

I think it matters what your exercise routine is,

and I think it matters what your topical routine

and maybe even your by-mouth routine is,

by your dermatologist.

All of these things are factors that contribute to our acne,

but there's no kind of magic cure

that just drinking water will cure your acne.

The only time I have found that water

clears up your acne is when you're using that water

to swallow your prescription acne medication

that your dermatologist has given you in the office.

"Acne breakouts only happen on your face."

Not true.

Acne breakouts are definitely more common on the face,

but we also know that they can occur on the chest,

the shoulder, the back,

and that you can even get acne-like breakouts on the scalp.

Zeichner: Acne develops in areas where

we have a high concentration of oil glands,

also known as sebaceous glands.

The most common reason that I see acne

on the body is sweat-related acne.

So, for this type of acne,

making a habit of changing out of sweaty clothing

and maybe even using an acne-fighting bodywash

after workouts can really help.

Zeichner: Acne on the body isn't always actually true acne.

I know that everybody talks about "buttne," or butt acne.

Well, guess what?

Butt acne usually is not even acne, it's folliculitis,

which is a little infection in the hair follicle.

And that happens when your skin barrier is disrupted

and bacteria on the skin make its way

into the hair follicles.

People typically develop red bumps and pus pimples.

If you don't have any big nodules,

if you don't have any blackheads or whiteheads,

then you may have folliculitis.

Love: "Face mapping can identify

the cause of your acne."

Everybody loves a good story on the internet

saying that, "If you have acne in one particular area,

that I can tell you exactly what causes it."

This is not like reading your palm.

Unfortunately, there's no definitive way

of mapping the cause of your acne

based on where it's developing.

Now, that being said,

we know that adult women tend to develop acne

along the lower one-third of the face and the jawline.

We know that hair-care products are associated with

acne breakouts along the hairline,

on the upper part of the face,

and sometimes if you are using a dirty phone

or if you have a chin strap or a face mask,

you may be developing acne in areas

where those are directly coming in contact with your skin.

But other than that,

there's not much science to face mapping.

Love: Acne can be asymmetric.

And so I have patients who will have more acne

on one side of their face than the other side,

and they will drive themselves crazy

trying to figure out what specifically is causing the acne,

and it's just how we're made.

Think of your face as having thousands of pipes

connecting your oil glands to the surface of the skin.

In patients who have acne,

all of those pipes are somewhat clogged.

The problem is we can't predict which one

will become clogged enough to form a full pimple.

So when we treat acne, we really want to address

the entire area that tends to break out

to get rid of pimples that we have

and to prevent new pimples from popping up.

Love: "If you don't get acne during puberty,

you won't get it as an adult."

It's completely a myth that you're free from acne

if you didn't have it during puberty.

Acne most commonly develops during puberty

and in adolescence.

And for most people, it goes away.

But there's a subset of patients

who actually had clear skin as a teenager,

and then sometime around the age of 25 or older

start to break out.

But it may have to do with changes in hormones,

diet, or stress.

Many adult women who are developing acne

actually have dry skin,

which complicates the way that we treat the acne.

Love: Sometimes adult acne, particularly that deeper acne,

can be resistant to topical therapies.

And that's when we consider by-mouth options.

My preference is,

there is a hormonally based medication

called spironolactone that is highly effective

for adult-onset acne,

particularly the hormonal driver for the acne.

"Bad hygiene causes acne."

There's no data to support that

it's a hygiene problem that's causing acne.

We know that acne is a really complicated medical disorder

with a complicated pathophysiology,

not at all related to hygiene.

But this also can be a damaging myth

because I find that a lot of my acne patients,

what they try to do is they try to overcleanse their skin,

and, essentially, when you start scrubbing your skin

and overcleansing your skin,

you increase inflammation at the level of the skin.

And at the end of the day,

acne is an inflammatory condition.

But, for the most part, the people who are

most at risk are people who have oily

and acne-prone skin to begin with.

"If someone else's acne treatment works for them,

then it'll work for me."

Some people with acne have oily skin,

some people with acne have dry skin,

some people with acne have sensitive skin.

Some people cannot remember to use a topical

for the life of them.

Some people prefer by-mouth medications.

And so there are a multitude

of different ways to treat acne,

and the one that will work is,

one, the medications that are designed to treat

the type of acne that you have,

but also, two, the medications that will actually

fit into your life and your lifestyle.

"Masturbation causes acne."

I have no idea where this comes from.

I, I, I, honestly --

no is the answer to it.

But I would love to know, Dr. Zeichner,

do you know where the origin of this is?

Yeah, I'm not really sure.

Is it because of teenagers get acne?

But I actually would think that masturbating

might help clear up your acne.

Love: Stress relief. Zeichner: Right?

But there's no data to show

that masturbating will or will not affect your skin at all.

Love: "You can't pop your own pimple."

Zeichner: If you pop your pimple the right way,

it's OK with me.

But the problem is most people are not doing that.

Patients often try to pop the super-inflamed pimples,

which just sometimes don't want to be drained.

And sometimes the best way to treat those

is with actually an anti-inflammatory in-office.

And so, don't try it.

It may cause more scarring and may cause more trouble.

If you're going to pop something,

it really needs to be blackheads.

No. 1, don't do it at night.

That's when you're tired and you're going to bed.

I want you to pop your pimples

thinking that you have a hot date in a half an hour

and your face needs to look good.

Because if you think about it that way,

you're not gonna put too much pressure on your skin.

You wanna make sure that the skin is clean

and your fingers are clean.

And you can take two cotton-tip applicators,

like Q-tips, and just apply gentle downward

and inward pressure around the pimple.

And if you're trying too hard and they're not coming out,

then leave it alone and abort the mission.

"Putting toothpaste on your pimple will make it go away."

Toothpaste was formulated with a preservative

known as triclosan, and this was an ingredient

that helped prevent bacterial contamination.

And because it has antimicrobial properties,

that's where, or why toothpaste

was originally used to treat pimples.

But guess what?

As it turns out, triclosan led to

a lot of allergies in the skin,

so it's been removed from toothpaste.

So the reason that toothpaste was being

put on the pimples isn't even there anymore.

And it contains harsh ingredients

with an alkaline pH, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda.

And all of these things will dry out your pimple,

but it's also gonna dry out your skin in general

and cause a whole big mess.

Love: But the reality is that toothpaste

was not designed to be used on your face,

and there are much more effective acne-fighting

ingredients that can be used in the same manner.

My personal favorite is benzoyl peroxide

as a spot treatment to both dry out the acne,

decrease the inflammation,

and decrease any microbial or bacterial growth.

"Aspirin will help get rid of breakouts."

We take aspirin all the time to help treat a fever

because it has anti-inflammatory properties.