Here’s what you can do to combat "maskne"

Speaker 0 00:00:01 When Northwestern, sophomore, Luke Albany moved from Colorado to Florida this summer to work on a farm. He was in for more than just the experience of living in a swing state that refuses to swim. In fact, admits the heat and humidity. All many realized he had masked me. Speaker 1 00:00:17 There was a point where like I looked in the mirror and I like really liked not actually upset because I really had me in high school. And I really had kind of gotten into the end of high school beginning of college. But then like when I saw everything going crazy again, like I actually just got very upset Speaker 0 00:00:40 As if there was a need for more to worry about in the midst of a pandemic and unending election acne caused by face masks, often referred to as mass MI is unfortunately a very real phenomenon. And according to Northwestern dermatologist, Dr. Ruple conduit is all too common. Speaker 2 00:00:57 Yes. Um, I was in clinic earlier today and I saw a handful of patients with mask me, um, really had not experienced any breakouts prior to in our, having it very, very localized under the mask. And it seems to be look like acne in the sense that they're usually pretty inflamed bumps are what we call papules, but I do indeed think it's a very real phenomenon. Speaker 0 00:01:25 So real that the journal of the American academy of dermatology found that out of 700 medical workers surveyed from Houma China, 97% experienced skin damage from antiviral protection measures, like in 95 masks with over 83% of respondents experiencing the skin damage and irritation on their notes. Speaker 3 00:01:43 I have noticed that like where I break out, it tends to be in like, pretty much like the edges of my math. I get, I got like a bad one on the bridge of my nose and I tend to get it like where the mass kind of ends. So I think like pretty much like around the perimeter of the mask is where I get like the most breakouts these days. But I think honestly, what contributes to emotions, just like stress it's been like, you know, just a real stressful year Speaker 0 00:02:08 And this fun, his acne is alone. He's right. The stress of being in a pandemic and an increasingly politically polarized nation doesn't help. Speaker 2 00:02:16 So I think when it comes to stress and we can think of stress as physiological stress, emotional stress in all different formats, um, can worsen skin disease, uh, indirectly. So I definitely don't think stress causes something to occur, but it can be associated because what happens when we're stressed, you don't eat as well. You don't sleep as well. We don't, you know, we don't take care of our skin, our body in the same way. And there's also like something happening internally physiologically when we stress. Speaker 0 00:02:51 Okay. So we're stressed and that isn't good. But what about if we don't live in the hot Florida humidity like Amani or in the oppressive summers of hu bay are Midwesterners safe from mass means wrath? Well, not exactly. Speaker 2 00:03:04 We think about an area like Chicago or the Midwest. Um, we have four seasons and because of that, we have, our skin is like an ever adapting and changing and although it's, or we suddenly have the heat on. And so there are all these different factors at play. So the Speaker 0 00:03:22 Question remains, how can we help stop mask Speaker 2 00:03:25 Me? Yeah. So I think there is a lot of different steps. Um, first is to keep things simple and so cleansing the face and keeping things as clean as possible. Um, if your skin is prone to be dry, definitely moisturizing and in most people hydrate your skin every day. So keeping that routine, um, having a, a mask that is plead and WellFit, you know, it's, it's snug on the face. There's not a lot of movement using natural fabrics like cotton. And even if you need to be wearing layers, it's okay. So cotton to be against the skin, um, and then potentially putting on one of the more disposable type of masks over that, um, cleaning the masks, you know, regularly as well, not wearing a lot of makeup underneath in terms of limiting occlusion to the area, um, as well, hydrating your lips, even with like just the good old, plain Vaseline, but I'll look here underneath. Um, and then if possible and safe, you know, taking little hiatuses from the mask. Nope. When you can, and again, it has to be a safe environment, getting it off for 15 minutes, every four hours or so. Um, just allow your skin to breathe a little bit as well Speaker 0 00:04:41 For WMUR news. I'm Helen Bradshaw.