Skin and Hair Archive

Q. I know someone who swears by Vaseline as a face cream. What do you think?

A. There are two important differences between the skin on your face and the skin on the rest of your body. First, the skin on the face heals much faster. Cosmetic surgery is possible because facial skin heals so well and so fast, even in older people. Second, facial skin has more pores than skin elsewhere. Pores allow sebum, the oily substance produced by sebaceous glands, to reach the surface.

Warts are extremely common. Most are small and painless. Many will resolve on their own. All are benign. But that doesn't mean warts are trivial. In fact, many are unsightly, some do cause pain, and patients with weakened immune systems can have major problems with warts. However, the most common symptom of all is worry, with embarrassment a close second; both are best treated with a simple dose of information.

What are warts?

A wart is a skin infection caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV affects only humans; it spreads from person to person by direct contact. With the important exception of the strains that are sexually transmitted (see box), HPV is not very contagious. Most people with warts don't remember coming into contact with another case, possibly because it takes so long for a wart to develop after infection occurs. Still, it's likely that most warts develop after HPV enters the body through a minute break in the skin.

Q. My wife has morphea spots on many areas of her body. We are currently treating them with Dovonex cream, which seems to help a little but is very expensive. Do you have a better way to treat this disease? We have been told that very little is known about how to treat it.

A. Morphea (pronounced more-FEE-ah) is a fairly unusual skin condition. I see perhaps one or two cases a year. The plaque type — which is the most common and probably what your wife has — affects women more often than it does men and typically is seen on the trunk. It's caused by an overproduction of collagen by cells in the skin called fibroblasts. Why fibroblasts start overproducing collagen is unclear.

Warts are an unsightly nuisance that can take a year or more to go away on their own. Several effective, noninvasive treatments are available.

Some tips for keeping your vacation medically uneventful.

It's summer, a prime time for getting away. But even a minor health problem can spoil a vacation. And a major one — well, that can cause regret about ever leaving home.

Of course, there are no guarantees, but taking a few precautions can improve the odds for the medically uneventful vacation. International travelers should visit www.cdc.gov/travel for information about vaccinations, disease outbreaks, and the like, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Summertime, and the living is easy — if you stay healthy, that is. Most men think of winter as the "sick season," but summer's seasonal woes can creep up on you when you least expect them. Here are a few tips for staying cool, dealing with the sun's awesome radiant energy, managing poison ivy, and warding off the insects that like summer as much as you do.

Heat and humidity

Heat can turn an August day into a medical crisis. But with simple precautions, you can stay safe this summer.

Q. I have a bad case of seborrheic keratoses on my back and chest. What can you tell me about this skin problem?

A. These growths on the skin can be unsightly and get irritated and bleed, but seborrheic keratoses (pronounced seb-o-REE-ik ker-ah-TOE-sees) are very common and noncancerous. Typically, they start as small yellow or tan bumps and then gradually turn dark brown or black and develop a wartlike surface. They appear most often on the face, shoulders, chest, and back. Seborrheic keratoses are usually a little bit raised, so they look like they've been stuck on the surface of the skin. Some Africans, African Americans, and other dark-skinned individuals get a variant of the condition called dermatosis papulosa nigra, which consists of many black lesions on the cheeks.

Q. What causes bags and puffiness around the eyes and dark circles underneath them?

A. Gently pinch the skin under your eyes and give it a little tug. You'll feel that it's a little looser and thinner than skin elsewhere. As we age, some of the fat under the skin of the face disappears and gravity tends to pull what's left downward. Bags form under the eyes partly because there's less fat supporting the skin, so it becomes slacker. Thinner and looser skin also allows fluid to collect, causing a puffy appearance. The dark circles — not true circles, of course — under the eyes are caused by blood pooling in the veins just under the skin. The skin there is especially sensitive to sunlight, so some of the darkness may be from pigment. You've probably noticed the puffiness around your eyes after you first get up in the morning, and the dark circles may be more visible then, too. You're seeing the consequences of being in a horizontal position, which creates a greater tendency for fluids to accumulate around the eyes and for veins to expand (dilate) so they hold more blood.

Q. My teenage daughter wants to be tan when we go down to Florida for our winter vacation in February. I have suggested one of these so-called sunless tanning products, but she says they don't look natural and wants to go to an indoor tanning salon instead. What do you think?

A. Sunless tanning products have been around for decades. The old products, especially the ones you applied yourself, were streaky and they turned the skin an orangey-brown.

Simple and inexpensive ways to moisturize itchy, dry skin

Dry skin occurs when skin doesn't retain sufficient moisture. This can happen as a result of frequent bathing, use of harsh soaps, aging, or certain medical conditions. And for those in colder climates, it can stem from cold, dry winter air.

During winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, you may suffer from red, rough, raw, and itchy skin. This is because cold winter air means low humidity, both outdoors and indoors. The water content of the epidermis (the outermost layer of skin) tends to reflect the level of humidity around it. Fortunately, there are many simple and inexpensive things you can do to relieve winter dry skin, also known as winter itch or winter xerosis.