Superstitions and Past Life Theories

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We're moving forward in time in twenty twenty for this select The year of COVID with our february twentieth episode birthmarks Colin Probably not the mark of the devil I honestly don't remember much about this one, but when I was looking through our twenty twenty list Maybe I want to go listen to it, and so that's what I'm going to do, and I think you should too Welcome to Stuff You should Know, a production of IHart Radio Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W, Chuck Bryan over there, and there's Jerry. Jerry's back, everybody. That's right. And all the listeners said, What happened to Josh T? What are we doing? Did we decide? Yeah we're gonna do birth mor. Okay, great. Check the title, Chuck. Well, I mean I have two things in front of me How you doing? I'm great. How are you? I'm good. You got any birthmarks? I do. What you got U I've got something under my right armpit. You like it looks like Richard Nixon. Close, It looks like Spiro Aagnna. Do you remember when Mad magazine used to make fun of Spiro Aagnna? you're like, I have no idea who' It was the name maybe. No, it was 'cause like they hateated his politics. Yeah, well, that too. But then there was a Simpsons where Millhouse is like They're making fun of Spiro Aague again. He must work there or something. And I remember specifically thinking that he he referenced Mad magazine. Oh, that's funny. Yeah. So you've got a under your armpit birthmark Yeah, how about you I think I do actually What I have a lot of now because I'm an old man speeding toward death are skin tags. Oh yeah Like thoseose are not burth around the neck and armpit. That's where they like tend to gather. That's just your skin, you know really going at it I used to have them clipped and I did did that for a while, but it's been a while. But now I went in recently it was so annoying. It was one of these Our medical system is just broken. It was one of those reminders because I went in to get it taken care of like I usually do. and I got in there and the guy was like, Ohh, well, we don't do this now unless you make another kind of appointment. I was like, well, can I just make this that since I'm here sitting in your office? Right. He wass like, no, no, no, those take much longer. These are just ten minute appointments and that'll take like an hour And some of them have their own vascular system, so they need to be cauterized And I was like, o, okay So I'm just leaving. and he was like, yes. He' like, if you want to make that other appointment, and then they refunded the money for that appointment, which was nice. The copay. But then they said, make the longer appointment if you want to come back. So which are you going to? Yeah, you know I mean They're not like medically dangerous or anything, but they're rather unsightly It's fine. When they get long and big? Well, long, sure. I mean, how long are we talking? like? I mean, some of the ones are like, you know Quarter inch. so Okay, I was just about to say how big that was. Let me see if I can figure it out in metric. It's a few centimeters, I think is what you just. I want to get them clipped again. So I'm going to make that longer appointment.. I think it will be painful Is it painful? I've never had one clipped? The regular clipping, the small ones aren't a big deal because they just hit it with a little quick shot and then clip it And this's no big deal, but what kind of a shot likeike a you know, a needle like a little numbing Numbing thing. Okay, I got you. Like with a needle like Lid a canane. whatever. I don't know. I don't they don't spray with the freezy stuff. No, you're thinking of this stuff for athlees' foot. This is like a shot, L a cane But anyway, the ones that are big that require cauterizing, I'm sure that doesn't feel great even if they've numbed it up. Youust get the acetylene torch out. And I imagine I'll have to shave my armpits because If you're torching something near armpit hair. Plus you just want to look good. Maybe I've never shave my pits. Might start that. I why not? I'll bet that's itchy though Yeah, maybe. Anyim you shave something it starts to grow out, it's itchy, you know what I'm saying?. So I used to get warts actually when I was a kid. Oh yeah. And I remember going into the dermatologist and they'd go into the freezer Put on these huge rubber gloves and pull out like this thermos. of I want to say nitroglyceram, that's not it. No. You don know what I'm talking about. Yeah, the cold stuff. Yeah. And it would freeze Yeah. my wart basically right off right there. Yeah,ust gonna sting for a second, and that was it I never really had wors Belve me, buddy, you lucked out because if you're a little kid in sure grade school and you have like it wasn't like cated with them. But you know, like I'd get one like here between my forefinger and my thumb or I have one on my elbow or something like that. J am for kids jerks zero in on that stuff. And you're the you're the little weird kid Who' already the fat kid now with Wards New and improved. I had freckles a lot more than I do now because freckles tend to fade as you get older. And freckles are, I guess a kind of, well, they're not a kind of birthmark because you're not born with freckles But I did look into it. Freckles are just an abundance of melanin R, likeike collected together Well, that's basically what a mole is, which is a type of birthmark if you're born with it. That's right. So I love freckles though. Freckles freckles are super cute. Freckles are great. moles are great. birthmarks, especially interesting ones are great. Warts are great. That's why the term wartz and all came about. It's true because that's how you should love It is true Chuck H Qit making fun of people, kids. Well, that's the thing. You're so mean. Birthmarks have been around since the dawn of humanity. I'm guessing U And people have probably been ostracized because their birthmarks since the dawn of humanity. And you know, for a very long time People were ostracized for their birthmarks becausecause of some really stupid ideas, like it meant you were a witch. Right. Or it meant you were touched by Satan All sorts of stuff like that. And then over time it got a little more innocuous, but even still today parts of the world where you can find people who are ostracized because their birthmarks. And then even in the developed world, the Western world, which is rational and based more on science you can still find yourself at the receiving end of being ostracized, maybe not because you're a witch, but just because you have a birthmark or you look different. And so U I've seen parents react to it. if their baby has like a strawberry mark on their head. Yes. Like that've seen them feel the need to say like, oh, you know, this, you know, will go away or something like that. I was reading this birthmark support group from Great Britain and they were saying this one mom had cards printed up explaining what her child's birthmark was because sometimes she just couldn't She just didn't have it together enough to have a conversation with the stranger who'd walked up and been like, What's up with your kid's face? And rather than beltem, she would just give them a card and then just probably go home and weep or something like that. Knowing not for herself, but the life that her kid was gonna have to face, not because her kid has a birthmark, but because the rest of the world are schmarks. Yes That's that's the long and short of it. That's right. All right, children are mean. I managed to find a soap box even in the birthmarks episode. I bet a kid Probably a collection of kids could still make you cry If they they starting on. I'd just start kicking, throwing elbows. Id just hold my arms out and start twirling around really fast and whatever got hit got hit. People would be like, is Josh fighting a bunch of children and' be like, Yeahah, they made fun of ' them. Yeah. They'd be like, I shoved one in a grocery store once Oh man, I'll never forget that lady So let's talk birthmarks. Chuck, it turns out There's a lot to know. Yeah, they're usually not a big deal. They aren't painful usually harmless A lot of times they go away We're going to detail the ones that do and that don't go away and the ones that are of more concern. But generally speaking, science doesn't really know why they come about to begin with. But they are something that doctors will sometimes want to keep an eye on. And that's the intro. That's intro number seven. Yeah, there's a couple of big categories vascular and pigmented And let's talk about some of these. Vascular are usually reddish because they have to do with blood vessels. Yeah, I think reddish is a very common When you think birthmarks, you think reddish typically? I think brownish. Brownish too Apparently they can come in a whole rainbow of colors Blue, brown, black, pink, white, although I take issue with that purplish tan and I take issue with white because I think White is like a reverse birthmark. although technically it would still count as a birthmark. So the whole rest of your body is a birthmark and that one little spot is right is okay. That's right U Birthms tend to be an aggregation of either pigment or blood as we'll see Yeah. And white is like an area where pigment is absent. So I guess it still counts as a birthmark, but it's not really birthmark if you go into a dermatologist's office, rightight. They'll be like,, he got this all wrong h And like we said, the skin tags and freckles and things like that, they come later in life Although freckles can start out very early, but it's still not a birthmark ' you're not born with that mark. Yeah, and even as we'll see, some types of moles don't technically qualify as birthmarks, even though they typically fall under the banner of birthmarks, you have to be born with something for it to count as a birthmark. That's right. So that's not even fully true as we'll see This is just full of lies. Everybody who studies birthmarks needs to get their stuff together. So the macular they're called flat sometimes, macular stains. And we're in the vascular category? Right? This is the non pigmented. These are usually caused by blood enlarged blood vessels. These have some cute names that go along with them. Love them. Angel kisses. Great I think some of these can be because of where they're found Although I've heard people cross referencing. like I think an angel kiss is usually on the forehead Oh really? but not always. A stork bite is usually on the back of the neck Oh that makes sense. But I've also when you Google stork Bite, there's some like right on the tip of the nose. and people call them that. I took it to me more like that those names were derived from the age that they like kids who are born with this and then it tends to go away at an early age That's what it's associated with. You know, like the stork brings the baby And the angels Well, everybody Agels love babies. What about the salmon patch? I don't understand it at all They are usually above the neck U they usually or a lot of times they'll disappear and fade away by the time they're two or three years old, but not always sometometimes the last Yeah, but for the most part, if you have a macular flat vascular birthmark on your kid They're probably going to outgrow it is just really no other way to put it. They outgrow that birthmark eventually. That's right. Most often Court Weinsteins are a whole different ballgame Yes They they look like kind of what they sound like. They're usually and the Purplish red where it looks like or wine has been spilled? I would know nothing about what a wine spill looks like. Sure. right? Because you never, ever spill all your wine, it all makes it into your mouth. That's right I've seen it So Port Weinstein I say that it's like a whole different kettle of fish It's in the same category as macular because they're vascular. It's like an aggregation of overdveloped blood vessels rning close to the skin They seem to come from like a whole different place a whole there's a whole different reason. And in fact, we should say this, Chuck, because this is really important If you go up to a dermatologist or anybody who would know what they're talking about. and you say, hey, where do birthmarks come from? What causes birthmarks They would say we actually don't know Yeah U The closest that they've come is with Port Weinsteins from what I can tell. They figured out that there's a gene Um where the this molecular switch that's supposed to go on and off is locked in the on position. And that they think that this is what causes Port winestains. And the reason that they found it is because about six percent of kids who are born with the port winestin birthmark develops something called Sturge Weber syndrome, which is a neurological condition. Oh, interesting. And it's if you have a port wine stin birthmark, it does not mean you have Sturge Weber. But if you have Sturge Weber, you have a port wine birthmark. Gotcha. Six percent of port wine birthmarks cases have Sturge Weber. It's actually a symptom. But one hundred percent of people with that condition have the Port Weinstein. Yeah. And so in investigating the syndrome and the link between it and the Port Weinstein birthmark, they found this gene that they think is the culprit. All right Well, they never go away A lot of times they'll get darker as you become older And these are not a big deal healthwise either unless it's something near your eyes that can affect your vision and then they might want to take a look at it. I also saw that in some cases they can start to get lumpy and actually become disfiguring as you age too. I did see those And they can also once they lump, they can scar too. So A lot of people seek treatment for Port wine stained birthmarks, as we'll see Yeah, strawberry marks is what I referenced at the beginning. You might see these on little BBes. They are Hamaniomas Is it right? Yeah And these most of the times I saw even less than thirty percent, but it says here thirty percent are visible at birth. Most of the times though they'll develop between four and six weeks. And I think By the time you hit six months, if you're going to have one, it will be visible by that point. Right. You won't develop one of these at like the one year mark. But again, there's that one there's that loophole where it's like you it still counts as a birthmark, even though you weren't technically born with it. drives me up the wall. Right. And these are a little more reddish. and you've probably seen these like I said on babies before because They're, you know, they're pretty common they will They have they're raised off the skin. That's kind of one of the differentiators is they're not flat R So Like Hmagiom Hmi I've said it like five times in my head. Hagiomas fifty times probably. Yes, and I can't say it out loud. Iagiomas macular in port Weinsteins. like we said, these are all overdveloped blood vessels, clusters of blood vessels. They're from blood vessels, which That's why the sixth time we said that, whichich is why they have that reddish pigment is because The blood is close enough to the skin and it's clustered together, it's kind of almost pooled right there, right? That's right. But it's not like a bruise or anything like that. the blood hasn't escaped the vessel. There's just a lot of vessels or big vessels all clumped together near the skin. What's interesting about Hmagiomas I did it, Chuck Cagiomas Nice work. Thanks Hamangiomas Oh man, did I miss it twice? I think there's an N in there that being forgotten. What's interesting about what you just mentioned is that in some cases they can extend down into the body. The further they extend down, they won't be reddish, they'll be bluish Yeah, and they can even be on the organs It's pretty rare But it happens It is and they can be threatening the organs. You don't wantan to have a cluster of blood vessels on your organs. But back to the blue part So the reason that they look blue is because as everybody knows U blood on its way back to the lungs to be oxygenated is blue. That's right. That's not true. I'm sorry to set you up like that. I thought it was true up That's why're warorning. Pains are blue. It's not. And as soon as you get cut and it hits that sweet, sweet oxygen. Right. That just transforms into red. That's what you thought, right? N's not what I thought as an adult, but that's what I thought as a small child. That's what I thought until this morning. No. Yeahon, you knew that? No, Re? Yes. You thought blood was blue Yes, I thought deoxygenated blood was blue. Wow OkayK, well, do you understand why it appears blue Well, I mean, no, but I just knew that that was like a playground falsehood Well, I was too veins were blue. Thinking about how we fighting I was covered with to learn this. You're like I'm gonna draw some sweet blue blood out of that jourk. So with my fist. The reason it's blue is because the deeper it is, the less blue light is able to penetrate So the less that can be absorbed And so the light that's reflected tends to be blue more than say, like red penetrates deeper and is absorbed. That has to do with blue foods too, which is a bit for the next episode Thank you pin in that. Yeah These strawberry marks, though, back to those, they will disappear Usually by the time a kid is like into double digits If they're large, sometimes you might see a scar These are around the head and neck as well and are most commonly found on Caucasian girls But they're not they don't have a real impact on development either But if they' really big and puffy, again, they could around the eyes or ears, they could interfere with hearing and vision and stuff like that. Right Yeahah. and if if they're on on your internal organs, it's a problem So I think we should take a break because astoundingly we're twenty minutes in and we have not taken a break. Wow So we'll be back to birthmarks right after this I Miller from OK Storyim So, I have a furry friend named Mia. She's literally a bundle of joy and love who can never get enough pets, cuddles, and attention. 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No, this is because like freckles, I was taling about is just a collection of melanin that's brought out by sun exposure. Yeah, Mlanocytes, melanin cells, melatonin cells or melanin one of the two all over your body It gives you like the color to your skin. Some people have more, some people have less, but everybody has them. But like you were saying when they kind of congregate together. That's when they form these pigmented spots that we know as birthmarks Right. We are in our house, my daughter's at the age now where She has started to notice skin color. Oh yeah, which is something that you, you know, every parent has to deal with at some point. Sure. And that's how it was recommended to us to talk about it was scientifically. being like, Hey, everyone's the same different skin tones because of science Some people have more melanin than other people Is that why you had me over to dinner and started asking me about that You just wound me up and knew I'd go, huh That's right So um, But I mean, that is tricky stuff for parents because what you're really talking about is The first talks of race You know, Yeah. And you just you have to do it in such a way that diffuses it almost ' just like,, everyone's the same.. Some people are lighter skinned, some people are darker skinned. Yeah. Both of her best friends though are multiracial, which helps Oh, yeah, I'm sure. because we can say, you know, your friend. Blank I not going to say names. Jerry Blank. If She has two friends or both named blank begin to say, you know, her skin is a little darker than yours. Right. Because you know, when you see her parents and try to explain all that and kids are like, oh, okay. Yeah. How does this matter? Why does this have to do Big bird? Yeah exactly. And I please get back big bird yellow That's a great question. But these have some cute names too and they're almost well, that's not true. I was going say they're They're named because of what they look like, but really just the one is. yeah, there's really just two types of pigmented birthmarks or broad categories of it. Yes, the Vy Parisian. Cafe Latte Cafe LA. Oh, Cfe L. sorry, I misread that. All right. A lot tastes different This has nothing to do with vascular Um aggregations of blood vessels. No. And do you get confused on coffee orders or do you know all that stuff I'm pretty pretty good with it. I don't know what any of them are Like anytime someone it's all just a Differing amounts of milk, steamed milk. Yeah, But when I hear like a machchiato or an Americano, Americano I don't know what these things are. A shot of espresso or multiple shots of espresso with ultra hot water Right. That's an Americana. I think that's what our friend Chad Crowley drinks. it's just a really, really, really hot coffee Okay Interesting Machchiato, you got me. Yeah I don't know. Like cappuccino, there's a lot there's like more foam than milk. Lattes more milk than foam. Yeah, yeah. I know those too. It's all just milk or foam or coffee. What's a cafe LA Cafe O is simply coffee with milk. That's it. Re? That's what That's literally what it means in French. Is that like the What's it called in in Spanish? Cafe Ce. Okay, that's the same thing. Coffee with I am a dummy. I haven't drinking. It's not It's not that. It's just It's not that. As you can see, I'm still drinking my Cy Latte from thisorning. Those are great, aren't they? And it's still hot, thanks to And I'll go ahead and plug. the Zoji Rushi And I've plugged this on our page before. Like if you like your coffee hot all day, get one of these little thermoses. This thing keeps the thing hot for ten hours. It really does. Yeah. so much so. I have the same one. Yumi has a little pinkqu onein, It's cute When I pour coffee in, I have to like pour the coffee into a mug to let it cool off to put it in there. becauseuse you won't be able to drink it? No. L maybe the next day you could. It keeps it that hot for sure. We need to get them as a sponsor, man. They also make O of this world rice cookers too. Uh yeah, I've got well now, I'm not sure. If that's the one I have or another one. I think Tiger, those are the two best ones in my opinion. I can't remember. I'll have to look. But all I know is the one I have is very forgiving. Yeah. You can be pretty off with your measurements and it still makes perfect dries. You can use like buttermilk and somehow it still comes out just great. Oh man, buttermilk Butter. That could be all right Hm Well, here's a little tip for you You make sushi rice. Okay U usually you just do a one to one rice to water ratio. Yeah then go in and just put like Like a teaspoon, half teaspoon even depending on how tiny you want to be of rice vinegar Oh, well sure. I usually add that after. No, no, you want to make it together. Yeah. So you want to cook it with it? Yes. Okay I used to make my own sushi rolls and then I just got to the point where I was like It's not worth it. Yeah It's just lot easier to get sushi. Where did you get your seafood U Sashimi, sorry. I would get that at the Deab farmmer' market, I would get the tuna there. and the crab sticks, which that's easy. you can get it. Krogers. And the seaweed there. but then there's also a Japanese market nearby where I would get the eel Nice to bake in the oven. Nice. But that's kind of as, you know, you could do spicy tuna, tuna R youel and crab stick. Yeah. California rolls. I really want some sushi right now I we both eat a lot of sushi. Yeah, It's good. Okay, so cafe Ole birthmarks. So that is the cafe Ole. They are the color of a cafe Ole, kindind of a light brown. whichich means coffee with milk. Yep. and this is to me was When I think birthmark, I think of these because it's Just a little brown spot anywhere on the body Yeah, and that's I think one of the things we didn't say is with some of the birthmarks, there is kind of specific places that they'll appear. Yeah or they're tied to specific places usually. But with Cafe LA birthmarks in particular, they're just It' got no rules. forehead, but cheek, wherever, Whver. And they apparently don't There's nothing there's no problem with them. but veryy much like the the port wine stain birthmark The cafe O A spots are tied to a neurologic actually a nerve condition where if you have Six or more off these kinds of cafe LA birthmarks Eespecially if they're larger than like a dime in an older kid, you want to go to see a doctor Yeah. because that could mean that you have something called neurofibromatosis. I said that a million times in my head too. You gott to start saying things out loud. Also known as NF one. It's easi But u NF one is Not even necessarily it could be asymptomatic. Like if you're like, oh my gosh, I've got six or more cafe OA birthmarks on me maybe I have neurofibromatosis A it's not like a death sentence or anything like that. It's just go see a doctor. Right the Mongolian spots are these look like bruises to me. they can If you don't know what you're looking at, it can be alarming. because you see these pictures of babies that look like they're heavily bruised kind of at the lower back upper buttocks area. Yeah. But it is not bruising. They're bluish gray though. And like I said, usually on the lower back, I think African Americans, African, Asian and Hispanic kids ussually with darker skin have more of more of them or more commonly have them. and these are the ones that fade out by the time they're like, you know, six or seven usually. Yeah. And they're usually a bluish green because they're clusters of pigment cells together deep under the skin and so you've got that same thing going on like you have with the toangiomas Nice I got it, then got it There's a good old fashioned mole This is a pigmented birthmark Multiple of them are Nevi, Brown, Nevi, and EVI because a Nevus is a single mole. Are any of these like band names I don't think so, but very fortuitous mentioning of that because of Listener Mail later. All right. It is Latin for spot And there are three categories. Yes. Okay. No, Nevi. I think Mle is latin for spot. Oh, is it? Oh, yeah. Yeahah Wow, I was just about to make fun of you too. I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad you. Yeah mle sounds real Latin. Wart boy. So there are three categories of moles. Conggenital acquired and atypical the conenital about one percent of babies are born with these. And these are kind of all over the map as far as color and size. Some of them are hairy, some of them are not hairy. I saw that basically every congenital mole has a little hair a hair of some sort. It can be very, very fine, It can be thick, it can be coarse, it can be very dark. Yeah. Usually they're very dark because they're growing out of pigment cells that are like Pigment away. That's right. And I learned that on the Dollar Shave Club blog. Oh U and they say also to just kind of puck Because shaving, if you're a man, like, say you have one on your face or whatever, it can nick veryy frequently. Yeah, well, I've got some of the skin tags that obviously I don't shave, so it's not a problem now, but well, maybe that's why you have skin tags. If you shavave you just shave them off all the time T tr him down Now, the skint texts come from my clothing? rubbing against the skin. That's why they're around the neckline a lot of times or sometimes around the wasaisteline you know againgain, those aren't birthm marks. Okay. Those are old man marks. I got you. Aquired moles, they come around later in life as well U and this is not the same as the skkin tag still. It is still a mole And a lot of doctors think that this is from sun damage. Yes, but not necessarily Cancerous whichich leads us into the third type of mole, atypical moles. These aren't necessarily cancerous either, but they're the kind you definitely want to keep an eye on. They'll be multiple colors or have some sort of color gradient in them. Their shape will be U just kind of amorphous. Yeah, irregular. Yeah. they'll be Um, just kind of you'll be like don't look quite right That that kind of mole. And those are the kind that you definitely want to have a doctor check out Because a lot of people don't know this But in at tyypical mall is associated with melanoma. and melanoma is no joke. Yeah. I think a lot of people are like, melanoma's nothing. justust go, you know, get it removed at the doctor. No melanoma can spread like lightning through your body and it can be a real problem. It's a very serious thing to keep up with. Yeah, I've got a pretty sad situation with a family member with melanoma. Yeah that um The treatment is going really well, but it has definitely opened my eyes to the fact that it's no joke. Yeah, I had no idea. Yumi opened my eye. She had somebody that she lost to melanoma. Yeah man it happened. You saw the same thing, like, melanoma. and noope, that's not at all how it is. whichich is really weird because somebody's dropping the ball because most people just think it's nothing. Yeah on messaging Yeah, ye, I agree with myself apparently. It's interesting that different kinds of cancer have better or worse PR Great product Terrible marketing, right? Yeah It's kind of what we're dealing with here But I know that u prostate cancer has often lagged behind breast cancer. likeike breast cancer does bang up job of marketing and press and PR and awareness. So these, like you said, the doctors will want to monitor these over time What I could't figure out was what is the quote unquote beauty mark Is that an acquired mole? I think a beauty mark is any kind of mole. This just bas be like perfect place. I'm living with this and I'm loving every minute of it. It's so interesting how that has become thing I was trying to figure out where it went back to. and Yeah. Obviously, Marilyn Monroe like really kind of popularized. Right. She had one, didn't she? I think it predated her. Like Liz Taylor is at least contemporary if not predated. one Okay's very famous for one. And then like even still today, Cyney Crawford or Sarjo. Who else? Oh, Natalie Portman apparently has them like on her face. Interesting. I went over this list of celebrity. I was like, celebrity birthmarks. The only one that comes up though is Moles andpe Ragnue. could not I couldn't find any Like well known celebrities with birthmarks. Right. Like birthmarks, birthmarks, like facial birthmarks. Yeah. you just I couldn't think of one either. I couldn't find any. Well, that's probably because of the prejudice against them I would guess so, yeah which is sad. Yeah U It reminded me, though, Chuck, didn't one of the Fat Albert gang have a birthmark on his face Um I don't know. Was he the guy that had the papolda's Tobagan cap over his face? No, I think that was mushmouth. 'causeuse you never see his face at all. Well, then how would you know if he had a birthmark? I don't know. might have been a likeike a backstory or something. I think this just went off the rails enough for a A message break, don't you Um, sure Yeah, we'll be back right after this and we'll talk about treatment And what I think is a pretty interesting thing, superstitions throughout history about birthmarks. Gre Keon Miller from OK Storytim So, I have a furry friend named Mia. She's literally a bundle of joy and love who can never get enough pets, cuddles, and attention. To me, she's more than a pet, she's practically family. And I love my pet. Part of that love is what's best for them. And for my dog, that includes the best diet. At Jinx, all dogs deserve to eat well. 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If you have hemangiomas, they will frequently use like a Port Weinestein is something that a lot of people go seek treatment for because it's often on the face, the neck R. U and it actually responds pretty well to a laser treatment, something called the pulsed dyie laser. Is this like the same tattoo? treatment or no, probably 'ause that's pretty painful, right? Oh yes. Like I can't imagine because it says children a lot of times can be treated with this laser treatment, but man. I know it's sad. It feels a lot like having L a hot bacon grease splashing on your skin. That's what getting a laser or tattoo remove the laser. but with that was like the knowledge that like in a couple of minutes I'm going to be eating some sweet bacon. More like the only silver lining to it is that a pig didn't die for you to be in that situation, you know what I mean? Right. O I won't have whatever I obviously don't want in my body anymore. That's the reward there. Right. So if that is the case, then if it is the same feeling as that, then yeah, I feel bad for little kids who get that. But that's the best time to start this treatment is when the child is young because again, what you're doing is you're using a pulse die laser which uses a certain frequency or spectrum wavelength of light That is targeted so that that birthmark will absorb that light. The surrounding skin is a different pigment So it won't absorb that light like the birthmark will. And that energy, that light energy is translated into heat energy in the birthmark and there go the cells or the blood vessels that make up the cells. and after enough treatments, you've hopefully broken up the hemangioma or the port wine stain and like the birthmark will go away Did you hear that? Did you hear that? That was me. I think that was me. No, that was mine. Well, then we just had a simultaneous stomach growl because my stomach just growled at the same time. Wow. Are we like Yeah we're A twelve years of podcasting together. So if you are getting something removed, it's usually a vascular birthmark. Generally they don't try and get rid of pigmented birthmarks Although it's possible, I think, but usually doctors don't treat that. No, but if you have a child with say, a cafe OA birthmark on their face, the doctor's not going to be like, No, we're not doing that. They'll probably try to work it out. But the results are not nearly as reliable as with vascular birthmarks which have to do with blood vessels beneath the skin clustered together, oververdveloped that kind of thing. Or what your doctor might say is Um You know what? this thing's on your forehead, Gir your bangs out. until you get old enough to where you accept this as like an individual trait that you're proud of. There There's something called the British Association of Skin Camouflage that is dedicated to helping people actually training makeup artists on how to cover birthmarks because for some people They'll just never get used to it. They don't want to get used to it. They'd just rather cover it up and that's their right. That's their prerogative. their birthmark. They can do whatever they want with it. And so The average makeup artist doesn't know how to do that. It actually takes special skills apparently. And so there's groups who train interesting. to do that. Yeah. We should do I don't I don't know if it's a short for f leng, but we should do something on Vitiligo. Yeah U I had a friend in LA. who who had Vitiligo and again, like same with some of this stuff. It's such a forward facing thing if it's on your face And it's a big deal to people. It's an important Um It's important issue because like the bullying like we were talking about or just kids and adults remaining self conscious about that kind of thing. R It's's sad. It is sad, agreed. I think we could all do a lot better at accepting people with Facial differences is what it's called. Yeah. something on facial differences. I don't remember what it was, but I know I've mentioned this group before changingfaces. org. Yeah, it's awesome. They're just their whole thing is like, hey, actually, it's funny they they promote skin camouflage if you want it. But they're also their big push is like, hey, rest of society, like nothing different about these people except for their face. Like they're not cognitively challenged not they're not disabled in any way or differently able. like their face is different for any number of reasons. really kind of on the rest of you to get over it. Yeah, you know, which I think is the the healthiest approach. if you ask me So the superstitions we were talking about I know we mentioned a couple early on, like that you were touched by the devil That was real stuff in some cultures in China There were some quirky ones like if you have a right foot birthmark means you're adventurous 's on the left foot, it means you're really smart It's on your tum tumbs. That means you're grey And this is just sort of you know, culture and folklore Sure. the world around. So because we can't explain what birthmarks or where they come from all over the world. Pe's societies have said sure. it's something the mom did while she was pregnant. off course. And so we came up with all sorts of dipstick ideas for exactly what the mom did wrong to explain birthmarks. Yeah. One of my favorites is that the mom was startled and touched your face so the baby. And at the exact same moment, the baby's blood vessels at that point in the baby's face. Very scientific. It is. Or how about this? If you have a strawberry mark as a baby, it's because mom ate too many red things. Yeah can't lay off the strawberries or port wine stain, they couldn't lay off the wine Yeah. orr coffee. Cafe LA coffee That's so on the nose. L come on people. It is. There's this thing called the doctrine of Ss where like if a food looked like Um a body part. It was associated with helping to heal that body part, like beats are good for the blood or something like that. Or avocados are good for the testicles. Exactly. I was hoping you would bring that up. U let me see, what else? in Japan, if pregnant woman looked at a fire or into a flame of some kind. They thought that might cause a burn mark on the baby's skin And I think some of these carry forward a little bit even today. Well, the X ray one is obviously fairly modern Oh, sure. Like the explanation is that the mom got an x ray while she was pregnant and it basically left a mark on the baby. Yeah. That is not true. That is not true. No One that really has always stuck out to me and it reminded me of this case on and tell you about A is this idea that a birthmark is actually a mark left over from a past life. This is pretty neat. Like if you have a birthmark that looks like a bullet hole in your back, that means you were shot in the back in a past life. And not just like That's what that means likeike there're There are I really hesitate to use this word. There are documented cases of this of this happening. Supposedly there was this kid in Syria Um, who was born with like a kind of like a slash like birthmark, I think on the back of his head Apparently from a very early age when the kid was able to start to talk started recounting being murdered with an axe. Oh, interesting. And then started talking about the village where he used to live and who what his name was. And then the guy that killed him And it was enough Allegedly that the village elders where this kid lived were like, we need to go check this out. So they traveled to that other village. And they said, does so and so live here? And they're like, yeah, he lives over there and And it's like, well D didid somebody else named this live here once? They're like, yes, he died. He vanished mysteriously. And they went with talk to they went and talked to the accuser and he broke down and confessed and showed them where they buried the body that this kid supposedly was in the past life. Wow who was murdered buy an X