The Dark Side of Skin Bleaching

Dencia, Before and After Using Skin Lighteners

Sammy Sosa

When I was a little girl I went through a Michael Jackson phase –I know I can’t be the only one lol. I learned all of his songs, taped all of his videos and even practiced his dance moves in my bedroom! One day while watching videos of pre 90’s MJ, I realized that he seemed to change as he got older. That day I asked my mother how Michael Jackson went from being black to being white. She told me that he had a disease that turned some of his skin white (Vitiligo) and that he bleached his skin so it would all be the same color. That is when I first heard of skin bleaching. If anyone was ridiculed for bleaching their skin or accused of wanting to be something they were not it was Michael Jackson, but now it appears that lightening products are more and more available and more and more acceptable. There are even online tutorials on how one can go about bleaching their skin. This post is not meant to judge anyone. It’s simply meant to shed light on a beauty practice that can have deleterious effects down the road.  Specifically we are referring to using lightening creams with the purpose of transforming one’s skin to a hue several shades lighter than its natural complexion by reducing the melanin in the skin.  As you can see, these lightening products can  be very effective.

Vybz Katrel

The young lady featured above is a Cameroonian-Nigerian artist by the name of Dencia (she's been called Africa's Lady Gaga). She recently launched a lightening cream, called Whitenicious, (yes Whitenicious) that sold out on the first day it hit the shelves. She has been scrutinized a great deal in the media and recently was involved in a “media war” with Academy Award Winner Lupita Nyong’o concerning being proud of one’s skin color. Watch this interview featuring Dencia and Phinnah Ikeji of Black Role Models UK to hear both sides of the skin bleaching argument. On a side note, she has reportedly been asked by Oprah/OWN Network to be interviewed in a new documentary, Light Girls.

http://youtu.be/lTuZXJBg420

Skin bleaching is a widely acceptable and often times dangerous practice in many parts of the world. Many of the products contain mercury that can have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, and on lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes. Even a minimal exposure to mercury can be a serious threat to the development of an unborn or very young child. “Mercury is considered by the WHO (World Health Organization) as one of the top ten chemicals or groups of chemicals of major public health concern.” The Mercury containing products are actually banned in certain countries including the U.S, but still find their ways into less regulated markets. Lightening creams also contain hydroquinone that has been listed as a carcinogen in some research studies. 

While doing research for this post I came across some startling statistics. For example, according to the WHO, in Nigeria 77% of the women reportedly use skin lightening products followed by Togo with 55% and South Africa with 35%. However, not only black people use these products, in 2004, almost 40% of women surveyed in China, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea reported using skin lighteners. This almost sounds unbelievable. A statistic like that really beckons the question, “Why?” I’ve heard many answers to this question, but most of them sound something like this, “I think dark skin looks beautiful, I just don’t think it looks good on me.” We can spend multiple posts writing about self hate, colonialism, racism, colorism, what message this sends to the little dark girls of every race and nationality etc, but I really want to focus on is the medical dangers that can come with bleaching one’s skin – particularly if used for a long time.

 Dangers of Prolonged Skin Lightening:

• Premature aging of skin.
• Increased risk of skin cancer from sun exposure. Always use sunscreen if you’re going to use skin lighteners.
• Some products contain steroids that with prolonged use can lead to steroid induced acne, or thin the skin making it more susceptible to infections and poor wound healing.
• Hydroquinone may cause irreversible skin discoloration.
• Skin irritation and allergic reactions

 Why do you think people want to be lighter?  

Sources:

UNEP (2008). Mercury in products and wastes. Geneva, United Nations Environment Program,

Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Chemicals Branch

http://www.who.int/ipcs/assessment/public_health/mercury/en/

WEBMD

OhemaasMD

HIPAA: Does it Matter for Celebrities?

 Everyone's favorite "bad boy", Chris Brown is back in the news. Recently jailed after being dismissed from the Malibu rehab facility he has been at since November 2013, court documents filed by the facility were released earlier this month documentating his medical/behavioral issues and progress.

"Mr. Brown will… require close supervision by his treating physician in order to ensure his bipolar-mental health condition remains stable," the letter says. "It is not uncommon for patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Bipolar II to use substances to self-medicate their biochemical mood swings and trauma triggers. . . . Mr. Brown became aggressive and acted out physically due to his untreated mental health disorder, severe sleep deprivation, inappropriate self-medicating and untreated PTSD." (Source)

Reading the documents, I was initially shocked by how detailed they were. From revealing Chris' type of Bipolar Disorder to discussing his self medicating attempts, I actually felt bad for him. Why? Because it's too much information.

In this new age of social media, nothing seems to be private anymore. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,and other platforms provide instant access to individuals 24/7, and celebrities are without exception. In a matter of seconds you can find out what your favorite celebrity ate for lunch or what they did during vacation. However some information should be kept discreet and that includes health info.


The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was created in 1996 to protect the privacy of individually identifiable health information (read more here). In a nutshell, it gives patients the right to have their personal information respected and concealed.  All information is protected-electronic, written, and oral-and can not be shared or displayed without a patients approval. This information includes diagnosis and treatment, billing/payment information and conversations with health care personnel. Health Care plans (insurance), personnel, and third parties must all adhere to these rules and there is a hefty price to pay if you don't ( like $900k UCLA paid in 2011). HIPAA also gives patients access to their own medical records at any time and the ability to file a complaint if they feel their information has been accessed or used inappropriately.

Plain and simple, unauthorized disclosure of patient medical information is illegal. I am assuming Chris' health documents had to be disclosed in a court of law, but I am not sure if he agreed to have it released to the general public.  The question is why do we know all of his medical problems, and do we need to know?The media's obsession with celebrities has created an environment where more is never enough. Though HIPAA is intended to protect privacy, I think it drops the ball with celebrities. We may feel that full exposure is the price to pay for being rich and famous, but imagine if the whole world knew you had HIV, or that you wet the bed because of PTSD ( yea, they revealed that about Chris too).

Whatever your thoughts are on Chris Brown, I believe he is the victim of a society with a disturbing fascination with other people's problems. For his sake, I hope he gets the help he needs. For the rest of us, I hope we can all realize that the price of fame should not include breaching of medical privacy. No one deserves that.

OhemaasMD

How I Did It: Pharmacy

Joann is a PharmD candidate in Florida. To ask her questions, comment below!

How and why did you choose this career?

I knew from a young age that I wanted a career in the health care field. My mom was a nurse so I grew up around hospitals. Based on this interest, I chose pharmacy through a process of elimination. By junior high school, I knew I didn’t want to be a nurse or a doctor and I didn’t want to deal with bodily fluids.  At this point, my mom gave me the idea of pharmacy as a stable and flexible job. I was attracted to the stability this career had to offer along with the flexibility for family life. Also I happened to enjoy chemistry. I was fascinated by drugs and their ability to alter the body. I did some research on pharmacy and in high school I shadowed some pharmacists. Once my mind was made up that was it.

What is a typical day in your work like?

This description will be from the point of view of an intern in a retail/community setting meaning; any pharmacy location outside of a hospital or long term care facility. In the morning, the pharmacist logs into the pharmacy’s system to find a list of prescriptions that people called in to be filled and checked before being picked up. There may also be voicemails to get, left from doctor’s offices calling in prescriptions. Typically the morning is quiet and consists of filling prescriptions. Once customers start coming in and phones are ringing, it is the pharmacist’s job to counsel patients on their medications and answer any medication questions that may come up. So, it gets busy because there are continually prescriptions to be checked, as well as interacting with patients. This is why having good technicians and interns is so important. They are a big help because they can do almost everything a pharmacist does, except for the final medication check for drug interactions etc. before it goes out to the patient and advising/counseling patients. Also, only the pharmacist or intern can give immunizations (in some states like FL, interns cannot immunize). For example; if anyone walks in for a flu or shingles shot. A technician can prepare the vaccine, but the pharmacist would administer it. The only time most pharmacists sit down is during their lunch break.

What are the most and least rewarding aspects of your job?

The most rewarding is just knowing you are providing people with the care and medication therapy they need to help them feel better. Something as simple as helping someone choose the right over the counter product for their particular problem. However, the least rewarding is having to play “drug cop”… let me explain. The top three most widely prescribed medications in this country are narcotics. This class of drugs are also the most abused. They are typically prescribed for pain and they can be very addictive. So part of our job ends up being the regulation of these drugs. For example, telling patients no they can’t get them early etc. There are a lot of rules involved with filling this class of medications and we have to make sure the correct protocol is being followed. Here is a funny rendition of this scenario: http://youtu.be/YmDFN3aIhZc

What education requirements are needed and what colleges do you recommend for pursuing an education leading to this occupation?

A Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from an accredited pharmacy school is required to work in retail/community pharmacy. Then an additional one or two year residency is required to work in most hospital pharmacies. Pharmacy is a career where the university doesn’t matter. As long as it is an accredited program. My only advice is when choosing schools, compare costs of tuition as well as cost of living in that area. Also, check what the school’s remediation policy is. For example: some schools don’t offer the option to retake a class in the summer if you don’t pass it the first time. So depending on the class, the student may be held back for a year.

What high school and college classes have you found most applicable/important for your occupation?

All science and math classes. For both high school and undergraduate especially calculus and organic chemistry.

Would you choose this career if you could make the decision again? What would you do differently?

Honestly, I don’t think I would choose this career again due to various discoveries I have made about myself since getting into pharmacy school. I probably would have chosen to get a master’s degree in public health or to be a naturopathic doctor (ND). Read more about this profession here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-stanclift-nd/naturopathic-doctors_b_1923371.html

However, I do believe God has a good and perfect plan for my life and pharmacy is a part of this plan for a reason.

What do you wish you knew but didn’t when you first contemplated this career?

I wish I knew more about the academic requirements of pharmacy school. To be honest, I was fairly naïve about this and so I encourage prospective students to research this extensively. It is not enough to be good at science and to have a good memory, math needs to be a strong point too! There is a lot of math involved which is a weakness for me. Also, it is a huge sacrifice to your personal life. Personally, I have had to put a lot of things on hold in order to make it through successfully. This is not the case for everyone, but it has been my experience so far.

Are there any trends that concern you? Any trends that will make this career choice more or less attractive in the future?

Well, I would say a PharmD is not as marketable now as it was about ten years ago. It has become a very popular career choice therefore, the market in some parts of the country (like Florida) can be saturated. The reason is that there are six pharmacy schools just in Florida alone. Each one of those schools graduates a hundred or more students per year. Simply do the math, there just aren’t enough pharmacies in one state to employ all those graduates. But, as long as someone is willing to move, there are still plenty of job opportunities in other parts of the country. Therefore, it is still an appealing career in terms of stability and flexibility.

Career and Family Balance.

In my opinion, pharmacy is a great career to balance work and family. This is why so many women choose this profession. In fact, last year Forbes ranked pharmacy as the best paying job for women. This year U.S. News ranked pharmacy as the third top career in healthcare based on solid employment growth and a high median salary. http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/pharmacist

Salary.

 According to www. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm entry level pharmacists in 2012 were starting around $100,000- 116,000 a year, making $50-56 dollars an hour. In my experience, pharmacy interns make anywhere from $10-17 an hour depending on the state and company. With experience, the top 10 percent of pharmacists can earn more than $145,910 per year. Words of advice: Explore as much about pharmacy as you can before entering pharmacy school. Do your research. Do not be driven by dollar signs alone, because this is a fleeting motivation. Especially explore blogs and forums that give personal perspectives on being a pharmacist/ pharmacy student.

For more info about pharmacy:

1. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/categories/pharmacy-forums-pharmd.121/

2. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm

3. http://www.pharmcas.org/advisors/start.htm

4. I recommend watching YouTube videos that portray pharmacy.

New Series Alert: "How I Did It"

Hi Ohemaas and Ohenes!

We are introducing a new series called, How I Did It, an interview series where we ask young professionals the really tough questions about their careers and the journey they are taking (or took) to get to where they want to be. The purpose is to inform readers about the good, bad and ugly parts of desirable careers and to inspire those who are thinking of pursuing certain careers.

When we were growing up, we had no ideas what it meant to pursue a career in medicine. If we would have listened to people who only had opinions on the matter we may not be doctors today. Therefore, we hope to make the interviews as real, transparent and raw as possible.

If there's anyone you want us to interview or any questions you want to ask the interviewee please leave a comment! Also, please share the link with anyone you know who may be interested in the featured career.

Thanks!
- Ohemaas, MD