Theories posing as Science

Posing a theory is cheap. It takes only seconds.

“Wearing a mask activates the virus”.

“The sun comes out in the morning because there is an invisible giant pushing it from behind”.

And then, here are some theories that explain the need for “skin fasting”.

One theory of skin fasting is that skin has a tolerance level, and when it gets overwhelmed by too many layers or too many actives, we should minimize skincare for a period to help skin settle down and ‘reset’.

Another school of thought is that skin gets ‘used to’ the same products and can do with a time out.

Yet another involves leaving the skin to ‘breathe’ or ‘detox’ every now and then.”

I can write 10 more like these in 10 minutes.

Will you believe them and adjust your behavior to fit these “theories”?  For the first one, just don’t wear a mask. Your experiment will end when you get sick with covid19, or the virus “disappears”, whichever comes first.

For the second, you don’t have to do anything.

For the others, you just stop using skincare products. You may find that your skin actually improves when you do that, especially if you have been using products that contain elements toxic to the skin (like copper) or allergenic (like Balsam of Peru) or irritating (like RetinA).

But it is a good idea to ask for proof when somebody tries to sell you a theory.  Explanations are easy (and many) when all you have to do is to write a couple of sentences. Designing experiments and performing them and evaluating them, that’s harder. And getting a paper published in a refereed journal (and not in a white paper) is even harder.