experimental skin discoloration treatment - isopropabrasion

Before I get into the post, I would like to state that:

TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I TAKE ABSOLUTLY NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR ANY RESULTS OF THE TECHNIQUES DESCRIBED BELOW.

The origin of this treatment goes back to when I began working out.

On my way home from the gym I noticed a spa-type place that offered microdermabrasion and became instantly fascinated. I looked up the treatment online and learned the basic concept. The following day, I stopped in and let the sales lady ‘sell’ me on the treatment. The sale was cut short when I realized it was going to cost hundreds of dollars per treatment and that many treatments are required. Since then I’ve tried many things to lightly abrase the skin. I’ve shaving the area repeatedly with a razor, scrubbing with a washcloth and even extra-fine sand paper. Needless to say, none of them worked and I was left with a bevy of painful injuries. But experimentation comes with it’s risks.

A few months ago I discovered that I could use regular, over-the-counter rubbing alchohol as a substitute for underarm deoderant. The concept was simple: It’s the excretion from the bacteria under your arms that smells and the alchohol effectivly kills them. No more bacteria, no more smell. I thoroughly wet a white cloth with rubbing alchohol and proceeded to wipe down my pits. I was amazed at the results. I no longer smelled. In fact, my nice (expensive) cologne was no longer overpowered by cheap-smelling underarm deodorant. Additionally, the longevity of my clothes was improved as I could wash less frequently. Most importantly, the price was right. Rags are virtually free and the alchohol costs maybe $1 every two weeks; if that much. Needless to say it was a BEAUTIFUL solution, but that wasn’t the end of it.

I noticed that if I wiped the cloth on another area of my skin, the cloth would become ‘dirty’. I assumed that the alchohol was just getting the dirt that the soap missed, like facial wipes. But as I tried repeatedly, I noticed that the dirt was always a consistant colour. More importantly, it was the precise colour of my skin. I decided to experiment once again. I took two areas with similar discoloration and applied the technique to one of them. After repeaded treatment, the differences were clearly visible. The untreated area looked uneven and the other area looked perfect.

I call it isopropabrasion (pronounced: eye-so-pro-pah-brey-shun). The word is formed from a combination of Isoprophyl [alchohol] and skin abrasion.

I repeat treatments perhaps twice a week, and I’m extremely careful not to remove enough tissue such that I scar. I have found that a cloth with a texture somewhere between a t-shirt and jeans is ideal.

For those PE’ers that have dick discolouration, this may be a potential solution. Again, try at your own risk, but it seems as though it’s an all around skin-tone evener.

If you decide to try this (at your own risk, of course) tell me how it goes.

TM - do you have a naturally dark skin color? Humans shed millions of skin cells daily. When the flake off, they still contain the melanin that gives skin its color. I often see this in my work. If I am inserting an intravenous catheter into someone with dark skin, the alcohol swab I use to prepare the skin often appears "dirty" from sloughed skin cells.

As skin cells move toward the surface (see this page ) the become keratinized. They become more dense and are not as translucent. Perhaps when you remove the outermost layer of cells (the thickened ones) your new "view" of the skin below is through more transparent skin which perhaps shows as a lighter color.

I suspect that discoloration from PE is in a deeper layer (where the capillaries are) and that your technique is removing only surface cells. So it might not be the solution for this problem, but I applaud you for your efforts in research and for posting the results here.

West,

I do have a darker complexion, but I’ve also noticed that areas that are lighter seem to be darkened. In other words, the technique evens skin tone (in my case at least). Strangely, only with rubbing-alcohol does this seem to work.

I suspect that I’m shedding skin on the outside in excess of what I’d normally shed daily and thus cellular generation is in excess of what it would be normally. My body then creates new cells and pushes them to the surface (as you confirmed). Because more regeneration is required, (due to the abrasion) the body must generate more, new cells; but not so many to cause scarring. Given the consistent environment in which these cells develop, they are very similar. I would imagine that the alcohol not only sterilizes the area, but also destroys some of the cells below the removed topmost layer.

Excess cullular generation can be indicative of any number of side effects. In this case, so far, they seem to be positive.

I’m having a hard time articulating myself, as I could literally go on for pages about what I think is happening, given the variables that are known to me.

Thanks for the kudos! I know little about medicine, but am fairly pragmatically minded with a few large contributions to the scientific community under my belt.

You may be right about the PE discolouration, but hopefully, this is the first step to an effective treatment. After all, it is those discolourations that made PE safer for us all.