The skin care industry – A pathogenic under-cover

What if this is the new normal. Imagine if we can never hug friends or see our parents again. The thoughts were spinning in my head as I sat in the car on a rainy February morning in 2021.

It had then been about 1 year since the Corona virus had taken the whole world by storm. Different countries adopted different strategies based on vague sources of information. How would life actually go on?

Once at home, I started Googling previous pandemics and quickly realized that pandemics have continuously appeared and disappeared. Some of the deadliest (besides Covid) have been the plague, Spanish flu and HIV/AIDS. In my frantic Googling, I began to see a logical pattern that was first noted by Dr. Theobald Smith in the late 19th century.

Smith's theory was quite simple. To ensure their own long-term survival, pathogens (evil bacteria, viruses, fungi etc.) evolve to stop killing their "human hosts". Instead, they only create a mild infection, allowing people to walk around and spread the virus further afield. Good for the virus and, arguably, good for us.

This theory applies not only to microbial pathogens but to all species that profit from other species. For example, it would be stupid for lions to kill all the antelopes as this would have successively exterminated the lions as well (lack of food). It is also an exceptionally bad idea for us humans to wipe out all the species (plants and animals) that enable our existence here on earth. This requires a separate post.

Unfortunately, this theory can also be applied to things that are not alive. Anything that depends on something else to survive must use this method. This brings us to the traditional skincare (and pharmaceutical) industry.

The survival of both these industries is entirely based on there being a need for the products that make up the respective industry. If people have too healthy skin, there is no need for skin care products. If, on the other hand, people have skin that is too sick (which in the long run leads to inflammation and, in the worst case, death), then this is not good for the industry either. There are therefore huge incentives for the skin care industry for people to have "just right" unbalanced/sick skin. Sick enough skin that people keep buying skin care products but enough healthy skin that people's health doesn't collapse.

So far, these two industries have been very successful in their mission of growing and thriving. Last year, the skin care industry had a global turnover of SEK 1,700 billion. Then I haven't counted on makeup and pharmaceutical skin care preparations. In addition to the skin care industry itself, there are also a number of professional groups that make a living from the industry without actually working with skin care products. Examples of these professional groups are beauty journalists, beauty clinics and influencers.

When individuals/companies highlight ways that you can actually take care of your skin in both the short and long term, there is an exceptionally large incentive for the skin care industry to silence these players. This out of pure self-preservation.

This is also one of the main reasons why knowledge of the skin's (and the body's) endocannabinoid system has been hidden for a long time. The knowledge of this system validates the use of non-patentable herbal skin care/medicine. This knowledge is the absolute biggest nightmare for the entire skin care industry.

However, this must not stop us. If we are to achieve healthy skin in the short and long term, we must resort to other methods than those we have used so far. However, we can expect huge resistance from all the industries that pay their bills because of people's poor skin health.

However, I believe in a society where we are actually healthy in our skin. A society where we take care of our skin the way we are evolutionarily built to take care of it. But... In order for this to succeed, we must use word-to-mouth to reach out. We need to become a larger group of people who spread the message that there is a new way to care for the skin. A way that is far from the skin care industry that we know today.

I would be so grateful if you who read this wanted to be a part of this "skincare revolution". Together, we can contribute to a real improvement of an industry that has long been derailed.