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According to some Internet users, aspirin would not only be used to relieve pain. It would also be effective in overcoming acne or dry lips. A diversion without real foundation which promises to be risky, restore the dermatologists.
On social networks, beauty tips do not know the crisis. Tik Tok and Youtube, in particular, relay every week the discoveries, founded or not, of young men and women in search of sharing their findings. Among them, a video took some professionals by surprise: that of a young woman (under the pseudonym Poivre Créatif) announcing that ground aspirin tablets with lemon or honey treat acne, foot cracks, lips dry or armpits that are too dark. The treatment, supposedly based on ancestral knowledge and known throughout the world, has been seen more than 4 million times. However, the video has now been deleted.
Can aspirin heal the skin?
If many Internet users have confirmed the benefits of the shared tip, taken up by beauty sites, dermatologists seem much more circumspect.
According to the Public Drug Database, “Aspirin is used in medicine to relieve “mild to moderate pain and/or feverish states”. But what about its use against acne, or skin problems?
Consulted by AFP, Céline Couteau, doctor of pharmacy and cosmetology teacher, restores the truth about aspirin on the skin: using aspirin would not really have any benefits. On the other hand, it does run the risk of poisoning with salicylates – molecules with anti-inflammatory properties that can cause a condition more annoying than an acne pimple. The doctor had already demonstrated this in her own blog in 2017: “Five aspirin tablets (1 g dosage) in a honey and yogurt mixture (30 g), this represents a percentage of around 15% acetylsalicylic acid“, what “does a lot” she explained then.
“There is no need to end up in the hospital for the one and only reason of having wanted to test a mask whose author does not have the knowledge required to design safe products, in order to treat acne. It is better to consult a dermatologist for this“, she recalls.
The medical authority undermined by the networks
However, the expert explains that she is sometimes helpless in the face of the multitude of miracle recipe videos that are popping up on the web. According to her, the public’s interest in homemade recipes and these drug diversions stems from the fact that “for years, the expert no longer has any authority. With the notion of community, people come together by affinity and concoct specific recipes, without any medical supervision”.
Against acne that said, a simple trip to the Doctissimo site, for example, evokes a longer and more elaborate process than a powdered aspirin tablet. The doctor will have to assess the seriousness of the acne and its impact before prescribing an appropriate treatment which can be followed for several months, and will be reassessed periodically.
If we can understand that Internet users can be seduced by a quick tip, perhaps we should remember that using diverted drugs, and by self-medication, is never a very good idea.