22 Years Of Makeup, No Face Wash: Chinese Woman's Face Swells, Turns Purple From 'Hormone Rash'
A shocking case from China has become the centre of a viral storm on social media, as the face of a 37-year-old woman from Jilin province, once obsessed with cosmetics, has now turned into a cautionary tale. Gao, whose story has set Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) abuzz, confessed that she wore makeup daily for 22 years without ever properly washing her face. Now, her skin has erupted in painful rashes, swelling, and discoloration, and her experience is leaving netizens stunned.
What began as a teenage fascination with her mother's lipstick spiraled into a full-blown beauty obsession. 'Why remove makeup when you have to wear it again the next day?" Gao reportedly believed. From the age of 15, she applied cosmetics religiously every morning, often without even using a basic cleanser the night before. A splash of water was all she relied on before layering fresh makeup the next day.
But earlier this year, her routine caught up with her in the most brutal way. Gao developed a severe allergic reaction that disfigured her face to the point where even she couldn't recognise herself. 'Itching is so bad that it feels like thousands of ants are crawling on the face. My face has become wrinkled and ugly. I no longer go out of the house, neither meet people nor make friends," Gao said in a widely circulated video.
In the footage, Gao's face appears red, swollen, and covered in what she calls a 'hormone face" rash, a condition so aggressive that her skin hardened and even turned purple after she took misguided treatments. Instead of visiting a dermatologist, she sought help from a local aesthetic clinic that gave her 'skin booster" injections. But instead of healing, her face deteriorated further.
Coming from a modest background, Gao admitted to using cheap liquid foundations for years, which she now believes may have contributed to the damage. 'Lack of patience made my condition worse. Don't try every new beauty product blindly. If something is giving immediate results, it is probably just suppressing the symptoms, not curing them," she warned others in her now-viral message.
While her story has drawn massive sympathy online, it's also ignited fierce debate among netizens and medical experts. Some believe Gao is genuinely suffering, while others accuse her of seeking online attention.
Dermatologists, meanwhile, are urging caution against oversimplifying the issue. 'Not washing your face properly for 22 years is not a good idea, but there could be many reasons, such as harsh products, steroid abuse, or frequent injections," one expert explained. Others suggest her condition could be the result of rosacea, contact dermatitis, or long-term use of creams containing steroids.
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The Hindu
4 hours ago
- The Hindu
Heat index: how heat-stressed are you?
Share Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit TAKING ON THE HEAT The maximum temperature on June 9 in Chennai was 36°C. But, high humidity and the kind of work they did compounded the heat stress for many. SATHYA A tiffin cook from central Chennai was exposed to conditions that made it feel like 69°C at 11:30 a.m. that day. 'I don't drink chilled water as I can't afford it… the water I drink is so hot that I would rather bear with the thirst' ANAND A fisherman who set out into the Bay of Bengal from Marina Beach experienced 69°C when he was at sea at 12:56 p.m. that day. 'The heat breaks our nets and makes the already itchy seawater more unbearable.' PRAKASH An industrial steel worker experienced similar discomfort when the heat index was nearly 66°C for him at 3:10 p.m. 'I don't think I need anything more than an occasional glass of water, no?' LEON* Name changed on request. An auto driver who goes around the city hit his peak discomfort at 2:20 p.m. when the heat felt like 56.8°C during one of his afternoon rides. 'Buying cool drinks everyday hurts my income, but I can't do much else to manage the heat. Pazhagi pochu. [I've become used to it]' During the summer and in the days after, these four individuals have often felt dizzy and nauseous and cramped during their job, have dealt with fainting spells, rising heart rates, and even the feeling of their skin burning up. These are symptoms typically experienced by people during heat waves, according to the World Health Organisation. A heat wave is a 'period of unusually high temperatures', measured as a deviation from the normal temperature of a region, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The Hindu Data team used Arduino Nano devices with temperature and humidity sensors to continuously record time-stamped data on an on-device SD card. We handed these devices out to four people from different parts of Chennai. This data allowed us to calculate the heat index, revealing how people from disparate socioeconomic backgrounds experienced heat through the day. The data were collected by our respondents on June 9, 2025. Despite Chennai experiencing light showers at 4 p.m. that day, respondents faced extreme discomfort and humidity. Further, these data were recorded a few weeks past the city's peak summer heat. The heat index indicates how much heat stress you're suffering, not just the air temperature. When the air is hot, your body sweats, and the sweat cools the skin when it evaporates. If the air is also humid, sweat won't evaporate well, so your body will cool more slowly. Thus you will experience more heat stress. The heat index combines temperature and humidity in a formula to estimate this stress-related temperature. For example: 35°C with 85% relative humidity – not uncommon in Chennai – entails a heat index of 60°C. It's just a way to show how heat and humidity together affect your comfort and health. While Chennai officially records a maximum temperature every day, not everyone experiences it the same way. 'Take a room with an air conditioner set to 19 degree celsius. The person sitting in the room will feel the chillness of that temperature, while another person in the same room using the treadmill will feel hot,' explains Vidhya Venugopal, professor and Country Director (NIHR GHRC NCD-EC, India) at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai. According to Prof. Venugopal, there are two types of heat that influence how temperature is experienced: external or environmental heat and internal or metabolic heat. The intensity of the working class' routines combined with exposure to the sun results in them experiencing drastically higher temperatures. Let's take a closer look at these individuals, a day in their lives, and the heat index recorded in their devices while at work. The heat index to which they're exposed is as if they live through multiple heatwaves every day. Some data may be missing because they accidentally turned off the device. However, we still captured their experiences in these times in our conversations. Scorched kitchens, tiffin served hot TIME 8:55 A.M. TEMP 32°C HEAT INDEX 47 The days start out manageable, as Sathya, the tiffin cook, wakes up to a quiet street in Parry's Corner even before the sun rises, in the last hours before the discomfort begins. At around 9:00 a.m., she is ready with her meat and fish prepared, spices ground, and vegetables chopped. She stands over large cooking utensils that perfume the hot air with steam, meen (fish) curries on the way. Just as Sathya puts her ladle down, the heat and humidity peak. She manages by wiping her face with her saree's pallu (loose end of the saree). Sathya sells her meals, walks across Parry's to buy ingredients for the next day, and sleeps in her shack. Rashes and hot skin forced Sathya to dab herself with water throughout the day. But she no longer feels relief at doing so. 'What do you suggest I do? During these months, the water itself is boiling hot!' Sathya's heat index She accidentally placed the machine near the stove, resulting in abnormally high heat index. 80 70 Sathya's heat index peaked to nearly 69°C at around 11.30 a.m. Heat index 60 50 40 3:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 6:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m. 12:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. Satya accidentally placed the machine near the burning stove during this period, resulting in abnormally high heat index. 80 70 Sathya's heat index peaked to nearly 69°C at around 11.30 a.m. Heat index 60 50 40 3:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 6:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m. 12:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. Sathya cooks in her kitchen where the heat index she experiences can go up as high as 69°C, especially when she's next to the stove for hours. Photo credit: Ragu R Sathya has fallen into the habit of using the restroom only twice a day for two reasons: she has to staff her tiffin stall for most of the day, and the public restrooms around her shack are unclean. She contracted a chronic urinary tract infection (UTI) as a result. Prof. Venugopal elaborates on the female experience of heatwave-like conditions. 'Women are more at-risk for developing UTIs. Especially when menstruating, they cannot dispose of their pad or change because of (unclean) toilets.' Cultural norms and societal expectations also play a role in magnifying heat stress among women. 'Generally, women in informal workplaces in India wear a saree and blouse with an inskirt. For the ease of raising their hands, bending, etc. without having to expose their chest or abdomen, they wear a shirt on top of the saree. The multiple layers of clothing trap the heat on their bodies,' she says. No shade on the open sea TIME 9:00 A.M. TEMP 33.7°C HEAT INDEX 43.2 Humidity severely affects Anand, 33, the fisherman. He leaves for the sea at 8:00 a.m. and travels for an hour. He sets his net into the water for about an hour as well. Anand and his colleagues row back to the shore during the hottest part of the day. They need to make sure the fish is covered as often as possible, or they might spoil. A moment of relief from the blinding sun as Chennai's occasional summer showers rain down on Anand. He stores his catch in ice and sells them on the beachside roads. Temperatures rise. His customers complain about the fish not being fresh enough. They haggle, with eventual concessions on both sides. A good day's catch doesn't always mean good money. After about 6 p.m., Anand goes back to his shack. The night is more humid. Anand tells us that the urban slums by the Marina Beach comprise nearly 5,000 families, and about half of them find themselves sleeping outside their homes or quarters at night, as most find it difficult to bear the increased humidity. 'We'd like to do the same, but we can't, for the safety of our baby girl,' he says. Anand's heat index Anand's heat index peaked to 69°C at around 1 p.m. 70 65 60 Heat index 55 50 45 40 35 30 3:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 12:00 p.m. 11:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. Anand's heat index peaked to 48°C at around 1 p.m. 70 65 60 Heat index 55 50 45 40 35 30 3:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 12:00 p.m. 11:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. Anand is out on the open sea in the afternoon when the heat index is at its highest. Here, he is mending his nets. Photo credit: Jothi Ramalingam B Anand accidentally turned off the device at night and we weren't able to calculate his heat index data then. He described what it was like later. 'In oorus (localities) near Chennai, the government builds well-ventilated buildings (for fishermen communities) which we don't have here. These would really help us with the storage of nets to prevent this damage as well as during times of surplus. Adhu semma benefita irukkum [That would be very beneficial],' he says. When sweat evaporates, the water molecules enter the air, cooling the body in a process called evaporative cooling. But in coastal areas, the atmosphere is already saturated with evaporated seawater, says Prof. Venugopal, which leaves nowhere for these water molecules to go. This is what makes humidity discomfiting. The urban landscape also hinders cooling in humans and plants alike, says Jagdish Krishnaswamy, the Dean of the School of Environment and Sustainability (SES) at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru. 'Built surfaces, pavements, buildings, concrete, etc., can absorb and retain a lot of heat. This also leads to much warmer nights,' he says. This is the urban heat island effect: an area where the temperature in a populated city is at least two degrees higher than adjacent suburban or rural areas. Sathya and Anand aren't the only ones dealing with the amalgam of the city's heat and an occupation that amplifies its discomfort. Prakash's job involves polishing steel utensils in an enclosed environment all day, exposed to high temperatures. Photo credit: Jothi Ramalingam B Stifling heat, shining utensils TIME 9:29 A.M. TEMP 34.2°C HEAT INDEX 43.4 At dawn, Prakash, who works at a steelworking facility, takes an auto ride to a corner in Korukkupet. He reaches his workplace and awaits steel utensils he can polish to a gleam. He sits in a dimly lit room with two exhaust fans and piles of paanais (cooking utensils). The temperature is rising. None of the room's occupants addresses discomfort; not everyone has safety gear either. They take breaks when the heat gets particularly unbearable. During his work hours, the temperature peaks at around 3:00 p.m. Even though the device recorded a temperature of less than 40°C, the heat index calculated based on Prakash's heat and humidity level was 66°C, while he was cramped inside a room, polishing steel utensils. Prakash's heat index Prakash's heat index peaked to 66°C in the afternoon 65 60 55 Heat index 50 45 40 6:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m. 12:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. 10:00 a.m. 12:00 a.m. Prakash's heat index peaked to 66°C in the afternoon 65 60 55 Heat index 50 45 40 6:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m. 12:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. 10:00 a.m. 12:00 a.m. K Jeeva welds stainless steel utensils with a welding torch inside a manufacturing unit at Korukkupet, Chennai. Photo credit: Jothi Ramalingam B We ask Prakash what he'd like the State to do to help him through extreme heat. 'Juice would be nice,' he says. His boss adds: 'All we want from the government is that they allow us to conduct our business.' Dr. Krishnaswamy explained that even in slightly hot or humid conditions, the materials that make up one's house, such as the tarpaulin over Sathya's head, which is a potent heat-absorber, can magnify the discomfort of its inhabitants. The heat meter never stops TIME 9:00 A.M. TEMP 32°C HEAT INDEX 39.5°C Leon (name changed on request), an auto driver, buys himself a cool drink before he heads out on his daily route around the city. 'Of course buying it hurts my income, but it's my only source of energy during these tiring months,' he says. He has worked a 9-to-5 shift for 15 years, and his experience seeps into his hydration habits. He makes sure to have the recommended three litres of water a day, parking in the shade whenever he can, and applies creams and balms to soothe bouts of vercuru, or heat rashes. And yet he continues to live with the discomfort, unsure of how to get rid of it. After making many attempts to make the summer a bit more bearable, he is now resigned to facing the heat. He says, 'Pazhagi pochu' ['I've become used to it]. He experiences different levels of discomfort in different parts of the city. 'Areas with trees tend to be more bearable (in terms of heat), I prefer doing savaari (rides) in those areas over main roads full of buildings,' he says. Leon's heat index Leon's heat index peaked to 56.8°C during one of his afternoon rides 55 52.5 Heat index 50 47.5 45 Missing data 42.5 40 9:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m. 11:00 p.m. Leon's heat index peaked to 56.8°C during one of his afternoon rides 55 52.5 Heat index 50 47.5 45 42.5 Missing data 40 9:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m. 11:00 p.m. Since 2019, the Government of Tamil Nadu has focused on extreme heat by evolving the Tamil Nadu Heat Action Plan. In 2024, Tamil Nadu's State Planning Commission released two reports titled 'Beating The Heat-Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy' and the 'Urban heat island-hotspot analysis and mitigation strategies for Tamil Nadu'. These reports highlighted the adverse ecological and economic consequences of heat stress and also proposed recommendations on predicting heat waves earlier, increasing public awareness of how to respond to a heatwave, preparing health systems to manage health conditions, increasing green cover, and improving research on the subject. However, these reports do not adequately address the situational nuances of vulnerable communities, according to Vanessa Peter, the founder of Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), an NGO. The Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy (2024) has identified various strategies to help street vendors, such as heat shelters, provision of ice boxes to prevent spoilage, and access to safe drinking water, but it has not addressed other aspects of heat that affect people like Sathya. 'There is no focus on the access to toilets. Access to safe drinking water and public toilets is equally important, as women vendors point out that they do not drink adequate water because of the non-availability of toilets near their vending spaces,' Ms. Peter says. While Sathya is entitled to these benefits as a street vendor, members of her family who live in 'homeless situations' remain unaddressed in the policy. 'The policy does recognise differential impacts on children, the elderly, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities' but not those living on the streets, says Ms. Peter. Prakash's professional setting exposes him to extreme discomfort. 'The strategy document mentions the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Tamil Nadu) Rules, 2022 that details the various measures that employers must take to ensure workers' health,' Ms. Peter adds. 'The document also emphasises the need to include provisions related to the thermal comfort of workers in indoor and outdoor environments. But the case of Prakash, who works in a private steelworking facility, reveals that there needs to be robust guidelines for private factories and monitoring of the same.' She also says the implementation of the strategy has been less than adequate due to a lack of coordination between various departments responsible. 'The absence of specific guidelines highlighting the roles of the different departments is a challenge for preparing and responding to heat emergencies for the urban homeless,' she says. Ms. Peter also speaks about the mention of the temperature humidity index. For the vulnerable communities, priority actions related to humidity are identified, including changing all asbestos roofs to safe and cool roofing materials, especially focusing on low-income housing. Maintaining thermal comfort in all built environments is prioritised through passive or active cooling techniques in building codes and regulation by urban local bodies (ULBs). Despite these identified strategies, Ms. Peter says that the designs of most of the houses built by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Board do not have scope for ventilation. 'This strategy does not mention the existing Resilient Urban Design Framework of the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (2020) that has provisions for natural ventilation, daylight access and thermal comfort in the design. The proposed suggestions in this framework have not been implemented in many of the housing projects.' Chandrakant Lahariya, a practising physician in the Centre for Health: The Specialty Practice in New Delhi and an expert in global health, recommends a more practicable approach. 'During heatwaves, local authorities carry out a lot of short-term measures such as advisories to drink more water. However, to make that happen, municipalities and city authorities need to ensure the easy availability of drinking water points, and the availability of ORS powder.' Dr. Lahariya also suggests workplaces allow staggered work timings (wherever possible). Work can be closed during specified peak hours of the day, especially for those who work in the informal sector, open spaces and in direct sun exposure. 'If policymakers and planners remember that a heatwave is an equity issue and that the approach has to be people-centric, half of the task will be done,' he says. Note: We calculated the heat index using the formula developed by the U.S. National Weather Service (NOAA), which factors in air temperature and relative humidity. The IMD then experimentally classifies the resulting temperature into four alert levels for human discomfort: (<35°C), (36-45°C), (46-55°C), and (>55°C).
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Time of India
China bans surgical treatment of Alzheimer's
Beijing: China has banned surgical treatment of Alzheimer's disease after it was performed in about 400 hospitals over four years, saying there is a lack of high-quality medical evidence to support its safety and effectiveness. The procedure, known as lymphatic-venous anastomosis (LVA), involves connecting the patient's lymph vessels to veins near the neck to speed up the flow and drainage of lymph fluid. The aim is to boost the removal of harmful brain proteins and slow the disease's progression. The National Health Commission said it has recently learned that some medical institutions are conducting lymphaticovenous anastomosis, also known as LVA surgery, on patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Following the commission's discovery, it conducted assessments on the procedure's safety and efficacy, the Commission said in a notice. "Our evaluation concludes that there is a lack of evidence from preclinical studies in the use of LVA surgery for Alzheimer's disease treatment ," it said, state-run China Daily reported on Friday. "The procedure remains at an early stage of clinical research with its indications and contraindications yet to be clarified, and there is insufficient medical or health economic evidence attesting to its safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness," the commission added. Local health authorities are advised to instruct medical institutions to halt treating Alzheimer's disease with LVA surgery and guarantee proper follow-up care for affected patients. "When sufficient preclinical evidence is collected, qualified medical institutions can carry out clinical studies under the full deliberation of ethics committees," it added. The surgery has grown in popularity, particularly over the past year, since it was first performed in 2021 by a microsurgery expert from a private hospital in Hangzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Based on publicly available information, an estimated 382 hospitals across almost all Chinese provinces had performed the procedure by the end of June, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Alzheimer's disease - the leading cause of dementia - is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. When the surgery first came to public attention, some Chinese doctors promoted it enthusiastically on social media, claiming it was "effective for 60 to 80 per cent of patients", according to the Post report. But it has also been met with scepticism, with some medical experts questioning its fundamental mechanism and long-term effectiveness. Dr Fan Dongsheng, a professor in the neurology department at Peking University Third Hospital, warned that the scientific mechanism behind the treatment had not been well studied and was at present not convincing. He told the Post that the reported improvements in patient symptoms were qualitative and not based on the accepted evaluation system. Fan welcomed the government's decision to halt the treatment, calling it "apparently problematic" that many hospitals, even small ones, performed the surgery extensively without solid evidence and had charged patients for it. Users on the Chinese social media platforms, however, expressed their anxiety that diagnosed family members would no longer be able to receive the treatment. "If the patient's family agrees, I think it's worth trying because some patients are in a really serious condition and their families are exhausted and desperate," a person from northeastern Liaoning wrote. One man said that his father, who was treated in March, had recovered well and could now recognise people and look after himself. If surgery had the potential to improve patients' conditions, "most families would choose to give it a try", he told the Post. PTI
News18
8 hours ago
- News18
'Pulp Fiction? Not Quite': How Indian Oranges Are Powering A French Medicine To Treat Varicose Veins
'We are proud that the oranges grown in Indian soil are now an integral part of a medicine used by millions across the world," Aurelien Breton, managing director, Servier India, told News18. 'We procure oranges from Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, MP, and Rajasthan currently." According to IQVIA data, Daflon's 500mg and 1000mg stand at a value of Rs 61 crore as per moving annual turnover, May 2025, ranking 2nd in the varicose therapy market. The average number of patients treated in a month is 1.2 lakhs. The citrus supply chain The Indian-sourced oranges are first processed locally—cleaned, dried, and converted into powder form. This citrus powder is then exported to Servier's manufacturing headquarters in France, where it undergoes sophisticated processing to extract the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Interestingly, those APIs are then re-imported back to India, where the final formulation of Daflon is completed for domestic distribution. This circular, transcontinental journey of a single orange—from a farm in Nagpur to a lab in northern France and back to a pharmacy shelf in Delhi—highlights the globalisation of pharmaceutical supply chains and India's growing importance as a trusted sourcing and manufacturing hub. The move wasn't just about logistics or cost-efficiency. According to Breton, Indian oranges matched the quality standards required for flavonoid extraction. 'We achieved 100% reliance on local Indian oranges through our Indian supply chain with effect from the financial year 2021." Indian oranges matched the former Spanish and Mexican counterparts. '2000 metric tons of small oranges were procured in the financial year 2023-24. We work with aggregators and farmers in multiple states in India," said Breton. Company set to bring precision cancer medicine Servier Pharma is set to bring precision cancer treatments to India. 'Unlike traditional chemotherapy, these therapies act on specific genetic mutations that are responsible for causing the cancer," Breton said. Out of three novel drugs coming into the Indian market, the first drug, Ivosidenib, targets a mutated protein known as isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), which is found in a subset of patients with cholangiocarcinoma (a type of biliary tract cancer) and acute myeloid leukemia (a form of blood cancer). 'Epidemiological data show a high prevalence of biliary tract cancers along the Ganga River basin, supporting the need for this targeted option, which can significantly delay disease progression. In clinical trials, Ivosidenib has demonstrated more than a threefold improvement in survival for AML (blood cancer) patients." The drug was officially launched in India in June 2025.
