• NM_Gringo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    21 minutes ago

    So parasites? They couldn’t be symbiotes and give us some superpower, like the wisdom of an ancient species who mastered FTL space travel. Oh, no. We just get parasites that feed on our face. Great. That’s just great.

  • _lilith@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    3 hours ago

    That second picture seems to suggest it might be visible to the naked eye, rest assured they are microscopic

  • wax@feddit.nuEnglish
    31·
    6 hours ago

    I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as You, is in fact, Demodex/You, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, Demodex plus You.

  • D_C@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    27·
    12 hours ago

    Question:
    If I were to come up with a way to rid myself (and others) of these face mites then what would happen? Would it be a positive or negative thing for me?

    And the same question about human body mites. If I were to get rid of human mites completely would that be good or bad?

    • Guy Ingonito@reddthat.comEnglish
      11·
      7 hours ago

      I have rosacea and apply a 1% ivermectin cream to my face every night to kill the mites. It costs 300 dollars a tube.

      • phar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        7 hours ago

        But if you live in the bible belt, your face skin would never get covid

    • GreatTitEnthusiast@mander.xyzEnglish
      152·
      8 hours ago

      The other commenters are well meaning but don’t really know what they’re talking about. I have chronic dry eye from staring at screens too much (remember to blink!). My tear ducts have gotten overworked and started to produce thicker, gunkier, tears which blocked them and cause styes. I’ve lost a bunch of my tear ducts. Once they’re gone they don’t grow back.

      These little mites eat the gunk my eyes produce and, when they get overpopulated, leave a ton of gunk on your eye. It’s called blepharitis

      https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/demodex-blepharitis

      I’ve had it so bad that I’ve had trouble opening my eyes in the morning. There’s a relatively new eyedrop that clears them out. Combining that with hot dye compresses and lid scrubs have helped keep them under control and has drastically increased my eyelid health

      I hope that helps answer your question

    • ToastedRavioli@midwest.socialEnglish
      682·
      12 hours ago

      Its important to remember that human bodies are effectively an environment unto themselves, and that there really isnt a distinct “you” and then other things like this.

      For example, there are trillions upon trillions more cells of bacteria on/in you than there are human cells. Every person’s overall existence is composed primarily of stuff that isnt technically “you”, although it is inseparable from you. While people’s bodily ecology can be modified, you couldnt possibly remove every quasi-foreign substance from yourself and still survive.

      Its part of why seemingly horrific stuff like fecal transplants can be very helpful. If youve cultivated a very mean ecology for one reason or another then resetting that to a healthier state is essential. Its like the gut version of you being a country suffering from unrest. But even though we think of negative or positive bacteria as being totally distinct from us, we are strongly defined by those bacteria. It affects your brain and emotions far more than most people realize. Scientists are still just beginning to understand the complexities of these systems, too.

      These little dudes I would assume are a similar situation. They probably have some form of essential symbiosis with us that we may not even understand yet. Killing them off would likely be bad. And even if you did, you would be creating a vacuum that could be filled by something worse. Our bodies are fertile ground for such tiny individuals. Better to have benign ones or helpful ones than it is to have bad ones

      • applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        5·
        5 hours ago

        there is a distinct you, its all the cells with your dna, and theres no bacteria inside your body. your stomach and intestines are functionally a well controlled part of the outside of your body. bacteria being inside you is an infection and is generally considered bad for your health. by mass the vast majority of your body is your own cells, so implying most of your body is stuff thats “not you” is pretty hyperbolic.

        your argument that it would probably be bad to kill these mites is an appeal to nature. just because theyre there doesnt mean they serve a vital function. im sure there are any number of disorders caused by them, but whether there are any caused by them being absent neither of us can say. maybe there is, maybe there isnt. its possible that no one can say at the moment.

        • bryophile@lemmy.zipEnglish
          17·
          10 hours ago

          There’s variety of demodex that eat sebum (face grease) and another eats dead skin cells.

          So I guess, logically, if you got rid of them you’d have greasy skin with dead skin cells. Or at least the balance on your face ecosystem would be disturbed.

    • Crescent@fedinsfw.appEnglish
      12·
      11 hours ago

      Not a doctor but I watch YouTube sometimes.

      You can remove them with some oils and it helps some people with things like acne.

      If you did this, they would just come back after a while. If you don’t have any skin issues, they are harmless to you.