Zits can save a life?

I need something warped and wacky this morning to humor me while watching yet another series of rain rivers cascade off the eaves. The driveway is nearly submerged. And, a while ago, the ducks were feeding in the lawn across the driveway en masse.

Inside, this house as been emphatically quiet. The only sounds I've heard have been quick, unenthusiastic "good morning's," the turning of newspaper pages and the dryer rattling with its most recent load of clothes.

We're all subdued by this ongoing wet weather, to say the least. So, I sent my brain on a mission to find a diversion, something that would make me forget the moisture outside and cause me to chuckle within. I didn't have to look far.

The headline read: Teen acne tied to better health in men.

Immediately, even before perusing the details, I thought of all the zit-faced boys I'd ever known and wondered if they had finally gained redemption from an adolescence of either avoiding mirrors altogether or embracing them as visual aids for popping those oozing cream-colored face craters.

If they're still alive, because they haven't died from a heart attack, these individuals can thank their pimples. Their androgens (male hormones) were doing their job of preventing coronary heart disease, according to a UK study referenced in (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050617/hl_nm/acne_heart_dc) .

Time for for former teen-acne sufferers to rejoice---or IS it?

If they're dead or dying cuz the prostate gland decided to act up, they may have their pimples to thank for that too. Seems those same androgens associated with acne can cause prostate cancer.

So, I guess this was definitely a good news-bad news story, depending on if you're male, a former acne sufferer and alive or if you're male, a former acne sufferer and dead. I don't know what to tell you if you're a male who escaped the pimple stage. The article doesn't include that information.

And, now I'm especially curious to learn what happens to women who suffered from too many teen zits. Maybe that revelation will come on another day when it's too damn wet.