Tag! You’re it! ©

Almost 50% of the population will suffer from a condition called Acrochordon in their life, usually starting about middle age which nowadays is just 36 though they can appear even in the twenties. Yep! That means you have a one in two chance of developing it. But if you’re the fortunate half of the population who miss out, you’ll probably end up with Lentigo senilis anyway. It's all connected with getting older.

Acrochordon is more commonly known as skin tags which are little growths of skins about the size of a grain of rice that can appear on the neck, face and various parts of the body. Lentigo senilis is otherwise known as age spots which appear on the skin as dark patches, especially if you’ve exposed yourself to too much sun when you were younger. They can commonly be found on the face, hands, arms and neck.

Therefore, if you’re young and think you’re pretty hot or spend way too much time in the sun, this is a reminder that your youth and good looks are not going to last forever, so you might as well get used to the idea and focus on your internal beauty instead.

When I was a child, we kids were fascinated by a large skin tag that my Dad had hanging behind one of his knees. It was the ugliest and weirdest thing I had ever seen on a grown-up. We wondered why he had grown it in the first place, as if we thought he had some control over it, “I think I’ll snap my fingers and grow a skin tag today.”

No! Not that kind of mole!

For most of my life I’ve been afflicted by a condition called intradermal nevus, otherwise known as moles. As a child I kept on telling myself they were beauty spots, and the more you had, the more beautiful you were. I’m not sure if I was quite convinced by that argument though, because I knew some adults with the biggest and scariest moles I had ever seen. Perhaps it’s just because I was so young that the moles seemed so gargantuan, almost as if the mole was the size of a cumquat. There was one person who had a mole so large with several long hairs sticking out of it, I think I was half convinced that it was some kind of living creature having a snooze on their face. 

I can recall one woman with a mole near her lip. I never heard a word she said as I was too distracted by it as it moved up and down and around when she spoke.

On the other hand, one of the loveliest ladies I ever knew as a youngster, had a very wrinkly face, and lots of moles. Every Sunday at Church the old lady was delighted to see us. She was always so welcoming that to me moles were never really a scary thing to me, though to some children, a person with lots of moles was seen as scary or ugly.

Apparently the average white person has 30 moles and some can have up to 400! Studies have shown that people with more moles, tend to suffer with less age-related illnesses as they get older. Moles generally appear in childhood, but one of the positive things about reaching middle age, is that’s when they start gradually disappearing. Perhaps by middle age you’ve used up most of you’re good health bonus points, and the moles are a kind of coupon that you cash in for continuing good health. My problem with this theory is that I haven’t been able to locate a local “Moles R Us” store to get a refund. ©