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King of Cysts: This doc's YouTube videos on popping zits, blackheads are a craze online

Dr Yadav has a bank of over 1,500 medical and surgical videos which have garnered millions of views till date.

Written by : Monalisa Das

The camera is focused on the patient's nose as a pair of gloved hands use a comedone extractor- a metal stick with a loop at one end- to take out blackheads and whiteheads.

The patient, an 80-year-old, can be seen squeezing his eyes each time the hands exert pressure on the pores and the sebaceous material oozes out.

The doctor performing the procedure is also the one filming it and simultaneously giving a commentary in English. 

It is a classical case of zit popping, he says, adding that the blackheads and whiteheads have accumulated on the man's face over a time of 10-20 years. He also throws in some additional information regarding where to buy the extractor from and how to use it.

While the 4-minute video titled Black & White Heads On Nose Part 3 is definitely not for those with a weak stomach, it has garnered a staggering 34 millions views on YouTube since it was uploaded in 2012. 

And this is among the over 1,500 videos on a range of medical procedures, including zit popping to treatment of cysts, ulcers, abscesses, skin diseases and others, uploaded on the Vikram Yadav YouTube page. 

The man behind it is Dr Vikram Yadav, a Moradabad-based general physician. With a subscriber base of over 2,57,000, Yadav is considered one of India's hottest YouTube stars and has also been called "The King of Cysts".

While many find the videos educational, there are those who find it revolting in equal amounts. But Yadav's fan following is undeniable.

"When I was in medical college, I used to research my subjects online. I quite liked the lectures posted by the University of North Carolina, they were very good. That is when I decided to do something similar," 35-year-old Yadav tells The News Minute

He started writing a blog around 2006, but found it was too time consuming. "You had to write, then upload, it was just time-taking."

That is when he came up with the idea of making videos and started the YouTube page in 2009.

"I didn't know then that it would generate such a response," he says. 

The videos are not done on a regular basis as availability of patients too is a factor that needs to be counted. People featured on the videos need to give written consent.

YouTube got in touch with him sometime back, Yadav says, and since then he has been earning some revenue through his channel. 

Surprisingly, a major chunk of his viewers are from abroad including the UK, Australia and Japan. And not surprisingly, it is the skin-related videos, including acne and blackheads that get the most hits, as Yadav says.

The multi-tasking doctor also shoots most of the videos by himself. "I sometimes ask the attendant to hold the camera if both my hands are busy. But I do it by myself mostly. I haven't hired anyone to shoot the videos."

The first thing that one gets to see after opening the YouTube page is the cover image. On it is a message that reads, "Medical & Surgical Educational Videos, New Videos... Every Sunday and Wednesday".

"Just like how TV shows mention the timing for their programmes in advance, I too have given my audience the time of the week when they can expect new videos from me. I try to stick to it," he explains.

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