Worship the Sun Or Worship Your Skin?

By Dima Ali, MD

WellMedica Aesthetic & Anti-Aging Medicine

. http://wellmedica.com/

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Worship the Sun Or Worship Your Skin?

The number of skin cancers I remove off of people under the age of 40 is alarming. Granted, there are many factors that can influence the development of skin cancer (genetics being among them), but sun exposure is by far the one factor we have some control over.

Let me be blunt Chronic sun exposure without protection will invariably lead to some form of skin cancer or at least pre-cancer. Not to mention wrinkles, blotchy skin, early cataract formationthe list goes on.

In honor of National Skin Cancer Awareness Month, I'd like to bust a few myths about sun protection. The following quotes were taken directly from our patients and from those who write in to ask questions.

A patient who had a severe photosensitivity reaction said “I know you told me to completely stay out of the sun after my treatment but the only time I went out was to walk the dog and the sun wasn't really outit was foggy.”

This person had a session of photodynamic therapy (the anti-cancer skin treatment) and went out the next morning without any protection. He came to the office around noon in terrible discomfort with redness and swelling that required medication.

The point here is that the sun's rays are still there even if you can't see the sun. The wavelength of visible light is between about 400 to 800 nm. UVA and UVB wavelengths range from about 250 to 400 nm. In other words, nasty cancer causing UV radiation is invisible. Also keep in mind that if you are taking certain drugs such as Doxycycline (antibiotic), Prozac (antidepressant) or Captopril (antihypertensive) or even Naproxen (anti-inflammatory), you can be more susceptible to having a phototoxic reaction to even a few minutes of sun exposure.

“I don't understand why I have so many wrinkles! I always stayed out of the sun and would only go to a tanning salon once or twice a month and never stayed long enough to burn.”

This is classic. I hear it all the time. Somehow tanning beds are marketed as a “healthy” way to get that bronzed look. Tanning salons will use the “no burn” as a marketing strategy when, in fact, your skin will still get damaged whether it gets burned or not. The tanning bed bulbs emit UVA radiation, which is less likely to burn you than UVB radiation. An easy way to remember this is UVA “U will get Very Aged skin” and UVB “U will get Very Burned.” Bottom line though is that they both cause wrinkles and skin cancer.

Mole Patrol

Don't forget to protect your children. According to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, most sun exposure that leads to adult skin cancer occurs before the age of 18. States are jumping on the bandwagon to regulate the use of tanning devices in minors with almost 30 states having enforced or pending legislation.

So, until further notice or until the sun stops shining, get your bronzer from a bottle and worship your skin, not the sun.