“While waiting at the doctor’s office, I read a concerning article in Men’s World that was very well written. It pointed out that Americans have become much more aware of the risk of skin cancer as evidenced by the fact the sunscreen industry has risen in recent years from a 1 billion to a 4 billion dollar industry. People have learned about UV-A and UV-B and to select a sunscreen that has an SPF of at least 30. With this, people are protected from the sun burning their most superficial skin cells. But the incidence of skin cancer has nearly doubled and the lethal melanoma incidence has risen by 75%. The FDA is aware of this and in their governmental sluggard way, won’t deal with this until at least 2012. Almost all sunscreens sold in the USA. are useless in preventing skin cancer while they protect against sunburn. Amongst a lengthy list of people who are at increased risk are people such as those in Phoenix and L.A. who lay out in the sun and especially near a swimming pool or the ocean and people who swim in them. It turns out that UV-B prevents the superficial skin cells from being burned while UV-A penetrates deeper into the connective tissue and the melanin cells. Among other things it does is damage the DNA of melanin cells, hence leading to the increase of melanoma and alter the DNA of other deep cells. So what to do about it?
There are 5 steps that can be taken.
