Skin Cancer - Melanoma

Causes & Prevention

Best Protection Against the Sun? Clothes!!!!

To prevent the damage from the sun's rays---stay indoors! However, abstinence is not always possible, nor medically advisable. Deficiency in Vitamine D, which many consider a hormone required for bone health, is a real concern, if the person receives no exposure to sun light. This deficiency is also true, when ultra violet rays are not absorbed due to sun screens, or protective clothing.

Never the less, as keratosis and squamous cell cancers of the skin have been decreasing as skin health has become more central in our lives; it's a good idea to review the most protective ways of handling too much sun exposure.

What Does It Mean When Medical Experts Say "Race" Is A Risk Factor For Certain Diseases?

Editor's Note:

"Race" is sometimes mentioned as a risk factor in the development of certain cancers and a number of other diseases. When you read this in a discussion about an illness, note that the explanation seldom refers to anything biological. Instead, it usually refers to behavior, such as eating habits. The kinds of behavior usually mentioned as risk factors are culturally determined. They are not genetic or biological.

Melanoma: Early Detection and Prevention

Everyone is at some risk for skin cancer, but certain factors increase this risk. Most risk factors apply to all three of the major skin cancers, but there are certain factors associated with only non-melanoma skin cancers and others that pertain to only melanoma.

A new study finds that rubbing Sunscreen into the skin provides very little protection

An investigation by RAFT has found that rubbing sunscreen into the skin greatly reduces your protection against dangerous radiation. The result can be skin cancer and premature ageing, because the skin is protected from burning, so people tend to stay in the sun longer.

Avoiding Skin Cancer (Melanoma) - National Weather Service UV Index

"The ozone layer shields the Earth from harmful UV radiation. Ozone depletion, as well as seasonal and weather variations, cause different amounts of UV radiation to reach the Earth at any given time. Developed by the National Weather Service (NWS) and EPA, the UV Index predicts the next day's ultraviolet radiation levels on a 1-11+ scale ..."

More reasons to exercise - less skin and bowel cancers

If the incidence of bowel and skin cancers can be reduced in mice by having them run, it is likely that exercise by humans also leads to a reduction in the incidence of these two cancers. The study attempts to explain why the exercising mice had fewer polyps in the bowel. ("An inherited condition called familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) affects about one in 10,000-15,000 people worldwide, 95% of whom will develop numerous polyps in the bowel which eventually develop into colon cancer," was reported.)