Skin and Sun
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Until this year. Now, for reasons I don't understand, I am having a very hard time with my lips; they tend to be very dry, cracking a lot, etc. It is painful and doesn't look all that good, either. What can I do to protect my lips from cracking, that I'm not already doing?View Thread
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Well-to-do women took pride in porcelain-white, unspotted skin by protecting themselves with parasols, gloves and large hats.
That all changed in the 1920s when fashion icon Coco Chanel showed her new clothing designs on tanned models. A golden tan soon became a status symbol of travel, leisure and good health.
For decades, sun worshipers everywhere hit the beaches or their back yards to work on their suntans. Then, in the early 1980s, the introduction of tanning beds changed suntanning from a summertime ritual to a year-round obsession for millions of Americans.
Unfortunately, as more and more Americans pursue a perpetual tan, dermatologists across the United States and right here in the south suburbs have begun noticing a significant rise in skin cancer, especially among young women.
Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, results in more than 8,000 deaths a year, according to the National Cancer Institute, and continues to rise. Melanoma is the most common cancer among young people. But while its incidence among men has remained steady for the last 20 years, it has doubled for women - and many of these cases result from indoor suntanning.
Since 1992, the indoor tanning industry has grown fivefold. During that same period, melanoma rates have increased by 2 percent in the general population, and skin cancer overall has become the most common form of cancer for Americans ages 25 to 29, a group that traditionally shows very low cancer rates.
Tanning and cancer go together
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ultraviolet radiation is a proven human carcinogen - meaning it causes cancer.
On an average day, more than one million Americans use tanning salons - 71 percent of them girls and women ages 16 to 29. What's more, frequent users of today's new high-pressure sunlamps receive as much as 12 times the annual dose of ultraviolet radiation as they would receive from sun exposure.
First exposure to tanning beds in youth increases melanoma risk by 75 percent. People who use tanning beds are 2 1 / 2 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1 1 / 2 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.
What's more, frequent tanning bed users proved three times more likely to develop melanoma than non-users, according to research published online May 27 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
You should know that the American Academy of Dermatology opposes indoor tanning and supports a ban on the production and sale of indoor tanning equipment for non-medical purposes.
Indoor or out: Tanning is dangerous
Indoor and outdoor tanning are dangerous because the same ultraviolet radiation that provokes a tan also damages DNA and can cause errors in cell growth - leading to the development of skin cancers such as melanoma. Darkened skin from tanning is actually the body's response to that damage.
Recently, researchers from Wake Forest University suggested that the body produces an endorphin-like response of pleasure and happiness from tanning and ultraviolet radiation - creating a type of "high." And like any high, tanning - especially indoor tanning - can become addictive.
No matter what you may hear at tanning salons, the cumulative damage caused by UV radiation can lead to premature skin aging such as wrinkles, lax skin, brown spots and, more importantly, skin cancer.View Thread
A consistent tan all over the body is impossible to attain, because some areas are more resistant to tanning than others, the researchers say.
The findings show that the buttock doesn't tan as easily as other body parts, and when the butt does gets red from the sun, it's less likely than other body regions to turn into a tan. It was also found that people with no freckles tan more easily than those with freckling.
Scientists carried out the study in an effort to figure out why different types of skin cancer tend to be found in different parts of the body , given that they are all caused by exposure to sunshine. [Read "Why Skin Cancer Is on the Rise ">
"One of the real puzzles about melanoma is why the numbers of tumors differ so much depending on body site," said Jonathan Rees, a professor of dermatology at the University of Edinburgh. "Our work shows that in one sense we are all made up of different units of skin, which respond differently to sunshine, and which all may afford different degrees of protection against the harmful effects of sunshine."
The work represents the first time that the depth of a person's tan, and not just skin redness, has been quantified.
The sun emits two types of ultraviolet, or UV, radiation : UVA and UVB. The UVB rays are what cause sunburns.
Rees and his colleagues analyzed the skin of about 100 volunteers, who were exposed to six doses of UVB radiation on two areas of their bodies — the back and buttock using tanning booths .
The volunteers were given an injection to minimize the rush of blood that naturally occurs after the skin is exposed to sunlight within the first 24 hours.
Researchers say this redness is often confused with the start of tanning, but in fact is the skin's signal that it has been damaged.
After seven days, the volunteers' skin was analyzed to find what color remained after the redness had died down.
This color — recognized as a suntan — comes from the skin's production of melanin, a defense that keeps the skin from absorbing too much harmful UVB radiation.
The results are published in the July issue of the journal Experimental Dermatology.View Thread
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