Sun Safety: The Danger of a "Healthy Glow"

This morning I woke up and fell into the normal routine. I got the kids settled with breakfast & cartoons, had my coffee and did a couple of chores. Once Connor was down for a nap, I thought I'd take a quick shower while Sean was still engrossed in Word World. While standing in the mirror, I noticed a little scratch on my neck and I leaned in closer to investigate. That's when I noticed a nearby mole had changed drastically since the last time I'd done an all over skin check. I poked it and inspected it, trying to see if maybe my son had accidentally scratched it and maybe it was just irritated from a close-call in-home biopsy, courtesy of baby fingernails. But it didn't hurt, wasn't bleeding or scabbed over and just looked strangely different.

Always the hypochondriac, I phoned my doctor's office, but couldn't get in until tomorrow afternoon. Now it's probably nothing, but my first instinct screamed, "it's melanoma! get a diagnostic test immediately!" My rational husband made a good point when he said that I'm weaning our son from nursing and it's possible that it's hormonal changes...My I'd-rather-be-safe-than-sorry mentality still made the appointment.

I will be honest here; I wasn't always safe about the sun. I'm sure I sported a sunburn or two as a child, and I visited tanning salons in the past. I wasn't smart about the sun then, and used to believe that tanning beds were safer than sun exposure. I wasn't 'tanorexic', but I had gone maybe 10-15 times, enough to exponentially raise my risk for melanoma. When the summer came, I would always apply SPF 8, enough to tan without burning, thinking that burning would cause skin cancer and that as long as I saw brown, and not red, after a day at the beach, I was safe. During our honeymoon, I wasn't good about applying sunblock and I got burned so badly on a kayak safari that I blistered my scalp and my shoulders peeled for days after. I'll admit it: I was stupid about sunblocking that day, and it was definitely the only time I've ever burned that bad and it was certainly the very last.

Today I'm insane about sun safety. I sunblock my kids until they glisten white, keeping Connor under an umbrella and making Sean keep his shirt and sunhat on at all times. I own a wide-brimmed straw hat that I will sport if I'm not under the umbrella with the baby and will usually leave my tank top or cover up on over my bathing suit, but not without sunblocking everything first (even under the clothes). I use globs of sunscreen and I am consistent about reapplying every few hours (more if we're in the water). We use up about 1 bottle of sunscreen for every 5 beach trips we make. I learned sometime last year, after reading an article in Parents magazine, that most people don't apply enough sunscreen and I vowed not to make that mistake this year. Sure, each bottle of block is around $5 and can run us around $50 for the summer, but compared to the cost of surgery to have a suspicious mole removed (which can range from $150-$400), we're actually saving money.

I get a full head-to-toe skin check every year and perform a routine self-exam every month. I've made myself very aware of the possibility that I could be one of the five Americans diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime. So when I noticed a changing mole, I went online and did my research. I found that skin cancer is the most common cancer, but it's the most preventable and, if caught early, the most treatable. I learned that melanoma took the lives of almost 9,000 Americans last year. Though it is the least common form of skin cancer, is it certainly the most dangerous. Two other types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma (which is the most common) was diagnosed in about one million Americans last year and squamous cell carcinoma followed in second, with over 250,000 new diagnoses every year.

As I browsed through pictures of people with advanced stages of skin cancer, I was completely horrified. I used to think that a tan gave a person a healthy glow and that some sun exposure was good for you, but looking at the pages of people who were living proof of the dangers of UV rays, I came to a new realization: The healthiest skin is the skin without the tan lines, that glows it's own color and not the given color of the sun. Not even considering cancer, tanning is evidence that UV rays have penetrated the skin and caused damage, leading to wrinkles, sun spots, lose of elasticity and photodermatoses. Premature aging of the skin should be enough to make one thing twice about visiting the beach without a generous slathering of sunscreen. Tan skin today may look great now, but what happens in 10 years...15...25? No one wants to be 35 and look 50! Not to mention, there is a point at which a person can be too tan...I've seen Jersey Shore and let me just say, being that tan doesn't even look healthy, it's actually borderlining Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory helpers.

I write this blog today because I was inspired to reach out to whoever follows it in hopes that it plants a seed in the mind and gets you to think about being safe about your skin. Many of us are conscious that eating healthy and exercising are good for us. We know that it's important to eat well, drink plenty of water and get 30-minutes of exercise a day, but how many of you have a bottle of sunscreen (30SPF or higher) next to that yoga mat and organic food? Our skin is a part of our body and it's just as important to take care of the outside, as it is to take care of the inside. As the season begins and the sun burns hot, I urge you all to be safe while you're having your summer fun. If you really feel the need to have that tan skin, check out Neutrogena. They have a great selection of tans you can lather on...just imagine the elasticity of skin that's been lotioned instead of baked.


*Research for this blog was done at http://www.skincancer.org/. If you want more facts on sun safety, it's a great site!