Riyan Charlie Personal Blog

It is time to wake up and stop believing skin cancer myths. I got this information from my favourite dermatologist online, Dr Neal Schultz at DermTV.com. Dr Schultz is a skin doctor with a real concern for the health of people’s skin. He has produced a series of webisodes on skincare that I find invaluable. Here is what he has to say about skin cancer myths:

1. It is not possible to get skin cancer on the skin under my bathing suit. This is dangerously wrong. The sun’s harmful rays anywhere on your skin can cause skin cancer. This is because the damage on one part of your skin can be transmitted to the blood which can then carry it anywhere.
2. I can’t get sunburned or cause the damage that leads to skin cancer on a cloudy day. My favourite dermatologist online, Dr Schultz, says – ‘If you can see the hand in front of your face enough harmful rays are making it through the clouds to do damage.’
3. Tanning beds are safer than sunshine. Nope. In fact often tanning beds can do more damage because we don’t have the same sense of exposure. We can instinctively gauge our exposure to the sun, but it’s difficult for many to judge it in the tanning booths. Also, there is no real way to gauge the tanning bed’s UV dosage.
4. I can watch my own moles and will go to the doctor only if I notice a change. This is one of the most dangerous myths because the changes in a mole can be so minute on a daily or weekly basis that you will not really notice the change soon enough. Keep checking your moles, but also schedule annual checkups with your skin doctor.
5. Skin cancer is not as dangerous as other kinds of cancer. The fact is 1 American dies of skin cancer every hour or every day. That should be enough for you to pay serious attention to the threat.

Although I love the advice of Dr Schultz, it is not enough to get the advice of a dermatologist online – you need to find your own skin doctor and get annual checkups to ensure that you do not, through neglect or ignorance, become one of the hourly fatalities of skin cancer.