Beverly Hills Dermatologist, Stuart H. Kaplan M.D. dishes on skin cancer risks and more in this intriguing article…
Several of my patients have recently asked me whether the benefits of going into the sun to obtain vitamin D outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer. Other patients have raised concerns about using sunscreen altogether, arguing that people have been out in the sun for thousands of years and only after the invention of sunscreen did people begin developing skin cancer. Could it be the chemicals in sunscreen, and not the sun, that are causing skin cancer?
I would like to share with you several facts that dispute these mythsโฆ
First, skin cancers have always existed. While there has been an increase in the lifetime risk of developing invasive melanoma (in 1935, the risk was 1 in 500; it is now 1 in 55), this can be attributed to a number of factors, including longer lifespans (the sun damage that leads to skin cancers generally accumulates over time);the thinning ozone layer, which allows greater amounts of harmful ultraviolet…