Summer Skin Safety

Dr Bill Nielsen has been practising in Duncan for thirty years

As a shout out to Dr Pascoe’s skincare article last month in the Valley Voice, a reminder about skin safety this summer is in order. After a long cold winter and the wettest spring on record, June is bursting out all over… finally! The flowers, the blue sky, the golden Sun are brimming with beauty, new life and freshness. So behold! on sparkling beaches, gardens and work sites, Sun-starved Canadians are exposing their ivory bods to the first bright rays of the season. They say Beauty is only skin-deep, but ugly goes right to the bone. Well, the same goes for skin tumours that start superficially then spread inward to the skeleton.

Our Sun is, in fact, a nuclear fusion power plant. The ultraviolet component of sunlight is radiation. This solar radiation is why sunburns cause genetic damage in your DNA, potentially resulting in skin cancer.

Squamous cell carcinomas are common. They are caused by Ultraviolet B light from the Sun or excessive indoor tanning. They may appear as a rough patch or red scaly area, or a sore that doesn’t heal. They are painless but might itch and are the cancer of sailors and farm-

ers. Early on, they can be easily treated by surgical removal or freezing, but ignored, eventually can metastasize to lymph nodes or bones and be a real problem. Basal cell carcinomas (BCC’s) are usually pinker, shinier and raised compared with SCC’s. They too are UVB sunlight lesions. They frequently rot out in the center, looking like they were gnawed on by a teeny tiny rat, hence the moniker Rodent Ulcer. Check grandpa’s cheeks and ears for basal cell carcinomas.

The Malignant Melanoma is the bad actor. These brown tumours come from short periods of intense sunlight, like March breaks in Mexico or Hawai’i where UVA rays penetrate into deep skin layers. Melanomas are usually (but not always) very dark and start in the melanin cells that carry color. They spread early and kill a lot of people. Melanomas metastasize anywhere – lung, liver, brain, bladder- even into the retinas of the eyeball! If you find a new mole, especially black, brown or pink that has irregular shape and colour, document its appearance on your phone and visit your health care professional. If the mole is unchanged for years or has hair growing from it, there is less chance it is a deadly cancer.

Be skin savvy this summer. Stay Sun shy. Get a lotion with an SPF (sun protective factor) of at least 50. Put it on thick and reapply after swimming. Wear a big glamorous hat, bring long cool clothes and be ready for whatever the Solar wind blows your way.