There are many factors that dictate whether you more susceptible to skin cancer than others. If you fall under any of the following categories, it is believed that your skin cancer risk is elevated:
• Those who have fair skin that is easily burned and prone to freckles or other common skin markings.
• People who have suffered at least one case of severe sunburn earlier in life.
• Those who have fair hair and/or blue or green eyes.
• People with naturally depleted skin pigmentation caused by other medical conditions such as albinism.
• Those who have many moles on their skin, especially unusually shaped or colored moles, or large ones that they have had from birth.
• People who have suffered skin cancer before, or have family members who have suffered in the past.
It is important to note that these causative factors can work in combination. If for example you are a fair skinned, red haired, blue-eyed individual with several unusual moles who suffered really bad sunburn a couple of times as a youngster (which with this physical make up is extremely likely), the chances of continued or repeated exposure to the sun causing cancer are a great deal higher.
This highlights one of the main reasons why it is so important to know how to prevent sunburn and how to treat it if it unfortunately happens. Anything that increases your melanoma risk levels is something to be taken extremely seriously. Managing the risk of sunburn before the event is by far and away the best way of treating this risk with the respect that it so obviously deserves.
Having been presented with both sides of the ‘is sunshine good for you' argument, I would suggest one thing should be abundantly clear.
Whilst too much exposure to the sun is clearly potentially dangerous, particularly for certain types of people, a lack of exposure to the sun can be equally harmful. Consequently, the only sensible conclusion that can be drawn from this is that a balance needs to be struck between exposing your body to sunlight and keeping covered up at other times
You might be wondering why I am writing about this topic in the middle of winter but the truth is that 'snowburn' is as bad as 'sunburn'. Also many families go south for a holiday in the winter and the kids are often so much in a rush to get out in the sun and warm up that really bad sunburns tend to occur within minutes!
