How can I lower my risk of skin cancer or other skin related conditions?!


Question:

How can I lower my risk of skin cancer or other skin related conditions?

After years of preventing sunburns and taking good care of my skin because I'm well-informed about the damage the sun does to it, I still got a severe sunburn from a terrible mistake of overexposure to the sun damaging rays. Now I'm really worried because my risks of getting skin cancer or other skin diseases is pretty high since I have a grandfather with skin cancer, an aunt with psoriasis, and another aunt with lupus.

The sunburn I got was real bad, at first it was red and occassionally I experienced some chills. After a few days blisters appeared and then all the skin peeled off. The damaged skin was on my thighs, my belly, my chest and a little bit of the forearms.

Please let me know how I can, if its possible, to lower my risk of skin cancer or other skin diseases in addition to the basic one of staying out of the sun and don't forgetting sunblock.

Thanks a lot!


Answers:

I was looking for relevant questions to answer and I saw yours. Usually I don't bother with questions that already have several answers but you have been unlucky so far, with one sensible answer and two bad ones.

You know already about sunblock. About the rest: your skin has enzymes that have already repaired the damaged DNA. True, some mutations may have occurred but that does not mean that cancer will happen. Maybe, as you and your cells age, mutations will accumulate and lack of cell control of cell division will happen in one or two cells, leading to cancer. What to do?

1) Use sunblock to decrease the danger of further damage to DNA
2) Use antioxidants, to trap free radicals before they do damage
3) Avoid chemicals that produce free radicals, such as benzoyl peroxide, very common in anti-acne products
4) See a dermatologist if you see any strange looking moles on your skin.

Apart from that, don't be scared, because being scared is not very useful and it is just another way of wasting your time.

Good luck and best wishes

Hannah




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