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Skin cancer: Tips for preventing and finding
Dermatologists share these tips with their patients. These tips can help you prevent skin cancer — or find skin cancer early when treatment can cure the skin cancer.
Preventing skin cancer
Never use a tanning bed or sun lamp. These can cause skin cancer. Research shows that using a tanning bed increases your risk of getting melanoma by 75 percent.
Wear sunscreen and lip balm every day. The sun is a known cause of skin cancer. Every day, before you go outside, apply sunscreen to all skin that will be bare (face, ears, hands, neck, etc.). Apply lip balm to your lips. Be sure to use sunscreen that:
Protects against UVA and UVB rays. The label must say broad-spectrum or UVA/UVB protection. If it does not say either, find another product.
Has a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 30.
Wear clothes that protect you from UV rays. A jean jacket offers great UV protection. A white t-shirt does not. Any clothing that you can hold up to bright light and see through does not offer the protection you need.
To boost the UV protection that your clothes offer, you may want to use a UV protectant. You wash this protectant into your clothes. To use, you simply add it to the wash cycle.
Wear sunglasses that offer UV protection every day. Melanoma can develop in the eyes.
Try not to spend time outdoors between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. This is when the sun is strongest.
Dermatologists share these tips with their patients. These tips can help you prevent skin cancer — or find skin cancer early when treatment can cure the skin cancer.
Preventing skin cancer
Never use a tanning bed or sun lamp. These can cause skin cancer. Research shows that using a tanning bed increases your risk of getting melanoma by 75 percent.
Wear sunscreen and lip balm every day. The sun is a known cause of skin cancer. Every day, before you go outside, apply sunscreen to all skin that will be bare (face, ears, hands, neck, etc.). Apply lip balm to your lips. Be sure to use sunscreen that:
Protects against UVA and UVB rays. The label must say broad-spectrum or UVA/UVB protection. If it does not say either, find another product.
Has a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 30.
Wear clothes that protect you from UV rays. A jean jacket offers great UV protection. A white t-shirt does not. Any clothing that you can hold up to bright light and see through does not offer the protection you need.
To boost the UV protection that your clothes offer, you may want to use a UV protectant. You wash this protectant into your clothes. To use, you simply add it to the wash cycle.
Wear sunglasses that offer UV protection every day. Melanoma can develop in the eyes.
Try not to spend time outdoors between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. This is when the sun is strongest.