May is skin cancer awareness month.
What is cancer?
All the cells in our body, and in all multicellular organisms, are regulated in multiple ways to make it possible for the organism to function as a whole. Cell division is a very tightly regulated process, and many genes participate in its regulation.
As we age, our cells divide again and again and, despite all the corrective mechanisms that ensure that there are no major “typing errors” when DNA duplicates, errors occur. These are called mutations.
We can see that our skin cells have mutated in the sun spots that accumulate as we age. This means that the DNA mutations have affected, in one way or another, the complex process of synthesis of melanin and its transfer from melanocytes to skin cells. In itself, this is not a big deal, although some of these pesky sun spots can be ugly, at least for the person who see them in the mirror.
More importantly, these mutations may affect one or more of the genes that regulate very tightly skin division in the skin. Some of these changes may be benign and non invasive, like the ugly skin tags. Other may endanger our lives.
Why is skin cancer so common these days? It has to do with changes in the environment and in social habits. Some chemicals destroy the layer of ozone in the atmosphere (the infamous ozone holes) that prevent some UV from reaching us. Also, people of light skin that used to live far from the equator (that is how the light skin type evolved, so that people in that latitude could make vitamin D) decided to move near the equator and have beach vacations. We also live much longer lives thanks to advances in medicine and agriculture, so our bodies have more time to accumulate DNA mutations. These factors, plus others we may not know about, have increase the incidence of skin cancer. We have to deal with this unhappy situation and that means protecting ourselves better.
Dangerous skin cancers include melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Basal cell carcinoma is a somewhat less dangerous type of skin cancer, but all types of skin cancer require treatment and that is when you really need a dermatologist. Dermatologists are experts at spotting skin irregularities that may be signs of trouble, and when in doubt they will do a biopsy. Amazing scientific advances mean that some types of cancer, including melanoma, that used to kill, can now be attacked with sophisticated molecular biological tools, but the sooner you see your MD, the better.
If you want to learn more about what cancer is, you can read “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Beautifully written and researched.
What can Skin Actives do for you
If you want to prevent skin cancer, there are things you can do. You cannot change your genetic makeup (although this may be possible in the future), the result of the lottery that we win and/or lose during conception. But sunscreen is a necessity, especially in some latitudes and some times of the year. Skin Actives also offers (besides sunscreen) antioxidant products that will help you prevent further mutations, so use them. Our UV repair cream can also help.
These days, there are many products that advertise their power to repair DNA. None of them has been proven, so think before you buy them. Using a bad product is not just a waste of money, it is a waste of an opportunity to use an effective one.