Forums >Health and Nutrition>Wear your sunscreen, kids
Feeling the growl again
And due to the southern hole in the ozone layer...
Bingo.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
I get so pissed of with people saying sunscreen and sun damage isn't such a big deal.
I am so glad my mother plastered us with sunscreen and made us wear long cotton shirts in the summer. This was 1970's Ireland but she'd seen skin cancer as a nurse and was terrified we'd have it. And in the summer it was common for people to be hobbling about because their backs or legs were so badly burnt - a break in the rain and they'd burn themselves silly. I have never had a blistering sunburn though I'm very paled skinned. Just because you tan easily doesn't protect you either.
My hubby goes in every six months because of sun damage. He grew up in southern California and spent too long on the beach. Red hair and pale skinned too. So far nothing has proved cancerous but we're very turned in too changes. I watch my skin like a hawk.
We have three kids. The youngest biological kid is red haired and amazingly white. The older kids hate to be sun screened because it wasn't a priority before they came to us at 9 and 6. The baby has never been in the sun without clothing or sunscreen. Idaho is not the ideal place for us Irish-Scottish types. Cover -up is our first defense - sun screen secondary. My sister in Australia told me about how many old men she worked with who got their ears trimmed due to sun damage. Stupid looking hats and smelly sunscreen didn't seem so bad after that. I read somewhere it's the burns before 12 that do the most damage but thankfully my eldest at 13 now puts on the sun screen without protest and thinks pale untanned skin is cool. Taught her something in 4 years.
Glad things are going well for your hubby.
rectumdamnnearkilledem
smelly sunscreen didn't seem so bad
Coppertone Sport stuff even smells GOOD! I LOVE that smell.
Good news--results came back on the lymph node and it was cancer-free...so for now DH has punched cancer in the neck and pooped in its shoe! He may still see an oncologist for follow-up and will definitely be getting sorta intimate with a dermatologist to check out all of his freckles and moles on a very regular basis, but it's worth that minor annoyance to [hopefully] not have to go through this again.
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
This is great news. Thanks for the update.
And thank you for all the info. and well-wishes. It's really helped mentally over the past few weeks to hear so many knowledgeable people assure us that we caught it early and would likely have a healthy outcome.
New Zealand has the highers per-capita incidence in the world of melanoma, Australia is second, due to the re-location of very pasty Europeans to populate there.
My SIL was telling me about something she watched on TED about that - genetics being tuned in to where you are and the sun's strengths etc. I've got to dig that one up.
My good fortune to have Mediterranean blood in me - I don't remember ever burning as a child. Mom's half Polish half Latvian though (you find a blonder paler mix) and I have a ton of moles and so I get inspected toe to head every year. Thoroughly inspected.
MTA: It didn't show up the first time: ZOOMY: WOOHOO!
First or last...it's the same finish line
HF #4362
Polish half Latvian though (you find a blonder paler mix) MTA: It didn't show up the first time: ZOOMY: WOOHOO!
Polish half Latvian though (you find a blonder paler mix)
Yeeehawww!!! Heh, I am half Scandinavian blend on my dad's side and on my mom's side a quarter Scot, and a quarter of something else (my mom never learned the ID of her bio dad) pasty. I actually can tan (usually after getting a little pink)...but I will be avoiding getting any color from here on out. In 10-20 years when my peers are all wrinkly I will still have youthful-looking skin, so there is that added benefit, too.
My SIL was telling me about something she watched on TED about that - genetics being tuned in to where you are and the sun's strengths etc. I've got to dig that one up. My good fortune to have Mediterranean blood in me - I don't remember ever burning as a child. Mom's half Polish half Latvian though (you find a blonder paler mix) and I have a ton of moles and so I get inspected toe to head every year. Thoroughly inspected. MTA: It didn't show up the first time: ZOOMY: WOOHOO!
The risk of melanoma is correlated with skin color. Melanin in your skin provides protection from UV rays, this is why peoples evolved in areas of high sun developed the darkest skin colors. However, some of this exposure is needed to produce Vitamin D in the skin so as humans traveled north one hypothesis is that lighter skin colors evolved to balance the protection of melanin with the need to produce Vitamin D.
So when pasty white folk move to high-sun tropical regions, you see much higher rates of melanoma as their skin did not evolve to cope with that environment. Since Australia and New Zealand are predominantly populated with European-blooded folk and also happen to be in an area with decreased ozone protection from UV, you see highest rates there.
Why is it sideways?
Or stay in the shade.
I look my best blurry!
Great news about your hubby!
This should go on the healthy portable lunch thread!
It could be covered in fruit a la Carmen Miranda!
At his every-6-months-every-inch-of-skin inspection (and I mean EVERY inch...between toes and "other" crevices) DH had a new and suspicious spot removed for biopsy. We have our fingers crossed that this will not be melanoma 2.0.
If you're not protecting yourself from the sun you're asking for cancer. If you're actually going out of your way for a tan I think you should get your head checked.