You may look in the mirror and wonder what all the hoopla is about. Your skin looks pretty good. You have a few wrinkles, a few patches of uneven pigmentation, a few freckles and moles, but you use moisturizers and stay out of the sun and think your skin looks fine. If you are a woman, you may find that foundation evens out tone and skin color, you don’t really care too much about the wrinkles and those freckles are mostly on your shoulders. If you are a man, you may think you look just a little more rugged. But you don’t see any “real” damage, you simply see yourself getting older and who cares about those freckles and moles on your forearms.
Don’t be fooled. The damage may be there even if you can’t see it. Fair-skinned baby boomers are unlikely to have known about sun protection or the risks of sun exposure during their early years. In fact, the opposite is probably true – most baby boomers had lots of exposure through outdoor tanning. Baby boomers of color are also unlikely to have protected themselves. African American, Latinos and Asians in this age group are less likely to develop melanoma than whites, but statistics are showing a rise in skin cancer among all groups. Further, people of color tend to fare worse with the disease because it is generally detected at later stages.
If you have not already done so, you should establish a routine of monthly self-examination and annual visits to the dermatologist or to a skin cancer screening. If you have a lot of freckles or moles you should keep careful records of numbers, locations and size. Middle-aged and older men should be encouraged to check themselves and have someone else check them, because they are least likely to detect melanoma in its early stages when it is almost always curable through surgical removal.
Members of the American Academy of Dermatology offer free skin cancer screenings throughout the year. To find out when a free skin cancer screening is occurring within 50 miles of your community you can sign up to receive an alert. The AAD has also posted a video on the site to let you know what to expect during a screening.
R- Routinely check your skin, understand the need for vitamin D, and report any concerns to a health care provider.
Be SunAWARE. Be Safe.
