I heard the UV cause skin cancer, I’m a brown guy and never wear sunscreen, does that mean I have a higher likelihood of getting skin cancer?
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Think of melanin like resistance, not outright immunity, to radiant damage from the sun.
Sure you’re not taking as much damage from the sun as my pale Irish ass, but it’s still adding up, ever so slowly.
Much like my Dungeons and Dragons comparison, it’s best to stack resistances. The more protection the better.
Darker skin is protective, but not enough in many places.
Besides having a baseline skin tone, you might notice your skin is darker after sun exposure. This is a sign that your DNA was damaged by that sun exposure (which is why we worry about cancer). Skin produces more melanin when its DNA has been damaged by UV light. If your skin is tanning relative to say, your covered upper thighs, you probably aren’t using enough sunscreen to prevent the damage.
do you have to even wear sunscreen day-to-day ?!?!?
I only ever do when im at the beach in just my swimsuit, which is at most 2 weeks out of a year
how did your ancestors even survive before sunscreen existed? i havent had any issues either
Yes you do. You’re more resistant to sunburn and skin cancer thanks to higher amounts of melanin, but that doesn’t mean you’re immune to it, especially in the summer. Some UV radiation will always penetrate your cells, and that will damage your DNA and cause cancer. Your body is always fighting off cancer cells that randomly appear out of nowhere. Don’t overwhelm your defenses by adding more.
I’m brown and never wore sunscreen unless there was a high probability that I would fall asleep on a beach. A few years back I had a melanoma removed from my arm (it was a pea-sized mole I had since I was a kid, never thought anything of it). Now I am forever at-risk for skin cancer and get a head-to-toe inspection from a dermatologist every six months.
So yeah… sunscreen up, brownness be damned.
Technically no one has to wear sunscreen. Despite being about as pasty as a human can get, I am free to not wear it. I just will burn and prematurely age.
Now the darker someone’s skin is, generally the longer it takes to burn + the less damage is done by UV rays. But…I’ve always figured that if someone can reduce that damage (which can cause cancer + prematurely age the skin), why not?
This is probably less of an issue in, say, Seattle in the winter for an office worker than someone who is hiking for 10 hours in the sun in an equitorial area, though.
The answer is yes.
Individuals with more melanin have significantly reduced risk of developing UV-associated melanoma, but it can and does still happen. Individual habits and genetics play a role (and there are genes that increase or decrease skin cancer risk that have nothing to do with melanin).
Furthermore it is well documented that melanoma is diagnosed later on average in darker individuals. Part of this could have to do with disparities in healthcare access, but it also might have to do with the fact that dark cancerous and precancerous lesions are harder to detect in darker people.
Yes, and yes. This is a huge problem in the world. A lot of people think because they have darker skin they’re less likely to get sunburn and forgo sunscreen, but they’re actually more likely than white people to get things like melanoma.
Remember, always cream yourself!
Non-white people have just a skin cancer risk. Just, a normal risk. It’s the extra pale gingers who have an extra special, elevated risk. That means they’ll get skin changes even if they’re not in direct sunlight. Then they have to get a wide area of skin removed. If your risk is 50% less than someone else’s, it is still a risk that is nowhere near zero.
I highly recommend any skin type wearing sunscreen. I went to Miami like a month ago, and assumed since I have darker skin, I’d be fine. My skin was so red, it hurt, and then it peeled for almost two weeks. Use sunscreen, everyone!
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