How can sunburns and sun exposure cause permanent skin damage if your skin is constantly replacing itself?

646 views

Recently read something about how a few bad sunburns when you’re young can cause a large increase in cancer later in your life. How can you develop cancer several decades after you’re burnt if your skin cells are constantly dying, falling off, and regrowing?

In: Biology

10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Basically the sun sends out UV rays which go through our bodies, hitting the skin the hardest. These rays can damage the DNA in a cell, causing it to grow improperly. If enough get damaged in this way then it can present itself as a growth, or tumor.

If a cell that tells skin how to make itself gets damaged, the same thing happens but more aggressively.

You are viewing 1 out of 10 answers, click here to view all answers.