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I've known about the sunscreen misinformation for a long time. My dad died of malignant melanoma. He wore sun screen all the time. He didn't swim. He would wea

I've known about the sunscreen misinformation for a long time. My dad died of malignant melanoma. He wore sun screen all the time. He didn't swim. He would wear sun hats. He was paranoid, and likely had premonition of it. Unfortunately, his prevention methods might have actually exacerbated his odds even further because he was depriving his skin of one of its few natural healing modalities.

GalacticDomin8r 9y ago
What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Not smoking doesn't mean you will not get lung cancer.
- macawfish 9y ago
  I know you probably meant that as a comment about correlation vs. causation, which is understandable. I agree that this is a complex issue, and that there are more factors than just sun exposure. But just so you're aware, your analogy rubbed me the wrong way. My father's death was definitely related to sun exposure in some way or another, and probably other factors like diet (he ate a lot of sugar), psychology/hormones (he experienced a lot of stress), and yes, genetics.
jimjimjim 9y ago
it's not misinformation. one anecdote in one direction does not counter thousands in the other direction. Talk to some people in the southern hemisphere (australia and nz). There is a LOT of awareness of sun damage in these countries.
- macawfish 9y ago
  There is misinformation about sunscreen. I'm not going to go and advocate that people don't use sunscreen, rather, for my own self, I've decided that it's important to have positive, moderate exposure to the sun in order to develop a healthy tan, to avoid overexposure, and to use sunscreen and protective clothing if I'm sure to be out in heavy sun. It's a complex, dynamical issue and there is conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of sunscreen to just blanket reduce melanoma: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22994908 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22994908 Not only that, there have been some controversies about sunscreens themselves containing questionable ingredients, some of which might actually be carcinogenic. If you're going to market your product as cancer preventative, but go and put carcinogens into that very same product, my trust level in your industry has been reduced by somewhere in the range of 25%-75%. Somehow, in all this, there are people who think any raw sun exposure is going to cause cancer. That's actually misinformation. Melanin is known to be a protective. How can one go about increasing melanin? By tanning in moderation, letting your skin adapt to the sun. Of course there are people who simply don't tan easily, and yes, they should be cautious. But I'm fortunate to have skin that tans, and I'm going to let it do that!
  - ChristianGeek 9y ago
    It's going to take a lot to convince me, at 56 and very aware of sun damage to the skin of my friends who spend more time in the sun than I do, that "healthy tan" isn't an oxymoron.
    - macawfish 9y ago
      "Tan" doesn't necessarily mean that someone got that tan through healthy sun exposure. Check out JoeAltmaier's comment. If you spend some time in the sun without getting a tan, it's still good for you even if you don't tan, as long as you're not burning.
  - jimjimjim 9y ago
    gah! yes there is misinformation everywhere but 99% of it doesn't come from experts. do some product research and pick a reputable brand. but don't try to scare people off sunscreen by implying that it causes cancer!
  - angry_octet 9y ago
    You are misrepresenting the studies findings. It did not show that sunscreen itself is ineffectual, but that as a population measure for children that it's effectiveness was variable. Anyone who has children will attest to the difficulty of applying and maintaining the required level of sunscreen, especially as it is invisible. If you have concerns about the chemical sunscreens, please use zinc oxide. It is totally non reactive. Sun damage is cumulative, a tan is a reaction to damage. People with a tan have sun damaged skin. Naturally very dark skinned people are different, and also have enhanced mechanisms to allow damaged cells to self-euthanize.
    - JoeAltmaier 9y ago
      Not quite right? A tan is a reaction to sunlight, independent of damage. Ah! Research, gotta love it. UVA darkens directly as a result of action on the melanin. UVB damages DNA resulting in long-lasting production of more melanin.
    - 9y ago
angry_octet 9y ago
I'm sorry to hear you dad died of melanoma. But I can guarantee that reducing his UV exposure did not increase his risk. It's possible that intense and closely repeated sun exposure as a child had already caused DNA damage. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3409870/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3409870/ Anyway, please wear shades and a hat.
- macawfish 9y ago
  You're right, my father had bad sunburns as a child. Shades and hat are a good tip, as is reducing UV over-exposure. My point is that moderate sun exposure is healthy and good melanoma prevention. From what I've seen, there is quite a bit of research to back this up. I think that better education about this would encourage people to develop healthy relationships with the sun at a young age. Right now the conventional wisdom seems to be "just throw sunscreen at it" / "stay out of the sun unless you are wearing sunscreen" and I think this totally misses the point. My caution is that it's unwise to tell people to avoid sun exposure in total. While sunscreen does seem to be helpful in slowing sun damage, it'd also be unwise to suggest that sunscreen will protect people from overexposure, there isn't really evidence for that. There is a whole body of research. Take a look at some of the studies cited in this article http://m.jabfm.org/content/24/6/735.full http://m.jabfm.org/content/24/6/735.full

GalacticDomin8r 9y ago

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Not smoking doesn't mean you will not get lung cancer.

macawfish 9y ago
I know you probably meant that as a comment about correlation vs. causation, which is understandable. I agree that this is a complex issue, and that there are more factors than just sun exposure. But just so you're aware, your analogy rubbed me the wrong way. My father's death was definitely related to sun exposure in some way or another, and probably other factors like diet (he ate a lot of sugar), psychology/hormones (he experienced a lot of stress), and yes, genetics.

jimjimjim 9y ago

it's not misinformation. one anecdote in one direction does not counter thousands in the other direction. Talk to some people in the southern hemisphere (australia and nz). There is a LOT of awareness of sun damage in these countries.

macawfish 9y ago
There is misinformation about sunscreen. I'm not going to go and advocate that people don't use sunscreen, rather, for my own self, I've decided that it's important to have positive, moderate exposure to the sun in order to develop a healthy tan, to avoid overexposure, and to use sunscreen and protective clothing if I'm sure to be out in heavy sun. It's a complex, dynamical issue and there is conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of sunscreen to just blanket reduce melanoma: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22994908 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22994908 Not only that, there have been some controversies about sunscreens themselves containing questionable ingredients, some of which might actually be carcinogenic. If you're going to market your product as cancer preventative, but go and put carcinogens into that very same product, my trust level in your industry has been reduced by somewhere in the range of 25%-75%. Somehow, in all this, there are people who think any raw sun exposure is going to cause cancer. That's actually misinformation. Melanin is known to be a protective. How can one go about increasing melanin? By tanning in moderation, letting your skin adapt to the sun. Of course there are people who simply don't tan easily, and yes, they should be cautious. But I'm fortunate to have skin that tans, and I'm going to let it do that!
- ChristianGeek 9y ago
  It's going to take a lot to convince me, at 56 and very aware of sun damage to the skin of my friends who spend more time in the sun than I do, that "healthy tan" isn't an oxymoron.
  - macawfish 9y ago
    "Tan" doesn't necessarily mean that someone got that tan through healthy sun exposure. Check out JoeAltmaier's comment. If you spend some time in the sun without getting a tan, it's still good for you even if you don't tan, as long as you're not burning.
- jimjimjim 9y ago
  gah! yes there is misinformation everywhere but 99% of it doesn't come from experts. do some product research and pick a reputable brand. but don't try to scare people off sunscreen by implying that it causes cancer!
- angry_octet 9y ago
  You are misrepresenting the studies findings. It did not show that sunscreen itself is ineffectual, but that as a population measure for children that it's effectiveness was variable. Anyone who has children will attest to the difficulty of applying and maintaining the required level of sunscreen, especially as it is invisible. If you have concerns about the chemical sunscreens, please use zinc oxide. It is totally non reactive. Sun damage is cumulative, a tan is a reaction to damage. People with a tan have sun damaged skin. Naturally very dark skinned people are different, and also have enhanced mechanisms to allow damaged cells to self-euthanize.
  - JoeAltmaier 9y ago
    Not quite right? A tan is a reaction to sunlight, independent of damage. Ah! Research, gotta love it. UVA darkens directly as a result of action on the melanin. UVB damages DNA resulting in long-lasting production of more melanin.
  - 9y ago

angry_octet 9y ago

I'm sorry to hear you dad died of melanoma. But I can guarantee that reducing his UV exposure did not increase his risk. It's possible that intense and closely repeated sun exposure as a child had already caused DNA damage. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3409870/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3409870/ Anyway, please wear shades and a hat.

macawfish 9y ago
You're right, my father had bad sunburns as a child. Shades and hat are a good tip, as is reducing UV over-exposure. My point is that moderate sun exposure is healthy and good melanoma prevention. From what I've seen, there is quite a bit of research to back this up. I think that better education about this would encourage people to develop healthy relationships with the sun at a young age. Right now the conventional wisdom seems to be "just throw sunscreen at it" / "stay out of the sun unless you are wearing sunscreen" and I think this totally misses the point. My caution is that it's unwise to tell people to avoid sun exposure in total. While sunscreen does seem to be helpful in slowing sun damage, it'd also be unwise to suggest that sunscreen will protect people from overexposure, there isn't really evidence for that. There is a whole body of research. Take a look at some of the studies cited in this article http://m.jabfm.org/content/24/6/735.full http://m.jabfm.org/content/24/6/735.full