Tag Archives: skin-health

Melanoma – Prevention and detection

Posted on by April 27, 2017
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May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month!

I think one of the best discussions about the prevention and detection of melanoma is from Doctor Mike Evans in this YouTube video:

It’s only 8 minutes long, but packed full of information.

Melanoma is deadly

And the numbers are increasing. Did you know:

  • From 1970 to 2009, the incidence of melanoma increased by 800 percent among young women?
  • One person dies of melanoma every 57 minutes?
  • About 86 percent of melanomas can be attributed to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun?
  • Tanning beds are considered
… Continue reading

Choosing an antifungal cream

Posted on by February 7, 2017

antifungal creamOne cream to treat them all

Over the weekend, I discovered I had a minor case of athlete’s foot. I’m no athlete, but note to self: wear flip-flops when taking a shower at the gym!

I couldn’t find a tube of antifungal cream in my medicine cabinet—it’s been years since anyone in my family has needed it—so I went out to buy one.

A large number of options confronted me. As always, I thought to myself, “How do ordinary consumers decide which of these fifty tubes of antifungal creams they need?”

Most manufacturers market the creams (or ointments, powders or … Continue reading

What is the UV Index?

Posted on by April 27, 2017

uv indexClouds don’t protect you from the sun

On a cloudy summer day it’s easy to forget that the sun’s skin-damaging ultraviolet or UV rays aren’t blocked by the clouds. We still have to use sunscreen, wear hats and sunglasses, or stay out of the sun to protect ourselves.

Related post: Be informed – What is SPF?

UV rays not only cause sunburn, but also skin cancer and cataracts. And there aren’t enough beauty creams in the world to undo the premature aging effects of the sun, either.

Watch this video to see the sun’s “invisible” damage to the … Continue reading

Skin cancer screening guidelines

Posted on by April 27, 2017

skin cancer“Insufficient evidence”

Many years ago I had a primary care doctor who used to perform a total body skin examination (TBSE) on me every year as part of my annual exam.

Of course, those all-inclusive physicals are a thing of the past. I haven’t had a physician perform a TBSE for a long time.

I often wondered about that. A TBSE seems like a relatively easy and harmless way to quickly screen for skin cancer. The goal, of course, is to find a melanoma, the deadly skin cancer, when it’s small and possibly curable.

But the go-to source for screening … Continue reading

Home remedies for sunburns

Posted on by June 27, 2016

sunburnsFew summer ailments are as common as sunburns.

Prevention is key, of course, and you can read my previous posts on using sunscreens and how to save money on them.

But if you or your kids get a sunburn, here are some simple steps you can take to stop the burning and promote healing.

You don’t need to buy a bunch of special products. I do keep an inexpensive bottle of aloe vera gel in my medicine cabinet as one of my basic first aid supplies.

Tips to treat sunburns

  • Cool the skin. Whether
… Continue reading

Sunshine for health!

Posted on by March 29, 2016

sunshine03Just in time for spring and summer fun in the sun, the results of a large and long-term study on the hazards of avoiding the sun were published last week in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Usually all we hear about are the bad things about too much sun exposure—skin cancer, melanoma, wrinkles, sunburns, etc.

But this study out of Sweden, which followed 30,000 women for 20 years, found:

Nonsmokers who stayed out of the sun had a life expectancy similar to smokers who soaked up the most rays, according to researchers who studied nearly 30,000 Swedish women over

… Continue reading

Home remedies for lice

Posted on by February 28, 2016

home remedies for lice I just learned that my state, Washington, is one of several that is experiencing an outbreak of “super-lice”, or lice that are resistant to the traditional pyrethrum-based treatments (Rid contains pyrethrin; Nix contains permethrin).

Super-lice aside, the common louse has been increasingly resistant to the standard over-the-counter products for many years. Which begs the question: Why are Nix and Rid still the recommended first line of treatment by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)??

Probably because there are few other tested and FDA-approved methods.

So what should parents do? Let’s look at the options.

There are basically three ways … Continue reading

Home remedies for chapped lips

Posted on by December 1, 2015

chapped lipsDid you ever stop to wonder how the skin of your lips differs from the skin on the rest of your face?

The skin over your lips is very thin and highly vascular, hence their typical “vermilion” or red color. Your lips also have more nerve endings, making them very tactile and sensitive.

These anatomical differences make our lips attractive and nice for kissing, but they also make our lips vulnerable to dryness, sunburn and chemical sensitivities.

Painful and unattractive, chapped lips are especially common in the fall and winter because of the dry, cold air outside, the dry, warm … Continue reading

What sun damage looks like

Posted on by July 6, 2015

My husband just forwarded me this great YouTube video showing how exposure to the sun’s UV rays can damage our skin over time.

It’s a timely reminder to wear sunscreen, hats and sunglasses, and try to stay out of the direct sun during peak UV ray hours, about 10 to 2. Kids, too!

Protecting our skin not only helps prevent skin cancer, but can keep our skin looking younger as we age. Think of the savings in anti-aging products 😉

Related posts:

Sláinte,… Continue reading

What attracts mosquitoes?

Posted on by June 30, 2015

As a child, I remember my mother declaring that of our entire family (2 adults and 4 kids) she was the only one who was pestered by mosquitoes when we were at our summer cabin by the lake.

She felt understandably persecuted by the little blood-sucking menaces.

And she probably was right.

WebMD reports that “genetics account for a whopping 85% of our susceptibility to mosquito bites.”

New research out of the London School of Tropical Medicine confirms this.

The researchers used pairs of identical and fraternal twins who volunteered to be mosquito meat (who would do that?!).

With these

… Continue reading

Be informed – What is SPF?

Posted on by May 29, 2017

spfSPF = Sun Protection Factor

An SPF rating is an estimate of how effectively a sunscreen product reduces the time it takes your skin to burn. For example, if it normally takes about 10 minutes in the sun for you to burn, a product with an SPF of 15 extends that time to burn to 150 minutes. SPF 30? Approximately 300 minutes.

Related post: First aid for sunburns

Keep in mind two things about SPF:

1) It is not a super accurate measurement of protection. Different people with different skin types burn at different rates.

2) SPF measures protection from … Continue reading

Tanning beds and skin cancer

Posted on by May 18, 2015

tanning beds and skin cancerLast month a nurse posted this selfie on her Facebook page with the following message:

If anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in the tanning bed and sun here ya go! This is what skin cancer treatment can look like. Wear sunscreen and get a spray tan. You only get one skin and you should take care of it. Learn from other people’s mistakes. Don’t let tanning prevent you from seeing your children grow up. That’s my biggest fear now that I have a two year old little boy of my own.

I hope a picture is worth … Continue reading

Be informed – bug repellents

Posted on by May 29, 2017

bug repellentsConsider benefits versus risks

Last spring I went to Florida for spring break and was attacked by sand fleas. I had about a million (okay, about 70) bites over both legs, and I wrote a post about my attempts to find relief.

In short, nothing really worked other than ice packs and cool baths. Cool skin decreases blood flow, which deceases the amount of histamine, which decreases the itchiness.

This year I went to Panama and gave much more thought to bug repellents.

I didn’t care about the itchiness, so much, although it’s an awful annoyance. I worried more … Continue reading

Tanning beds are dangerous to your health

Posted on by January 13, 2015

Isn’t Florida known as the “Sunshine State”?

Then why do they have so many tanning beds?

That’s what I learned in a recent New York Times article regarding the dangers of tanning beds: Warning: That Tan Could Be Hazardous.

Here in the Sunshine State, there are more tanning salons than McDonald’s restaurants, CVS stores or Bank of America branches, according to a 2014 study by University of Miami researchers.

Interesting. I would have expected my city of Seattle (and yes, it is just as gray and wet as rumors say) to have more, but it doesn’t. And for that … Continue reading

Sunscreen and vitamin D

Posted on by July 18, 2014

sunscreen vitamin dDon’t avoid all sun exposure

Vitamin D just won’t get out of the news. I posted about it a couple of weeks ago, and here I am commenting again on something else I read.

Actually, a friend sent me a link to a health care blog that referred to a recently-published study out of Sweden. Swedish melanoma researchers followed almost 30,000 women (I’m not sure why just women) for 20 years and concluded:

We found that all-cause mortality was inversely related to sun exposure habits. The mortality rate amongst avoiders of sun exposure was approximately twofold higher compared

… Continue reading