It is important to be mindful of how to take care of your skin in the current hot weather. This is important, given that South Africa has the second highest number of cases of skin cancer in the world after Australia.
Skin cancer is the result of skin cell damage and begins in the lower part of the epidermis, which is the top layer of skin that protects your skin against the harmful rays of the sun.
Principle officer of Fedhealth Jeremy Yatt said that once a month people should check their skin condition all over their bodies for suspicious-looking cuts and marks.
“Self examination can help detect potential skin cancers early enough to be completely cured. If melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is recognised and treated early it is almost curable. But if it is not the cancer can advance and spread to other parts of the body where it becomes hard to treat and can be fatal,” Yatt said.
He said the suspicious-looking moles are majority black, brown, pink, red, purple, blue, white and can also be skin coloured. Finding an abnormal mole will give you an indication that something is wrong. That is why it is important to know your skin well enough to detect abnormalities in the moles on your body.
Yatt offers some useful tips on how to protect your skin:
- If it takes three to four minutes for your unprotected skin to start turning red, using SPF30 sunscreen helps prevent reddening 30 times longer.
- Always check the expiry date on on your sunscreen and avoid using the sunscreen for more than one year after it has been opened.
- People who are at greater risk of developing skin cancer have red or blonde hair with blue or green eyes.
“Even if you check your skin regularly, sun protection remains essential to skin cancer prevention due to 90 per cent of non–melanoma skin cancers and 65 per cent of melanomas being associated with exposure to UV radiation from the sun. Always protect yourself and stay safe,” said Yatt.
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