18 Jun Summer health & fitness: Part I skincare

Wednesday, June 20 marks this first official day of summer. All week I’ll offer summer health and fitness tips, starting with skincare tips today.

Before you go outside to exercise or enjoy the outdoors, don’t forget to put on sun block.
Even some health conscious people I know who eat well and exercise regularly are surprisingly reckless with their judgment when it comes to the sun.
Any time you go outside you’re putting yourself at risk to develop a malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer that’s been the fastest growing cancer in America for the past 20 years.
Malignant melanoma ranks eighth among occurrence of cancers in this country and accounts for nearly 2 percent of all cancer deaths.
People often think that developing skin cancer isn’t very serious because the melanoma can just be cut out. In many cases that is true, but skin cancer can also easily spread throughout the body or re-occur,
And if it’s not caught in time it can spread quickly to other parts of the body where it can do grave damage.
So make sure you take the extra couple minutes to apply sunscreen and make sure you have an approved brand.
The U.S government recently came out with new guidelines for how sunscreen labels are marked. Only products that carry a “broad spectrum” label will be proven to offer some protection against UVA radiation as well as UVB radiation, according to a long-awaited new rule from the FDA.
Products previously labeled as “broad spectrum” may or may not protect against UVA. The new rule reserving the “broad spectrum” claim only for products that protect against UVA and UVB takes effect for the first time this summer.
To learn more about skin cancer on an excellent website, go to www.tiffanysmelanomafoundation.
If you have a lot of moles and-or freckles on your body, or are very fair-skinned, you are more at risk for skin cancer. Also, if a mole has a change in shape and-or color, it may need to be checked by a dermatologist.
To protect your skin, wear sunscreen, avoid tanning beds, and avoid any situation where you might get sunburned – be especially careful with children’s skin in the sun as numerous studies show early childhood sunburn can lead to skin cancer as an adult. Also, wear a hat and clothes that block the suns and try to avoid being outdoors during peak hours for the sun’s rays.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com