What Every American Should Know About Avoiding Skin Cancer

Believe it or not, one in every five people in America will experience skin cancer. It's true, skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the country and followed closely by the dreaded melanoma.

Melanoma is caused by exposure to ultraviolet light (sun) and shows up in the eyes, mouth and intestines on occasion. However, melanoma most often occurs in the skin and the World Health Organization states that over 60,000 people around the world die of this disease every year. Just so you know, more than 9,000 Americans were part of this unfortunate statistic last year.

But what can be done about it?

Well, rather than focus on treating the problem with skin cancer, it makes sense to look at the root cause. That is, prevention seems to be a much more sensible approach to take with the matter.

Understanding How the Sun Can Cause Skin Cancer

But we've got to rewind just a little to better understand why this happens and explain just one of many scenarios that can quite easily lead to skin cancer.

You see, a single sun blister during childhood will significantly increase the risk of melanoma. Needless to say, this means that multiple blisters due to sun exposure is far from ideal. Now, that's not for the purpose of causing fear but rather to explain the true impact of the sun when it comes to your skin. Thankfully, skin cancer is something that Americans can take steps to avoid in their lifetime.

And this is where the vigilance and importance of sun protection comes in.

How Americans Can Avoid Becoming a Skin Cancer Statistic

As you know, every doctor and medical body encourages everyone to use a high level of sun factor (30+) and take to the shade during the hottest parts of the day. However, protective clothing is just as important and this is certainly true when lying on the beach or having fun in the water.

In fact, sun protection is arguably most important in the water when people are especially vulnerable to rays from above. For this reason, sun protective swimsuits are essential for every American that lives near the ocean or likes to go for a swim from time to time. That being said, these same swimsuits are often worn for other activities which makes them quite a useful item to own.

When you think of it, the damaging effects of the sun are simply not worth it. This is also unnecessary and something which Americans can avoid with some care and attention. Unfortunately, it's easy to forget about sunburn or blisters when they seem so fleeting but skin cancer is another story and something that we should seek to avoid, whatever the cost.

Moral of the story: It makes no sense to wait for bad news to come around and a little caution along with sunscreen and sun protective clothing might just be the key to avoiding skin cancer.