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MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
HEALTH
Protect skin to maintain youthful look
MEGAN HINMAN
mhinman@kansan.com
Sunlight is a carcinogen, meaning there is no safe dose of it, said Jerry Brewer, dermatologic surgeon at Mayo Clinic. If your skin turns any color other than its natural shade, it has been damaged. Sunlight is unavoidable, however, so
it's important to take the necessary precautions this summer to protect your skin.
One simple thing you can do to stay healthy is do a head-to-toe monthly self-skin exam. People who do this have higher survival rates of melanoma because they are able to catch it early.
People with blond or red hair, blue or green eyes, or more than 15 moles need to take extra care because they are at higher risk, Brewer said. But most importantly,
always wear sunscreen of at least SPF 30.
"If you put it on and still get burned, chances are you didn't put on enough," said Lee Bittenbender, dermatologist at Dermatology Center of Lawrence, 930 Iowa St.
He says it takes about an ounce — one shot glass — of sunscreen to cover your body sufficiently, but most people only put on one-third of the amount of sunscreen they need. It's also important to reapply the same amount after you've been
sweating or swimming, when you may have toweled off your layer of protection.
If you're going to a tanning salon, however, the necessary skin care is different.
At SunKissed Tan & Salon, no one guarantees you won't get burned, but they come pretty close.
"If anybody burns in here," owner Mike Byrnes said, "we made a mistake." Byrnes is dedicated to educating customers on how to tan safely, which includes extensively moisturizing your skin before tanning and limiting time in beds to only what your skin can handle.
SunKissed, which is different from a normal bed because it filters out ultraviolet B (UVB) rays to make room for the UVA rays to oxidize your skin. Byrnes said.
"The best way to promote better skin tanning is with hydrated skin," Byrnes said. He doesn't recommend using baby oil, which can dry out your skin. And though getting a head start on your summer tan might lower your chances of burning later, you still have to be careful. "The tan will not protect you from unlimited exposure."
Rachel Stattelman, a freshman from Topeka, tans twice a week. Though she uses a tan-deepening moisturizer in the tanning bed, she uses sunscreen when she tans outside. She says she's never been burned because she has built up her skin tolerance.
Stattelman also always wears eye covers to protect her eyes from UV rays while she's in a tanning bed. If she doesn't, she says, she could develop cataracts. "It's just like staring at the sun."
She uses the high pressure bed at
Though there are some ways to improve your tanning experience and decrease the amount of damage to your skin, it is important not to overdo it.
Bittenbender said that warnings about skin cancer and cautions to protect skin may seem like they don't apply to students, who can sometimes feel invincible. He demands students' attention by approaching the topic differently.
Both dermatologists equated tanning to smoking cigarettes. Similar to cigarettes' relation to lung cancer, the more often you tan, the higher risk you're at for developing skin cancer, Brewer said.
"This will make you look old," he says of tanning. "If you want to look as good as you can for as long as you can, sun protection is the main thing you can do."
—Edited by Kelsey Cipolla
FILE PHOTO/KANSAN
Trina Gregory, Derby, helps Brittney Guidolin, left, from Bloomingdale, Ill. in March of 2009 at SunKissed Tan & Salon. SunKissed tries to educate customers on the importance of safety while tanning, such as hydrating your skin and wearing eve protection.
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