Preventing Skin Cancer with Sunscreen

Preventing Skin Cancer with Sunscreen
By John Grimes

If you find yourself heading outside frequently, and who doesnt, you need to take basic steps to prevent skin cancer. In this case, we are talking about sunscreen the proper use of it.

Skin cancer is often given short shift when cancer is discussed. In truth, it can be deadly in some forms and thousands of people suffer from it. Many of them dont even know until it is too late. Fortunately, skin cancer is preventable and easily so. It is all about using sunscreen. There is more to it, however, than just applying sunscreen once at the beginning of the day and then forgetting about it. Here are some tips on how you should use it.

1. Early Application Sunscreens work in different ways. Some work immediately, while others much sit on your skin for a bit. As a general course, you should apply sunscreen 30 minutes prior to going out in the sun.

2. Reapplication Sunscreen protection is dependent on it being on your body. From time to time, you will need to reapply it during the day. How often? Well, read the instructions first. Also, reapply it anytime you go in the water or sweat profusely. This is true even for waterproof sunscreens. As an overall general rule, reapply every two to three hours.

3. Cloudy Days Dont be fooled by cloudy days. The vast majority of harmful rays from the sun penetrate the clouds. You should still use sunscreen on cloudy days and follow the reapplication guide above.

4. Your Scalp For many of us, we dont have as much hair up there as we perhaps think we do. If you have thinning hair, your scalp is going to take a beating from the sun. Now is not the time to be proud. Use sunscreen or where a hat to keep your scalp from being cooked.

5. Lips Finally, nothing is worse then burned lips. Use a lip balm with sunscreen to protect the delicate lip skin.

When heading outside, it is often easy to get lazy and forget to apply sunscreen. Skin cancer is a serious thing, so show some common sense and protect yourself.

John Grimes is with AllTerrainco.com - makers of biodegradable sunscreen products for the outdoors.

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