It's Summer and It's Time to Soak Up The Sun All Day Long- Well, Not Really

The AAD or American Academy of Dermatology have announced in a recent statement that they want to clear up confusion over what constitutes healthy exposure to the sun vis a vis the health benefits of Vitamin D that can be gained from said exposure. However it is highly mistaken to think that the more sun the better. FALSE! In fact, my impression from reading this release is that you must actively train yourself to run and hide to find shade from the sun every now and then to reduce your risk to what is described as “incidental UV exposure”. Wearing sun screen has became requirement rather than a master shield from all skin cancer. Please read this, especially if you are thinking about soaking up the sun this summer, know all those years of taking mother nature for granted has come to bite us in the you know what. Be careful, use common sense and constantly pay attention to health related issues such as this.

Maybe the following stats will drive this home even more for you: the AAD says that about 20% of all Americans will develop some form of skin cancer during their lifetimes. And this year alone, about 105,000 will be diagnosed with the worst (most serious) kind of skin cancer Melanoma. Please be careful out there.