Why is Sunscreen Necessary for a Cancer Patient?
Why Is Sunscreen Necessary For Cancer Patients?
Dr. Singhal gives full insight on why sunscreen is an important necessity for everyone especially for patients undergoing cancer treatment
Sunlight fundamentally consists of three wavelengths: UVA, UVB, and UVC. Earth's ozone layer separates and holds the most damaging UVC rays. UVA represents 95% of the sun's energy that reaches Earth's cover and enters farthest into the skin.
The Benefits Of Using Sunscreen
How can you determine the sensitivity of your skin? If there was one supplement that seemed sure to endure the uncompromising tests, it was vitamin D. People with low levels of vitamin D in their blood have much higher incidences of practically all diseases and sickness: cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, heart attack, stroke, depression, cognitive impairment, autoimmune conditions, and so on. This vitamin is needed for calcium absorption and is thus crucial for bone health. So vitamin D helps in cancer prevention But vitamin D can’t fight this battle alone. Providing additional help by applying sunscreen is not only smart but so easy that there is no reason to skip this step in cancer prevention. It’s proven to work.
Types Of Skin
Here are the types of skin in order of it’s sensitivity to harmful sun rays:
Type I: Easily gets burnt, it never tans, it has a high skin cancer risk.
Mostly it’s found in people with pale white skin, blue or green eyes, blonde or red hair.
Type II: Burns easily, tans just a little and the tan doesn’t last long, it’s has a high skin cancer risk.
This type is most often found in people with fair skin, blue eyes, and dark blonde hair.
Type III: This type burns at first, then tans and has a low cancer risk
It occurs in people with dark white skin, they have light brown or green eyes and light brown hair.
Type IV: It burns very slightly, tans easily, it has a very low risk of cancer.
This type of skin is found in people with olive to light brown skin, brown eyes and brown hair.
Type V: This type of skin almost never gets burned, tans to a dark color, remarkably low cancer risk.
People with brown skin, brown eyes, brown or black hair have this type of skin.
TypeVI: This is the most resilient type. It never burns, it tans always and quickly, and has almost to nothing skin cancer risk.
We can find it in people with dark brown or black skin and eyes, and black hair.
Risk Factors That Are Important To Know
These are the factors that may raise your risk of skin cancer:
Living in sunny or high-altitude climates. Somebody who lives in sunny, warm climates are endangered with more sunlight than is somebody who lives in more moderate, cold climates. Living at higher altitudes, where the sunlight is most powerful, also discloses your skin to more radiation.
If you have a lot of moles. People who have many moles or irregular moles referred to as dysplastic moles are at heightened risk of getting skin cancer. These irregular moles, which look suspicious and are usually bigger than usual moles — are more prone than others to convert to be cancerous. If you have a history of unusual moles, watch them periodically for any changes.
Light skin. Anyone, regardless of their skin color, can get skin cancer. Nevertheless, possessing less melanin in your skin gives less shield from harming UV radiation. If you have blond or red hair and light-colored eyes, and you freckle or get sunburns easily, you're much more likely to form skin cancer than a person with darker skin.
If you often get sunburns. Having had one or more heavy sunburns as a child or teenager raises your risk of contracting skin cancer in your adulthood. Sunburns in adulthood also are a big risk factor.
Excessive sun exposure is a significant risk also. Whoever spends a lot of time in the sun could get skin cancer, particularly if the skin isn't shielded by sunscreen or clothes. Tanning, counting in the exposure to tanning lamps and tanning beds, also heightens the risk. A tan is your skin's damage answer to extreme UV radiation.
If you have or had skin lesions. Having skin lesions identified as actinic keratoses can enhance your risk of growing skin cancer. These dangerous skin anomalies most usually seem like rough, flaky spots that vary in color from brown to dark pink. They're most frequent on the face, head, and hands of fair-skinned people whose skin has been already sun-damaged.
If you have a family history of skin cancer. If one of your close ancestors or a sibling has had skin cancer, you could have an enhanced risk of this condition.
If you have a compromised immune system. People with impaired immune systems have a higher risk of acquiring skin cancer. This comprises people having HIV/AIDS and those receiving immunosuppressant drugs following an organ transplant.
Somebody who underwent any form of radiation therapy for skin diseases such as eczema and acne may have an enhanced risk of skin cancer, especially basal cell carcinoma.
What Is Phototoxicity?
This is a condition in which the skin or eyes become highly susceptible to sunlight or other forms of light. It can be created by using certain drugs or taking certain essential oils or other topical agents and applying them to the skin. Phototoxicity can cause sunburn, sores, and additional skin issues. Whatever your skin type, if you occur photosensitivity, you may be particularly at risk for persisting skin injury and skin cancer from just limited vulnerability to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
Knowing what photosensitivity is and why it happens will assist you to take special care to protect your skin health.
Not everyone catches photosensitivity. But if you have a bigger risk, your best alternative is to take steps to prevent a reaction from it occurring at all.
There are multiple medicines and over-the-counter drugs that can induce sun irritation. Some of the numerous common ones include:
Diuretics: bumetanide, furosemide, hydrochlorothiazide
Hypoglycemics: glipizide, glyburide
Neuroleptic drugs: Chlorpromazine, fluphenazine, perphenazine, thioridazine, thiothixene
Antibiotics: doxycycline, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, ofloxacin, trimethoprim
Antidepressants: doxepin (Sinequan); and other tricyclics; St. John's wort
Antifungals: griseofulvin
Benzocaine
Benzoyl peroxide
Cholesterol drugs: atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, simvastatin
Chemotherapy drugs: doxorubicin, flutamide, 5-FU, gemcitabine, methotrexate
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories: celecoxib, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, piroxicam
Antihistamine: promethazine, diphenhydramine
Antihypertensives (blood pressure drugs): hydrochlorothiazide (also found in some blood pressure medicines: Aldactazide, Capozide), diltiazem (Cardizem)
Other drugs: dapsone, Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), quinidine.
PDT Pro photosensitizers: 5-aminolevulinic acid, methyl-5-aminolevulinic acid
Retinoids: acitretin, isotretinoin
Sulfonamides: sulfadiazine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfasalazine, sulfisoxazole
Damages That Can Come From Too Much Sun Exposure
Precancerous (actinic keratosis) and cancerous skin lesions induced by damage to the skin's immune capacity
Benign tumors
Fine and coarse wrinkles
Freckles
Discolored areas of the skin, called mottled pigmentation
Sallowness: yellow blotch of the skin
Telangiectasias: the expansion of little blood capillaries beneath the skin
Elastosis: the damage of the flexible membrane creating marks and wrinkles
Types Of Sunscreen
There are two kinds of sunscreens: Physical blockers that can catch ultraviolet rays and hold one of two effective components: zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Synthetic blockers include medicines that neutralize the sun's ultraviolet rays. In the United States, these usually entail aminobenzoic acid, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, and oxybenzone. Oxybenzone has suffered the worst press because of anxieties that it could act as what is identified as a hormone disrupter.
A hormone disruptor is a compound that has the capacity to cross cell layers and could conflict with your body's regular hormone production. But, there has been no convincing proof that oxybenzone is toxic to people. Groups that have boosted attention about oxybenzone usually quote comparisons done in mice, where the mice were really fed with oxybenzone.
An individual should use sunscreen for 277 years to reach the comparable systemic measure that created effects in those mouse studies, according to a 2017 research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Oxybenzone is also acknowledged to cause allergic responses in some people, although this is not typical. Also if you avoid sunscreens with oxybenzone, you could face it in other products, including plastic, hairspray, and nail polish.
We are not endorsing our patients to dodge sunscreens with oxybenzone, and if somebody chooses to do so, people should be informed that the chemical can be found in many other usual products of daily use.
What Is The Sunscreen Innovation Act?
The Sunscreen Innovation Act, founded in 2014, controls the production of sunscreens by decreasing the quantity of their active components and introduces new methods for the evaluation and permission of sunscreens. Oxybenzone and octinoxate are two chemical blockers that are recognized to cause a surplus of negative effects simultaneously with their shield from UV B rays.
Oxybenzone is a synthetic estrogen that has not only been shown to be ingested by the skin and obstruct one’s hormone system but has also implied that it can create extended destruction to coral reefs. Octinoxate, once received by the skin, has proved to produce premature aging because it creates radicals that hurt one’s skin and cells. Inline to resist these negative effects, the state of Hawaii has enacted legislation to outlaw sunscreens including oxybenzone and octinoxate, unless they are prescribed by a medical professional for individuals facing certain ailments and promotes the use of mineral-based sunscreens as a substitute for standard sunscreens.
Mineral sunscreens act in an entirely distinct way than artificial sunscreens. Chemical sunscreens enter your skin and give shield by diffusing UV rays. By distinction, mineral sunscreens just lie on the top layer of your skin and block UV rays from entering deeper into your body.
What can we safely recommend to our patients:
Wear sun-protective clothes and hats while enjoying the outdoors.
Stay out of the sun within 10-2 pm timespan.
Find some shade whenever you can.
Wear good sunglasses with a UV protective layer.
Don’t visit a tanning salon at all.
Children should use only mineral-based, natural sunscreen.
Adults can use the rules stated above.
Always ask for advice from your doctor.
How Much Of Sunscreen Should You Apply To Stay Safe:
Sunscreen should be used at least 30 minutes before going outdoor and then every two hours consequently.
To cover all visible parts of the body, the suggested dosing is approximately one ounce, which is the size of a golf ball.
Use more than ½ tsp in any exposed areas.
Use more than 1 tsp for your chest, belly, and legs.
Lightly rub into sunscreen skin until the product gets completely absorbed.
Check out our sunscreens, selected by Dr. Shyamali Singhal Hale and Hush, BeautyCounter, and PCA (these contain chemical protectants).
Sources:
Harvard Health:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/cancer/a-lifetime-in-the-sun-you-can-still-cut-your-risk
WebMD:
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/sun-sensitizing-drugs#1
American Cancer Society:
La Couture Skincare Guide for People Living With Cancer