Betty Chambers Has Spoken: Skin Care: Sunblock, Sunscreen, Vitamin D and Cancer

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Skin Care: Sunblock, Sunscreen, Vitamin D and Cancer
Sunday, June 29, 2008

I've been negligent this year. Well, I've always been negligent with regards to a certain type of skin care. I'll slather on Shea or Cocoa Butter, but nothing with sunblock, or sunscreen.

Bad girl!

I keep reading that I should. Yet, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking: "I'm brown skinned, what do I need that for?"

Well, it turns out that black people get melanoma too! Color me surprised. I've known it for some time, but I always think of myself as special in this regard.

I don't sunburn; I don't flake.

Every morning, I walk around for up to an hour. Overall, I get a little darker each time. My arms and, more often than not, legs are always covered. I wear a baseball cap and UV shades, even when it's blisteringly hot.

(Image copied from: clarian.org)

I'm conflicted too. Between reading that blacks in Northern areas of the world don't get enough Vitamin D because of insufficient sunlight, what the hell am I to think? And this lack of Vitamin D makes some of us vulnerable to breast cancer.

So, if we get too much sun we get skin cancer. If we get too little sun we get breast cancer.

I'll continue to take my walks without the skin protection.

Labels: breast cancer, melanoma, skin cancer, sunblock, sunscreen, Vitamin D

posted by GoldenAh

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