She's Your Lobster...Or She Just Looks Like One
This weekend was the first truly warm weather since that freak February warm snap. Hopefully it is here to stay, I am sick of wearing socks and real shoes. I prefer flippy-flops.Unfortunately, given that it has been cooler as of late, I was unprepared for the awesomeness that was sunshine. So I got a little burnt. One side of my upper body that is.
And since this bloggity-blog is all about learning something new and making the world better (if at least, healthier), I am going to learn you something about SKIN CANCER and CARE.
And so we begin
My Gran is 74 years old, she looks 50. Why, you may ask, and how, damnit, give me the lady's secret. I am here to tell you folks, after nearly 30 years of watching this woman, I think I know it. Moisturizer...and long sleeves. Gran may like to be outside, but she is always covered, big hat to ankle pom-pom socks in her tennis shoes. I could never understand why she wore long sleeves in the summer. Now I do. No sun + good skincare regiment = awesome skin. I am hoping the wonder-genes have been passed on to me. Because obviously, the common sense didn't carry over.
My family seems to be prone to skin cancer-like things. Mom, sister, probably me, if I had the time to go to the dermatologist. So I am here to tell you, go to the doc, get the screenings done. They will scrape, possibly cut somethings out of you (which I am told hurts like well, someone cutting something out of you), but you will feel better in the end.
SKIN CANCER FUN FACTS - It's No Laughing Matter
•Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually.1
•Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.2
•One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.3
•Over the past 31 years, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined.4
•Nearly 800,000 Americans are living with a history of melanoma and 13 million are living with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer, typically diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.5
•Actinic keratosis is the most common precancer; it affects more than 58 million Americans.6 Approximately 65 percent of all squamous cell carcinomas arise in lesions that previously were diagnosed as actinic keratoses. In patients with a history of two or more skin cancers, 36 percent of basal cell carcinomas arise in lesions previously diagnosed as actinic keratoses.7
•Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer; an estimated 2.8 million are diagnosed annually in the US.8 BCCs are rarely fatal, but can be highly disfiguring if allowed to grow.
•Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common form of skin cancer.9 An estimated 700,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the US,10 resulting in approximately 2,500 deaths.2
•Between 40 and 50 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will have either skin cancer at least once.11
•About 90 percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.12
•Treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancers increased by nearly 77 percent between 1992 and 2006.
~Courtesy of The Skin Cancer Foundation
posted by HelloBettyLou @ 9:23 PM
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