former oncology, radiation oncology and hospice nurse- seen enough 32 year olds die of melanoma that I am a firm believer in sunscreen. My dad has had 37 (!) basal cell carcinomas removed so far (no sunscreen when he was a kid). NIH is still recommending it as lately as this May:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_152630.htmlWARNING THIS GETS GROSS: I am going to talk about one case because I think it might convince even 1 person to start using sun protection. I respect the NIH, have not been steered wrong yet by them in 23 yrs of nursing, so my family does what this article says to do. We are fair skinned and burn very easily. I don't think I will ever change my opinion on sunscreen after the melanoma deaths I saw, I even had one ancient guy die of a basal cell carcinoma on his face, totally curable, his doc never addressed it. It rapidly grew, by the end, the only part of his face that in anyway still resembled a face, was his forehead, everything else been eaten away and everyday, twice a day, we went there to scrape food that ended up in his sinuses out and put fresh dressings in. You could see all his bones, his sinuses were wide open, there was no skin covering any of it. Eyes succumbed, he was blind. He should've sued his primary for seeing him for some 40 yrs and not addressing the humongous basal cell on his face, one of the worst cases of obvious malpractice I have ever seen. I wish I had a picture of this poor guy, anyone who saw that from a basal cell CA and still didn't use sunscreen is nuts, IMO. Think using "cancerous" sunscreen can produce an outcome like this once simple basal cell CA? Yeah? Your funeral (literally, very easily, your funeral or your child's).
our oncologists recommend Neutrogena with helioplex protecting UVA/UVB 45 SPF applied as often and as much as we have all been told to do, which, yes, is expensive and a complete PITA. There is a reason my children believed it was really called "sun scream". Target has their brand next to the Neutrogena, had same ingredients, so I've used that as well. And physical, sun blocking stuff, like shirts, hats, etc. Zinc oxide. I use a daily moisturizer with sunscreen by Neutrogena. There are a ton, the one I use is just moisturizer and sunscreen, no wrinkle stuff, can't remember the exact name. CVS brand has same ingredients, sometimes I use that. I do not walk out of my house, even in the dead of winter, without applying that moisturizer to face and hands. if you are fair skinned and worried about not getting enough vit D, tell this to your doc, they will say take a supplement, some still say go without sunscreen for 15 minutes, more than 15 mins is unnecessary. Also, most insurances pay to see a dermatologist to do skin cancer screening once a year. A $20 co-pay and an hour of your day to catch anything suspicious before it goes too far? Why would you not? Go once to derm, be prepared to have every spot of skin checked, from your scalp to your hoo-ha, that is the way it is properly done. Next time ask your primary to do it and compare the level of scrutiny.
I do not believe sunscreen causes cancer:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/sunscreen.asphttp://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/ask-the-experts/does-sunscreen-cause-cancer