• Question: what is the highest risk of sun exposure

    Asked by bantaclaus to Barbara on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Barbara Shih

      Barbara Shih answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Excessive amount of sun exposure would lead to higher risk of developing skin cancer. This is because the ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the sun is able to slightly change the shape of DNA. Our body is very good at repairing these DNA damage, but if it’s done a lot, mistakes can escape the repair mechanism and become mutations. When there has been a lot of mutations in important genes, it would lead to cancer. We have seen young people (in their 20s) getting skin cancer because they use sun bed regularly.

      That being said, there is also debate on the risk of not exposing ourselves to the sun. Some people suggests that the lack of sun exposure contribute to a lot of the modern day diseases (such as diabetes, depression) and risk of some non-skin cancer.

      I think it’s important to get a moderation of different things – a bit of sun (avoid burning), but not too much sun, is probably best for us.

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