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Sunbaker, by Max Dupain. Exposure of skin to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight presents both positive and negative health effects. On the positive side, UV exposure enables the synthesis of vitamin D 3, which is essential for bone health [1] and potentially plays a role in inhibiting certain cancers.
Some drugs have a photosensitizing effect. Properties of natural or artificial light that may abnormally affect people include: Timing of light (upset of normal circadian rhythms, seasonal affective disorder, sleep disorders) Intensity of light (photophobia, sunburn, skin cancer) [1] [2] [3] Wavelength of light (in lupus, urticaria)
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer, globally accounting for at least 40% of cancer cases. [5] [20] The most common type is nonmelanoma skin cancer, which occurs in at least 2–3 million people per year. [6] [21] This is a rough estimate; good statistics are not kept. [1]
Basal-cell carcinoma is a common skin cancer and occurs mainly in fair-skinned patients with a family history of this cancer. Sunlight is a factor in about two-thirds of these cancers; therefore, doctors recommend sunscreens with at least SPF 30.
Cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma is the second-most common cancer of the skin (after basal-cell carcinoma, but more common than melanoma). It usually occurs in areas exposed to the sun. Sunlight exposure and immunosuppression are risk factors for SCC of the skin, with chronic sun exposure being the strongest environmental risk factor. [26]
For younger men, this type of cancer is the most deadly; for younger women, colorectal cancer comes in third behind breast and lung cancer, the National Cancer Institute states on its website.
Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus experience skin symptoms after sunlight exposure; some types of porphyria are aggravated by sunlight. A rare hereditary condition xeroderma pigmentosum (a defect in DNA repair) is thought to increase the risk of UV-light-exposure-related cancer by increasing photosensitivity.
The second doctor felt the lymph nodes on my neck and told me one of them was swollen, which could be a red flag of cancerous growth, but assured me that it probably wasn’t cancer.