If it makes you tan, the sun can also be the skin’s worst enemy. It can promote the appearance of melanoma or skin cancer, by exposing itself too often or at prohibited times. If it represents 10% of cancers, it is also the most serious. As of Thursday, a prevention and screening campaign for melanoma begins.
Thursday begins the mornings of prevention and screening for melanoma, better known as skin cancer. The first day is scheduled at Taravao Hospital.
Natacha Helme, president of the League against cancer in French Polynesia, spoke about it this morning on the morning radio station of Polynésie la 1ère.
According to her, skin cancer represents “10% of cancers but it is the most serious, since it will metastasize very quickly… The sun is the main culprit”, she says. 70% of melanomas or skin cancers are the result of excessive sun exposure. Initially, a degeneration of a mole or a pigmented spot that extends. There are also other types of skin cancer such as carcinoma, a scab that forms and turns red…
To protect against the effects of the sun, “Thinking that monoi protects us is wrong. Monoi is oil and therefore we react exactly as if we were frying a steak…Unfortunately exposing ourselves to the sun with monoi will burn the skin even more. skin”. A habit to quickly give up! “Although monoi hydrates, it will not protect, quite the contrary. Above all, it will accelerate the effects of the sun on our skin”continues Natacha Helme.
Symptoms of melanoma.
•
She also advises avoiding certain hours of exposure to the sun, “between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.”, when it is highest in the sky. But if we do, we have to protect ourselves well. “With sun creams…with a protection factor of 50, the ideal, but also the hat, the lycra, the towel”.
Solène Ruiz, dermatologist, during a screening. The patient has spots on both arms, symptoms of melanoma, and it hurts to touch.
•
“As soon as we notice that a spot or a mole is evolving abnormally on our skin, we must consult a dermatologist. But when we start exposing ourselves to the sun very early, it is a skin conducive to melanoma”specifies the president of the League against cancer in French Polynesia.
Listen to her :