Dr Alan Mendelsohn - Skin Cancer Precautions For Hot Florida Sun

We love the sun and there are literally hundreds of songs celebrating this. From Walking on Sunshine to Bruce Springsteen’s 2002 song, "Waitin' on a Sunny Day”, the lyrics reflect how the arrival of the sun brings not only light and warmth but peace, love and harmony.

The Beatles have four songs with sun in the title - can you name them all? The answer is at the bottom.

There are many other positive benefits of sunshine. It supplies us with light and helps our garden grow. It can decrease depression, lower our cholesterol, boost our Vitamin D and set our circadian rhythm. And it definitely affects our mood. There is nothing that gives me greater happiness than opening the door in the morning to grab my newspaper and watch the sun slowly rising (Spoiler alert: I am an early riser.)

With the recent changing of the clock, we are in for longer days and increased exposure to sunlight.
While having more hours of sunshine increases our productivity, we are also aware of the strong connection between sunlight and skin cancers, particularly melanoma. As we have been instructed, we slather ourselves repeatedly with sunscreen on bright sunny days and cover our body for adequate protection from the sun’s UV rays.

When we go to the beach, we also don sunglasses, which adds glamour to our looks and provides protection from the glare of the sun.

There is only one problem. We live in Florida and we need to wear sunglasses every single day. Whether we are driving our cars or washing them, sitting poolside or on our front porch or just walking or biking down the block, it is extremely important for grownups and children to wear sunglasses. And though this may sound overly cautious, we should be donning our sunglasses even on cloudy days since the UV rays can penetrate the clouds and cause extensive damage to your eyes.

The closer you are to the equator, the higher the UV exposure. And while we sunscreen to prevent painful sunburns and deadly melanomas, wearing sunglasses will decrease the incidence of equally dangerous eye diseases such as macular degeneration (the #1 cause of blindness), eyelid cancers and ocular melanomas.

Buying the best pair of sunglasses is a complicated issue since price does not always equate with quality. To truly prevent sun damage, non-reversible blindness and life-threatening melanomas, the sunglasses you purchase should have UV-400 blocker and be polarized on both sides of the lenses. Unfortunately, a label promoting a pair of glasses with 100% UV protection can be very ambiguous.

Loving your shades will prompt you to wear them more often. I’ve learned that lesson well in my 30 years of practice. So spend the time to find the perfect pair and then read the fine print to make sure you will not only look good from the outside but feel protected on the inside.

With the proper skin and eye protection, you will wake up with confidence, look outside your window and say to yourself, “Here comes the sun…. It’s all right! I’ve got this covered.

The four Beatles songs are:

1. Good Day Sunshine
2. Here Comes the Sun
3. I'll Follow the Sun
4. Sun King