Years later, damage from days in sun arrives

Years after all those days in the summer sun reddened your skin, some effects — wrinkles and dry, leathery skin — will become evident.

But try telling that to a teenager.

Dr. Jill Nelson, an Omaha dermatologist, said teens “seem to have that idea that they will live forever as a teenager. They don’t see any problem on their skin.”

But sun damage — more specifically, ultraviolet light damage — is cumulative, she said.

“There’s a delay of 10 or 20 years,” Nelson said. “They get more freckles, they get more moles. And what we call photo damage: Wrinkling. Texture changes. Brown spots.”

Still, young people (and not-so-young people) stay out in the sun too long.

“I can tell them for sure that they’re going to be worse off if they continue that behavior,” Nelson said. “But they don’t see the immediate effect.”

For dermatologists, the biggest concern from lots of ultraviolet light exposure isn’t wrinkles, but the increased risk of skin cancer.

Getting five or more sunburns throughout your lifetime significantly increases your risk of developing skin cancer, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. And one blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma — a potentially deadly skin cancer — later in life, the foundation says.

Those with blond or red hair and light-colored eyes, people who have a family history of skin cancer and those taking immune-suppressing medication can be at greater risk for skin damage from UV radiation, said Dr. Kristie Hayes, chief of dermatology in the internal medicine department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

People should periodically check spots, freckles or moles on their bodies and have someone else examine their backs, Hayes said. If a spot looks or feels different or seems to be growing or scabbing, have a physician check it out, she said. And don’t wait — skin cancer is very treatable if detected early.

There’s evidence that excessive sun exposure also can lead to the earlier development of cataracts, said Dr. Thomas Hejkal, professor and interim chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “It wouldn’t normally happen right away, but over the years,” he said.

Hejkal wears sunglasses with UV protection while out in the sun and recommends that other people do, too. Nelson and Hayes both recommend that people who head outdoors wear a hat and sunscreen with an SPF (sun-protection factor) of 30 instead of the often-recommended SPF 15. Nelson said most people don’t apply enough sunscreen to enough places and don’t reapply it frequently enough.

The two also recommend against using tanning beds, which Hayes said provide the same UV rays found in natural sunlight but deliver them “more intensely, over a shorter period of time.”

The Indoor Tanning Association, a trade group, says on its Web site that “moderate” tanning “is the smartest way to maximize the potential benefits of sun exposure while minimizing the potential risks associated with either too much or too little sunlight.”

One of the benefits from UV exposure noted by the association is the production of vitamin D by the skin.

The association says research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as “a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension” and other diseases.

Dr. Robert Heaney, interim vice president for health sciences at Creighton University Medical Center, is a nationally known expert on calcium and vitamin D. Heaney, who recommends that people take vitamin D supplements (he takes 3,000 IUs per day), said the skin produces vitamin D in the first 10-15 minutes of sun exposure. After that, he said, the sun starts to degrade what the skin produces.

“Put the sun protection on after you’re out for 15 minutes,” Heaney said, acknowledging that 10-15 minutes might be too long for very fair-skinned people. “Then you get the best of both worlds.”

Contact the writer:

444-1109, bob.glissmann@owh.com

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