Health A-Z: Safe sun
When the weather gets warmer, or you’re heading off to a hot country on holiday, you need to think about protecting your skin from the sun. While having the sun on your skin can feel blissful, it may be causing lots of damage – from short-term issues like sunburn to skin cancer in the longer term.
There are different types of skin cancer. Melanoma is the most dangerous but non-melanoma skin cancer, which includes basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, is far more common. In fact, you may be surprised to hear non-melanoma skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, although as it’s easy to treat and can be cured, we tend to hear less about it.
Sunburn and skin cancer aside, too much sunlight can also accelerate the ageing process and trigger wrinkles and sagging.