Protecting Your Skin: Skin Health
Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School
Protecting your skin
The single most important thing you can do to prevent skin damage and reduce your risk for cancer is to avoid sun exposure. Take steps to protect your children or grandchildren from sun exposure, too, because most sun damage that leads to skin cancer occurs early in life. For enthusiasts of the great outdoors, sun protection is not an easy task. But careful selection of a sunscreen, protective clothing, and wise timing of activities can go a long way toward preventing further skin damage. One additional reason to use protective hats and other clothing is that sunscreen use has not been shown to protect against basal cell carcinoma as it does against other forms of skin cancer.
| Last updated: | July 20, 2007 |
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Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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