dunno man, just had melanoma removed from my ear and if it had moved to my lymph nodes I had a 50% chance of dying within 5 years. thankfully it didn't but it was caused by sun damage incurred in my youth. I'll be wearing sunscreen and mostly avoiding direct sunlight.

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jghn 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

That's the thing about population level trends: there's always going to be individuals with counterexamples.

	▲	WarOnPrivacy 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		It has a lot to do with the individual's makeup. My mom came from a pale lineage and had the same story as the parent comment - except for the luck part. Melanoma was common in her family and was tightly tied to excessive time in the sun as children.

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papyrus9244 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There are studies that show that regular sun exposure is correlated with both lower incidence of and lower mortality from melanoma.

So as long as you're not getting sum burns, sun exposure is actually better for you.

In some decades we'll look at the whole sun avoidance policy as those doctors prescribing cigarettes a century ago.

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DennisP 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They did say to avoid getting sunburn, which is the main cause of melanoma.

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smeeger 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

funny how some anecdotes are pounced on by redditors and others are taken at face value

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gaoshan 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Make sure your sunscreen is free from things like benzene* or you may just be trading one cancer causer for another.

* https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/is-sunscreen-safe

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meatmanek 4 days ago | parent [-]

A reality check on the sunscreen benzene panic: https://labmuffin.com/will-benzene-in-sunscreens-give-you-ca...

	▲	gaoshan a day ago \| parent [-]
		The take away from that blog post: "I would personally stop using the products from batches that were measured to have high amounts of benzene"