This year, as the summer sun exposure season approached once again, we discovered something that was new to us, in answer to why Atlanta is so vulnerable to the harmful effects of the sun. We are on the same latitude, the same distance from the earth’s equator, as Casablanca, Morocco. We bring this back to mind because it says so much about what we risk here in Atlanta that is more threatening than what our friends who live elsewhere face, day after day.
The UV radiation of the sun brings with it cosmetic damage, such as sun and age spots, wrinkling, and prematurely crepey skin. We have a whole toolkit of solutions for these effects, and we are happy indeed to share them. One good time to see an Atlanta dermatologist is the very first morning you notice these effects taking shape.
The Most Important Answer
And yet the most important time to see an Atlanta dermatologist is regularly, because the risks we face with our unusual sun exposure include the most common forms of cancer. One in five Americans will get skin cancer at some point during their lifetimes, and it makes sense that the likelihood is even greater here in Atlanta than in the nation as a whole.
The most successful measure against skin cancer is early detection. Finding out soon increases the variety of your options for treating it, and for the most life-threatening kinds, early detection is the greatest indicator of successful cure and survival. This makes an annual skin screening one of the absolute best reasons to see an Atlanta dermatologist. From tis professional, you can count on advice that is better than what you might get from your own mother.
When to Take It Off
Of all the wise advice we got from mother, it is unlikely she ever said, “Get undressed in somebody’s office once a year,” Nevertheless, if she did, then that might be one of the most important instructions she gave, because a yearly skin cancer screening quite simply saves lives. A quick, thorough “skin scan” from an experienced board-certified dermatologist is too often the missing piece in a person’s defense against the most common form of cancer. With more cases of skin cancer reported in the U.S., year after year, than all other forms of cancer combined, this is by far the leading form of that dread disease.
So, regardless of mother’s advice on undressing, don’t let modesty kill you. Besides, it’s not a naked thing; people keep their undies on all the time in a skin cancer screening, and it still saves lives.
Our first and best advice is to make a yearly dermatology once-over something you make part of your natural routine. It would be a privilege to become your source for your annual skin cancer screening.