NaturaLift MD Review Blog

Skin cancer needs to be understood - knowledge of it should not be avoided for fear of the possibility of disfigurement and death. Once you understand the triggering mechanism by which skin cells become cancerous, you’ll be prepar

ed to take the steps needed to stop and even reverse this most common form of cancer.

Ultraviolet Sunlight

According to the American Cancer Society, there will be almost 2 million new cases of basal cell and squamous cell skin carcinoma diagnosed every year in our county. That’s in addition to 47,000 new cases of malignant melanoma annually, causing 7,800 deaths every year. The number of new patients with malignant melanoma is doubling every five years.

“According to the World Cancer Report, skin cancer constitutes approximately 30% of all newly diagnosed cancers in the world, and solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation (particularly, its UVB component; 290-320 nm) is an established cause of approximately 90% of skin cancers.”

The basics of Ultraviolet radiation. The skin is the largest organ, measuring almost 5,000 square inches. This shield is a protective barrier affected by many harmful environmental factors, of which the most damaging is sunlight. Here are some reasons why:

1. The average annual dose of ultraviolet irradiation most Americans typically get each year is 25,000 JÉm2. But when you add the exposure of about 8,000 JÉm2 experienced during a normal vacation in the continental United States, that reaches a very dangerous 33,000 J/m2. That ultraviolet radiation initiates and promotes skin cancer.
2. Our sun is a mass of nuclear explosions. The equivalent of many hydrogen bombs detonate every second; all that radiation explodes out into space at the speed of light. The radiation released by our sun hits exposed skin continuously, like a machine gun barrage.
3. Ultraviolet light is very powerful and more pervasive than we have acknowledged. Ultraviolet rays bombard you from sun-up to sun-down. The
4. maximum harm occurs from 10:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M. However, any chronic exposure, no matter how small, adds to the cumulative toll, aging the skin and building upon the potential for skin cancer.

Cyclobutane Pyrimidine Dimmers. DNA comprises 30,000 genes located in 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells, and ultraviolet radiation damages it. UV-B irradiation forms cyclobutane pyrimidine dimmers (CPDs) that specifically and directly damage DNA.

Reactive Oxygen Species. Another, more indirect method, of skin cancer induction occurs when UV-B create reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROSs initiate a series of cascading reactions that damage many large cellular molecules, including DNA.

ROS oxidants created by excessive ultraviolet exposure cause oxidative stress in the skin. Although skin has an elaborate antioxidant defense system, that defense is overwhelmed by cumulative exposure. Lots of low-dose exposure, or one intense dose of ultraviolet radiation, will wipe it out.

Stimulate telomerase. A study from the Department of Dermatology of Case Western Reserve University proved that sunlight causes benign and malignant skin tumors which have up to 45 times more of the cancer enzyme, telomerase, than non-irradiated skin.

As discussed in Appendix A, with every cell division, the ends of each chromosome (telomeres) are chipped away until the chromosome can replicate no longer, causing cell apoptosis. The enzyme telomerase protects and repairs DNA at each cell division. This allows the cancerous cells to divide forever. Without sunlight irradiation, “… [t]elomerase activity was barely detectable.” However,

“… UV-B exposure resulted n a progressive increase in telomerase activity starting from the fourth week of exposure. The increased telomerase activity either persisted or further increased with the increased exposure. In papillomas and carcinomas the enzyme activity was comparable and was 45-fold higher than in the epidermis of control mice.”