The Skin Cancer Foundation Journal

MAY 2014

The 2012 edition of The Skin Cancer Foundation Journal features medically reviewed, reader-friendly articles such as tanning, the increasing incidence of skin cancer diagnoses among young women, & the prevalence of melanoma among white males over 50.

Issue link: https://skincancer.epubxp.com/i/319518

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S K I N C A N C E R F O U N D A T I O N J O U R N A L A1 Beauty & Anti-Aging DNA enzyme creams can heal sun damage and help prevent skin cancers Ronald Moy, MD AFTER THE DAMAGE IS DONE DNA enzyme creams can heal sun damage and help prevent skin cancers Ronald L. Moy, MD SUNSCREENS ARE BETTER THAN EVER. or example, an ef ective broad spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen today can f lter out about 97 percent of the sun's harmful ultraviolet B (UVB) and ultraviolet A (UVA) rays. One thing a sunscreen can't accomplish, however, is undo sun dam- age that has already been done. Imagine if there were a simple topical treatment you could use, after spend- ing hours outdoors or sustaining sunburn, to reverse the ill ef ects of UV exposure, so that no breakdown of your tissues occurred and your chances of developing skin can- cer did not increase. Certainly, it would be a revolutionary, much-needed addition to the science of skin cancer pre- vention. Today, though the public is better informed about the link between UV and skin cancer, and has better tools than ever to prevent sun damage, skin cancer rates keep going up. An entirely new form of skin cancer prevention may be exactly what is needed. ENTER DNA ENZYME REPAIR CREAMS. Beyond Natural Defenses W hen your skin suf ers an insult such as overexposure to sunlight, it literally damages the DNA in your skin cells. Your skin responds by sending special repair enzymes to the site of damage; this natural DNA repair is a crucial factor in protecting us from skin cancer. However, the repairs are rare- ly perfect, and as we age, our repair abilities weaken. Dif erent populations and skin types may also have signif cant dif er- ences in DNA repair capacity. For example, this could help explain the greater propensity of Irish-Celtic populations to develop skin cancer. DNA damage that goes unrepaired can produce genetic mutations that lead to skin cancer. Thus, DNA enzyme repair creams could be a key to the future of cancer prevention. Scientists have learned to extract and reproduce natural repair enzymes and encase them in "liposomes," artif cially prepared spherical fatty sacs that can penetrate the top layer of skin, and thus can be used as a ve- hicle to administer the enzymes topically. Creams containing these repair enzyme liposomes, going beyond the limits of S K I N C A N C E R F O U N D A T I O N J O U R N A L 34

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