Controversy over moisturiser-cancer link

abc.net.au — A new US study suggesting moisturisers cause skin cancer in mice has triggered controversy, with some scientists claiming the findings are alarmist and not worthy of publication. Others, though, argue the work should be taken seriously and followed up to see if it has relevance to humans. read more...

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The New Craze: Facial Yoga

healthnews.com — Everyone knows the importance of exercise in keeping our bodies fit and healthy. There are exercises for the muscles from the neck down, including those which focus on the upper, core, and lower body. We have body specific exercises for body sculpting, aerobic exercises to benefit our heart, yoga and more. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense to have exercises to tone and strengthen the 57 muscles of our face, neck and scalp. This new craze called ‘facial yoga’ is packing sessions in health clubs and yoga studios across the United States. For around $250, participants, mainly female ranging in age from 30 to 70, learn how to control and strengthen the face muscles by employing resistance and isometric contractions using the thumbs and fingers. The exercises are based on a common sense approach: boost the circulation to your face, neck, scalp, eyebrows, and temple. This increases oxygen which is good for the cells. read more...

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Sunscreens "Blistered" By Nonprofit Study

healthnews.com — Think that bottle of sunscreen is protecting you and your family? You may need to think again, according to tests performed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). What you don't know can hurt you, as this year alone over one million cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, and approximately 8,000 Americans will die from melanoma, a type of skin cancer. Sunscreens are meant to protect the public from the harmful effects of the sun's ultraviolet rays. In 1978 the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) announced standards for sunscreens but these standards were never finalized, and thirty years later the sale of sunscreens in the U.S. is still under-regulated. Over a year ago the agency promised to toughen sunscreen standards, but so far they have not. read more...

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Pro Baseball Helps Keep Skin Cancer From Scoring

news.yahoo.com — FRIDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Summer officially starts Saturday and, with it, Major League Baseball is gearing up to warn players and their fans of the dangers of skin cancer. Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association and the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) are kicking off their 10th annual Play Sun Smart campaign on that day, which has been designated Play Sun Smart skin cancer awareness day. "We're seeing more and more skin cancer in young patients. Melanoma [the most virulent form of skin cancer] kills over 8,000 Americans every year," said AAD president Dr. C. William Hanke, an Indianapolis dermatologist. "The sun is very high in the sky during the next three months. There's less thickness of the atmosphere to filter out the damaging ultraviolet wavelengths, so that the danger of unprotected sun exposure is increased. And sun exposure is the most important risk factor in skin cancer." This year's Play Sun Smart campaign will feature a public service announcement with baseball commissioner Allan H. ("Bud") Selig, Houston Astro second baseman Mark Loretta, Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Derek Lowe and New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana. For these men, it's personal. Selig and Loretta both survived melanoma, and Lowe had a skin cancer removed from his nose in 2003. Santana lost a close friend to the cancer in 2007. In fact, Loretta was diagnosed after being screened at a Play Sun Smart Event in 2004. "It saved his life," Hanke said. Major League Baseball will also be distributing sun safety-tip cards in ball parks, and sun safety messages will be announced during games. Some one million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed this year, and baseball players are at particular risk, because they spend so much time in the sun, experts say. A 2005 AAD survey found that teenage boys -- often found at ballparks around the country -- are the least likely of all people to use sunscreen. That omission could catch up with them when they're older, since middle-age and older men have higher rates of skin cancer than any other gender or age group. In the past decade, more than 19,000 skin cancer screenings have been conducted through the Play Sun Smart program, including baseball players, major league baseball staff and their families. According to Hanke, those screenings have hit homes run for cancer detection, spotting 600 suspicious lesions, including 463 suspected basal cell carcinomas, 63 suspected read more...

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Private piercings raising public alarm

msnbc.msn.com — We see them in ears, eyebrows, noses and tongues. They peek out provocatively from belly-baring shirts and cause us to wince when we encounter a bristling faceful at the local coffee shop. They’re body piercings, some visible, some not so much, and for the past few years they’ve been raising both eyebrows — and the occasional alarm. Celebutante Nicole Richie’s nipple ring once set off a metal detector at an airport in Reno, Nev., resulting in an impromptu breast inspection by airport security. In March, a 37-year-old woman flying from Lubbock to Dallas, Texas, triggered a hand-held wand with her nipple jewelry and was forced to remove the piercing with pliers before the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would allow her to board the plane. read more...

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Skin cancer toll soars among affluent young

independent.co.uk — Affluent families who take their children on foreign holidays where they are exposed to intense sunlight are contributing to soaring rates of malignant melanoma among the young. The severest form of skin cancer, which causes 1,800 deaths a year, is rising fastest in people in their teens and twenties and is most common among the better-off, doctors said. Severe sunburn in childhood is a key trigger for the cancer and the growth of foreign holidays, in winter and summer, is increasing the incidence of sun exposure in children. Professor Jillian Birch, an expert on teenage cancer from Manchester University, told an international conference in London that melanoma was increasing at 4 per cent a year among 20- to 29-year-olds. read more...

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