Treatment and research of melanoma alone has cost the United States 2.36 billion dollars!  Let’s try to shrink that budget by heeding critical warnings. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, “The UV Index provides information to help plan outdoor activities and avoid overexposure to the sun.”

On a warm, sunny Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when families are streaming into Prairie Lodge’s “grandchildren’s outdoor swimming pool,” let’s hope that the senior residents are setting a good example for their younger kin. Because skin damage begins in one’s early years and continues throughout a lifetime, it is important for grandparents to teach good sunscreen protection habits to younger family members.

Now that the longer, sunnier days of summer mean more fun outdoors, Sun Citians need to become even more vigilant in the care of their skin, our body’s largest organ (20 square feet in area).  As seniors, we are at high risk for developing skin cancer on our aged skin’s outer covering of three layers, the epidermis.  In fact, over 50% of deaths associated with skin cancer occur in people over the age of 65.   Here are some more very disturbing facts on the disease.