Melanoma Prevention

Melanoma is often a local disease which can be managed easily, but some cases are more agressive. Melanoma is currently the fifth and seventh most common cancer in American men and women, respectively, and it has become more frequent.  Sun exposure and genetic predisposition are the two most common causes. In simple terms it is due to a growth of the pigment producing cells of the skin called melanocytes. These melanocyte cells of the skin produce pigment in the form of melanin in response to stimuli such as ultraviolet (UV) light. Melanocytes also make the pigment that determines skin and hair color. Individuals with pigmented spots, moles or lesions are best served by having regular skin check ups, that only last a few minutes. An interesting study
Researchers report in a new study, published online in the journal Cancer, that included 59,806 women ages 50 to 79, regular aspirin use decreases cases of melanoma.  After controlling for sun exposure, sunscreen use, a history of skin cancer and many other factors, the researchers found that women who reported using aspirin had an average 21 percent lower risk of melanoma compared with nonusers, and the longer they used aspirin, the lower their risk. The senior author, Dr. Jean Y. Tang, an assistant professor of dermatology at Stanford, pointed out that the study was observational and not a clinical trial, and correlation does not equal causation. “It’s an important finding for high-risk women to discuss with their doctors,” she said, “but it’s way too early to recommend that everyone go take aspirin to prevent melanoma." Dr. Suzanne Trupin, at Hada Cosmetic Medicine states that aspirin use may be useful heart protection for some women, and that coming in for a consultation regarding your overall health can help determine if you should take it, and at what dosage.

Evening Your Natural Skin Tone

An even tone to the skin is radiant and natural. We want our skin to be the best color and blend of tones that we have naturally been born with. Discolored skin, or uneven coloration to our skin is the root of much skin disatisfaction. Discoloration treatments may be one of the most active area of skin research,. For each what is "desirable" in skin color varies widely, and getting an even better tone is not the same as lightening, or even quite the same as brightening, for those qualities other techniques are employed! Think of skin tone, a color pops into your mind, but it's actually a blend of yellow, brown and reds that makes up classic "skin" color. We each have a blended tone: the yellow tones which mostly is derived from the collagen content, the brown tones which comes from the pigment melanin, and the red tones that come from hemoglobin, or more simply put the components of our blood.  As one or the other takes over the skin tone becomes uneven. Excess brown or dark patches is one of the most common reason for uneven tone, and are not desirable to most of us. Skin professionals can recommend products and treatments that reduce this in several ways, but ultimately one of the most successful ways to get rid of brown is to reduce the amount of melanin, by decreasing the amount of melanin produced in your skin. In addition to decreasing this melanin synthesis, we want to stop melanin from leaving skin cells and seeping into the skin, speedup the process of melanin exfoliation, and possibly even change the pigment melanin itself so it’s not so dark. Of course individual recommendations will vary based on your experiences, your unique skin, your hormone levels, and any reactions you may have had in the past. One such product to do these things effectively is hydroquinone. Hydroquinone will actually invade the skin cells or the melanocytes, and aid their destruction. It comes in various strengths and when we recommend a product we want one that will be effective. Natural products, that probably have better safety records to their ingredients, include  kojic acid arbutin, coffeeberry, blueberry, licorice, pulp mulberry, bearberry extract,  to name a few,and most important thing is sunscreen, which will so prevent UVA from tanning us which simply means stimulating these discoloration factors we are working rather hard to combat!

Skin Darkening in Pregnancy

Darkening of the skin in pregnancy is called hyperpigmentation and it used to be that we thought it was related to what is called melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH), now we've decided it really is not certain why pregnant women get this skin darkening. Virtually 90% of patients will exhibit darkening of their skin during pregnancy, even if it's only in selected areas or only slightly darker. In fact extra pigment containing cells, known as melanocytes seem to cluster in areas, and can even form knots. These new skin knots that you can see are due to new skin melanocytes. If a woman gets darkening of her face it's called chloasma. This darkening is best treated after the pregnancy with some form of skin lightening and most commonly in the past we used tretinoin ointment. Other areas of the body that may darken are the areolae around the nipples, the inner thighs, or the linea alba which is a fine line that runs down the center of the abdomen. About half of all women will have chloasma itself. Moles, or nevi, while they may darken along with the overall darkening of the skin, should not change in size in pregnancy and if they do you need this evaluated.