Stop Skin Cancer at the Spa

Andrea Karim — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 23:20:26 +0000

By way of More magazine, the premier magazine for women over 40, comes exciting news that a trip to your favorite medispa could actually prevent skin cancer!

You already know how important it is to wear sunscreen, and to do all you can not to damage your lovely epidermis, but it turns out that once some of the damage has been done, you can still help to prevent skin cancer with something as simple as a chemical peel.

According to reserachers at Stanford University, actinic keratoses (spots on the skin caused by sun exposure) are so common in adults that your average over-40 adult has 8 of them! Actinic keratoses are essentially precancerous lesions, and you can have them removed through expensive laser treatments at your dermatologist. But it turns out that using a chemical peel, such as a five-percent fluorouracil at-home cream, are equally adept at removing the blemishes, and thus reducing your risk for skin cancer.

In a study at Stanford University, researchers gave 24 patients with the spots a five-percent fluorouracil at-home cream, a chemical peel, or laser skin resurfacing. All three worked equally well to remove the precancerous lesions, getting rid of about 90 percent of them.

So, for roughly $100, you can do the same amount of good that a very expensive laser resurfacing treatment would. You're not only saving money, but reducing recovery time, and saving yourself a lot of pain (some of the pricier procedures hurt like hell).

This article is from Andrea Karim of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

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Stop Skin Cancer at the Spa