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The health benefits of sunlight may outweigh the risk of skin cancer

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279 points petethomas | 3 comments | 19 Sep 25 04:46 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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ponchel ◴[19 Sep 25 05:44 UTC] No.45298303[source]▶
Who actually thought that getting sunlight was bad ?
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1. tforcram ◴[19 Sep 25 06:24 UTC] No.45298516[source]▶
I've had a malignant melanoma, my mother and extended relatives had it as well (including a great uncle I never met who died from it), 4 (of my 9) siblings have had multiple, mostly those of use who have red hair/fair skin. I don't think I've ever heard of a greater risk of skin cancer due to genetics/familial occurrence than I have.

After my mother got it and had a huge chunk taken out of her leg when I was very young, we have had it drilled into our heads that the sun was going to kill us and we needed to cover up and lather in sun screen for even the slightest possibility of sun exposure.

Obviously that didn't help much as many of us still got it anyway, hah!

But yea there are some folks who are terrified of the sun. I personally think 15-20 minutes unfiltered sunlight is good for me, but beyond that I'm looking for the nearest shade or trying to cover up.

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2. thrawa8387336 ◴[19 Sep 25 06:56 UTC] No.45298682[source]▶
What I've heard is people who don't get sun frequently, are at higher risk of melanoma. Like no sun then sunburn = bad bad
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3. amanaplanacanal ◴[19 Sep 25 18:44 UTC] No.45305011[source]▶
There is also the evidence that it usually doesn't happen on the hands or face which are chronically exposed, but rather areas that are normally covered.