Why do people with medium to dark skin need to protect themselves from UV rays?
People with medium to dark skin, who produce large amounts of melanin, are more resistant to the sun's rays and, therefore, to sunburn.
But solar radiation—even simple daily exposure to daylight—is enough to cause skin damage, including the appearance, development, and darkening ofpigmented spots, melasma, and chloasma, as wellas prematurephotoaging of the skin, which can even lead to skin cancer.
Unfortunately, many patients—and even some doctors—believe that people of color are immune to this disease. As a result, people of color are often diagnosed with skin cancer at advanced, potentially life-threatening stages. The rate of metastatic skin cancer is thus seven times higher among people of color than among those with fair skin (source: Skin Cancer Foundation).
It is therefore important to educate this population about prevention—that is, to teach them howto protect their skin every day from UVA and UVB radiation in natural light using a high-performance sunscreen to prevent skin cancer, avoid the appearance of brown spots, and prevent the worsening of hyperpigmentation, which causes the spots to darken.
