Latest / Skinquiries / Skin and Sun: Navigating a Complex Relationship

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Skin and Sun: Navigating a Complex Relationship · Skinquiries

0:03
Speaker 1: Back in twenty fifteen, Jackie Smith was fresh out of
0:06
Speaker 1: college at just twenty one years old. She was so
0:09
Speaker 1: excited to start her life, but there was an issue
0:11
Speaker 1: with her skin that was concerning her. She struggled to
0:14
Speaker 1: be properly diagnosed until one day she received surprising and
0:18
Speaker 1: devastating news.
0:19
Speaker 2: I could still remember his face when he walked in
0:22
Speaker 2: the room. It was very solemn, and he said, Jackie,
0:24
Speaker 2: you have stage three melanoma. And that was something that
0:28
Speaker 2: was completely shocking because you don't see someone that looks
0:30
Speaker 2: like this usually with melanoma at all, and then for
0:34
Speaker 2: it to be stage three, How did this happen?
0:40
Speaker 3: Hi, guys, and welcome. I'm so glad you're here.
0:42
Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Berry and this is skin Querries, a show
0:46
Speaker 1: all about our skin and its health.
0:48
Speaker 3: A little bit about me.
0:49
Speaker 1: I create content online and irl, mostly around plant based cooking,
0:53
Speaker 1: intuitive eating, and all things wellness. Basically, feeling good is
0:57
Speaker 1: at the core of everything I do, and I'm so
0:59
Speaker 1: excited to see how that relates to our skin as
1:02
Speaker 1: we grow in age. Our skin is really a record
1:04
Speaker 1: of a life well lived, because there isn't one body
1:07
Speaker 1: part that I could think of that reflects our well
1:09
Speaker 1: being as clearly as our skin. Our habits, lifestyle and
1:12
Speaker 1: conditions play a major role in how it looks and feels.
1:16
Speaker 1: And because our skin is such a huge factor in
1:18
Speaker 1: how the world sees us, it can affect how we
1:21
Speaker 1: see ourselves. You may have come to this show because
1:24
Speaker 1: you've had your own skin challenges.
1:26
Speaker 3: Let's face it, most of us have.
1:28
Speaker 1: So let's go on this journey together to really understand
1:31
Speaker 1: what's going on with our skin. Let's unravel the mysteries
1:33
Speaker 1: happening inside and out. We're going to hear from experts, doctors,
1:38
Speaker 1: and people who have extraordinary stories to share about skin
1:42
Speaker 1: health and the power of understanding what's happening below the surface.
1:46
Speaker 1: One of these stories comes from Jackie, who you heard
1:48
Speaker 1: off the top of the show.
1:49
Speaker 3: We're going to talk.
1:50
Speaker 1: To her about her experiences with cancer and her relationship
1:54
Speaker 1: to the sun. Now we'll also hear from a dermatologist
1:57
Speaker 1: who's going to guide us through all things sun protection.
2:00
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get into it. Welcome to Skin Querries.
2:09
Speaker 1: I'm going to be honest, guys, I love the sun
2:11
Speaker 1: for me. It's such a great source of natural endorphins,
2:14
Speaker 1: energy and such a mood booster. The way I get
2:17
Speaker 1: my daily dose of sunshine is usually walking my kids
2:20
Speaker 1: to school in the morning. In the summer, we'll go
2:22
Speaker 1: to the beach and I try to stay out of
2:24
Speaker 1: the sun during the midday hours. I'll go in the
2:27
Speaker 1: morning with my family or in the afternoon to make
2:29
Speaker 1: sure that we're not getting those really strong rays. As
2:32
Speaker 1: I'm getting older, the more I understand how important it
2:35
Speaker 1: is to practice safe habits and encourage my kids.
2:38
Speaker 4: To do the same.
2:39
Speaker 1: I have to admit I wasn't always this way growing
2:42
Speaker 1: up in New Jersey. I grew up going to the
2:44
Speaker 1: tanning salon and going with my friends a few times
2:46
Speaker 1: a week. I actually cringe to think about it, but
2:49
Speaker 1: that is what you did in the nineties in New Jersey.
2:53
Speaker 1: I remember going to Cancun on spring break and getting
2:56
Speaker 1: super crisp, flathering on the baby oil and doing everything
3:00
Speaker 1: I could to get as tan as possible. And though
3:02
Speaker 1: I'd like to think times have changed and we've all
3:05
Speaker 1: moved on from getting cooked in the sun, after talking
3:08
Speaker 1: to a lot of people, it seems a relationship still
3:11
Speaker 1: remains a bit complicated.
3:12
Speaker 3: I love the sun, but sometimes it doesn't love me.
3:15
Speaker 5: After the first day of senior year, I went to
3:17
Speaker 5: like my friend's house and me late in the sun
3:19
Speaker 5: all day, and then for the first week of school,
3:21
Speaker 5: I had in sunburned eyelids.
3:23
Speaker 3: I didn't put sunshurn on my eyelids.
3:24
Speaker 5: I didn't know, so I was kind of in the
3:26
Speaker 5: sun for like four hours. And when I came back
3:29
Speaker 5: from this trip, I noticed had like a bunch of
3:31
Speaker 5: freckles on my nose, and like the nose part kind
3:34
Speaker 5: of freaked me out. I never dealt with this before.
3:36
Speaker 5: I didn't realize the sun can impact my skin so
3:38
Speaker 5: much like that. I think I just took it for
3:39
Speaker 5: granted that sun protection is very underrated.
3:42
Speaker 4: I don't want to see sunscreen because that's a brown girl.
3:44
Speaker 5: I feel like I eat sunscreens always.
3:48
Speaker 1: Like people are still not consistently wearing their sunscreen, but
3:53
Speaker 1: you could hear in their voice they know better. Today,
3:55
Speaker 1: on our first episode, we're going to talk about the
3:58
Speaker 1: sun and the damage it does to our skin and
4:00
Speaker 1: learn about best practices for our skin and our health.
4:03
Speaker 1: I'm excited to chat with our first guest, Jackie Smith.
4:07
Speaker 3: You're from New Jersey.
4:08
Speaker 6: I am from Jersey. You're from North Jersey.
4:11
Speaker 3: Me too.
4:12
Speaker 6: I'm from Hackensack, I'm from Anglewood.
4:13
Speaker 3: We're like name.
4:16
Speaker 2: Oh my god, was a detective and Englewood for thirty years.
4:19
Speaker 1: So Jackie is here because she's kindly agreed to take
4:22
Speaker 1: us through her story.
4:26
Speaker 2: So I meant two times stage three melanoma survivor over
4:31
Speaker 2: the last twenty years. Believe it or not, it's been
4:34
Speaker 2: twenty years since I was initially diagnosed with stage three melanoma,
4:37
Speaker 2: and during that time, I've volunteered and worked in patient
4:41
Speaker 2: advocacy and health policy. I'm really trying to make strives
4:45
Speaker 2: for not only people living with melanoma, but for all
4:48
Speaker 2: people affected by cancer.
4:50
Speaker 1: It's safe to say that none of us can ever
4:52
Speaker 1: prepare ourselves for a diagnosis like Jackie's. And even more so,
4:56
Speaker 1: while she was in her early twenties about to finish
4:58
Speaker 1: her undergrad degree.
5:00
Speaker 2: This lump in my bikini line. No one seemed to
5:03
Speaker 2: think it was anything serious. So I'd go to the
5:05
Speaker 2: health center. They'd say it was an inflamed hair follicle
5:08
Speaker 2: or something minor. They told me to take a sitz bath,
5:11
Speaker 2: something that at that point I didn't even know what
5:14
Speaker 2: that was, you know, So you're like trying to figure
5:17
Speaker 2: out things. But inside I knew it was something serious,
5:21
Speaker 2: but no one seemed to think that it was because
5:23
Speaker 2: I was young, and was there something about your intuition
5:27
Speaker 2: that really led you to pursue this. I'm one of
5:31
Speaker 2: those people who need answers and I need things to
5:34
Speaker 2: make sense. So I know some of us will bury
5:37
Speaker 2: our heads in the sand. That's not me. So I
5:40
Speaker 2: kept going back because it just didn't seem right, and
5:43
Speaker 2: I knew it was not an inflamed hair follicle. It
5:47
Speaker 2: was a lump that was underneath the skin layer, and
5:49
Speaker 2: when I detected it, it was about the size.
5:52
Speaker 6: Of an almond.
5:53
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's not normal, right, And as much as
5:56
Speaker 2: I wanted to believe it was, I knew it wasn't.
5:59
Speaker 2: Because I need answers, I kept going back until I
6:02
Speaker 2: felt that I had a sufficient and correct answer to
6:06
Speaker 2: that question.
6:07
Speaker 1: And how many times did you have to go to
6:09
Speaker 1: the doctor before you were diagnosed?
6:11
Speaker 6: Countless? Honestly I went at least four times.
6:14
Speaker 4: Wow.
6:15
Speaker 1: Fortunately Jackie managed to beat the odds. It was a
6:18
Speaker 1: chance encounter that finally got her the immediate and specialized
6:21
Speaker 1: care she needed.
6:23
Speaker 2: And in the end, I ended up being diagnosed after
6:27
Speaker 2: going with my mother for her mammogram and them presenting
6:31
Speaker 2: a breast with a model of a benign lump and
6:34
Speaker 2: a malignant lump, and when she described what malignant lumps
6:38
Speaker 2: typically present as mine checked all of those boxes.
6:41
Speaker 6: So that's what.
6:42
Speaker 2: Made me go see my primary care and he referred
6:45
Speaker 2: me to a surgical oncologist. And I remember being early twenties,
6:49
Speaker 2: supposedly getting ready to start my life and having to
6:53
Speaker 2: go see an oncologist was quite frightening. So I went,
6:56
Speaker 2: I was diagnosed, and I remember it like it was
6:59
Speaker 2: yesterday because it initially the surgeon was very jovial. He
7:03
Speaker 2: knew one of my mother's doctors. We were like great
7:05
Speaker 2: friends meeting. So they put me to sleep. They had
7:08
Speaker 2: to remove this lump. I found out it was a
7:10
Speaker 2: lyptnode that was filled with melanoma. But when I went
7:13
Speaker 2: in to get the results from the biopsy, he did
7:17
Speaker 2: not look at me when he saw me coming down
7:19
Speaker 2: the hall, And that was something that even to this day,
7:22
Speaker 2: I can see his face. I can see this physician
7:25
Speaker 2: sitting at his little desk, and I could still remember.
7:28
Speaker 6: His face when he walked in the room.
7:30
Speaker 2: It was very solemn and he said, Jackie, you have
7:33
Speaker 2: stage three melanoma, And that was something that was completely
7:37
Speaker 2: shocking because you don't see someone that looks like this
7:39
Speaker 2: usually with melanoma at all, and then for it to
7:42
Speaker 2: be stage three, How did this happen? And when did
7:46
Speaker 2: this happen? So it was you know, I was completely shocked.
7:53
Speaker 1: You mentioned that, you said, someone like me, someone who's young,
7:57
Speaker 1: this is not supposed to happen to me, right, that's story.
8:00
Speaker 1: So do you believe that there's misconceptions when it comes
8:03
Speaker 1: to melanoma, whether it be your age, whether it be
8:06
Speaker 1: your race or ethnicity, that we kind of take on
8:10
Speaker 1: as truths and are potentially not so true.
8:14
Speaker 2: I have been in this space for twenty years, and
8:18
Speaker 2: I know that people who are darker typically feel that
8:20
Speaker 2: melanin serves as a protectant against UV rays. I've heard
8:25
Speaker 2: this a lot, that it's like a superpower, and I say, okay, well,
8:28
Speaker 2: I definitely have a lot of melanin, and it didn't
8:31
Speaker 2: serve as a superpower for me.
8:33
Speaker 1: As a black woman. Jackie has melanated skin. Melanin is
8:37
Speaker 1: a substance that produces pigmentation in the eyes, hair, and skin.
8:41
Speaker 2: I remember too saying Oh, no, I don't sunburn, like, oh,
8:44
Speaker 2: look at me, And one of my friends said, no,
8:45
Speaker 2: you're sunburn like, look at your nose is red. It's
8:47
Speaker 2: going to start peeling.
8:48
Speaker 4: And it did.
8:49
Speaker 2: It's a dangerous misconception, right, because one of the things
8:53
Speaker 2: I've learned over the years is that when people of color,
8:56
Speaker 2: African Americans in particular, present with melanoma, it's typically later stage.
9:00
Speaker 6: Okay, so it's a poor prognosis.
9:03
Speaker 2: And when we look at charts, the incident's rate is
9:06
Speaker 2: almost flat, but the mortality rate has a spike.
9:09
Speaker 1: Because Jackie insisted on being her own advocate and stuck
9:12
Speaker 1: to her intuition, she survived and went on to thrive.
9:16
Speaker 1: We'll hear more about that later, but first, let's talk
9:19
Speaker 1: to a dermatologist who spends her days diagnosing and treating
9:22
Speaker 1: skin cancer. She'll tell us about the best ways to
9:25
Speaker 1: protect ourselves.
9:26
Speaker 3: Right after the.
9:27
Speaker 1: Break, Welcome back to Skin Queries. Let's get into the
9:38
Speaker 1: science behind our skins relationship to the sun. I'd like
9:41
Speaker 1: you to meet doctor Mary Stevenson, a surgeon here in
9:44
Speaker 1: New York City. Hi.
9:45
Speaker 3: Mary, thanks for being with us today.
9:47
Speaker 4: Hi thanks for having me.
9:49
Speaker 1: So, Mary, can you tell me a little bit about
9:51
Speaker 1: your practice in New York City.
9:53
Speaker 7: So I'm a skin cancer surgeon, specifically a most surgeon,
9:58
Speaker 7: which is a specific kind of surgery her skin cancers,
10:01
Speaker 7: and a cosmetic dermatologist.
10:02
Speaker 4: But I take care of people who have.
10:04
Speaker 7: Melanomas basal cells squin THESS cells through a unique form
10:09
Speaker 7: of surgery invented by doctor Frederick mos generally removing cancers
10:12
Speaker 7: and then putting things back together after we take them.
10:15
Speaker 3: And we're just going to dive right in.
10:17
Speaker 1: So can you tell us what does sun damage look like?
10:21
Speaker 4: So? Sun damage comes in a lot of ways.
10:24
Speaker 7: We have sunburns, obviously, blisters, itchy skin, hot skin. In
10:30
Speaker 7: different shades of skin, you can have different things. You
10:32
Speaker 7: can have tanning or darkening. You can also have peeling.
10:37
Speaker 7: All of those things are signs that you're getting damage
10:39
Speaker 7: from the sun. And then as we continue to have
10:42
Speaker 7: sun damage, we get aging of the skin, so wrinkles,
10:46
Speaker 7: less thickness, which means more laxity. It also means if
10:49
Speaker 7: you have paper thin skin, you'll see bruises more. And
10:52
Speaker 7: those are the things you know more for Vanity's sake,
10:55
Speaker 7: that you can see from aging in the sun.
10:58
Speaker 1: What is your conversation when it comes to suncare. So
11:01
Speaker 1: it's definitely a range.
11:02
Speaker 7: People who've had skin cancers or very concerned they had
11:05
Speaker 7: their first skin cancer often become very compliant and want
11:09
Speaker 7: to put their sunscreen on every single day. I admit
11:12
Speaker 7: that as a skin cancer surgeon, someone who's very fair,
11:15
Speaker 7: I put my sun screen on to prevent skin cancers,
11:18
Speaker 7: but also because I want my skin to continue to
11:21
Speaker 7: look nice as I get older, and things like malasma
11:24
Speaker 7: where you can have pigment on your cheeks. If I
11:27
Speaker 7: get sun I start to get malasma, so I stay
11:29
Speaker 7: out of the sun, also admittedly for vanity's sake. And
11:32
Speaker 7: then there are people who really stay out of the
11:34
Speaker 7: sun because they don't want their skin to ate. They
11:37
Speaker 7: don't have wrinkles when they're older that come sooner, they
11:40
Speaker 7: don't have sun spots, you know, things like liver spots.
11:42
Speaker 7: We used to call them on our hands, all of
11:45
Speaker 7: those things. People have a wide range of reasons, and
11:48
Speaker 7: to me, as long as you're putting on your sunscreen,
11:50
Speaker 7: I'm good with it.
11:51
Speaker 1: And is it true that when certain people with darker
11:53
Speaker 1: skin because they have this perception that they're not getting
11:56
Speaker 1: as much sun damage. Is it that they might get
12:00
Speaker 1: diagnose later in life or potentially have worse outcomes when
12:04
Speaker 1: it comes to their diagnosis since they haven't been so precautious.
12:07
Speaker 7: So we definitely know in darker skin tone, skin of color,
12:11
Speaker 7: that diagnosis can be later and that outcomes can be
12:14
Speaker 7: worse because it's being caught at a later stage. And
12:17
Speaker 7: I think awareness is really important. Just because you have
12:20
Speaker 7: darker skin doesn't mean you can't get burned, doesn't mean
12:23
Speaker 7: you can't get damaged from the sun, and doesn't mean
12:25
Speaker 7: you can't get skin cancer.
12:26
Speaker 4: I take care of all ranges of skin.
12:29
Speaker 7: Yes, a lot of you know, Caucasian skin, very fair
12:32
Speaker 7: skinned people are repeat flyers in my office. But you
12:35
Speaker 7: can get cancer no matter what your skin tone. And
12:37
Speaker 7: I think a lot of people don't think that's true.
12:40
Speaker 7: A lot of people feel like, oh, I'm tan. Even
12:43
Speaker 7: lighter patients who go get that terrible sunburn and then
12:47
Speaker 7: their skin tants say, you know that's my protective layer.
12:50
Speaker 7: That's not your protective layer. That is your skin making
12:53
Speaker 7: melanin and trying to fight off the rays that are
12:56
Speaker 7: damaging it.
12:57
Speaker 1: Interesting, I actually didn't know that that is what it
13:01
Speaker 1: means and what your body's doing. I mean, our bodies
13:03
Speaker 1: are so amazing when it comes to trying to acclimate
13:06
Speaker 1: and protect ourselves naturally, that's incredible.
13:09
Speaker 7: That's exactly what your body's doing. It's making melanin, which
13:12
Speaker 7: absorbs UV rays and that's the sun's rays that are
13:15
Speaker 7: going out and trying to make more of it from
13:17
Speaker 7: your melanosites. So there are cells in your skin that
13:21
Speaker 7: make the melanin and then that goes into your skin
13:23
Speaker 7: and that's what's causing you to protect yourself.
13:26
Speaker 1: All the years that I've been on this or that
13:28
Speaker 1: had no idea, that's what tanning was. And so you
13:31
Speaker 1: know me, I'm trying to be a reformed tanner. Exic right,
13:35
Speaker 1: too much for someone who does like the sun? What
13:38
Speaker 1: are the habits that we can incorporate into our lives
13:41
Speaker 1: beyond just hiding at home.
13:42
Speaker 4: I think there are so many things we can do.
13:44
Speaker 7: One sunscreen, so you should put sunscreen on every day,
13:48
Speaker 7: more so in the summer, and it should just be
13:50
Speaker 7: part of your routine. The little bottles of sunscreen at
13:54
Speaker 7: the drug store that are with the moisturizer are really great.
13:57
Speaker 7: If they're SPF thirty. A lot of them are SPF fifteen.
14:00
Speaker 7: We really prefer SPF thirty or above. Okay, I usually
14:03
Speaker 7: wear higher than that, fifty or seventy, but I have
14:06
Speaker 7: sunscreen on every day on my hands, on my chest,
14:08
Speaker 7: on my neck, on my face.
14:10
Speaker 6: Ears.
14:10
Speaker 7: I find really hard even personally getting here, getting behind.
14:14
Speaker 7: And then besides just sunscreen, you have to use it correctly,
14:17
Speaker 7: so you have to reapply it usually every two hours,
14:19
Speaker 7: if you're out in the sun, if you're sweating, if
14:21
Speaker 7: you're going in the water, and you have to use enough.
14:24
Speaker 7: So we say a shot glass is what you should
14:27
Speaker 7: use to cover yourself.
14:28
Speaker 4: That's a lot of sunscreen.
14:30
Speaker 3: For your entire body, not your face.
14:32
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, I mean you can do what you want,
14:34
Speaker 7: but yes, for your entire body. But if by the
14:37
Speaker 7: end of the summer, you, for your family or yourself
14:39
Speaker 7: still have that same bottle of sunscreen, you're not using enough.
14:42
Speaker 7: You should be going through them more quickly. And then
14:45
Speaker 7: other things like sun protective clothing we now have which
14:49
Speaker 7: has a UPF which tells you the factor it's blocking sun.
14:53
Speaker 3: My kids wear rash guards during the summer.
14:55
Speaker 1: It's so easy and there's actually really cute stuff available.
14:59
Speaker 1: But even if you can get your hands on sunblack swimwear.
15:01
Speaker 1: Regular clothes work just fine.
15:04
Speaker 7: I was like the kid in the T shirt in
15:05
Speaker 7: the pool, which I hated.
15:07
Speaker 4: When I was little.
15:08
Speaker 7: We have a lot of options these days, and even
15:10
Speaker 7: companies making really nice options.
15:12
Speaker 5: Right.
15:12
Speaker 7: I don't go to the beach at noon, you know,
15:14
Speaker 7: I'll go nine o'clock, ten o'clock for a little bit.
15:17
Speaker 7: I stay out of it usually eleven to one, Okay.
15:20
Speaker 7: My favorite time to go to the beach is around
15:22
Speaker 7: three thirty. It's quiet, it's nice and a little more shady.
15:26
Speaker 7: Use an umbrella. Don't be directly tanning yourself. Stay under
15:30
Speaker 7: the umbrella.
15:31
Speaker 4: You know.
15:31
Speaker 7: Those are hard things to do because the sun feels good.
15:34
Speaker 7: But I find that they're really important behaviors to incorporate
15:37
Speaker 7: into your every day during the summer if you live
15:39
Speaker 7: in a warm place, because they're going to keep you protected.
15:42
Speaker 1: And when it comes to an application of sunscreen for
15:45
Speaker 1: your skincare routine, for instance, do you put a moisturizer
15:49
Speaker 1: on first and then sunscreen or where does it fit
15:51
Speaker 1: within your skincare regimen.
15:53
Speaker 4: So it depends on the season.
15:55
Speaker 7: For me, if I need less moisturizer, I'll just use
15:57
Speaker 7: my sunscreen as like the daily cream, but I usually
16:00
Speaker 7: put on a mineral, which is something like titanium or zinc,
16:05
Speaker 7: similar to what might be in like a baby's typersh cream,
16:08
Speaker 7: so very protective. We now have really nice formulations of
16:11
Speaker 7: those that aren't this pasty white, But usually my routine
16:15
Speaker 7: really is mineral sunscreen and then a tinted sunscreen over
16:18
Speaker 7: that as kind of the idea of a foundation, so
16:20
Speaker 7: I'm double covered and also feel like I'm looking the
16:24
Speaker 7: way I want to.
16:25
Speaker 1: Right, And you mentioned titanium or zinc, is one or
16:28
Speaker 1: the other better? Or do you look for certain ingredients
16:31
Speaker 1: when seeking out a sunscreen.
16:33
Speaker 7: There's physical and chemical sunscreens. I prefer physical. Most dermatologists
16:38
Speaker 7: perform physical chemical sunscreens are absorbing that energy and transmitting
16:43
Speaker 7: it so that it doesn't harm you. Physical ones are
16:45
Speaker 7: reflecting those raised back so they're not even reaching you,
16:48
Speaker 7: and these are often what we traditionally thought of as
16:51
Speaker 7: baby sunscreens.
16:52
Speaker 4: The sun also has two different kinds of rays.
16:54
Speaker 7: It's admitting UVA and UVP, so this is what we
16:57
Speaker 7: call a broad spectrum sunscreen. Chemical ones that say broad spectrum.
17:02
Speaker 7: But I find mineral to be the most reliable, and
17:05
Speaker 7: we're lucky now, we do have a lot of ones
17:07
Speaker 7: that prevent us from feeling.
17:09
Speaker 4: Like we're white and goofy. I'd like the white and
17:11
Speaker 4: goofier ones in the summer.
17:13
Speaker 3: I do too, Weirdly, I don't mind it at all.
17:16
Speaker 7: I feel like I'm more protected that way. But you
17:18
Speaker 7: should be uffing the ante if you're going to be
17:20
Speaker 7: sweating or in the water or just out in the summer.
17:24
Speaker 1: What about certain areas that get missed? I mean you
17:26
Speaker 1: mentioned your hands. My mom actually growing up was always like,
17:30
Speaker 1: don't forget your hands. Don't forget your hands. That's the
17:32
Speaker 1: first thing to show when it comes to aging. I
17:35
Speaker 1: feel like it's such an underrated one. Admittedly, I was
17:38
Speaker 1: away recently and I was really good about the sunscreen,
17:42
Speaker 1: but my lips were the one that got a little burnt.
17:45
Speaker 1: So what body parts are underrated? Lips are definitely hard.
17:48
Speaker 1: You can buy a lip, mom, many of those are fifteen.
17:51
Speaker 1: It's hard to find a thirty. I actually just use
17:54
Speaker 1: my regular sunscreen in the summer. I'll just, you know,
17:56
Speaker 1: put a little on. Your Mom is dead right that
18:00
Speaker 1: hands are a very big giveaway of age. You get
18:02
Speaker 1: sun spots, they get wrinkles.
18:04
Speaker 7: What about the scalp. Scalp is hard. That's why I
18:07
Speaker 7: had and I should have mentioned that earlier. A wide
18:09
Speaker 7: brimmed hat, a baseball cap is a cap. Yes, it
18:12
Speaker 7: protects a little bit, but it's not a hat. You
18:14
Speaker 7: also want to have a very wide rim on your hat. Basically,
18:17
Speaker 7: sun should not be reaching your face, okay, And sunglasses
18:21
Speaker 7: that are protective are great because it's hard to rub
18:23
Speaker 7: sunscreen here. It's very irritating as well. And no sprays,
18:26
Speaker 7: which I think you would agree with. Really do not
18:29
Speaker 7: like spray sunscreen. One, you can't just spray it on,
18:32
Speaker 7: you have to rub it in, so you might as
18:34
Speaker 7: well be rubbing in a cream. Yeah, Two you're using
18:36
Speaker 7: an airsol, and three you're inhaling that airsol. So I
18:39
Speaker 7: am really not a fan of them. I feel like
18:41
Speaker 7: they cause a false sense of security and one of
18:44
Speaker 7: the biggest mistakes people make is they're just spraying themselves
18:47
Speaker 7: and they're not rubbing it in.
18:48
Speaker 3: Like the perfume spray and walk in.
18:51
Speaker 4: Is not going to be that's a nice idea.
18:54
Speaker 1: Doctor Stevenson has some basic guidelines to follow when it
18:57
Speaker 1: comes to keeping an eye on your own body.
19:00
Speaker 7: I always tell patients check your skin once a month,
19:02
Speaker 7: and you're looking for moles that are regular, So we
19:05
Speaker 7: talk about avcdes asymmetry, which means it's not smooth around
19:11
Speaker 7: the borders. Be as borders so if you couldn't circle
19:13
Speaker 7: it with a pencil, c as color, so if it
19:16
Speaker 7: has different colors, if it's getting darker, d as diameter,
19:19
Speaker 7: so diameter generally greater than let's say a pencil eraser.
19:24
Speaker 7: And then evolution, and that one's really important. If you
19:26
Speaker 7: notice something changing growing, getting darker, has darker spots in it,
19:30
Speaker 7: that needs to get checked out. Everyone regardless of your background,
19:34
Speaker 7: should go to a dermatologists, make that relationship, get screened once,
19:37
Speaker 7: and then decide with your dermatologists how often you should
19:40
Speaker 7: get screened. In fairer skin, I say once a year
19:43
Speaker 7: if you've had a skin cancer that's a squamous or
19:46
Speaker 7: basal cell, so these are more common than melanoma. Twice
19:50
Speaker 7: a year, and then if you've had a melanoma, you
19:51
Speaker 7: should be going three or four times a year and
19:53
Speaker 7: getting checked and you know your skin.
19:55
Speaker 4: So that really resonated with me.
19:57
Speaker 7: In Jackie's story, I always tell my patient, like, you
20:00
Speaker 7: know your skin best, so if something feels like it's changing.
20:03
Speaker 7: Doesn't feel right. Go show your dermatologists and get it
20:06
Speaker 7: checked out.
20:07
Speaker 1: Doctor Stevenson, Thank you so much for being here.
20:09
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
20:11
Speaker 1: It's interesting that self advocacy keeps coming up. It's something
20:15
Speaker 1: doctor Stevenson tells her patience, and it's a message Jackie
20:18
Speaker 1: is spreading as well. In the decades since her diagnosis,
20:21
Speaker 1: Jackie has been sharing her story as often as possible
20:24
Speaker 1: to raise awareness and help as many people as she can. Today,
20:28
Speaker 1: Jackie is a new mom. She and her family are thriving,
20:31
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean she doesn't bear scars emotionally and physically.
20:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. Some are good and some make
20:39
Speaker 2: me say, why did this happen to me? I have
20:43
Speaker 2: a nine inch scar and my groin from where they
20:46
Speaker 2: remove the lymph nodes, and then what I call my
20:49
Speaker 2: little prison tattoos, which was something I didn't realize. When
20:53
Speaker 2: you go for radiation, they tattoo you for where the
20:55
Speaker 2: beams should hit and they do it with a needle
20:58
Speaker 2: and ink. So I have those markers like a real tattoo. Yeah,
21:02
Speaker 2: I'm like, I have a prison tattoos. So I have
21:04
Speaker 2: those markers on me. And then from radiation. I have
21:07
Speaker 2: a scar that kind of acts as a big border
21:09
Speaker 2: around my surgical scar. I develop lymphedema in my right leg,
21:13
Speaker 2: so much like breast cancer patients have it in their arm,
21:16
Speaker 2: I have it in my right leg and I have
21:19
Speaker 2: to wear compression stocking every day. I've had three surgeries
21:22
Speaker 2: to try to help alleviate that, and that's probably one
21:27
Speaker 2: of the more difficult things because now I'm a little asymmetrical.
21:30
Speaker 2: And for years I went and talk about this, So
21:32
Speaker 2: this is big for me to even share.
21:34
Speaker 1: Do you feel you didn't talk about it because was
21:37
Speaker 1: it that you were ashamed of it or that you
21:40
Speaker 1: were just not ready.
21:40
Speaker 4: To talk about it?
21:42
Speaker 2: Very self conscious because my right leg is bigger than
21:46
Speaker 2: my left. I have this compression stocking that I have
21:48
Speaker 2: to wear every day, and people stare at it, and
21:52
Speaker 2: I'd become a little angry because you see people staring,
21:56
Speaker 2: and I learned, like wow, people are really invasive and
22:00
Speaker 2: are really comfortable asking questions of a stranger and asking
22:04
Speaker 2: personal questions. So that's one of the things. There are
22:07
Speaker 2: moments where I wonder, you will will.
22:11
Speaker 6: It come back? Will I have cancer again?
22:13
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget one of my neighbors said cancer
22:16
Speaker 2: is a shadow that always follows you, and that stayed
22:20
Speaker 2: with me because as I move forward through life, I
22:23
Speaker 2: realize how true it is. And one of the things
22:26
Speaker 2: I talk about is how they say you survived cancer,
22:29
Speaker 2: and I feel like I'm surviving because I don't know,
22:32
Speaker 2: like you survived a car accident and it's likely you'll
22:34
Speaker 2: never have that again. But it's quite possible that my
22:37
Speaker 2: cancer could come back. So I think that's the thing,
22:40
Speaker 2: that it's kind of looming in the background, and you
22:42
Speaker 2: hope that she doesn't tap you on the shoulder again.
22:46
Speaker 2: So I joked when I was going through cancer when
22:48
Speaker 2: people would be sad for me, and I said, well,
22:50
Speaker 2: you know what, I might live through cancer and get
22:53
Speaker 2: in a car accident. Like we're all going to die
22:55
Speaker 2: from something and we don't know what and when. But
22:58
Speaker 2: when you have cancer, it makes it more.
23:03
Speaker 3: Here's one final thought from Jackie.
23:05
Speaker 2: You know yourself better than anyone else. So that's one
23:08
Speaker 2: of the first things I always share with people. The
23:11
Speaker 2: second thing is to be the squeaky wheel, be annoying.
23:14
Speaker 2: If I hadn't, I wouldn't be here today.
23:18
Speaker 1: When it comes to so many things in life, We're
23:20
Speaker 1: all just doing the best we can. But Jackie felt
23:23
Speaker 1: something was wrong and she did something about it. She
23:26
Speaker 1: insisted on getting the medical help she needed, which is
23:29
Speaker 1: so inspiring when it comes to our health, particularly our
23:33
Speaker 1: own skincare. Trusting our intuition while understanding the best practices
23:37
Speaker 1: is so important for ourselves and our families well being.
23:40
Speaker 1: I am so grateful for this conversation because it shows
23:43
Speaker 1: that balance is so valuable. It's not necessarily all or nothing.
23:47
Speaker 1: It's about enjoying what we love in doses and doing
23:50
Speaker 1: it in a smart and responsible way. Today our guests
23:55
Speaker 1: were Jackie Smith and doctor Mary Stevenson. A massive thank
23:58
Speaker 1: you to both. Skin Craze his host by myself Nicole
24:01
Speaker 1: Berry and executive produced by Yvonne Shehan. Our senior producer
24:04
Speaker 1: is Tory Weldon. Our junior producers are reem Al mcgraby
24:07
Speaker 1: and Jenny Cunningham. The show was mixed and features original
24:10
Speaker 1: music by Sam Sagan. If you enjoy the show, tell
24:13
Speaker 1: your friends. You can also listen and follow on the
24:16
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts. Don't
24:20
Speaker 1: forget to leave a review. We would love to know
24:22
Speaker 1: what you think. Until next time,