WHAT'S UP DOC: Story behind sunburns

  • Published
  • By Capt. (Dr.) Stephen Storey
  • 47th Medical Group
LAUGHLIN AFB, Texas --  Down here we hear so many cautions about sunburns. What's the big deal?

Sunburn is inflammation due to a part of the sun's light known as ultraviolet rays. Inflammation is your body's response to any injury or infection. It's what medicine calls the process of swelling, redness, tenderness, and maybe seeping fluid that you see with a sore throat or an infected splinter. 

You may wonder where's the injury from the light? It's the damage that the light does to your skin and to the layers below the skin surface. 

The sunburn you see is the least of problems as this damage below the skin can have lasting consequences. Various kinds of skin cancers, including squamous cell and basal cell cancers and melanoma, relate to amount of sun exposure and sunburns a person accumulates. 

Also, increased sun exposure can result in those thick dark spots called solar keratosis and actinic keratosis which require minor surgery or chemical peals to remove. 

It's like a bundle of sticks that aren't heavy stick-by-stick but pile-up and become too heavy to lift. It is important to realize that it takes only two peeling sunburns in a lifetime to put yourself at higher risk for skin cancers.