Summer’s Here: Beware Of Ultraviolet Radiation

While the sun’s ultraviolet rays are a source of Vitamin D, which enhances the strength of human bones, ultraviolet rays do beget sunburns. This can result in skin cancer.

[Your Health]

Summer is around the corner so your average punter is getting ready to rush to the sun to enjoy its warmth.

Yet most people aren’t aware of the weal and the woe of the sun—While the sun’s ultraviolet rays are a source of Vitamin D, which enhances the strength of human bones, ultraviolet rays do beget sunburns. This can result in skin cancer.

Unlike dark-skinned people, fair-complexioned folks are particularly prone to skin cancer because their skin doesn’t contain much melanin. Fair-skinned people lack enough melanin because their body simply doesn’t optimally transform the tyrosine into melanin.

I always find it mind-bending whenever dark-complexioned people in France and in many places around the globe, out of ignorance and, or,  brainwashing, lay themselves out and resort to skin-lightening bleaches in order to erase the melanin our creator gave them to guard them against harmful sun rays and skin cancer. 

Many people fancy that melanin, the pigment of dark-skinned people, is produced by the body’s cells reaction to sunlight hitting the skin—however, the fact or truth is that the melanin is obtained after the transformation of the amino acid phenylalanine – contained in potatoes or spuds, ripe fruits and cereals – into tyrosine. It’s this tyrosine which is then transformed into melanin; the dark skin color or pigment. The melanin of humans isn’t produced by sunlight hitting the skin.

Even with sunscreen, it’s hazardous without melanin, or without being dark-skinned, to spend much time in the sun. Indeed, more and more ultraviolet radiation is reaching the earth; the ozone layer keeps becoming thinner and thinner with the passing of time. We do know that ultraviolet rays cause sunburns, which can lead to cancer.

Ultraviolet radiation passes through the surface of the fair skin and harms the cells underneath. As soon as the cells are damaged, they start morphing and this can bring about skin cancer.

Fair-skinned people can keep healthy skins with sunscreen, long sleeves and pants, as well as sun glasses. The sun must be shunned.

Although melanin naturally protects dark-skinned people against ultraviolet rays, they too need to protect their eyes from damage by wearing sunglasses on bright days.

Black Star News columnist Mathias Victorien Ntep is a PhD researcher at the Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and at the Leiden University, the Netherlands.

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