Congratulations, mommy-to-be! You most likely have stacks of books at your bedside describing the fascinating changes your body will undergo on this 40-week journey. Yet few will offer details about some of the most glaringly obvious changes that will face you in the mirror: on your skin! Pregnancy-related hormone changes can induce new bumps and spots to appear on your skin, or may also alter pre-existing skin conditions. Use the following guide to help decipher these changes and learn how to treat and prevent them. Acne Some women find their acne actually improves during pregnancy. If you are among the … Continue reading »
Many of Dr. Robin Travers’ patients at SkinCare Physicians ask her if there are any vitamins or supplements they can take to improve the health of their skin. She has answered, honestly, that there aren’t many carefully controlled scientific studies that prove that vitamins have any benefit for the skin. That may be changing! In the ONTRAC (Oral Nicotinamide to Reduce Actinic Cancer) study, Australian researchers showed that nicotinamide, an inexpensive and easily available form of vitamin B3, significantly reduces the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers among people who have already had a basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. … Continue reading »
Careful medical record keeping is one of the essential aspects of delivering good medical care. When SkinCare Physicians opened its doors in 2000, we saw patients and recorded our visits in an old-fashioned paper chart. By 2008, we had transitioned to an electronic charting system that involved scanning the paper records of our patients. We still wrote in our charts as we always did, but these sheets of paper were securely scanned into a system that allowed improved tracking and management. And now, in 2017, we are moving to a truly electronic medical record (EMR)! During your future visits, you will … Continue reading »
January is typically the time when many people embark on a set of New Year’s resolutions. Are yours involving a skin exam, or better a couple skin exam? Here is why two is better than one when it comes to skin exams. Two is better than one when it comes to skin exams There are good medical research studies to show us that teaching partners how to assist each other in partner-assisted skin self-examinations helps improve skin cancer detection. And may help save a life! Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the US. This year, almost … Continue reading »
The fall sports season is well underway for kids and parent volunteers are essential to the success of youth sport programs. This year, I took on the challenge of running the First Aid table for two of my son’s meets. Sure, there were a few bumped and bruised knees, and one bloody nose. But by far the most common injuries I encountered among the kids were the scrapes and cuts, road rash and abrasions, after they took tumbles. What’s the best way to treat these scrapes and cuts to minimize the risk of infection in the short term and scarring … Continue reading »
Many of my makeup-wearing patients are excellent with their morning sunscreen application. But, what about the midday application of sunscreen? When I ask about their sun protection habits, my patients proudly exclaim that they never leave their home in the morning without applying an SPF 30 sunscreen to their face, neck and hands. Many of them are aware that the efficacy of the sunscreen ingredients begins to diminish after only a few hours. But very few people re-apply their sunscreen in the midday, so many are completely unprotected from sun exposure from noon onward! The main reason for this is … Continue reading »
I’ve run the Boston Marathon for the past 10 years. The afternoon before the race, I host a big carb-loading party (and fundraiser for the Melanoma Foundation of New England!) for my running friends, some of whom travel from far-flung parts of the world to run this historic race. One of my friends, Bob, is a very smart man, and he gave me, a dermatologist, a really important lesson about sunscreen among marathoners. Bob runs a speedy (sub-3:00) race. Several years ago, the weather predictions called for clouds, and Bob was not wearing sunscreen. But these clouds unexpectedly parted at … Continue reading »
There’s a new dangerous creature lurking in the waters of Cape Cod and the Islands, and it’s not a great white shark! It’s a little jellyfish called Gonionemus vertens, and stings from this jellyfish have been increasingly reported in Cape Cod ponds and bays. The population of these creatures is spreading for reasons that aren’t understood, and they are unfortunately associated with a painful sting. Gonionemus is a type of hydrozoan, like the Portuguese Man of War. Hydrozoans are not true jellyfish, but they resemble them enough that we often refer to them as such. Like the jellyfish, hydrozoans have … Continue reading »
The weather is getting warmer here in Boston, and we are putting away our long-sleeves and pants in favor of shorts and bare arms. Many patients at SkinCare Physicians want the “healthy” bronze of a tan… but without the risks associated with ultraviolet light exposure. Here is what our dermatologists have to say about self-tanners’ safety and how to best apply them. What’s in your self-tanners? Most self-tanners contain very safe ingredients, either dihydroxyacentone (DHA) or erythrulose. DHA is a type of sugar molecule that turns brown when it reacts with amino acids in your skin surface, in a reaction … Continue reading »
In the year since this blog post was first published, Lululemon’s inaccurate and potentially dangerous sunscreen advice continues to be printed on the bags that they hand out every day to customers. Lululemon WAS informed by the American Academy of Dermatology last year that its ‘sunscreen is dangerous’ quote printed on all its bags was spreading misinformation, and the company admitted that the message is “not research based” . If you are concerned about your risk of skin cancer and the potentially dangerous medical information Lululemon continues to dispense, email their ‘guest education center’ at gec@lululemon.com to voice your concerns. Pass … Continue reading »
