Ask the expert: What’s the best sunscreen?

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Tuesday, August 6, 2024

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Ask the expert: What’s the best sunscreen?

STHS Communication Department, CommDept@stph.org

Dr. Shahraam Kamalpour, a dermatologist, was a recent guest on Northshore Healthbeat, a twice-monthly podcast recently launched by St. Tammany Health System. (Photo by Mike Scott/STHS)

Things may have been different when you were a kid, but nowadays we all know full well that we should be wearing sunscreen whenever we spend time outdoors.

That’s true in the summer, and it’s true in the spring, winter and fall, too.

But how do you know which sunscreen to wear?

It’s a good question, and while we had Northshore dermatologist Dr. Shahraam Kamalpour in studio recently for Northshore Healthbeat – St. Tammany Health System’s recently launched, twice-monthly podcast – we asked him about that, among other things.

Below, find a transcript of part of that conversation, which has been lightly edited for flow.

When it comes to sunscreen, there are tons of options out there. But what’s the best?
The most important sunscreen is the one that you’re going to wear. It doesn’t matter if it has the best ingredients. There’s some fancy new sunscreens that have DNA repair enzymes that can actually help allegedly repair the sun damage to your DNA, and some studies might support some of that, but the most important thing is that you’re wearing it.

So if it’s one you find cosmetically elegant, that you find doesn’t burn in your eyes when you sweat, or you just like it – you like the bottle, whatever the reason is – the most important thing is you’re going to use it.

Regular screenings from a professional are a key to catching skin cancer early, but are there things people should be watching for on their own?
The most common form of skin cancer is basal cell carcinoma. Basal cell carcinoma usually presents as a nonhealing wound or as a small pink bump, so that’s something to definitely keep an eye out for.

Squamous cell carcinoma is also extremely common, and those bumps are scaley, sometimes they’re red and they’re usually tender to the touch, although they might not always be. So that’s another thing to watch out for.

Of course, melanoma is one of the most concerning, and although most melanomas are pigmented, which means they’re dark – usually we tell people to watch out for dark spots, specifically jet black or changing in color, multiple colors – some melanomas don’t have pigmentation. Some of them might be red or close to clear, so these are things where you really do want to get somebody who is a professional to look at your skin once a year. But in general, if you’re seeing new lesions or things that are changing, those are things to watch for. 

Listen to full episodes of Northshore Healthbeat at most major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music, among others.

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