Antioxidants are Key to Preventing Skin Cancer on Yahoo! Health

An exciting new batch of studies is showing that antioxidants can help protect against thymine dimers and consequently reduce your risk of getting skin cancer. Research has found that the powerful antioxidants Vitamins C and E can both reduce the severity of sunburns and significantly reduce the incidence of thymine dimers. Green tea has also been shown to have protective qualities.To protect yourself from skin cancer, it might help if you understand a bit about thymine dimers and their role in causing cancerous lesions.

Thymine is a base pair that forms some of the blocks in the "ladder," or double-helix structure, of everyone's DNA. When thymines are exposed to sunlight, they bind together and become thymine dimers (they're called "dimers" because there are two thymines: "di" is the latin prefix for "double").

When this happens, your body responds with a cellular process that splits up the dimers so they become two separate thymines again. The problem is, each time the thymines are split there's a chance that a mutation will occur--and some mutations can be cancerous.

So, now that you understand the science, let's talk about how to prevent this from happening!

You can ingest more antioxidants by taking oral supplements, but I think it's better to get them by including plenty of antioxidant-rich foods--like dark green and orange vegetables, pomegranate juice, blueberries and cocoa powder--in your diet.

You can also use a topical antioxidant cream. So far, only one product, SkinCeuticals Phloretin CF, has been clinically shown to penetrate the skin and protect against thymine dimers (please note that I'm not involved with this company or paid to endorse this-or any other-product). The serum contains the antioxidants phloretin, which is extracted from apples, and Vitamin C. Of course, this is not to say that other topical antioxidants don't provide the same benefits, just that their effectiveness hasn't yet been properly studied. I'm also a big fan of La Roche-Posay Active C, which is formulated properly to prevent the Vitamin C from oxidizing.

It's important to remember that antioxidants such as these can prevent thymine dimers, but they can't repair them once they've already happened. And of course, they are not a replacement for sunscreen! You still need to wear a hat and apply a generous layer of SPF any time you're going to spend more than 15 minutes in the sun.

Wishing you great skin!

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Dr. Baumann is author of the best-selling book, " The Skin Type Solution." To learn more about her revolutionary skin typing system, visit her Web site, SkinTypeSolutions.com.

All of Dr. Baumann's recommended skin care products are available online, and a portion of proceeds goes to The Dermatology Foundation.