Melanoma Rate Doubles; The Skinny on Healthy Weight and NBA Concussion Policy Under Review

The rate of diagnoses for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, has doubled between 1982 and 2011, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says in a new report.

However, skin cancer prevention programs could prevent 20 percent of new cases between 2020 and 2030, the CDC says in this month’s Vital Signs report.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S. More than 90 percent of melanoma skin cancers are due to skin cell damage from ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure, most often from unprotected or prolonged exposure to sunlight or in tanning beds. Melanoma rates increased from 11.2 per 100,000 in 1982 to 22.7 per 100,000 in 2011.

By 2030, according to the CDC report, effective community skin cancer programs could prevent an estimated 230,000 melanoma skin cancers and save $2.7 billion dollars in treatment costs. “Successful programs feature community efforts that combine education, mass media campaigns and policy changes to increase skin protection for children and adults,” the CDC reports.

The report emphasizes that without additional community prevention efforts, melanoma will continue to increase over the next 15 years, with 112,000 new cases projected in 2030. The annual cost of treating new melanoma cases is projected to nearly triple from $457 million in 2011 to $1.6 billion in 2030.

Read more about skin cancer:

— John Fernandez

The Skinny on Healthy Weight

Debate about women’s healthy weight and what’s too thin resurfaced this week when the United Kingdom’s advertising watchdog banned a fashion magazine ad featuring a model they deemed “unhealthily underweight.”  The ban and the Advertising Standards Authority’s continued pressure on the U.K.’s fashion industry to promote healthy-looking models follows a two-fold increase in the number of British teenagers hospitalized for eating disorders in the last three years.

Other recent crackdowns against media images glamorizing extremely thin models include backlashes in Israel and France. In April, France passed a law that would prosecute modeling agencies with fines and jail time for employing and promoting “undernourished” looking models.

In the U.S., more people die from anorexia and bulimia, two of the most common eating disorders, than from any other mental health disorder, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Research published in Pediatrics found that two-thirds of girls in grades five through 12 in the U.S. say magazine pictures influence their body image ideals.

Physician and nutritional experts at Baptist Health continue to promote healthy weight by encouraging patients to eat a healthy diet, get enough exercise and monitor body mass index (BMI). The doctors’ advice and BMI guidelines are included in several articles in this blog:

–Sharon Harvey Rosenberg