Skin & Beauty Community

It never truly hit me that sunburns can lead to skin cancer. I just thought sunburns were inconvenient things to have. I didn't wear sunscreen during a 4 hour burn last May during peak hours. I was looking to increase my vitamin D levels and enjoy some sun, because I live in the pacific northwest USA where it is mostly cloudy for the year 260+ days. Now, my skin has some red patchy spots (just like minor sun damage - somewhat, mostly normal though, not like those in Florida or California) and my whole body is darker skin tone. I did a full body tan both sides - what an idiot I was. I had my eyes closed most of the time. I already have a few moles, but a few more appeared. I could smell my skin literally burning when I was tanning. It's weird, but only ever since the burn has my skin had such terrible itching (more recently it has stopped - probably due to too many showers). I got the sunburn at 21, and am almost currently 22. I am a biochemistry major almost graduated, so I know what direct DNA damage is...now. It's real, and I believe the damage is done and worry. Other than this event, I got lots a tanning working outdoors on my land in the summers and have burned a couple of times when I was young (as we all may personally experience at one point).

Question is - how at risk am I for skin cancer? I put myself at very unecessary risk without sunscreen. My grandfather had stomach cancer from eating too many burned meats, my grandmother died of metastatic lung cancer in her brain from years of smoking. Cancer scares me more than anything else. I plan to never again burn, wear SPF 100 sunscreen when outdoors. I exercise 5 times/week running 10 miles each time (or cycling) and eat two healthy apples per day (seriously). I also drink a green tea per day. I avoid environmental pollutants as much as possible on my commute (except when I bicycled on the city roads for a couple of years). I avoid partially hydrogenated oils in food and stay away from frozen foods (only fresh sandwiches, pasta, etc.) and the latest controversial carcinogenic chemicals (i.e. caramel coloring in coke and syrup). I guess we learn from mistakes? Nothing I can do about now, right (specifically the sunburn)? At least now I know better to make better future choices, I suppose.

Thank you so much for reading and answering! By the way, can someone tell me what a "poll question" is when posting question on this MD forum?