Melanin: Aging of the Skin and Skin Cancer (Part 1)

Diana Clarke

“Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is responsible for 90% of the visible signs of aging on the skin of whites,” says Dr. Michael J. Martin, former Assistant Clinical Professor in the Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at University of California, San Francisco.

Blacks’ skin, however, ages much slower.

Why are most dark-skinned blacks protected from harmful UV rays? Because compared to whites, blacks possess more melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color.

Melanin

Melanin offers protection against UV rays for blacks and other dark-skinned people. Conversely, fair-skinned people are much less protected and more susceptible to skin cancer. Furthermore, albinos’ skin offers no protection.

Although blacks’ skin produces more melanin than whites’, all skin has the same number of melanocytes, the cells that manufacture the melanin.

1 2 3 4 »