Jeff.City is devoted to helping people — especially 50+ people — maximize their skin health, and minimize the risk of embarrassing or dangerous skin conditions. Other lifestyle issues for 50+ are also covered.
Jeff Noedel, publisher of Jeff.City, is a 62-year-old journalist with fair skin, who has been struggling with skin issues his whole adult life. His first skin cancer symptoms began at about age 52.
Jeff is not a doctor. He writes and speaks from the perspective of a patient, who asks many questions and reads about dermatology issues on a very regular basis.
How many American adults suffer from skin conditions?
:: Two to three percent will suffer from at least one bout of dermatitis in their lives
:: 16 million experience rosacea
:: More than five million Americans each year will visit the doctor to treat actinic keratosis (AK)
:: Three million Americans a year are struggling with non-malignant skin cancer (NMSC), which can create serious lesions but does not tend to spread through the body. The two types of NMSC are squamous cell cancer (SCC) and basal cell cancer (BCC)
:: One million Americans are living with melanoma, the most dangerous skin cancer, because it can spread through the body via lymph nodes
Skin cancer, already the #1 most common form of cancer, is now being diagnosed in 9,500 Americans each day. The rates of new cases have been skyrocketing since the 1970s.
Caucasian men over age 50 have the highest incidents of skin cancer, but skin cancer can affect anyone, regardless of skin color and regardless of age. Melanoma is the second most common form of cancer in females aged 15-29.
There are no cures, but the therapies are continuously getting better. Crucial to live in daily vigilance, because lesions can be prevented, detected early, and neutralized. Prevention and early detection are doubly important because 1) healing takes increasing time and effort as we age, due to challenges like cell oxidation, DNA damage, and diabetes, and 2) left alone too long, an AK can turn into an NMSC; and NMSC can coexist with melanoma.
Since few things are more personal to us than our faces, many of us are very sensitive to others speaking of our very visible outbreaks. A common response to one’s skin lesion can be feelings of embarrassment and shame, which can result in lower self-esteem and even self-isolation. Family and friends don’t know what to say, so they often say nothing. Jeff sees this as a missed opportunity. Family and friends can help in diagnosing a lesion, categorizing it, supporting the fight against it, and supporting prevention.
Therefore, Jeff’s objective is to objectify the lesion and its cause — to separate the lesion from the victim’s self identity, and allow it to be discussed among friends and family. .
Counter to today’s acceptance of all — diversity. Accessibility.
Jeff Noedel, this website’s publisher, is a 62-year-old fair-skinned Caucasian (English-Irish-Scottish DNA) with skin prone to flare-ups, including
:: contact dermatitis (inflammation), highly allergic to plastics
:: rosacea
:: actinic keratosis (AK)
:: squamous cell carcinoma (a non-malignant skin cancer, or NMSC), resulting in two MOHS surgeries by age 60
Jeff shares his story of a lifetime of skin challenges, made worse by a casual approach to UV protection in his 1960s childhood (when a “base burn” was considered a normal beginning to every summer), and his own abuse of a sun lamp in his mid-teens. He feels the dozens of serious sunburns in his teens and 20s, and a year or so using the sun lamp, created the damage to his DNA that drives waves of AKs and NMSCs.
After his second MOHS surgery, quest not to have any more. Through preventative, early recognition, and battle to eliminate. Detection.
explores role of diet and gut health, stress management
Sources: Skin conditions by the numbers (aad.org), and Actinic Keratosis – PMC (nih.gov)
Jeff.City content is for informational purposes only. Jeff.City does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.