Dr. Shereene Idris

It is?

It's minutes.

So it's not 15 minutes or 30 minutes, but it roughly means how much longer you can stay out of the sun without burning compared to no sunscreen.

So let's say... This is a lot of math.

It takes 10 minutes for you to burn.

Okay.

With an SPF of 30, it should technically take you 300 minutes.

So that's what SPF stands for.

And so it's something that most people don't even know.

Dr. Idris, what's the biggest myth about getting a safe tan?

There is no safe tan.

A tan and any form of pigment that gets produced because of the sun, even a freckle, is a sign of DNA damage.

And so anybody who says, oh, but I get a base tan is just telling me that their skin is already reacting to the UV rays that it got.

And it has internally damaged the DNA of their cells.

Whoa.

So there is no safe tan.

What do I like?

It's never too late to help yourself.

Number one, I think if you are somebody who's done that, make sure you go in for a yearly skin exam because yes, it's already DNA damage and you don't want to get skin cancer and you may develop skin cancer.

But the good news with skin cancer is it's highly treatable when caught early.