The secrets of healthy SKIN

Discover the checks, SPF advice and foods that will help keep your skin safe this summer

- KAREN EVENNETT

Oily or dry? Pimply or wrinkly? Worrying about the state of your skin is the first important step to giving it the TLC it needs. But don’t stop at your face. Your skin is your body’s largest organ. Accounting for about 15% of your total body weight, it performs multiple vital processes – from storing water, fat, glucose and vitamin D to regulating the body’s temperature and protecting you from infections and harm from ultraviolet rays.

As summer approaches, you may think of looking at your moles and freckles to notice any changes. It’s something we should be doing all year round, but people often forget about mole checks during winter, says dermatologist Dr Adam Friedmann of Stratum Dermatology Clinics. ‘If you’re not in the habit, start now. Do it every six to 12 weeks, to check that nothing is changing. Taking photos of moles on your phone, and measuring them, is a good way to make sure they’re not growing.’

Don’t be afraid to be skin savvy

There are two scary words that come to mind when we consider skin health: malignant melanoma. This is the dangerous, life-threatening skin cancer – usually a mole that changes in a sinister way – that we all hope never to find. But don’t let that put you off looking out for it.

According to the NHS, malignant melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK. Around 16,000 new cases are diagnosed and 2,300 people die of it every year.