Two Reasons to Check Your Skin Every Day: Ticks and Moles

For upon |When you take your clothes off to change or to hop in the shower or bath, do you take some time to do some inspections on your skin? If you don’t, you should be. All year long there is one thing you should be checking your skin for.

While you should check your moles all year long, to help with early detection of skin cancer, during the warm months you should also be looking for something else. In you live in an area with any type of tick, or you visit somewhere with ticks, you need to be checking for them, numerous times a day depending on how many times you venture outdoors.

Checking For Moles

Not all skin moles are cancerous, but if you notice any new ones or changes in the ones you have, it could mean that it’s time to visit the doctor and get a biopsy done. There are some ways in which you can determine whether a mole is nothing to worry about, or if it’s definitely something to be worried about.

The trick is to use the alphabet to determine if your mole falls into the standards of “just another mole.” The following steps tell you what your mole should look like, and if it doesn’t fit into all of these then you should get it looked at.

• Look at asymmetry – You should see that both halves of your mole match.
• Look at the border – The border of the mole should be oval or round in shape.
• Look at color – The whole mole should be one consistent color.
• Look at the diameter – Your moles should not be more than a quarter inch in size.
• Look at elevation – Moles shouldn’t be on uneven surfaces or raised up from the skin much.

If your mole does not fit the above criteria, make it a point to see your doctor.

Checking For Ticks

During the warm months, while you are doing your mole check, check for ticks as well. They mainly like to hid in dark, warm, and moist areas. That means it’s even important to check your private areas for these nasty little critters.

There are seven types of ticks, but those most commonly thought of when tick season rolls around are the American Dog Tick, the Lone-Star Tick, and the Brown Dog Tick; which is the one type that can be found all over the U.S. Ticks carry numerous diseases, including lyme disease. Recently it was even found that the bite from one type of tick could cause people to be allergic to meat!

To check for ticks, look for a dark spot on your skin, if you can’t see areas you can feel them. A tick feels kind of like a scab. Remove them with tweezers, grasping closest to the head and pulling them straight off. Then drop them in alcohol to kill them!

Keep your skin safe. If you can’t see all of your parts, even with a full-length mirror, ask a family member to help you out. There’s no reason to be modest when it comes to your skin’s health.