Welcome readers

These days you spend little time in the sun, so, you figure, you’re the least likely candidate for skin cancer. You may have figured wrong.

Even if you don’t catch the rays now, past exposure to sun could come back to haunt you. And if others in your family have had skin cancers, you may also be susceptible to them.

In this edition of Health Connections, Dr. Keith Gross, a dermatologist who practices in the Foothills as well as California, discusses the factors that can lead to a skin cancer diagnosis.

He also distinguishes between the various types of skin cancers, from the least to the most serious. The good news, he says, is that a diagnosis of melanoma, the most serious, is not a death sentence – it is treatable if caught soon enough.

The article includes a guide from the American Academy of Dermatology for determining if the dark spot you see on your skin is the start of melanoma.

This issue also includes an interesting article about how efforts to develop vaccines for COVID-19 are boosting hopes of one day finding a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease.

There are also articles on the topic of weight loss and healthy eating.

We’ve all been told that we need to exercise more and eat less if we want to shed pounds. Actually there’s more to losing weight than that. The article titled “Where does lost weight go?” explains how the process works.

And it turns out that popcorn can be a healthy snack – whole-grain popcorn, that is. This edition includes some recipes that will give your next bowl of home-popped corn some added pizazz.

Dr. Trinidad Lim, a nephrologist at Yuma Nephrology, is the health care professional profiled in the 10 Minutes With feature.

We hope you enjoy Health Connections.

John Vaughn can be reached at jvaughn@yumasun.com or (928) 539-6850.