Don't Fall for These Skin Myths

It's your body's largest organ. It protects your body from water, the sun and germs. It also protects your internal organs and vulnerable tissues that lie just beneath it. It's your skin.

Skin is a clue to your age, gender, health and ethnic background. Without it, your body temperature could fluctuate dangerously.

With all the purposes the skin has, it's no wonder that there are so many myths surrounding it. Here are 10 of the most common.

1. Find the right skin cream and you can keep your skin looking young.

There are hundreds of skin treatments that can help you look younger. But the topical treatment with best evidence for reducing wrinkles is retinoic acid (as in Retin-A). The prescription strength can irritate the skin, but it's the most effective form. Many over-the-counter products contain retinoic acid as well, but it's difficult to say if one is better than another.

2. Use antibacterial soap to keep your skin clean.

Skin normally has bacteria on it. It's impossible to keep your skin completely free of bacteria for any amount of time. Of course, you can prevent the spread of an infection with good hand-washing, especially if you're sick. But many experts are concerned that the widespread use of antibacterial soap could lead to more resistant bacteria. Antibacterial soap is not necessary for everyday use. Regular soap is fine.

3. Eating chocolate or oily foods causes oily skin and acne.

This one was debunked long ago. Yet, there is still the perception that oily foods lead to oily skin and acne. The truth is an oily substance called sebum causes acne. It's made and secreted by the skin. In fact, there's no evidence that any food causes acne.

4. Tanning is bad for you.

The sun has good and bad effects on the skin. Skin cells produce more pigment when they are exposed to UVA or UVB light from the sun. The extra pigment is what creates a tan. Getting a tan is not dangerous.

But excessive tanning (by spending time in the sun or in a tanning booth) can increase the risk of skin cancer, especially if sun screen is not used. For example, spending several hours each day in the sun for months or years (depending on individual factors, such as how fair the skin is) could increase skin cancer risk, especially if sunburns are frequent. Skin cancer risk is correlated with total lifetime sun exposure and frequency of sunburns. In addition, spending too much time in the sun or a tanning booth can damage skin, causing it to wrinkle and age prematurely.

5. Tanning is good for you.

People often associate a dark tan with good health. But there's no evidence that tan people are healthier than people who are pale. Perhaps the most important health benefit of the sun is the effect it has on vitamin D.

The sun converts inactive vitamin D in the skin to its active form. Vitamin D helps keep bones strong. And recent studies suggest that vitamin D may lower the risk of certain cancers and boost immune function, for example. Depending on how much vitamin D you're getting in your diet, getting no sun exposure could increase the risk of vitamin D deficiency.

The bottom line is that you need just 10 to 15 minutes of daily sun exposure (without sunscreen) to get adequate vitamin D. This is much less than you'd need to get a good tan.