Mixing antioxidants and sun exposure can be dangerous to your health. A new study, published in the September issue of The Journal of Nutrition, details a French study revealing that antioxidant supplements won't protect women against skin cancer -- and they may actually increase the risk of developing the disease.

A team of French researchers assigned almost 7,900 women and more than 5,100 men to take either an oral daily capsule of antioxidant or a placebo that looked the same. The antioxidants included low levels of vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, selenium, and zinc. What they found: the incidence of all skin cancers was higher in the group of women who took the antioxidant.

While there is one limitation to this study -- it did not take into account sunscreen use and its effect on the use of both antioxidants and the sun -- it does serve as another reason to stay out of the sun.

My sister has skin cancer -- the basal cell variety. She has two spots, both on her chest, each one scheduled to be surgically removed in a few weeks. If it were me with this new diagnosis, I'm sure I'd be freaking out, maybe because I've already had breast cancer and tend to panic about any cancer or maybe just because I'm a worrier by nature. But my sister is taking her cancer news in stride, and I am too -- because now that I've done a little research, it seems this type of cancer is pretty easy to beat.

Here's a little refresher lesson on the skin: The skin is the largest organ in the body, and is made of three layers -- the epidermis (top layer), dermis (middle layer), and subcutis (deepest layer). For the purpose of this post, let's focus on the epidermis.

The epidermis has three layers -- an upper, middle, and a bottom layer. This bottom layer is comprised of basal cells. This is where basal cell cancer begins.

Though spending time in the sun is generally considered a bad thing as far as skin cancer goes, it can help prevent breast cancer. A study shows that women who stay inside more often are at a high risk for breast cancer than those who spend time outside. What's more, breast cancer is less prevalent closer to the equator, where sunlight is more common. The key ingredient is the valuable Vitamin D that exposure to the sun provides, though I would be interested to know if it makes a difference whether people get natural vitamin D from the sunlight or if similar health benefits could be derived simply from staying inside and taking vitamin D supplements. I tend to think that people who get outside are generally healthier overall than those who are housebound.

This isn't the green light to spend your days cooking your skin under the hot sun in the hopes of achieving that golden brown glow, though. While sunlight in important, it's also important to take precautions in the sunlight, like covering up and wearing sunscreen.

Vitamin D is one of the latest, greatest hot cancer topics. Why? Well, it seems many of us women are vitamin D deficient. Such a deficiency might be linked to breast cancer risk so it's in our best interest to make sure we get a healthy dose of this vitamin. It's not as easy as adhering to the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) guidelines, though. Follow them and you'll still come up short -- the Food and Nutrition Board, responsible for setting the DRIs, have not yet updated guidelines in light of cancer concerns. So what's a girl to do?

For starters, we need to understand that for overall health benefits, 1,000 IU (International Units) per day are necessary. The outdated DRI recommends 200 to 600 IU. This is based on preventing only bone diseases like rickets. Second, keep in mind it's safe to take up to 10,000 IU each day. Third, up your intake of this important vitamin. Here's how:

Fatty fish is the best source of vitamin D. But watch out for high mercury levels. Fortified milk is also good. It has 100 IU of vitamin D per eight-ounce serving, but cow's milk been linked to breast cancer risk as well.

Though I'm smart enough to know that tanning isn't safe, I still crave that golden brown glow. My regular skin tone is blindingly white and I don't like it one bit -- I look better when I've got a bit of brown on my face. I use bronzer but am wary of the streaky orange-tinge from tanning lotions. What to do, what to do?

Our brand-new sister site, DIY Life, has step-by-step instructions for getting a perfect sunless tan. In a nutshell, here are the steps:

1. Exfoliate
2. Moisturize
3. Apply sunscreen if there is at all any chance you will go in the sun today (most people forget!)
4. Apply the tanner
5. Dry -- use a hair-dryer if you're in a hurry
6. Apply shimmer or bronzer to even everything out

And for self-tanner mishaps, rubbing alcohol on cotton will help clean up your skin.

I'm a little tired of reading and writing about sunscreen. Maybe it's not the actual reading and writing that has me worn out. Maybe it's the realization that I keep reading and writing about sunscreen yet the information is just not sinking in with the masses of sun-hungry people out there -- according to the EPA, there has been a staggering 1,800 percent increase in malignant melanoma cases since 1930. Recent figures show a shocking rise in skin cancers among those in their 20s and 30s.

The experts at Canyon Ranch are weighing in on sunscreen. So here I go again, with some more about this tiring topic.

• Sunscreen contains unique chemical components which absorb ultraviolet (UV) light. When applied to the skin, the chemical molecules form an invisible, protective layer that repels the penetrating UV rays. It also helps prevent premature aging and pre-cancerous growths.

I keep thinking about my ongoing negative relationship with the sun, how it burns me time and time again, how I keep trying to fine-tune my approach to dealing with this deadly force. Today, I have arrived at two new thoughts.

1. There was a time when I wanted a tan. I'd accept a burn even, in hopes it would turn to the slightest shade of brown on my pasty white skin. I would search high and low for the sun. I would drive in its direction, bask in its glory, give hours of my day to this crazy pursuit. Somehow, though, achieving a tan -- or burn -- wasn't easy. Sometimes, I'd see some color appear; sometimes my efforts seemed for nothing. It took work, effort, endless amounts of time and while my ventures in sunbathing did sometimes prove successful, there were many times I was left with, well, pasty white skin.

Fast forward to now. Not only do I seek shelter from the sun, but I use sunscreen, sit under umbrellas, and cover up whenever I can. Still, I get burned. It seems if I look in the direction of the sun, with my sunscreen-coated face, it will get burned. Long ago, my bare face only occasionally absorbed the sun. Why the change? Why when I worked not at all at protecting myself was it so hard to attract a golden glow? Why now do I protect myself in all ways possible and still sizzle? I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the chemotherapy drugs that poisoned my body for so long. A dermatologist once told me about a phenomenon called UV recall. The sun and the drugs can react, long after treatment has concluded, and can cause skin reactions. Maybe this is what's happening to me. Just in case, this gives me all the more reason to avoid all contact with the sun.

I'm sad, worried, and frustrated because of what happened to me at the beach this past weekend. I got burned. Really burned.

I thought I did everything right. I applied sunscreen, even had my husband coat my back, shoulders, and hard-to-reach spots with the powerful lotion intended to block the sun's most damaging rays. I sat underneath an umbrella while watching my boys, their own pale bodies slathered in a baby sunblock potion, as they jumped, ran, and bounced in the waves. I reapplied my sunscreen after a short stint in the pool and a stroll on the sand left my skin feeling tender. Still, I sizzled. My back is red, the skin underneath my suit straps white as can be in contrast to the bright color it borders, My chest is red and sore and itchy with bumps.

I feel sick, like I've exponentially upped my risk for skin cancer. As a cancer survivor, I feel particularly vulnerable. I not only fear a return of breast cancer, you see. I fear other cancers too. My ultra white skin already puts me at risk for sun damage. My past forays into sunbathing don't help. What happened this weekend, I'm afraid, makes things worse.

Zita Farelly died of skin cancer, at the too-young age of 29 -- only a few years older than me. A mother of two, Zita didn't damage her skin through excess sun exposure. No, she preferred artificial sun, and got that orangey, leathery sun glow by tanning twice a day from the age of 14 to 21. Twice a day! I would say using a sunbed twice a week is too much, let alone 14 times a week.

To her credit, Zita stopped tanning once she learned of the negative effects on her skin. But it was too late -- soon after she quit the tanning, she found a mole on her leg -- melanoma.

As Zita's family struggles to carry on, they've come out with a powerful message: Tanning beds are so dangerous. I hope all the tanners out there begin to listen.

A new website assesses the effectiveness and safety of almost 800 sunscreens. The suncreen screening site was put together by the Environmental Working Group and gives detailed information about many sunscreen products. It also groups them by the types of harmful rays they're meant to protect against.

SPF numbers on sunscreens only cover UVB, the type of rays most responsible for burns. UVA is far less responsible for burning, but still can raise skin cancer risk. Only one sunscreen in five has effective UVA protection. There are ingredients that protect well against UVA, but sunlight can break down and make them ineffective if they are not formulated well.

Watch out for the commonly misleading claims -- all day protection, waterproof or chemical free products. You can check the website for sunscreens that are recommended and ones to be avoided.

I keep writing about skin cancer, specifically melanoma, because I'm a little obsessed about it. I guess the seriousness of the disease is finally sinking in and making me think.

I want you to think about it too. I want you to stay out of the sun, cover up, dress yourself in sunscreen, report for annual skin cancer screenings, and arm yourself with knowledge.

If you are not convinced by my words alone, please watch this video about how melanoma spreads -- how it breaks away from its original location and metastasizes throughout the bloodstream and lymphatic system, landing in other parts of the body. Melanoma is the deadliest from of skin cancer. This video proves it.

I wrote on May 29 about my worry regarding a dry, flaky patch of skin on my nose. Unsure of the status of this unusual spot, I immediately called my dermatologist and made an appointment -- which did not end up being all that immediate. The earliest slot available for addressing my personal crisis was June 12 at 11 AM. I took it. And then the stars aligned and I got a call on this very same day.

"We have a cancellation tomorrow. Do you want to come in then?" said the voice on the other end of the phone. Yes, yes, yes, I wanted it. And so I took this slot instead.

Yesterday I met with my dermatologist. The good news is: what I found on the bridge of my nose is not cancer. The bad news is: it was trying really hard to become cancer.

We're still basking in the hot sun, bronzing our bodies in tanning beds, and playing outdoors without slathering on the sunscreen. What will it take, I wonder, for our society to catch on, to take real steps toward preventing skin cancer?

It seems education isn't enough. Most of us know by now all it takes is one bad sunburn to increase our risk of skin cancer, yet we continue to collect burn after burn after burn. Perhaps like all habit-forming behaviors -- think smoking -- it takes something tragic in our lives to inspire change. When someone we know gets lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking or someone we know develops melanoma after years of sunbathing, maybe we get the hint. Maybe

Now, I know you don't personally know this young woman -- she calls herself Miss Melanoma -- but I suggest you read her story. And I recommend you take what happened to her -- she lost part of her foot to melanoma and is currently battling a spread of the disease -- and allow it to really sink in, allow it to motivate you to take cover from the sun, before something like this happens to you. Because it can.

We're not even 11 days into Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and already my awareness about the disease has been raised several times.

Today, I learned that measuring the amount of melanin in a strand of hair can predict a person's risk for melanoma. It's all detailed in the May 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. And the study leading to this new conclusion -- that the amount of melanin in hair indicates an individual's skin type -- is quite interesting.

Think about this:

Researchers involved in a large skin cancer trial measured 2,3,5-pyrroletricarboxylic acid (PTCA) levels of 98 subjects with melanoma and 98 subjects without melanoma. They found the subjects with a PTCA concentration below 85ng/mg had more than four times the risk of developing melanoma.

An Oxford skin cancer expert is weighing in on the recent advice that we would all be wise to sport our denim, polyester, and wool when we head into the sun's harmful rays.

It's an extreme approach, says dermatologist Dr. Robert Turner who believes this skin cancer prevention guidance could push sun seekers to do just the opposite.

Think about this:

"I just don't think this is practical," says Dr. Turner. "People will think it's ridiculous and just go out anyway. If you advise people to do something that is extreme, they're more likely to go the other way completely."

Dr. Turner agrees that clothing is better protection than sunscreen -- especially for children -- but he thinks expecting people to take such drastic cover is unrealistic. He'd much rather urge people to stay out of the sun completely during the middle of the day, when the sun's rays are scorching hot.