I wonder what stone age people did about skin cancer. Nothing, I assume.

Skin cancer is one of the more relatively common cancers in young people, but first diagnosis still increases sharply with age. Life expectancy at age 15 (so, without the 60% infant/child mortality) in the Paleolithic was apparently 54 years.

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-...

Ihttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy

Stone age people used sunscreen. It wasn't anywhere near as effective as modern sunscreen. Presumably they were less concerned about skin cancer and more concerned about the immediate effects of a sunburn

Bro what - they did not use sunscreen - where did they get titanium and zinc?

Not seeing titanium, zinc, oxybenzone, octinoxate, octisalate, or avobenzone.

That’s not our sunscreen.

The History of Sunscreen

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abs...

Also not seeing titanium, zinc, oxybenzone, octinoxate, octisalate, or avobenzone.

Who is defining the word "sunscreen" so narrowly to these compounds?

All you are doing is listing modern formulations, some of which are not even generally regarded as safe anymore.

Point being that ancients did not use sunscreen or anything remotely close to the formulae we have today - what we have today was roughly defined 100 years ago and has some serious consequential effects on the endocrine system and more.

> Point being that ancients did not use sunscreen

The statement being made by others is that "ancients" applied a topical substance to protect their skin from harmful effects of the sun, most would call that sunscreen[0] but use whatever word you prefer.

> anything remotely close to the formulae we have today

No one is making this claim.

[0] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sunscree...

The statement was about skin cancer, and the implication is that they did nothing about it.

Sunscreen is a 20th century term, and modern sunscreen as we know it came into use in the mid-20th century.

I don’t think they lived long enough for it to be a problem.

They were a lot longer outside than modern people though.

Outside != full sun.

Sitting in tree shade won't give you skin cancer.

How much UVA/UVB gets filtered out from shade under a tree? And how much vitamin D are we getting to make sitting in the shade worthwhile?

Cancer is a bigger problem now because we have learned how to deal with other diseases.

Well yeah.. just like wild animals which break a leg, catch a serious diseases etc. they can't do anything about it and die.

Don’t know about Stone Age, but look at the clothing worn by desert tribes. Loose fitting clothes covering arms and legs, so e kind of covering on the head.

I think the dangers of over exposure to the sun have long been known and only recent generations think shorts and T shirts in direct sun for long amounts of time is a good idea.

they were dead by 40, skin cancer usually takes a little longer to show up and kill you.

How long did Stone Age people live? I thought most people died at like 40? I’m planning on living longer than that.