[outworlder]

But in many (most?) cases, they are damage. I have visible 'freckles' in my shoulders. I wasn't born with them. There's further damage in some areas that had heavy exposure to sunlight. Same on the more exposed areas in my arms. Zero "freckles" or spots of any kind outside these zones. There's plenty of literature on this.

Sure, they are an adaptation. One that's best avoided _while you can_

Every time you get a "sunburn" and your skin turns red? That's DNA damage. The body is good at repairing that, but not perfect. Best not to take damage in the first place. And if you do, to at least reduce the total radiation amount.

We shouldn't be singling out people based on their appearance of course. But there should be more awareness that skin damage is cumulative, and skin should be protected as much as possible.

I regret not having done so when I was younger. As much as I hate sunscreen.

[cpncrunch]

>Sure, they are an adaptation. One that's best avoided _while you can_

Why do you want to avoid this damage?

Sun exposure and solar elastosis (sun damage to the skin) is associated with reduced mortality from melanoma:

https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/97/3/195/2544082?login...

and a literature review which backs this up:

https://adc.bmj.com/content/91/2/131.short

And sun exposure reduces all-cause mortality:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joim.12251

[TaupeRanger]

This comment is full of assumptions about an extremely complex and poorly understood relationship between two things that are themselves very complex. The fact is, we evolved to live in the sun, just as most other land animals did. While it can damage us (just as anything in nature) it's unclear to what extent this damage might be offset by the benefits of sun exposure, or to what extent sun exposure might have a hardening effect against further damage, extending the benefits even further. Sunscreen didn't exist for most of human history, and yet there were no plagues of skin cancer. The fact is, we simply cannot say with any certainty that "the skin should be protected as much as possible".