Think too much of ol' Sol won't age you prematurely?

Here's an unintentional science experiment on the effects of sun exposure.  It's like a before and after picture, except it's the same face. 

A 69-year-old man showed a 25-year history of gradual, asymptomatic thickening and wrinkling of the skin on the left side of his face, the authors in NEJM write.  The circumstances were about three decades of truck driving where one side of his face got a lot more sun exposure. 

The physical examination findings were consistent with the Favre–Racouchot syndrome of photodamaged skin, known as dermatoheliosis. Ultraviolet A (UVA) rays came through window glass, penetrating the epidermis and upper layers of dermis, they wrote.

So wear sunscreen.


H/T and photo link: Gizmodo

Citation: Jennifer R.S. Gordon, M.D., and Joaquin C. Brieva, M.D., 'Unilateral Dermatoheliosis', N Engl J Med 2012; 366:e25