Outdoor athletes have heightened skin cancer risk

Couch potatoes rejoice.

"Athletes involved in outdoor sports, even winter ones, may be at higher-than-average risk of skin cancer, according to a research review.

The more time athletes spend training and competing outdoors, the greater their risk of developing skin cancer, researchers report in the summer issue of the journal Sports Health.

That means that summer sports carry the greatest risk, partly because athletes often train in shorts and sleeveless shirts that leave much of their skin exposed.

But even athletes in winter sports are vulnerable, according to Dr.Wilma F. Bergfeld and Shannon C. Harrison of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Skiers and snowboarders, for instance, spend much of their time at high altitudes, with the sun reflecting off the snow and onto any exposed skin. One study of skiers at an elevation of 11,000 feet found that athletes' unprotected skin started to burn after only 6 minutes of UV exposure.

Other studies have found marathon runners, mountain climbers and surfers to have higher than average risks of skin cancer compared with other types of athletes."

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.