Brown Speckles Taking Over Your Body????

For almost the entirety of my life my face and body have been covered in freckles. Up until now I failed to understand what they were and why they were there. I wear SPF 50 on my face and whenever I go outside I still seem to gain more freckles. As someone who has had and will have freckles my entire life I decided it was time to finally understand what they are and why some people get them while others don't.

Woman with Freckles

What are Freckles?
Freckles, the small brown speckles on people's skin, form due to production of high amounts of melanin. Melanin is the pigment that gives human skin, eyes, and hair its color. Melanin is made by skin cells called melanocytes and it protects our DNA from harmful UV rays given off by the sun. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, the melanocytes will begin to make melanin which causes the freckles to appear or become darker. In some people, these melanocytes are distributed evenly and when exposed to the sun they tan. However, people with freckles have melanocytes that are clumped together and thus only clumps of skin appear darker.

UV rays interacting with Melanocytes

What Causes Freckles?
Genetics of course! Freckles are primarily controlled by the MC1R gene. The MC1R gene controls how much of which kind of melanin you produce. There are two main types of melanin: darker brown eumelanin and reddish yellow pheomelanin. If someone contains an active MC1R gene your body produces more eumelanin which results in darker hair and skin. If your MC1R gene is inactive you produce more pheomelanin and have a susceptibility to freckles. Individuals whose skin produce more pheomelanin are not protected from the sun and tend to have red or blonde hair and light skin. While people who produce eumelanin are more protected from UV damage and have brown or black hair, darker skin, and tan skin. Along with the MC1R gene scientists believe that there are many genes responsible for freckling.

MC1R Gene

Research suggest that freckles are a heritable trait that show a dominant inheritance pattern. Thus, parents with freckles tend to have children with freckles. This makes sense considering my entire family is covered with them.

Women with freckles

Common Misconceptions
Many people confuse freckles with age or sun spots. However, there is a big difference between freckles and age spots (sun spots). Dr. Kally Papantoniou, an expert in the field of cosmetic dermatology, states that "True freckles, the kind that appear on skin in childhood are cause by increased levels of melanin in melanocytes," while, "'age spots', or 'lentigos', are dark spots that appear later life and are due to increased amounts of melanocytes in the skin from UVA/B damage."

Whats the deal with melanin?
When skin is exposed to UV rays from the sun for long periods of time, the UV light damages the DNA within our cells and skin starts to burn. Severe DNA damage can lead to melanoma, a deadly cancer that forms in the skin's melanocytes. What stands between us and that threat is the melanin in our skin. It protects skin cell DNA by forming what is called supranuclear caps around the nucleus of skin cells and absorbing UV. This stops UV from penetrating the nucleus and attacking the DNA.

To conclude freckles are harmless and are not a sign of a health problem. They act like little drops of sunscreen that protect people like me from UV damaging rays that can cause skin cancer. People need to appreciate freckles more as they are a sign of our body trying to keep us healthy.

-Charlotte Adams