Health Solutions

Tanning & Sun Care

 

Summer is fun! Every body is looking forward for summer to come. It is a time for outdoor activities. Fun and excitement! But be careful sun can be damaging. When you are out in the sun, bear in mind of the following,
1. Sun Protection Factor gives sign of how a sunscreen protects your skin from UVB light. UVB and UVA are the source of skin cancer, wrinkles and dry skin.
2. Other sunscreen last longer, others do not. UV light causes some sun screen agents to break down and lose their sun screening ability.
3. Sunscreens are offered as gels and spray. Creams are use to soften skin, and some creams are prepared using water-resistant formulas so that the product will stay on the skin longer, if you are sweating or enjoying water sports, consider the cream formula
4. The ideal SPF in sunscreen should be 30; this will give you desired protection wile under the heat of the sun. SPF higher than 30 does not actually gives you better protection because SPF more than 30 is so greasy that it just slips off your skin leaving only the grease on your skin.
5. A sunscreen that contains Retisol can actually reverse sun damage from skin.
 
Although sun’s ray is important in our health, that is from sun rise to 9am but beyond that is already damaging. It feels to spend sometime outdoors. To outdoor activity lovers this is very hard to avoid because most of the time you want to stay out under the sun. The degree of exposure to the sun happens in two ways. First, is the short interval exposing to sun that is accumulated, second is the one time long period of exposure under the heat of the sun. The accumulation of sun damage can be either in acute or chronic. Sun burn is categorized as acute while if you already have a gradual change in skin color that categorized as chronic damage.
 
To know more about sun protection read on,
Age spots / Sun spots gradual sun exposure develops brown spots or freckles. This can be seen to the most exposed part of our body like the arms, back of shoulders and the face.
Mirror replica as we age it is natural to develop fine lines which usually occur first on our eyes or we call it feet crow then to the forehead and on the side of our mouth. Sun damage aggravates this condition and what is even more embarrassing is that it appears earlier than our age. So if we look at the mirror we ask, Is that really me?
Skin discoloration too much exposure to the sun caused skin pigmentation or discoloring of skin called melasma this occurs specially on our face. Please do not interchange melasma from chloasma. Chloasma is the dark skin or dark pigmentation that appears during pregnancy.
 
Our skin is supposedly protecting us from that raging heat of the sun. Sun screens are developed to prolong our stay under the heat of the sun simply by blocking the UVB. But as time goes by the demand of sun protector becomes inevitable, so modern technology develops sunscreens that not only prolonged our stay under the sun but likewise blocked the UVA and UVB, this is called broad expectrum.
 
The bad effect of the sun                
We know that the sun has good and bad effect. We already know the good side of sunshine, which gives us stronger bones through developing vitamin D, sense of warm during cold weather and of course darkening of our skin or tanning for those who are pale. Consider the many signs of bad effect it gives to our body.
  • Sun burn and rashes
  • Allergy reactions
  • Premature skin aging, freckles, fine lines
  • Skin cancer
 
The UVA and UVB have different effect to skin when it comes to the degree of skin penetration.
 

UVA CONTAINS 320 to 400nm level. This level is constant throughout the year. Almost 80% of Ultra violet light is UVA and can cause the production of melanoma faster. UVA tans the skin easily and it causes most of the aging of our skin, it is phototoxic reactors to drugs and chemicals. UVA is responsible for many problems of photo dermatoses. Please remember that tanning beds emits same capacity of UVA.                                          

UVB has 290 to 320nm level. This level is not constant it may decrease or increase depending on the weather condition like if its summer or winter, or may depend on the time of day like if its morning, noon or afternoon. UVB only penetrates the epidermis, cannot penetrate through glass. UVB is more carcinogenic than UVA, can burn the skin. UVB aids in vitamin D production.