The Skin Society Natural Skin Care and Psoriasis treatments
What is Suntan? When you’re exposed to UV light, your skin accelerates its production of melanin. Melanin is the dark pigment in the epidermis that gives your skin its normal color. The extra melanin is produced to protect the skin’s deeper layers and creates the darker color of a “tan.” A suntan is actually your body’s way of blocking the UV rays to prevent sunburn and other skin damage. But the protection only goes so far. The amount of melanin a person produces is determined genetically, and many people simply can’t produce enough melanin to protect the skin well. Eventually, UV light causes the skin to burn, bringing pain, redness and swelling
Many people go to tanning salons to get a so-called “base tan” before leaving on a beach vacation. The theory behind this is a few sessions of indoor tanning will protect your skin from sunburn in a sunny climate. But there’s no proof that this is true. Tanning under the sun or a sunlamp gives protection that is equivalent to a sun protection factor (SPF) of 4 or less, which translates into a little extra time in the sun before you start to burn. But the larger issue is that any change in skin color is a sign of damage from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Repeated exposure to UV radiation, whether from the sun or a sunlamp will increases your risk of premature skin aging and skin cancer.
Choose sunscreen products with UVA and UVB protection UVB and UVA radiation as both are harmful to human health: While “sunburn” and cancer risk are mainly provoked by UVB radiation, UVA radiation is responsible for skin ageing, impacts on the human immune system and is an important contributor to the skin cancer risk. The problem is that the “sun protection factor” only indicates protection against UVB radiation
What sun protection factor should you choose? The sun protection factor (SPF) is a score used to describe the ‘strength’ of the product to protect against “sun–burn”, i.e. mainly UVB radiation. It is important to know that an SPF over 50 practically does not increase the protection against sun burn and UVB radiation.
How should sunscreen products be used? It is important to know that sunscreen products have their full effect only if used in sufficient quantities: To protect the whole body of an average-sized adult, a quantity of 35 grams of the sunscreen product needs to be applied. This is a quantity equal to approximately six filled tea spoons. Moreover, it is crucial to frequently reapply these products to maintain protection – in particular after swimming, Bathing or toweling. Apply sunscreen liberally 30 minutes before going outdoors and reapply every two hours.
There is no sun block or total protection Sunscreen products cannot deliver total protection from UV radiation. Even the high SPFs do let some of the UV radiation through. This holds also true for products claiming to be a “sun block” or to offer “total protection”. “Sunblocker”, are misleading labeling and should be banned!
What you should know about sunscreens An SPF of 15-25 suffices to protect a person with normal skin from sun burn. All sunscreen labels list a sun protection factor (SPF). SPF is a measurement of how much protection the sunscreen offers from the UVB rays that cause sunburn. A few sunscreen labels also list a “PA” ranking, which refers to the amount of protection the sunscreen offers from the UVA rays that may cause long-term skin damage. PA rankings are listed as PA+, PA++ or PA+++. The more +’s, the more protection from UVA rays.
New regulations concerning labeling will require a UVB and UVA rating. They will be imposed and regulated by the FDA. The skin care industry will have to follow those regulation and will have their products tested for contents by an independent laboratory to insure the proper labeling.
It’s about time!
Mike A. Hegi, PhD.
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