Sun Safe, Sun Wise

With the weather supposedly getting better I decided now would be a great time to talk about sun safe practices. I say sun safe practices, although we need a certain amount of sun exposure to produce Vitamin D but, as with everything in life, it’s all about balance.  

This is a huge area to cover so I’ll break it down into smaller sections, which are easier to digest!

Our world is no longer the friendly place it once was. Industrial waste has polluted the atmosphere and contaminants directly affect our skin. The thinning of the ozone layer has subjected us to more intense ultra-violet irradiation and the corrosive effects of free radicals. Scientists believe that in the past 25 years, the ozone layer has been depleted by 3%. This doesn’t sound like much but for every 1% loss of the ozone, a 6% increase in skin cancers is expected and this frightening increase means that becoming sun savvy is more important now than ever.

The sun: friend or foe?

The sun emits many types of waves and most are absorbed to variable degrees by the ozone layer.  Ultra-violet light is divided into three rays:

UVA Rays – “A for Ageing”

·         Have the longest wavelength and so penetrate deepest into the skin

·         Destroy collagen and elastin causing lines and loose skin

·         Destroy cellular DNA

·         Can pass through clouds and glass

·         Emitted through computer screens and fluorescent lights

·         UVA RAYS ARE PRESENT ALL YEAR ROUND

UVB Rays – “B for Burning”

·         Penetrate the upper layers of the skin resulting in redness and burning

·         More intense in summer months

UVC Rays – “C for Cancer”

·         Shortest wavelength and the most powerful

·         Shielded out by the ozone layer

·         Currently no known safe protection from UV-C rays

UVA rays have a slow effect on the skin. They’re 500-800 times weaker than UVB but are 1000 times more common. We’re exposed to UVA radiation in both summer and winter.

Vitamin D

It’s important to remember the sun is also good for us! If we don’t get enough sun, we feel depressed.  Sunlight is also essential for the formation of Vitamin D, which prevents softening of the bones. Vitamin D is made only by UVB rays and it takes only a few minutes of sunlight to generate enough vitamin D each day. 

There is now growing concern about the effects of vitamin D in preventing cancer. It’s believed vitamin D helps reduce the chances of cancer of the breast, colon and prostate. But vitamin D is destroyed by UVA rays.

Most sun damage occurs from exposure to sunlight on a daily basis. This is why it’s important to wear protection all year round not just on holiday, soaking up the sun. So how do we select the most appropriate sunscreen? We all use the term SPF when we talk about sunscreens but how many of us really understand what the SPF means?

Sun protection

There are over 60,000 new cases of skin cancer every year. Have you ever considered why skin cancer incidence is increasing when we’re all so much more aware we need to use sunscreens and protect ourselves from the sun? On the flip side, Vitamin D deficiency is increasing through the increased hype over SPFs. In fact very few people are actually using sunscreens properly.

SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor. This refers to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approved techniques to measure the effectiveness of a sunscreen in the Ultraviolet B (burning ray) of the spectrum. The definition of SPF is ‘The ratio of the time of UV radiation exposure necessary to cause minimally detectable redness of sunscreen protected skin to the time required to have the same effect on unprotected skin’ – which means the SPF number gives you some idea of how long you can stay in the sun without burning. For example, if you usually burn in 10 minutes without protection, you should be protected from sunburn for 150 minutes from a liberal application of sunscreen with an SPF 15. 

The SPF rating doesn’t measure Ultraviolet A (ageing ray) protection, so when you’re selecting an appropriate sunscreen, it’s vital the product you choose is broad spectrum. This means it will protect you against both UVA and UVB. 

Many believe the higher the SPF the better.  Environ is unique in promoting UVA protection above UVB, and in 1991 the company launched the world’s first sunscreen loaded with broad spectrum antioxidants for protection against free radicals and UVA as well as UVB.

What makes Environ RAD Sunscreen different? It’s the combination of sunscreens with antioxidants. To achieve an SPF 30 a product needs double the dose of chemicals but will only offer 10-15 minutes more in the sun.

What are you really protecting yourself against? And do you need an SPF in winter? The answer is no!

SPFs protect against UVB rays which aren’t here in the winter so why apply more unnecessary chemicals to the skin when they’re of no benefit? Many moisturisers on the market now contain SPFs. You apply moisturiser all year round and we’ve already established you don’t need an SPF in winter. The actual level of SPF protection is diluted by the moisturiser it’s in, so you may not be as protected as you think you are. 

Also sun protection products are designed to work on the surface of the skin whereas moisturisers should work below the surface. Would you use the same product to shampoo and condition your hair – and how effective is it really? 

How long do you keep your sunscreen? Is it sat in the bathroom cabinet waiting for that once a year summer holiday? Active ingredients lose their effect after a certain period of time, and sunscreen which has been kept for years might not be offering you the protection you think it is!

Protection doesn’t necessarily mean blocking out the sun as though it were an enemy, but more replacing the vitamins that get damaged by sunlight. Environ concentrates on weak SPF and strong vitamin replenishment, and offers a way of safely making Vitamin D.

Bearing all this in mind, maybe we should look at a safer way to behave rather than using a high SPF and favour the production of Vitamin D? You only have to stay in the sun for half the time it takes to go pink in order to make 20,000 IU of Vitamin D, so adopt sun safe practices.

Build up your stores of vitamin D through sun exposure and supplementation and then protect this important vitamin with Environ products.

Call us or pop in and see us and we’ll explain more about the Environ range of products.