With skin cancer rates on the increase, ensuring you are adequately protected from the sun’s harmful rays has never been more important.
Those UVA and UVB rays not only burn the skin, but also cause premature wrinkling and age spots, blotchiness and red veins and the active ingredients in sun screen acts as a defence. Sun protection factors (SPF) now range from 2 to a whopping 70, but before all you delicate red-heads lather up in the maximum strength sun cream and head out to the beach, what sun protection factor do you really need?
First of all, you need to understand the numbers; what does a sun protection factor of 20 actually mean? Our tolerance to sunburn depends mostly on our natural colouring and skin tone. There are 6 phototype tones, categorised from light to dark, with the darker tones having more pigmentation. This acts as a natural protection, but even the darkest V and VI shades of skin can still burn and develop skin cancer.
In order to set the SPFs, tests were carried out in laboratories on a number of people to see how long they it took for them to burn in the sun without sunscreen, and how long without. The results are just a guideline, but if it takes you ten minutes to burn without protection, then wearing factor 20 would allow you to be in the sun for 200 minutes (10 minutes x SPF 20).
However, several things can hamper the effectiveness of your sun cream and you can’t rely on that simple calculation to guarantee protection. When we apply sun screen, it’s likely we don’t apply as much as they do in test conditions, which immediately shortens the safe tanning time.
When we sweat, we are watering down and washing off the cream which leads to it being less effective. There are also several medications which will lower the power of the active ingredients in sunscreen and some citrus fruits such as lime can also stop them working.
You also need to make sure you are reapplying every two hours, or after being in the water or exercising, and you must remember to leave time for it to activate – usually around half an hour, so spend some time in the shade if possible.
Probably the most important factor when choosing the right sun screen for you, is your skin tone and type, taking into consideration if your skin is dry or prone to acne or allergies, will influence whether you use a cream, gel or oil based product.
If you’re exercising or swimming, then waterproof protection is a must, and at the very least your SPF should be at least 15 for normal everyday wear, and higher if you will be out in the sun.
The best protection however, is to avoid the sun rays by covering up and relaxing in the shade, but if you must be a sun worshipper, then do so respectfully and protect yourself.
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